PNP comment: So we will see what this group came up with. I believe that Dr. Harter is not influenced by politics. At least, this was a several-year project taking historical information into account. But once again, it only deals with 10 percent of the Scott Valley — the valley floor — and does not include the multi-aspects of rain, snow, tree and vegetation in the uplands. — Editor Liz Bowen 

This is a message from  the California Regional Water Quality Control Board, North Coast Region  (1).

The North Coast Regional Water Board is pleased to announce the availability of a report authored by a team of UC Davis researchers led by Dr. Thomas Harter, documenting progress in the development of a computer model to simulate the groundwater dynamics of Scott Valley in Siskiyou County, California.

The report, entitled “Scott Valley Integrated Hydrologic Model: Data Collection, Analysis, and Water Budget”, documents a number of milestones in the development of the modeling tool, including the assembly of precipitation and stream flow records, soil types, cropping patterns, and water use information.  The report also documents the development of a soil water budget model that spatially integrates these data to calculate the amount of water used by crops, as well as the amount of irrigated water that percolates to groundwater.  The integration of the soil water budget model and the groundwater flow model (MODFLOW) form the Scott Valley Integrated Hydrologic Model.  Dr. Harter and his team are currently calibrating the integrated hydrologic model and expect to begin using the model to evaluate various options to address flow-related concerns this fall.  The calibration relies on data describing the amount of water used by crops collected by the UC Cooperative Extension, water table data collected by the Siskiyou Resource Conservation District, and stream flow data collected by the US Geological Survey.

The work of Dr. Harter and his team was initiated in response to needed actions identified in the Scott River Temperature TMDL process, which identified the strong influence groundwater contributions play in determining the temperature of the Scott River.  The work has largely been funded by the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board and State Water Resources Control Board.

For more information, see the UC Davis press release and read the report, available at the following links:

UC Davis press release: http://news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=10576

Scott Valley Integrated Hydrologic Model: Data Collection, Analysis, and Water Budget: http://groundwater.ucdavis.edu/files/165395.pdf

For information regarding the Scott River TMDL process contact Bryan McFadin, Senior Water Resource Control Engineer with the Regional Water Board, at 707-576-2751, or bryan.mcfadin@waterboards.ca.gov.

By Amy Joi O’Donoghue, Deseret News

Published: Tuesday, May 14 2013 6:35 p.m. MDT

SALT LAKE CITY — A legislative commission wants Utah Gov. Gary Herbert to reconsider his decision to shun signing a controversial water sharing agreement with Nevada, with one member describing his action as a “colossal mistake.”

The State Water Development Commission voted Tuesday to send a letter to Herbert asking him to reconsider on the Snake Valley agreement, and members want a response from the governor in time for the commission’s next meeting.

Sen. Scott Jenkins, R-Plain City, said he viewed the agreement as a logical one that would have protected Utah interests. For Herbert not to sign, “it appears to be, in my humble opinion, a colossal mistake. … I do not see the downside in this,” he said.

Commission members received a detailed anthology on the water controversy from Warren Peterson, one of a trio of water law attorneys consulted by Herbert about the merits of the agreement. In their report to the governor, the attorneys said the agreement, while not perfect, protected Utah interests and would keep it out of a lawsuit with Nevada.

In the meeting Tuesday, Peterson blamed the news media for distorting the facts about the provisions of the agreement and whipping up a frenzy of opposition by failing to do its homework.

“Public dialogue was ill-founded and driven by the media,” he said.

What everyone missed, Peterson stressed, is that the first tier of the agreement gave a bow to the existing water use and protected it by precluding any withdrawals by Nevada if those uses were impaired in any way.

“Frankly, I did not agree with (Herbert’s) decision,” he said.

In April, the governor announced he would not sign the agreement, surprising critics who feared he would sacrifice Utah interests at the altar of Nevada’s threats. Herbert said he could not impose a solution from Salt Lake City that the residents most affected did not support.

The proposed water withdrawals in Snake Valley — a basin that dissects the border of the two states — are part of a larger groundwater pumping plan by the Southern Nevada Water Authority.

The agency in charge of delivering water to Las Vegas and its outlying communities wants to build a 300-mile pipeline as a way to shore up its water supply in the face of a dwindling Lake Mead.

Fed by the Colorado River, Lake Mead’s water levels have drastically shrunk in the face of drought, forcing the authority to embark on expensive and elaborate ways to keep water flowing to its users.

MORE -

 http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865580042/Group-of-Utah-legislators-wants-Herbert-to-reconsider-Snake-Valley-decision.html

May 6, 2013

U.C. Davis News and Information

A team of University of California, Davis, scientists is developing a groundwater management tool that could lead to better streamflow conditions for salmon and steelhead in northern California’s Scott River Valley, which provides critical fish habitat within the Klamath Basin.

This mountain valley also supports an agricultural economy composed of small family farms and ranches, raising alfalfa hay, pasture, and cattle. Regulatory agencies, farmers, ranchers and the local community are working to find win-win solutions for both fish habitat and agriculture.

“For most other rivers in California, summer and fall water flows are entirely dictated by dams that have water behind them,” said Thomas Harter, a Cooperative Extension groundwater hydrologist in the Department of Land, Air and Water Resources who led the study. “Scott River is very dependent on the groundwater system.”

The 57-mile-long, undammed Scott River is a tributary of the Klamath River, and portions of it are designated as a federal and state Wild and Scenic River. A combination of irrigated agriculture in Scott River Valley, a lack of streamside shade on the river, and climate change has led to warmer river temperatures and reduced late summer and fall stream flows on the river, particularly in dry years, Harter said.

In a recent report to the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board, the researchers summarized the hydrology of the Scott Valley, gathering data about rainfall, climate, soils, land use, irrigation and groundwater flows distributed across the basin for the past 21 years. Harter will combine this information into an integrated hydrologic model, expected to be complete in early 2014.

Read it:

 http://www.news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=10576

May 2, 2013

Press Release from CA. Dept. of Water Resources

Contacts:

Ted Thomas, Information Officer (916) 653-9712 tthomas@water.ca.gov

Elizabeth Scott, Information Officer (916) 712-3904 Elizabeth.Scott@water.ca.gov

Snowpack water content only 17 percent of normal

SACRAMENTO –

Snow surveyors today reported that water content in California’s snowpack is only 17 percent of

normal, meaning below average water supply this summer.

After a record dry January and February in much of the state, DWR currently projects it will only be able to deliver 35 percent of requested amounts from the State Water Project (SWP).

The 29 public agencies that purchase SWP water requested just over four million acre-feet of water for this calendar year. Collectively, the agencies supply more than 25 million Californians and nearly a million acres of irrigated agriculture.

In addition to the light snowpack and extended periods of little rainfall, pumping restrictions to protect Delta smelt and salmon are another reason for the low water delivery estimate.

November and December were unusually wet, but between November 1 and February 28, fishery agency restrictions prevented DWR from pumping more than 550,000 acre-feet of water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to store in San Luis Reservoir. Today San Luis – a summer supply pool for both the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project – is only 54 percent full.

“This is the kind of conflict we are working to resolve through the Bay Delta Conservation Plan,” said DWR Director Mark Cowin.

The Bay Delta Conservation Plan would reduce harm to fish from altered stream flows caused by the south Delta pumps serving the SWP and Central Valley Project. Pumping there at times causes reverse flows which may disorient or entrain fish. The comprehensive plan’s large-scale habitat restoration would also improve Delta conditions for fish and wildlife.

The November and December storms built California’s snowpack water content to 134 percent of normal by January 2, when DWR and cooperating agencies conducted this season’s first manual survey. Manual surveys and electronic readings have recorded the water content decline since dry weather set in. Statewide, the season’s second manual survey on January 29 found the snowpack water content at 93 percent of normal for the date. On February 28, the season’s third manual survey found the snowpack water content at 66 percent of average On Mach 28, about the time

the snowpack is normally at its peak, its water content was recorded at 52 percent of normal.

Snow normally provides about a third of the water for California’s homes and farms as it melts into streams, reservoirs and aquifers.

Results of today’s manual snow survey readings by DWR off Highway 50 near Echo Summit are as follows:

Location

Elevation

Snow Depth

Water Content

% of Long Term

Average

Alpha

7,600 feet

2.6 inches

1.2 inches

5

Phillips Station

6,800 feet

no snow

no snow

no snow

Lyons Creek

6,700 feet

7.1 inches

3.3 inches

15

Tamarack Flat

6,500 feet

not reported

not reported

not reported

Electronic readings indicate that water content in the northern mountains is 16 percent of normal for the date, and 11 percent of the April 1 seasonal average. Electronic readings for the central Sierra show 23 percent of normal water content for the date and 18 percent of the April 1 average. The numbers for the southern Sierra are 9 percent of average for the date and 7 percent of the April 1, full-season average.

DWR and cooperating agencies conduct manual snow surveys around the first of the month from January through May. The manual measurements supplement and check the accuracy of the real-time electronic readings from sensors up and down the state.

Despite the dwindling snowpack, most key storage reservoirs are near normal levels for the date thanks to November and December storms, San Luis being an exception.

Lake Oroville in Butte County, the State Water Project’s principal storage reservoir, is at 103 percent of its average level for the date (86 percent of its 3.5 million acre-foot capacity). Shasta Lake north of Redding, the federal Central Valley Project’s largest reservoir with a capacity of 4.5 million acre-feet, is at 95 percent of its normal storage level for the date (83 percent of capacity).

(An acre-foot is 325,851 gallons, enough to cover one acre to a depth of one foot.)

Reservoir storage will meet much of the state’s water demand this year, but successive dry years would create drought conditions in some areas.

The final SWP allocation for calendar year 2012 was 65 percent of requested deliveries. The initial delivery estimate for calendar year 2011 was only 25 percent of requested SWP water. However, as winter took hold, a near record snowpack and heavy rains resulted in deliveries of 80 percent of requests in 2011. The final allocation was 50 percent in 2010, 40 percent in 2009, 35 percent in 2008, and 60 percent in 2007. The last 100 percent allocation – difficult to achieve even in wet years because of pumping restrictions to protect Delta fish – was in 2006.

Electronic snowpack readings may be found at:

http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/snow/DLYSWEQ

Electronic reservoir level readings are available at:

http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/products/rescond.pdf

-30-

PNP comment: Gotta say I do not believe this “unauthorized” take of water is correct, until I hear from the grower. The Water Board is out-of-control.  — Editor Liz Bowen

By BRETT WILKISON
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Published: Thursday, April 25, 2013 at 6:36 p.m.

Last Modified: Thursday, April 25, 2013 at 6:36 p.m.

A Mendocino County grape grower has been fined $33,800 by state water regulators for an alleged illegal diversion of water from a Russian River tributary.

Ag. Alert

Issue Date: April 24, 2013

By Jerry Brown and Thaddeus Bettner

Los Vaqueros Reservoir in Contra Costa County is an example of an offstream water storage facility, where water can be held when available and released when needed.
Photo/Contra Costa Water District

Storing water has always been critical in California. Today, the strategies are changing to meet a new generation of challenges. As our state moves forward with long-term plans to modernize our aging water system, expanding our water-storage capabilities is a central part of the equation.

In our grandparents’ era, water storage projects were a means to increase supply. Today, they are more about building operational flexibility to meet 21st-century needs.

Under a new water policy paradigm formalized by the Legislature in 2009, our system of canals, reservoirs and conveyance facilities must be managed for the dual goals of a healthy ecosystem and a reliable water supply. We cannot meet that mandate without more places to “park” water—both above and below the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta—for relatively short periods of time.

As an operational concept, that means catching water in high volumes during storm events, parking it for a time and then releasing it to aid the environment, improve water quality, meet summertime demands or replenish groundwater basins.

Climate change—with its specter of higher peak flood flows and more extreme drought in the future—makes it even more important that we develop this kind of flexibility.

In the past, water storage projects involved building new dams across rivers in the foothills or other locations. The water might be stored for years before gradually being released. Today, storage may be shorter term and closer to the user. Projects are located offstream, with stored water released as needed, often in the same year.

Los Vaqueros Reservoir is a prime example. Los Vaqueros, an offstream reservoir operational since 1998, stores high-quality water pumped through state-of-the-art fish screens from the delta when it’s available. The water is then used to boost water quality and bolster supplies during dry periods.

A recent expansion enlarged the reservoir’s capacity by 60 percent, immediately benefiting Contra Costa Water District customers and opening the door to potential partnerships with other Bay Area water agencies to store water at the centrally located reservoir.

To the north, a proposed offstream storage project near Maxwell in the Sacramento Valley is entering a key planning phase with the release of environmental documents and a feasibility study this summer.

The proposed Sites Reservoir would safely divert water from the Sacramento River and store it for later use, adding significant flexibility to the state’s backbone water management system. Water stored in Sites would generate an array of benefits, from improved water supply certainty to better management of temperatures and flows for salmon and other species.

Other projects proposed on the San Joaquin River above the existing Millerton Reservoir and on the Sacramento River via enlargement of Shasta Dam would give water managers flexibility to pulse water downstream for environmental purposes and time the delivery of water out of the delta when it is best for fishery management.

As state and federal agencies move closer to a decision on the Bay Delta Conservation Plan later this year, new storage capacity must be a key component of the state’s water solution. Additional storage will be critical to allow project operators to pump more water in wet years and less in dry and environmentally sensitive times for species.

It will take an “all-of-the-above” approach to create a sustainable water delivery system in California for the next century. That means investing in more storage to equip our system to meet today’s demands for ecosystem health, ease the pressure on delta levees and provide a more reliable water supply.

No step would do more to set the state on the right course for the future.

(Jerry Brown is general manager of the Contra Costa Water District in Concord. Thaddeus Bettner is general manager of the Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District in Willows. Used with permission of the Contra Costa Times, Copyright© 2013. All rights reserved.)

Permission for use is granted, however, credit must be made to the California Farm Bureau Federation when reprinting this item.

This workshop will be remotely accessible via Telecom: Please Redistribute Widely 

A Workshop to Gather Wisdom and determine how to prepare for the next generation of water cycle missions in support of the second Earth Science Decadal Survey

April 29-30, 2013; Baltimore-Washington International (BWI) Airport; Embassy Suites

You are invited to attend this workshop remotely.  Telecom access to all workshop sessions and breakouts is available (see attached agenda). 

To access via Skype, ‘freeconferencecallhd.0000000000′

(zeros present assigned conference dial-in number), then enter access code when prompted.  Telecom lines will be recorded and muted (to unmute your line, dial *6).

Even if you cannot participate in real-time, all telecoms will be recorded and together with plenary video and presentations will posted at the conference website.

Sincerely, The Workshop Steering Committee

Paul Houser

Christa Peters-Lidard

David Toll

Debbie Belvedere

Robert Schiffer

Karen Mohr

Capital Press

 Posted: Tuesday, April 09, 2013 10:27 AM

http://www.capitalpress.com/newsletter/mp-irrigator-drainage-ruling-040913

By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI

Capital Press

A federal appeals court has refused to order the U.S. Interior Department to provide adequate drainage for some irrigators in California or pay them monetary damages.

The Firebaugh Canal Water District and Central California Irrigation District have been litigating with the agency over drainage issues for more than two decades.

The controversy relates to the construction in the 1960s of the San Luis Unit of California’s Central Valley Project, which provides irrigation water for roughly 500,000 acres.

Expansion of irrigation in the region necessitated more drainage of polluted water, as clay layers beneath some farmland prevented it from seeping away.

Plans to release the water into the Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay-Delta never materialized due to environmental concerns, and drainage into a national wildlife refuge reservoir was halted in the 1980s because excess selenium levels were harming waterfowl.

Farmers negatively affected by the buildup of poor quality water sued the Interior Department, which manages the irrigation project.

The most recent ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals deals with their claims that the agency violated tort and administrative laws by failing to sufficiently drain the water.

While the Interior Department is required to drain farmland in the San Luis Unit, the agency “is neither withholding or unnecessarily delaying drainage within the Unit,” the 9th Circuit has held.

The ruling found that the agency has been working toward an alternative mode of drainage but progress has been slow due to spending limits imposed by Congress.

“Those obstacles are not, by and large, a product of Interior’s inaction,” the 9th Circuit said.

The Interior Department also isn’t liable for tort damages because it’s within the agency’s discretion to provide irrigation water without fully draining it, the ruling said.

“There is, to be sure, some point at which Interior’s actions could become so sluggish that we could rightly say that the agency has entirely abandoned its legal duty to provide drainage within the San Luis Unit. The record before us does not now support that conclusion,” the 9th Circuit said.