By Christine Parisek The California WaterBlog is completing its 11th year. As we enter 2023, we take a moment to to thank our many readers, partners, authors, and friends. The California WaterBlog’s central mission is to provide stimulating ideas and commentary on critical challenges of water issues, resource management, and ecosystem restoration, in a digestible…

This is a re-post from 2019 with updated links for pictures and further readings. by Jay Lund Collapse of Los Angeles aqueduct pipeline through Antelope Valley from a major flood in February, 1914 (3-months after the aqueduct’s official opening) “In February, 1914, the rainfall in the Mojave Desert region exceeded by nearly fifty per cent…

By Jeffrey Mount and Wim Kimmerer For decades the San Francisco Estuary, which includes San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, has been routinely described as “the largest estuary on the west coast of North America.” This appeared in publications of all types, presumably to emphasize the importance and unique nature of the estuary.…

by Jay Lund After three years of drought and two dry months, plus two wet weeks, into California’s “wet” season for 2023, California has become unsettlingly settled into this long drought.  Most cities have decreased their water use, some more than others.  Agricultural fallowing has been modest statewide, but large in the Sacramento Valley, with…

By Amber Lukk and Ann Willis In drought-prone northern California, limited water resources, private water rights allocations, and inefficient transport and use of water resources causes tension between freshwater conservation and private landownership (Garibaldi et al. 2020, Vissers 2017). In the face of a changing climate, drought curtailments will likely become more frequent, ratchetting stress…

by Jay Lund California water policy is often discussed and depicted as being impossibly complex.  In its essentials, it can be seen much more simply, as in the flow chart below.  Without extreme events (such as floods and droughts), the policy process would be simpler, but ironically less effective, and less well funded. California’s remarkable…

By Peter B. Moyle and Anna M. Sturrock The question addressed in this blog comes from a new PPIC report that calls for reforms in management of environmental water stored behind dams in California. The report shows it is possible to manage water in ways that are compatible with maintaining a natural ecosystem in streams…

By Abigail E. Ward and Miranda Bell-Tilcock This is no ordinary witch’s brew. It’s one part of the recipe to study thiamine deficiency in our California Central Valley Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) populations. In 2019, hatcheries noticed an eerie and shivering change in juvenile Chinook salmon. Offspring were laying on their side at the bottom…

by Kathleen Schaefer People have been asking if Hurricane Ian will push the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) into an affordability crisis?  Some argue the NFIP is already there. Two weeks ago, the Greater New Orleans, Inc.’s Coalition for Sustainable Flood Insurance (CSFI) reported that NFIP’s new pricing strategy makes NFIP insurance premiums unaffordable. The…

by Jay Lund Happy New Water Year, 2023!  (October 2022 – September 2023) The first New Year celebration for California’s water wonks is October 1, the beginning of the new Water Year, the nominal beginning of California’s wet season.  California sometimes has its first big rain storm earlier, and sometimes later, but by convention the…

By Ryan Miller and Nicholas Pinter Following a major flood or other natural disaster, the US federal government provides disaster assistance to individuals and local and state jurisdictions to help them recover. Over the past ~20 years, these federal payments have totaled nearly $150 billion (in 2020 dollars), including over $20 billion for recovery from Hurricane…

With summer wrapping up and a new school year upon us, we decided it was a good time to reflect on outreach done by researchers at the Center for Watershed Sciences (CWS) at UC Davis. Some of the outreach was organized by the Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Committee while others took initiative and pursued…

by Jay Lund The graphic below seems to apply to any bureaucracy, with larger bureaucracies showing this tendency more strongly.  In this vortex conception of management, one can often make more progress from the periphery than from the center of power. The center spins rapidly, always changing directions, but moving little in space.  Those in…

By Nicola Ulibarri California uses plans as a primary tool for managing water throughout the state. Regulations like the Urban Water Management Planning Act of 1983, Regional Water Management Planning Act of 2002, Water Conservation Act of 2009, and Sustainable Groundwater Management Act of 2014 require local water agencies to write plans documenting their available…