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California WaterBlog

Previous Posts

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  • The Collapse of Water Exports – Los Angeles, 1914

    by Jay Lund “In February, 1914, the rainfall in the Mojave Desert region exceeded by nearly fifty per cent in three days the average annual precipitation. Where the steel siphon crosses Antelope valley at the point of greatest depression, an arroyo or run-off wash indicated that fifteen feet was the extreme width of the flood…

  • Portfolio Solutions for Water Supply

    by Jay Lund “Water problems in the western United States, when viewed from afar, can seem tantalizingly easy to solve: all we need to do is turn off the fountains at the Bellagio, stop selling hay to China, ban golf, cut down the almond trees, and kill all the lawyers.” – David Owen (2017), Where…

  • The sociology of science in environmental management: Reflections on “Fields and Streams”

    by Jay Lund Most readers of this blog are water management wonks who toil in the bureaucracies and professions of water management, the water-industrial complex, so to speak.  We mostly work on technical issues and internal and inter-organizational rules and controversies.  Despite the daily “firefighting” foci of our activities, almost everyone understands something of the…

  • 15 Years of the San Francisco Estuary and Watershed Sciences – Open Access Journal

    By Lisa Howard originally published January 21, 2019 When the peer-reviewed journal San Francisco Estuary and Watershed Science launched fifteen years ago, the editors chose what was then a somewhat new model of scientific publication known as “open access.” At that time, most academic journal publishers kept their content behind pay walls, accessible only with…

  • Droughts and progress – Lessons from California’s 2012-2016 Drought

    By Jay Lund, Josue Medellin, John Durand, and Kathleen Stone Droughts and floods have always tested water management, driven water systems improvements, and helped water organizations and users maintain focus and discipline.  California’s 2012-2016 drought and the very wet 2017 water year were such tests.  Historically, major droughts accelerate innovation and are career tests for…

  • Improving public perception of water reuse

    By Kahui Lim and Hannah Safford Water reuse is becoming more important to water security in arid regions like California. The California Recycled Water Policy calls for an increase of 1 million acre-feet of reused water per year by 2020 and 2 million by 2030.  Assembly Bill (AB) 574 mandates that California establish a legislative…

  • Shared interest in universal safe drinking water

    by Jay Lund Public health is every society’s and every drinking water system’s most fundamental objective.  The prosperity and existence of civilizations rest on drinking water being safe, available and affordable. Prosperity and democracy together seem almost essential to having near-universal safe drinking water supplies.  Prosperity and democracy together bring effective social organization and resources…

  • Functional Flows for Developing Ecological Flow Recommendations

    by Sarah Yarnell, Alyssa Obester, Ted Grantham, Eric Stein, Belize Lane, Rob Lusardi, Julie Zimmerman, Jeanette Howard, Sam Sandoval-Solis, Rene Henery, and Erin Bray To protect California’s native aquatic species, stream flows need to be managed to support important ecological processes and habitat needs. In practice, such flows are difficult and controversial to define and…

  • The folly of unimpaired flows for water quality management

    by Ann Willis Unimpaired streamflow has long been the benchmark against which current stream flows are evaluated for environmental purposes. The underlying assumption is that if there is water in a stream, the stream must be healthy. A closer look shows why unimpaired flows is often a flawed basis for environmental management, particularly when water…

  • Striped Bass in the San Francisco Estuary: Insight Into a Forgotten Past

    by Dylan Stompe and Peter Moyle Striped bass are well known throughout California as a hard-fighting game fish, excellent table fare, and a voracious predator on other fish. Striped bass were introduced into the San Francisco Estuary in 1879 and are often cited as a major cause of native species decline. Historically they were valued…

  • Eastern San Joaquin Valley and other CA drinking water supplies at risk in the next drought

    by Amanda Fencl, Rich Pauloo, Alvar Escriva-Bou, Hervé Guillon During the 2012-2016 drought, the state received more than 2,500 domestic well failure reports, the majority of which were in the Central Valley (DWR 2018). This left thousands of people without a reliable source of drinking water for months and, in some cases, years. The crisis drew…

  • Getting Strategic about Freshwater Biodiversity Conservation in California

    by Jeanette Howard, Kurt Fesenmyer, Theodore Grantham, Joshua Viers, Peter Ode, Peter Moyle, Sarah Kupferberg, Joseph Furnish, Andrew Rehn, Joseph Slusark, Raphael Mazor, Nicholas Santos, Ryan Peek, and Amber Wright An essential first step to protect biodiversity is understanding what species are present in a region, where they can be found, and their conservation status. For…

  • U.C. Davis Law’s Environmental Law Center Releases Proposition 3 White Paper

    by Richard Frank This article originally appeared on Legal Planet on October 31, 2018 The U.C. Davis School of Law’s California Environmental Law & Policy Center has published a detailed analysis of one of the most controversial initiative measures facing California voters on the November 6, 2018 general election ballot: Proposition 3.  California’s Proposition 3: A…

  • Opportunities for Science Collaboration and Funding in the Delta

    by Aston Tennefoss The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (Delta) is central to California’s water supply system, and serves a diverse group of stakeholders, including local, state, and federal agencies, elected officials, and water users. Its islands, channels, and wetlands also are home to an expansive but highly disrupted ecosystem, which is studied extensively. Many studies are…

  • The Public Trust and SGMA

    by Brian Gray In a recent decision in litigation over flows and salmon survival in the Scott River system, the California Court of Appeal has ruled that groundwater pumping that diminishes the volume or flow of water in a navigable surface stream may violate the public trust. The public trust does not protect groundwater itself.…

  • Water storage successes, failures, and challenges from Proposition 1

    by Jay Lund The California Water Commission recently allocated $2.7 billion from Proposition 1 bonds for eight water storage projects.  Proposition 1 was passed in 2014 to fund a range of projects, including “public purposes” of water storage projects, such as for ecosystem support, flood risk reduction, water quality, recreation, and emergency response.  Among its…

  • Water Grabs of California, Explained Simply

    by Jay Lund Your water use is a “grab” and a “waste.”  My water use is a nab, and a sacred right.  We all see water the same way, mostly, but from different perspectives. Historically, periods of progress in water management occur when enough people rise above such motivational rhetoric and struggle for workable solutions.…

  • Science, the Delta, and the future of San Joaquin salmon

    by Peter B. Moyle I feel fortunate to be a biologist in an era and place, California, where science matters.  Routine scientific studies rarely make headlines but they are relied on by decision makers because they reduce uncertainty, bit by bit.   This seems to be true nationwide as well, except in the highest levels of…

  • Fish managers tasked with ranching? Conservation wins

    by Ann Willis In May, the Wildlife Conservation Board (WCB) approved $2.4M for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) to acquire Shasta Big Springs Ranch on the Shasta River, a tributary to the Klamath River.  This follows a 2010 state award of $10M to purchase the existing easement and control over water rights…

  • Killing Native Fishes for Fun and Predator Control

    by Teejay A. O’Rear, John R. Durand, and Peter B. Moyle A recent posting of a short film on a 2017 fishing derby (FISHBIO 2018a) is disturbing to those of us interested in conserving our native fishes.  The film glorifies killing Sacramento pikeminnow and hardhead for reducing predation on juvenile Chinook salmon and for attracting…

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