The following article was originally published on June 23, 2021.
Contact: Rachel Becker rachel@calmatters.org

IN SUMMARY
Drought resilience depends on location but also extraordinary engineering — determining which California places are running out of water this year and which remain in good shape.

In Los Angeles, people have been hearing about the dangers of drought for decades. But in this land of infinity pools and backyard putting greens — better suited for rattlesnakes and scrub — water never seems to run out.

Yet little Redwood Valley in Mendocino County, which gets a bountiful 38 inches of rain in an average year and sits near the headwaters of the Russian River, has been devastated by this year’s drought. Each resident has been told to use no more than 55 gallons per day — enough to fill a bathtub and flush a toilet six times.

And in San Jose, where less than half of its usual rain has fallen this year, people have been asked to cut water use by 15% — a target that could become mandatory if locals fail to comply.

When it comes to the impact of drought, location is key. Rain and snow vary greatly across California’s myriad microclimates, leaving some towns, mostly in the north, accustomed to yearly refills of their rivers, reservoirs and aquifers. Others farther south have fewer natural supplies of their own, and in parts of the Central Valley, the drought never really left.

But drought resilience is manufactured, too. Decades of planning and extraordinary engineering and technology keep the water flowing to arid places.

“There is, of course, no single Northern California or Southern California when it comes to water,” said Peter Gleick, founder of the Pacific Institute, a global water think tank. “Water is a very local phenomenon. And every region and every water district has a different mix of water supply options and water demands.

During the last drought, in 2015, Californians were ordered to cut their water use by an average of 25% statewide. This time, there is no statewide emergency, no universal mandate and no standardized water waste rules.

Instead, residents are facing a patchwork of restrictions. Bracing for a crisis, towns relying on the hard-hit Russian River have imposed stringent mandates on residents and coastal communities may have to truck in water to make it through the year. At the same time, most of California’s urban hubs are prepared to weather the summer with only voluntary cuts and limited restrictions that in many cases are holdovers from previous droughts.

A CalMatters survey of the state’s 10 largest water agencies found only one — in San Jose — has issued new limits on watering yards, washing cars and other outdoor uses. Eight, including Sacramento, already had rules curbing irrigation and water waste on the books. And four, including water agencies in the East Bay and Riverside, have asked people to voluntarily cut back between 10% and 25%.

Even though Southern California is more arid, it’s better hydrated, too: That’s because it has largely relied on water transported from elsewhere, dating back more than 100 years in Los Angeles and 50 years in neighboring cities and counties. About half of the water that flows from taps in the region is imported, while half comes from carefully nurtured groundwater reserves and recycled sewage.

As a result, Los Angeles residents are unlikely to face new water restrictions this summer. After a soggy 2019 plus declines in water use since the last drought, the Metropolitan Water District, which supplies imported water to 19 million people in six counties, entered 2021 with record levels of water in storage.

The grip of drought even varies within single counties. For instance, one Mendocino County town is flush with recycled water and groundwater stores, but in another, residents are ordered to reduce use.

“We have a patchwork in part because (water) is managed locally,” said Felicia Marcus, who led the state’s response to the 2012-2016 drought under former Gov. Jerry Brown.

“The situation is dire in some places, and those places are making calls for higher levels of conservation,” Marcus said. “In other places, they may be prepared, or they may be dreaming.”

Southern California’s manufactured resilience

Southern California goes to extraordinary lengths to take water from elsewhere. This nature-defying engineering keeps the region replete with water even when little falls from the sky. (Downtown Los Angeles averages about 14 inches per year, about a third as much as Mendocino.)

First came the city of Los Angeles’ aqueduct — backed by San Fernando Valley investors and approved by voters in 1905 — sucking up mountain-fed streams and lakes in the Owens Valley and transporting it 137 miles.

But it wasn’t enough.

Then came the Metropolitan Water District’s aqueduct, drawing from California’s share of the Colorado River, snaking through the desert and tunneling through mountains to deliver water to the Los Angeles basin in 1941.

But that wasn’t enough, either.

Finally, the state in the 1960s began building a massive system to carry river water from Northern California, pumping it over the Tehachapi Mountains and through 700 miles of pipelines and channels to deliver it to San Joaquin Valley farmland and 27 million people, mostly in Southern California.

And that is enough — for now.

These three extraordinary engineering feats have made much of Southern California able to pull water from a variety of places all at once, transforming its landscape and satisfying the region’s thirst.

Los Angeles County also pioneered recycled water, building the nation’s first reclamation plant in 1962 to treat sewage and use it to replenish its aquifers. Neighboring Orange County has been a world leader in recycling water, purifying its own sewage and capturing the Inland Empire’s to feed its groundwater.

San Diego, too, has built up its resilience since the last drought. For decades it was almost totally reliant on Metropolitan Water District’s imported water. But since the 1990s, the San Diego County Water Authority has added desalinated and recycled water, built one dam and raised another, pumped groundwater and cut a deal to get Colorado River water from Imperial County. The water authority announced the region is “drought-safe this summer” with “no shortages or mandates in the forecast.”

Stephanie Pincetl, director of UCLA’s California Center for Sustainable Communities, who has studied Southern California’s reliance on distant water sources, said the decisions had far-reaching, if unintended, consequences: Los Angeles’ water grab from the Owens Valley exploited distant ecosystems, and urban sprawl was fueled by the Metropolitan Water District’s imports.

“It’s really the growth machine of Southern California … by providing all this water to inland places, and allowing the sense that there’s unlimited water and the sense that you can build as far as the eye can see,” Pincetl said.

Still, she said, “You can point fingers a lot, but you can also be reassured that you can actually turn the tap on and have water come out of it, most of the time.”

But is it enough to weather droughts aggravated by climate change?

This year, California regulators announced that they would deliver only 5% of the State Water Project’s supplies because of extreme drought conditions.

Metropolitan, flush with funds from the cities and agencies it supplies, has spent billions to store water, nearly doubling its reservoir capacity with the completion of the $1.9 billion reservoir at Diamond Valley Lake in 2000.

Between stowing water in reservoirs, pouring it into aquifers and banking it in Lake Mead, Metropolitan Water District’s storage has increased 13-fold since 1980, shoring up supplies for residents from Ventura to San Diego to San Bernardino.

Los Angeles also doesn’t anticipate issuing new water use restrictions, at least not yet.

“We don’t see any need right now, because storage levels are still very good,” said Delon Kwan, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s assistant director of water resources. “If you still have water in storage, why are you asking customers to do more?”

But water experts caution about the potential for more dry days ahead, exacerbated by climate change, so a gallon of water used now is one less saved for later.

“Maybe Southern California is happy this year and jumping up and down. But if this drought continues for two more years, what will happen? Would they be as happy in two years?” said Newsha Ajami, director of urban water policy at Stanford University’s Water in the West program.

Deven Upadhyay, Metropolitan’s chief operating officer, said that it could take several dry years in a row before the district imposes mandatory reductions in Southern California. “If we just continue to get dry year after dry year after dry year, there’s going to come a time where we’re going to be wrapping up messaging and asking for mandatory reductions. But that’s not where we are right now,” he said.

Palmdale, an aerospace hub in the Mojave Desert north of Los Angeles, draws water from snowmelt off the San Gabriel Mountains, taps into the State Water Project directly and pumps groundwater to supply more than 120,000 people.

The Palmdale Water District doesn’t have enough storage to bank water during wet years or enough money to easily increase its supply.

“We’re not as financially nimble as some of the really big players,” said Peter Thompson, Palmdale’s director of resource and analytics. “We’re just getting to the point where we can start investing in those projects that have already benefited places like Metropolitan.”

Residents of this desert city, where less than an inch of rain has fallen this year, were asked in the spring to voluntarily cut water use by 15%. In July, the water district’s board may consider making it mandatory.

“Out in the desert, you need more water to keep things alive. So when we experience drought, then you also experience increased demand,” Thompson said. “That’s one of those double-edged swords that we deal with out here.”

Mendocino County’s isolation means no resilience

Water is much more precarious in Mendocino County, which is isolated from state and federal aqueducts. Instead, residents rely on patchy aquifers and water that’s stored in Lake Mendocino and released into the Russian River.

Properties for sale along the oak-lined roads of Redwood Valley boast their water sources in the listings. One $675,000 home touts a water district hook-up and a seasonal spring. Another $699,000 listing flaunts its “elaborately designed 22,000 gallon water storage system.”

Known for its wine, weed and wild coast, Mendocino County was one of the first places where California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a drought emergency.

In other parts of the state, “when there’s a problem, there’s a pipe and there’s a canal, and you can connect one water system to the next,” said Mendocino County Supervisor Glenn McGourty in a June meeting of the county’s drought task force. “We don’t have things like that in Mendocino County, so we’re going to have to be really creative in our solutions.”

This year’s drought is the most dire situation they’ve faced in decades. At the end of May, Lake Mendocino hit a record low of just 40% capacity. Earlier this month, the county faced projections that the reservoir could be dry by the end of the year. In response, the state adopted emergency regulations that could stop 2,400 water right holders from diverting water from the Russian River as early as July 5.

Although Redwood Valley lies just north of Lake Mendocino, its water supply is never guaranteed. Residents rely on sales from a nearby water agency and any surplus left in the reservoir by nearby communities.

But at this point, there’s no surplus. Agricultural connections have been shut off in Redwood Valley and residents are limited to 55 gallons per person per day — enough for just a 22-minute shower and nothing else.

“My dream was to garden,” said Darrell Carpenter, a 61-year-old artist and handyman whose family has lived in Redwood Valley for three generations. Carpenter moved back full time after his partner died six years ago. When the water restrictions and rate changes were announced, he wondered, “Do I sell and move?”

Carpenter was lucky, able to restart an inactive well on his property and keep his garden alive, which he has slowly been converting to native plants and succulents. Still, he worries that his luck and the water will run out as more people stick straws into the ground.

“It might be a false sense of security,” he said.

The water district’s cuts have left the reservation for the Redwood Valley Band of Pomo Indians with nothing to refill its tank for irrigating a community garden and filling its fire truck. Hydrants are still operating, but outdoor water use is banned and rancheria officials are investigating whether they can draw water from an old well.

“We don’t have any access to any other water,” said tribal administrator Mary Camp. “We’re really concerned.”

Farther out along the coast, in the town of Mendocino, residents depend on private wells pumping from rain-fed groundwater stores. The town declared a stage 4 water shortage emergency in May requiring residents to use 40% less water than allotted.

“I’m nervous. I’m definitely nervous,” said Mendocino City Community Services District Superintendent Ryan Rhoades. “I’m sure that some wells will run dry this year, probably more than last year.”

McGourty, the Mendocino County supervisor, blamed the county’s predicament on its limited water storage.

“We’ve been lulled into the idea maybe that we have lots and lots of water. And we do have lots and lots of water. The problem is that we don’t store lots and lots of water,” McGourty told water officials across the region. “We’re in a different world now, because of climate change.”

Ukiah, just ten miles from hard-hit Redwood Valley, is weathering the drought much better because of steps taken after the last dry spell.

Five decades ago, the Doobie Brothers described Ukiah as a land where “mountain streams that rush on by show the fish a jumpin.’” Today the city is facing extremely dry conditions in the Russian River, which typically makes up about half of the supply for its 16,000 residents.

Ukiah will lean more heavily on groundwater, bolstered after the last drought with a state grant that helped pay for three new wells. The city also built a $34 million recycled water plant that pumps out irrigation water, making up a third of its supply.

“The city saw the writing on the wall, and was looking to improve our drought resiliency, before it was cool,” said Sean White, director of water resources for the city of Ukiah.

“It’s kind of a disparate tale. If you live in the city of Ukiah, (the drought) is really not that big of a deal … If you live in some of the adjoining ones, it’s either bad or terrible.”

Silicon Valley’s perfect storm

In Silicon Valley, aging dams and drought have collided this year, making Santa Clara County among the hardest hit in the Bay Area. Storage in reservoirs has dwindled by 74%. And supplies from state and federal aqueducts have dropped far below expected levels.

Making matters worse, the area’s largest reservoir is all but empty, drained last year to retrofit it for earthquakes. Without it, the amount of water stored locally for 2 million people in San Jose and nearby communities has been cut by more than half.

“We’re seeing the perfect storm building up and it’s right in front of us,” said Rick Callender, Valley Water’s CEO, at a June board meeting. “We’re indeed in a dire situation.”

If dry conditions persist through next year, land could sink and wells could go dry. In the southern part of Santa Clara County, groundwater is the only drinking water source.

“The aggressiveness and the severity of this drought, the way the drought is increasing is much greater than the previous drought,” Aaron Baker, chief operating officer at Valley Water, said at the hearing. “Conditions will be far worse in 2022 if drought conditions continue and no action is taken.”

Valley Water’s board this month ordered a mandatory 33% cut in residential water use from 2013 levels — a 15% reduction from 2019. Individual water providers will enforce it, which means rules for residents could vary depending on who sends water to their taps.

Cupertino’s director of public works, Roger Lee, warns that if water providers fail to coordinate, it could lead to a patchwork of restrictions in neighborhoods served by multiple retailers.

“We can have customers with one set of rules on one side of the street and different sets of rules on the other side of the street,” Lee said at the hearing. “It gets very difficult with messaging.”

Marin County’s largest water provider, too, has been hit hard by shortages in its own reservoirs and those in Mendocino and Sonoma counties. Marin Water, which aims to cut use across the county by 40%, has banned watering plants during the day and limited sprinklers to two days a week, among other mandatory restrictions,

Most of the Bay Area isn’t in such dire straits — at least not yet. Residents of the East Bay were asked to reduce water use by 10%, and San Francisco golf courses, parks and other irrigation customers were asked to cut back. Both water districts already prohibit wasteful use, like washing down sidewalks.

And both, like Los Angeles, pipe water from far away.

The East Bay’s aqueducts snake about 90 miles from the Pardee Reservoir in the Sierra foothills, delivering the vast majority of the utility’s supply.

“Our forefathers (thought) to create this massive infrastructure that has been our source, our lifeline to the East Bay and has positioned us well during these dry times,” said Tracie Morales, an East Bay Municipal Utility District spokesperson. Still, Morales said, “We’re concerned about what another dry year will bring.”

San Francisco, where residential use per person falls well below the state average, draws about 85% of its water from Yosemite’s Hetch Hetchy, which was dammed in 1923, flooding the territory of the Tuolumne Me-Wuk people. San Francisco’s reservoirs remain in decent shape at 75% of maximum storage, said spokesperson Will Reisman.

“The Santa Clara Valley used to be orchards here, but we didn’t have the population that San Francisco had and we didn’t have the impetus of the 1906 quake and the resulting fires to go grab the Hetch Hetchy water,” said Gary Kremen, vice chair of Valley Water’s board of directors. “They were there first, so they got the better deal.”

Counties urgently seeking state help

Some areas, like Santa Clara, are looking for Newsom to expand drought emergencies that could unleash greater enforcement powers and reduce regulations to speed construction products and ease pricey purchases of emergency water supplies.

Compared to the counties already under drought emergencies, “we’re in just as bad shape as them, if not worse,” Kremen said at a press briefing.

Palmdale spokesperson Judy Shay also said her water district is looking for stronger messaging from the state as it ramps up its drought response.

“We also don’t want to be the ones making all those strict rules,” Shay said. “We also need direction from the state.”

The Pacific Institute’s Gleick calls for urgent collective action throughout the West.

“The speed with which the western drought is accelerating and worsening makes it urgent that the governors of the western states declare water conservation mandates and targets and provide resources to help cities and farms cut water use,” Gleick said.

The issue is bigger than simply responding to the current drought, said UCLA’s Pincetl. Californians will need to reimagine what the future could look like and rethink their relationship to water.

“We don’t actually know where we live … we live in this kind of irrigated bubble that insulates us from the actual California,” Pincetl said. “And having easily accessible water is part of that story.”

The original article from CalMatters, which includes photos and graphics, can be found here: https://calmatters.org/environment/2021/06/california-water-shortage/

Placerville, Calif. — El Dorado Irrigation District (EID) and Pioneer Community Energy (Pioneer) signed a contract for Pioneer to receive electricity from an EID hydroelectric facility over the next 10 years. The contract represents a mutually beneficial arrangement that meets EID’s non-rate revenue goals through hydroelectric generation, while providing Pioneer with cost-effective, clean electricity for ratepayers in Placer and El Dorado Counties.

EID provides water service to approximately 42,748 residential, agricultural, commercial, and industrial accounts in the Western Slope of El Dorado County and also provides wastewater treatment, disposal, and reclamation services to approximately 24,165 residential, commercial and industrial accounts in the suburban areas of Cameron Park, Diamond Springs, El Dorado, El Dorado Hills and Shingle Springs.

As part of providing water service, EID owns and operates El Dorado Project 184, a federally licensed 21-megawatt hydroelectric power generation system. The system consists of five reservoirs with dams, including Echo Lake, Lake Aloha, Caples Lake, Silver Lake, and El Dorado Forebay, a 22-mile water conveyance system of flumes, canals, siphons, and tunnels, and the El Dorado Powerhouse. Project facilities are located east of Placerville in El Dorado, Alpine, and Amador counties. EID operates the hydroelectric facilities as a water supply project with the ancillary benefit of selling power generated from the powerhouse as a stable source of non-rate revenue that helps offset EID’s operational costs.

“Our aim in power contracting is to optimize power generation income while prioritizing drinking water supplies for our customers and community,” said EID General Manager Jim Abercrombie. “This contract allows us to do that, while also minimizing financial risks to the district.”

Pioneer Community Energy is a Community Choice Aggregator that began providing electricity to the communities of Auburn, Colfax, Lincoln, Loomis, Rocklin and unincorporated Placer County in 2018. Pioneer currently serves more than 93,500 residential and commercial accounts, and will be adding approximately 65,000 more accounts when El Dorado County and the City of Placerville join Pioneer in January 2022.

“When we created Pioneer, we made a commitment to support local economies through as many local investments as possible,” said Jim Holmes, Placer County Supervisor and Pioneer Board Chair. “Pioneer is thrilled to start the relationship with El Dorado and Placerville with a local power purchase. We look forward to investing in more local programs in the future.”

In addition to power procurement, Pioneer focuses upon local programs that meet local needs and priorities. Most recently, the Pioneer Board approved Green100, a 100% renewable electricity product, in response to customer requests for a cleaner power supply. Starting in June, Customers will be able to enroll in Green100 and pay less than 1 cent per kWh more for 100% renewable energy. Only customers who choose this product will pay for it.

For more information on Pioneer, visit www.PioneerCommunityEnergy.ca.gov.

EID Contact: Jesse Saich, (530) 642-4127, jsaich@eid.org
Pioneer Community Energy Contact: Alexia Retallack, (916) 758-8948

Click here to see the original News Release from El Dorado Irrigation District.

Special districts interested in partnering with the State of California and other entities to perform wildfire mitigation and watershed protection have a new ally in Sacramento and a developing regional program for planning and collaborating.

Keali’i Bright, Division Director of Land Resources Protection within the California Department of Conservation is a featured speaker for the Climate Adaptation breakout session during the 2021 Virtual Special Districts Legislative Days. Director Bright has offered that any special districts interested in learning more about partnering with the state to mitigate the risk of wildfire, as well as protect our watersheds, are welcome to contact him directly at Kealii.Bright@conservation.ca.gov.

Regional Forest and Fire Capacity Program

A Mid-Program Report on the Regional Forest and Fire Capacity Program provides regional-level descriptions of the important work the State of California has facilitated to-date. Director Bright discusses this work and the vision for the program moving forward during the Legislative Days breakout session.

According to Mid-Program Report, “The Regional Forest and Fire Capacity (RFFC) program offers a different approach: more akin to silver threads, that if strengthened through regionally responsive, nimble capacity investments, and if woven together through strategic prioritization and planning, are positioned to move the needle from reactionary disaster management to landscapes and communities more resilient to the next inevitable wildfire.”

“The RFFC program takes a noncompetitive block grant approach to funding regional entities (i.e., those working at a county-wide or larger scale) to decentralize fire-resilience strategies, such that regions (rather than the State) discern how to best invest in fire resilience strategic planning, capacity building, and project readiness. A key goal of the program is a strategic pipeline of “shovel-ready” fire resilience projects that ideally dovetail with state implementation programs and dollars.”

The Mid-Program Report features a number of special districts, including:

• Cachuma Resource Conservation District
• East Bay Regional Park District
• Feather River Resource Conservation District
• Inland Empire Resource Conservation District
• Las Virgenes Municipal Water District
• Marin Municipal Water District
• Pit Resource Conservation District
• Resource Conservation District of Greater San Diego County
• Resource Conservation District of San Mateo County
• Resource Conservation District of Santa Cruz County
• San Bernardino County Fire Protection District
• San Bernardino Flood Control District
• San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District
• Sonoma County Agricultural and Open Space District

Forest Management Task Force

In addition to the new RFFC program, special districts should reach out to California’s new Forest Management Task Force to engage and tackle specific issues. Among the Task Force’s goals are to:

• Strategically coordinate the state’s investments in forest health.
• Expand and improve forest management to enhance forest health and resiliency.
• Minimize regulatory barriers for prescribed fire, forest health, and fuels reduction projects.
• Increase public education and awareness of the importance of forest health and resiliency to achieving California’s long-term climate, watershed, wildlife, economic, and public health goals.

California Vegetation Treatment Program

The Climate Adaptation breakout session also features Jessica Morse, Deputy Director of Forest Resources Management with the California Natural Resources Agency. She will provide a robust overview of the wildfire challenges facing our state and the opportunities for meeting those challenges, including the latest regulatory reforms that will expedite the work of special districts. In addition to attending Legislative Days, special district officials can learn more by visiting the California Vegetation Treatment Program (CalVTP) webpage.

The CalVTP includes the use of prescribed burning, mechanical treatments, manual treatments, herbicides, and prescribed herbivory as tools to reduce hazardous vegetation around communities in the Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI), to construct fuel breaks, and to restore healthy ecological fire regimes. The CalVTP Program Environmental Impact Report (Program EIR) provides a powerful tool to expedite the implementation of vegetation treatments to reduce wildfire risk while conserving natural resources. For more information about the CalVTP, please visit the websites linked below.

Learn more about these developing programs and hear directly from the state officials helping to implement them by attending the 2021 Virtual Special Districts Legislative Days.

For more information or to share any thoughts, please contact Vanessa Gonzales at vanessag@csda.net.

Click here to see the original article from California Special Districts Association.

The following was published on April 14, 2021.

Contact: info@norcalwater.org

The Pillars for Sustainable Water Management in the Sacramento River Basin

By Bryce Lundberg

On Wednesday, March 3rd, the Northern California Water Association (NCWA) Board of Directors officially adopted our 2021 Priorities. The water leaders in this region look forward to working with our many partners in 2021 to cultivate a shared vision for a vibrant way of life in the Sacramento River Basin. We will continue to re-imagine our water system in the Sacramento River Basin as we also work to harmonize our water priorities with state, federal, and other regions’ priorities to advance our collective goal of ensuring greater water and climate resilience throughout California for our communities, the economy, and the environment. We encourage you to review our 2021 Priorities and share any thoughts.

Advancing our water portfolio creates an opportunity to re-imagine our system by examining our current system and then working hard to evolve this system to reflect California’s values now and into the future. As part of this process, the Board of Directors has established the following pillars, which embrace our culture and ethos in the Sacramento River Basin and guide our priorities and actions:

• Foster a regional approach among the water suppliers and local governments in the region. The NCWA leadership will work with water suppliers, local governments and landowners to aggressively and strategically implement these priorities and the NCWA vision to advance the economic, social, and environmental sustainability of the Sacramento River Basin by enhancing and preserving its water rights, supplies, and water quality for the rich mosaic of farmlands, cities and rural communities, refuges and managed wetlands, and meandering rivers that support fisheries and wildlife. This regional approach safeguards water rights, contracts and area of origin principles—for today and future generations—through sustainable water management for all beneficial uses and users of water in the Sacramento River Basin.
• Focus on population health and wellness and the importance of enhancing our world so people can live healthier and more fulfilling lives. This moment in time provides an opportunity for introspection, a time to think about our families and friends, what is essential in our lives, and how we can contribute to population health and wellness. In the Sacramento River Basin, our team is working hard to envision the role that water suppliers and local governments can serve to help people live healthier and more fulfilling lives. We have learned and increasingly believe that population health is inextricably tied to climate resiliency and ecological health: our rivers, soils, air, trees, watersheds and floodplains—and the way they function together.
• Fix not fight. Sacramento River Basin leaders are committed to fixing problems rather than fighting over them. In this spirit, we believe the collaborative approach described below is central to water resources management in the region and is highly preferred to acrimony and litigation. As an example, an adversarial, regulatory approach to updating the Bay-Delta Water Quality Control Plan will only delay and misdirect valuable resources away from the collaborative and innovative water management described in this roadmap. Instead, we are advancing Voluntary Agreements: The New Way Forward as a catalyst for all the creative and innovative actions described in this document, including priority habitat and flow actions that will advance species recovery and continue the momentum and collaboration necessary to successfully implement a resilience portfolio.
• Advance multi-benefit water management approaches that meet multiple needs at once, which include cities, farms, fish, birds, other wildlife, recreation, and hydropower. Multi-benefit water management is the hallmark of the Sacramento River Basin. See Managing Water in the Sacramento Valley for Multiple Benefits.
• Support nature-based solutions that use our natural and working lands to sustain our economy, support our unique biodiversity and contribute to the global food supply. These working landscapes, which provide essential benefits for our economy, health and quality of life—including clean water, nutritious food, outdoor recreation—and contribute to the state’s climate goals and protecting our communities from wildfire, floods, droughts and extreme heat. These programs will “advance multi-benefit, voluntary and cooperative approaches that protect and restore biodiversity while stewarding natural and working lands, building climate resilience, and supporting economic sustainability” as called for by the Governor.
• Prepare for dry years. Every element of this portfolio is designed to provide improved resilience during dry years, yet there are other specific measures that we will take in 2021 to better prepare for dry years. NCWA has a Dry Year Task Force that convenes in dry years to improve communication, help implement the water rights priority system and ensure water for all beneficial uses. The Task Force works with the State Water Board to implement the water rights system and to better prepare for the next dry period and water resources managers are coordinating with state and federal agencies to prepare for and work together in these drier years.
• Prepare for a changing climate. Recent studies have shown that California’s winters are likely to be warmer and the hydrology is likely to be more concentrated in fewer months of runoff. Slowing water down as it moves through the Sacramento Valley, more effectively utilizing floodplains, groundwater and surface storage reservoirs will help adapt working landscapes and ecosystems to climate variability.
• A new culture of partnerships building on the model for success that has emerged over the past decade, with state and federal agencies encouraging, facilitating and supporting regional and local agencies with the capability, expertise and local knowledge to design and implement the essential elements of a water portfolio. Every policy priority described here would benefit from an approach where state and federal agencies support local agencies or joint powers authorities.
• Build trust and credibility across the different communities engaged in water through honest discourse and mutual respect, while working with various technical experts to develop and make decisions based on credible information and data.
• We are an inclusive organization that values the perspectives, contributions, and experiences of all Californians. These values are reflected in our work. We have an active water leaders’ program where we seek diverse participation from leaders with a both a passion and interest in Northern California water issues and making the Sacramento River Basin a better place. We will continue to find solutions to ensure safe, reliable and affordable water for all communities through our Drinking Water Solutions Network. As we move forward, we will continue to listen to, engage with, and learn from our fellow Californians.
• Our strategic goal is to inspire thoughtful public discourse and collaboration that points positive and brings people together—working towards a re-imagined water system that will assure reliable, affordable and high-quality water supplies will be available to serve multiple benefits in the Sacramento River Basin now and for future generations.
• Although our priorities are set in the Sacramento River Basin where we devote our time and energy, these ideas hold promise to help address statewide needs and we will integrate our priorities with other regions as part of a statewide solution.

For more information or to share any thoughts, please contact NCWA at info@norcalwater.org.

Click here to see the original Blog post from Northern California Water Association.

The following Media Release was published on March 22, 2021.

Contact: Ailene Voisin
Ailene.Voisin@waterboards.ca.gov

Continued dry conditions prompt early warning about potential water shortages

Water users urged to reduce and conserve

SACRAMENTO – As dry conditions persist throughout California, the State Water Resources Control Board today mailed early warning notices to approximately 40,000 water right holders, urging them to plan for potential shortages by reducing water use and adopting practical conservation measures.

Reservoir and groundwater levels are significantly below average, and despite recent storms, snowpack is only 63% of average as of March 10. After two years of below average precipitation, officials don’t expect the April 1 snow survey to reveal significant improvement in the water supply outlook this year. April 1 is typically the peak of California’s snowpack, which, in an average year, provides 30% of the state’s water supply. Drought is a recurring feature of the California climate, and what we’ve learned from our past efforts in previous droughts has improved our drought resilience. We know from experience that early action can help minimize short term drought impacts and improve our ability to withstand multiple dry years in a row.

“Planting crops and other decisions that are dictated by water supply are made early in the year, so early warnings are vital,” said Erik Ekdahl, deputy director for the Water Board’s Division of Water Rights. “These letters give water users time to prepare and help minimize the impacts of reduced supplies on businesses, farms and homes.”

Agricultural water users can implement practical actions now to improve their drought resilience, including reducing irrigated acreage, managing herd size, using innovative irrigation and diversifying water supply portfolios. Urban water users can conserve by putting in drought-resistant landscape, reducing outdoor irrigation and replacing older house fixtures and appliances with more efficient ones.

Additionally, all diverters are legally required to report their annual water use to the State Water Board. Accurate and timely reporting of information is crucial to managing the state’s water resources.

In preparing for potential droughts, the State Water Board partners with multiple state, local and federal agencies, including California Department of Water Resources, Fish and Wildlife, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service, Tribal governments and water management organizations. Staff will continue to coordinate as it monitors the situation and engage more frequently with water users if conditions continue or worsen.

Current drought conditions can be found on the National Integrated Drought Information System website.

The State Water Board’s mission is to preserve, enhance and restore the quality of California’s water resources and ensure proper allocation and efficient use for the benefit of present and future generations. Please visit California’s Water Resilience Portfolio to learn more about how our state is preparing for our future water needs.

Click here to view, download, or print the official Media Release.

The Mountain Counties Water Resources Association (Mountain Counties) has announced that Executive Director John Kingsbury has retired from his position, as has Executive Assistant Ginny Borkowski. John and Ginny have provided outstanding service to Mountain Counties during the past 10 years in their positions.

“John has clearly been the driving force in making Mountain Counties the organization it is today. We have become a well-respected and trusted organization in the region, the statewide water community and among state and federal decision-makers,” Mountain Counties Board Chairman Mike Lee said.  “Ginny has been integral in this progress, providing the essential administrative support behind the scenes and ensuring that operations ran smoothly. We will miss them both,” Lee continued.

Under John’s leadership Mountain Counties has hosted numerous well-attended events designed to educate state, local and federal decision-makers on the issues facing the region. He has also become a familiar face to state officials and water agencies and organizations throughout the state, emphasizing the critical role the region plays in providing Californians with an ample supply of water.

Mountain Counties also announced that Jim Branham, the former Executive Officer of the Sierra Nevada Conservancy will serve as the interim Executive Director as the organization transitions to a new permanent leader in the coming months. Jim brings a solid understanding of the region and its issues and has a history of working closely with Mountain Counties. He will assist the Board in assessing future opportunities and direction during this transition. He assumes his duties March 1 and will be assisted by Rayann La France of EN2 Resources.

Mountain Counties is a non-profit organization with a mission to “unite agencies, groups and individuals whose interests include protecting and enhancing Mountain County water resources”.  It covers 12 counties in the Sierra Nevada region from Plumas County in the north to Mariposa in the south.

If you have questions or would like to contact either John or Jim, here is their contact information.

Jim Branham:  executivedirector.mcwra11@gmail.com

Phone:  (530) 491-9162

John Kingsbury:  kingsbury.john@yahoo.com

Phone:  (530) 957-7879

MARYSVILLE, Calif. (Feb. 16, 2021) – Yuba Water Agency’s board of directors took bold action today to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire and advance landscape-scale forest restoration in the Yuba River watershed.

In two separate actions, the board approved $6.5 million in funding for forest restoration projects as part of the North Yuba Forest Partnership. The partnership is a diverse group of nine organizations working collaboratively to plan, finance and implement forest restoration across 275,000 acres of private and public land spanning Sierra and Yuba counties and two national forests. Yuba Water’s partners in the North Yuba Forest Partnership include Blue Forest Conservation, Camptonville Community Partnership, National Forest Foundation, the Nature Conservancy, Nevada City Rancheria, Sierra County, South Yuba River Citizens League and the Tahoe National Forest.

“The momentum of the North Yuba Forest Partnership is a model for restoration in California and the western United States,” said Yuba Water Director Randy Fletcher. “This partnership has a proven track record of success and has done a tremendous job at showing what’s possible. We’re proud to be a big part of that.”

 $6 million Trapper Forest Resilience Bond

The bulk of the agency’s financial commitment is a $6 million cost-share contribution over the next 10 years, or $600,000 annually, to Blue Forest Conservation for a Forest Resilience Bond. The bond will advance restoration treatments on nearly 23,000 acres for two projects previously planned by the Tahoe National Forest in Yuba and Sierra counties.

The use of this bond model allows Blue Forest Conservation and its partners World Resources Institute and the U.S. Forest Service to attract additional capital from public and private investors to initiate restoration at a much faster pace and scale. Yuba Water and other beneficiaries of the restoration work repay investors at contracted rates as restoration work is completed, with the Tahoe National Forest providing in-kind support and funding for project planning, development and execution.

“Watershed-scale forest restoration needs more than just public dollars,” Zach Knight, co-founder and CEO of Blue Forest Conservation said of their business model. “It takes private investments and partnerships to accomplish that. We’ve proven it works with the Yuba Project, and now we will expand the model to get even more work done on the ground quickly.”

The Yuba Project previously leveraged a $1.5 million in cost-share from Yuba Water to secure $4 million in private capital to finance restoration conducted by the National Forest Foundation across 15,000 acres of national forest. That work is already underway and is expected to be completed six years earlier than it would have been if not for this trailblazing partnership.

The new forest resilience bond is expected to leverage about $25 million in total funding and will be used to complete priority work that has stalled in recent years. The funding is also expected to leverage additional state and federal grants.

$500,000 to plan and prioritize forest health treatments, complete roadmap for future work 

In a separate but related decision, the board also approved a $500,000 grant to complete environmental documents and permitting for the wider North Yuba Forest Partnership area and field surveys for the first 20,000 acres of treatment. The partnership had already secured $2.53 million for this effort and this grant fills the final funding gap.

“The North Yuba Forest Partnership is advancing restoration across hundreds of thousands of acres, a pace and scale significantly larger than the typical project area of 15,000 or 20,000 acres in the Sierra Nevada,” said Melinda Booth, executive director of South Yuba River Citizens League. “This planning effort for the entire watershed is creating a roadmap for prioritizing and carrying out work of this magnitude in the future.”

The partnership’s shared-stewardship approach prioritizes reducing catastrophic wildfire risk for people and property and focuses on treating areas that have the potential to prevent a wildfire from spreading to higher-risk areas, Booth said.

The board unanimously supported the two grants due to the long-term benefits for Yuba County’s water quality and quantity, watershed health, air quality and the economy.

Collectively, the restoration efforts benefit Yuba County’s water supplies by safeguarding New Bullards Bar Dam and reducing the risk of post-wildfire sedimentation and large woody debris flows in the watershed. It is also expected to provide employment in forest restoration and management jobs, while reducing the threat of megafires for rural communities like Camptonville, Goodyears Bar, Downieville and Sierra City.

Learn more about the partnership at yubawater.org.

Water Use Studies WG – Variances

The Department of Water Resources (DWR) is convening the Water Use Study Group to inform the development of the variances and bonus incentive considerations that are part of DWR’s water use objectives standards, methodologies, and performance measures recommendations to the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) by October 1, 2021.

The first meeting is scheduled for Friday, February 12, 2021, 10am – 12pm via Zoom Webinar. At the first meeting, we will cover the following:

• Present the overall process of the Water Use Efficiency Objectives development and specifically, the adjustments due to variances and bonus incentives.
• Review the list of variances and bonus incentives as directed by the Legislature.
• Present the approach and schedule for variance development and bonus incentive considerations.

To promote a timely progress on this effort, the Water Use Study Group will continue and convene monthly on the 2^nd Friday of the month through June 11, 2021.

Registration for the meeting is required. Please use the provided link below to register for the monthly meeting series.

https://csus.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_YiQaxvXnTbmCqbtZ6oDEhw

Standards, Methodologies and Performance Measures – outdoor water use standards recommendations

DWR is scheduling the second meeting of the technical workgroup on Standards, Methodologies and Performance Measures to inform the development of the outdoor water use standards recommendations.

The second meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, February 24, 2021, 9am – 12pm via Zoom Webinar.

At the meeting, DWR will provide a comprehensive presentation of data inputs used to estimate current outdoor water use in relation to landscape area and ETo for each service area; a review of the key outputs and results of the data analysis, and a discussion on the policy options and next steps for setting the outdoor water use standard. Working group members will be invited to ask questions and provide input on information presented by the DWR technical team.

Meeting agenda will be provided ahead of the meeting.

Registration for the meeting is required. Please use the provided link below to register.

https://csus.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_VDc-HPYtTjCVkPiBaU-_OA

James Campagna, Office Assistant

Water Use Efficiency Branch

(916) 651-9671

Yuba Water receives $2.8 million for Yuba River habitat restoration, discusses economic development

French Meadows Partnership Doubles Pace in Second Season of Work

FRENCH MEADOWS, Calif. – After six months of strategic forest treatments, partners of the French Meadows Forest Restoration Project (Project) are wrapping up their second season of implementation work. Located in the headwaters of the Middle Fork American River, in the Tahoe National Forest, the Project aims to restore forest health by reducing high-severity fires across 28,000 acres of critical watershed, and to study the effects of forest treatments on ecosystem health. In its second season, the partnership expanded its efforts beyond the heavily-trafficked area around French Meadows Reservoir and into the upper reaches of the watershed.

“This year was California’s most destructive fire season on record, and the partnership had particular interest in providing immediate safeguards against catastrophic wildfire in remote areas where California spotted owls are known to inhabit,” explained Brett Storey, project manager with Placer County, which coordinates the stewardship agreement with the Tahoe National Forest.

Because of the remoteness and sensitivity of the treatment area, crews primarily employed handthinning methods, as opposed to more mechanical methods. Despite more time-consuming treatment methods, the partnership treated more than 2,100 acres of public land, which is double the pace from last year. The cumulative acreage of federal land treated over two seasons now stands at more than 3,100 acres. On adjacent private land, the American River Conservancy has independently raised funds and treated 1,100 acres, as a collaborative aspect of this all-lands approach to watershed management.

In 2020, the partnership brought in more than 1.4 million board feet to a local mill, and more than 1,200 tons of biomass to local renewable energy facilities to help offset restoration costs. Partners Success in the Sierra: French Meadows Partnership Doubles Pace in Second Season of Work Page 2/2 also prepped 50 acres of a burn scar, from a previous wildfire, for reforestation next season and repaired approximately 16 miles of road. The work this year employed more than 100 local contractors.

“The French Meadows Forest Restoration Project continues to demonstrate how a diverse partnership with a shared interest can produce tangible results for our forest ecosystems and surrounding communities,” said Placer County Water Agency General Manager Andy Fecko. “There is more work to be done, but we are very pleased with the progress so far.”

In coming years, the Project will implement two significant programs to complement the forest treatments currently underway. First will be the introduction of prescribed fires. Extremely dry forest conditions precluded safe burns this season and last, but the United States Forest Service and The Nature Conservancy, the two entities managing the prescribed fire component of the Project, have cleared six miles of control line in preparation for prescribed burns on 600 acres of forestland. The second program will be comprised of research conducted by the Sierra Nevada Research Institute at the University of California, Merced to assess how changes in vegetation affect changes in the water balance of the ecosystem; most of that monitoring equipment has now been installed.

The catalyst of the French Meadows Forest Restoration Project was the 2014 King Fire, which burned over 97,000 acres in the American River watershed, much of it at high intensity. Eager to reduce the risk to hydroelectric assets, water quality, and biodiversity from future fires, Placer County Water Agency (PCWA) joined with Placer County, The Nature Conservancy (TNC), the United States Forest Service (USFS), American River Conservancy (ARC), Sierra Nevada Conservancy (SNC), and the Sierra Nevada Research Institute (SNRI) at the University of California, Merced, to form the French Meadows Partnership. The Project spans more than 22,000 acres of federal land, nearly 7,000 acres of private land, and is a test case for the partnership’s effectiveness in improving fire resilience and the overall health of the watershed. Partners of the Project hope to not only moderate future wildfire behavior, but also create a new model for advancing forest and watershed restoration.

Link to PCWA’s News Release 

December 23, 2020

On appeal from the Placer County Superior Court, MCWRA joined the Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA), California Special Districts Association (CSDA), California State Association of Counties (CSAC), and the League of California Cities in defense of Foresthill Public Utility District’s water rates.

The Local Government Amici wrote to address a single issue – whether the legal doctrine of exhaustion of remedies bars plaintiff Miner’s Camp LLC’s challenge to Foresthill Public Utility District’s water rates under Proposition 218.  The trial court found for the plaintiff, relying on a since-superseded Court of Appeal decision that had determined that Proposition 218’s majority protest process was categorically futile and therefore exhaustion of that remedy was never required.

The Amici stated that “the trial court erred by applying the superseded Court of Appeal opinion to go where this Court’s later Plantier opinion does not lead – to a conclusion that exhaustion is never required in a Proposition 218 dispute. The duty to exhaust applies to claims under Proposition 218, just as it does to other constitutional claims.”

According to the brief, the trial court’s ruling “disserves both legislators and courts. Allowing challengers to sidestep Proposition 218 hearings will be costly for courts, agencies, and utility customers, whose rates fund hearing and litigation costs in every venue. Courts will be needlessly burdened to review complex ratemaking issues in the first instance, without the support of a robust record reflecting the agency’s expertise.  Agencies incur significant costs to satisfy extensive Proposition 218 hearing requirements, but will not benefit from that expense under the rule applied below, and will lose opportunity to avoid needless litigation by addressing public concerns before suit.”

The Third District Court of Appeal has not yet scheduled oral arguments or a ruling in the case.

Click here for Amici Curiae Brief: 12.23.20foresthillamicusbrief