Bay Delta Blog
Water Supply
Imperial and San Diego file petition on Salton Sea mitigation water
In 2002, one year before the Quantification Settlement Agreement (QSA) and related agreements were executed, the State Water Resources Control Board issued a key approval facilitating a long-term water transfer. The transfer, which carries a 45-year term and an option to renew for 30 additional years, involves Imperial Irrigation District conserving water and transferring the … Continue reading
SWRCB issues draft decision approving Davis-Woodland water right
This week the State Water Resources Control Board issued a draft decision (PDF) approving a permit for a new water right granted to the City of Davis, the University of California at Davis, and the City of Woodland. These entities currently rely on groundwater, but the quality is degraded and they would have to plunge … Continue reading
DWR petitions to extend State Water Project permits
The Department of Water Resources, which holds permits to appropriate water for the State Water Project, has petitioned the State Water Resources Control Board to extend several of those permits for five years to December 31, 2015. Last week, SWRCB noticed the petitions (PDF), allowing protest until September 20. The relevant permits authorize diversions from … Continue reading
Parties to the Delta Smelt litigation propose alternative CVP and SWP operation plan
On May 27, 2010, Judge Wanger issued his ruling on the delta smelt biological opinion, which was analogous to his earlier ruling on the salmonid biological opinion. In the Consolidated Delta Smelt Cases, Wanger determined that the federal agencies had acted arbitrarily and capriciously with respect to Component 2 of the reasonable and prudent alternative … Continue reading
The Head of Old River Barrier, and a delicate balance of species and exports
One purpose of the Vernalis Adaptive Management Plan (VAMP), beyond looking at flows and exports, was to investigate how the survival rate of Chinook salmon smolts migrating through the San Joaquin River system could be improved by constructing a rock barrier at the Head of Old River (HORB). Reverse Old & Middle River (OMR) flows … Continue reading
Record of Decision for the Delta-Mendota Canal / California Aqueduct Intertie
The California Aqueduct and Delta-Mendota Canal; courtesy of Bureau of Reclamation. Last week, in the final days of 2009, it was announced that the long-planned Delta Mendota Canal/California Aqueduct Intertie project finally got its Record of Decision from the U.S. Department of the Interior. The federal government, in its Interim Action Plan for the Bay-Delta … Continue reading
New Melones and the Stockton East Controversy
In 1979, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers tested and unveiled New Melones, the last unit to be added to the Central Valley Project (CVP), which had just finished construction at the end of 1978. New Melones Dam inundated a section of the Stanislaus River in the Sierra Nevada foothills to create a 2.4 million … Continue reading
CVP Opens Water Year 2010 at 39 Percent of Capacity
Happy (belated) New Year! — water year, of course. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has announced that we started water year 2010 this October with Central Valley Project reservoirs filled with just 4.4 million acre-feet of water, or 39% of total storage capacity. This is an improvement over last year (35% of capacity), and it’s … Continue reading
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