Department of Water Resources
Progress on California water data
Michael Kiparsky and Alida Cantor
Water data has become quite a hot topic in California, and rightly so: throughout the state, decision-makers desperately need better information to guide their efforts to better manage this resource. Recent legislation has gotten us to the starting line, but how well new data platforms ultimately serve water management will depend on clear thinking and …
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CONTINUE READINGCalifornia’s New Groundwater Law: An Interactive Timeline
What are the major deadlines for local groundwater management agencies, and when can—or must—state agencies act?
Many (including Legal Planet’s own Rick Frank) have examined the pros and cons of California’s new locally-focused groundwater management law. Such analyses will continue to be critically important as state and local players move forward with the nitty-gritty of actual implementation, and the legislation’s practical, on-the-ground (and under-the-ground) implications become clearer. In this post, however, my goal …
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CONTINUE READINGIs California Finally Ready to Get Serious About Groundwater Reform?
Prospects Good for Passage of Landmark Groundwater Legislation
California, which prides itself as being a national and international leader in so many areas of environmental policy, lags woefully behind other jurisdictions when it comes to at least one subject area: groundwater regulation. Alone among the Western states in the U.S., California lacks any statewide system of groundwater regulation and planning. (Until a few …
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CONTINUE READINGEnvironmental Hubris: Another Proposed “Fix” for the California Delta
Recently, California state water officials announced with considerable fanfare their latest technological “fix” for the environmental ills that have in recent years befallen the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The largest estuary on the West Coast of the Americas, the Delta is in serious environmental decline–as scientists have carefully documented and which no one disputes at this …
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CONTINUE READINGDelta news roundup
It’s been a busy and discouraging ten days for those interested in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta as either an ecosystem or a water source. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that the return of fall chinook salmon to the Sacramento River hit a record low last year. The Pacific Fishery Management Council released a gloomy preseason …
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CONTINUE READINGA smorgasbord of smelt and salmon news
There have been several developments in the Delta water saga since I posted on the request for relief from water quality standards submitted by the state Department of Water Resources and federal Bureau of Reclamation, and the potential for conflict between the water needs of smelt and of salmon.
CONTINUE READINGPreview of a long dry summer
It’s still the rainy season, but California’s drought is already beginning to affect operation of the state and federal water projects that divert water from the Sacramento and San Joaquin watersheds to serve cities and farms from the Bay Area to Southern California. Yesterday the California Department of Water Resources and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, …
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