Nevada County Water Digest

Water fights have shaped California since its infancy as a state, when its abundance seemed limitless. Now, Californians are being forced to confront limitations, and the state that prides itself on creating the future is now reckoning with its past.

The California Department of Water Resources released an environmental impact report for a tunnel that the state would like to build through the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. The report identifies potential impacts to farmland, tribal remains and endangered species of fish.

Water managers in Pajaro Valley are paying farmers for water they get back into the ground. The move comes as California has grappled with water shortages in recent years.

In preparation for the single-use plastic bottle ban South Lake Tahoe will implement in 2024, Take Care Tahoe has released a new Drink Tahoe Tap Map that lists locations where people can freely fill up reusable water bottles.

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is getting a $100 million loan to help cover a shortfall more than three times as large. The district also may change how it charges its more than 19 million customers for water.

Much of California could get hit by extreme weather conditions this winter. A major storm is due to hit Northern California this week.

The Elmore Desert Ranch gets 22.5 billion gallons of water from the Colorado River, almost as much as is cleared for Scottsdale, Ariz. And that’s just a fraction of the 386.5 billion gallons from the river going to 19 other families in Imperial Valley.

The first reservoir in California in nearly 50 years is now on the fast track for completion.

Intense rains have California out of a drought less than a year after most of the state faced water shortages. A climatologist is urging wise water usage ahead of California’s next drought.

Wet weather and planned cuts by California, Arizona and Nevada averted declines that could have threatened water deliveries and power production—but long-term threats to the Colorado River remain.

Hundreds of wells in Tulare Lake aquifer are at risk of going dry. Today's recommendation is the first time that state officials have moved to crack down on local plans that fail to stop excessive groundwater pumping.

Water providers say rebates for residential areas are costly and residents may refuse to remove their lawns. The rules aim to save enough water for more than a million households a year.

The irrigation bill, which aims to force businesses and institutions to remove their lawns, now goes to the governor.

The joint project brings together interdisciplinary collaborators from the Department of Fisheries Biology and the Department of Native American Studies, as well as local and regional organizations, to assess the viability of bull kelp growth in Humboldt Bay.

At Little Grass Valley Reservoir Recreation Area, the water system for Little Beaver, Running Deer and Red Feather campgrounds on the east side of the reservoir failed yesterday.

A Trump administration plan for delivering more water to Central Valley farmers—bottled up in court by opponents for almost four years—could be returned from legal limbo this summer by House Republicans.

One hundred fifty years of physical and ecological impacts associated with natural resource use, development of major infrastructure and land development, Donner Lake and the larger Middle Truckee River Watershed have actually been listed as impaired for sediment under the Federal Clean Water Act for many years.

Clean Up the Lake, known for its 72-mile cleanup project around the shores of Lake Tahoe, has opened its Environmental Dive Center at Lake Tahoe.

Much has changed in a short time at Nevada Irrigation District. Fewer than five years ago, the water district was laying the groundwork for construction of the controversial Centennial Dam. Now there’s a new general manager and the dam has been back-burnered.

There’s a possible rise of four invasive animals in California—another consequence from downpours last winter and spring. The California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services warned about a potential population surge due to storm-related flooding.

The Department of the Interior announced the distribution of $24,881,884 to the state of California today as part of the $295,582,830 granted this year from the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) to all 50 states, U.S. territories and the District of Columbia.

Raising Shasta Dam to increase its capacity would provide 634,000 more acre-feet of water per year, legislators say. But that assumes there will always be enough precipitation, and the move risks flooding sacred Native American lands and harming local habitats.

After 14 years, the Grass Valley Family Resource Center, located next door to the Grass Valley Charter School, has closed its doors. Full services will continue at locations in Penn Valley on the Ready Springs campus and San Juan Ridge on the Oak Tree campus.

In the magazine Nature, a team of scientists reports that they have detected changes in ocean color that cannot be explained by natural, year-to-year variability alone. These color shifts have occurred over 56 percent of the world’s oceans.

The environmental costs of ending water diversions from Mono Lake to Los Angeles would be mixed: It might help a shore bird habitat but would require changes that increase carbon emissions.

Small fragments of fibers from clothing, packaging and other plastic residue have invaded freshwater lakes and watersheds globally and in alarming quantities, according to new research.

U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) announced $3.1 million in funding she secured for Lake Tahoe in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to prevent and combat the spread of aquatic invasive species in the lake through the Lake Tahoe Aquatic Invasive Species Program.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Montana ruled the U.S. Forest Service can continue to use aerial fire retardant to fight wildfires while waiting on a Clean Water Act permit.

The Town of Truckee Town Council meeting will review a proposal to use funds generated by SB 1 for both the Railyard Mobility Hub Project and the West River Street Streetscape Improvement Project.

The inaugural Lake Tahoe Litter Summit, hosted by nonprofit Clean Up the Lake, brought together 50 of Lake Tahoe's agency leaders and citizens fighting litter in the basin.

The unseasonably warm temperatures at Lake Tahoe have prompted officials to issue a flood warning for a rapidly melting snowpack.

From Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day weekend, SYRCL’s volunteer River Ambassadors educate the community to care for the South Yuba River. The team promotes an ethic of responsible use of the river by speaking with visitors at crossings, beaches, and on trails.