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Tahoe Truckee Region Water Articles



Image caption: Since the Gold Rush era, land reclamation has cost California 90 percent of its wetlands.
How Land Reclamation Hurts California’s Environment

Since the Gold Rush era, land reclamation projects have helped to build California, but they are also damaging the state’s environment for people, plants and animals by eliminating essential wetlands.

Image caption: How California reclamation districts turned millions of acres of wetlands into fertile agricultural land, starting in the earliest days of the Gold Rush.
Reclamation Districts: Turning ‘Swamps’ Into Farmland

California has used reclamation districts to turn millions of acres of unusable swamps into fertile agricultural land, starting in the earliest days of the Gold Rush. Here’s how it happened.

Kayak’s eye view of Lake Tahoe

Explore a street-view-style tour of Lake Tahoe’s shoreline from EarthViews Conservation Society created by kayaking the lake’s shoreline. This endeavor provides an immersive and detailed journey around Tahoe on the surface and beneath the water. “The Lake Tahoe Shoreline Map …

Image caption: Has the state allowed substandard water quality in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta region?
Feds Investigate California Water Agency for Discrimination

A discrimination complaint filed by Native American tribes and environmental justice groups alleges that California has failed to protect water quality in the Bay-Delta. The EPA is investigating.

Image caption: After an extensive and costly treatment process, sewage may help ease the state’s water crisis.
Sewage Could Be Converted to Drinking Water, State Plans

Waste would undergo extensive treatment and testing before it’s piped directly to taps, providing a new, costly but renewable water supply. The state’s new draft rules are more than a decade in the making.

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2023 Tahoe: State of the Lake Report

The 2023 Tahoe: State of the Lake Report, released by UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center (TERC), reveals significant changes in Lake Tahoe's ecosystem. The report, based on data collected in 2022, highlights unprecedented biological shifts and serves as a …

Image caption: California’s 1,000 megawatts of power from the Colorado River’s Hoover Dam have been in jeopardy.
California To Cut Colorado River Water Use

California will cut use of water from the Colorado River drastically under a new agreement announced by the Biden Administration on May 22. Nevada and Arizona have also agreed to the cuts.

Image caption: Gary Gragg examines buds on one of the mango plants he's growing in the Sacramento Valley.
Mangoes and Agave in the Central Valley?

The future of farming in California is changing as the planet warms, altering the rain and heat patterns that guide which crops are grown where. “We’re adjusting for survival,” one grower said.

Image caption: From nitrates to arsenic to “forever chemicals,” California’s water supply faces a serious pollution threat.
Dirty Water: California Faces a Water Contamination Crisis

Almost one million California residents are forced to drink from contaminated water supplies, or pay for bottled water. Economic inequality makes the crisis worse. What is the state doing to fix it?

Image caption: Withholding a mere 1% of LA's water would protect Mono Lake and millions of birds.
Save Mono Lake Again

A sizeable coalition has called for California's water regulator to take emergency measures to protect Mono Lake and suspend diversions to Los Angeles.

Image caption: DWR’s report on groundwater sustainability plans was illustrated with this photograph of a wheat field irrigated by groundwater in the southern San Joaquin Valley.
DWR Flushes Six Groundwater Plans

The San Joaquin Valley plans, serving low-income Latino communities, were deemed inadequate for preventing dry wells and sinking land.

Image caption: The snow-lined South Fork of the American River on March 3, 2023.
Too Much, Too Early

When warm storms melt snowpack early, reservoir managers must release water to prevent flooding—which sends this precious resource into the ocean.

Image caption: Just because record rains have been falling, the state’s water crisis remains.
What Is Drought? Probably Not What You Think

2023’s torrential rainstorms have eased California's drought conditions. But there’s a lot more to drought than the amount of rain, and this drought isn't over yet.

Keep Tahoe Blue plans environment, education center

Keep Tahoe Blue has plans for a new environment and education center to provide opportunities for the public to learn, appreciate and take part in protecting Lake Tahoe. The project will feature an outdoor amphitheater, native plant educational garden, citizen …

Image caption: Kevin McCarthy (CA-20) is the new House Speaker, but his constituents remain badly short of water.
CNN: Kevin McCarthy AWOL on Central Valley Water Crisis

Kevin McCarthy has reached the top position in the U.S. House, but has still fallen short in addressing the ongoing water crisis in his owndistrict, a new CNN.com report says.

Image caption: Sean de Guzman of the California Department of Water Resources conducts the first snow survey of the 2023 season at Phillips Station in the Sierra Nevada Mountains on Jan. 3.
Is California’s Drought Over?

A dozen days of wet and wild weather haven’t ended the drought, and won't cure the driest period in the West in the past 1,200 years.

Image caption: Lake Oroville, one of California's largest reservoirs, is only 59% of capacity as of Dec. 12 — despite recent rains and snow. The reservoir is shown here in May 2022.
Is California’s Drought Over? Water Providers Predict Shortages

Despite December storms, water supplies remain low in many areas. Some managers expect to impose severe restrictions on their customers.

Help restore Truckee’s watershed

Truckee River Day 2022, hosted by Foriver-Truckee River Watershed Council, is on Oct. 16. For more than 25 years, Truckee residents have gathered with boots, buckets, shovels and smiles to tackle projects to restore our mountain home, including restoring meadows, …

Image caption: Increasing water recycling is one way to increase the state's water supply, a new report says.
Newsom’s New Drought Strategy: Create More Water

Gov. Newsom's calls to reduce water consumption to combat the ongoing drought have fallen short. His new approach? Add more water to the California's supply. A new state report details how to achieve that.

Broken & abandoned in Lake Tahoe: Removing wrecked boats complicated issue

Sunset on Lake Tahoe is breathtaking. I slip off my flipflops. My feet sink into the sandy beach in Kings Beach and I walk down to the edge of the water. Against the shifting orange sky, puffy clouds and lapping …

Featured

Water is a human right under California law, but it doesn’t always work out that way.
Agriculture and Water Shortages in the State’s Breadbasket, Explained
There are many causes contributing to this crisis. And as you may already know, this situation really is nuts.
RCDs look after the land, whether it’s used for grazing, growing, or getting out into nature.
California Dirt
RCDs were created to avoid a repeat of the Dust Bowl. Now they work with landowners to preserve the air, water and natural habitats that sustain us all.
There are more than 300 community service districts in California.
Community Services Districts, Explained
Areas that the county overlooks can form their own local governments.
Just because record rains have been falling, the state’s water crisis remains.
What Is Drought? Probably Not What You Think
Recent torrential rains have helped, but California's drought is a long way from over.
From nitrates to arsenic to “forever chemicals,” California’s water supply faces a serious pollution threat.
Dirty Water: California Faces a Water Contamination Crisis
In a state that declares water a “human right,” more than 2 percent of its residents have no drinkable water.
How California reclamation districts turned millions of acres of wetlands into fertile agricultural land, starting in the earliest days of the Gold Rush.
Reclamation Districts: Turning ‘Swamps’ Into Farmland
From its earliest days as a state, California has been trying to turn marshes into productive land.
Since the Gold Rush era, land reclamation has cost California 90 percent of its wetlands.
How Land Reclamation Hurts California’s Environment
The hidden price tag of “reclaiming” swamps and marshes as usable land.
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