Dear Deeply Readers,
Welcome to the archives of Water Deeply. While we paused regular publication of the site on November 1, 2018, we are happy to serve as an ongoing public resource on water resilience. We hope you’ll enjoy the reporting and analysis that was produced by our dedicated community of editors and contributors.
We continue to produce events and special projects while we explore where the on-site journalism goes next. If you’d like to reach us with feedback or ideas for collaboration you can do so at [email protected].
Alastair Bland is a freelance journalist in San Francisco, CA. He can be reached at [email protected] or via Twitter.
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A bill passed in the U.S. House of Representatives would loosen restrictions on Delta water diversions, halt restoration projects and weaken the Endangered Species Act.
The state’s proposal to build twin tunnels under the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta cleared another hurdle last month, but opponents still believe that better options exist.
June 30 is the state’s deadline for the creation of groundwater sustainability agencies, the first significant step required to implement California’s 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act.
A report from a conservation group working in New Mexico provides an alternative plan to help an overtapped Rio Grande by changing where water is stored in the river system.
Climate change is the single biggest threat to native salmonids in California, according to a new study from California Trout and the University of California, Davis.
It took just one wet year for California’s surface water drought to be erased, but the state’s underground water problems won’t be so easy to fix, explains groundwater expert Thomas Harter of U.C. Davis.
Those pushing to build Sites Reservoir hope funding designated for new water storage in Proposition 1 will help seal the deal, but the project must prove beneficial both to the public and to aquatic ecosystems.
Northern California has become the center of the state’s cannabis-growing industry, with inevitable environmental consequences. Will legalization and new regulations ease its impact or make the situation worse?
Residents are concerned that plans to cut down 14,000 oak trees to make way for grapevines will impact groundwater, fish habitat and climate change mitigation.
The Water Resources Control Board has voted to extend existing conservation regulations, to the chagrin of many water agencies. The decision highlights the complicated nature of the state’s water woes.
California’s drought has hit fish populations hard. Now that heavy rains have returned to the state, it would seem to be a boon for fish, such as salmon, but actually the heavy rainfall has had both positive and negative impacts.
A temperature control device at Shasta Dam is designed to ensure cold water is released downstream for fish, but the device doesn’t appear to work properly when lake levels are low.
Salmon populations are struggling on the West Coast despite laws meant to protect them. Some blame the Endangered Species Act, but others say federal agencies are to blame for failing to enforce regulations.
We asked two experts to answer key questions about California WaterFix, the state-backed plan to build two giant tunnels to divert Sacramento river flows. Here’s what they had to say.
Could Israel’s innovative use of water provide the answer for California and other water-strapped areas of the world? Seth Siegel, author of “Let There Be Water,” believes so. Here’s a look at his findings.
Many farmers contend that the water delivery system that pumps water through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is broken – water to farms and cities must be cut to help fish species, but those species’ numbers are still plummeting. So what’s going on?
Some California farmers will be getting 100 percent of their requested water allocation this year, but others only 5 percent. Here’s a look at why there are such stark differences in allocations, despite a much wetter year, and what this means for farmers and the environment.
In California water users can buy and sell water, but the system for doing that is so bad that most farmers don’t bother. This situation during the drought has renewed calls for the state to revamp its water market. Some experts share their idea of how that should be done.
Figuring out how much water different users in California get is a tricky business. One statistic says that 50 percent of the water captured by our rivers goes to the environment, but here’s a look at what ‘environment’ really means and why the numbers can be misleading.
Is a bottling company about to get unlimited groundwater when locals have been conserving during the drought? Some residents of Mount Shasta City are concerned a loophole in a new groundwater law means that a planned bottling operation by Crystal Geyser could dry up local groundwater wells.
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