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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.
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Many small community water systems in California’s San Joaquin Valley suffer from polluted wells and financial challenges. To fix these problems, some are moving to connect with a neighboring water system. It’s not an easy process.
Wastewater from the city of Modesto, California, was once dumped into a river. Now, thanks to a new pipeline, it’s helping farmers survive drought and flooding new wetlands for migratory birds.
Some experts are questioning the legality of the Trump administration’s plan to increase water pumping of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, while others are concerned about the consequences for imperiled salmon and other fish.
Eileen Sobeck was recently hired as executive director of California’s powerful State Water Resources Control Board after decades in federal service. Politics in Washington, she says, make this an important time for states to lead on water and climate issues.
Meghan Hertel Interim State Codirector and Director, Land and Water Conservation at Audubon California
John McManus Executive Director, Golden Gate Salmon Association
The Central Valley Project Improvement Act was an ambitious effort toward balanced and sustainable water policy and it holds lessons for today, write Audubon’s Meghan Hertel and Golden Gate Salmon Association’s John McManus.
The state has a long-term plan to clean up nitrate-contaminated groundwater, but farmers say more research is still needed and environmental groups think the proposal isn’t strong enough.
The epicenter of the state’s drinking water catastrophe is in the San Joaquin Valley, where 200,000 people have struggled to obtain clean, safe water for decades.
California agencies released a three-year plan to bring delta smelt back from the brink of extinction, but some of the goals and the overall feasibility of the plan have been questioned.
A bill passed by U.S. House of Representatives seeks to limit predator fish, such as striped bass, in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to aid struggling salmon populations. But scientists say the strategy won’t work.
Previous estimates of groundwater in California’s drought-stricken Central Valley only looked at depths of up to 1,000ft (300m), but a new study says there’s three times as much freshwater at 1,000–3,000ft (300–900m) below ground.
Michael Kiparsky Director, Wheeler Water Institute at U.C. Berkeley Law’s Center for Law
Holly Doremus Faculty Co-Director, U.C. Berkeley Law’s Center for Law
Michael Kiparsky and Holly Doremus of the Wheeler Water Institute at U.C. Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy and the Environment lay out what’s needed for California’s groundwater agencies to successfully manage a critical resource.
Mike Wade Executive Director, California Farm Water Coalition
Mike Wade, executive director of the California Farm Water Coalition, examines why water contractors in the San Joaquin Valley who rely on the Central Valley Project are set to receive only 5 percent of their requested allocation.
Fish need more than just water. Ecologist Jacob Katz says if we just make sure imperiled salmon can find enough food to eat, this could take a lot of pressure off California’s dwindling water supplies.
Satellite data from NASA show that more than half of the world’s major aquifers are in decline – and that those threatened aquifers support major food-producing regions, including California’s Central Valley.
Meghan Hertel Interim State Codirector and Director, Land and Water Conservation at Audubon California
Meghan Hertel, Audubon California’s Working Lands director, writes that often-vilified Central Valley wildlife refuges are still not getting their full federal water allocations.
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