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As we approach summer in this fourth consecutive dry year, there have been significant reductions in water supplies in every part of the Sacramento Valley. The attached infographic shows the surface water supply reductions, by percentage, in every part of the Sacramento Valley. The water rights priority system is generally working as water suppliers have … Continue reading “Planning for a Dry Year in the North State”

June 16, 2015 The Sacramento River Settlement Contractors (SRSC’s), representing approximately 450,000 acres in the western Sacramento Valley, are evaluating the revised Central Valley Project (CVP) operations plan for the remainder of this water year. The SRSC’s continue to be committed to working with the federal and state agencies to manage water resources in the … Continue reading “Statement of Sacramento River Settlement Contractors Revised Sacramento River Operations Plan”

A recent story in the Los Angeles Times deserves repeating. Although the fourth consecutive dry year in California is serious and needs attention, there is no need for panic and we should all guard against over-reaction.
As the story provides: “The crisis has led many to wonder whether the state has lost its historic resilience. But the drama hides reality and for those who have studied California’s long relationship with its water, the drought is serious but hardly a disaster.”

On May 29, the Natomas Mutual Water Company (Natomas) hosted a dedication ceremony for the Pritchard Lake Pumping Plant Replacement that is part of the company’s American Basin Fish Screen and Habitat Improvement Project. A fish screen is designed to allow the diversion of water while protecting salmon and other fish as they migrate in the river. This is the latest fish screen project to be completed, adding to the passage improvement effort for salmon that has been occurring in the Sacramento Valley for more than two decades (see earlier blog on this program). Water diverted by Natomas serves the farmland north of Sacramento, as well as the Natomas Basin Conservancy, which provides important wetlands habitat for birds, giant garter snakes and other animals.