Energy Down the Drain. The Hidden Costs of California's Water Supply

Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) | August 2nd, 2004

California has been through its share of scorching droughts and energy shortages, but many residents of the western United States may not realize the close con- n

California has been through its share of scorching droughts and energy shortages, but many residents of the western United States may not realize the close con- nections between water and power resources. Water utilities use large amounts of energy to treat and deliver water. Even after utilities deliver water, consumers burn more energy to heat, cool, and use the water. The California State Water Project is the largest single user of energy in California. In the process of delivering water from the San Francisco Bay-Delta to Southern California, the project uses 2 to 3 percent of all electricity consumed in the state. The State Water Project burns energy pumping water 2,000 feet over the Tehachapi Mountains—the highest lift of any water system in the world. The amount of energy used to deliver that water to residential customers in Southern California is equivalent to approximately one-third of the total average household electric use in the region. Ninety percent of all electricity used on farms is devoted to pumping groundwater for irrigation.

Energy production and water savings from floating solar photovoltaics on global reservoirs

Nature Portfolio (Springer Nature) | March 13th, 2023

Growing global energy use and the adoption of sustainability goals to limit carbon emissions from fossil fuel burning are increasing the demand for clean energy, includin

Growing global energy use and the adoption of sustainability goals to limit carbon emissions from fossil fuel burning are increasing the demand for clean energy, including solar. Floating photovoltaic (FPV) systems on reservoirs are advantageous over traditional ground-mounted solar systems in terms of land conservation, efficiency improvement and water loss reduction. Here, based on multiple reservoir databases and a realistic climate-driven photovoltaic system simulation, we estimate the practical potential electricity generation for FPV systems with a 30% coverage on 114,555 global reservoirs is 9,434 ± 29 TWh yr−1. Considering the proximity of most reservoirs to population centres and the potential to develop dedicated local power systems, we find that 6,256 communities and/or cities in 124 countries, including 154 metropolises, could be self-sufficient with local FPV plants. Also beneficial to FPV worldwide is that the reduced annual evaporation could conserve 106 ± 1 km3 of water. Our analysis points to the huge potential of FPV systems on reservoirs, but additional studies are needed to assess the potential long-term consequences of large systems.

Engineer’s Report for the North Fork Kings Groundwater Sustainability Agency: Proposition 218 Procedures for Benefit Assessments

North Fork Kings Groundwater Sustainability Agency (NFKGSA) | January 15th, 2018

The North Fork Kings Groundwater Sustainability Agency (NFKGSA or Agency) recently formed with the primary purpose of compliance with the Sustainable Groundwater

The North Fork Kings Groundwater Sustainability Agency (NFKGSA or Agency) recently formed with the primary purpose of compliance with the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA). As a Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA), the Agency may develop, adopt, and implement a Groundwater Sustainability Plan (GSP) for sustainable management of groundwater for that portion of the Kings Subbasin (Subbasin) underlying the Agency. The newly formed Agency needs to implement an assessment rate structure that is sufficient to fund Agency operations and required activities pursuant to SGMA. The NFKGSA will develop, in coordination with other GSAs in the Kings Subbasin, a GSP that provides for achieving groundwater sustainability in the Kings Subbasin of the San Joaquin Valley Groundwater Basin underlying the Agency by January 2040. SGMA requires that a GSP be submitted to the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) by January 31, 2020 since the Kings Subbasin is considered a high priority, critically overdrafted subbasin. Based on the Agency’s needs, the NFKGSA Board of Directors is requesting landowner approval to levy assessments to generate sufficient revenue to fund both annual Agency operation costs and expenses associated with the development and implementation of a GSP. The annual operational costs have already begun and are used to fund Agency operations and activities required by SGMA, including retaining consulting firms and legal counsel to provide Agency oversight and lead the Agency through the steps for SGMA compliance. Expenses consist of administrative support, GSP development, and GSP implementation, with GSP development occurring over the next several years and GSA administration and GSP implementation anticipated to be on-going expenses. The administrative annual expenses include an assumed annual 3% inflation factor. The assessments are planned to apply equally to all assessable lands within the Agency’s boundaries. The Assessment Roll provided in Attachment D identifies the acreage for each assessable parcel according to the 2017 tax rolls of Fresno County and Attachment E identifies the acreage for each assessable parcel according to the 2017 tax rolls of Kings County. The following table provides an example schedule of the proposed assessments during the next five years that are the subject of this Proposition 218 Engineer’s Report. The actual assessment rate will be set annually by the Board, based on the budget needs, but will not exceed the proposed maximum rate. Assessments will continue beyond Fiscal Year 2022-23, but at this time the assessment rate after this initial five-year period is unknown because the GSP Implementation costs will not be fully determined until the GSP is developed. The projects that will be proposed as part of the GSP implementation to attain sustainability and maintain the threshold levels established in the GSP will likely require supplemental funding and assessments greater than the maximum assessments recommended in this report, and approval by the landowners in a future Proposition 218 election will be required.

Enhancements to EcoAtlas’ CRAM analysis tools: Habitat Development Curves and Ecoregional Cumulative Distribution Function plots (CDFs)

San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI) | April 5th, 2016

Enhancing the Vision for Managing California’s Environmental Information

Delta Stewardship Council (Delta Council) | July 1st, 2015

The Environmental Data Summit, convened under the auspices of the Delta Stewardship Council’s Delta Science Program in June 2014, witnessed remarkable participation fro

The Environmental Data Summit, convened under the auspices of the Delta Stewardship Council’s Delta Science Program in June 2014, witnessed remarkable participation from experts across California, the nation, and even the world. Summit attendees from the public, private, federal, and non-profit sectors shared their views regarding the urgent needs and proposed solutions for California’s data-sharing and data-integration challenges, especially pertaining to the subject of environmental resource management in the era of “big data.” After all, this is a time when our data sources are growing in number, size, and complexity. Yet our ability to manage and analyze such data in service of effective decision-making lags far behind our demonstrated needs. In its review of the sustainability of water and environmental management in the California Bay-Delta, the National Research Council (NRC) found that “only a synthetic, integrated, analytical approach to understanding the effects of suites of environmental factors (stressors) on the ecosystem and its components is likely to provide important insights that can lead to enhancement of the Delta and its species” (National Research Council 2012). The present “silos of data” have resulted in separate and compartmentalized science, impeding our ability to make informed decisions. While resolving data integration challenges will not, by itself, produce better science or better natural resource outcomes, progress in this area will provide a strong foundation for decision-making. Various mandates ranging from the California Water Action Plan to the President’s executive order demanding federal open data policies demonstrate the consensus on the merits of modern data sharing at the scale and function needed to meet today’s challenges. This white paper emerges from the Summit as an instrument to help identify such opportunities to enhance California’s cross-jurisdictional data management. As a resource to policymakers, agency leadership, data managers, and others, this paper articulates some key challenges as well as proven solutions that, with careful and thoughtful coordination, can be implemented to overcome those obstacles. Primarily featured are tools that complement the State’s current investments in technology, recognizing that success depends upon broad and motivated participation from all levels of the public agency domain. This document describes examples, practices, and recommendations that focus on California’s Delta as an opportune example likely to yield meaningful initial results in the face of pressing challenges.  Once proven in the Delta, however, this paper’s recommended innovations would conceivably be applied statewide in subsequent phases.

Enhancing Water Supply through Invasive Plant Removal: A Literature Review of Evapotranspiration Studies on Arundo Donax

Nature Conservancy | February 11th, 2019

Removal of the invasive, non-native plant Arundo donax (Arundo, giant reed) along riparian corridors is being considered by groundwater sustainability agencies

Removal of the invasive, non-native plant Arundo donax (Arundo, giant reed) along riparian corridors is being considered by groundwater sustainability agencies as a potential water savings strategy that could provide co-benefits for groundwater sustainability as well as native ecosystem restoration. Arundo is a fast growing, densely vegetated reed that has purportedly high-water consumption (i.e., transpiration). This paper is intended to help agencies develop estimates of the water supply benefits that could be realized from Arundo removal.

Enlarging Shasta Lake: Total Water Management Strategy for the Central Valley Basin, California

U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) | November 1st, 1978

Enlargement of Shasta Lake, possibly up to three or four times its present size of 4,552,000 acre-feet, is one of the limited number of possibilities for increasing the

Enlargement of Shasta Lake, possibly up to three or four times its present size of 4,552,000 acre-feet, is one of the limited number of possibilities for increasing the future water and hydropower supply for the Central Valley Basin and other areas in California. To compare the costs and impacts of this possibility on the environment and the economy with those of other alternatives would require further appraisal and feasibility studies. There are current overdrafts on ground water in the San Joaquin Valley, a shortage of water in the State Water Project, problems of maintaining water quality in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, and water-related fish resource problems from Shasta through the Delta. The severity of the 1976-77 drought was greatly alleviated by the interim supplies made available from the Federal Central Valley and the State Water Projects. However, in the future, when these projects reach their designed capabilities, these interim supplies will not be available. If studies were begun now, it would probably be a minimum of 20 years before an enlarged Shasta Lake could be placed in operation.

Ensuring the Public Trust

University of California, Davis (UC Davis) | July 1st, 2012

The California Supreme Court's recognition of the public trust doctrine as an integral part of California's water rights system was one of the momentous events in the h

The California Supreme Court's recognition of the public trust doctrine as an integral part of California's water rights system was one of the momentous events in the history of California (if not United States) environmental policy.' The court looked back to the foundational purposes of the public trust to hold that there are limits to the sovereign power to privatize the rights to use the waters of the state, and it looked forward to conclude that prudent development and sustainable use of California's water resources require the state to retain authority to protect the public trust for the benefit of all Californians. The court also defined the public trust as an environmental baseline that both protects the traditional interests of navigation, commerce, and fisheries and embodies the contemporary scientific and popular understanding that there are ecological limits to the diversion and use of water for consumptive purposes. The lessons of National Audubon Society v. Superior Court2 are now a commonplace of water rights law, appearing not just in administrative orders and judicial opinions, but also in standard water rights terms, policy studies, and legislation.

Enterprise Subbasin Groundwater Sustainability Plan

Enterprise Anderson Groundwater Sustainability Agency | January 20th, 2022

This GSP covers all of the 61,300 acres of the Enterprise Subbasin. The GSP describes the current groundwater conditions and hydrogeologic conceptual model, establishes a

This GSP covers all of the 61,300 acres of the Enterprise Subbasin. The GSP describes the current groundwater conditions and hydrogeologic conceptual model, establishes a water budget, outlines local sustainable management criteria (SMC or SMCs), and describes projects and programs for maintaining sustainability through the GSP planning and implementation period. Due to size this file has been divided into five parts. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5

Environment California, Inc. v. City of Los Angeles

Holmes, Athey, Cowan & Mermelstein LLP | July 23rd, 2024