Colorado River

Commercial, Industrial, and Institutional Task Force Water Use Best Management Practices Report to the Legislature

California Department of Water Resources (DWR) | October 21st, 2013

This report to Legislature, Commercial, Industrial, and Institutional Task Force Water Use Best Management Practices, identifies specific practices to improve water use e

This report to Legislature, Commercial, Industrial, and Institutional Task Force Water Use Best Management Practices, identifies specific practices to improve water use efficiency and support California’s water supply sustainability. It is intended to provide the CII sectors with information on water-saving technologies and BMPs applicable in the CII sectors. The report is also intended for use as a resource for: • Existing and new businesses, facilities, and institutions • Developers, consultants, and designers • Water service providers • Planning agencies • Policy makers This two-part document is linked below.  The Executive Summary is also linked in the display window. Executive Summary Volume 1 - A Summary Volume 2 - Technical Information

Community estimate of global glacier mass changes from 2000 to 2023

Nature Portfolio (Springer Nature) | February 19th, 2025

Glaciers are indicators of ongoing anthropogenic climate change1. Their melting leads to increased local geohazards2, and impacts marine3 and terrestrial4,5 ecosystems, r

Glaciers are indicators of ongoing anthropogenic climate change1. Their melting leads to increased local geohazards2, and impacts marine3 and terrestrial4,5 ecosystems, regional freshwater resources6, and both global water and energy cycles7,8. Together with the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, glaciers are essential drivers of present9,10 and future11,12,13 sea-level rise. Previous assessments of global glacier mass changes have been hampered by spatial and temporal limitations and the heterogeneity of existing data series14,15,16. Here we show in an intercomparison exercise that glaciers worldwide lost 273 ± 16 gigatonnes in mass annually from 2000 to 2023, with an increase of 36 ± 10% from the first (2000–2011) to the second (2012–2023) half of the period. Since 2000, glaciers have lost between 2% and 39% of their ice regionally and about 5% globally. Glacier mass loss is about 18% larger than the loss from the Greenland Ice Sheet and more than twice that from the Antarctic Ice Sheet17. Our results arise from a scientific community effort to collect, homogenize, combine and analyse glacier mass changes from in situ and remote-sensing observations. Although our estimates are in agreement with findings from previous assessments14,15,16 at a global scale, we found some large regional deviations owing to systematic differences among observation methods. Our results provide a refined baseline for better understanding observational differences and for calibrating model ensembles12,16,18, which will help to narrow projection uncertainty for the twenty-first century11,12,18. Click here for more about the Glacier Mass Balance Intercomparison Exercise 

Concentrations for total dissolved solids, arsenic, boron, fluoride, and nitrite-nitrate for wells sampled in the Mojave Water Agency Management Area

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) | July 1st, 2001

Conjunctive Water Management Resource Management Strategy

California Department of Water Resources (DWR) | April 29th, 2024

Conjunctive water management, also referred to as conjunctive use, is broadly defined as the coordinated and planned use and management of the different sources of water

Conjunctive water management, also referred to as conjunctive use, is broadly defined as the coordinated and planned use and management of the different sources of water in time and space. It is usually focused on surface water and groundwater resources to maximize the availability and reliability of water supplies in a region to meet various management objectives. It is a holistic approach to water resource management that can increase available water for beneficial uses, allow water agencies greater flexibility in scheduling deliveries, and improve drought resiliency (California Department of Water Resources 2003).

Contributions of Climate Change and ENSO Variability to Future Precipitation Extremes Over California

American Geophysical Union (AGU) | June 14th, 2023

Counties Wresting Control: Local Responses to California's Statewide Water Market

University of Denver Water Law Review (UDWLR) | January 1st, 2003

County of San Bernardino Hydrology Manual

San Bernardino County | August 1st, 1986

Cultivating climate resilience in California agriculture: Adaptations to an increasingly volatile water future

National Academy of Sciences (NAS) | July 29th, 2024

Curbing the Colorado

Scientific American | April 1st, 1922

Already, the electrical engineer has shown how the snows of the high Sierras can be transformed into energizing current distributable for hundreds of miles through a S

Already, the electrical engineer has shown how the snows of the high Sierras can be transformed into energizing current distributable for hundreds of miles through a State which i s notably deficient in deposits of power-producing coal. Similarly, this same technicist is busy planning ways by which the widely diversified flow of the second largest of our rivers, the Colorado, may be stabilized and utilized to operate a number of immense, hydroelectric stations. The Colorado River drains a watershed covering fully 250,000 square miles, and in the course of a twelvemonth its run-off  amounts to 16,000,000 acre-feet of water. The States affected by the movement of the Colorado are Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, and California. Normally, the Colorado runs to extremes : in dry seasons it is low and its speed of travel comparatively sluggish, but when the melting snows and rains of the wet months pour their fullness into the far-flung basin the river becomes a raging, torrential stream capable of doing an enormous amount of damage. Uncontrolled, this great waterway is a continual menace to the lives and the property of dwellers in the Imperial Valley and in the adjacent lands, lying below the level of the sea and situated both in the United States and in Mexico.

Dams within Jurisdiction of the State of California

California Department of Water Resources (DWR) | October 31st, 2023