Colorado River Basin Environmental Transfers Scorecard

Stanford University | March 16th, 2017

The Colorado River and its tributaries support more than 35 million people and irrigate more than four million acres of farmland. At the same time, the river supports 30

The Colorado River and its tributaries support more than 35 million people and irrigate more than four million acres of farmland. At the same time, the river supports 30 fish species found nowhere else on earth and inspires millions of visitors and residents alike with its sheer beauty. However, growing water scarcity caused by increased water use, hydrologic variability and climate change loom over all the Colorado River provides. Click here for follow-up report.

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

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

Draft EIR Monterey Amendment to the State Water Project Contracts (Including Kern Water Bank Transfer) and Associated Actions as Part of a Settlement Agreement (Monterey Plus)

California Department of Water Resources (DWR) | April 1st, 2015

The California Department of Water Resources (Department), as the lead agency under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), prepared the environmental impact rep

The California Department of Water Resources (Department), as the lead agency under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), prepared the environmental impact report (EIR) for the Monterey Amendment to the State Water Project Contracts (Including Kern Water Bank Transfer) and Associated Actions as Part of a Settlement Agreement (Monterey Plus) (Monterey Plus EIR). The Department certified the Monterey Plus EIR on February 1, 2010. Several parties challenged the adequacy of the Monterey Plus EIR under CEQA. In 2014, the Monterey Plus EIR was found by the Sacramento County Superior Court (Court) to comply with CEQA in all aspects except with respect to the development, use, and operation of the Kern Water Bank (KWB). The Court specified that the Department is to correct the deficiencies and recertify the EIR without reopening the non-defective portions of the EIR. Upon recertification, only those portions of the Revised EIR (REIR) that are new or changed shall be subject to challenge under CEQA by petitioners or other interested parties. For these reasons, the Department has developed this three-volume Monterey Plus Draft Revised EIR. Document A1 presents all the changes to the Monterey Plus EIR made as a result of the Department’s reanalysis of the Kern Fan Element (KFE) property transfer and new analysis of the KWB development and continued use and operation.  Since DWR decertified the Monterey Plus EIR, pursuant to the Court’s order, the Revised EIR also includes, without modification, the 2007 Draft EIR (Document B, including Volumes I and II) and the 2010 Final EIR (Document C, including Volumes I and II). Together, the three documents constitute the Monterey Plus Draft Revised EIR (Figure P-1). The Draft Revised EIR focuses on the development and continued use and operations of the KWB near Bakersfield. Potentially significant impacts before mitigation were related to groundwater levels and quality, Kern River water quality, the Cross Valley Canal, terrestrial biological resources, erosion, hazardous materials, waterborne disease, cultural and paleontological resources, greenhouse gas emissions, and cumulative impacts.  Potentially significant and unavoidable impacts were related to cumulative growth-related impacts. The Draft Revised EIR identifies hazardous sites on or near KWB Lands that have been remediated.

Efficient Water Use in California: Water Rights, Water Districts, and Water Transfers

Rand Corporation (Rand) | November 13th, 1978

Goal-based water trading expands and diversifies supplies for enhanced resilience

Nature Portfolio (Springer Nature) | February 11th, 2019

In response to rising water scarcity concerns around the world, water utilities are expanding and diversifying their water supply portfolios, including attempting to valu

In response to rising water scarcity concerns around the world, water utilities are expanding and diversifying their water supply portfolios, including attempting to value and reuse every drop throughout the water cycle. This transition is creating new hybrid infrastructure systems that combine centralized and decentralized sources at various scales. To help strategize and manage these emerging hybrid systems, we introduce a flexible goal-based water-trading framework using a combination of regulatory and market incentives. We apply this framework in a simulation of the San Francisco Bay Area, and test the effects of policy parameters, local preferences and collaboration between utilities. Results show that the option of engaging in an open trading scheme can lead to a more strategic and holistic path to higher regional resiliency through increased diversity in water portfolios, at lower costs than if utilities were tasked with pursuing goals independently. Highest benefits are observed when utilities cooperate in the exchange of information, which highlights the importance of transparency and trust operating in conjunction with regulatory and market forces.

Goal-based water trading expands and diversifies supplies for enhanced resilience

Nature Portfolio (Springer Nature) | February 11th, 2019

In response to rising water scarcity concerns around the world, water utilities are expanding and diversifying their water supply portfolios, including attempting to valu

In response to rising water scarcity concerns around the world, water utilities are expanding and diversifying their water supply portfolios, including attempting to value and reuse every drop throughout the water cycle. This transition is creating new hybrid infrastructure systems that combine centralized and decentralized sources at various scales. To help strategize and manage these emerging hybrid systems, we introduce a flexible goal-based water-trading framework using a combination of regulatory and market incentives. We apply this framework in a simulation of the San Francisco Bay Area, and test the effects of policy parameters, local preferences and collaboration between utilities. Results show that the option of engaging in an open trading scheme can lead to a more strategic and holistic path to higher regional resiliency through increased diversity in water portfolios, at lower costs than if utilities were tasked with pursuing goals independently. Highest benefits are observed when utilities cooperate in the exchange of information, which highlights the importance of transparency and trust operating in conjunction with regulatory and market forces.

Groundwater Exchange Pools and Urban Water Supply Sustainability: Modeling Directed and Undirected Networks

American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) | August 1st, 2018

Groundwater basins are important sources of water supply and storage for many cities. Groundwater exchange pools offer additional opportunities for utilizing these

Groundwater basins are important sources of water supply and storage for many cities. Groundwater exchange pools offer additional opportunities for utilizing these common pool resources, but their potential role in urban water management is not clear, and modeling such exchanges can be challenging. This paper presents an analysis of the potential for groundwater basin exchange pools to contribute to urban water supply sustainability. Building on an existing model of urban water management in Los Angeles, the analysis assesses the potential for groundwater exchange pools to reduce scarcity and demonstrates a method for modeling two-way (undirected) flows within a directed-network model using linear programming. Results indicate that exchange pools can help alleviate shortages from operational changes (reduced imported water) in Los Angeles, but providing more parties with access to storage improves their effectiveness. Exchange pools could potentially provide 6–12% of total supplies and reduce shortages as much as 86%. Considerations for organizing exchange pools are discussed to explore policy implications for managing common pool resources. The analytical method for embedding undirected network flows within a larger directed-network model has wide applicability for water resource systems analysis applications, including modeling water markets and interbasin transfers. * U.C. Davis hosts a discussion of the content by the authors at California Water Blog. 

Groundwater Trading as a Tool for Implementing California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act

Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) | December 8th, 2017

Until recently, the State of California lacked comprehensive groundwater management policy. While many basins havebeen adjudicated in court or have adopted voluntary grou

Until recently, the State of California lacked comprehensive groundwater management policy. While many basins havebeen adjudicated in court or have adopted voluntary groundwater management programs following Assembly Bill 3030 and Senate Bill 1938, the vast majority of groundwater use remained unregulated. In 2014, the State Legislature passed the landmark Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) in response to wide-ranging consequences of prolonged and unchecked groundwater pumping. While groundwater serves as an important primary and supplemental water supply for many water users, over-pumping can result in negative consequences, six of which are listed as “undesirable results” under SGMA: chronic aquifer overdraft, reduction of groundwater storage, seawater intrusion, degradation of water quality, land subsidence, and depletion of hydrologically connected surface water. SGMA requires local Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs) to develop and implement Groundwater Sustainability Plans (GSPs) to manage groundwater to avoid such consequences. To meet the requirements of SGMA, GSAs will need to employ a wide range of management tools. This paper focuses on one set of these tools: groundwater trading programs. Trading goes by many different names, including markets, cap and trade, transfers, credit programs, banking, pooling, and exchanges. For the purposes of this paper, we have elected to use the terms “trading” and “trading programs” as the broader categorization of incentive-based management tools. Trading can be executed through a wide range of exchange vehicles, including short- and long-term leases, permanent transfers, and other more advanced or unique arrangements, such as inter-annual water exchanges or dry-year options contracts.

How are Western water districts managing groundwater basins?

California Agriculture (UCANR) | March 13th, 2018

Making the transition from open-access groundwater rights to sustainable groundwater management is a formidable task for newly formed groundwater sustainability age

Making the transition from open-access groundwater rights to sustainable groundwater management is a formidable task for newly formed groundwater sustainability agencies in California. As agencies begin to decide how to make equitable water allocations, how to monitor groundwater use and what mix of supply- and demand-side mechanisms to adopt to satisfy sustainability criteria, the groundwater management strategies in place across other basins in the western United States are worth studying. We surveyed 18 groundwater districts in California and other Western states to identify the management approaches and practices they have instituted. The conclusions we draw suggest a correlative rights framework of water allocation with phase-ins for heavy users; metered pumping; flexible arrangements for trading and carrying over allocations for multiple years; and incentivizing groundwater recharge, including recharge from deep percolation from crops. Rigid formulas for significantly reducing groundwater use in medium- and high-priority basins are likely to have significant negative effects on the regional economy.

Identifying Major Hydrologic Change Drivers in a Highly Managed Transboundary Endorheic Basin: Integrating Hydro-ecological Models and Time-Series Data Mining Techniques

American Geophysical Union (AGU) | August 23rd, 2022

The fragile balance of endorheic lakes in highly managed semi-arid basins with transboundary water issues has been altered by the intertwined effects of global warming an

The fragile balance of endorheic lakes in highly managed semi-arid basins with transboundary water issues has been altered by the intertwined effects of global warming and long-term water mismanagement to support agricultural and industrial demand. The alarming rate of global endorheic lakes’ depletion in recent decades necessitates formulating mitigation strategies for ecosystem restoration. However, detecting and quantifying the relative contribution of causal factors (climate variability and anthropogenic stressors) is challenging. This study developed a diagnostic multivariate framework to identify major hydrologic drivers of lake depletion in a highly managed endorheic basin with a complex water distribution system. The framework integrates the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) simulations with time-series decomposition and clustering methods to identify the major drivers of change. This diagnostic framework was applied to the Salton Sea Transboundary Basin (SSTB), the host of the world's most impaired inland lake. The results showed signs of depletion across the SSTB since late 1998 with no significant changes in climate conditions. The time-series data mining of the SSTB water balance components indicated that decreases in lake tributary inflows (-16.4 Mm3 yr-2) in response to decline in Colorado River inflows, associated with state water transfer agreements, are causing the Salton Sea to shrink, not changes in the irrigation operation as commonly believed. The developed multivariate detection and attribution framework is useful for identifying major drivers of change in coupled natural-human systems.