California Subsidence Program - Subsidence and Groundwater Monitoring Project

California Department of Water Resources (DWR) | June 21st, 2024

This Initial Study (IS) and Mitigated Negative Declaration (MND) has been prepared by the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) to address the environmental impa

This Initial Study (IS) and Mitigated Negative Declaration (MND) has been prepared by the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) to address the environmental impacts of the proposed California Aqueduct Subsidence Program (CASP) Subsidence and Groundwater Monitoring Project (proposed project) and to satisfy the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The DWR is planning installation of equipment to collect spatial information at approximately five (5) groundwater and subsidence monitoring stations along the California Aqueduct (Aqueduct) (approximately Mile Posts 213.0L, 230.6L, 259.6L, 271.2L, and 279.1L within the San Joaquin Field Division) (Figure 1). The proposed project would provide real-time data to monitor groundwater levels and other spatial information as they relate to ground subsidence. The data would be used to help inform how subsidence is affecting the Aqueduct and would assist in maintaining infrastructure of the State Water Project (SWP). The proposed project is described in more detail in Chapter 2.

CalSim II Simulation of Historical SWP-CVP Operations Technical Memorandum Report

California Department of Water Resources (DWR) | November 12th, 2003

CalSim is a generalized water resources planning tool developed jointly by the Department of Water Resources (DWR) and the US Bureau of Reclamation Mid-Pacific Region (Re

CalSim is a generalized water resources planning tool developed jointly by the Department of Water Resources (DWR) and the US Bureau of Reclamation Mid-Pacific Region (Reclamation). CalSim II is the application of the CalSim software to model the State Water Project (SWP), the federal Central Valley Project (CVP) and areas tributary to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (Delta). The primary purpose of the CalSim II model is to evaluate the water supply reliability of the CVP and SWP, 1) at current or future levels of development, 2) with and without various assumed future facilities and, 3) with different modes of facilities operations. The purpose of the Historical Operations Study is to evaluate the ability of CalSim-II to represent CVP and SWP operations, in general, and the delivery capability of the projects, in particular, through the monthly simulation of recent historical conditions. The Historical Operations Study is part of a larger CalSim II evaluation process. Other components of the evaluation include a survey of the water community to gather their views and opinions of the model, a model peer review by leading academics and practitioners, and a sensitivity analysis on model inputs. It is hoped that this effort, to assess the quality and limitations of CalSim II, will lead to a wider debate about critical model issues, help direct model development in both the near and long term, and eventually lead to greater public confidence and acceptance of the model.

Central Valley Project and State Water Project Drought Operations Plan and Operational Forecast April 1, 2014 through November 15, 2014

Delta Stewardship Council (Delta Council) | April 8th, 2014

Central Valley Project: Issues and Legislation

Congressional Research Service (CRS) | November 25th, 2019

Climate Change Risks Faced by the California Central Valley Water Resource System

California Energy Commission (CEC) | ?

Observed climate trends and projections of accelerated future change have motivated several studies of the impacts of climate change on water resources management in Cal

Observed climate trends and projections of accelerated future change have motivated several studies of the impacts of climate change on water resources management in California. This paper presents a methodology that improves on previous approaches, revealing fundamental climate change risks to one of the State of California’s key water resource systems — the integrated California Central Valley System (CCVS). By using a bottom-up decision scaling approach, starting with a systematic climate change stress test of the performance of the system to changes in temperature and precipitation, specific vulnerabilities to the system are identified. This study also improves on previous water resource vulnerability analyses by incorporating and evaluating a much wider range of inter-annual precipitation variability than has previously been used. By drawing from the 1,100-year (reconstructed dendrochronology) record of Sacramento and San Joaquin river flows, vulnerabilities to low frequency natural climate variability are analyzed in concert with expected potential climate changes. The results of this analysis provide a comprehensive summary of the sensitivity of the system to climate change. This paper provides results and discussion of select future system performance metrics at 2050. Results indicate that declines in almost every category (e.g., supply, storage, delta outflow) of system performance are likely. The likelihood of severely degraded future performance is especially high for north-of-Delta carryover storage and Delta exports. The results of this study are expected to provide water managers and decision-makers with more actionable science because they provide probabilistic results that can be used in more traditional risk management approaches to planning of climate change adaptation investment decisions.

Collateral Damage: A citizen’s guide to fish kills and habitat degradation at the state and federal water project pumps in the Delta

Bay Institute | March 1st, 2012

Large-scale fish kills and habitat destruction aren’t an unusual occurrence at the giant federal and state pumps that export water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta

Large-scale fish kills and habitat destruction aren’t an unusual occurrence at the giant federal and state pumps that export water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to agribusinesses and cities in the southern half of the state. These events are business as usual. • Every day, between 870 and 61,000 fish – including from 200 to 42,000 native and endangered fishes – are “salvaged” at the pumps. Most die in the process. • On average, over 9 million fish – representing the twenty fish species considered in this report – are “salvaged” each year at the pumps. As many as 15 million fish of all species encountered are “salvaged” each year. • Up to 40% of the total population of the endangered delta smelt and 15% of the endangered winter-run population of Chinook salmon are killed at the pumps in some years. In the first half of 2011, over 8.6 million splittail were salvaged. • Salvage estimates drastically underestimate the problem. The numbers do not factor in the results of “indirect” mortality, as high levels of export pumping disrupt fish migration, shrink the amount of non-lethal habitat available to fish species, and remove vast amounts of biomass, including fish eggs and larvae too small to be screened at the pumps. • Export pumping causes the lower San Joaquin River to flow backwards most of the year and removes the equivalent of 170 railroad boxcars of water – and the accompanying fish, other organisms, and nutrients – from the Delta ecosystem every minute. • Large numbers of fish being entrained is a problem even for species that are not currently listed as “endangered.” Killing large numbers of fish year after year cuts off population growth in response to favorable conditions and can start the species on a downward path to extinction. As the species declines, the population impacts of entrainment become proportionately larger. • Entrainment is a real problem. But the same interests in the Delta export community who claim that it isn’t also back constructing expensive new conveyance facilities such as a peripheral canal or tunnel to solve the problem that they say doesn’t exist.

Comments on and Protest of Temporary Urgency Change Petition Regarding Delta Water Quality

California State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) | February 17th, 2023

Confirmation of Initial Incidental Take for Adult Delta Smelt for the 2018 Water Year

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) | January 4th, 2018

Coordinated Long-Term Operation of the Central Valley Project and State Water Project, Final Environmental Impact Statement

U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) | November 30th, 2015

Critical Assessment of the Delta Smelt Population in the San Francisco Estuary, California

University of California, Davis (UC Davis) | July 1st, 2005