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Here’s the weekend wrap-up:

Saturday, accelerated climate change versus the Sierra snowpack was the subject of a blog post at the Record Searchlight, Tahoe’s in trouble says a guest columnist at the Tahoe Daily Tribune, and if you want wine with your salmon, water management is required, says the UC Green blog.  Restore the Delta says Delta Plan = BDCP, and groups met outside Metropolitan headquarters to challenge the agency to support a cost/benefit analysis for a peripheral canal/tunnel.

On Sunday, Stuart Leavenworth at the Sacramento Bee wrote about how rice farmers are worried about losing water from the Delta, the Record Searchlight reported on the completion of the Red Bluff Fish Passage Improvement Project, the Red Bluff Daily News wrote about DFG’s new tactics for salmon survival, and Dan Bacher opined on Brown’s slashing of the budget but support for the BDCP.

LAST WEEK’S TOP STORIES:  Well … in an odd twist of fate, last week’s top story is the “Chunnel” editorial that appears in this morning’s scroll.  How’d that happen, you ask?  I was traveling last week and was working on the blog extra early and somehow I found that article before they stuffed it behind the paywall.  I remember wondering why something was published on Thursday under a “Sunday Insight” column, but the date was current, so I posted it, but soon after, apparently it went behind the paywall.  So, click here for the Chunnel editorial (at last)!  Other top out-clicks: KQED’s fabulous interactive Delta map, the Central Valley Business Times coverage of the congressional leader’s letter to Salazar on the BDCP (as well as the actual letter itself), the news that Joe Grindstaff is retiring, and the EDF’s blog post on how California needs more reliable water deliveries, not more Delta water.

WHAT’S ON THE CALENDAR FOR THIS WEEK: Tuesday is the 2012 State of the Sacramento River Watershed Forum, the Delta Independent Science Board will hold a brown bag seminar on  Ecosystem Services Across Landscapes: Prioritizing Conservation and Assessing Trade-offs, UC Davis will hold a symposium on the Estuarine Ecology of Juvenile Salmonids, and the Bureau of Reclamation will hold another scoping meeting on the remanded BOs for the CVP & the SWP in Los Banos tonight.  On Wednesday, the BDCP Yolo Fish Bypass Enhancement Team will be taking a field trip and the State Water Resources Control Board will hold a public workshop on the UC Davis Report on Nitrate in Groundwater in Sacramento (please note room change to the Brian Sher auditorium).  On Thursday, the Delta Stewardship Council will meet to discuss the sixth and final draft of the Delta Plan, among other things, and later that evening, the Delta Protection Commission will meet.

Have a great week!

From the Water Education Foundation:

“A full-color slideshow detailing California’s watersheds is now featured on Aquafornia, the California Water News Blog. The slideshow is also available on the Foundation’s website under Free Programs and Information.

“California Watersheds: Our Vital Link” highlights the crucial role watersheds play to the daily lives of Californians. Funded by a grant from the California Department of Conservation, the slideshow is packed full of useful information and photographs, maps and web links to help you explore each topic further.

What is a watershed?

Watersheds are all around us. You’re sitting or standing on one right now. A watershed is the area of land that water – rain or melted snow – flows through. That includes water that runs off downhill into a stream, river, lake or ocean. It is a place where people and animals live, and plants and trees grow. All life is dependent on a healthy watershed.

What you will learn:
• How watersheds function and how their overall health impacts all life around it
• What issues threaten watersheds: Land-based pollutants, recreation, development, water quality, high-intensity fire and unhealthy forests
• What’s being done through watershed management to ensure watershed health is maintained and improved
• Where individual projects all over California are making a real difference
• How you can locate the watershed in your area and get involved

FAST FACT:
Breaking the California regions down to a watershed level, the Department of Conservation has identified 190 watersheds. And that doesn’t include sub-watersheds!

View the California Watershed Slideshow Here.

From Capital Public Radio:

“More than a century after the Gold Rush, California is still dealing with the toxic remnants of the mining industry. There are an estimated 47,000 abandoned mines in the state; some of the more heavily polluted sites are located in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Now one small community is taking action. Armed with a half-million dollar federal grant, Nevada City is cleaning up mercury, lead and arsenic that have contaminated its creek and soils.

Nevada City is home to several former industrial gold mines that operated from the gold rush through World War I. But walking through the old mine sites now, with tall oaks and pines stretching overhead and the clear Deer Creek rushing along, it’s hard to believe that there are miles and miles of underground mine workings underneath. … “

Continue reading from Capital Public Radio by clicking here.

From KQED’s Climate Watch:

“In the conclusion of her three part series, “California’s Deadlocked Delta,” KQED science reporter Lauren Sommer explores how climate change will effect the San Francisco Bay-Delta’s already foundering ecosystems and further complicate management of this critical hub of California’s water supply.

For those who know little about the massive estuary an hour east of downtown San Francisco, the Delta is the meeting place of two of the state’s largest river systems, the Sacramento and San Joaquin. Flowing down from Sierra snowfields and lakes, the two rivers converge in this 1600-square-mile tangle of tidal marshes, sloughs and canals. … “

Continue reading from KQED’s Climate Watch by clicking here.

From the Courthouse News Service:

“The South Feather Water and Power Agency ignored evidence that changes in water management may be raising the temperature in the south fork of the Feather River, where threatened species live, water contractors claim in Butte County Court.

State Water Contractors sued the South Feather Water and Power Agency, claiming that relicensing the South Feather Power Project violates the California Environmental Quality Act.

The plaintiff is a nonprofit association of 27 public agencies that buy water from the State Water Project. It claims the defendant agency renewed the license without an environmental impact report, and ignored evidence that releases of water in September, October and drought years violate state law regulating water temperature, according to the complaint. … “

Continue reading from the Courthouse News Service by clicking here.

From the San Francisco Chronicle, this editorial:

“After six years in the making, the blueprint for authorizing a giant canal or tunnel to move water 45 miles around the delta to avoid saltwater intrusions and the fish-unfriendly south delta pumps appears unlikely to win approval. And no wonder: The implied goal – unlimited water for all when resources are limited – is not realistic.

The Bay Delta Conservation Plan set out to meet the “co-equal” goals of conserving habitat for precipitously declining fish species in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and providing a more reliable water supply for farms and cities in Central and Southern California. … “

Continue reading this editorial from the San Francisco Chronicle by clicking here.

From the California Progress Report, this commentary by Conner Everts, Southern California Watershed Alliance, and Adam Scow, Food & Water Watch:

“Last week Food & Water Watch, Southern California Watershed Alliance, and Green LA Coalition challenged the Metropolitan Water District (MWD) for its opposition to an independent cost-benefit analysis of the proposed multibillion-dollar Peripheral Canal or Tunnel project.

Who would get the water and who would pay the bill, which is now estimated to be $20 billion to upwards of $50 billion? MWD opposes an independent cost-benefit analysis. But it’s MWD customers and other water district ratepayers in the southland who would pay the bill.

AB 2421 would require such an analysis. The bill’s fate now rests with Assembly member Felipe Fuentes and Speaker John Perez, who will largely determine whether it advances or dies by May 25 in the Assembly Appropriations Committee. … “

Continue reading from the California Progress Report by clicking here.

From Dan Walters at the Sacramento Bee:

“A major component of California’s crusade against global warming, one started by former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and embraced by successor Jerry Brown, is the legal mandate to have 33 percent of electric power sales from “renewable sources” by 2020.

The latest version of the mandate, signed by Brown last year, defines biomass, thermal, photovoltaic, wind, geothermal, fuel cells with renewable fuels, small hydroelectric projects, digester gases, landfill gases, ocean wave and tidal current generation, ocean thermal, and conversion of municipal solid waste into clean-burning fuel as officially blessed. … “

Continue reading from Dan Walters at the Sacramento Bee by clicking here.

From the Eureka Times-Standard:

“The Salt River project — a $12 million to $16 million restoration project nearly 30 years in the making that Humboldt County Supervisor Jimmy Smith called the biggest ever in Northern California — is being held up by one property owner.

The project seeks to restore the Salt River channel, floodplain and marshland with the intention of restoring pastureland, improving the Ferndale wastewater treatment plant and reintroducing historical salmon runs. … “

Continue reading from the Eureka Times-Standard by clicking here.

From the Eureka Times-Standard:

“The heart of the Humboldt Bay domestic drinking water system, the Ranney Collectors, just received an overhaul, and work on one of its major pipelines on the Samoa Peninsula is about to begin.

Both projects are part of Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District’s $60 million capital improvement plan to ensure its 88,000 customers, which make up 65 percent of the county’s population, will continue to receive drinking water for the next 50-plus years in a cost-effective manner, according to a press release. … “

Continue reading from the Times-Standard by clicking here.

From the Modesto Bee, this editorial:

“Tuesday’s meeting of the Modesto Irrigation District board promises to be another hot one — even though a vote on the proposed sale of water to San Francisco has been postponed. The contract that had been scheduled for a vote this week is being revised — apparently. The MID is being secretive, simply stating on its agenda that there will be a water sale update, with no explanation.

At least one reason for the holdup is that city of Modesto officials have retained an attorney who contends that the MID’s proposed sale to San Francisco would amount to a breach of the MID’s 2005 contract with the city. Modesto buys Tuolumne River Water from the MID that is treated and provides about half of the supply used by homes and businesses. Farmers and the city have been increasingly concerned that San Francisco could end up first in line for water in dry years, with farmers and the city in second place. There also has been growing concern about the length of the proposed contract with San Francisco. … “

Continue reading from the Modesto Bee by clicking here.

SEE ALSO: Social Media and the MID Water Sale, from the Valley Citizen

From the Contra Costa Times:

“The House of Representatives has unanimously approved legislation officials say will help in the cleanup of local groundwater from a harmful industrial chemical.

House members approved an amendment by Rep. Joe Baca, D-San Bernardino, to the National Defense Authorization Act, which orders the U.S. Geological Survey to conduct a study of the perchlorate contaminated plume in the Rialto-Colton water basin.

“I thank my colleagues in the House of Representatives for moving forward this critical amendment that safeguards the health and well-being of families across the Inland Empire,” said Baca. “Every American deserves access to clean, safe drinking water. … “

Continue reading from the Contra Costa Times by clicking here.

From the Los Angeles Times:

“During the heyday of the Salton Sea, when the Hollywood crowd and others came to play in large numbers, this strip of beaches, campsites and fishing spots along the sea’s northern shore was one of California’s most popular parks.

But that was years ago.

The popularity of the recreation area has plummeted in recent decades, and now the area is on a list of parks to be closed because of the state’s financial woes. Unlike other parks slated for closure, this one may never come back, park officials said. … “

Continue reading from the Los Angeles Times by clicking here.

From the GOAT blog at High Country News:

“At some point, the way Colorado River water gets divvied up is going to have to change. As we’ve noted in past writings, the lower basin states of Arizona and Nevada use more water than they’re allowed to under the compact that runs the river. Climate change will likely make droughts worse, and reduce the total amount of water available to states using the river’s water. In preparation for this inevitable need to change the system, the Bureau of Reclamation, which manages the river’s dams and reservoirs — including the giant storage systems of Lakes Mead and Powell, recently took suggestions from the public for new ways to manage the river. …

One of these ideas involves what’s known as a water market. If you follow environmental policy at all, you know it’s become fashionable to look to markets to solve some types of environmental problems. The idea is, when prices are attached to a limited resource (like water or a pollution permit), those who need the resource the most will pay the most for it, and it ends up divvied up in the most efficient way. … “

Continue reading from the GOAT blog by clicking here.

From the Record Searchlight:

“After years of litigation, planning and construction, the pumps for the Fish Passage Improvement Project on the Sacramento River are expected to be fully operating Tuesday.

“It’s certainly a moment to stop and reflect and celebrate,” said Jeff Sutton, general manager of project partner Tehama-Colusa Canal Authority. Test pumping began May 10, which means “we’re delivering water to our growers as we speak,” he said Thursday.

“It’s literally right in the nick of time.” … “

Continue reading from the Record Searchlight by clicking here.