To manage and conserve water and other resources for the citizens of Butte County

Transcription

1 Butte County Water & Resource Conservation May, 2017 Volume 18, Issue 5 WaterSolutions To manage and conserve water and other resources for the citizens of Butte County Getting to know one of our new Water Commissioners: Matt Tennis On March 14, 2017, the Butte County Board of Supervisors approved the appointment of Matt Tennis to serve on the Butte County Water Commission as an atlarge District Water Member. Matt Tennis graduated from Chico State in December of 1995 with a degree in Speech Communication. During his tenure at CSUC Matt competed in forensics, first in the category of After-Dinner Speaking, later Speech to Entertain, and later, Dramatic Interpretation and Debate. After graduating, Matt moved to Sacramento and immersed himself in California State and national politics. Following a brief internship with Assembly Speaker Curt Pringle, he went to work for Bob Dole s presidential campaign, and subsequently as a writer for then-governor Pete Wilson. Following the Wilson administration, he went into the field of political public relations, representing agricultural and water clients in state government. In 2002 Matt became the State Legislative Director for Associated Builders and Contractors of California, a major statewide association representing approximately 10,000 large construction firms. Matt quit politics in 2009 and moved back home to Chico with his wife, Rebekah, where he works with his father on his family s rice farm and is a third generation farmer. He and Rebekah have also built a vintage letterpress stationery company, printing greeting cards and custom stationery on antique printing presses. They have three adopted children. He serves on the Butte County Farm Bureau Board of Directors, and a former Eagle Scout is an active volunteer and ardent supporter of the Boy Scouts of America. We welcome Matt to the Butte County Water Commission and look forward to working with him on water-related issues. Inside this issue Wettest Year on Record & the Drought... 2 Geophysical Methods... 3 GRA: Ag Fields for Recharge... 4 Groundwater Levels... 5 Lake Oroville Storage... 6 Snow Water Content... 6

2 Wettest Year on Record and the Drought By Paul Gosselin Over the past fifteen years, northern California has experienced dry conditions accentuated by two of the driest years in history. California weather conditions have always been highly variable but the extremes in recent years have been more pronounced. Already this year we have experienced the wettest year on record. On April 13, 2017, precipitation totals for the Northern Sierra 8-Station Index surpassed 1983 as the wettest year on record. The previous record of 88.5 inches was recorded for the entirety of the 1983 Water Year. The region s annual average is 50 inches. Water Years begin on October 1st and end on September 30th. The Department of Water Resources (DWR) has been keeping records on precipitation for over a century. Experts suggest the record-breaking precipitation is attributed to the unusually high number of atmospheric rivers (ARs) that have passed through the region. Atmospheric rivers are long and relatively narrow rivers in the sky laden with moisture that blows in from the Pacific. According to DWR, the west coast experienced 46 ARs since October Nearly one-third of the total were strong (13) or extreme (3) ARs. Another favorable sign for the water supplies is that the snowpack is far above average throughout the Sierra Nevada. DWR will conduct its final snow survey of the season on May 1 at Phillips Station in the Sierra 90 miles east of Sacramento. The 2017 Water Year conditions have also been favorable for other parts of the state. The remarkable precipitation conditions raise a larger question about what this means for the drought. In the short term, the drought water supply crisis has been alleviated for this year. The state has recognized the imminent crisis has lessened and on April 7, 2017, Governor Brown lifted the Drought Emergency Declaration. As Governor Brown lifts the Emergency Declaration, many of the water conservation measures will remain in effect. The question is whether this historic wet year signals the end of the dry period or is a single year event. The concern lies in what we do not know. Although we can be grateful for this year s favorable weather conditions, we must be cautious about what nature will bring next year. Staying vigilant on practical water conservation practices makes sense. The interactive daily statewide hydrologic conditions can be found at 2

3 Geophysical Methods for Sustainable Groundwater Management By Paul Gosselin In October, 2016, the Water in the West program hosted a one-day workshop focusing on the use of geophysical methods that could be help with the implementation of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA). SGMA presents a significant step forward in groundwater management in California by requiring local agencies to develop groundwater sustainability plans (GSPs) to achieve sustainable groundwater management within 20 years of plan implementation. As part of plan development, agencies will need to characterize regional geology, including the lateral basin boundaries and the physical properties of principle aquifers and aquitards in the basin (California Code of Regulations (CCR) (b)(1-4)); develop robust and representative groundwater monitoring networks capable of demonstrating short and long-term trends in basin conditions, including water quality, groundwater levels, and the impacts of groundwater pumping on surface water users (CCR (a)&(c)); and implement management actions, like groundwater recharge, to achieve their basin-wide sustainability goals (CCR (a). Geophysical methods provide a significant opportunity to meet many of these goals. However, the variety and versatility of these methods to inform water management decisions can make it difficult to determine which methods are best suited for different applications. The workshop examined case studies where geophysical methods have been successfully deployed for improved basin characterization, siting and monitoring groundwater recharge facilities, and to monitor groundwater quality and groundwater-surface water interactions. All of these areas are directly applicable to the implementation of groundwater sustainability plans. The summary of the workshop highlighted the potential benefits, challenges and opportunities to improve the use of geophysical methods and potential funding sources. Water in the West is a program of the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment and the Bill Lane Center for the American West. The workshop materials including the presentations can be found at -events/events/geophysical-methods-sustainable-groundwater-management Don t forget to check out SacramentoValley.org s informational videos Measuring Groundwater ( measuring-groundwater/) and What is SGMA? ( what-is-sgma/) featuring our very own Christina Buck. 3

4 PRESENTATION: 4 On-farm recharge (agricultural groundwater banking) is a promising form of managed aquifer recharge where agricultural land is flooded during the winter using surface water to recharge the underlying groundwater. Flooding agricultural fields while the crop is dormant in winter or during fallow periods provides vast land areas connected to irrigation infrastructure that could allow capturing substantial amounts of surface water during wet periods. However, little is known about how much water can be recharged on fields planted with perennial crops like alfalfa or almonds without causing crop injury. The study presented here considers experiments conducted in the Central Valley and the Scott Valley, Siskiyou County between to test the effect of different winter water application amounts (totals of 2-26 ft) and timings (January through April) on the water balance and crop health of established alfalfa stands and mature almond orchards. Using a water balance model and field observed soil moisture data we estimated that the majority of the applied water (>90%) went to deep percolation within less than 48 hours after the winter water application ceased. Further, yield measurements from the two alfalfa fields and two almond orchards indicate no significant yields loss for both crops. In addition, statistical analysis of daily streamflow records from 93 gauges within the Central Valley, CA reveal that high-magnitude (>90thpercentile) flows provide on average 1.6 and 1 million acre-feet in the Sacramento and San Joaquin River basin for ag-recharge. Together these results highlight the opportunity and potential benefits for growers and water districts to implement on-farm recharge as part of their sustainable groundwater management plans.

5 Wet year provides Bump to Groundwater Levels By Christina Buck Drum roll please local spring groundwater levels show an overall average 4.8 foot increase compared to their spring 2016 levels in 116 comparable wells. Although it may sound moderate, this is a significant increase over the changes we ve seen within the past couple of years. In areas with the greatest declines during the dry years (Durham/Dayton, Chico Urban Area, Vina, M&T), groundwater levels are up an average of 6.5 to 8.5 feet. With this historically wet year, we are seeing a nice bump in the groundwater levels. That s the good news. The not so good news is this bump is generally not enough to make up for the cumulative effect of the multiple dry ( , ) and historically dry years contributing to the greatest declines in the Durham, Chico and Vina areas. As a comparison, groundwater levels dropped most severely from spring 2013 to spring The overall average decline that year was 4 feet and 6 to 9 feet in the Durham, Chico and Vina areas. So you could say this historically wet year makes up for the worst of the dry years, but generally speaking, not for the total effects of multiple dry years. Nonetheless, it s certainly a welcome improvement to groundwater conditions. It also confirms we continue to experience great extremes in California hydrology from historically dry to historically wet conditions within just a few years. These big swings in the surface water system lead to moderate annual changes in the groundwater system in Butte County. Managing our water resources with the reality of these extremes is our challenge and opportunity. The spring groundwater level data was measured by the Department of Water Resources Northern Region staff in about 122 wells throughout the valley portion of the County during the week of March 13th. This data will be presented to the Water Advisory and Technical Advisory Committees at their April 27th meeting and to the Water Commission on May 3rd. It is important to remember that each monitoring well tells its own story since they vary in depth, well type (irrigation, domestic, dedicated monitoring wells), location, and surrounding conditions, however spring levels overall also give a big picture view of basin conditions and how they change throughout the County and over time. The two charts summarize change in water surface elevation (WSE) for monitoring wells within each sub-region between spring 2016 and 2017 and between 2011 and 2017 (see map) was the most recent wet year until this 2017 water year. For more detailed information on the monitoring results, check out the summary spreadsheet and alert stage map included in the WAC/TAC packet available from our website ( TAC pdf). Also, the Water Data Library ( waterdatalibrary/) has a useful map tool that allows you to navigate to wells with groundwater level data in your neighborhood if you live in the valley. Call Christina Buck for additional information or with questions, (530)

6 Meeting Schedules Water Commission 5/3/2017, 1:30 p.m. Board of Supervisors Chambers 25 County Center Drive Board of Supervisors 5/9/2017, 9:00 a.m. Board of Supervisors Chambers 25 County Center Drive 5/23/2017, 9:00 a.m. Board of Supervisors Chambers 25 County Center Drive Department of Water & Resource Conservation 308 Nelson Avenue Oroville, CA Phone: Fax: Website: waterandresource Water & Resource Conservation Staff Paul Gosselin, Director Vickie Newlin, Assistant Director Christina Buck, Water Resource Scientist Autum Thomas, Administrative Analyst, Associate Water Commission Kathy Chance Mark Glover DC Jones, Vice-Chair Tod Kimmelshue Mauny Roethler Ryan Schohr David Skinner, Chair Matthew Tennis Ernie Washington