Central valley tour slideshow

The Water Education Foundation’s
Central valley tour

This is an exclusiveAquafornia presentation
For the latest in California water news,
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Aquafornia is proudly affiliated with the Water Education Foundation.
Visit them on the web at www.watereducation.org.

When in Bakersfield, go here!
Our three day, two night tour began and ended in Bakersfield.

Our first stop was at the Kern County Water Agency, the State Water Project’s largest agricultural contractor. Our presentation included how water is routed to and from their facilities through the Cross Valley Canal, and how their successful water banking program works.

Next,we traveled out to see the Cross Valley Canal, a 22-mile long canal which connects from the California Aqueduct to Kern County Water Agency’s facilities in Bakersfield.
The canal can operate in both directions, allowing it to capture and convey water supplies in wet years to key groundwater storage areas in the Kern River Fan west of Bakersfield, andin dry years, recover water from the aquifer and return it to the California Aqueduct.

Construction is wrapping up on a project to expand the conveyance capacity of the canal by over 50%. It also included construction of an intertie between the Cross Valley Canal and the Friant-Kern canal.

At the Kern Water Bank, we took a bus tour of the canal and the recharge areas. The water bank is located on the Kern River alluvial fan, an area particularly suitable for water storage.

Water is recharged in the basins when it is plentiful, and recovered when needed through the approximately 80 wells located throughout the banking area.

Diagram by Kern Water Bank Authority
Here is a diagram that shows how the groundwater banking program works.

The Kern Water Bank is capable of storing 1 million acre-feet of water on a long-term basis, and return around 240,000 acre-feet per year, making it the largest direct-recharge water banking project in the world.

Water from the banking project routed to and from the
California Aqueduct at this turnout.

An dining room just for water wonks!
We had lunch at tables set up for us at a pumping station at the water bank, where Kern Water Bank Authority officials were on hand to answer our questions.

After a stop at the Semitopic Water Storage District for a presentation on their facilities, we traveled up to the Terminus Dam.

Behind Terminus Dam is Lake Kaweah.
The dam is an Army Corps of Engineers facility, providing flood control for the Kaweah River as well as irrigation water for downstream water users.

Mark Larsen of the Kaweah Delta Water Conservation District told us about how these innovative fuse gates across the spillway allowed for Lake Kaweah to be expanded without having to raise the dam.

Day 2 began at a citrus farm in the Orange Cove Irrigation District in the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada, an area well suited for citrus ranching.

The OCID has installed a modernized water distribution system which has eliminated losses and allows farmers to control their own water deliveries. Over 70% of the farms in the district are on micro sprinklers (or drip irrigation).

We were shown how a groundwater pump works.

The Orange Cove Irrigation District receives its water from the Friant-Kern canal, and they are one of several entities affected by the San Joaquin River Restoration program.

Then we drove up the Kings River to Pine Flat Dam …

… while Steve Haugen of the
Kings River Conservation District discussed all of the actions they had taken to improve the river’s fishery.

At Friant Dam, we were briefed on dam operations, as well as the proposed Temperance Flat dam and the implementation of the
San Joaquin River Restoration program.

Friant Dam creates the 520,000 acre-foot Millerton Lake, which catches the flow of the San Joaquin River. The reservoir is operated for flood control purposes and to provide irrigation for Central Valley farms.

The Friant-Kern canal delivers water from the dam over 150 miles south to Kern County. Over 85% of the canal is concrete lined.
The smaller Madera canal delivers water north and is about 35 miles long.

While traveling to our next stop farther down the San Joaquin River, Peter Vorster of the Bay Institute and Doug DeFlitch of the Bureau of Reclamation talked to us about the plan to restore the river.

At the Sand Slough diversion point, we heard how seepage in neighboring farm fields is causing problems, and the concern that the river channel cannot carry the full restoration flows.

The San Luis Reservoir is jointly operated by both the State Water Project and the Central Valley Project. It is capable of storing over 2 million acre-feet of water. On the day we visited, it was about 90% full.

Water is pumped up-hill into the reservoir from the O'Neill Forebay which is fed by both the California Aqueduct and the Delta Menota Canal. Water is released back into the forebay when needed to continue downstream for farm irrigation and other uses.
California Aqueduct
O’Neill Forebay
Gates to the California Aqueduct

At the Romero Visitors Center, AraAzhderian of the
San Joaquin River Exchange Contractors explained the purpose of his agency, which was formed to represent four entities that hold riparian and pre-1914 rights to the San Joaquin and Kings River water. When Friant Dam was built, these contractors agreed not to divert the river water, and instead receive deliveries through the Delta Mendota Canal.

Araemphasized that the Exchange Contractors did not give up their rights, and in the event Reclamation cannot continue to make deliveries of the substitute water, they have reserved the right to return to the San Joaquin River to satisfy their historic rights.

On the way to the San Luis National Wildlife Refuge, Scott Lower told us about the Grassland Water District, which is composed of private hunting clubs and other privately owned wetland areas, as well as all or portions of several state and federal refuges. The lands are primarily managed for waterfowl habitat.

The San Luis National Wildlife Refuge Complex consists of nearly 45,000 acres of wetlands, grasslands and riparian habitats, as well as over 90,000 acres of conservation easements on private lands that are managed for the protection and benefit of wildlife. The refuge units are located in the northern San Joaquin Valley in both Merced and Stanislaus Counties.

The Complex is located within the Pacific Flyway, a major route for migrating birds and waterfowl, and constitutes the largest contiguous freshwater wetlands remaining in California.

Dinner that evening was at the “Delta Party Barn”, a historic structure built in 1910 as part of the Miller and Luxcattle empire. Their enterprise was at one time estimated to control 750,000 acres of agricultural land throughout California.

It was the end of a long day, so after dinner, it was off to the hotel in Los Banos for the evening.

Day 3 began at the Panoche Water District. Here on the west side of the Central Valley, a clay layer beneath the soil prevents irrigation water from sinking deep into the ground. If this water is not removed, salt and other minerals will build up, killing the crops and eventually poisoning the land.
Here, Dennis Falaschi of the Panoche Water District is showing us a bobber, which alerts the farmer to rising subsurface water levels in the field.

The water is removed by a system of subsurface drains (or tiles). Dennis showed us a demonstration in an aquarium how this works.
The drain is a perforated flexible plastic tubing, which is buried in a layer of pea gravel. A pump draws the water from the drains.

The drainage water is put in a canal and delivered to the San Joaquin River Improvement Project.

Implemented in 2001, this project consists of 6000 acres which serve 90,000 acres of farmland in the Panoche Water District. This site is located on marginal lands chosen because they had been historically irrigated with saline water and without the benefit of subsurface drainage.

The drainage water is used on salt tolerant crops, such as jose tall wheatgrass, alfalfa, paspalum, pistachios, and pasture grass.

Jose tall wheatgrass is a salt-tolerant crop which can be used for irrigated or dryland pasture, silage, or hay. It is high in protein, low in fiber, and can be fed to beef or dairy herds.

At the project, the drainage water is used to flood-irrigate salt-tolerant crops in an effort to use up as much drainage water as possible. The remaining water will then be treated and the concentrated salts disposed of through solar evaporation or other processes currently in development.

Last year, the San Joaquin River Improvement Project utilized 11,595 acre-feet of drainage water and displaced 2807 pounds of selenium.

The Mendota Pool is the end point of the Delta-Mendota Canal. The Mendota Dam is located at the confluence of the San Joaquin River and Fresno Slough, which is connected to the Kings River.

The pool behind the dam redistributes water to canals that convey water south for agricultural use.

At lunch we heard from Jason Peltier of Westlands Water District. We also saw a presentation by Doug Davis of the Tulare Lake Drainage District about how he is dealing with the saline drainage water using evaporation ponds, as well as creating mitigation environments for migratory birds.

The evidence of salinity was obvious as we traveled the across the valley.

And so were the protest signs.

On the way back to Bakersfield, we were joined on the bus by representatives from the Community Water Center and the Community Equity Initiative , who took us through Alpaugh, an impoverished town of 800 people in Tulare County.
Most of the residents are farmworkers, or work in nearby prisons. Residents are served groundwater that contains naturally occurring arsenic, and their infrastructure is old and dilapidated.

The town received funding to build a new well, but it does not remove the arsenic. They will need to build a treatment facility, or find an alternate supply. But even if they could receive funds for such a treatment plant, they might not be able to afford to run it.

Unfortunately, Alpaugh is not alone. There are at least 220 other disadvantaged, unincorporated communities in the San Joaquin Valley that also lack safe drinking water.
The speakers told us of their efforts to find ways to bring clean water to the residents of these communities.

Doug DeFlitch of the Bureau of Reclamation and Peter Vorster of the Bay Institute have some fun at the Delta Party Barn.
With us on the tour all three days were officials from Department of Water Resources and Bureau of Reclamation, along with Peter Vorster from the Bay Institute. Throughout the tour, they were gave us their various and sometimes conflicting views. However, it was clear from the good natured ribbing that even though these men often sit on opposite sides of the table, they have a mutual respect for each other.

This slideshow represents only a fraction of the information presented to us on the tour. There were many more speakers and they spoke in much greater detailand covered many more issues than what could possibly be included in this presentation. There is so much to learn and this tour is a great way to find out about all the issues facing the Central Valley from a variety of perspectives.

If conferences aren’t for you, or if you just want to get out and see what’s going on out on the ground, consider a
Water Education Foundation tour!
They are fun and informative, and the price includes all your food and lodging. You will have the opportunity to see facilities that aren’t open to the general public, and a chance to hear directly from those on the front lines.
You can check it out all the tours the
Water Education Foundation has available at:
http://www.watereducation.org/toursdoc.asp?id=821

This has been an exclusive
Aquafornia presentation
Visit Aquafornia online and get all the latest news and information on California water:
http://aquafornia.com
Visit the Water Education Foundation website for books, posters, tours and more resources on California water:
http://www.watereducation.org
Thank you for looking!

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Central valley tour slideshow

by Aquafornia on Apr 26, 2010

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Central valley tour slideshow — Presentation Transcript