Reservoir Storage & Operations:

Water supply information provided by Sonoma Water (more info here).

How are Russian River reservoirs and water supply recovering from the drought?  

Check out: KQED: Record Lows to Near Brimming: North Bay Reservoirs Stage Remarkable Recovery, 7/10/23

Potter Valley Project Operations

On July 5th, FERC issued a notice of comment period on PG&E’s submitted flow variance. Deadline for filing comments, motions to intervene, and protests is August 4, 2023. See attached.

Russian River Water Forum Updates

The Planning Group held a meeting last week. Recordings and materials will be posted on the website.  (https://russianriverwaterforum.org/)

The Press Democrat ran the PPIC article linked here last week: Press Democrat: Nielsen and Bardeen: Eel River dam debate echoes nationally, 7/16/23

Notice of July 20, 2023 Public Meeting of the Drought Resilience Interagency and Partners (DRIP) Collaborative

The Department of Water Resources established a standing drought and water shortage interagency task force in coordination with the State Water Board and other relevant state agencies to facilitate proactive state planning and coordination for pre-drought planning, emergency response, and post-drought management, consistent with Senate Bill 552 (Chaptered in 2021). The Task Force, called the Drought Resilience Interagency and Partners Collaborative (DRIP Collaborative), serves as a public forum with state and non-state agency members to advance our drought strategies and continue building resilience to the increasingly arid conditions California faces.

INTENDED AUDIENCE: Organizations, communities, government agency staff, and others interested in building drought resilience.

LOGISTICS: There are three options for attending this meeting: (1) In person; (2) Zoom; (3) Webcast Live

(1) In Person Meeting Location, where the public is welcome to observe and share public comments (see agenda below): Sac State Downtown, 304 S Street, Training Room DTN 104 and 105, Sacramento, CA

(2) Remote Participation

Remote participation will be conducted via a Zoom platform. Members of the public who wish to listen and comment remotely during the meeting can do so by joining using the Zoom Webinar registration

(3) Webcast Live The meeting will be webcast live

MEETING MATERIALS: Meeting agenda is included below in this email. For more information on the DRIP Collaborative, please see: https://water.ca.gov/drip. To receive future email notifications about the DRIP Collaborative, please sign up here.

State Water Board Special Meeting: July 26, 2023

The State Water Resources Control Board will be meeting Wednesday,
July 26, 2023, beginning at 9:00 a.m. at the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board Annex Office, Hearing Room, 971 Silver Dollar Avenue, South Lake Tahoe, CA 96150. The in-person meeting will be a special meeting consisting exclusively of a discussion of State Water Board priorities, including accomplishments, workload, and emerging priorities. The discussion will be general. No comment, consideration, or direction will be given on the merits of how to proceed with any specific priority item. Agenda can be found here.

In the press:

• CA Water eNews, July 12, 2023
• Maven's Notebook July 9-14, 2023

• MendoFever: New Water Quality Requirements Proposed for Vineyards in the Russian and Navarro River Watersheds, 7/11/23
• NB Business Journal: New winegrowing region proposed for west Sonoma County, 7/14/23
• Sacramento Bee: California Republicans fighting again to raise the Shasta Dam. Will state law prevent it?, 7/17/23
• The Conversation: Climate change is increasing stress on thousands of aging dams across the US, 7/13/23
• CNBC: When El Niño exacerbates global warming: Record heat, record flooding, record wildfires, 7/15/23
• KGET Bakersfield: When will California experience another drought? Experts aren’t entirely sure, 7/16/23
• CA Water Education Foundation: Various articles on Extreme Weather, 7/14/23
• Nor Cal Water Guest Commentary: Local Actions are Key to Progress in Reaching Groundwater Sustainability, by Paul Gosslin, DWR Deputy Director of Sustainable Groundwater Management, 7/5/23