A lot has been said about one of the nation’s first most significant fisheries restoration projects located on the middle reach of Butte Creek. In 1997, Western Canal Water District (WCWD) brought together an unprecedented partnership among agriculture, urban and environmental communities. Led by WCWD, the Butte Creek Fish Passage Improvement Project resulted in the removal of four diversion dams, at least 12 unscreened diversions and restored 25 miles of unimpeded flow for the first time since the 1920s. The $9.5 million project was funded by multiple partners including WCWD, Department of Interior, California Urban Water Agencies through the CALFED Category III and Tracy Pumps Mitigation Fund.

Through consensus-building and cooperation increasing numbers of Salmon are projected to return in Butte Creek and likely in the millions to the Ocean; as evident by the recent approval of the “longest commercial fishing season since 2005.” However, removing barriers, augmenting flow, and screening diversions is not the ultimate solution, there are many contributing factors by “multiple sources” leading to disaster or in this case to an improvement in the future of the salmon runs.

Butte Creek is a rich example of how co-equals goals can be achieved, one watershed at a time. Farmers were able to maintain their diversion and their system was improved for both the fish and irrigating crops. The project forged new relationships and trust that might not otherwise been realized.

Butte Creek, one of only four Sacramento River tributaries with remaining populations of spring-run Chinook salmon, originates in the Jonesville Basin, Lassen National Forest.

What is it that makes people want to live in The Country? If you were raised there, you most likely want to stay. And more and more people that were raised in cities see the appeal of rural living and are seeking refuge away from the city. Is it simply the aesthetic beauty? Is it the interaction with the wildlife that The Country harbors? Or, is it the freedom of wide-open spaces. For the last several decades, there has been an increase in parcels of farm land being split into smaller, one to five acre parcels, in which homes are built. At times, the remaining acreage of these parcels continues to be farmed. Sometimes it is planted in pasture and fenced to bring in a couple of horses. Sometimes it is planted in trees. Sometimes nothing is done with the excess land.

These ranchettes, or weekend farmers as some people call them, also bring challenges for water managers and the farm operations surrounding them. Some of the new neighbors like to ride their their dirt bikes and quads up and down the canal banks. Some want to fish in the neighboring canals, which may seem harmless until you consider the cold, fast moving water that can be very dangerous to children. There also certainly are a lot more people swimming in the canals during the hot summers.
Yet, many of these new neighbors do not like the mosquitoes that surround rice fields, nor the pile of brush from the canal cleanup project that now seems like an eye sore. Some of these folks do not have patience for the farm equipment that must transverse the county roads to get from one job to another, or work that is occurring in the fields early on a Saturday or Sunday morning when the home owners are trying to sleep.

These challenges are a simple fact of rural life in a state with 38 million people. There has been a concerted effort by most counties and cities to deal with the urban-agricultural borders, yet the pressures on these rural areas remains. The need to accommodate the encroachment of the city into rural areas is yet another example of how water districts and farm operations must constantly evolve and change as the environment around them changes. These are just some of the many new and challenging aspects to running a safe, efficient and effective water district and farming operation today.

Video taken by James Morris with the California Rice Commission

Innovative Water Management Award

Joseph Scalmanini

The 2012 recipient of the Northern California Water Association “Innovative Water Management Award” is Joseph C. Scalmanini. Mr. Scalmanini is the President of Luhdorff and Scalmanini, Consulting Engineers in Woodland. Mr. Scalmanini has been on the leading edge of California groundwater issues for the past forty years. He has advised water districts and municipalities throughout California — including the Sacramento Valley — on complex water issues and he has been an expert witness in nearly every major groundwater dispute in California. His understanding of groundwater hydrology and his ability to develop practical and creative solutions to managing our groundwater resources is unparalleled in the state of California. He received the Groundwater Resources Association 2011 “Lifetime Achievement Award” for his dedication to better understanding groundwater resources and for being a pioneer in groundwater management. The Innovative Water Management Award is awarded to an individual who has demonstrated innovation and creativity in advancing water management in the Sacramento Valley.

Will S. Green Award

George Basye

The 2012 recipient of the Will S. Green Award is George Basye. Mr. Basye has been practicing law with Downey, Brand Seymour and Rohwer since 1955, where he has represented water districts, mutual water companies and reclamation districts throughout the Sacramento Valley. Throughout his career, he has been a passionate voice for the Sacramento Valley and a leading proponent for water rights and irrigation in the region. He has a keen sense of the history that has defined the Sacramento Valley and he has shaped many important laws, contracts and policies that have benefited water agencies in the Sacramento Valley. The Will S. Green Award is presented by the Northern California Water Association to an individual who has devoted their life to the promotion and advancement of irrigation in the Sacramento Valley.

As a result, a handful of water leaders in the Sacramento Valley decided it was time to form an organization that represented our interests in Sacramento and Washington D.C., so we began to meet in the evenings at the Yuba County Board of Supervisors Chambers. Word quickly spread throughout the Valley and a growing number of water districts pledged support for this infant association. With the help of John Roberts and the California Rice Industry Association, we modeled our group after this successful entity. Our name was simple – The Northern California Water Association. Our mission was clear – Protect the Water Rights of Northern California. Week after week we would meet and our group began to take shape. We hired a full time Executive Director, rented an office in Sacramento, settled on a dues structure, hired staff and we were on our way.

Although the name is simple, and the mission is clear the issues proved to be very complicated and very political. We quickly found out how many different ways and how many different entities can affect your water rights. The early board of directors spent countless hours at hearings and meetings educating themselves and sharing information with fellow members. We now had a network and we realized that what impacts one district today could affect another tomorrow. We began to speak in one voice. There was never a shortage of opinions, ideas and even arguments, but when we left the boardroom we were united. NCWA, as we became known, learned to be effective in the various water arenas by hiring hard working and passionate staff, being aggressive, and relying on experienced board members and using its resources wisely.

Over the past 20 years we have progressed into a problem solving entity that has never lost sight of its mission and has helped transform the Sacramento Valley into an exceptional place tied together by its water resources. The challenges of the past have forged us into a recognized statewide leader in water issues. If there is a meeting with a roomful of people talking about water issues, the Northern California Water Association has earned a seat at the table.

What’s water use efficiency to you? Is it buying a new “efficient” dishwasher or washing machine? Taking showers with a low flow shower head? Setting your sprinklers to run at times when your lawn will drink it verses evaporating in the hot air? Using water to get the job done and not wasting it, because once it goes down your drain at home or down the sidewalk into a street grate is it lost forever?

What is agricultural water efficiency? All we hear in the news is agricultural verses urban uses. Farmers, just like homeowners, use water to get the job done. Use too much and or too little, your crop suffers. It doesn’t pay to waste water no matter how you use it. Once it goes in the farmer’s drain is it lost forever? No it isn’t.

Water in agricultural serves multiple purposes. Recovered water travels down canals, creeks and drains and is used many times over. On its journey it provides a pool for spring run salmon in Butte Creek or in the winter a home to 600,000 ducks and 200,000 geese in just the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge (SNWR) alone. For people too, over 73,000 visitors use the SNWR auto tours and walking trails to experience this exceptional mosaic of seasonal wetlands, semi-permanent and permanent wetlands, and uplands *. Likewise, pumped groundwater and surface water also migrate into shallow aquifers to be used another day.

This is what agricultural water use efficiency means to me.

Anjanette Shadley Martin
Special Projects Manager, Western Canal Water District

Rice is planted in the Spring (April and May). The flooded fields are a biodiversity bonanza – shorebirds, waterfowl, frogs, snakes, crawfish, red worms, tadpole shrimp, and a ton of visible and nearly invisible bugs. One of my favorite are dragonflies, from the swimming nymphs to the fluttering adults, they spend their whole lives in rice fields.

Harvest happens in the fall. The water is slowly released and the fields dry up so the grain can be collected. After harvest is complete the straw is returned to the soil as a soil amendment – producing humus, organic matter, and eventually fertility and tilth. In addition to rice straw, usually about 200 lbs. of rice per acre remains in the fields after harvest. The rice is there at just the right time as migrating waterfowl and shore birds come to rice country for the winter.

While the straw is decomposing, waterfowl and shore birds comb the rice fields filling themselves with highly nutritious rice and other “good stuff” from the fields. The birds hang out in the rice fields – enjoying the wide open spaces. I’ve heard it said that over 60% of the food waterfowl eat while migrating comes from rice fields in the Sacramento Valley.

It may take 125 – 170 days for a rice plant to grow, but the rice fields are open for business 24/7 – 365 days a year. Rice grows during the spring, summer, and fall to provide food for people. Then reopen as habitat for the rest of the year for waterfowl and shorebirds. That’s pretty cool.

Well, during winter rainy days, water managers tend to have smiles on their faces. Rainy days are good days, days that fill lakes and recharge groundwater basins. Thoughts on rainy days are of a coming summer with adequate water supplies and low stress levels because there is enough water for everyone.

Then there are those dreaded dry winters. Water managers tend to worry during long winter dry spells. They worry about how they are going to ration what little water that might be available to their district or region next summer. They spend time looking at various weather forecasts trying to mentally bring those desperately needed rain clouds to the watershed that feeds their water supply. And when some rain does come, every drop is cherished even though not enough of those rain drops fall from the sky. Then, after that short spurt of a rain shower, water managers check and recheck lake levels and figure out if there is enough water to make it through the summer. And if there is just enough for this summer, they then start thinking about how little water might be left in storage for next year (also known as “carryover” storage). While some reservoirs have more than one year’s storage, most have just one year’s worth of supply when completely full. This makes those winter rains all the more important.

Walter Cotter
General Manager
Browns Valley Irrigation District