Weather and Water Management
www.ca-nv-awwa.org 29
in-stream flows to support critical habitat
for three salmonid species listed under
the Endangered Species Act.
The Russian River watershed experi-ences
some of California’s most variable
weather, including high rates of droughts
and floods. Lake Mendocino, on the
East Fork of the Russian River, with a
water supply storage capacity of up to
111,000 acre-feet, is a critical component
of SCWA’s water supply chain. The res-ervoir
was constructed in the late 1950s,
and in addition to water supply, provides
flood control, recreational opportunities,
and stream flows to maintain local eco-system
health.
The Army Corps controls flood control
releases in accordance with the Lake Men-docino
Water Control Manual (WCM),
which was developed in 1959 and revised
in 1986. SCWA controls releases when
IN THE RUSSIAN RIVER WATERSHED of northern coastal Cal-ifornia,
floods and drought are common. In 2014, for exam-ple,
the region experienced simultaneous drought and flood
emergencies. Because of its extreme weather, the watershed
has one of the highest levels of recurrent federally reimbursed
flood damages.
As a wholesale water supplier to urban areas in two coun-ties,
the Sonoma County Water Agency (SCWA) is responsi-ble
for managing two reservoirs and in-stream flow on the
Russian River. In addition, SCWA provides flood protection
services and operates eight sanitation districts. Atmospheric
rivers (ARs), which are responsible for extreme weather vari-ations
in the region, impact the operations of each of these
service enterprises. Population growth and climate change
are added stressors.
Although SCWA is well versed in managing surface and
groundwater, our planning and operations have typically not
sufficiently accounted for the first phase of the cycle: atmo-spheric
moisture. Rather than continuing to react to weather,
SCWA decided to take a more proactive approach by devel-oping
partnerships with a variety of scientific and water man-agement
agencies. These include NOAA’s (National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration) Office of Atmospheric Re-search
(OAR) and the National Weather Service (NWS), Scripps
Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes (CW3E), and
the California Department of Water Resources (DWR). These
collaborations have brought together atmospheric scientists
and water managers to improve understanding of issues of
mutual interest and focus the direction of research and tech-nology
development to provide relevant and tangible infor-mation
and tools to the water management community. With
climate models consistently predicting increased variability of
precipitation, this will need to be a long-term and continual
effort. The collaborations have evolved into a series of hydro-meteorological
programs that tie together atmospheric sci-ence
and water management.
Hydrometeorological Testbed (HMT). Led by DWR and
NOAA, this program had provided improved observational
capacity of weather and hydrology statewide. Four Atmo-spheric
River Observatories along the California coast, in-cluding
one in Sonoma County, provide information to bet-ter
predict the location and strength of ARs as they approach
landfall. SCWA and NOAA have also entered into a multiyear
memorandum of understanding to collaborate on local HMT
projects aimed at improving observations and forecasting.
The goal is to help SCWA address urban flooding, wastewa-ter
management (such as sanitary sewer overflows) and im-prove
water supply reliability. See hmt.noaa.gov.
San Francisco Bay Area Advanced Quantitative Precipi-tation
Information (AQPI) System. A regional collaboration
of SCWA, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, Santa
Clara Valley Water District, and the Bay Area Flood Protection
Agencies, this program recently received a $19 million grant
from California DWR to install observational equipment (ra-dar,
soil moisture probes, and weather stations) and develop
decision support models to provide tools that will help flood,
water, and wastewater management agencies, emergency
response organizations, and transportation facilities (airports,
roads, ports) respond to ARs and extreme weather events.
NOAA is leading the technical work, supported by CW3E, Col-orado
State University, and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
See scwa.ca.gov/aqpi/
Forecast Informed Reservoir Operations (FIRO). This
federal, state and local agency collaboration led by CW3E and
SCWA is aimed at evaluating and potentially incorporating cur-rent
forecasting skills and watershed parameters (such as soil
moisture) into the operations of Coyote Valley Dam and Lake
Mendocino on the Russian River. Jointly operated by the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers for flood management and SCWA for
water supply, current protocols for reservoir operations have
significantly affected SCWA’s ability to provide a reliable wa-ter
supply. The goal of this demonstration project is to assess
whether current science and technology can be incorporated
into reservoir operations to increase flexibility and adaptive
capacity to meet the needs of water managers for flood man-agement,
water supply, and environmental flows. If viable, the
team will develop operational strategies. If implementation is
found to be not currently viable, the project will focus on re-search
and development to improve forecasting skill and tech-nology.
See cw3e.ucsd.edu/FIRO/. S
Jay Jasperse, Chief Engineer & Director of
Groundwater Management Sonoma County
Water Agency
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