DAILY DIGEST, weekend edition: After the Kings River breaks its banks, now it’s the San Joaquin River that might flood; State water chief steps down; Flood plan boosts floodplain; EPA plans to buy out more than 1200 employees this summer; and more ….
In California water news this weekend, Mandatory evacuations ordered after two levee breaches along the Kings River; After the Kings River busts its banks, now it’s the San Joaquin River that might flood; State water chief, the face of the Oroville spillway crisis, steps down; Flood plan boosts floodplain; Wet winter ups the ante for hikers on popular US trail; EPA plans to buy out more than 1200 employees this summer; Hamilton City: Flood-prone town protects itself against waters while letting a river roam; 12 billion gallons of water pour into Lake Tahoe amid this week’s heat wave; Algae in Bay Area lakes: Is it safe to swim?
… ” Read more from the Fresno Bee here: Mandatory evacuations ordered after two levee breaches along the Kings River After the Kings River breaks its banks, now it’s the San Joaquin River that might flood: “Hot weather that’s melting a heavy winter snowfall and filling reservoirs has prompted the National Weather Service to issue a flood advisory for portions of the central San Joaquin Valley until Sunday.
… ” Read more from the Fresno Bee here: After the Kings River breaks its banks, now it’s the San Joaquin River that might flood State water chief, the face of the Oroville spillway crisis, steps down: “Bill Croyle, who took over as chief of the California Department of Water Resources on the eve of February’s near-catastrophe at Oroville Dam, is retiring from the agency after six months on the job.
While the primary goal of the plan is to improve flood risk management, it emphasizes the integration of ecosystem functions and native habitats into the flood management system, as well as promoting multi-benefit projects.
… ” Read more from the Sacramento Bee here: Flood-prone town protects itself against waters while letting a river roam Without levee work now, Yuba City will be at the mercy of weather, says Supervisor Dan Flores: He writes, “Clearly, anyone willing to come out in the heat of summer to fight for resources to prevent flooding already understands what is at stake, so I’m going to address my remarks to the governor and those in Sacramento who control the budget process.
… ” Read more from the Sacramento Bee here: With recent heat wave, Lake Tahoe reaches maximum level Algae in Bay Area lakes: Is it safe to swim?
But with more water coming in from the High Sierra, dam engineers have a backup plan.
… ” Read more from Estuary News here: Los Angeles drainage goes native Orange County water agency asks Governor Brown to prioritize water pollution cleanup: “Officials with the Orange County Water District this week urged California Gov.
Maven’s Notebook where California water news never goes home for the weekend

Corps’ drought plan threatens promised supply of water.
1 / 2 COLEHARBOR, N.D. — Steve Knorr is absolutely sure he’ll get 24 inches of water on his crops this year.
He has millions invested, each dollar a reason to be concerned about an emerging plan by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that could imperil his access to canal water during an extreme drought, just when he needs it most.
The problem the corps hopes to forestall is what could happen when Lake Sakakawea drops extremely low in a drought while Lake Audubon remains at its standard operating pool.
All that pressure on one side of the embankment unanswered from the other side could lead to embankment failure, says Matt Nelson, an engineer from the corps’ water control section.
Nelson said the low water did allow the corps to observe the performance of 13 relief wells — installed at the time of construction on the Lake Sakakawea side in the 1950s precisely to relieve that unequal water pressure.
If the embankment is performing well under that severe loading, we could go to a higher number or it could go the other way," Nelson said.
"Here we are 70 years later, and we’re just learning that the relief wells don’t work.
Kip Kovar, Garrison Diversion Unit engineer, says the standard summer elevation of 1,847 feet in Lake Audubon is required to maintain flow through the canal headworks and push the water down the canal.
This way, water managers can plan.

“This drought emergency is over.
And now a Tesla approached, and as it came near the turtle it swerved to hit it.
Generations emerged from that Escalade, with dusty limbs and weary eyes and stories that the men in the cities wouldn’t believe even if they heard, stories the family knew were better kept to themselves.
“Now, I’m a proud man,” he said.
A trash can was on fire.
It was for art, the man said, with a confidence that almost made it so.
Some things a man keeps to himself.
“You here for the usual?” Jacquie thumbed through her wallet, touching each card with something like reverence, or maybe fear, or more than likely both.
It would have to be enough, she told herself, ignoring the shame and fear that rose in her throat, threatening to choke her.
Tom knelt in the dust in front of his almond tree, stroking its wilted limb with reverence.

NYCFC breaks Red Bull Arena drought with big derby win.
Even the Red Bulls’ recent U.S. Open Cup victory over NYCFC on this same field offered signs that things were changing.
On Saturday, NYCFC put together its best performance in the history of the series, and although that may not be saying much given the lone win in seven prior meetings, it was the thoroughness of the victory that has to leave Red Bulls coach Jesse Marsch at least a little concerned about just how big the gap in class is between the teams now.
"When we look at all the games that we played against the Red Bulls previous to this year, they always wanted it more than us and that is unacceptable at this level," Vieira said.
Realistically, the match played out exactly how you would expect based on how these teams have looked this year.
There was no sense of panic for the Red Bulls, with Marsch doing his best to try and downplay how thoroughly his team was outplayed on Saturday.
"We were now managing to control certain moments.
Marsch’s recollection of the match may have been a bit generous.
Instead, they are treading water, and have hit the midway point in the season with more losses than wins, and only one victory against a winning team so far this season.
As for the New York rivalry, Saturday’s win isn’t on the level of the Red Bulls’ 7-0 thrashing of NYCFC last year at Yankee Stadium but, if anything, it did show how much things have changed in the year since then.

Kyle Busch aims to shake drought on the road.
The circumstances are different, but the statistic is still the same.
Not completely healed, Busch was still hurting.
Through the season’s first 15 races, Busch, like all of his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates, is disappointingly winless and a playoff spot, while not out of reach, is not a guarantee either.
"That weekend was certainly a good start to our championship run," Busch recalled of his 2015 Sonoma win.
"To go out there and win the race after where we were after Michigan the previous week, it gave us all the confidence that we still had a shot to win the (playoffs).
The victory was Busch’s second at the 12-turn road course.
"Sonoma is a place where you can’t necessarily run 100 percent every lap," Busch said of handling the conditions.
The better you can take care of those tires, and the more you take care of yourself, then the more you take care of your car.
However, Busch is confident his car is fast enough for the race, as he has often been this year with nearly 800 laps led and four top-three finishes.

Drought forces ranchers to sell off cattle.
It’s so hot and dry in northern parts of the U.S. that cattle ranchers are frantically selling off animals to trim their herds as hay crops and pasturelands wither.
There were so many cows, calves and pairs of the animals available for sale at a recent livestock auction in Aberdeen, S.D.
that bidding lasted 15 hours, said Steve Hellwig, the co-owner of Hub City Livestock Auction who chanted the rhythmic repetition of prices until 1:30 a.m.
Sales for the day reached a record 2,480 lots, or more than three times the normal weekly total.
Prices for spring wheat, grown in the area, have soared 16 percent this month as volatility jumped.
While the rush of cattle to auctions probably won’t have an immediate impact on U.S. meat supplies, some of the ranchers who are being forced to sell their animals early or pay more for feed may see their incomes suffer.
The dry conditions spurred the National Farmers Union along with groups from Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota to send a letter to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue this week requesting that land in a federal conservation program be released for emergency grazing or haying.
Some cattle have been sold to ranches in Wyoming and Nebraska, where grazing conditions were more favorable, said Tim Petry, a livestock marketing economist at North Dakota State University.
Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg, on average, expect that 2.08 million cattle were placed in feedlots in May, up 10 percent from a year ago.

They’ve gone 48 years without a Super Bowl and, honestly, I don’t know how many more years it will take to get back.
I thought the Jets had it right when they reached back-to-back AFC Championship Games under Rex Ryan.
The 2009 St. Louis Rams finished 1-15, drafted Sam Bradford with the first pick in 2010 … and still haven’t been to the playoffs.
They built a strong team around him and, by his third season, they were a playoff team.
By his fifth year, they were in the Super Bowl.
The Jets are far, far away from reaching that level.
Best-case scenario: Christian Hackenberg finishes the season entrenched as the starting quarterback and some of the key picks from Mike Maccagnan’s first three drafts establish themselves as ascending starters.
The more likely scenario: They end the year without a clear-cut answer at quarterback, draft one in 2018 and endure another year of growing pains.
The Jets haven’t won the division since 2002.
Not coincidentally, that’s the last time their starting quarterback posted a 100 passer rating — Chad Pennington, 104.2.

Nearly a quarter of all the rivers in England are at risk because of the vast amounts of water being removed for use by farms, businesses and people homes, according to a new report.
Environment Agency figures obtained under freedom of information law by conservation charity WWF showed that 14 per cent of rivers were classed as over-abstracted – “meaning water removed is causing river to drop below levels required to sustain wildlife”.
The group warned Britain had experienced its driest winter and early spring in 20 years and was now in a “particularly perilous” situation with the prospect of further dry weather during the summer.
“If we have a dry summer, our green and pleasant land could become as parched as some of the Mediterranean.
“We have already seen the impacts of a drought in some place with rivers drying up or running low,” Ms Steele said.
“The UK Government must urgently set out an ambitious long-term plan for the environment, including new policies to manage our water resources, a plan to meet our climate change targets and proposals to tackle the illegal wildlife trade and protect our seas.” In a report called Water for Wildlife: Tackling Drought and Unsustainable Abstraction, WWF pointed out that freshwater species had declined globally by 81 per cent since 1970 – “faster than in any other species group”.
In England and Wales, fewer than one in five rivers are classed as in good ecological health,” the report said.
With the pressures of climate change and population growth, action is urgently needed.” It urged the Government to bring forward a promised Water Bill for England and Wales and take “urgent action in the 555 river water bodies where the environmental regulators indicate that abstraction is already damaging habitats and wildlife”.
“This has had a disastrous effect on the recreation sector, as people are just not interested in the area anymore.
“The Environment Agency is working actively with water companies, businesses and farmers to balance the needs of water users and minimise any potential impacts to people, the environment and wildlife.

Knorr draws that precious water from a pump station on the McClusky Canal into a network of underground pipes and 37 pivot systems that sprinkle fresh water across his nearly 4,000 acres between Coleharbor and Turtle Lake.
Because of it, he can count on twice the yield and income to pay down a $2,000-per-acre investment in addition to water and electric fees.
What’s afoot is the corps’ decision to create a first-time plan to protect the dam works’ infrastructure that separates the enormous Lake Sakakawea from its smaller sidekick, Lake Audubon, in a drought scenario.
The two waters are the same, only cleaved by the Snake Creek Embankment that holds the pumping station that sends water from the big lake to the smaller one.
The embankment is a critical causeway that carries four lanes of Highway 83 on its surface, the Canadian Pacific rail and mammoth steel towers that bear electric transmission wires across the water.
The problem the corps hopes to forestall is what could happen when Lake Sakakawea drops extremely low in a drought while Lake Audubon remains at its standard operating pool.
Back in 2005— in hindsight a year that doesn’t seem particularly remarkable for being dry — Lake Sakakawea dropped to an elevation of 1,806 feet.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the embankment, Lake Audubon clocked in at its usual 1,847-foot elevation, the level that’s maintained every summer, all summer to provide water out its rear door into the 73.6-mile McClusky Canal.
That 41-foot difference in elevation from one side to the other was the biggest swing in the lake’s history.
Nelson said the low water did allow the corps to observe the performance of 13 relief wells — installed at the time of construction on the Lake Sakakawea side in the ‘50s precisely to relieve that unequal water pressure.

It’s so hot and dry in northern parts of the U.S. that cattle ranchers are frantically selling off animals to trim their herds as hay crops and pasturelands wither.
There were so many cows, calves and pairs of the animals available for sale at a recent livestock auction in Aberdeen, South Dakota that bidding lasted 15 hours, said Steve Hellwig, the co-owner of Hub City Livestock Auction who chanted the rhythmic repetition of prices until 1:30 a.m.
Sales for the day reached a record 2,480 lots, or more than three times the normal weekly total.
Prices for spring wheat, grown in the area, have soared 16 percent this month as volatility jumped.
“Probably more than 70 percent of the cows that sold would have ended up as hamburger later this year — the drought sped up the liquidation,” Hellwig said.
Emergency Grazing The dry conditions spurred the National Farmers Union along with groups from Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota to send a letter to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue this week requesting that land in a federal conservation program be released for emergency grazing or haying.
About half of South Dakota, two-thirds of North Dakota and a quarter of Montana are in moderate drought or worse, according to U.S. Drought Monitor data as of June 20.
Some cattle have been sold to ranches in Wyoming and Nebraska, where grazing conditions were more favorable, said Tim Petry, a livestock marketing economist at North Dakota State University.
Limited Consumer Impact “Other parts of the country have very excellent conditions, so it’s likely they have been selling fewer cows because there’s herd rebuilding,” Petry said.
“So far, it really hasn’t increased beef production to affect the consumer at all.” The USDA’s monthly cattle-on-feed report on Friday may give the market a first indication of the number of animals being sold.