On September 24, 2013, Metropolitan Water District’s Special Committee on the Bay-Delta was updated on the status of the Collaborative Science and Adaptive Management Program (CSAMP) as well as the progress on several near-term Delta habitat restoration and emergency response preparedness projects.
COLLABORATIVE SCIENCE AND ADAPTIVE MANAGEMENT PROGRAM
Brenda Burman, Special Projects Manager for Bay-Delta Initiatives for Metropolitan Water District, gave an update on the Collaborative Science and Adaptive Management Program (CSAMP). “CSAMP is a new way to address the science needs that will inform the biological opinions, both implementation of the current opinions, and the new biological opinions that are being formed,” she said.
Ms. Burman then gave a brief history of the events that led up to establishing the program. The State Water Project and the Central Valley Project operate under biological opinions that were put in place by the Fish and Wildlife Service in 2008 and by the National Marine Fisheries Service in 2009. “They were subject to litigation by a number of parties, but ultimately out of that litigation, the court set deadlines for the services to write new biological opinions,” she said. “With those deadlines on the horizon, the federal agencies approached the court last year and they said, ‘Let’s try something different. Let’s try bringing together the federal agencies, the state agencies, the water users and the NGO communities and let’s try and work together collaboratively, let’s do joint fact finding, let’s look at how we can work on a collaborative robust science program that we can all agree to.’ It was the hope of the federal agencies that if this can be successful, it would stop the cycle of litigation over the biological opinions that has been ongoing for almost 10 years.”
After some convincing, the Court was willing to move forward, but did not give the federal agencies the three years they were looking for, she said. Judge O’Niell instead granted a one year extension and required the federal agencies to report back on the progress at the end of a year. “That was last winter,” said Ms. Burman. “This program started up in June, and the first report to the Court will be in February. That’s when all of the different agencies and water users will go to the court and say, are we making enough progress, can we prove we’re making enough progress, can we move forward.”
The Collaborative Adaptive Management Team began meeting in June. They have developed a mission statement that says the team will “work with a sense of urgency to develop a robust science and adaptive management program that will inform both the implementation of the current biological opinions, including interim operations, and the development of revised biological opinions.”
The Collaborative Science and Adaptive Management Program is composed of two different parts, Ms. Burman explained. The Collaborative Adaptive Management Team is a working team comprised of representatives from NGOs, public water agencies, state and federal agencies. There are also two representatives from the Delta Science Program. “That group is charged with coming up with recommendations and with putting together the plans of what should move forward,” she said. “What they do goes to a policy group,” she said, noting that the policy group is comprised of General Managers and CEOs of water agencies, directors of state agencies, regional directors, and representatives from NGO communities.
In June, the CSAMP effort began with the team defining the mission in June and July, followed by setting priorities. “For 2013, the priorities on the system will be to look at the science surrounding Delta smelt entrainment that should help inform operations in 2014, but also look at some of the larger issues. They will look at fall outflow issues, and they will look at south Delta salmon survival,” said Ms. Burman. “Right now the group is working towards developing key science questions that will need to be addressed as we move forward. The CAMT plans to settle on these questions at the October 8th meeting and bring them to the policy committee.”
Once the key questions are approved, workgroups will be set up work plans will be developed that will include how different hypotheses will be tested and what data and analysis will be needed, she said. The plan is to have that done by December. Between December and February, those groups should continue to work, but also a report will be drafted to be submitted to the court by February 15.
HABITAT RESTORATION PROJECTS
Photo courtesy of DWR
Randall Neudeck, Program Manager for Metropolitan Water District, then gave a presentation on habitat restoration projects that are currently underway in the Delta. He explained that the habitat restoration is required under both the salmonid biological opinion and the Delta smelt biological opinion. “Any near-term habitat restoration that we’re doing under these, we’re hoping to get credited under the long-term BDCP,” he said.
The salmonid biological opinion requires 17,000 to 20,000 acres of seasonal floodplain restoration. The Delta smelt biological opinion requires 8000 acres of tidal marsh habitat. Mr. Neudeck explained that they are looking at areas in the Suisun Marsh, Cache Slough and the bottom part of the Yolo Bypass because these areas are within a foot of the tidal zone. “In the central part of the Delta, it’s upwards of 10 to 30 feet deep, which is actually too deep for tidal restoration,” said Mr. Neudeck.
Mr. Neudeck presented a map of the Suisun Marsh which indicated there is a substantial amount of publicly owned lands, as well as private lands. “The reason we put up this map is to show that there are opportunities to try and emphasize restoration on public lands prior to seeing if there is willing sellers out in the area that want to do habitat restoration,” he said.
Tule Red Restoration Project
The Tule Red restoration project is located within the Suisun Marsh. It is 2000-acre project, of which most of the land is located underneath Grizzly Bay. The portion being restored is about 378 acres. “Now normally, you only do habitat restoration on the land portion, but this is an interesting area here,” said Mr. Neudeck. “The land accretes at a rate of 6 to 10 feet per year, meaning that it moves out into the bay. There’s enough sediment deposition that we’re actually gaining land at 6 to 10 feet a year at this site.”
Metropolitan has been working with the State and Federal Contractors Water Agency and a consultant who are developing designs for dendritic channels, performing water quality monitoring and field surveys, and designing the inlet channel, he said. The environmental documentation should be finished next year with construction to hopefully begin in 2015.
Randall Neudeck also noted that recent fish surveys detected salmon, Delta smelt and longfin smelt in the area.
- Click here for more information on the Tule Red Restoration Project.
Lower Yolo Restoration
The Yolo Bypass is about 60,000 acres located on the west side of Sacramento. The bypass protects Sacramento and other riverside communities from flooding through a system of weirs which divert high flows into the bypass.
The main input to the bypass is through the passive Fremont Weir. When the river reaches a 33.5 foot crest, the water spills into the bypass. The Sacramento Weir, located just north of the city of West Sacramento, can also be opened to divert additional river flows if needed.
The southern part of the bypass has potential for tidal marsh and also seasonal floodplain, said Mr. Nuedeck. “The Delta is food starved in a way,” said Mr. Nuedeck, presenting a USGS chart which compared the food production of the Delta against other estuaries. “You can see that food production is rather low compared to some of the other estuaries, not only in the United States but some parts of the world, so any benefit we can do by increasing food production or bringing salmon or smelt up into an area that produces food like the Yolo Bypass, the better we can do in producing fish.”
The Lower Yolo Restoration Project is located in the middle portion of the Yolo Bypass. Mr. Neudeck said that the property was purchased by Westlands Water District in 2007. The parcel is about 3400 acres; the actual restoration will be about 1200 acres. “The goal is to take this property which is mainly used for cattle grazing, create these dendritic channels or tree like channels in there so you can have daily inundation with the tides,” said Mr. Neudeck. “Some of the dirt that will be excavated to make those channels can be used for levee repair or be temporary stockpiled in the corner of the property.”
You can take a video tour of the property and see more about this in the clip below. Alternatively, you can go to this link and view the segment between 23:30 and 25:34:
The Environmental Impact Report was finalized this year, and no lawsuits were filed on it, which is a good thing, said Mr. Neudeck. Next steps are a property appraisal to purchase the site along with the other state and federal contractors, with construction hoped to begin in the spring of 2014.
- Click here for more information on the Lower Yolo Restoration Project.
Knagg’s Ranch
“The Knaggs Ranch is a project that was a concept of one of the biologists at DWR and some of the rice farmers,” said Mr. Neudeck. “They wanted to see if they could use their land – not sell it but keep it in their ownership – to produce salmon or to make salmon more robust before they get out to the ocean.” In January of 2012, they grew 10,000 smolt on 5 acres; in February of this year, they had 50,000 fish on about 20 acres.
“This is a project to grow salmon, to make them more healthy, more robust so when they get out to the ocean, they have a better chance of survival,” said Mr. Neudeck. “The land is maintained in private ownership; it maintains the flood control opportunities. What I’ve heard some people call this is the four ‘Fs’: fish, feathers, farming, and flood control.”
Mr. Neudeck then played a video of Jacob Katz from the Knagg’s Ranch project thanking Metropolitan for their support. “Your early seed funding enabled us to launch what has become a really important habitat project demonstrating how we can create and manage salmon habitat on floodplains, and the science results that have come out of that are being received with great acclaim … we are clearly demonstrating that we can manage farmland along the Sacramento River as floodplain habitat and it’s good for farming and great for the fish and an really good solution in terms of meeting the habitat conservation requirements coming from the state and feds.”
For more information on the Knaggs Ranch project:
- Click here for an overview of the project from the California Water Foundation.
- Click here for an overview of the first year of the project.
- Click here for more information and a video from the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences.
Fremont Weir Fish Ladder
Mr. Neudeck said that the goal of the Fremont Weir is to try and put a better fish ladder. Currently, the fish ladder is only about 3 to 4 feet wide and is the only opening on a weir that is 2 miles long. “So when fish try and come up on this 2 mile long weir structure, they have to find that little fish inlet … Anything we can do to better that, so fish can go down the system and also find a way out and not get stranded. There is a lot of stranding along this current weir.”
See more about this project here – visuals are essential. Alternatively, you can go to this link and view the segment between 30:23 and 32:10:
“So in summary, these efforts are due to comply with the biological opinion and also to get crediting under the proposed BDCP,” said Mr. Neudeck. “This isn’t just a Met only project; we’re working with DWR, state and federal contractors and others to implement these projects.”
Emergency Response in the Delta
“We all are fairly knowledgeable about Hurricane Katrina in 2005 which flooded New Orleans upwards of 8 feet,” said Mr. Neudeck. “Before Hurricane Katrina hit, the levees could withstand a 1-in-100 to 1-in-200 year event. Afterwards, since they fixed them, the minimum is a 1 -n-200 year event; they can stand up to 1-in-500 in some areas. Now the difference in the Delta is that our levees at best can withstand a 1 in 60 year event, so you can see that the risk in our Delta is a lot worse than the risk that actually happened in Katrina.”
Mr. Neudeck said that the soil types are fairly the same. “Back in 2008, there was a study from the USGS and DWR that showed there is a 62% chance of a major earthquake of 6.7 happening within the next 25 years,” he said. “Since that time, we’ve done a number of studies to find out what that means specifically along the Delta.”
He said they wanted to determine how an earthquake would affect the pathways to get water to the pumps, and if we’re going to put in improvements, where we needed to put those improvements. “What is showed us is yes, a 6.5 earthquake can happen along that specific pathway and if it does, it’s likely to cause ground accelerations of .2 to .3. What that means is that it will cause liquefaction,” he said.
He then showed two videos; the video on the top is from Christchurch, New Zealand which experienced a 5.8 earthquake in soil exactly like the Delta – sandy soil underneath with peat soil above, he said. The video on the bottom is an example of liquefied soil. View the videos below or visit this link and view the segment between 36:00 and 38:35:
“In the Delta, a magnitude of 6.5 earthquake could cause upwards of 20 islands failing, and within a day or so, you would have salt water coming in to fill in these islands from the San Francisco Bay,” he said. “So the goal here is to look at how could you restore at least one of the pathways to provide about 1/3 of our supply to the projects within 6 months, instead of a 3 year outage,” he said, noting that they were considering levee improvements and stockpiling rock throughout the area to cut off some off the side channels in the event of an emergency where the Delta is flooded as well.
Mr. Neudeck said the Department of Water Resources had been doing a lot of work on this, having purchased two sites and leased another, and storing over 240,000 tons of rock. “They are planning on doubling that rock so if it gets down to an emergency, we have more rock than necessary,” he said. “They are putting out the off and on-loading systems; they are getting barge transports out there to ensure that there’s significant ways to transport this to different areas as well. Again we’re only focusing on the middle river right now to as one of the pathways to ensure we can secure that.”
“The goal here is to try and utilize some of the bond funding monies that’s already out there, working with the reclamation district to ensure that we can secure this at least from a major earthquake and to be able to get our water through one of these pathways,” he said.
Pre-1880, the level of peat, liquifieable sands and silts were above water surface elevation. Over the next 130 years, subsidence has occurred; the middle part of the island is the lower part, which is where the peat is the thickest, said Mr. Neudeck. “The peat actually helps in this area of a way to keep in the water as it is seeping down, almost as a way from keeping the water from percolating up. In some cases, you’ll see water coming up and you’ll see these boils that can happen, and the farmers can deal with those, but this peats gets thinner and thinner, you’ll see more and more boils,” he said, noting that there are ways of putting rock on the outside or putting in toe berms to alleviate the problem.
View this portion of the meeting below, or visit this link and view the segment between 39:33 and 41:05.
Mr. Neudeck noted that a recent study done by Dr. Steven Deverall which has not been peer reviewed yet looked at surveys done in 1984 and 2011 and determined that the areas that are vulnerable to seepage in the Delta are starting to increase.
“You talked about stockpiling and getting ready for potential earthquake; the goal is to repair everything within six month,” said Director Keith Lewinger. “When Dr. Sunding was here, he mentioned that they assumed it was going to take one to two years to get the water flowing again, and that makes a big difference in the economic analysis, whether it’s six months or one to two years.”
“A number of things are at play here,” responded Jeff Kightlinger. “Part of it has to do with how many levees go down. If you have just a few levees go down, obviously the repairs are quicker; when you have a failure of 20, it can be up to multiple years. Now the 6 month emergency pathway that we’re talking and working towards as an emergency goal would only deliver a very limited amount of water, and so it’s not a full system up and running, it’s a triage approach. You probably would be limiting water to urban areas and so you’d still have that economic impact, you probably wouldn’t have full restored capability for several years, but the idea is to get some deliveries up and running in six months while you work on a longer term fix.”
For more information:
- Click here to view the meeting in its entirety.
- Click here for Randall Neudeck’s power point.
