Water Supply
Ensuring enough water for healthy rivers and healthy communities
Barrier Removals in California
In California, at least 80% of the historic spawning and rearing habitat historically available to salmon and steelhead has been blocked by barriers. Our California program focuses on removing obsolete dams and other barriers to provide fish migration and restore more natural river conditions
Bay-Delta Conservation Plan
American Rivers is working to integrate sustainable flood management strategies into the Bay-Delta Conservation Plan to protect Californians, restore native habitat, and enhance the reliability of upstream reservoirs.
Colorado River Basin - Protecting the Flows
Until 1998, the Colorado River stretched all the way from its source in the Rockies to Sea of Cortez. Now, it dries up in the Sonoran Desert miles before it reaches the sea. The Colorado River is the lifeline of the west, fueling economies in seven states where people use the river's water for their material sustenance; millions more use the river itself for recreation.
Colorado River Basin Study Overview
In December 2012, the Bureau of Reclamation released the Colorado River Basin Study, a comprehensive look at projected water shortages and outdated water management in a basin that the American west has drawn heavily on for decades.
Connecting Water Conservation Efforts and Instream Flow Protections in the Colorado River Basin
American Rivers is partnering with the Alliance for Water Efficiency and the Environmental Law Institute on a one-year project exploring the links between water efficiency and instream flows in the Colorado River basin.
Flows in the Southeast
American Rivers is working in targeted states on water supply legislation that will protect the drinking water supply of our communities and the rivers that provide recreational, economic, and quality of life benefits in the face of climate change and population growth. We are focusing our current efforts in North and South Carolina.
Funding Green Infrastructure Solutions
American Rivers helped secure important water infrastructure funding for green infrastructure and water efficiency as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Benefits from these projects have included clean water, reduced flooding and energy use, and cooler temperatures.
How Sustainable Water Strategies Prepare Communities for a Changing Climate
Clean water is essential to our health, our communities, and our lives. Yet our water infrastructure – drinking water, wastewater and stormwater systems, dams and levees – is seriously outdated. In addition, we have degraded much of our essential natural infrastructure – forests, streams, wetlands, and floodplains. Global warming will worsen the situation, as rising temperatures, increased water demands, extended droughts, and intense storms strain our water supplies, flood our communities and pollute our waterways.
Innovative Water Management in the Northwest
The Northwest’s magnificent rivers are the lifeblood of natural ecosystems and human communities. We cannot take our rivers and fresh water for granted. Climate change, population growth, and the increasing value of water as a marketable commodity have led to calls for new water supply reservoirs and more water withdrawals from rivers, both of which can devastate river ecosystems.
Protecting the Little River, NC: Sustainable Water Supply vs. New Reservoir
Wake County and the City of Raleigh have proposed a new reservoir on the Little River.
Restoring Savannah River Shoals: Two States, a Canal and a Redhorse
American Rivers is working to improve the health of the Savannah River’s Augusta Shoals. We successfully negotiated a new agreement with the City of Augusta, Georgia and the South Carolina Coastal Conservation League (SCCCL) to improve natural water flows from upstream dams.
Restoring the Health of Georgia’s Flint River
Georgia’s Flint River is one of only 40 rivers left in the United States that flow for more than 200 miles undammed, and American Rivers intends to keep the Flint that way. Rising from humble origins just south of Atlanta – the river’s headwater streams actually flow out of pipes buried beneath the world’s busiest airport, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International – the Flint quickly becomes a water supply source for communities in the southern part of the Atlanta metropolitan area and downstream throughout west-central Georgia.
Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta
American Rivers is working to protect and restore the Delta for fish, birds, and people, and to provide sufficient water supply for the people of California through habitat restoration, flood management improvements, among other changes in operation.
Upper Flint River Working Group
Water Efficiency in the Southeast
Water Efficiency in the Southeast Local governments are uniquely positioned to manage municipal water use. American Rivers has been working with communities across the Southeast to adopt policies that increase water efficiency and decrease water waste.
Weathering Change: Policy Reforms that Cost Less and Make Communities Safer
Many federal policies still encourage the same backward-looking water management approaches that didn’t work in the past and are even less suited to the future. This report shared 10 reforms that showcase teh best ways we can change federal policies and embrace a forward-looking approach to water managemente
Yakima Basin Conservation Campaign
American Rivers is working with the Yakama Indian Nation and conservation partners at the National Wildlife Federation, The Wilderness Society, Trout Unlimited, and others to negotiate a comprehensive package of large scale fish passage, habitat restoration and protection, and water management improvements to restore abundant Yakima River salmon and steelhead in a way that earns the lasting support of the Yakama Nation, local farmers, and local communities.
