Case Studies of off-Stream Storage for Water Conservation in Coastal Watersheds of Western North America

Scarcity of water in seasonally or perennially dry regions has created tensions amongst
competing stakeholders throughout history. As human population densities increased
dramatically in Western North America over the last several hundred years – particularly in
coastal areas - tensions over water usage arose anew. Increased density has created new
demands (agricultural, drinking water, sewage, land use) on the limited water available,
and has created new stresses to ecosystems, in general, and fisheries resources, in
particular. Illustrative of these stresses is that in the last 20 years, over 50 populations of
salmon, trout, shrimp, sturgeon and other fish species that use rivers, streams and/or
estuaries have been listed as threatened or endangered under the United States
Endangered Species Act.
The NOAA Restoration Center has begun to address these issues by working with
stakeholders to develop and fund “win – win” solutions to improve fisheries resources as
well as provide water security to the residential and agricultural community. Projects have
included improving in-stream point-of-diversions, adjusting land management practices,
and building small scale, off-stream water storage. This poster will summarize lessons
learned from recent off-stream water storage projects in California and will describe the
importance of restoration of small to mid-scale streams for improving anadromous fish
populations.