TOP STORY: No. California water agencies want all their water ahead of So. California
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 30, 2007 at 11:47 amHere’s a story that is my top story of the day. With water shortages likely next year, Northern California water agencies are asserting they have a right to their full entitlements, ahead of any allocations to Southern California agencies. Here’s the story from the Antelope Valley Press:
Ripples have occurred among California water agencies after Northern California officials asserted they have a right to a higher percentage of their annual entitlement of water flowing down the California Aqueduct than do water agencies south of them, because the water comes from their area.
Several Northern California members of State Water Contractors Inc., along with members from Yuba City and Butte County, have claimed “rights of origin” to the surface water that furnishes much of the state, including the Antelope Valley, said Antelope Valley-East Kern Water Agency General Manager Russ Fuller.
The Northern California agencies want the state Department of Water Resources to grant them 100% of their entitlement - the amount of water an agency is entitled to buy from the State Water Project every year - regardless of rainfall and other water conditions that cause agencies like AVEK, the Palmdale Water District and the Littlerock Creek Irrigation District to receive only a fraction of their entitlements.
In an October 2006 letter to the Department of Water Resources’ chief counsel, Solano Water Agency General Manager David Okita said Article 18 (a) of the State Water Project Water Supply Contract for the State Water Contractors in the Area of Origin establishes certain rights for water contractors in “an Area of Origin” - the point from which the water begins in Northern California. The “Area of Origin” statute, Okita said, precludes “a reduction in deliveries to such contractor.”
Okita added that the only situation that would alter that clause is if water supplies are “so limited that export contractors (such as AVEK, Palmdale and Littlerock) are allocated no supply and there is not enough” water to meet the Area of Origin agencies’ 100% entitlement.
To read the full text of this story from the Antelope Valley Press, click here.
Aqua Blog Maven thinks next year there is going to be water shortages in the southland - unless it is an unusually wet season, which does not look likely. Meterologists see a La Nina weather pattern - cooler ocean temperatures off the coast of South America, which is generally associated with less precipitation for our area. On top of that, a hearing is scheduled for August 21st for the interim pumping plans for water exports from the Delta, and both plans filed by the DWR and by environmentalists suggest reducing water exports by 1 to 1.5 million acre-feet, virtually guaranteeing that there will be less water from the State Water Project, no matter what. If the Northern California water agencies prevail and receive their full entitlement, it will mean even less water for Southern California.
This is the first I have heard of this story - I will be researching and posting more on this as I find it.
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