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Coverage from around the state: Governor declares statewide drought; Conserve, officials say; rationing looms next

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 5, 2008 at 7:59 am

First off, from MSNBC:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger warned California of a possible water shortage Tuesday. It is the first statewide drought emergency since 1991 and directs the state to help growers with spot shortages and promotes more aggressive conservation. “It’s definitely a wake-up call,” said Lester Snow, the governor’s point man at the Department of Water Resources.

The worries have been spurred by low snow-pack surveys and diminished water levels in the state’s reservoirs after an extremely dry spring. Snow said the state could end up in a major disaster where people are being laid off and major farms go bankrupt within a year if there is not a sufficient amount of water.

“While we cannot control Mother Nature, what we can control is to prepare ourselves for future dry years,” Schwarzenegger said.

From the Los Angeles Times:

California has no official guidelines for what constitutes a statewide drought, and the governor’s proclamation this early in a dry spell is unusual. The state is in its second dry year. When the last such proclamation was made, in 1991, former Gov. Pete Wilson waited until the fifth dry year. Only a month ago, the state’s meteorologist said California was not in a drought.

Administration officials say the governor is moving proactively because of unique circumstances that could cause the water situation to rapidly deteriorate. They point to a federal court order last summer aimed at protecting endangered smelt in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta that has put a substantial share of the state’s water supply off-limits.

Additionally, state Department of Water Resources Director Lester Snow said odd weather patterns, perhaps related to global warming, are creating problems for the water supply. The snowpack in the Sierra Nevada, which accounts for a large share of the state’s water supply, was at 97% of normal in March. By May it was down to 67% of normal. Warm weather throughout the spring caused the snow to melt quickly, Snow said, with much of the water evaporating instead of running downstream into reservoirs. “The snowpack has been disappearing, and it has not manifest itself as runoff,” Snow said.

From the Sacramento Bee:

Schwarzenegger directed officials to help speed water transfers to areas with the worst shortages, help local water districts with conservation efforts and assist farmers suffering losses. Water Resources appointed two existing employees to coordinate transfers and conservation.

The action falls short, said Mindy McIntyre, water program manager at the Planning and Conservation League. She said the governor should have called for mandatory conservation, stormwater capture or water recycling.

McIntyre’s group supports a bill, now stalled, to require new developments to offset their water demand by funding reuse and conservation elsewhere. “It’s very encouraging the governor is recognizing the importance of water efficiency, and he needs to implement policies that will get us there. Just recognizing it is not enough,” McIntyre said.

Asked why the emergency didn’t warrant forced conservation, Schwarzenegger said he would have been second-guessed no matter what he did. What the declaration does, he said, is tell all Californians “there is a serious drought and … we want everyone to work together to conserve water.”

Lois Wolk, D-Davis, who chairs the Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee, praised Schwarzenegger’s actions. “I think the governor has a bully pulpit, and he uses it effectively. That’s a good thing,” she said. “There’s tremendous support up here (in the Legislature) for responding quickly.”

From Stockton’s Record:

Schwarzenegger has proposed an $11.9 billion water bond, which would pay, among other things, for new reservoirs and perhaps a canal to ship water around the Delta. “We must recognize the severity of this crisis we face,” the governor said Wednesday.

Environmentalists quickly argued that greater emphasis should be placed on conserving water, not storing it or finding new ways to move it around the state. “Energy conservation kept California’s lights on during the last energy crisis,” said Barry Nelson, a water policy expert with the Natural Resources Defense Council. “Water conservation can keep our taps flowing during this drought.”

From the New York Times:

The drought declaration, made when reservoir levels are far higher than they were when Gov. Pete Wilson issued a similar statement in 1991 — is as much a political statement as a practical one. Mr. Schwarzenegger is pressing the Legislature to approve an $11.9 billion water bond as part of the state budget to pay for water storage and to fix the state’s aging water delivery systems.

The governor, a Republican, has said that addressing California’s seemingly omnipresent water shortage is one of his most urgent priorities, but his ideas have not passed muster with the Legislature in the past. “This drought is an urgent reminder of the immediate need to upgrade California’s water infrastructure,” Mr. Schwarzenegger said Wednesday in a prepared statement. “There is no more time to waste because nothing is more vital to protect our economy, our environment and our quality of life.”

A bill to require Californians to cut water use 20 percent recently passed the Assembly. The bill, which requires Senate approval, puts most of the onus on residents, and little on the agriculture industry, underscoring tension over conservation between city dwellers and farmers, who consume most of the state’s water.

Across the state, many districts and municipalities are instituting or considering recycling, rationing and higher fees for excessive use. For instance, Los Angeles officials recently announced their intentions to begin using heavily cleansed sewage to increase drinking water supplies. The East Bay Municipal Utility District and the Long Beach Water Department, serving districts at opposite ends of the state, have made water rationing mandatory.

“Some cities and regions are rationing, some are doing nothing and a group of people are in the middle,” the director of California’s Department of Water Resources, Lester A. Snow, said in a telephone interview. “The governor thought it was important to step out in front and get ahead of this. It is in part to avoid an emergency.”

Extensive coverage from Dan Bacher at IndyBay.org includes this:

The Governor then renewed his call for more dams and conveyance as proposed in his $11.9 billion water bond for water management investments that he claimed will “address population growth, climate change, water supply reliability and environmental needs.” The proposal includes $3.5 billion dedicated to the development of additional storage, including the controversial Sites Dam in the Sacramento Valley and the Temperance Flat Dam on the San Joaquin River that a coalition of recreational fishing groups, commercial fishing organizations, Indian Tribes and environmental groups are opposing.

The Governor said he would prefer to get his infrastructure plan passed through the Legislature, but did not rule out putting it on the ballot as an initiative “if that’s what it takes.”

“But let me tell you, I prefer to do the same thing as we have done successfully in 2006, where we sat down and we negotiated and we worked together and out came $37 billion of infrastructure. And now we are rebuilding our roads and we are building extra classrooms, expanding our universities, building career-tech educational facilities and also fixing our levees,” he said.

He emphasized, ” And I don’t see water as a political issue. I think that there are Democrats that want to drink safe and reliable water and there are Republicans that want to drink safe and reliable water and they want to have a guarantee that they’ll have water 20, 30 years from now. So I think it shouldn’t be a party issue, it should be a people’s issue and it should be an issue that is facing farmers and business people. Ordinary people, everybody is suffering when we have no water. So this is why I think Democrats and Republicans must get together and solve this problem once and for all.”

Traci Sheehan Van Thull, Planning and Conservation League Executive Director, criticized Schwarzenegger for using “outdated strategies” to deal with the water crisis in issuing his executive order. “Governor Schwarzenegger’s drought proclamation offers up a challenge - and an opportunity - for all Californians to conserve water and to work together to find new solutions to solve our water problems,” she said. “Unfortunately the Governor’s executive order relies heavily on outdated strategies that have created the very problems we now seek to solve.”

She encouraged the Governor to embrace measures that will allow California to grow without increasing demand on already over-allocated water sources. “We need strong policies that can decrease water demand, provide climate-resilient water supplies, and truly provide relief for the communities, fisherman, businesses and ecosystems that are suffering from lack of reliable water,” noted Sheehan.

“More and more residents and businesses are facing severe water rationing in California, while water demands and communities continue to grow. While the Governor’s proclamation references the need to provide water for our growth, his executive order relies heavily on the same sources of water that are now in decline,” she said.

She urged the passage of measures such as Assembly Member Krekorian’s Water Efficiency Security Act, co-sponsored by the Planning and Conservation League, that would help prevent rationing by ensuring growing California communities have the water they need without further increasing water demand on over-burdened water resources. However, this measure failed to gain traction in the State Assembly.

“Ensuring that new growth in California will not lead to increased rationing and exacerbate the pending water crisis is a critical step to solving California’s water crisis,” Sheehan said. “The Planning and Conservation League has a 43-year history of working toward ensuring there is enough water for all Californians, and we pledge to work with Governor Schwarzenegger to ensure that California’s water supply meets the needs for all communities, businesses and the environment - for today and the future.”

From the Associated Press:

Conditions could be even worse next year if there is another dry winter, Water Resources Director Lester Snow said. “We need at least above normal in terms of our snowpack, and then we’re still going to be tight,” Snow said. “The idea is to put programs in place now to soften the impact in 2008 and to prepare for a potential third year of drought in 2009.”

California’s population has mushroomed since the last drought, while the water supply has dwindled, he said. An eight-year drought in the Southwest means California can’t depend on Colorado River water to help supply Southern California. And a federal judge’s order last year requires that more Northern California water be left in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to aid declining fish populations.

“We’re suffering the perfect storm, if you will,” said Timothy Quinn, executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies. “The purpose of the governor’s declaration is to send a wake-up call.”

California has never resorted to statewide rationing during droughts, Quinn said.

Worst-hit so far is the San Joaquin Valley, which could soon merit an emergency declaration because of crop damage, Snow said. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said this week it would cut water supplied to Central Valley farms to 40 percent of the amount growers contract for with the federal government. Water deliveries from state reservoirs could drop to 35 percent, Snow said.

That could mean hundreds of acres of crops won’t be planted this year, according to the giant Westlands Water District, which supplies growers who produce about $1 billion worth of crops annually.

The state is exploring ways to send scarce water to farmers for the growing season now while cutting deliveries later, Snow said. “Giving water to the farmers in September doesn’t help the fact that they need it on their tomato crop in June,” Snow said. “It’s not just the tomato crop that you lose. It’s the employment that’s associated with the tomato crop.”

From Stockton’s Record:

San Joaquin County is in decent shape for two reasons:

When little snowmelt drains from the Sierra Nevada, San Joaquin farms and cities can take more water out of the ground - although groundwater aquifers have dropped over the decades. Also, the Stockton East Water District, which supplies the city and east-side farms, gets its water from two foothill reservoirs. This allows greater flexibility in storing water.

Renewed talk of a peripheral canal, however, concerns local officials. A canal “does nothing to yield new water for the state,” said Mel Lytle, water resources coordinator for the county. Instead, water managers should try to harness the trillions of gallons of fresh water that flow through the Golden Gate to the ocean each year, he said. “We have to be able to take advantage of those flood flows when they’re here,” Lytle said.

The Santa Rosa Press Democrat says for North Coast residents, it’s largely a symbolic move:

Local water officials said the declaration, while largely symbolic for the North Coast, at least will highlight the need for conservation throughout the state. “If anything it’s going to draw more attention to the fact that it’s not just our area,” said Brad Sherwood, a spokesman for the Sonoma County Water Agency.

The water agency already is asking water users to conserve at about the same level as last summer, when such efforts led to a 20 percent drop in water use. As well, officials said, the declaration may help spur state aid for new projects that could conserve water and energy.

From Riverside’s Press-Enterprise:

Celeste Cantu, general manager of the Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority, said she hopes the proclamation will lead to funding being funneled to the region. She cites projects that stretch supplies by treating wastewater for landscaping and that collect rainfall to store underground for later use.

The Santa Ana Watershed Project is a joint powers authority whose members include three of the largest Inland water agencies.

Cantu also said she hoped the governor’s message would reach the public because the largest water hog is the outdoor watering of lawns and gardens.

From the San Diego Union-Tribune:

Caution also is the watchword among San Diego County water officials. They welcomed the governor’s strategy, saying stepped-up conservation has to be given a chance to work before imposing mandatory rationing. “We’re taking it very cautiously here,” said Fern Steiner, chairwoman of the San Diego County Water Authority. “We would like (water-use habits) to be changed forever. We’d like lifestyle changes.” Rationing is highly unlikely for 2008, Steiner said, but added, “We’ll have to take 2009 as it comes.”

Despite improved conservation by many, water officials say a greater effort is needed by all. More water must be wrung out of the system or it will be just a matter of time before rationing comes, some officials believe. “We don’t see the types of savings that we’ve been asking for,” said Jim Barrett, San Diego’s director of public utilities. “What we may have to do is move to mandatory conservation sooner than we would like.”

That worries businesses. “If we start with allotments or rationing, it could potentially be very adverse to our industry,” said Jimmy Jackson, vice president of public policy for BIOCOM, the regional biotechnology trade group. That’s partly because biotech companies need lots of water for laboratories and equipment, and to keep buildings at a consistent temperature, he said. “It’s not one of those things where if you don’t have as much water, you can just cut back here or there,” Jackson said.

Also from the San Diego Union Tribune:

The current shortage is more grim than it was in the late 1980s. Growth is one factor. San Diego County is home to 3.1 million people, an increase of 24 percent from 1990; California’s population of 38 million is 27 percent higher. Also, scientists warn that the drought conditions may become the norm in the Southwest because of global warming. To complicate matters, the state has a chronic budget deficit, leaving it little flexibility to address a water crisis.

But the most significant factor is the loss of water already in the system, both in the north and south.

California can no longer take more than its share of water from the Colorado River – a once-flush source that helped the region through the last drought. That loss amounts to about 700,000 acre-feet a year, or enough for 1.4 million homes annually. The river basin also is enduring its own drought, although the 2007-08 winter brought above-average snow.

In the north, a federal court order to protect the delta smelt has prevented the state from moving south about 600,000 acre-feet annually. The troubled Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, hub of the state’s water network, could continue to complicate north-to-south deliveries even during heavy snow years.

That frustrates Stehly, the avocado farmer. “It’s not a water problem; it’s a plumbing problem. You can’t get it through the delta,” he said. “I don’t know what they’re doing in Sacramento. They’re sitting on their hands.”

June 5, 2008 · Filed Under Drought, Weather & Snowpack

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