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Burbank community commentary: Data don’t show much water

Posted by: Maven on May 31, 2009 at 6:41 am

From the Burbank Leader, this commentary by Burbank resident Richard J. Tafilaw:

Councilman David Gordon is playing a shell game with his water facts and figures (“Remarks were off the mark,” May 27). Gordon listed the status of three reservoirs in the State Water Project — Oroville, Folsom and Millerton. The last two are currently in good shape, but the first one isn’t. However, when you take the time to actually look up the capacities of the three you’ll find out that Millerton is a small reservoir, Folsom is medium-sized and Oroville, at 3,537,600 acre feet, is the second largest in the system with a capacity of more than double that of the other two combined.

So, when Oroville is 64% full, even with the other two maxed out, we’re still 1.5 million acre feet shy of capacity for all three together — hardly anything to celebrate. Nor is the news that Shasta, the state’s largest reservoir, is at 69% of capacity and Trinity, the third largest, is at 52%. David failed to mention those frightening figures.

Next, he waved his magic wand and informed us “last week the State Water Project allocation to Metropolitan Water District of Southern California was boosted a full 10% to 40% of normal.”

Now, seriously, read that statement over again and think about what is really being said, that the water allocation was “boosted a full 10% to” — take a deep breath — “40% of normal.” Here again, he’s pretending the figure of “40% of normal” is somehow a marvelous, thrilling prospect — it isn’t!

“Our lawns and landscaping do not belong in this climate, swimming pools are an extravagance, automatic sprinklers are an abomination and Gordon is not doing the people of Burbank any favors by pretending otherwise,” he concludes. Read more of Richard’s commentary by clicking here.

May 31, 2009 · Filed Under Southern California

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