Who’s doing the best job of saving water? Thanks mostly to North County farms, the San Diego area has cut its overall use, but it still isn’t close to meeting conservation goals
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 19, 2008 at 3:42 pmFrom the San Diego Union-Tribune:
Regional water use dropped nearly 13 percent in the first half of 2008, thanks in large part to mandatory reductions on North County farms. In contrast, residents and businesses in the city of San Diego – by far the region’s largest water user – have barely helped the cause. The city reduced water use by 1.3 percent in the first six months of the year compared with the same period in 2007, according to the San Diego County Water Authority.
The Encinitas-based Olivenhain Municipal Water District fared the worst in the midyear numbers, cutting use by less than 1 percent. At the other end of the spectrum, agriculture-heavy districts such as Fallbrook and Rainbow decreased water use by more than 30 percent.
The regional goal is to trim water consumption by 10 percent to 15 percent, which would help to offset the drop in water deliveries because of the drought and other factors.
“We don’t see a lot of conservation from (nonfarm) areas or industries, and it is a little frustrating. The call for voluntary conservation just isn’t making it … and a good part of that is that the easy reductions have been made,” said Dave Seymour, general manager of the Rainbow Municipal Water District in Fallbrook.
For more on this story from the San Diego Union Tribune, which includes a rundown of water savings per district, click here.
A river runs through it: Even with increased water on the Colorado, southern reservoirs at below normal levels
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 17, 2008 at 7:33 amFrom Lake Havasu’s Today’s News-Herald:
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is projecting that, for the first time in seven years, more water is flowing through the Colorado River. June run-off down the river from snow pack is running about 117 percent above normal, and the projected run-off from April to July is expected to be about 111 percent of normal.
But even with the increased water, two of the four major storage reservoirs along the lower Colorado River remain significantly below normal. According to the July 14 Lower Colorado River Water Supply report, Lake Powell is 37 percent below capacity while Lake Mead is 54 percent below full.
In April, the Bureau of Reclamation announced that high snow pack, about 122 percent of average, resulted in increased releases from Lake Powell to Lake Mead. An additional 653,000 acre-feet of water was released, elevating Mead by about six feet.
However, Lake Havasu is at 94% capacity:
The Lake Havasu reservoir is the withdrawal point on the river for both the Metropolitan Water District, which serves Los Angeles and San Diego, and the Central Arizona Project, which serves Phoenix and Tucson.
Lake Havasu’s maximum elevation is 450 feet, minimum 445. The Bureau of Reclamation showed the current elevation, as of Tuesday, at 447.74 feet.
Now that’s precision! Also included in this article is an update on the Drop 2 Reservoir project, scheduled to begin construction next month:
According to the project description, the 8,000 acre-foot Drop 2 Storage Reservoir “would store Colorado River water that has been released from Parker Dam to meet downstream water orders but cannot be delivered for various reasons, such as changed weather conditions, high run-off into the river, or a number of other factors. This water typically is not put to beneficial use within the United States due to the lack of sufficient storage capacity below Parker Dam.”
In the past, that ‘non-storable’ water would have flowed to Mexico. Read more from Today’s News-Herald by clicking here.
Power plants and water treatment facility clogged by debris in upper Kern
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 17, 2008 at 7:00 amFrom Bakersfield Now:
Thunderstorms have hit areas recently burned by wildfires north of Kernville, and that run-off has ended up in the upper Kern River. The river was running a dark brown through Kernville on Wednesday afternoon. It looked like liquid mud where Patrick McCaughey was fishing in the park. He’d never seen the water like this on this part of the river. “Not with so much silt and all in it,” he told Eyewitness News.
Some of the river water is pulled out for treatment at the California Water Service plant in Kernville. The plant was making some water Wednesday afternoon, but only about one-third of their usual supply.
Technicians say the dirt-filled water clogs the plant in-takes from the river. Cal Water said the plant usually produces 1,000 gallons of water a minute. But as of Wednesday, it was down to about 33 gallons a minute.
Cal Water put out the word, they want people in Kernville and Wofford Heights to cut back water-use as much as possible. “I think it’s a good idea,” Riverkern resident Shelby Eller said. “We don’t need to use that much water, anyway.”
Not only has the dirt & silt caused problems for the city’s water treatment plant, but also for local power plants as well:
.. the dirty water in the upper Kern River has also forced the closure of the hydro-electric power plant just north of Kernville. Southern California Edison says that plant was shut down on Tuesday, the first day of bad water on the upper Kern.
“It gets into the tunnels and it just mucks everything up.” SCE spokeswoman Deborah Hess told Eyewitness News. “You’ve got to worry about all the mechanics, so you’ve got large logs and such that can get in and wreak havoc.”
The power plant above Kernville usually makes 36 megawatts of electricity. Hess says it was down to 15 megawatts just before the bad water. She says a megawatt can supply enough power for about 650 homes. Hess says SCE hopes to get that plant back on line soon.
But, river water is also still bad in the lower Kern River — and that’s forced the closure of an SCE plant in the canyon.
That’s KR-1, and it’s being clogged by run-off from the “Piute Fire” — the same run-off that caused problems in the community of Lake Isabella. Hess says KR-1 usually produces about 25 megawatts of power.
Read more from Bakersfield Now by clicking here.
BBC diary: Colorado River drought
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 16, 2008 at 7:15 amFrom BBC News:
The south-western US is suffering its eighth consecutive year of drought. There are concerns that the Colorado River, which has sustained life in the area for thousands of years, can no longer meet the needs of the tens of millions of people living in major cities such as Las Vegas and Los Angeles.
The BBC’s Matthew Price is travelling along the river to investigate the scale of the problem and is sending a series of diary items from there.
Day 1 - Page Arizona:
It takes several hours to get to Page, Arizona. From anywhere. The drive, though, is far from dull. It’s one of those journeys that can make you feel incredibly insignificant. Vast landscapes dwarf everything made by man. The cars and trucks speeding along the desert highways appear as small as model vehicles. You could stick the skyscrapers of Manhattan, from where I flew in a few hours earlier, next to the immense rock formations, and they would look like Toy Town.
In places the landscape falls sharply away into canyons, in others it rises up towards plateaus, and everywhere the geological history of the place is obvious.
Today, as I walked alongside the Colorado River just outside the town of Page, I saw two prints in the red Navajo sandstone, each with three “toes”. It was the fossilised footprint of a dinosaur which had stood at the same spot many thousands of years before me.
This land is sacred to the Native Americans who live here. Shana Watahomigie is a park ranger with the National Parks Service. She is also a member of the Havasupai tribe, which still lives alongside the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon. Havasupai means “people of the blue-green water”, and, as we dip our toes in the chilly river, Ms Watahomigie tells me the Colorado is part of her history.
“It’s my lifeline, my bloodline. We have a lot of respect for the river, water and the earth.”
Read more from BBC News & view video clips by clicking here.
Snake Valley water hearings won’t happen until late next year
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 16, 2008 at 7:03 amFrom the Associated Press & the San Francisco Chronicle:
The main water supplier for Las Vegas, already allowed to pump more than 19 billion gallons of water a year from rural Nevada, pressed Tuesday for a January hearing on its bid for another 16 billion gallons from a valley on the state’s border with Utah. But opponents of the Southern Nevada Water Authority pumping plan for Snake Valley said they need more time to prepare, and asked state Engineer Tracy Taylor for a hearing delay until late 2009.
SNWA’s application for the Snake Valley water is a key element in its efforts to start delivering rural groundwater through a 200-mile-long pipeline network to Las Vegas by 2015.
The authority’s eventual goal is to import enough water to serve more than 230,000 homes, in addition to about 400,000 households already getting its water. Cost of its pipeline project has been estimated at anywhere from $2 billion to $3.5 billion.
Foes of the Snake Valley pumping include many ranchers and farmers who fear the loss of their way of life, environmental and conservation groups, several Indian tribes and White Pine County which encompasses part of the valley. Other opponents include federal agencies such as the National Park Service which has a park near the pumping zone, some local governments in Utah, and the Central Nevada Regional Water authority which represents several outlying Nevada counties.
Read more on this story from the Associated Press by clicking here.
The Las Vegas Sun adds this:
Opponents at a hearing Tuesday argued that they should have at least a year to do additional studies of the groundwater in the rural ranching valley, and to model how pumping the water to Las Vegas would effect the water table and the environment.
They said a $2 million study by the U.S. Geological Survey and the University of Nevada Reno funded by the Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act, which began in April, should be completed before State Engineer Tracy Taylor rules on the pumping plan. The study won’t be completed until fall of 2011, although test wells could begin producing data as soon as spring 2009.
J. Mark Ward ,of the Utah Association of Counties, said that because only a small corner of Snake Valley is in Nevada, Utah’s rural Millard County should also be given time to work with staff from the state’s own Water Resources Division to completely study how much water Snake Valley residents and business on the Utah side are using and what the impacts of pumping on them might be there.
Ward argued the application of the Southern Nevada Water Authority would lower the water table in Snake Valley and degrade the quality of water, affecting existing water rights and threatening springs in the area. He said he also wants to make the argument during hearings – tentatively scheduled for the fall of 2009 - that pumping will degrade the air quality.
And Ward said he wants Taylor to hold a public hearing in Salt Lake City because there is a “lot of interest” in this water case in Utah.
Ward, representing Millard County in Utah, said that state’s Legislature put up $2 million for a study of water available in Snake Valley. He told Taylor, “You don’t have a lot of information about the Utah side.”
The hearings were initially set to be held in January of 2009, but now will be held in the fall of 2009. For the rest of this story from the Las Vegas Sun, click here.
Antelope Valley: Rosamond discusses water issues and growth, and Lancaster discusses conservation options
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 16, 2008 at 2:00 amFrom the Antelope Valley Press:
Although there’s currently a moratorium on so-called “will-serve” letters in Rosamond, the Rosamond Community Services District will be conducting public hearings in the next 90 days regarding the letters - notes from water agencies promising to supply new homes and businesses.
Jack Stewart, Rosamond Community Services District interim general manager, told members of the Building Industry Association’s Antelope Valley Chapter about the concerns facing Rosamond during a BIA luncheon Wednesday at the John P. Eliopulos Hellenic Center.
The Antelope Valley groundwater case, scheduled to go to trial Oct. 6 in San Jose, sits at or near the top of that list of worries. “We’re concerned with the outcome. No one has a crystal ball,” Stewart said. Having sat in adjudication meetings the last two or three months, he said, he watched the attorneys representing the entities involved in suits and countersuits sit around talking without arriving at a solution.
The battle has been going since October 1999, when Diamond Farming Co. filed suit against Lancaster, the Antelope Valley Water Co. and Palmdale and Quartz Hill water districts and three other agencies. Hundreds of other landowners, farming interests and government agencies have joined the battle.
Stewart told the crowd he had little faith in the water attorneys. Instead, he recommended taking the water purveyors, users and farmers and locking them in a room for a few hours. That way, he guaranteed they would come up with a solution.
“We want to protect current landowners, stimulate housing and protect agriculture,” Stewart said.
Stewart noted that 63% of the water comes from groundwater, 37% from the Antelope Valley East Kern Agency, and that these supplies are inadequate for the future. Read the full text of this article from the Antelope Valley Press by clicking here.
Meanwhile, next door in Lancaster, officials held a water workshop to discuss steps to protect and conserve the water resources:
City officials say they are considering measures such as mandating separate water meters for indoor and outdoor water use; restricting the size of lawns and types of plants; requiring homebuilders to landscape back and front yards and to install water-conserving clothes washers; and requiring homebuilders to tell prospective buyers how much water their homes will use.
City officials said they expect to draft a proposed new-development water conservation ordinance and then circulate it among homebuilders, water agencies and other parties for comment.
Last week, the City Council unanimously enacted water-use restrictions that include a prohibition against watering lawns between 10 a.m. and 10 p.m. The restrictions also prohibit residents or businesses from letting water flow for more than two minutes into gutters, or from using a hose to clean sidewalks or driveways.
Read more of this story from the Antelope Valley Press by clicking here.
Effort underway to recall three Palmdale Water District directors
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 15, 2008 at 10:51 amFrom the Antelope Valley Press:
Critics of Palmdale Water District directors Jeff Storm, Dick Wells and Dave Gomez are walking neighborhoods to collect voters’ signatures needed to demand a recall election against the trio. Recall committee members on May 14 received the go-ahead from the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s office to begin collecting signatures. The recall committee must obtain 7,061 valid signatures of citizens registered to vote within the water district boundaries by Sept. 11.
“The people we’ve spoken with have all been willing to sign, with one exception - someone who said he personally knew one of the directors,” said recall proponent Gordon Dexter, a former Palmdale Water District board member. “But he did sign the other two petitions.”
Dexter and Laura LaMoreaux, wife of Dennis LaMoreaux, the district’s ousted general manager, said they haven’t tallied the number of signatures obtained so far because the petitions were divided up between more than 100 precincts, with one person in charge of the group canvassing each area.
“We’re going to pull them all in at the end of July and see where we’re at,” Laura LaMoreaux said. “Then we’ll determine what approach we need to pursue in August.”
“We’re trying to maximize the number of people out collecting signatures,” Dexter said.
Asked to comment on the recall campaign, Wells said he appreciated the opportunity but added, “I don’t want to comment.” Gomez and Storm did not return calls.
In their formal responses to the recall charges, Wells, Gomez and Storm said the recall is an effort by district director Raul Figueroa and former directors Dexter, Ron Cunningham and Nolan Negaard to take over the water district. “This is not a recall. It is a coup attempt,” Wells wrote in his formal response. “It is an attempt to get by revolt what they couldn’t get at the ballot box.”
Recall proponents deny the accusation. They say the recall is also supported by former directors who have been off the board for years, as well as by district customers, by noncustomers who live inside the area in which the district collects taxes and by numerous district employees.
A majority of recall proponents say their main motivation is the ouster of Dennis LaMoreaux in a vote by Storm, Wells and Gomez. “I’ve known Dennis LaMoreaux for maybe 20 years. I think he’s one of the most knowledgeable people regarding water in this Valley. And we have a real water problem here,” said Joyce Freeman, widow of 12-year Palmdale Water District board member J.B. “Jay” Freeman. Freeman called LaMoreaux “one of the most conscientious people I’ve ever met. I went to a meeting. About 20 people got up and asked, ‘Why? Why do they want to replace him?’ To my knowledge, they never gave a reason.”
Get the rest of the story from the Antelope Valley Press by clicking here.
Forces set to resist bid for rural water; Snake Valley — and its ranches, tribes and park — has chance of defeating Water Authority request
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 15, 2008 at 7:21 amFrom the Las Vegas Sun:
State engineer Tracy Taylor has played it down the middle so far, giving the Southern Nevada Water Authority about half the water it wanted from rural Nevada. His two rulings — on Spring Valley and Cave, Dry Lake and Delamar valleys — were called cautious by some on both sides.
Final arrangements are to be considered today for the biggest showdown to date over rural Nevada’s water — hearings to determine whether the Water Authority can take water from Snake Valley. The hearings will provide another opportunity for Taylor to split the difference between the authority’s request and the contention of ranchers, environmentalists and others who argue that not a drop of water should leave rural Nevada for Las Vegas.
But those opponents say that other than sitting atop an aquifer coveted by the Water Authority, Snake Valley has little in common with the valleys that have come before it. “This is not like Cave, Dry Lake and Delamar valleys, where you would be lucky if you could find a couple human beings,” said Simeon Herskovits, an attorney for many of the opponents of the pumping plan. “Snake is dramatically different.”
Snake Valley has a much larger population than Cave, Dry Lake and Delamar valleys combined and has many more existing water rights than Spring Valley.
In Snake Valley, the ears of mule deer peep above the vegetation on fields kept green by pivot irrigation. It’s that irrigation — and many long-standing water rights — that supports a ranching and tourist economy. Because there are existing water rights and a history of pumping in the area, Herskovits said, it’s no mystery what will happen when pumping begins. There are cases “where ground water pumping on a very modest level — really a totally different scale of magnitude than what SNWA is proposing — … have already caused springs to dry up … and lowered the water table,” he said.
And the existing water rights give Taylor, the state engineer, a legal basis upon which to limit pumping from the valley. Although plants, animals and the environment have limited legal rights under Nevada water law, there are stronger protections for senior water rights. “The law requires that (Taylor) protect existing water rights,” said Tom Meyers, hydrologist for the Great Basin Water Network, which opposes the pipeline plan. “The environment does not have an existing water right.”
Read the full text of this article from the Las Vegas Sun by clicking here.
Flash flood run-off makes trouble for Bakersfield drinking water
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 15, 2008 at 6:59 amFrom Bakersfield Now:
Flash floods in the mountains are causing problems for Bakersfield drinking water. Dirt and silt are being washed down the Kern River, forcing California Water Service to shut down one water treatment plant — and cut back another to 10-percent.
Floods have washed water down Erskin Creek near Lake Isabella during thunderstorms Saturday, Sunday, and again Monday afternoon. That sent families for higher ground — and eventually filled the Kern River with dirt from the recently-burned areas of the Piute Fire.
That river water is used for drinking in several parts of Bakersfield, but they can’t treat water with as much sediment as it has now.
“We’re treating, but we’re using emergency supplies in the Northeast treatment plant,” California Water Service District Manager Tim Treloar told Eyewitness News Monday afternoon. “As of right now, we’ve had to shut down our Northwest plant.”
Treloar is asking residents in the northeast and northwest part of Bakersfield to be judicious about their water use for the next few days. More from Bakersfield Now by clicking here.
Mistrust creates water crisis: Insufficient storage facilities contributed to water loss
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 14, 2008 at 10:00 amFrom the Antelope Valley Press:
Antelope Valley has let at least $100 million worth of water slip through its grasp over the past 16 years, enough to supply several hundred thousand families for a year.
Since 1992, between 300,000 and 400,000 acre-feet of water has bypassed the desert through the California Aqueduct, all for lack of storage facilities to capture what local suppliers are entitled to take, said Russ Fuller, manager of the Antelope Valley-East Kern Water Agency. Lack of leadership, lack of trust among water users, and a lack of reliable data have been blamed for the Valley today facing cutbacks on water use, limitations on development and the inability to move forward on building water facilities needed to ensure adequate water supplies.
Court battles are being waged over water rights while simmering feuds continue between public agencies, farmers and private water companies over who should manage groundwater supplies.
Earlier this year, 11 agencies put their differences aside and adopted a comprehensive regional plan designed to help solve the Valley’s water shortage and provide reliable supplies long into the future.
But why did it take so long to get here?
Many say it boils down to poor relationships among government leaders and an unwillingness on the part of agencies to relinquish control in exchange for a united approach that would help solve the Valley’s problems region-wide. Despite contentious interactions over water for more than 20 years, some leaders say they simply didn’t believe there was a problem.
“I think the resources, at the time, we thought were infinite,” said Palmdale Mayor Jim Ledford, who has been involved in Palmdale politics for 23 years. “We didn’t see a need to cut back. Our growth curve was at a point where we could sustain (ourselves) based on the water deliveries that were contractually in play. We just didn’t have an awareness, and the nature of this, the severity of this, was not I think fully understood by all parties.”
Lack of awareness is not limited to public leaders.
“Water is one of those things people just don’t think about until they go to get in the shower or flush the toilet or turn on the tap,” said Lancaster City Councilman Ed Sileo.
Read more from the Antelope Valley Press by clicking here.
Crews excavating tons of sand for All American Canal lining
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 14, 2008 at 6:27 amFrom the Yuma Sun:
Shape-shifters in the form of huge, lumbering earth movers have been busily at work on the dunes west of Yuma a year into a massive project on the All American Canal. The project includes construction of a 23-mile concrete-lined segment of the All American Canal to run parallel to the existing earthen canal stretching from a mile west of Pilot Knob to Drop 3. A reservoir also is being constructed near Gordon’s Well to hold about 8,000 acre-feet of water, mainly to regulate the lower Colorado River operation.
It is considered one of the largest water conservation programs in the nation, said Kevin Kelley, spokesman for Imperial Irrigation District, which operates the canal under a contract with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
Built in the 1930s, the All American Canal runs adjacent to the international border in Southern California, carrying about 3.1 million acre-feet of water a year from the Colorado River to the Imperial Valley. Replacement of the 23-mile eastern segment of earthen canal with the lined canal is expected to save 67,700 acre-feet of water a year. That would be enough water to supply the annual needs of about 500,000 people in Southern California.
That segment of the 82-mile canal was selected for the work because it winds across the sand dunes, resulting in substantial water loss from seepage through the sandy soil. “That’s the section with the greatest identifiable seepage,” Kelley said.
Read the full text of this article from the Yuma Sun by clicking here.
Mudslide in Inyo County spares aqueduct; Mount Whitney fish hatchery is not so lucky
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 13, 2008 at 9:52 pmFrom MyFoxLA:
Independence (myfoxla.com) — The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power says its crucial aqueduct in the Owens Valley was not harmed by severe debris flows that all-but-destroyed a historic fish hatchery and buried the highway linking Southern California with Eastern Sierra recreation areas.
Heavy thunderstorms Saturday and Sunday have caused fire-denuded hillsides to ooze down across U.S. 395, closing the road north of Independence for much of the day. In one section, more than a quarter-mile of road is buried in ash, mud and rocks several feet deep, witnesses said.
Summer homes owned mostly by Southern California residents in the Oak Canyon area were either wrenched apart or filled with mud, said reporter Benett Kessler of KSRW-TV in Bishop.
But DWP spokeswoman Gale Harris said the critical aqueduct was not harmed. “They had some flash flooding but no damage,” she said.
Unfortunately, the Mount Whitney Fish Hatchery wasn’t so lucky. For more on this story from MyFoxLA, click here.
Water: Is it drying up? Antelope Valley water boards say supply not enough for development
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 13, 2008 at 11:48 amFrom the Antelope Valley Press:
Antelope Valley is the last frontier for large-scale population growth in Los Angeles County with undeveloped land open for future residential, commercial, industrial and agricultural development. But can current and future water supplies sustain a region that is projected to house 1.2 million people by 2045?
Data outlined in a newly adopted regional water management plan for the Valley shows demand outstripping the supply. “We’re basically going to run out in 2008,” said Adam Ariki, assistant division chief for Los Angeles County Waterworks.
That doesn’t mean residents will turn on empty taps any time soon. But it does mean County Waterworks District 40, which serves much of Lancaster and west Palmdale, has stopped telling developers that water is available for new projects. Ariki said it would be irresponsible to promise water to new homes and businesses without first finding a new water supply. It’s a decision some Antelope Valley leaders find harsh.
“The moment word gets out that we’re somehow shut down for business, we’re in huge trouble and have got to fix that issue,” Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris said. “We’re going to respond with all of the resources we can muster,” said Parris, who is looking to Palmdale, sometimes an adversary, as a potential ally. “There are two major areas that the city of Palmdale and the city of Lancaster had better get married on, and that is crime and water,” Parris said. “And if we would do that, if we would come together and aggressively work together, because we are certainly going to die of thirst together, we could solve this tomorrow.”
Palmdale Mayor Jim Ledford said a regional water plan adopted by 11 agencies earlier this year will serve as “a launching pad where we can now work collectively and without stepping on each other’s toes, recognizing the fact that we all share in this responsibility.”
Already, Antelope Valley and Southern California rely heavily on water that comes from Northern California through the California Aqueduct. But global warming and environmental problems are making imported water increasingly unreliable, which is changing the face of water supply and delivery. The changes mean that wheeling and dealing between water buyers and sellers is increasing outside traditional practices. Recycled water has become the “new” water, and water users may have to adjust to higher costs for a commodity that has been historically cheap.
Developers, who are hunting for their own sources of water, may have to resort to trade-offs such as retrofitting older homes with low flush toilets and low-flow shower heads to free up water for their proposed developments. New residents may have to give up their attachments to lush green lawns in favor of drought-tolerant landscaping and cut back on outdoor water usage. Existing residents may find developers willing to pay for their lawns to be ripped out and replaced with xeriscaping. And all residents will be asked to step up conservation efforts.
“The public needs to understand we have a significant challenge in managing our water resources,” Ledford said. “We don’t want them to panic, because that’s not necessary. But we do need them to help us by changing some of their behaviors and be partners in bringing solutions to this crisis.”
While this year has been tough, next year is a big concern:
Los Angeles County supervisors announced this month that if the drought continues into next year, Antelope Valley and other parts of the county may have to start rationing water. The Public Works Department says Waterworks District 40, which serves the Antelope Valley, would be one of the hardest hit water agencies if the State Water Project continues to cut supplies. The aqueduct supplies 80% of the water used by waterworks district customers.
Local water suppliers believe they can get through this year, but are worried about 2009.
The Antelope Valley-East Kern Water Agency, which supplies aqueduct water to smaller water districts, will fall short of meeting its customers’ demands this year, but “the really, really serious situation is ‘09,” AVEK General Manager Russ Fuller said. He expects the state Department of Water Resources to allocate only 5% to 15% of normal State Water Project supplies next year, due to a very dry spring this year. And what happens elsewhere in the state directly affects how much imported water will be available in Antelope Valley.
Read more on this story from the Antelope Valley Press by clicking here.
In the Antelope Valley, drilling deep wells for water faces myriad problems
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 13, 2008 at 11:45 amFrom the Antelope Valley Press:
Antelope Valley may be sitting on 52 million acre-feet of water, enough to cover the Valley floor 30 feet deep. Enough, some say, to quench the needs of a growing population for 300 years, maybe more. But at what cost?
Sinking wells thousands of feet deep to reach the deepest water means higher pumping costs, and also draws up water more likely to be contaminated with naturally occurring arsenic and other substances.
In addition, pumping more groundwater than is replenished by rainfall or other sources can result in subsidence: a slow compaction and sinking of the earth’s surface, which can damage buildings and roads and permanently reduce the water storage capacity in the Valley’s aquifers - underground layers of rock and sand that hold water in their pores.
“There will always be water in the aquifer,” said Adam Ariki, Los Angeles County Waterworks assistant deputy chief. “If we extract all of it … the soil’s going to crash on us and we’re all going to sink.”
However, water officials, farmers and others disagree about how much water can be safely pumped from wells without damaging the aquifers and leading to subsidence. Estimates vary from 30,000 acre-feet to as high as 120,000 acre-feet, Ariki said, but most people seem to accept a range of 70,000 to 80,000 acre-feet. (An acre-foot equals 325,851 gallons, enough to supply an average Antelope Valley household for a year.)
If water districts, farmers and other well owners collectively agree to pump about 90,000 acre-feet per year, it will be equivalent to the amount returned to the groundwater basin from rain and manmade activities, Ariki said. “Logically the amount should be equivalent to how much water is being put in the groundwater basin,” he said.
But farmer Gene Nebeker, a former water-quality official, says: “Nobody really knows how safe the yield is, until we take better data over a period of time.”
Accessing the water requires drilling deeper wells and requires more electricity to pump the water out. The deeper water in the aquifer is of poorer quality, of a higher salinity, and possibly tainted with arsenic. Read more from the Antelope Valley Press by clicking here.
Water dispute may get more hostile as the long-standing adjudication case in the Antelope Valley continues
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 12, 2008 at 11:07 amFrom the Antelope Valley Press:
Hostility is likely to grow worse between farmers and public water providers as the Antelope Valley groundwater adjudication case rages on unless all parties can reach an amicable solution, one Valley alfalfa rancher says.
In order to achieve satisfactory results for everyone, Lancaster alfalfa rancher Gene Nebeker has asked the Palmdale Water District board of directors to “minimize the role of lawyers and technical advisers” in the adjudication, which has dragged on nearly a decade.
The legal snarl began in October 1999 when Diamond Farming Co. filed suit against Lancaster, the Antelope Valley Water Co., the Palmdale Water District and three other water purveyors. Since then, hundreds of entities and individuals have joined the suits and counter-suits.
People lack confidence, Nebeker told the board, that “the judge or any court” could arrive at a knowledgeable ruling to establish equitable groundwater pumping rights.
“They will come knocking at your door, incredibly angry, if they realize your board will set them back to less than 50% of their pumping,” Nebeker said.
In a show of unity, members of the Los Angeles County Farm Bureau and other landowners packed the water district boardroom on Wednesday night as Nebeker presented their position to the board. He said farmers and other landowners, whether or not within the water district boundaries, will be adversely impacted by this case, especially if limited to half of their current pumping capacity.
Nebeker estimates that between 150,000 and 160,000 acre-feet of water gets pumped from the ground each year; others in the Valley put the figure closer to 120,000 acre-feet. Each acre-foot equals 325,851 gallons, the amount of water used in an average Antelope Valley home in one year.
The alfalfa rancher wants his estimate used as a basis for the adjudication equation, and then raised or lowered depending on data gathered from a monitoring system.
He admonished the water district for joining forces with a group dubbed Public Water Suppliers, which includes the Quartz Hill Water District, Littlerock Creek Irrigation District and Rosamond Community Services District. Nebeker claims the group has waged battle with or will initiate a lawsuit against the owners of 190,000 parcels of land in the Valley.
More from the Antelope Valley Press by clicking here.
In a related story also from the Antelope Valley Press, farmers are infuriated that their water might be cut 50%:
Half the normal amount of water to grow crops means half the yield at harvest, which amounts to a 50% financial loss, according to some Antelope Valley farmers. They worry their livelihood will take a huge hit if the judge’s determination in the Antelope Valley groundwater adjudication case favors the counties, cities and water suppliers such as the Palmdale Water District.
Julie and Gailen Kyle raise hay and alfalfa on nearly 1,600 acres at several sites on the east side of Palmdale and Lancaster. Richard Miner grows alfalfa and hay on 400 acres in the Willow Springs area of Kern County. They’ve heard talk that once the court rules on groundwater rights, they will be restricted to 50% of their current pumping capacity. “If you cut my water in half, you cut my income in half,” said Gailen Kyle, whose family has farmed in the Antelope Valley for 75 years.
Though Miner’s “hay operation” is about a quarter the size of the Kyles’, he said his concerns are just as significant. Miner has been working his farm on Tehachapi Springs Road since 1975. Each year he uses an average of 7 acre-feet per acre of groundwater to grow alfalfa. For 400 acres, that totals roughly 2,800 acre-feet of water in a year. An acre-foot equals 325,851 gallons, the amount used in the average Antelope Valley home in one year.
Julie Kyle said they use about the same amount of water per acre each year as Miner does but have nearly four times the land.
“If the cities think the farmers will accept a 50% cut, this (adjudication) will go on a long time,” Gailen Kyle said.
Read the rest of this story from the Antelope Valley Press by clicking here.
Lake Tahoe’s future development up for a vote: plan to add up to 128 new piers generates controversy
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 12, 2008 at 7:28 amFrom KGO Channel 7, San Francisco:
After more than 20 years of debate, a plan for future development on the shore of Lake Tahoe may soon become a reality. The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency is scheduled to vote on a final draft next month, but some environmentalists say the plan doesn’t do enough to protect the lake.
It’s been about 50 years since an explosion of development began around Lake Tahoe. Restaurants, hotels and casinos lined the shore; boats filled the lake; and environmentalists sounded the alarm — just as they’re doing now. “We are in a battle for the life of Lake Tahoe,” says Michael Donahoe of the Sierra Club.
In 1969, President Nixon signed the Tahoe Compact, creating the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency to oversee all development at the lake. The agency spent years drawing up a regional plan but one area was so controversial it was left out: the shorezone, where Lake Tahoe’s water meets land.
Lake Tahoe is designated as an “outstanding national resource.” That gives it the highest level of federal protection and makes placement of every pier and every buoy a big deal — such a big deal that it’s taken two decades to decide how many to allow, and how to regulate them.
“I’ve always thought every issue had some kind of middle ground that people could agree on. Not this issue,” says John Singlaub of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency.
Read more from KGO San Francisco by clicking here.
Researchers study effects of flooding in Grand Canyon
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 12, 2008 at 7:21 amFrom the Christian Science Monitor:
With quick flicks of his Japanese calligraphy brush, Dave Rubin sends dry sand particles flying into the wind. He’s crouched in a four-foot-deep sand trench with a trowel in one hand, brush in the other, and the Colorado River flowing behind him. Dr. Rubin, a US Geological Survey senior scientist, leans back and studies the sand layers, trying to read their story – the tale of this year’s three-day high-flow experiment that thundered down the Grand Canyon.
The trench is dug into a bankside sandbar, a highly desirable feature of the Grand Canyon for habitat, archaeological preservation, and recreational camping. Sandbars once peppered this stretch of the river, but the closing of the Glen Canyon Dam in 1963 began trapping millions of cubic yards of sand that had nourished them. In the last 12 years, three high-flow experiments have tried to re-create the floods that used to deliver the sand. The most recent one was in March.
Now scientists have descended on the canyon to study the outcome using a host of technologies, from simple shovels to underwater scans of the riverbed. Their findings, and their resulting suggestions on how to restore the canyon’s diminished sandbars, will then be thrown into the caldron of river and canyon management, where 25 stakeholders weigh such things as the interests of electrical power and water against the need to preserve a natural wonder and endangered species. Close to $80 million has been spent in the last decade on sedimentology and hydrology research. Environmentalists say the need for restoration is losing out to the need for electricity and water.
Read the full text of this article from the Christian Science Monitor by clicking here.
Las Vegas is granted permission to draw water from Cave, Delamar, and Dry Lake Valleys …
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 10, 2008 at 5:30 am
From the Las Vegas Sun:
State Engineer Tracy Taylor is granting the Southern Nevada Water Authority additional permission to draw 6.1 billion gallons of water from eastern Nevada a year for use in the growing Las Vegas area. The authority sought 11.1 billion gallons but Scott Huntley, a spokesman for the authority, said it was “very pleased” with the ruling.
The application to the state sought 34,752 acre feet a year and Taylor granted 18,755 acre feet, about 53 percent of the request.
Huntley called it a “strong ruling” and it will translate into 32,100 acre feet with the re-use by the authority from the return flows.
Susan Lynn, a spokeswoman for the Great Basin Water Network, complained the ruling would hurt ranchers and wildlife areas in the areas south of Cave, Dry Lake and Delamar Valleys where the water will be drawn from. She called it a “very tough decision.”
From the Elko Daily News:
While the SNWA application sought more than 11.3 billion gallons of groundwater a year from the valleys and the ruling allows about 6.1 billion gallons, Susan Lynn of the Great Basin Water Network said, “It’s way too much considering there are a whole lot of downstream groundwater users who rely on that groundwater flow that is going to be intercepted.”
The SNWA project opponents include ranchers and farmers, as well as local irrigation companies, a water board, the Sierra Club, Nevada Cattlemen’s Association and White Pine County which borders Lincoln County.
The project is backed by casino executives, developers, union representatives and others who point to water conservation efforts in the Las Vegas area and who warn of an economic downturn affecting the entire state unless the city has enough water to keep growing.
From the San Diego Union-Tribune:
SNWA representatives had contended the water authority met all requirements for the pumping and critics’ disaster scenarios are unfounded.
The Great Basin Water Network opposed the plan, saying SNWA tried to hide evidence that the pumping may harm existing water users and the environment in rural Nevada because there’s not enough water in the valleys for long-term exportation.
Taylor said use of the water in the amounts he approved “will not unduly limit future growth and development” in the three valleys, all in central Lincoln County. But before any water is pumped, Taylor wants to see more biological and hydrologic studies. He also said that pumping will be halted or modified if it proves “detrimental to the public interest or is found to not be environmentally sound.”
Allen Biaggi, the state’s conservation-natural resources chief and Taylor’s boss, said the ruling shows “the strength of Nevada’s water law in balancing the needs of its citizens, protecting existing water rights and protecting Nevada’s natural resources.”
Kay Brothers, SNWA’s deputy general manager, said the water authority recognized the state engineer’s “somewhat conservative” approach to water management in Nevada, the nation’s most arid state, and wouldn’t challenge his decision. “We respect the way he manages the state’s water basins,” Brothers said. “If that’s what he’s comfortable with, so are we.”
So far, the Southern Nevada Water Authority has filed for 125,742 acre-feet, but has only been granted 58,755 acre-feet per year; it is the difference between supplying 428,000 homes and 200,000 homes. However, instead of seeing the pipeline has half-empty, SNWA officials see it as half-full in this article from the Las Vegas Review-Journal:
Brothers said the authority’s resource plan for the next 50 years was built on the assumption that the agency would not get all the groundwater it applied for in eastern Nevada. “Our planning horizon has always looked at a range, and what we’ve seen so far is in that range,” she said.
By as early as 2013, the authority hopes to start delivering rural groundwater to the Las Vegas Valley through a pipeline that is expected to stretch more than 250 miles and cost between $2 billion and $3.5 billion. Authority officials see the project as a way to supply water for growth in the Las Vegas Valley and insulate the community from drought on the Colorado River, which provides 90 percent of the valley’s drinking water.
Critics argue that large-scale groundwater pumping in the arid valleys of eastern Nevada threatens the region’s wildlife and the livelihoods of its ranchers and farmers.
Wednesday’s ruling drew a tepid response from those most opposed to the project. “We think the decision was sort of a mixed bag,” said Simeon Herskovits, a New Mexico-based attorney representing stakeholders who have protested the authority’s plans to the state. Herskovits said Taylor agreed with some of the concerns raised by the opposition and “didn’t bite” on some of the authority’s more speculative arguments. But, he said, the state engineer failed to address the long-term problems with pumping so much water, though the authority is “locking it in as a permanent supply.”
“There are some things to be pleased about” in the ruling, Herskovits said, “but overall, we are concerned that the outcome was too much water permitted to the Southern Nevada Water Authority.”
… while opponents are shut out of upcoming Snake Valley hearings
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 10, 2008 at 5:21 amAlong with the news of granting water to Las Vegas from the Cave, Dry Lake and Delamar Valleys, Nevada Engineer Tracy Taylor also denied “interested persons” status to several opposition groups, as well as Utah & Nevada officials in the upcoming Snake Valley hearings, as noted in this San Diego Union-Tribune article:
In a related case involving SNWA’s application to pump 16 billion gallons of water a year from Snake Valley, on the Nevada-Utah border in White Pine County, Taylor rejected bids by three Indian tribes, local government entities in Nevada and Utah and others for “interested persons” status in those proceedings.
That ruling, which restricts participation in the Snake Valley hearings scheduled to start on Tuesday, went against the Great Basin Water Network, the Wells Band Te-Moak Tribe, Ely Shoshone Tribe and Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation.
Taylor also rejected the status for Salt Lake and Utah counties in Utah, Trout Unlimited, Water Keepers, the North Snake Valley Water Association and Central Nevada Regional Water Authority, representing six Nevada counties.
The decision sparked editorials published in neighboring Utah papers, such as the Salt Lake Tribune:
Water makes life possible in the desert. If you remove a vast amount of water and take it hundreds of miles away, the loss will have far-reaching effects on arid land, plants, wildlife and the livelihoods of its human inhabitants.
This is a simple law of nature that the Southern Nevada Water Authority wants Utahns to ignore when thirsty Nevada is doing the taking. SNWA officials want us to believe that if they pump 80,000 acre-feet of water per year from an aquifer on the Nevada/Utah line and pipe it 285 miles to Las Vegas, only the Snake Valley area, home to 600 people, would be affected, and only a little bit.
That belief is either naive or grossly self-serving. In either case, Utah officials, including Gov. Jon Huntsman, have a responsibility to see it for the water grab it is and stop it before it starts.
To keep Utah from throwing sand on the project, Southern Nevada water officials successfully lobbied their state engineer to deny the “interested party” status requested by Salt Lake and Utah counties, three Native American bands, the Central Nevada Water Authority, conservation groups, businesses and residents of the valleys. This decision to exclude legitimate stakeholders is troubling.
SNWA argued that these groups should have protested in 1989 when it first applied for the project. But much has changed in 19 years, including knowledge about hydrology and drought. We now know the dangers of what then seemed to be a fairly innocuous idea that may never be implemented anyway.
The Deseret News had this to say:
Nevada’s state engineer needs to give opponents their due. They deserve to have their respective points of view heard in this matter. Aside from sorting out legal claim to this water, conservationists, the National Congress of American Indians and other interested parties have deep-seated interests in the physical, economic, cultural and spiritual well-being of this area. The key to all of these concerns is sufficient water resources.
SNWA, for its part, says its application has been mischaracterized as a water grab. Rather, a SNWA spokesman has said, the authority seeks to draw upon a resource no one is using.
Area ranchers say the underground aquifer holds in check a polluted aquifer beneath the salt desert. Any force that reduces that water pressure — such as pumping significant amounts of fresh water from the aquifer — could subject the remaining freshwater supply to contamination.
Most of those denied “interested party” status are not planning to appeal, reports the Salt Lake Tribune:
Taylor’s other ruling, which Huntley said was relatively insignificant to Las Vegas, means the Wasatch Front counties won’t be granted “interested person” status during upcoming hearings on the SNWA pipeline proposal.
Taylor’s ruling said the counties should have known they needed to protest when the pipeline permit was submitted in 1989. But Ann Ober, Salt Lake County’s Environmental Policy Coordinator, said the counties weren’t aware nearly 20 years ago of the air-quality problems they would face today under U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rules. “Not only was [our knowledge] lacking, but the EPA requirements have become much more stringent,” Ober said.
Water experts say that the 285-mile, $3.5 billion Las Vegas pipeline could cause the basin’s water table to drop far enough to kill off the vegetation that now holds the soil in place. That could cause dust storms to reach the Wasatch Front and further damage the already-degraded air quality.
The counties don’t plan to appeal Taylor’s ruling. A conservation group, however, may challenge the denial of its interested party application, said Steve Erickson, spokesman for the Great Basin Water Network. Erickson said Taylor’s ruling on the water SNWA can draw from the three Lincoln County valleys overestimates the perennial yield and recharge in the nation’s driest region.
Utah officials had this to say in this Salt Lake Weekly article:
“We’re downwind,” says Salt Lake County Councilman Jim Bradley who brought the issue to fellow council members in June. “I think there is a good chance that taking water out of the Snake Valley over there is going to have an air-quality detriment to Salt Lake County.”
Ann Ober, environmental policy coordinator for Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon, says Salt Lake Valley shares an air corridor with the Snake Valley in Utah’s west desert. “If they de-water the Snake Valley, we can expect an increase in particulate matter that will impact the valley’s air quality,” she says. In addition to participation in Nevada’s water hearings, Ober says Salt Lake County has petitioned for a seat at the table as federal officials work on an environmental impact statement for the Las Vegas pumping plan.
Salt Lake County and Utah County each are asking to bring experts to testify at the July hearings, held by the Nevada State Engineer. After the hearings the engineer will decide how much, if any, water Las Vegas gets to take from Snake Valley. The Southern Nevada Water Authority has filed on 16 billion gallons per year.
Snake Valley’s ranchers have complained for years about the plan, saying when Nevada sticks pipes on its side of the border, water will be sucked from under Utah crops. Southern Nevada Water Authority’s response has been that there is plenty of water to go around. The authority acknowledges its pumping might drop the Utah water table, but says Utah’s ranchers will just have to drill deeper wells.
That argument doesn’t hold water, says Mark Ward, an attorney with the Utah Association of Counties, which will represent Salt Lake County in the Nevada hearings. A Utah state scientist has estimated pumping in the Snake Valley could drop underground water levels by 10 feet, below the root system of the greasewood scrub brush that holds the desert floor together. “The groundwater dependant vegetation loss could be vast,” says Ward, noting that, from the 1900s to the 1970s, when Los Angeles pumped water away from surrounding ranching valleys in California, the result was the largest dust source in the world.
BREAKING NEWS: Nevada State Engineer issues ruling on Cave, Dry Lake, and Delamar Valleys: Ruling grants Southern Nevada Water Authority 18,755 acre-feet annually of 34,752 acre-feet requested
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 9, 2008 at 11:43 amFrom the Nevada Department of Conservation & Natural Resources:
Nevada’s State Engineer Tracy Taylor released his ruling today on the Cave Valley, Dry Lake Valley and Delamar Valley water right applications filed by the Las Vegas Valley Water District. The applications are now held by the Southern Nevada Water Authority.
Taylor’s ruling grants to SNWA 18,755 acre-feet of water annually. LVVWD applied for 34,752 acre-feet annually in applications that were originally filed in 1989.
Today’s ruling comes after a hearing held in February.
Allen Biaggi, director of the Nevada Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, said that the State Engineer’s ruling demonstrates the strength of Nevada’s water law in balancing the needs of its citizens, protecting existing water rights and protecting Nevada’s natural resources.
“Taylor’s ruling is consistent with state law, is based on the best available science, and it allows for mitigation should environmental impacts occur in these basins as a result of pumping ground water,” he said.
Taylor previously ruled on ground-water withdrawals from Spring Valley and the first day of hearing is scheduled for Snake Valley on July 15.
Read the full text of the news release from the Nevada State Engineer by clicking here.