Specter of water rationing emerges for Inland Empire providers

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 28, 2008 at 9:05 am

From Riverside’s Press-Enterprise:

Riverside County Supervisor Marion Ashley remembers the extreme drought conditions of nearly two decades ago.

In 1991, before low-flow toilets became the norm, Ashley and many others put bricks in their toilet tanks to reduce the amount of water used in flushing. In the shower, they turned off the water to soap up, then back on for a rinse. Some of his friends caught the overflow in buckets to use later.

Ashley gave up watering the yard of his Perris home, letting plants and bushes wither and die. “It worried me all the time,” said Ashley, who sees similar measures fast approaching as the state enters what could be a third dry winter.

Even if this year brings average rain and snowfall, the drought won’t be over. Climatologists say it will take a very wet year or several average years in a row to bring California back to even.

Read more from the Press-Enterprise by clicking here.

November 28, 2008 · Filed Under Conservation, Riverside - San Bernardino

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Tunneling nearly complete for Inland Empire water project

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 20, 2008 at 6:01 am

From the Los Angeles Times:

Even in the world of big-ticket water projects, where delays, cost overruns and controversy are frequent, the inelegantly named Inland Feeder Project was in a class of its own.

In its two decades, the project has faced fire, flood, regulatory disputes, difficult geology, grouting problems, earthquake considerations, a switch of contractors and more. At one point it was $100 million over budget. The boss at the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California jokes that the project suffered everything but a plague of locusts.

Still, the agency insisted it needed a higher-capacity system to bring water from Northern California to its massive reservoir, Diamond Valley Lake, outside Hemet. A new project manager was brought in three years ago with a simple command: Failure is not an option.

And today, several years behind the original schedule, the $1.2-billion project will complete its last bit of tunneling: a four-mile stretch known as the Arrowhead West Tunnel in the San Bernardino Mountains. Officials will cheer as an 820-ton, 450-foot tunnel boring machine punches through at Devil Canyon, near Cal State San Bernardino, where the California Aqueduct will eventually connect.

Then it’s all downhill, literally. Set for completion in 2010, the 44-mile route includes 16 miles of tunneling in three sections and 28 miles of underground piping that will empty into an already built canal. From there, it will travel 10 miles to Diamond Valley. The idea is this: In the future, water will arrive from the California Aqueduct in fast bursts due to climate change and shifting snow patterns. The smooth, faucet-like flow will become more like blasts from a fire hose.

More from the Los Angeles Times by clicking here.

From Riverside’s Press-Enterprise:

Forest officials were concerned that the groundwater seeping through the tunnel as it was being drilled could affect springs that keep streams running on the surface through the canyons.

“When you start draining groundwater, springs at that elevation will dry up,” said Gar Abbas, a forest fisheries biologist. The springs feed creeks used by amphibians and other animals, and they keep vegetation alive for birds. “If you impact the groundwater, then everything starts to die off, and you impact an entire ecosystem,” Abbas said.

Since then, Abbas and the tribe have met with MWD on a monthly basis, and Abbas said he is more than satisfied with how things have worked out.

Monitoring of the springs and creeks by forest officials and the water district has shown that the tunneling technique was successful, Abbas said.

As for the San Manuel Band, officials are “unable to comment on any aspect of the project at this time,” said Jacob Coin, a spokesman for the tribe. He said he could not elaborate.

More from Riverside’s Press-Enterprise by clicking here.

August 20, 2008 · Filed Under Metropolitan Water District, Riverside - San Bernardino

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Inland water agencies getting $25 million in bond money for projects

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 22, 2008 at 9:54 pm

From Riverside’s Press Enterprise, some good news for some southern water agencies:

The state will issue Inland water agencies from Chino to Yucaipa nearly $25 million to help fund projects that will stretch supplies in a region hit hard by drought and judge-ordered cutbacks on Northern California deliveries.

The money will be funneled to projects that will remove an invasive, water-thirsty plant from the banks of the Santa Ana River, build a 28-mile pipeline to bring supplies from San Bernardino to Corona and surrounding cities, and remove salt in groundwater used by Yucaipa Valley Water District.

The largest chunks of the funding will go to Perris-based Eastern Municipal Water District and Chino-based Inland Empire Utilities Agency to treat wastewater so it can be used again to irrigate parks, golf courses and other outdoor landscaping. Each agency will get $4.9 million.

The funding comes from Prop. 50, a bond passed by voters in 2002. Fran Spivy-Weber, a member of the State Water Resources Control Board, will give a check to the agencies Wednesday in Rancho Cucamonga.

Read more on this story from Riverside’s Press-Enterprise by clicking here.

July 22, 2008 · Filed Under Riverside - San Bernardino

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Indian reservation asks judge to determine their water entitlement; ruling could affect 6 water agencies & 2900 property owners

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 29, 2008 at 6:26 am

From Riverside’s Press-Enterprise:

On the edge of a dirt road, Anthony Madrigal Jr. peers over the same sage-covered, boulder-strewn land that his Cahuilla ancestors have lived on for thousands of years. But it’s not the tribal land that’s got residents of Southwestern Riverside County so concerned as much as the water beneath it — and who will get the right to use it.

Cahuilla Creek, a mostly dry riverbed that snakes through the reservation near Anza, belies the amount of water in an aquifer below. Concerned that development in the area will draw on groundwater that belongs to them, the Cahuilla Band of Indians and a smaller nearby tribe asked a federal judge to establish just how much water they’re entitled to.

Although it is unclear what that amount will be, the tribes’ request comes at a time of drought and legal restrictions that have cut water supplies to the Inland region. The ruling could affect thousands of property owners and as many as six major water agencies across much of the 750-square-mile watershed of the Santa Margarita River that stretches from the Anza Valley to Camp Pendleton.

The tribes recently notified the agencies and some 2,900 property owners along the rural back roads of Anza, Aguanga and Sage to the vineyards and avocado groves of Temecula and beyond that they are being added as defendants in the decades-old court case.

Madrigal said tribal members want to legally define the amount of water they are entitled to so they have certainty and the necessary resources to live on their homeland for generations to come. “The tribe can’t sell the reservation. We don’t have the luxury of picking up and moving,” he said.

Some homeowners who are nervous about losing some of their water have formed groups to share legal fees and hire attorneys. The Anza-Aguanga Citizens for Water Rights already counts 1,700 members. The rural areas near the tribal reservations depend solely on local water supplies for drinking and to irrigate crops, and don’t have the infrastructure to import supplies like most urban areas.

“More than anything else, there is this honest fear they have their life savings in their home and they’ll be left without water,” said Jackie Spanley, who used to be an Anza Valley Municipal Advisory Council member and is organizing another citizens group.

Read the rest of this story from Riverside’s Press-Enterprise by clicking here.

May 29, 2008 · Filed Under Groundwater, Indian Water Rights, Riverside - San Bernardino

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Round table lays out region’s water woes to local officials and planners

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 3, 2008 at 8:21 am

From Riverside’s Press-Enterprise, news from a meeting held on Friday regarding the region’s water woes:

The round table held by water officials from across Riverside and San Bernardino counties was aimed at informing local officials and planners about the mounting water woes so they can consider adopting local ordinances that conserve the vital resource, among other actions.

“There is a crisis, believe me,” Tony Pack, general manager of Eastern Municipal Water District, told the more than 300 people at the symposium. The Perris-based agency recently told the developers of nine major residential and warehouse projects in western Riverside County that it couldn’t guarantee a water supply for the next 20 years. Additionally, farmers across western Riverside County are getting, on average, 30 percent less water to irrigate their crops.

The problems stem mainly from a 20 to 30 percent reduction in deliveries to Southern California from the Sacramento Delta, a step taken to protect a threatened fish that gets killed in the water pumps. But the Colorado River is in the grips of an eight-year drought, and last year’s record dry year left one of the Inland region’s key aquifers at its lowest level since 1965 in some parts.

To read the rest of this story from the Riverside Press-Enterprise, click here.

February 3, 2008 · Filed Under Riverside - San Bernardino, Water Supply

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