Editorial: A bitter pill - Lake Red Bluff lost
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 5, 2008 at 6:29 amFrom the Tehama County Daily News, this editorial:
Red Bluff’s recent decision to file a lawsuit against Tehama-Colusa Canal Authority over its proposed pumping project next to the Red Bluff Diversion Dam has stirred up quite a buzz around town and within the farming community. It is unfortunate, though, that too many folks in our community confuse the multiple issues surrounding the future of Lake Red Bluff.
Let’s start with the hardest pill to swallow. In all likelihood, the community will lose Lake Red Bluff. Best case, it would remain a few weeks to two months each year. Worst case, it’s drained permanently. Nobody wants to be the first to say this publicly, but it needs to be said.
We’re not happy about it and don’t expect anyone in Red Bluff or Tehama County to be. But the fate of the lake is in the hands of Judge Oliver Wanger of the U.S. District Court’s Eastern District in Fresno. He has given every indication the lake will be returned to a river - including a ruling July 18 that water diversions on the Sacramento River-San Joaquin Delta pose irreparable harm to three endangered species of fish.
We could beat our chests and argue that improved quality of life, a quarter-billion dollars of agriculture and $4 million annual benefit to Red Bluff should trump three species of fish. We may be right, but we would be ignoring the reality of the situation.
Read more of this editorial from the Tehama County Daily News by clicking here.
It’s the first rain of the season - don’t forget to turn off your sprinklers!
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 3, 2008 at 6:25 amWith rain forecasted statewide, Aqua Blog Maven is reminding you to turn off your sprinklers.
Countywide poll uncovers widespread concern over Orange County’s water supply; 70% of county voters support seawater desalination
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 2, 2008 at 5:52 amFrom Market Watch:
Today the Orange County Business Council and the Los Angeles/Orange County Building Trades Council released the results of a jointly sponsored public opinion survey measuring Orange County residents’ attitudes toward the county’s water supply. The poll of registered voters uncovered widespread concern about water reliability and revealed broad support for tapping the Pacific Ocean as one way to address the county and region’s water shortages.
The countywide telephone survey conducted the week of September 22nd demonstrated the public is attune to Orange County’s water supply crisis as county officials scramble to prepare for additional cuts to the county’s imported water supply (Click here to view the Memorandum: http://media.marketwire.com/attachments/200810/471678_OCBC-OCBTCWATERPOLLMEMO.doc).
Some of the key findings from the survey include:
– 87% of respondents believe that Orange County needs new sources of
fresh water.
– 72% of respondents believe that seawater desalination is a good idea.
– 71% believe that local water agencies should add desalinated seawater
to their overall water portfolio.
– 61% said would pay a few dollars more on their monthly water bill for
high quality desalinated water that is drought-proof and reliable.“Orange County residents overwhelmingly support innovative solutions to improve water reliability,” said Lucy Dunn, President of the Orange County Business Council. “The state has already approved one seawater desalination plant for San Diego County; now Orange County must also ensure a local, drought-proof water supply for our residents and businesses. We urge state and local officials to move quickly and approve the proposed Desalination Facility in Huntington Beach,” she said.
Read the rest of this story from Market Watch by clicking here.
Governor signs SB 187 to fund initial work at the Salton Sea
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 28, 2008 at 6:09 am
From MyDesert.com:
Restoration of the Salton Sea got a boost Saturday when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation to help fund initial work to preserve the troubled inland lake.
Senate Bill 187 by state Sen. Denise Ducheny, D-San Diego, would establish the ground rules for spending $47 million in previously approved bond funds to aid the dying sea. Ducheny had intended for the bill to commit the state to a long-term restoration of the sea, which one plan estimated would cost $8.9 billion.
But the measure was amended to limit the state’s commitment to activities outlined in what’s known as Period One of the plan. That period, which runs through 2013 with a $508 million mostly unfunded budget, calls for a variety of work including initial projects to preserve endangered fish populations as well as developing a baseline of data on air, fish, birds and sea sediment, according to state officials.
The governor appropriated $17.8 million from the bond funds from the 2008-09 budget; the remaining funds will have to be appropriated annually. Read more from MyDesert.com by clicking here.
Saving water resources: ” … landscaping is one of those areas where we can make major progress first, where we can really work to be good stewards of the environment”
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 9, 2008 at 9:02 amFrom the San Bernardino Sun:
Squinting as he gazed out over the barren, sun-dried landscape, James Baird was seeing a field of possibilities.
Baird, a professor of botany and plant sciences at UC Riverside, is the leading mind behind the annual Turfgrass and Landscape Field Day at UCR. The event, sponsored by UCR’s Agriculture and Natural Resources and Cooperative Extension programs, is aimed at bringing together academic research and industry economics toward a broader goal of more efficient, water-saving landscaping technologies.
“Water is only going to get more scarce,” said Baird, a new faculty member who brought back the event on Thursday after a multiyear hiatus. “And landscaping is one of those areas where we can make major progress first, where we can really work to be good stewards of the environment.”
The story in the Inland Empire is a similar one playing out throughout the American West, where explosive economic and population growth in recent decades have tested the limits of the arid region’s capacity to provide enough water for everyone. Complex but aging systems of reservoirs, aqueducts and dams engineered to accommodate last century’s western expansion are near their limits, and the prospect that climate change will result in less water in the future is an added concern.
So, Baird said, part of the answer to living comfortably but responsibly in a region, that on average receives less than 20 inches of rain per year, is more environmentally friendly and less thirsty landscaping solutions.
Read more from the San Bernardino Sun by clicking here.
Save up to 40% of landscape water and still have a beautiful lawn
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 3, 2008 at 2:14 pmFrom Market Watch, this press release:
The California Association of Nurseries and Garden Centers offers consumers with lawns these water-saving tips in the face of widespread drought cutbacks affecting many California cities.
Following these simple steps will reduce the amount of water your home lawn requires by nearly 40% in loose soils or 20% in dense, clayey soils, and will cut down on the time needed for watering, mowing, and fertilizing:— How you mow and irrigate your lawn makes a big difference in how much water it needs to look lush and beautiful:
– Set the right mower height for these common grasses: Kentucky Bluegrass 1.5-2.5 inches; Colonial Bentgrass 0.25-0.5 inch; Bermuda Grass 0.5-1 inch; Dwarf Fescue 1-1.5 inches; Tall Fescue and St. Augustine Grass 1.5-2 inches. Allow the grass to grow at least one-third higher than its cut height before mowing again.
– Water in repeated short cycles one-half hour apart to apply 1 inch of water — place several plastic picnic cups in a grid to determine how many total minutes is needed — while avoiding runoff and getting good soil absorption: soil should be moist 6-8 inches deep after watering.
– Avoid watering again until the soil dries. Proper mowing and irrigation go hand in hand, encouraging deep-rooted growth and allowing you to water at 5-7 day intervals and mow every 10-14 days even in hot, arid conditions.
Get more outdoor water conservation tips from the California Association of Nurseries and Garden Centers press release by clicking here.
Weekend Wrap-up: stories not to be missed!
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 25, 2008 at 6:00 amFor those of you who took the weekend off, there were plenty of interesting stories posted. Here are the top four:
With much attention focused on exports of water out of the Delta, the Delta Vision Task Force says it’s also about upstream diversions as well: “You can’t have your own pipes crossing the Delta with water that used to flow through the Delta and claim it has no effect,” said Phil Isenberg, the chairman of the Delta Vision task force, which was convened by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in early 2007. He was referring to San Francisco’s Hetch Hetchy project and the East Bay Municipal Utility District’s Mokelumne River aqueducts, which take water from upstream dams and deliver them by pipe to the Bay Area. “It isn’t just them. It’s us,” said Isenberg, a former state Assembly leader and mayor of Sacramento. Click here for the story from Mike Taugher at Inside Bay Area.
Poseidon clears its final regulatory hurdle at the State Lands Commission on Friday: “The Pacific Ocean has been added to the state’s water supply portfolio,” said Scott Maloni, a vice president of Poseidon, which is based in Stamford, Conn. Poseidon hopes to be delivering desalinated water by 2011. Click here for coverage wrap-up.
Water banking explained: The San Jose Mercury News wrote an informative article about groundwater banking, and how it works. I’ve supplemented it with pictures of groundwater banking infrastructure from Aquafornia’s photo library. Check it out by clicking here.
Delta Deadlock: The Fresno Bee covers the history and problems facing the Delta in a comprehensive article well worth the read. Check it out by clicking here.
Of course, there were plenty of other stories as well, so please, read on ….
How low is Lake Oroville? A picture tells the story ….
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 22, 2008 at 6:10 am
Thanks to Dale at the Department of Water Resources for sending me this. Picture date is July 24th.
Third draft of Delta Vision Strategic Plan now available online
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 18, 2008 at 6:36 amFrom the Delta Vision website:
The third staff draft of the Delta Vision Strategic Plan is now available for downloading. The third plan will be discussed by the Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force at its August 21-22 meeting. Public comment can be made to the plan by September 2 for inclusion in the next draft and by September 30 for inclusion in the final draft.
Click here to download the third draft of the Strategic Plan.
Click here for the agenda & meeting materials for the Delta Vision meeting at the end of this week.
Weblinks are included with the meeting materials, and will also be posted later this week.
60,000 water customers in Sacramento County urged to cut use by 10 percent; with American River allocation all used up, city is relying solely on groundwater for rest of year
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 17, 2008 at 7:00 amFrom the Sacramento Bee:
The Sacramento County Water Agency is urging all customers to immediately cut water consumption 10 percent, due to a reduction in surface water supplies from the American River. If customers don’t achieve the 10 percent request, the agency could call for stricter measures, such as limiting landscape watering to designated days.
The agency normally gets about 10 percent of its supply from the river via Folsom Lake. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation recently notified the agency, however, that this supply will be reduced 25 percent due to the drought.
Because the agency had already consumed much of its allocation due to high customer demand, the result is a total halt in river deliveries. It is now relying entirely on groundwater for the remainder of the year, said Herb Niederberger, water agency division chief.
Read the rest of this story from the Sacramento Bee by clicking here.
Santa Barbara’s desalination plant to get re-re-examination
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 8, 2008 at 6:09 amFrom the Santa Barbara Independent:
It turns out the 3-to-2 council majority was not sufficient to authorize a $122,000 study of what’s required to fire up the City of Santa Barbara’s 18-year-old desalination plant. Because a four-vote majority is required for such a study, this week’s council “authorization” lacks legal authority, and the councilmembers will re-examine the issue this coming Tuesday. This past week, councilmembers Iya Falcone and Grant House were not present, so only five members of the seven-member body were on hand to vote.
Water is one of those quintessentially Southern California topics that can’t be discussed without someone getting their hackles up, and the desalination plant — built in response to the sustained drought that afflicted the South Coast in the late 1980s and early ‘90s — is no exception. Tuesday’s discussion was about whether to even study what would be required to get the plant — initially designed to provide water for the City of Santa Barbara, Goleta, and Montecito — operating again in case of emergencies. Water planners argued the study would provide solid information about how much it would cost to make the desal plant — on which City Hall spent $34 million in 1991 —operational, whether new technology might reduce the energy demand, and what kinds of permits might be required and from which government agencies. They also argued such information might prove useful as Santa Barbara prepares to revamp its general plan.
Councilmember Das Williams worried that a new water supply — the original desal plant was designed to produce 7,500 acre-feet of water a year, more than half the city’s total water demand — would prove growth-inducing. He argued City Hall should spend its money studying water conservation, the long term effects of climate change, and how City Hall could further its water recycling efforts. And because desalination plants are require an inordinate amount of energy, he fretted that the operation of the plant could wipe out substantial energy conservation gains City Hall has recently made. Finally, he contended that the ratepayers of Goleta and Montecito should not get a free ride since they might benefit from the operation of an emergency water supply.
Read the rest of this article from the Santa Barbara Independent by clicking here.
Poseidon’s desalination plant up for final approval today; links to webcast
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 6, 2008 at 7:27 amFrom the Associated Press via San Bernardino Sun:
Amid a prolonged statewide drought, California officials are considering whether to give final approval to a company that wants to turn salt-drenched sea water into 50 million gallons of drinking water a day.
In green-lighting the project, the California Coastal Commission, which meets on Wednesday, would go against the advice of its staff, which has long opposed the desalination plant proposed just north of San Diego. If built by Connecticut-based Poseidon Resources Corp., the $300 million plant would be the largest of its kind in the Western Hemisphere.
More than a dozen other desalination plants are under consideration across California, including one in Huntington Beach in neighboring Orange County, as pressure mounts to find alternative sources of safe drinking water.
Orange County opened the world’s largest water recycling plant last year. Meanwhile, Los Angeles leaders are considering purifying wastewater for use as drinking-water, a process derisively known as “toilet to tap.”
“In the nine months since we got preliminary approval, the governor declared a statewide drought, there’s been a water state of emergency in nine counties in Northern California and the agricultural industry in San Diego has had 30 percent of its water cut,” said Scott Maloni, vice president of Poseidon Resources. “Things are getting bad. There’s no silver bullet here but we’re also not going to conserve and recycle our way out of this water crisis.”
The coastal commission gave preliminary approval to the project last November, subject to a list of more than 20 conditions, including Poseidon’s plans to make the plant carbon neutral and to provide for wetlands restoration as mitigation.
Read the full text of this article from the AP & the San Bernardino Sun by clicking here.
Update: San Bernardino Sun has pulled the article; however, here is a link to the same article from the Capital Ag Press - click here.
WATCH THE WEBCAST: Click here to visit the California Coastal Commission website. You’ll find links for the webcast with various options in the left-hand column. The meeting is scheduled to start at 9 am.
LADWP launches water conservation ‘tip of the week’: By cutting water use in small but significant ways, Angelenos become part of the solution
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 5, 2008 at 6:32 amFrom the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, this press release:
The Los Angeles Department of Water Power (LADWP) today launched its first water conservation “Tip of the Week” to remind ratepayers that cutting water use even by modest amounts can add up to tremendous savings in terms of both resources as well as money. The LADWP, which imports between 85-90% of its water annually, has seen its water supplies cut back drastically this year and must achieve water savings through conservation efforts.
Tip #1: Cut outdoor watering to three days a week. Up to 40% of the city’s potable water supplies are used on irrigating lawns and plants. By reducing the number of days, customers can realize great water savings and still maintain healthy plants.
Set your sprinklers for more days in between watering and cut a few minutes per day per station. This can save between 750 to 1,500 gallons a month. If possible, water with a hose as this is a great way to monitor how much water is needed rather than relying upon timers that have the potential to saturate lawns and flower beds.
Adjust sprinklers so that grass is getting watered and not running over onto sidewalks, driveways or into the gutter. Step on the grass. If it springs back when you lift your foot, it doesn’t need watering. Aerate (puncture) you lawn at least two times a year — fall and spring — so water can more easily soak in and doesn’t run off as easily. Re-set irrigation controls for shorter cycles as the weather cools.
As dry conditions continue and water resources become more limited, consider replacing existing water thirsty plants with a drought tolerant variety and sprinklers with a drip irrigation system that is particularly water efficient on individual plants (though not practical for lawns). Turn soil regularly and incorporate compost to improve its ability to resist evaporation and retain moisture. Consider covering exposed areas with a two to four-inch layer of mulch or bark.
“There is no doubt that cutting our outdoor water use will greatly help us in regard to overcoming this statewide water challenge, leaving us with plenty of water for the true necessities of life — drinking, bathing, cooking and other personal uses,” said David Nahai, CEO and general manager of the LADWP. “We’re making these changes at the Nahai household and already our water bill has been halved.”
To learn more about water conservation programs offered by the LADWP and the Metropolitan Water District, and for conservation tips for indoor and outdoor water savings, please visit www.bewaterwise.com or www.ladwp.com.
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the nation’s largest municipal utility, provides reliable, low-cost water and power services to Los Angeles residents and businesses in an environmentally responsible manner. LADWP serves about 1.4 million electric customers and 680,000 water customers in Los Angeles.
New reports available on economic efficiency of water use & allocation, tribal communication, and financing Delta improvements and environmental mitigation
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 31, 2008 at 6:53 amFrom the California Water Plan E-news:
Economic efficiency of water development & allocation:
A paper recently submitted to the Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force examines the economic efficiency of water use and allocation in California. It was written by economist Roger Mann. The paper identifies key issues related to the economic efficiency of water development, allocation and use in California and discusses general policy changes that might improve economic efficiency. Click here to read the report.Tribal Communication Plan:
A Tribal Communication Plan has been posted on the Water Plan Web site. It is intended to help everyone involved in the California Water Plan – including the Department of Water Resources and all
other state and federal agencies – to communicate appropriately and effectively with all California Native American Tribes about water issues that may affect them in their territories and ancestral
homelands. Click here to read the report.
And from my own wanderings, this report from the California Research Bureau, commissioned by the Delta Vision Task Force titled “Financing Delta Improvements and Environmental Mitigation”:
Resolution of the Delta’s water supply, water quality, and fish problems may involve
building various structures, possibly including gates, pumps, canals, levees, and dams, and undertaking landscaping rearrangements to improve habitat for several species of flora and fauna. Resolution also involves changing water flow regimes in ways that would make more or less water, but probably less, available for human uses. This work and these changes will cost serious money. Cost estimates for many of these actions have not yet been developed. This paper explores approaches to financing these “improvements” and “mitigations.” While a little abstract, this is abstraction that matters. It will determine from whose pockets a good deal of money will come.California has a long history of financing water projects. The first section of this paper reviews this history, in hopes of identifying water-financing principles that might be adapted to Delta improvements and mitigation. Some deep-seated controversies about how Delta improvements should be financed have roots in this history, and it may be helpful to point them out.
A core idea in California’s approach to financing water projects is that beneficiaries should pay for them. Decades ago, this was a straightforward proposition – people or water districts should pay for the necessary dams, canals, and pumps and the costs of operating them in proportion to the amount of water they received. In the current age of rising environmental sensitivity, it is a little muddier. An alternative formulation that applies, at least crudely, to housing developments and highway projects, is that project proponents should pay to mitigate at least some of the environmental harm that their project is likely to cause. The second section of this paper explores this controversial subject. It seems unlikely that any consensus can be reached about how to finance facilities in the Delta without reaching some agreement about how to deal with this matter.
Read the full text of this report by clicking here.
Seek balanced water solution; farm coalition leader responds to Bill Jennings commentary
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 19, 2008 at 3:37 pmFrom the Tracy Press, this response from Mark Wade of the California Farm Water Coalition to Bill Jennings, who cited agriculture (in this commentary) as the real culprit in California’s water wars:
If Bill Jennings is going to attack portions of California’s agriculture industry for using water to grow crops (cited in “Water war begs for compromise,” Jon Mendelson’s Second Thoughts, July 12), he needs to take a realistic look at what crops are grown and why.
While Jennings criticizes the production of so-called “nonfood” crops, such as alfalfa, he ignores the fact that alfalfa is the main source of protein for California’s dairy and beef industries. Alfalfa provides enormous amounts of habitat for wildlife, from insects to raptors, and it produces its own nitrogen, reducing the chemical fertilizers needed for production.
Jennings goes on by slamming cotton as a “nonfood” crop, but most people, and I bet Jennings is one of them, wear cotton products every day. Cotton is a renewable resource and, despite biased beliefs, is an efficient user of water. As far as production goes, California cotton plantings are down 80 percent from their high in the 1980s, because farmers have shifted to growing other crops demanded by the public.
Folks like Jennings, with their tired old arguments and divisive tactics, are going to get left behind as California seeks a balanced solution to its water crisis that includes all water users.
Odds and ends: Bond worries, hot stains, conservation, and aliens and the Las Vegas pumping plan - and more!
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 15, 2008 at 8:47 amRoundup from assorted blogs on water issues:
Bad news for San Diego foretold if this bond proposal fizzles out: San Diego realtor William Johnson sees a negative outcome for San Diego if the $9.3 billion bond proposal championed by Schwarenegger and Feinstein does not pass. The judicial decision to restrict pumping from the Delta severely restricts water imports for San Diego, who is 90% dependent on imported water (there is basically no groundwater in San Diego). This will create a ’stunning shortfall’ for San Diego that won’t be able to be met by conservation alone. Writes Mr. Johnson: We of course can be hopeful for rain showers but the weather man says the forecast is for more drought. So good luck with that. Desalination is opposed, recycling plan not ready, importing more water seems to off the table. So if this proposal doesn’t get done, we best hope someone has some connections with the rain gods and start praying. More from “The Real Estate Textbook” blog by clicking here.
Welcome to Hot Stain Nation blogs the FireDogLake blog: What’s a hot stain you ask? A “hot stain” is an area that is running out of safe water to drink, and this blogger says that definition includes many parts of the USA. And who is to blame for this? Agribusiness, and the DFS: the Dirty Fanatical Suits from the Chicago Cult who sacrificed our economy, our health care, our food security, and our national security as offerings to the Great Ghoul Of Globalization and the megacorps who spawned the Ghoul. The Dirty Fanatical Suits who will sacrifice any community, species, or people just to get bigger quarterly profits — and hence bigger bonuses. The Dirty Fanatical Suits who kill us off with mass poisoning they call “pollution” and kill off our Republic with the corporatist power grab they call “FISA”. The Dirty Fanatical Suits: traitors within our nation, our communities, and our common biosphere. What can we do about it? While the DFS is being vanquished, we all need to figure out how to reduce our ‘water footprint’. More from the FireDogLake blog by clicking here.
Dumb Question Dept.: If Earth is a Closed System and We’re Running Out of Water, Where’s it All Going? The Treehugger blog answers the question with a basic lesson on the water cycle, and notes this: For one thing, the tremendous and unprecedented rise in our global population — especially in lesser developed countries — has put significant pressure on our finite supplies of freshwater. Whether it be through our contamination of some of the water supply, our relentless urbanization or our aggressive extraction of its reservoirs for agricultural irrigation, anthropogenic influences have sparked major variabilities in the Earth’s water cycle whose implications we do not yet fully understand. More from the Treehugger blog by clicking here.
Save water, ditch your lawn! says the Verde Vivo blog: Why is a green lawn even an option when drought conditions exist? Hello, Sacramento, ever hear of Xeriscaping? Xeriscape landscapes aren’t just cactus and rock gardens nor do they require vast “seas of gravel and plastic”. They can be green, cool landscapes full of beautiful plants maintained with water-efficient practices. Find out more about Xeriscaping from the Verde Vivo blog by clicking here.
More on conservation: 9 simple ways to save water from Real Simple - click here.
Water Wired weighs in on the Las Vegas pumping plan, and makes this prediction: My take on all this: Las Vegas may not get all the water it wants, but it will get what it needs. Like it or not, Las Vegas is Nevada’s economic engine. It’s the gambling (ooops - gaming) revenues that allow Nevadans freedom from state income taxes. And having a powerful politician like Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) does not hurt. But it will be interesting to see what happens if severe impacts do result from the pumping. More from the Water Wired blog by clicking here.
PRO Nevada blog asks where the environmentalists are? Where are the environmentalist protesters? Where are the discussions on fish, turtles, rabbits and plants that will be destroyed with this water drainage. I don’t understand how all the all this can happen without hundreds of lawsuits filed by US Fish and Wildlife, Sierra Club, Forestry Services and even Indian Reservations! This doesn’t just effect the farmers and ranchers. (The PRO Nevada blog also wants you to know that “Rural Nevada is more than aliens.” How they will be affected by this is not known.) More from the PRO Nevada blog by clicking here.
How does drinking water get to the Santa Clarita Valley?
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 14, 2008 at 7:01 am
From the Santa Clarita Signal, Aquafornia’s home base, part one of a two-part series:
Snow falls on the rocky crest of Kettle Rock in Northern California, 500 miles from Santa Clarita. In this remote and rugged stretch of the Sierra Nevada, carpeted with coniferous trees and skirted with meadows, few hikers ever make it to the 7,300-foot summit or leave their footprints in the snow pack here. But, this is where our story begins - with a single drop of water, melting from the snow pack atop Kettle Rock.
Our story ends in Santa Clarita Valley, where that same drop of water drips from a tap. “This is your watershed. This is the state’s watershed. This is Santa Clarita’s watershed,” said a man who has devoted his life to holding back the forces of climate change threatening the state’s water supply and the supply of water to Santa Clarita. “This watershed is the watershed of the State Water Project, there is no other source.”
Jim Wilcox is the project manager for the Feather River Coordinated Resource Management team in Plumas County. For more than two decades, he and others on his team have been working steadily, and quietly, in the tranquil meadows of Plumas County, trying to reverse a disastrous trend in the changing profile of this landscape. The meadows are disappearing.
Read the rest of this story from the Santa Clarita Signal by clicking here.
Rewards of conservation: rate increases
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 10, 2008 at 6:44 amFrom the Long Beach Press-Telegram, this editorial:
Water rate increases not only are defensible, they are a sign of success. Long Beach Water Department customers have been saving water diligently, and their reward will be an increase in their water bills. Does this seem right?
It is exactly right. An ironic effect of cutting down on water usage is that it cuts down on water revenues, which is part of the reason for the planned rate increase.
But it is only one of several reasons, including higher costs for electricity that powers water pumps and for other materials, supplies and labor involved in delivering water from both distant sources and underground storage. The cost of imported water, which supplies half of Long Beach’s needs, has risen 14 percent.
Cutting back is essential because, as Long Beach residents seem to understand better than most, California’s drought conditions are worsening relentlessly. The Sierra snowpack this season was less than expected at a time when more is badly needed, and water reserves are dwindling.
The proposed increase of 15.8 percent would add about $7 a month to an average residential water and sewage bill of about $42 a month. Obviously, however, some of that is offset by lower usage, which is more than 10 percent lower than a 10-year average.
The editorial praises the leadership of the Long Beach Water Department, who besides taking the lead on conservation, has also been working on water recycling & desalination programs to cope with long-term shortages. Read the full text of this editorial from the Long Beach Press-Telegram by clicking here.
Los Angeles area fights to save $1 million views of Silver Lake
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 10, 2008 at 6:26 am
From Bloomberg News:
Residents of the Silver Lake neighborhood in Los Angeles are fighting for their water. Not to drink so much as to look at.
Water officials plan to decommission the reservoir that anchors this tree-studded community in the city’s northeast corner within six years. That has residents, including film makers, artists and architects, worried that they’ll lose the lake that drew many of them to the area.
“One of the reasons we moved to Silver Lake was for the view, which is incredible,” said Laura Ceron, an actress who plays nurse Chuny Marquez on “ER,” NBC Universal’s long- running hospital drama. “The reservoir is a little paradise. It feels like you are right next to a beach.”
Last October, water quality tests of the reservoir found elevated levels of bromate, a suspected carcinogen, reigniting debate over water safety in a neighborhood where lakefront homes can cost more than $1 million. After draining and refilling the lake, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power still plans to take it out of service in compliance with a federal law aimed at preventing pollution of drinking water.
The agency will then turn the 795 million-gallon (3.01 billion-liter) reservoir over to the city of Los Angeles, which could drain and fill it with earth and shrubbery, or leave it filled with water for emergency use. The uncertainty has kept residents in the 80-year-old neighborhood holding public meetings and vowing to battle for their water views.
Read the full text of this story from Bloomberg News by clicking here.
Lake Powell is at highest level in 6 years
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 8, 2008 at 8:31 pm
From the San Jose Mercury News:
This is a good summer to take in the sunshine and canyon country scenery around Lake Powell on the Utah-Arizona line (assuming you’ve budgeted for gasoline) because the water in the lake is at its highest level in six years and rising.
What’s the big deal? The most prominent effect, according to Friends of Lake Powell—http://www.lakepowell.org/—is that Castle Rock Cut, a major shortcut between sections of the reservoir, is now open to all boats. It also means there’s now enough water to float your boat farther back into some of the canyons that make the lake so much fun to explore.
There’s a lot of shoreline to tour, whether you bring your own power boat or rent one of the many houseboats available. The Lake Powell Guide—http://www.powellguide.com/—says the lake that was formed when the Glen Canyon Dam plugged the Colorado River has nearly 2,000 miles of shore, with 96 major canyons. Get an idea of how jagged the lake is by checking out their map. There’s a directory of outfits that provide land, water and air tours, but the “Fishing” and “Recreation” links all seem to end in dead ends.
The Lake Powell Guide also has a directory of boat rental companies. And yes, you need a boat to see most of the area around the lake because there are few roads in this region. Even Rainbow Bridge National Monument—http://www.nps.gov/rabr/—is
Advertisement
accessible only by boat, unless you get a backpacking permit from the Navajo Nation and hike in. However you get there, you’ll be rewarded with views of the world’s largest known natural bridge.
Read more from the San Jose Mercury News by clicking here.