Prospect of dry weather has San Bernardino water officials thankful for banking for non-rainy days
Posted by: Maven on February 6, 2012 at 7:07 amFrom the San Bernardino Sun:
“It wasn’t long ago when San Bernardino County water officials were thinking about making sure that the season’s rains get properly stored in area basins.
Weather forecasters were talking about another wet winter in local mountains, on par with last year’s huge amounts.
But those rains and snows just haven’t come.
In fact, if the dry weather seen so far this year persists, the region is in for one of the driest years on record, said Douglas Headrick, general manager of the San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District. … “
Continue reading from the San Bernardino Sun by clicking here.
San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water is now banking water in the southern San Joaquin Valley
Posted by: Maven on February 2, 2012 at 7:27 amFrom the Highland Community News:
“San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water is expanding its water banking capabilities by storing 30,000 acre-feet of water in the southern San Joaquin Valley that can be delivered to the valley in times of drought.
“This is to insulate us so we don’t have to pay exorbitant prices for water on the spot market in dry years,” said Douglas Headrick, general manager of the San Bernardino-based water contractor, which supplies State Water Project water from Northern California to more than a dozen agencies in western San Bernardino County.
Headrick said water stored through an arrangement with Kern Delta Water District in Bakersfield will cost about $200 more per acre-foot than the $600 Valley District already pays for State Water Project water. But he said the investment will be well worth it in the long run, particularly when California faces its next drought. … “
Continue reading from the Highland Community News by clicking here.
Water barons will corner market in new ‘Chinatown’, says commentary
Posted by: Maven on January 8, 2012 at 8:10 amFrom the Sacramento Bee, this commentary by Patricia Schifferle, a former legislative director and consultant and principal/ director for Pacific Advocates:
“There is more money in selling water in California than there is in farming.
A one-sentence provision inserted in the 2012 budget bill by U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein will allow a handful of powerful San Joaquin Valley water oligarchs to sell federally subsidized agricultural water in a private market for as much as 150 times more than what they pay for it.
This relaxation of publicly owned water supplies for private gain strips out protections approved by Congress in 1992.
They call them “water transfers,” and for the last 15 years California has been quietly edging into a very lucrative privatized water sales market that seeks to expedite the movement of cheap agricultural water from Northern California to thirsty Southern California and Bay Area cities. … “
Continue reading this commentary at the Sacramento Bee by clicking here.
Madera water bank still isn’t officially operating
Posted by: Maven on December 17, 2011 at 7:23 amFrom the Fresno Bee News Blog:
“It sounded like the water bank at Madera Ranch would be taking deposits immediately after the grand opening ceremonies in August. I called last week and discovered the bank still isn’t operating.
The Madera Irrigation District is hoping to begin allowing excess river water to seep into the ground at the ranch next month. In dry times, the water is pumped up and used by farmers. … “
Continue reading from the Fresno Bee News Blog by clicking here.
A Run on the Water Bank: A determined investigator pursues a Los Angeles billionaire for allegedly seizing control of the state’s water supply. It’s Chinatown again, Jake.
Posted by: Maven on December 13, 2011 at 8:46 amFrom California Lawyer (hat tip to C-WIN):
“Who is Adam Keats, and why is he so focused on Los Angeles billionaire Stewart Resnick? Attorneys representing Resnick’s vast agricultural holdings in the Central Valley wish the troublesome plaintiffs lawyer would just go away.
Keats, 40, is senior counsel at the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), one of the nation’s most aggressive and uncompromising environmental rights organizations. A graduate of UC Davis’s law school, the Massachusetts native has a passion for hiking and backpacking, a fascination with the wilderness philosophies of Henry David Thoreau and John Muir, and a regimen of riding a bicycle four miles to and from his San Francisco office each day – rain or shine.
Resnick, 74, is a silver-haired entrepreneur with a UCLA law degree and a personal fortune estimated at $2 billion. His Los Angeles-based holding company, Roll Global, manages a portfolio of companies that includes Teleflora, Pom Wonderful, Fiji Water, and Paramount Farming Co. – the world’s largest producer of pistachios and almonds. He and his wife, Lynda, are a quintessential power couple with a reputation for political savvy and philanthropy. They live in a spectacular Beaux-Arts mansion in Beverly Hills and have endowed an exhibition hall of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and a neuropsychiatric hospital.
What Keats and Resnick share is an interest in water – and the legal disputes that inevitably accompany its scarcity. … “
Continue reading from California Lawyer by clicking here.
Delta Watch: The rest of the story: Banking water for the future
Posted by: Maven on November 15, 2011 at 8:13 amFrom the Coalition for a Sustainable Delta, the latest issue of Delta Watch:
“A wet 2011 helped California rebound from the multi-year drought that has plagued much of the state, and early rains and snow this fall are a sign that 2012 may be another good water year. But what exactly did we do with all of that water?
With the water year coming to an end in September, much is being made recently about the amount of water exported from the Delta in 2011.
Some have tried to mislead the public into believing that increased water deliveries in 2011 translated into farms, residents and businesses wasting water at the expense of fish and the environment; but, in reality, there is a much more positive story. … “
Continue reading from Delta Watch by clicking here.
Madera Ranch water project gets big start
Posted by: Maven on September 1, 2011 at 8:08 amFrom the Western Farm Press:
“Madera Irrigation District’s new water supply enhancement project has been launched in happy and enthusiastic fashion. A crowd of about 300 gathered at the eastern entrance to the unique 13,646-acre Madera Ranch as a ceremonial ribbon was cut and a cooperative agreement was signed by MID directors and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Those attending heard several speakers praise the project as an excellent tool for creating a solution that generates short-term benefits that can help ease larger state water supply and environmental issues and problems.
“What MID is doing will improve Madera County’s water supplies and reduce groundwater overdraft for decades to come by capturing flood release water from the San Joaquin and Fresno rivers,” said Madera Irrigation District Board of Directors President Gary Bursey. “This project will protect the conjunctive use of surface water and groundwater on which we rely and be a major step forward in integrated regional water management.” … “
Continue reading from the Western Farm Press by clicking here.
Saturday’s top of the scroll: Madera County water bank set to take deposits
Posted by: Maven on August 13, 2011 at 8:36 amFrom the Fresno Bee:
“The San Joaquin Valley has a new place to put billions of gallons of precious water — you just can’t see it.
Beneath the prairie southwest of Madera, an irrigation district will send enough water over the next several years to fill half of Millerton Lake. It’s an underground water bank, the first major water-storage project in decades for this area.
After 14 years, two failed attempts and many hurdles, it is finally happening. The federal government this month approved years of environmental analysis. The first river water soon will be sent to begin soaking in underground, ready to be pumped out during dry years. … “
Continue reading from the Fresno Bee by clicking here.
Reclamation issues a Record of Decision for the Madera Irrigation District Water Supply Enhancement Project
Posted by: Maven on August 11, 2011 at 8:25 amFrom the Bureau of Reclamation, this press release:
“The Bureau of Reclamations Mid-Pacific Regional Director, Don Glaser, has signed a Record of Decision for the Madera Irrigation District’s Water Supply Enhancement Project, which includes construction of a groundwater bank on property known as Madera Ranch, west of the city of Madera in Madera County, Calif.
“This project is another important step toward enhancing the reliability and flexibility of water supplies in the Central Valley,” said Glaser. “The project also illustrates Reclamation’s commitment to work with its partners on long-term water supply improvements.”
Reclamation’s Record of Decision (ROD) includes approval for the Madera Irrigation District (MID) to bank a portion of its Central Valley Project water outside MIDs service area in the Water Supply Enhancement Project (WSEP) and approval for extension of a Reclamation-owned canal, and allows for any potential federal funding to assist in the cost of the project. … “
Continue reading from the Bureau of Reclamation by clicking here.
Lois Henry: McAllister Ranch deal all wet in city’s eyes
Posted by: Maven on August 8, 2011 at 7:05 amFrom Lois Henry’s column at the Bakersfield Californian (this one’s a little old – published July 26) – hat tip to Mark Grossi’s twitter feed:
“If there’s water involved, lawyers won’t be far behind. So it came as no surprise (to me, anyway) when the City of Bakersfield had its attorney fire a warning shot last week at two local water districts that had hoped to turn the bankrupt McAllister Ranch housing development into a groundwater banking facility.
The two water storage districts, Rosedale Rio Bravo and Buena Vista, bought the 2,000-acre ranch for $22 million and wanted to get water on at least some of it right away under a “pilot project.” … “
Continue reading from the Bakersfield Californian by clicking here.
Wednesday’s top of the scroll: Storing water for a dry day leads to lawsuits
Posted by: Maven on July 27, 2011 at 8:14 amFrom the New York Times:
“Peter Key knew something was strange when the water levels in his tropical fish tank began to go down last summer. Then the washing machine took 40 minutes to fill, and the toilets would not flush.
But even as Mr. Key and neighbors spent $14,000 to deepen their community well here, they had identified a likely culprit.
They blamed water banking, a system in which water-rights holders — mostly in the rural West — store water in underground reservoirs either for their own future use or for leasing to fast-growing urban areas. … “
Continue reading from the New York Times by clicking here.
Reclamation releases final environmental documents for Madera Irrigation District Water Supply Enhancement Project
Posted by: Maven on June 11, 2011 at 6:18 amFrom the Bureau of Reclamation, this press release:
“The Bureau of Reclamation has released the Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Madera Irrigation District Water Supply Enhancement Project, which would include construction of a groundwater bank on property known as Madera Ranch, west of the City of Madera in Madera County, California.
Proposed federal actions include Reclamation’s approval for the Madera Irrigation District (MID) to bank a portion of its Central Valley Project Friant Division contract water supply outside of its service area in the new groundwater bank, approval to extend a Reclamation-owned canal, and any potential federal funding to assist in the cost of the project.
Reclamation will make a decision on the proposed action after at least 30 days following release of the Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). After the 30-day waiting period, Reclamation will complete a Record of Decision discussing the factors leading to that decision. … “
Click here for the link to the environmental documents.
Madera Water Bank reaching milestone this year
Posted by: Maven on June 10, 2011 at 7:08 amFrom the Fresno Bee News Blog:
“It has been nearly six years since the Madera Irrigation District approved a popular but controversial groundwater banking project — a long-awaited idea that seemed to finally be taking off. But there were years of hurdles ahead.
Authorities had to go through a complicated federal environmental process to make sure protected animals, such as the Fresno kangaroo rat, would not be harmed. … “
Continue reading from the Fresno Bee News Blog by clicking here.
Kern County: Housing collapse creates water banking windfall
Posted by: Maven on May 23, 2011 at 7:48 amFrom the Bakersfield Californian:
“McAllister Ranch, the iconic failed housing development of the foreclosure crisis, has found new life.
It will become Kern County’s newest water bank, owned and managed jointly by the Rosedale Rio Bravo and Buena Vista water storage districts.
The 2,070 acre development in extreme southwest Bakersfield was once expected to boast 6,000 homes, a golf course and man made lake.
Now, the majority of it will remain undeveloped, according to Eric Averett, Rosedale’s general manager. … “
Continue reading from the Bakersfield Californian by clicking here.
Putting it in the water bank: Officials watch Kern River levels
Posted by: Maven on May 11, 2011 at 7:37 amFrom Bakersfield Now:
“Officials are watching how much more water gets sent down the Kern River and how fast. But, for now all the water is being used locally.
The key will be whether cool temperatures allow a slow snow melt.
Water’s been roaring down the river thanks to the very wet winter and spring. That’s spelled a wide river flow through Bakersfield and lots of water farther west in big holding ponds.
“There’s a lot of water, it’s a good water year,” Kern Water Bank Authority general manager Jon Parker told Eyewitness News. … “
Continue reading the story by clicking here, or watch the newscast below:
Report: Windsor could fill aquifer with Russian River water for ground water banking
Posted by: Maven on April 21, 2011 at 8:47 amFrom the Press-Democrat:
“Early indications are that Windsor could successfully siphon Russian River water and store it in the ground for later use.
Consultants told the Town Council on Wednesday that extracting the river water during high winter flows and injecting it into an aquifer miles away would not harm fish and there would be no significant impacts.
“It’s a mystery to me how you put water in there and it stays confined in the aquifer,” said Councilwoman Debora Fudge in one of the few questions raised about the “groundwater banking.” … “
Continue reading from the Press-Democrat by clicking here.
Madera Water Bank awaits one state permit
Posted by: Maven on April 14, 2011 at 7:35 amFrom the Fresno Bee:
“The long-awaited Madera Water Bank, an underground water-storage project, is one step away from construction after getting a county permit this week.
The Madera Irrigation District, which has been working on the project since 2005, now needs a permit from the California Department of Fish and Game. The permit, which outlines protections for endangered species, is expected in the next two months.
The water bank is popular among politicians and environmentalists, primarily because it does not involve constructing a multibillion-dollar dam.
But the bank has been a lightning rod for controversy since the 1990s. … “
Continue reading from the Fresno Bee by clicking here.
You Tube: Where Delta water meets the tumbleweeds
Posted by: Maven on March 10, 2011 at 8:36 amFrom the Contra Costa Times, posted on YouTube:
“Along the California Aquaduct, near a dry Bakersfield river bed, delta water is stored underground at the Kern Water Bank for use during times of drought.”
Lois Henry: A lesson on carry-over water as Kern water districts scramble to catch every drop
Posted by: Maven on February 2, 2011 at 9:09 amFrom the Bakersfield Californian:
“The skies opened up in December and dumped blessed snow in California’s mountains, flooded our streets and filled our rivers. That’s a good thing, right?
Yes and no. OK, it’s better than having no precipitation, according to water district folks I spoke with recently. But the timing and sheer abundance of snow in the northern mountains created a new headache known by the name “carry over water.”
I know, I know, water guys around here sometimes seem like a bunch of hairy-legged Goldilockses — there’s not enough water; then there’s too much. It’s never juuust right.
Carry over water, though, is an interesting twist in the state’s intricate plumbing system so it is helpful to understand how it works and why it’s such a big deal to Kern County. … “
Continue reading from Lois Henry at the Bakersfield Californian by clicking here.
Fresno Bee News Blog: Oversight committees and ground-water banks
Posted by: Maven on January 19, 2011 at 7:51 amFrom the Fresno Bee’s News Blog:
“In a story I wrote last week about underground water banking, I mentioned that neighbors usually worry about having their wells dried up.
A water official e-mailed Friday assuring me that diligent oversight committees and negotiation have largely solved those problems for many banks.
I think that’s true, but bear with me on this one.
First, let’s explain water banks. … “
Continue reading from the Fresno Bee’s News Blog by clicking here.
Water bank makes waves among Valley farmers; Kingsburg-area growers say wells are going dry
Posted by: Maven on January 14, 2011 at 8:42 amFrom the Fresno Bee:
“Farmers near Kingsburg say a water bank meant to help with irrigation appears to be drying up their wells instead.
But the Kings County Water District — owner and operator of the Apex Ranch Water Bank — says it does just the opposite, bringing extra water into the area. The three-year drought is more likely the cause of wells going dry, district officials say.
Now, even as Kings River floodwater washes over the region and refills the underground aquifer, the two sides negotiate. And the threat of a lawsuit looms. … “
Continue reading from the Fresno Bee by clicking here.
Three lawsuits challenging water bank
Posted by: Maven on October 15, 2010 at 9:09 amFrom the Capital Press:
“Three lawsuits are challenging aspects of California’s largest underground water bank, arguing it serves private interests at the expense of surrounding water districts.
The challenges come at a time when there is increased interest in private investment in water storage and conveyance infrastructure in the state.
“There is a conversation that should be had with regard to privatization of our water,” said Adam Keats, spokesman for the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the plaintiffs. “This is a piece of that battle.”
The lawsuits were filed over the summer in state court in Sacramento and Kern counties by two environmental groups, a fishing group, two neighboring storage districts and two water agencies in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. … “
Continue reading from the Capital Press by clicking here.
Lois Henry: Water banking fight spills out to the public
Posted by: Maven on October 13, 2010 at 8:25 amFrom columnist Lois Henry at the Bakersfield Californian:
“Most of the time, us little people don’t seem to count for much.
Except maybe when you count up how many of us there are. Together we look a little more intimidating, a little less, well little.
That was what Rosedale-Rio Bravo Water Storage District had in mind Tuesday night when they invited landowners in the district to a second mass meeting for an update on ongoing groundwater problems in northwest Bakersfield. They held a similar meeting last May. … “
Continue reading from the Bakersfield Californian by clicking here.
Monday’s top of the scroll: Saving it for later: Groundwater banking
Posted by: Maven on September 13, 2010 at 7:55 am
From the latest issue of Western Water, a publication of the Water Education Foundation:
“In early June, environmentalists and Delta water agencies sued the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) and the Kern County Water Agency (KCWA) over the validity of the transfer of the Kern Water Bank, a huge underground reservoir that supplies water to farms and cities locally and outside the area. The suit, which culminates a decade-long controversy involving multiple issues of state and local jurisdictional authority, has put the spotlight on groundwater banking – an important but controversial water management practice in many areas of California.
Using groundwater has always been essential in the arid West. Now groundwater banking is being promoted as the way to stabilize California’s water supply without the challenges associated with surface storage.
“There is a lot of [underground] storage capacity being underutilized and groundwater banking could be used to augment existing surface water storage,” said Roy Herndon,
a director with the Groundwater Resources Association of California (GRA). “Let’s make sure we haven’t missed what’s underneath our feet.”
Groundwater banking is part of a system in which surface and underground water supplies are alternately used so neither rivers nor aquifers are critically drawn down. In a twist of fate, the space made available by emptying some aquifers opened the door for the banking activities used so extensively today. … “
Continue reading at the Water Education Foundation website by clicking here.
Photo of Semitropic Water Bank infrastructure by Aquafornia. See more pictures of groundwater banking infrastructure by clicking here.
California Farm Water Coalition responds to Kern Water Bank lawsuit stories
Posted by: Maven on September 8, 2010 at 9:24 amFrom the California Farm Water Coalition, this response to the Fresno Bee’s story about the Kern Water Bank Lawsuits:
“Criticism over the acquisition and operation of the Kern Water Bank defies logic and exposes the naysayers as little more than obstructionists with their own agendas.
– The State transferred the water bank in exchange for the obligation to deliver 45,000 acre-feet of water. Absent that transfer, the State would still have that liability on its books.
– Water transferred during surplus water years to fill the bank went into an environmentally friendly water storage system, which is what the environmentalists clamor for instead of building more dams. Capturing water and storing it during wet years for use at a later date is the way California’s water supply system works. That’s why we store water.
– The State bought back the water in drought years when it was needed because the Kern Water Bank had it available to sell. Without the Bank that water would have gone to the ocean and been unavailable at any cost.
– Calling the water bank’s actions “an attack on Delta water supplies” ignores the fact that Delta water users have a right to all of the water they can beneficially use. Excess water is available to store for use by 25 million Californians who depend on water flowing through the Delta for all or part of their water supply. That’s the need the Kern Water Bank fills.
More viewpoints on other California water issues & stories by clicking here.
RELATED: Mark Grossi at the Fresno Bee’s News Blog shares some thoughts here.
Sunday’s top of the scroll: ‘Chinatown II’? Wells go dry, water bank faces suits; Kern Co. districts, others say key deals were illegal
Posted by: Maven on September 5, 2010 at 7:49 amFrom the Fresno Bee:
“A story worthy of Hollywood will soon unfold in California courtrooms — allegations of government corruption and corporate greed to rival the infamous Los Angeles water grab that inspired the film “Chinatown.”
Call it “Chinatown II,” a tale beginning 15 years ago — when, according to lawsuits filed in the last three months, the state illegally turned over the publicly owned Kern Water Bank to an agency controlled by giant corporations in a backroom deal.
Defendants say the charges, like the movie, are mostly fiction. But environmentalists and others who are suing say innocent people have been hurt while big landowners reaped big profits. … “
Continue reading from the Fresno Bee by clicking here.
Column: Something’s not right about this California water deal
Posted by: Maven on August 18, 2010 at 9:03 amFrom columnist Michael Hiltzik at the Los Angeles Times:
“Students of California’s history of gold and oil rushes know it’s filled with examples of profiteering, conspiracy, influence-peddling and other chicanery.
So there’s no reason the story should be any different with that liquid gold of the 21st century, water.
That’s the theme of a lawsuit filed a few weeks ago alleging there’s something smelly about how a group of private interests — notably a huge agribusiness owned by the wealthy Southern California couple Stewart and Lynda Resnick — got control of an underground water storage project the state had already spent $75 million to develop. … “
Continue reading this column at the Los Angeles Times by clicking here.
Suit to get Kern Water Bank returned to state
Posted by: Maven on July 12, 2010 at 7:56 amFrom the San Francisco Chronicle:
“Control of California’s largest underground water bank was illegally bestowed on a handful of private, wealthy agriculture and real estate companies in the 1990s, according to a group of environmentalists, sport fishermen and delta farmers.
Now, as the Golden State grapples with an aging water network, declining fish species and climate change, a lawsuit argues that the Kern Water Bank should be returned to the state agency that bankrolled it.
“In times of drought, (the water bank) is a dry-day fund that means we don’t have to shut people’s taps off during drought,” said Adam Keats, senior attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, one of five groups that filed the lawsuit July 2 in state superior court in Kern County. “But rather than protect key populations, it’s increasing the profit potential for a small group of water barons in Kern County.” … “
Continue reading from the San Francisco Chronicle by clicking here.
Environmentalists sue to stop water banking
Posted by: Maven on July 3, 2010 at 8:41 amFrom the Bakersfield Californian:
“Another lawsuit focusing on Kern County’s groundwater was filed Friday. It joins three others recently filed in Sacramento and Kern County that jointly call into question ownership of the massive Kern Water Bank and how that bank and one other operates.
This latest suit, against the Kern County Water Agency, is phase two of a previous action filed against the state Department of Water Resources by a coalition of environmental groups led by the Center for Biological Diversity.
The Center’s basic allegation in both lawsuits is that the state illegally gifted public property to a private entity when it gave the Kern Water Bank to the Agency as part of what was known as the Monterey Agreements. The Agency then gave the bank to a public entity known as the Kern Water Bank Authority, made up of the Agency and several local agricultural water districts.
The lawsuits seek to stop all banking operations, have the bank revert to state ownership and have all the money ever earned by the bank given back to the state, according to Adam Keats, an attorney for the Center. … “
Continue reading from the Bakersfield Californian by clicking here.
Press Release: Groups file suit, seeking return of Kern Water Bank to public control
Posted by: Maven on July 3, 2010 at 8:39 amFrom the Center for Biological Diversity, this press release:
“BAKERSFIELD, Calif.— A coalition of farmers, sportfishing interests and environmentalists filed suit today seeking to have the Kern Water Bank returned to state control. The water bank, a massive underground reservoir in Kern County built by the state’s Department of Water Resources, was illegally gifted to powerful corporate agribusiness interests and real-estate speculators as part of the controversial “Monterey Plus Amendments” to the State Water Project system.
“The Kern Water Bank is an integral part of our State Water Project and crucial to the future health of our farms, our cities and our environment,” said Adam Keats, urban wildlands program director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “It was built and paid for by the people of California and should remain the property of the people of California, not handed over to a small group of powerful private interests.”
California’s state constitution expressly forbids any agency giving away or “gifting” of state assets to private interests. The current lawsuit asserts that the Kern County Water Agency gifted the Kern Water Bank to the Kern Water Bank Authority, a public-private joint powers authority controlled by Paramount Farming Company (one of the world’s largest agricultural and holding companies) and Tejon Ranch Company (the massive landholding corporation seeking to develop several new cities north of Los Angeles — including the largest development ever proposed in California). … “
Continue reading this press release from the Center for Biological Diversity by clicking here.
Irvine Ranch spends millions on ‘water bank’
Posted by: Maven on June 25, 2010 at 6:59 amFrom the O. C. Register’s Watchdog:
“The Watchdog is having trouble deciding whether a $19.2 million water bank being built by the Irvine Ranch Water District will be a boon or a boondoggle. You decide.
IRWD has purchased 520 acres of the Strand Ranch in Kern County — property known for its porous nature and ability to store underground water. The district has built recharge basins, earthen embankments, canals and other stuff to bank the water there and send it to Irvine via Metropolitan Water District conduits. MWD is scheduled to vote July 13 on the project.
Some of the water would come from the Kern River, more would come from other districts using the Strand Ranch bank and still more would come from purchases made during rainy years, officials say. … “
Continue reading from the O. C. Register by clicking here.
California Farm Water Coaltion: C-WIN lawsuit “misguided”, paints “inaccurate picture of development of Kern Water Bank”
Posted by: Maven on June 5, 2010 at 6:57 amFrom the California Farm Water Coalition, this response to the C-WIN lawsuit:
“Coalition viewpoint…This misguided lawsuit contains numerous false claims that are misleading to the public and paint an inaccurate picture of the development of the Kern Water Bank.
1. No State funds were used in the land purchase and development of the Kern Water Bank. Water contractors with an interest in the project provided the initial funds to DWR.
2. DWR was unable to complete the project.
3. Kern-area water contractors recognized the value of completing the project and relinquished about $45 million in water entitlements back to the State in exchange for the project.
4. Negotiations over the Monterey Agreement were considered contract amendments by DWR and the public had every opportunity to review and comment on them at the time.”
Central Valley’s drought water bank expansion OK’d
Posted by: Maven on September 9, 2009 at 12:29 pmFrom the Central Valley Business Times:
“The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says it has approved a request that could make an additional 30,000 acre-feet of water available to the San Luis Delta-Mendota Water Authority this month through the 2009 Drought Water Bank.
Approval means that the Tehama-Colusa Canal Authority, which is in the Sacramento Valley, will be able to sell up to 30,000 acre-feet of water that recently became available. TCCA found that its farmers now have water that can be sold to water users south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. …”
Read more from the Central Valley Business Times by clicking here.
San Francisco Public Utilities Commission pursues underground water-storage plan
Posted by: Maven on July 8, 2009 at 7:24 amFrom the Contra Costa Times:
The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission is pursuing a plan to store water underground that can be pumped out in time to supply customers in a drought, given the uncertainty of California’s water future.
Officials say the natural groundwater aquifer that sits under north San Mateo County will someday be full enough to send 7.2 million gallons per day to SFPUC customers in San Francisco, San Mateo and Alameda counties and much of Santa Clara County for a period of seven and a half years, longer than the last historic drought period in California.
Global warming, and the resulting anticipated loss of Sierra snowpack that feeds the Hetch Hetchy reservoir, have played a part in the SFPUC’s long-term planning for water security here in the Bay Area, said Ellen Levin, deputy manager of San Francisco’s regional water system. “We may be anticipating longer drought periods, and so having additional water supplies available to us protects our customers,” said Levin. “We want to reduce the need to impose rationing on our customers.”
At the heart of the proposal are the five San Mateo County cities — Daly City, South San Francisco, Colma, San Bruno and Millbrae — that already plumb the common groundwater basin they overlie for part of their water supply every year. They also use Hetch Hetchy water from the SFPUC. If these cities can promise to limit the water they draw from the groundwater basin in “wet” years, they will receive an equal amount of “surplus” water from Hetch Hetchy reservoir. Thus the groundwater basin will be allowed to naturally refill with rainfall until there is enough to draw on.
Read more from the Contra Costa Times by clicking here.
Water-energy dependency may put a damper on water banking in California
Posted by: Maven on June 16, 2009 at 8:06 amFrom AlterNet:
We’ve been following some of the issues related to the drought in California. In response to water shortages, a “water bank” has been implemented to allow users who do not use all of their water to sell it to other users. In theory, such a system allows water to be used in an efficient manner, with higher priority users gaining the ability to purchase water when there are shortages.
In looking at the reality of implementing such a system, however, it becomes clear that there are challenges on many levels. This is evidenced by the fact that despite the state’s efforts, it will likely only promote the trade of 82,000 acre feet of water this year — less than 15% of what it had been hoping for.
One major challenge is related to the price of food crops, which have risen drastically in the last year, making the sale of water less appealing to farmers. Additionally, there is the fundamental challenge of getting the water where it needs to be once it has been purchased, a task that requires vast amounts of energy.
In many places, where water-energy dependency is already an issue, this may detract from the potential benefit that could be derived from systems like water banking.
Read more from AlterNet by clicking here.
Water officials mull state’s drought bank; Inefficiencies, expense keep farmers from using system
Posted by: Maven on June 4, 2009 at 2:52 pmFrom the Capital Press:
Water managers are working toward a more efficient version of the state’s drought water bank for next year, California’s drought coordinator told the State Board of Food and Agriculture.
The state created a water bank this year for the first time since the early 1990s. Wendy Martin, statewide drought coordinator with the Department of Water Resources, described an efficient, state-managed trading system as a key piece of the state’s future water management.
“Transfers are one of the ways that we can balance the water portfolio,” Martin said. “A transfer system is a way of leveling that market. Some people will get more money for their water, some people will pay less, but it will start to equalize. And … that is the long-term solution, not just related to drought, but for the state’s water-management system. We have to be more effective at that.”
So far, each effort at transferring water has been bogged down in battles with local jurisdictions. Martin said the biggest obstacles to water transfers have come from county governments.
“One of our biggest adversaries – and the people who are suing us now, over this year’s water bank – are the counties,” she said. “Every portion of every transaction has had a fight associated with it. We have to stop fighting about this stuff and figure out what will work.”
Read more from the Capital Press by clicking here.
Monday’s top story: Gaming the water system
Posted by: Maven on May 25, 2009 at 8:32 amFrom the Contra Costa Times, a recap story of the recent Media News Investigation:
Just before Interstate 5 climbs the Grapevine out of the San Joaquin Valley is a massive underground reservoir that its owners say is the largest water banking project of its kind in the world. Here among the tumbleweeds, sand and scrub, 15 miles west of Bakersfield, the gush of crystal-clear water appears as curiously out of place as the great blue herons cruising along the bank’s six-mile canal.
The Kern Water Bank, which was owned by the state Department of Water Resources from 1988 to 1995, is now in the hands of Kern County interests and is 48 percent owned by Westside Mutual Water Company, a private water company controlled by Beverly Hills billionaire Stewart Resnick.
It is 32 square miles of desert where one natural river and two artificial ones pass: the Kern River, which originates in the southern Sierra Nevada; the California Aqueduct, which carries Delta water more than 400 miles to a reservoir in Riverside County; and the Friant-Kern Canal, which takes water to valley farmers from behind a dam on the San Joaquin River.
“We have lots of water conveyance facilities that bring water past the Kern Water Bank,” said Jonathan Parker, general manager of the Kern Water Bank Authority. “That makes this location pretty unique.”
In wet years, the water bankers deposit water from the rivers into ponds where it percolates into the Kern River’s alluvial fan.
In dry years, they make withdrawals, which is why on a tour of the bank earlier this year water was gushing out of the ground from pipes and bubbling up into the canal from underground structures.
Read more from the Contra Costa Times by clicking here.
Sunday’s Top Story: A Media News Investigation: Pumping water and cash from Delta
Posted by: Maven on May 24, 2009 at 11:35 am
From the Silicon Valley Mercury News:
As the West Coast’s largest estuary plunged to the brink of collapse from 2000 to 2007, state water officials pumped unprecedented amounts of water out of the Delta only to effectively buy some of it back at taxpayer expense for a failed environmental protection plan, a MediaNews investigation has found.
The “environmental water account” set up in 2000 to improve the Delta ecosystem spent nearly $200 million mostly to benefit water users while also creating a cash stream for private landowners and water agencies in the Bakersfield area.
Financed with taxpayer-backed environment and water bonds, the program spent most of its money in Kern County, a largely agricultural region at the southern
end of the San Joaquin Valley. There, water was purchased from the state and then traded back to the account for a higher price.The proceeds were used to fund an employee retirement plan, buy land and groundwater storage facilities and pay miscellaneous costs to keep water bills low, documents and interviews show.
Revenues from those sales also might have helped finance a lawsuit against the Department of Water Resources, the same agency that wrote the checks, documents show.
No one appears to have benefitted more than companies owned or controlled by Stewart Resnick, a Beverly Hills billionaire, philanthropist and major political donor whose companies, including Paramount Farms, own more than 115,000 acres in Kern County. Resnick’s water and farm companies collected about 20 cents of every dollar spent by the program.
MORE COVERAGE ON THIS STORY:
Paper shuffle allows for vast supply of easy money: It must have seemed like easy money. The state was delivering more water than ever to its customers, and in Kern County some of those customers sold some of it back, through a simple trade, at a higher price. Tens of millions of dollars in sales to the “environmental water account” were little more than paper shuffles. It was all perfectly legal. Click here for more on this story from the Mercury News.
Water ownership murky, complicated: Kern County water users who sold millions of dollars worth of water to a program meant to help the environment said the arrangement made sense because the water was rightfully theirs. Few would dispute that water that was purchased and stored in Kern County could be sold to the environmental water account. But the sales were made easier by the fact that the state Department of Water Resources was cranking up water deliveries to unprecedented heights at the same time it was buying water back for the environment. More from the Mercury News by clicking here.
The Resnicks: farming’s power couple: Stewart Resnick is not your typical dirt-under-the-fingernails farmer. The Beverly Hills billionaire’s companies, according to tax records, appear to own more than 115,000 acres in Kern County, about the size of four San Franciscos and more than all of the East Bay Regional Park District’s parks combined. The operation is the largest pistachio and almond growing and processing operation in the world, according to the company’s Web site, and part of a business empire that Resnick runs with his wife, Lynda, whose Web site asserts they are the largest farmers of tree crops in the country. Read the rest of this article from the Mercury News by clicking here.
California officials approve first water transfers
Posted by: Maven on May 20, 2009 at 6:17 amFrom the Sacramento Bee:
California officials are moving ahead with a plan to ship water from farms north of Sacramento to growers in the drought-stricken San Joaquin Valley.
The California Department of Water Resources is buying the water from two irrigation districts in the Sacramento Valley. It will be sent to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and sold to a group of 10 buyers, most of whom are located in the drier southern half of the state.
Read more of this brief story from the Sacramento Bee by clicking here.
Sutter County makes friends with water; Entities in county selling supplies to state bank
Posted by: Maven on May 20, 2009 at 6:13 amFrom the Marysville Appeal Democrat:
Sutter County supervisors voiced confidence Tuesday night that farmers and water districts will continue to be good groundwater stewards.
The Department of Water Resources’ Drought Water Bank is buying water for $275 per acre-foot from willing water rights holders upstream of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The water would then be transferred to entities suffering water shortages. “We are trying to help our brothers down in the Central Valley,” said Supervisor James Gallagher. “We are building goodwill, and that goodwill will be very important in the future.”
In giving up some of the surface water they would otherwise use, the rights holders would likely use groundwater in lieu of surface water. Other solutions include not growing crops or substituting less water-intensive crops to save on surface water usage.
The farmers and water districts can be trusted to use the groundwater responsibly because they are stewards of the groundwater, said Brad Arnold, manger of South Sutter Water District. “They rely on that for their livelihood and for their children’s children,” he said.
Read more from the Marysville Appeal-Democrat by clicking here.
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