Diamond Valley Lake decision leaves private launches high and dry
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 3, 2008 at 5:49 amFrom Riverside’s Press-Enterprise:
Diamond Valley Lake, Southern California’s largest freshwater reservoir and a premier fishing destination, will shut down its private boat launches indefinitely at the close of business on Oct. 13. Continuing drought conditions and the need to conserve water are the reasons for the closure, said officials of the lake’s owner, Metropolitan Water District.
The lake will remain open to the public, including for those who fish from the shoreline or use the surrounding trails.
Rental boats will be available until it becomes impractical to operate, and kayaks and canoes that meet lake guidelines will be allowed to launch as long as boarding docks are serviceable, MWD officials said.
“We’re disappointed,” said Josh Moreno, a fisherman and employee at Last Chance Bait and Tackle shop in Hemet. Moreno said the shop will likely lose business because of the closure of the boat launch lanes. “We get a lot of people from out of town that fish this lake,” he said.
Read more from the Press-Enterprise by clicking here.
California tribe fears losing land if Shasta Dam is raised
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 23, 2008 at 6:48 amFrom the Associated Press:
The federal government is considering enlarging a dam to boost the state’s water supply, which would flood what little land remains above water where a Native American tribe has fished and farmed for centuries. Nine-tenths of the ancestral land of the Winnemen Wintu was submerged in 1945, when the federal government built a 602-foot dam downstream of their ceremonial and prayer grounds. Now the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is considering enlarging Shasta Dam, flooding the remaining 22 miles of rocky, steep canyon shoreline, including two sacred rocks involved in coming-of-age rituals.
“These sacred places help keep the tribe healthy. They help keep it balanced and they help us to heal,” said tribal chief Caleen Sisk-Franco. “There is no replacement. There’s not an option to move it.”
The desire by the few remaining tribal members to preserve the remnants of their homeland is running headlong into the desires of Central Valley farmers, the main beneficiaries of the federal proposal to enlarge Lake Shasta.
When it was filled to capacity, the lake flooded 46 square miles where tribal leaders say some 20,000 Winnemen Wintu once lived along the McCloud River. Their numbers fell to 395 at the turn of the century, with thousands massacred by western settlers and ravaged by disease during the Gold Rush. Today, the tribe counts 122 enrolled members, about a fifth of whom live in a makeshift village of trailers and a house on 42 acres of private land a few miles from the McCloud River, some 225 miles north of San Francisco.
Lake Shasta is the starting point for the federally run Central Valley Project, a system of 21 reservoirs, canals and aqueducts that funnel water to some 3.2 million acres of farmland and supplies water to about 2 million people. Supporters say an enlarged lake is needed to meet the needs of California’s growing population. The larger reservoir also would be able to store more cold water, which is needed to help the salmon that used to migrate to cooler waters upstream before the dam blocked their path, according to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
Read more from the Associated Press by clicking here.
We’re paying the price today for decades of relentless dam building
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 19, 2008 at 5:51 amFrom AlterNet:
Between 1950 and 1970, three new dam projects were started every single day in the world. Today, primarily in China, Turkey, Brazil, Japan and India, one new dam project begins daily with an average completion date of four years. Fifteen hundred dams are currently under construction worldwide.
Dams fragment, divert and subjugate the world’s rivers. In one long lifespan, beginning with the inauguration of Hoover Dam in 1936, the engineering marvel of the 20th century, civilization has altered the most important function that makes the earth work, water. Thus, transmuting humanity into something foreign to the earth it inhabits — a stranger to the very system which gave rise to our species.
The late Carl Sagan was among precious few visionary humans who shared the extraordinary ability to differentiate between deep thought and deep nonsense and recognized the persistence of a satisfying delusion to perpetuate the latter. Dr. Sagan wrote, “We go about our daily lives understanding almost nothing of the world. We give little thought to the machinery that generates the sunlight that makes life possible, to the gravity that glues us to an earth that otherwise sends us spinning off into space or to the atoms of which we are made and on whose stability we fundamentally depend.”
Without some sense, some outline of how the earth works and our relationship to it, one is deprived of knowing, let alone of asking, the really important questions that promote regenerative life and prevent massive-scale destruction and degeneration.
Read more from AlterNet by clicking here.
California needs more reservoirs, says editorial
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 8, 2008 at 5:49 amFrom the Contra Costa Times, this editorial, which notes that the state’s reservoir levels are very low, and that it’s going to take more than one wet season to fill them again:
It is not just the dry weather that is causing water shortages, rationing and higher prices. After all, the current dry period is hardly a major drought.
What should be becoming increasingly clear is that California simply does not have an adequate water storage capacity. That should come as no surprise because the state has not built any large reservoirs in decades.
Greater conservation, water banks and rationing may be enough to get us by for a few years. But eventually, California is going to need large new reservoirs or significantly increased capacity at current ones.
Despite the need to act now, there does not seem to be enough support in Sacramento for increasing our water storage capacity. Unfortunately it is likely to take a severe drought and the ensuing water crisis to create the political will to build the reservoirs that should be under construction now.
Read more from this Contra Costa Times editorial by clicking here.
San Vicente Reservoir’s renovation: San Diego, water agency officials work to resolve concerns
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 30, 2008 at 7:24 amFrom the San Diego Union-Tribune:
A massive project to increase water storage at East County’s San Vicente Reservoir has taken on added importance as the region copes with tightening water supplies. Starting Tuesday, the reservoir will close to the public for up to nine years so crews can complete what the San Diego County Water Authority is calling the largest dam raise in the country.
The reservoir will continue to supply water to San Diego residents during construction, though boaters, wake-boarders and water-skiers will have to find somewhere else to go. San Diego city officials have questioned whether the region will have enough storage during the project and whether plans are adequate for maintaining water quality.
City officials say they are working with the water authority to resolve the concerns, and officials from both agencies say having the extra storage will benefit the region. “Once we get past this, these projects will add a great deal of reliability to the city of San Diego but also to the region,” said Jesus Meda, operations and engineering program manager for the city’s water department.
The $568 million effort is part of a $1 billion-plus project by the water authority to create new emergency storage and pipeline connections if the region’s imported water supply is cut off.
Read more from the San Diego Union-Tribune by clicking here.
Stuart Leavenworth: All of a sudden, new dams don’t look quite so attractive
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 24, 2008 at 5:49 amFrom the Sacramento Bee:
The Sierra snowpack is dismal. Lake Oroville is at one-third of its capacity. Over on the Colorado River, Lake Mead has dropped to its lowest level in four decades. The D-word – drought – is on everyone’s lips.
Given these circumstances, you might think that Southern California would be leading the fight for new reservoirs. It’s not. While Central Valley farmers and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger are all clamoring for state-funded surface storage (that’s water community jargon for dams and reservoirs), Southern California has examined the price tag of these projects and said, “Thanks, but no thanks.”
Click here to find out more!Largely unnoticed by the state’s media, the Southland’s reservations about reservoirs are rocking the debate over water investments. In the 1960s, powerful farm industries in the Central Valley teamed up with Southern California to create Lake Oroville and other pieces of the State Water Project. History has shown that, when these groups cooperate, California can make water to flow uphill toward money.
But several converging trends are souring Southern California’s support for new dams, including those pushed by the governor. Construction costs are skyrocketing, along with prices of energy needed to move water south. Water stored in Northern California has to be shipped through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, an increasingly undependable transit point for exports.
Add these up, and surface storage becomes a risky, expensive option, according to a draft report released this month by the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. “From a Southern California perspective, dams in the northern part of the state have to be considered unreliable,” said the report, aptly entitled “Where will we get the water?”
Read more from the Sacramento Bee by clicking here.
The San Joaquin Valley Water Leadership Forum has an better, less expensive alternative to Temperance Flat Dam: use Tulare Lake bed
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 21, 2008 at 6:45 amFrom Capitol Weekly:
Increasingly it appears that the politicians just don’t know how to work towards a compromise agreement. Rather, the basic argument remains more storage versus no storage. The San Joaquin Valley Water Leadership Forum has scientists, researchers, water managers, environmentalists, economists, farmers and educators involved with coming up with a comprehensive solution for the valley and the state when it comes to our precious water resources.
No matter how well intentioned we may be, ultimately, things have to “pencil out.” Solutions must be cost-effective. Building a dam on a river for surface storage is not necessarily cost effective. On the other hand, creating off-river surface and groundwater storage - with ways to capture precious flood waters - can protect the environment and be cost effective.
One solution we are supporting for the San Joaquin Valley is the partial restoration of the Tulare Lake Basin for surface and groundwater storage of flood waters. As it is now, the politicians want to build a dam on the San Joaquin River. However, the dam would cost close to $4 billion to construct, and would wipe out a significant source of clean hydroelectric power.
Our solution is to take a portion of what was once until the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi river and create twice the storage - all for less than $1 billion. That way we can capture the flood waters of not just one river - the San Joaquin- but also three others - the Kings, Kaweah and Tule that flow out of the Sierra Nevada into the San Joaquin Valley. Furthermore, the Tulare Lake basin is ideally located in between the Friant-Kern a major eastside canal - and the California Aqueduct on the west side of the valley which transports water all the way from the Delta over the Tehachapi Mountains into Southern California. What is the environmental impact? Not much. In fact it could improve the valley’s air quality and allow for a freshwater haven for migratory waterfowl and other wildlife.
Read more from Capitol Weekly by clicking here.
Reservoir levels plummet, rationing seen on horizon; Lake Oroville near lowest point in 30 years
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 19, 2008 at 7:58 am
From the O.C. Register:
An important California reservoir is nearing its lowest level in 30 years, and other state reservoirs also are very low – more evidence of a gathering water crisis that could lead to mandatory rationing in Southern California by next year, state officials say.
The Oroville Reservoir in Northern California, a major supply reservoir for water that eventually flows into the Southern California region, is down to 38 percent of its capacity, according to the state Department of Water Resources.
By Sept. 30, Oroville, about 75 miles north of Sacramento, is expected to hit its lowest level since 1977, and by year’s end, the lowest level since records have been kept, said Wendy Martin, the statewide drought coordinator.
The agency’s Web site says precipitation statewide was 30 percent of average in April, May and June, the sixth driest of 114 years on record – powerfully affecting the Sierra snow pack, which melts and drains into Oroville.
“I think it is unusual to have such a large facility so low, with the number of people who depend on that facility,” Martin said. “One of the concerns that we have as water managers is people not recognizing the severity of the conditions.”
It is important to note that construction on Lake Oroville was completed only 40 years ago. Maybe we are getting near the point where we could say, “the last time Lake Oroville was this low was when it passed it while filling up.”
Read more from the O.C. Register by clicking here.
NoCal reservoir storage to hit lowest level since 1977 by end of week - Storage headed lower than ‘87-’92 drought
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 19, 2008 at 7:55 amFrom the Long Beach Water Department, this press release:
LONG BEACH, CA - The Long Beach Board of Water Commissioners has announced that California Department of Water Resources data on northern California reservoir storage indicates that water supply levels in the primary reservoirs that provide water to southern California will be at their lowest combined level since 1977 by the end of this week. Long Beach is again calling on all of southern California to immediately implement mandatory prohibitions on outdoor uses of water, and take other deliberate steps to encourage extraordinary conservation.
“We were pleased to see the recent steps taken by Los Angeles to ratchet up their water conservation, including their implementation of prohibiting certain types of outdoor water use,” stated Bill Townsend, President, Long Beach Board of Water Commissioners. Quite frankly, the rest of southern California needs to do the same, and it needs to be done today. Absent historic rainfall this winter, California’s lifestyle and economy are likely to be severely impacted. We need to act responsibly today to minimize the likely impact next year. It is irresponsible to leave it to chance.”
According to Kevin L. Wattier, General Manager of the Long Beach Water Department, aggressive action, statewide, is critical. “While some have questioned the approach we’ve taken on conservation, nearly one year ago now, we felt then, just as we continue to believe today, long-term, mandatory prohibitions on certain outdoor uses of water need to be a way of life here in southern California. The fact of the matter is that our state would be in a much better position to forestall and lessen the impact of an approaching crisis if more of our water was being saved.”
On August 7th, Long Beach announced that water demand for July 2008 set a new 10-year record low. It was the 7th record setting month for low water use since the Board’s declaration of an imminent water supply shortage in September of 2007. July 2008 water demand was 16.1 percent below the 10-year average water demand; it was 13 percent below July 2007. Fiscal Year 2008 is tracking nearly 8 percent below the 10-year average water use. June was also a record setting month.
On September 13, 2007, the Long Beach Board of Water Commissioners issued a Declaration of Imminent Water Supply Shortage and activated the City’s Emergency Water Supply Shortage Plan. As a result, the Board issued mandatory prohibitions on certain uses of water. “The Board took the action it did, when it did, to forestall and lessen the impact of an expected water supply shortage,” according to Bill Townsend.
The Board’s Declaration was necessitated by the profound impact of a U.S. District Court federal Endangered Species Act ruling, which resulted in a permanent 30 percent reduction in State Water Project deliveries to southern California; the dramatic reductions in water storage levels in key reservoirs in northern California; and climate conditions resulting in drought.
The Long Beach Water Department is an urban, southern California, retail water supply agency and the standard in water conservation and environmental stewardship.
###
Ryan J. Alsop
Director of Government & Public Affairs
Long Beach Water
Issues swirl around proposed dams
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 18, 2008 at 7:50 amFrom the San Diego Union Tribune:
Ron Jacobsma shifts his boat into idle, stopping to float right where he wants to see another dam rise across the San Joaquin River. “We’ll see it. I just don’t know if I will see it in my lifetime,” mused Jacobsma, who oversees delivering water to nearly 1 million acres of farmland in the shadow of the Eastern Sierra.
That would suit Sean Lodge, whose family homesteaded near the dam site, just fine. “There is a rich history that is important to preserve,” Lodge said via e-mail from his firefighting post in the Sierra National Forest. “There are not that many places in the state that have this history that is not lost already.”
Which course is set for San Joaquin River mile 274, better known as Temperance Flat, depends on whether Californians are ready to accept new dams to keep taps flowing even as growth and drought strain water supplies.
Voters may be offered the opportunity to decide the issue in November, but only if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state lawmakers can settle on the terms of a $9.3 billion water bond package in the coming days.
The bond proposal is packed with spending for popular clean-water, conservation and Sacramento delta restoration programs. But there also is a handful of unresolved issues, any one of which could draw away enough support to keep the measure from securing the necessary two-thirds vote of lawmakers and the governor’s signature before it can be placed on the ballot.
Among those: a $700 million annual bill to repay the bond debt, power struggles over who would set spending priorities and suspicions that it lays the groundwork for a redrawn north-to-south aqueduct, an idea defeated when it went to voters as the Peripheral Canal in 1982.
And, of course, dams. More specifically, the proposed Sites Reservoir, located 16 miles in an isolated bowl west of the Sacramento River near Colusa, and Temperance Flat, not far from Fresno, where a dam would stretch the length of several football fields across the San Joaquin River.
Read more of this comprehensive article from the San Diego Union Tribune by clicking here.
Dam fails, scores are evacuated; Flash flood warning still in effect in tribal area
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 18, 2008 at 6:07 amFrom the Las Vegas Review-Journal:
Days of heavy rain around the Grand Canyon created flooding that caused an earthen dam to fail Sunday, and helicopters plucked scores of residents and campers from the gorge. No injuries were immediately reported.
The dam break caused flooding in a side canyon containing Supai village, where about 400 members of the Havasupai tribe live, said Gerry Blair, a spokesman for the Coconino County Sheriff’s Department. Crews airlifted 170 people from the village and nearby campgrounds. Evacuees were bused to an American Red Cross center, officials said.
There were no confirmed reports of damage in Supai, which is on high ground, Blair said, and many residents and campers chose to stay. “We’re not as concerned about it as we initially were,” he said, adding that the dam isn’t a “huge, significant” structure.
Still, a flash flood warning remained in effect, and search and rescue teams stayed in the village overnight.
Feinstein’s right on water: Democrats need to get over their antipathy toward building new dams, says editorial
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 17, 2008 at 8:11 amFrom the Fresno Bee:
Sen. Dianne Feinstein got a little grumpy the other day with the slow pace of work on a state water bond she and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger have proposed. She singled out members of her own Democratic party for their intransigence when it comes to new surface water storage projects. Good for her.
Ideological conflicts threaten to throttle any action on California’s water crisis. We run the risk in California of remaining philosophically pure and politically correct while we dry up and blow away.
We must increase our water supply. Demand grows with our growing population, and simultaneously our existing supplies are threatened by the pace of global climate change. When winter snowfall diminishes in the Sierra Nevada, as it has for two years now, the slowly melting supplies we once counted on are no longer available. More precipitation falls as rain, and we haven’t sufficient capacity to collect it for use in cities, industries and agriculture.
We have long advocated a three-part approach including new dams, increased use of underground water banking and more aggressive efforts to conserve. In addition, existing supplies that are already contaminated, or at risk of becoming so, must be cleaned up.
No serious observer argues that we have enough water now, at least not the way it is distributed and used. The argument is over the manner in which we can best increase available supplies.
Read more of this editorial from the Fresno Bee by clicking here.
Costly water shell game points to need for reservoirs
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 14, 2008 at 6:11 amFrom the Contra Costa Times, this editorial, which is reacting to this story regarding the dealings of the Kern County Water Agency, who (allegedly) made a pile of money at taxpayer expense:
Article 21 is a shameful example of a state water program that backfired. There was insufficient oversight, which allowed for the excessively large water deliveries and the degradation of the Delta. In effect, Article 21 was nothing more than a shell game that allowed a water agency to bilk the public and do environmental harm.
Unfortunately, it is not an isolated case of water policy failure. More than $3 billion has been spent since 2000 in efforts to improve the Delta environment and water supplies. The result has been an ecological collapse and a court order to sharply reduce water deliveries. Everyone is the loser.
At the root of much of California’s water woes is the lack of adequate storage. Water demand has risen, and the state’s population has doubled since the last major reservoir was built. Water storage collected at environmentally sound levels in state reservoirs during wet months can make enough water available for users and the Delta ecology in dry periods.
Adequate supplies of fresh state-owned water would preclude any need to have regional agencies bank water for anything other than their own use.
It is past time that California got serious about constructing new reservoirs or substantially enlarging current ones. The state’s economy, particularly agriculture, and the Delta environment are at risk.
Read the full text of the editorial from Contra Costa Times by clicking here.
Lake Oroville visitor levels don’t hold water
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 28, 2008 at 6:11 amFrom Chico Enterprise-Record:
Fire, smoke and record low lake levels have made for a slightly slower season at Lake Oroville, but those who went Sunday enjoyed plenty of space for water skiing and fishing.
The drought had lowered the lake elevation to 709.52 feet on Sunday — a record low for the date — making it more like a river than a lake, said John Prieto, operations manager for Lake Oroville Marina, previously known as Lime Saddle. The lake is considered full at 900 feet.
Lake Oroville is classified as multiuse, so it is used not only for recreation but also drinking water, environmental needs and other uses. With the drought in California, the Department of Water Resources has had to lower the level and use more of the water, Prieto said.
“As California’s needs have grown, we haven’t grown in water storage,” he said.
It is one of the biggest resources for the state’s water needs and so the water is in high demand.
With such low lake levels, Prieto has found different parts of the lake that hadn’t been seen in 20 years due to high lake levels. “We have nice beaches popping up,” he said.
His marina can still operate until the elevation level gets down to 705 feet. That may happen within the next week, and many people with houseboats will have to put them in “dry storage,” propped up with stacks of wood and away from the lake. However, fewer people are making it out to the lake while they still can, he said.
Read more from the Chico Enterprise-Record by clicking here.
Without Auburn dam, San Joaquin County is next in line for water
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 27, 2008 at 8:36 amFrom Stockton’s Record, this commentary by Bill Jennings of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance:
The Record’s otherwise excellent coverage Tuesday of the State Water Board’s proposed revocation of the U.S. Bureau or Reclamation’s water rights for Auburn Dam implied that revocation threatens San Joaquin County’s efforts to obtain water from the American River.
This is simply not the case. The county cannot obtain any of that water from the bureau unless Auburn Dam is actually constructed.
Water rights are assigned to a specific purpose, and it has become clear that Auburn Dam will never be completed. Construction stopped in 1975 because of seismic problems and congressional opposition; costs have escalated to an estimated $8 billion or $9 billion; expected project yield has been reduced; and the anticipated price of delivered water has skyrocketed.
The key fact that was missed in The Record article is that if the bureau’s water rights at Auburn are rescinded, San Joaquin County is next in line to obtain any available water. The county’s earlier application for American River water was denied when the state board awarded that water to the bureau in 1979. The county’s application would return to the head of the line.
Read the rest of this commentary from Stockton’s Record by clicking here.
State Board conducts hearing to revoke Auburn Dam water rights
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 26, 2008 at 9:29 amFrom IndyBay.org:
Here is a short report from Bill Jennings, executive director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, on the State Water Resources Control Board’s hearing on revocation of the Bureau’s Auburn Dam water rights that was held last Monday. “Auburn Dam is DEAD,” said Jennings. “The autopsy, obituary and eulogy have been written.”
State Water Resources Control Board Conducts Hearing to Revoke Auburn Dam Water Rights; Millions of acre-feet of water at stake
by Bill Jennings, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance
Ten years ago CSPA protested the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s request for an extension of time on its Auburn Dam water rights, which had been issued in 1970 and never put to beneficial use. Staff of the State Water Resources Control Board asked the Bureau for a CEQA document and revised plans for the Dam. The Bureau failed to provide the requested documents.
Since the State Board couldn’t conduct a hearing on the CSPA complaint without the required documents, staff had no alternative but to recommend revocation of more than 4 million acre-feet of storage and diversion rights. An evidentiary hearing (exhibits and testimony under oath, subject to cross-examination and rebuttal) was held this past Monday (21 July 08). Gary Wolf was the State Board presiding hearing officer.
CSPA submitted extensive written testimony and exhibits. CSPA Executive Director Bill Jennings and CSPA FERC Projects Director Chris Shutes testified and CSPA Board Member Mike Jackson served as CSPA’s attorney. Ron Stork of Friends of the River provided a marvelous history of Auburn Dam. Jonas Minton of the Planning and Conservation League testified.
San Joaquin County and Stockton East Water District participated in the hearing because they were concerned that revocation would eliminate their languishing hope for American River water. Other parties represented at the hearing included, the Auburn Dam Council, Sacramento County, American River Authority, Save the American River Association, Westlands Water District and San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority.
The Bureau’s defense of their water rights was embarrassingly ineffective because the Auburn Dam project is essentially dead. There has been no construction on the dam since 1975, no water put to designated beneficial use since authorized in 1970, Sacramento has embraced other alternatives for flood control and Congress has refused to appropriate money on 12 separate occasions.
Dam projects historically controversial in California
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 24, 2008 at 9:22 pmFrom Circle of Blue., who is linking to On Water (Water Resources Center Archives):
On the West Coast of the United States, convincing people to support dam construction remains a historically laborious feat. As California endures drought conditions and struggles to find ways to stay hydrated, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Senator Dianne Feinstein are proposing a $9.3 million bond for water that includes the construction of new dams. But the plan has provoked criticism from those concerned about the development’s damage to the state budget as well as the environment.
It turns out that dams represent an old controversy for the state. University of California’s Water Resources Center Archives and the Center for Water Resources presents a brief chronology of proposals for dam developments, focusing specifically on the 1940s, 50s, and 60s.
Read more from Water Resources Center Archive on California’s history of dams by clicking here.
Auburn Dam is best solution for water needs, says editorial
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 24, 2008 at 6:40 amFrom the Manteca Bulletin, an editorial in support of the Auburn Dam. There are basically three solutions to California’s water woes, writes the managing editor: the peripheral canal, raising the height of Shasta Dam, or building the Auburn Dam.
Backers of the canal think this is the best option to manage Bay-Delta salinity issues while maintaining the quality of water being exported from Northern California to quench Los Angeles’ ever growing thirst. Raising the height of Shasta Dam is fraught with environmental concerns as is building the Auburn Dam.
The Auburn Dam, though, can add the most storage and effectively handle one of the heaviest precipitation watersheds on the western slopes of the Sierra. The reservoir could hold 2.1 million-acre feet - almost enough to meet statewide water shortfalls projected for 2020.
The dam site already has had trees and vegetation removed and other improvements such as a foundation and bridges in place. After hippies were unable to stop the dam from flooding a nude beach, the earth rumbled in 1972 to effectively stop Congress from authorizing the money for actual construction until seismic safety issues were studied further.
The Auburn Dam - operated in tandem with Hell Hole, French Meadows and Folsom Dam reservoirs - offers a powerful one-two punch of expanding water storage for growing south state urban needs as well as enhancing flood protection.
The Shasta Dam proposal only increases storage and only by half the amount of Auburn Dam. The Peripheral Canal simply assures Southern California clean water at the expense of the San Joaquin Valley and Delta farmers.
The Auburn Dam is a case of getting more bang for the buck.
Read more of this editorial from the Manteca Bulletin by clicking here.
Promised San Joaquin County water source springs a leak; Auburn Dam water rights get a hearing
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 22, 2008 at 9:25 pmFrom Stockton’s Record:
An ever-thirstier San Joaquin County has been told for more than half a century to take a drink from the American River, where the federal government planned a new dam to capture and store snowmelt. But the Auburn Dam, the long-awaited source of surface water that our area needed, never happened.
Now the state, in a final blow, may kill the federal government’s rights to take any more water from the river. That water was to be shared with three counties, including San Joaquin. The dam and canal to send the water south were never finished.
Local officials testified Monday that they still need the water and asked that the water rights be preserved a few more years. “This has long been promised to the county by the state and federal government, and it’s a commitment that should be honored,” Mel Lytle, water resources coordinator for the county, told the State Water Resources Control Board.
Auburn Dam, started in 1972, was delayed three years later after an earthquake. Then the cost soared above what Congress was willing to pay.
Much has changed since the dam was first proposed. The Delta has deteriorated. Environmentalists say the state has promised more water than can be delivered.
Stockton environmentalist Bill Jennings told the board he was 26 years old, weighed 150 pounds and had “flaming red hair” when the Auburn Dam water rights were issued. Today his beard is a snowy white. “This morning, my shower diverted more water” than has been put to use in all those years, he said.
“The Auburn Dam project is dead,” Jennings said. “The corpse needs to be buried.”
Not necessarily so, say others, and for different reasons. Read more from Stockton’s Record by clicking here.
Even without a dam, San Joaquin County could contract with the federal government to take American River water from another location - perhaps Freeport on the Sacramento River, where local officials are already pursuing water through a separate process.
“The county is not proposing to build Auburn Dam,” attorney DeeAnne Gillick said at Monday’s hearing.
Rather, local officials asked for about three years to negotiate a water contract with the Bureau of Reclamation and find a way to get the water on their own.
The end of Auburn Dam? CSPA to present case at hearing to revoke dam’s water rights
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 16, 2008 at 7:06 amFrom IndyBay.org:
The California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA) will present a case-in-chief at the July 21 and 22, 2008 hearings before the State Water Resources Control Board in Sacramento concerning the Board’s proposed revocation of water rights for Auburn Dam. “Given the over-appropriation of water in California, massive increases in State Water Project and Central Valley Project export levels, grievous degradation of the Delta and its tributary waters, precipitous declines in pelagic and salmonid species and pervasive impairment of water quality, it is virtually impossible that the permits could be issued today in their present form,” said Bill Jennings, executive director, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance.
As California Delta fish species and Central Valley chinook salmon stocks collapse, it would be insane for the Board not to revoke Auburn Dam water rights. If you want to support revocation of the Auburn Dam water rights via e-mail, you can follow this link to a page on the website of the CSPA’s allies in this fight, Friends of the River: http://www.friendsoftheriver.org.
The End of Auburn Dam? CSPA to Present Case at Hearing to Revoke Dam’s Water Rights
by Chris Shutes, FERC Projects DirectorJuly 15, 2008. CSPA will present a case-in-chief at the July 21 and 22, 2008 hearings before the State Water Resources Control Board in Sacramento concerning the Board’s proposed revocation of water rights for Auburn Dam. Mike Jackson will represent CSPA as counsel. Bill Jennings, CSPA’s Executive Director, and Chris Shutes, CSPA’s FERC Projects Director, will provide testimony in support of revocation.
Almost exactly ten years ago, CSPA protested a petition for extension of time filed by the Bureau of Reclamation for its Auburn Dam water rights. After ten long years of procedural delay by the Bureau, in which the Bureau failed to produce requested environmental documentation requested by Water Board staff, and completely failed to secure funding from Congress, Board staff took action to revoke. The Bureau requested a hearing for its iconic project, and the stage for arguments is set.
Read more from IndyBay.org by clicking here.
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- Indian tribes awaiting Klamath Dam removal
- Whitaker-Bermite facility: The perchlorate cleanup plan is a reality, says commentary
- Suppliers seek approval for the “Delta Habitat Conservation and Conveyance Program”
- Salmon-tracking network challenges conventional wisdom
- State panel floats ‘litter tax’ to curb debris along coast
- Delta smelt closer to extinction
- Water settlement knots finally untangling
- Normal rainfall predicted for north state this winter
- Should we recycle urine on Earth, too?
- Who will be Delta’s keeper?
- Increasingly scarce water is the new California gold
- Californians need to worry about food security, says commentary
- Court rejects POWER appeal of All-American Canal case
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Aquafornia's mission is to educate readers about the complex and often controversial issues surrounding water in California.
Aquafornia is affiliated with the Water Education Foundation, an impartial non-profit organization, whose mission is to create a better understanding of water issues and help resolve water resource problems through educational programs.
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