Endangered fish found in Salton Sea
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 29, 2007 at 7:43 pmFrom the U. S. Geological Survey:
Researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) have discovered a population of the endangered desert pupfish (Cyprinodon macularius)in constructed ponds along the southeastern shore of the Salton Sea, in south-central California. Preliminary estimates of more than 1,000 pupfish will need to be evaluated by a detailed survey that will be conducted as soon as the appropriate permits are obtained. Dr. Douglas Barnum, scientist with the USGS Salton Sea Science Office, called the discovery a “scientific windfall” that will provide a unique opportunity to learn more about this endangered species. Dr. Michael Saiki, fisheries biologist with the USGS Western Fisheries Research Center’s Dixon Duty Station noted, “What’s significant about this discovery is the large number of pupfish we are seeing!”
The four constructed ponds are part of an experimental shallow habitat complex, completed in the Spring of 2006, in partnership with the U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Imperial Irrigation District, and California Water Resources Control Board. The experiment is primarily designed to assess ecological risk from selenium on migratory birds using artificially created habitat blending water from the Alamo River and the Salton Sea.
To see the full text of this USGS Press Release, click here.
Delta pumps trigger killing zone in the Delta
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 29, 2007 at 10:36 amThis just in from Yuba.net, a press release from the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance:
Resumption of massive water exports from the Delta by the State Water Project (SWP) and federal Central Valley Project (CVP) has caused a massive killing zone of low dissolved oxygen to develop in the San Joaquin River at Stockton California. Adequate levels of dissolved oxygen are crucial for the survival of aquatic life.
Read more
Today’s news in brief
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 29, 2007 at 10:19 amIt’s been a slow couple of days for water news!
But a few things have been happening, mostly regional issues. Here’s a smattering of them:
Hetch Hetchy: Congress has done away with President Bush’s $7 million proposal to further study draining Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. Bush had included the money in his proposed budget for the 2008 fiscal year. The decision to ax the funding came as no surprise to leaders of Restore Hetch Hetchy, a Sonora-based group pushing to tear down the 312-foot O’Shaughnessy Dam. “We really didn’t think that it had much of a chance,” said Sonoran Jerry Cadagan, chairman of Restore Hetch Hetchy’s board of directors. For the full text of the story from the Union Democrat, click here.
Salton Sea Authority running tight on funds: The group has a roughly $5 million annual program and operations budget. But an audit presented to the authority during a meeting Thursday in Thermal shows the agency has dipped into its cash savings and investments to cover expenses. It had $37,709 in net assets at the end of fiscal year 2006. If nothing changes, next year’s numbers are “not going to be good,” Executive Director Rick Daniels said. “That’s how thin this has gotten,” he said. “I’m scared to death by it.” To read the full text of this story from the Desert Sun, click here.
Read more
San Diego’s 20 gallon challenge: Water authority asks everyone to reduce water use
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 28, 2007 at 1:56 pmFrom the North County Times:
Officials with the county agency will officially announce today what they are calling the “20-gallon challenge,” calling on every resident to reduce by 20 gallons the amount of water they use. Most people use about 180 gallons a day, an authority spokesman said.
The water agency serves as the wholesale water supplier for 24 member water agencies in the San Diego region. The water authority appeal follows calls from other water agencies in the state for their customers to reduce their water consumption as the region faces the prospect of future water shortages, an authority spokesman said Wednesday.
Read more
Clean boating practices promoted in the Delta
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 28, 2007 at 11:40 amThere are a few other possible factors contributing to the decline of the Delta smelt, and one of them is pollution. There is a campaign underway to promote clean boating practices in the Delta, as highlighted in this article from Stockton’s Record.Net:
As crowds of boaters delight in the Delta this Fourth of July, county and state officials are making final plans to decrease boater-generated pollution - be it a few drops of fuel that accidentally escape, or batteries or oil filters dumped into the drink. “That’s just wrong,” said Bower, a Southern Californian making his first trip to the Delta.
Read more
The fight to keep toxic plume out of the Colorado River
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 27, 2007 at 7:42 amI found this last night while searching the internet. This is an article from the Las Vegas Sun about a toxic plume of Chromium IV which is seeping underground towards the Colorado River, in the area between Lake Havasu & Lake Mead. The damage was done in the 1960’s, and is still being dealt with today:
… far from the sunshine, deep below ground, slumbering on the California side, a monster lies. Nobody is quite sure how big it is. Maybe 2,400 feet long and at least half that wide. At some points it is shallow, not far beneath the gravel. In others it is so deep that its tongue creeps along prehistoric bedrock. The only way to tell what shape it is taking, when it stretches or contracts, is drill deep and test. To those whose job it is to vanquish the thing, it is known simply as “The Plume.” The Plume is a vast cloud of ground water contaminated with Chromium VI, an industrial chemical made famous by the film “Erin Brockovich.”
Read more
Water bank location vigorously opposed in Antelope Valley
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 26, 2007 at 9:15 pmResidents showed up in force to oppose the location of a proposed water bank in Rosamond, a city on the outskirts of the Palmdale & Lancaster area. An Antelope Valley-East Kern Water Agency official discussed the need for the water banking project, citing continued drought in the Colorado River Basin & ongoing problems in the Delta area. He also discussed how voters rejection of key water development proposals in years past has led to the present difficulties with the Antelope Valley’s water supply.
“The State Water Project does not work without local banking,” he said.
This year, because of the drought, the Department of Water Resources allocated 60% of the entitlement to State Water Contractors, including AVEK, PWD and Littlerock. But with half a year to go, Fuller said he wasn’t certain that the state will even deliver that much. And next year will be worse, he speculated, with possibly as low as a 30% allocation.
Read more
North San Diego County growers prepare for water cutbacks
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 26, 2007 at 9:04 pmFrom the North County Times:
Local water officials said they were dusting off plans that could put month-by-month caps on agricultural customers’ water use and penalties for exceeding the caps. “We are doubling our prayer efforts for a wet winter,” said Chuck Badger, a lemon and orange grower in the Encinitas/Rancho Santa Fe area and president of the San Diego County Farm Bureau. Supply reductions of at least 30 percent, compared with a still-undetermined reference year, could go into effect in January, barring exceptional weather before then.
The official call for cuts from Southern California’s main water supplier, the Metropolitan Water District, is not expected until August or September, local water officials said.
Water can be one of a San Diego County grower’s largest expenses, including labor. Some North County operations have yearly bills of several hundred thousand dollars. “If we have 30 percent less water, we’ll have to cut our crop by 30 percent,” said Donnie Dabbs, manager of Briggs Tree Company in Vista. “Less product means hiring fewer people, from field workers to salespeople.”
To read the rest of this article from the North County Times, click here.
Soot from Tahoe fire threatens long-term damage to the lake’s clarity
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 26, 2007 at 8:52 pmFrom the Associated Press/Press Enterprise:
Regarding the fire in south Lake Tahoe:
All parties have long agreed that the amount of fuel in Tahoe’s forests had reached critical levels, but little was done to address the problem during years of wrangling among environmentalists and government agencies over a plan to thin the forests and reduce the fire threat. Environmental groups were wary of causing air pollution through controlled burns or jeopardizing the health of the forests by logging. Meanwhile, public officials argued among themselves over how best to address the wildfire threat without harming fragile forest ecosystems. Even homeowners wanting to cut trees on their own land were hamstrung by strict local planning rules regarding care of the forest.
In April, the U.S. Forest Service finally settled on a 10-year plan to thin and burn 38,000 acres of forest to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires. But it was too little, too late, local leaders say.
To read the rest of this article from the AP/Press-Enterprise, click here.
“Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea” begins tonight
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 26, 2007 at 7:10 pmThe documentary film, “Plagues & Pleasures of the Salton Sea” will begin airing on the Sundance Channel tonight. The documentary generally has been getting positive reviews from other bloggers and critics. It follows the story of the Salton Sea and the characters who live in the area, and is narrated by John Waters.
Here is the Sundance schedule:
Tuesday, June 26th at 9:35 pm
Friday, June 29th at 12:35 am
Friday, June 29th at 10:35 am
Saturday, July 1st at 3:35 pm
I believe these times are PST, but double check your local listings. The movie lasts about one hour.
LA Times Editorial: Conservation should be mandatory
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 26, 2007 at 6:45 amFrom the Los Angeles Times:
This editorial points out that the Mayor should have mandated a 25% reduction in water use, instead of requesting the 10% that he did. The editorial notes how drought has impacted the regions where we draw our water from, and that other cities, such as Las Vegas, are doing much more.
Our waste is so chronic and vast in Southern California that it amounts to a fresh water supply. The MWD and its member agencies, such as the DWP, provide nearly 4.4 million acre-feet of water to the region’s cities. Roughly half that is used outdoors, where more than a million acre-feet a year — enough to meet the needs of 2 million families — is wasted by over-watering with hoses and badly programmed sprinklers and by car washing and driveway hose-downs. In our gardens, the most common cause of plant death is over-watering; an estimated 100 million gallons of runoff flows through L.A. storm drains into the Pacific every day.
Instead of making a serious bid to capture this outdoor waste, after the drought of the late 1980s and early ’90s, the MWD instituted industrial water-recycling projects and ground-water recovery programs and encouraged indoor conservation in the form of low-flush toilets and rebates for front-loading washing machines. Sixteen percent of the water we use now comes from recaptured water. But only 2% of that comes from what’s called “active conservation” — you and I watering less.
…
The questions before Southern Californians now are: Can we afford for water security to be elective? Can we continue to drain the two most important river deltas in the West and leave dustbowls in the mountain ranges while we poison the Pacific with runoff?
The answers have to be no and no. The mayor of the largest city in the Southland shouldn’t be asking Angelenos to conserve but should be moving to mandate it. And he should start at City Hall, where the lawn is so over-watered that mushrooms could grow.
To read the rest of this Los Angeles Times editorial, click here.
What can we do to fix the Delta?
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 25, 2007 at 11:27 pmAn Aquafornia Exclusive: There has been a lot in the news lately about the Peripheral Canal. Governor Schwarzenegger has spoken out in favor of it. While environmental groups seem to be lining up in opposition to it, I haven’t really heard anyone else proposing any other option. Besides the Peripheral Canal, just what are the other options for fixing the Delta?
In February of this year, the Public Policy Institute of California issued a detailed report, entitled “Dealing with the Delta: Envisioning Futures, Finding Solutions”. This report studied a variety of long-term solutions for solving the problems facing the Delta. The following article summarizes information taken from that report.
Antelope Valley: Residents must cut back water use by 15%
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 25, 2007 at 10:00 pmFrom the Antelope Valley Press:
Only conservation will get us through the summer, Palmdale Water District officials told residents Saturday at an open house. Every household must cut 15% out of their water usage in order to keep the faucets from running dry, they said.
“If we get that, we can make it through the year without water rationing or other measures,” said Greg Dluzak , production manager for the district. If residents cannot cut back voluntarily, mandatory rationing will have to be instituted with fines as high as $1,000 for breaking regulations, officials said.
To read the rest of this article from the Antelope Valley Press, click here.
Desert communities need to rethink landscaping decisions
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 25, 2007 at 9:56 pmFrom the Desert Sun:
The lush, green Coachella Valley many have come to know may soon be forced to change, due to an increasingly dire water reality in the West.
Ongoing drought with no let-up in sight. Global warming. Court battles with environmentalists and levee problems in the Sacramento-San Joaquin river delta that supplies much of California with water; coupled with diminishing supplies of Colorado River water that supplies most of the rest. An ever-increasing water demand from a growing population. The factors have all come together to create what Cantú called “the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.”
But the alarms many Western water experts are sounding haven’t yet resonated in most desert neighborhoods.
…
Most homes use well more than half their water on their lawns and outdoor landscaping. That has many worried. “We need to stop pretending we live in someplace else,” said Palm Desert resident Buford Crites, vice president of Friends of the Desert Mountains, a land conservation group.”We don’t live someplace with a bunch of water,” he said.
To read the full text of this story from the Desert Sun, click here.
San Diego prepares for global warming
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 25, 2007 at 9:49 pmHere is an article from the San Diego Union Tribune which discusses what San Diego and other coastal communities in the U.S. are doing to prepare for the potential changes global warming will bring:
Global warming is expected to increase the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events such as floods, droughts and hurricanes. Rising temperatures likely will damage fisheries, increase heat-related deaths, hasten the spread of infectious diseases and alter where crops can grow. Government agencies, politicians and activists are slowly ramping up their efforts to adapt to these projected changes. No national program exists to coordinate such a monumental mission, so the work largely has fallen to state and local governments.
Like most of the country, the San Diego region has yet to create a comprehensive plan for coping with global warming. “We are just seeing so many areas at the local level that we probably would need to do some sort of serious rethinking about,” said Linda Giannelli Pratt, a climate change expert for the city of San Diego. “It’s still a little fuzzy.”
To read the rest of this article from the San Diego Union Tribune, click here.
Purchase of better fish screens delayed due to cost
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 24, 2007 at 8:09 amFrom Stockton’s Record.Net:
TRACY - The fish screens guarding south Delta water- export pumps are old, out of date, and ineffective at protecting the most vulnerable of species: the Delta smelt. Replacing those facilities was discussed long before smelt were pushed to the edge of extinction. But any action has been indefinitely delayed because of a price of more than $1 billion and, some say, reluctance by those who receive Delta water to pay for fish protection.
“In my opinion, installation of a fish screen is part of the cost of doing business,” said Tina Swanson, a biologist with conservation group The Bay Institute.
..
There is no way to divert smelt - or other sensitive species such as salmon and steelhead - around the state and federal pumps. They’re at a dead end in the far southern Delta. Fish that escaped getting sucked into the pumps are funneled into trucks and driven to release points elsewhere in the Delta. Predators are known to congregate in these areas for a free lunch. In short, the current salvage and release is a flawed system, some say, one that new fish screens wouldn’t solve.
For the rest of this article from Stockton’s Record.Net, click here.
Kings County: State of Emergency declared due to drought
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 24, 2007 at 8:02 amFrom the Fresno Bee:
Gov. Schwarzenegger on Saturday declared a state of emergency in Kings County, where drought conditions are expected to cause millions of dollars in crop damages this year. The declaration came at the request of the Kings County Board of Supervisors, county administrative officer Larry Spikes said.
Rainfall has been well below average, and the county also has been affected by a reduction in irrigation water, Spikes said. “We’re in a bad situation with so little rainfall this year,” Spikes said.
For the full text of the article from the Fresno Bee, click here.
Recommended Reading: a Northern California perspective on the Peripheral Canal
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 23, 2007 at 8:28 amHere is an editorial article posted on Redding.com regarding the peripheral canal:
The voters gunned it down 25 years ago this month, but like a swamp monster from the movies, the Peripheral Canal keeps rising from the brackish waters of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last week invoked the need for a canal to safely run water around the delta to meet California’s — read: Southern California’s — water needs.
For decades, the State Water Project has pumped water through the giant estuary west of Stockton. All along, the water engineers have argued that millions of people and millions of acres of farmland cannot forever depend on the leveed sloughs as a reliable pipeline. California needs something more engineered, they say.
This article has generated several comments, which give a glimpse into how southern Californians are viewed by our neighbors to the North:
Terry says: It would be amusing to watch the eco-Nazis cheering the Caterpillars gouging a trough through housing developments, farmland and sensitive wildlife sanctuaries so that the wealthy movie stars, hedge fund managers and land speculators can keep their swimming pools full, fountains flowing and lawns growing so that their Guatemalan gardeners will have something to do.
DPW says: The people in Southern California and the Coastal areas of SF, Santa Barbara etc. do not give a rip about anything except themselves. To them, we are a resource to be raped for their own gain and kept in a perpetual state of “ecological purity”. Sort of their own personal natural recreational preserve, where they can come and recreate and gawk and make fun of the picturesque natives (silly rednecks).
My posted response to DPW: I don’t think that Southern Californian’s view the northern part of the state as a resource to be raped. Unfortunately, I think southern Californians are profoundly disconnected from water issues. I would say most of my neighbors are blissfully unaware of where their water comes from, the efforts it takes to get it there, and the impacts of the areas where the water is drawn from. Part of this is that water issues are given very little press in the southern portion of the state, and water agencies do not do nearly enough to require and/or encourage conservation. My blogsite, Aquafornia, seeks to educate my neighbors on these issues, and present the varying viewpoints of all sides of the issues.
To read the full text of the Redding Record Searchlight Online, including the comments, click here.
Wanger ruling: won’t shut down pumps, at least for now
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 23, 2007 at 7:58 amIn a ruling disappointing to environmentalists and a relief to water agencies, Judge Wanger denied the emergency request to shut down the pumps, but indicated he is still willing to listen to further scientific evidence.
From Inside Bay Area website: The immense economic damage such an order would cause to the state of California outweighed the possibility that continuing to pump water out of the Delta might kill the last remaining Delta smelt, said U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger. Still, Wanger, who ruled in May that the federal permit to operate the huge pumps near Tracy under the Endangered Species Act was illegally lax, said he was willing to listen to further scientific evidence that could lead to a shutdown order later.
… During the more than three-hour hearing on the emergency motion Friday, Wanger expressed frustration with the government’s inability to manage California’s water without putting fish at risk of extinction. “What can we do to remedy that in a way that won’t cause a whole swath of destruction?” he said. “We have allowed the governments to address these issues and it simply hasn’t worked.”
To read the full text of this Inside Bay Area article, click here.
Smelt studies look for answers
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 22, 2007 at 9:34 pmFrom the Contra Costa Times:
Out on a sun-baked lot near the state’s massive Delta water pumps sits a cluster of nondescript buildings where researchers are decoding the mysteries of a tiny fish at the center of a statewide water supply crisis. It is here that researchers have learned how to hatch and grow Delta smelt, discovering all sorts of details about the imperiled fish along the way. They have raised and studied thousands of Delta smelt during the past 15 years since biologists first started worrying about the fate of the native fish.
Who knew, for example, that Delta smelt will not feed in clear water, preferring a more turbid environment? Or that its eggs are very sticky and tend to glue themselves to hard surfaces, like rocks, on the channel bottom? Those little insights have taken on added meaning in recent years as Delta smelt have plunged dramatically toward extinction and could lead to changes in how the Delta is managed.
To read the rest of this article, click here.
Riverside officials continue the call for conservation
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 22, 2007 at 9:28 pmRiverside officials continue to push their residents to conserve, saying in this Riverside Press Enterprise article:
Citing a lasting trend of dry weather in the West, global warming, a shrinking water supply from the Colorado River and continuing population growth, leaders called for water conservation, reminding the region it’s a desert. “Our water situation in Riverside County and throughout Southern California has gone from grim to grimmer,” county Supervisor Roy Wilson said.
The average annual temperature in Southern California has increased about five degrees Fahrenheit in the past 100 years, Patzert said. “If you think it’s dry now, definitely tighten your belt because it’s going to get dryer,” he said.
Riverside officials were one of the first communities in southern California to call for conservation this year.
To read the rest of this article, click here.
Peripheral Canal Reaction
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 21, 2007 at 9:43 amFrom the Capital Weekly:
Driven in part by a governor seeking a legacy, by farmers down the Central Valley, by the builders of public-works projects and by some water districts, the Capitol debate over water policy is focusing — again — on the Peripheral Canal. Read more
Owens Valley: Less water for LA, more water for Owens Valley restoration and “in-valley” uses
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 21, 2007 at 9:24 amThe Inyo County Register is the local paper for the community of Bishop, located in the Owens Valley. For the past several months, the newspaper has been revamping its website, and recently came back online. This is good news for Aquafornia Read more
Smelt deaths at the pumps prompt yet another lawsuit
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 21, 2007 at 7:31 amFrom the LA Times:
Warning that a recent boost in water exports is nudging the delta smelt closer to extinction Read more
Imperial Irrigation District to implement water rationing
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 20, 2007 at 5:35 pmThe Imperial Irrigation District has declared a water imbalance, meaning existing water supplies will not be available to meet all user demands in 2008.
From the Imperial Valley Press Online:
By a unanimous vote the board said there is an imbalance in water supplies and in doing so took the first step toward initiating an unprecedented local water rationing program, albeit no one with the district has used the word rationing. Instead, terms like water apportionment, water budgeting, water allocation and equitable distribution were the terms used Tuesday to describe what will be a change in the way the district manages water.
“During its June 12 regular meeting, this board heard from staff regarding the conditions that would be necessary to trigger a supply/demand imbalance declaration within the IID service area,” IID General Manager Charles Hosken said. “Today we are asking you to make such a declaration …” Hosken said.
The declaration sets the stage for district staff to develop a specific plan for rationing water not only to agricultural users, but also to cities and industrial users.
The program is set to start on January 1st, and would be effective for one year. The program will be evaluated after that, and a decision made as to whether to continue the program.
For the full text of the article, click here.
Water Conservation: Why It Needs to be Part of our Future
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 20, 2007 at 5:18 pmAn Aquafornia/SCVTalk exclusive
Water. It is the one resource that has defined the west. Water is necessary for survival. Water can make the desert bloom. And it is water that gives the land its value. In California, there is perhaps no other factor that has shaped and defined this state as much as water.
But many factors are straining our supply of this vital resource. Continued population growth of the Southwest, persistent drought conditions, global warming, and the problems plaguing the Delta (where a large portion of southern California’s water supply originates from) continue to put ever-increasing demand on this decreasing resource. In 2003, the U.S. Department of the Interior released its report, Water 2025: Preventing Crises and Conflict in the West, and noted the challenges facing the semi-arid western states, stating that “today, in some areas of the West, existing water supplies are, or will be, inadequate to meet the water demands of people, cities, farms and the environment, even under normal conditions.” (Click here to see a map of projected water shortages in the western states in the year 2025.)
Congressional Hearing regarding the Delta to be held on July 2nd
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 19, 2007 at 8:09 pmThe House Natural Resources subcommittee will hold a hearing in Vallejo on July 2nd to discuss the Delta crisis and what steps can and should be taken to alleviate it. The hearing will focus on the health of the estuary and what is possibly causing the declines in fish, and what are state and federal water and wildlife agencies doing to aid in restoration efforts.
The Contra Costa Times reports:
“We have an emergency on our hands,” Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, said Monday in announcing the July 2 hearings in Vallejo. “State and federal agencies are lurching from crisis to crisis without a sustainable plan that can protect our Delta environment and manage our water supplies.”
Miller and Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Alamo, are among six Bay Area lawmakers to call for the hearing by the water and power subcommittee of the House Natural Resources Committee.
To read the full text of the Contra Costa Times article, click here.
The big difference between Schwarzenegger & Davis
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 19, 2007 at 8:00 pmDan Walters of the Sacramento Bee had an interesting column regarding the difference between former Gov. Davis and Gov. Schwarzenegger. Davis seemed unwilling to tackle any big issues while in office, and effectively enacted legislation to put off dealing with the Delta situation until he would be out of office.
Says Walters in his article: Ideologically, you couldn’t slip a piece of tissue paper between Democrat Davis and Republican Schwarzenegger, but in stylistic terms, the two couldn’t be more different. While Davis assiduously avoided conflict whenever he could, Schwarzenegger dives into thorny issues that, as he has said, “have been pushed under the rug for decades.”
“I love tackling big problems,” Schwarzenegger told a gathering in Chico recently, adding, “I feel strongly that the people of California have sent me to Sacramento to tackle those big problems. They have seen me on the screen to be the big action hero, so they know that I can be the big action hero also in Sacramento.”
Not the least of those long-ignored issues is the plight of the Delta that predecessor Davis so assiduously shunned eight years ago. Last week, without prompting, Schwarzenegger, during another “town hall” event in Bakersfield, endorsed the single most controversial approach to the Delta, a peripheral canal. Declaring that “we have studied this subject to death,” he demanded action on the state’s knottiest water issues, saying he wants to “build more conveyance and … more water storage.”
Walters applauds Schwarzenegger for tackling the big political hot potato, the peripheral canal, and concludes his column with this:
Schwarzenegger doesn’t always succeed on the big issues he tackles. But at least he’s trying, which is more than one could say about Davis.
For the full text of Dan Walter’s article, click here.
Environmentalists file suit targeting agricultural runoff
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 19, 2007 at 6:01 pmFrom the Stockton RecordNet:
Tens of thousands of farms are illegally exempt from laws requiring the monitoring and reporting of toxic water runoff, environmental groups said in a lawsuit filed Monday. The lawsuit targets the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board’s “ag waiver” program, which allows farmers to join coalitions rather than test their own runoff. Millions of pounds of pesticides and fertilizers are applied to these farmers’ lands, later washing into creeks and streams and, ultimately, into the Delta. There, the toxins imperil threatened fish such as the Delta smelt, environmentalists say.
Besides the pumps which draw water from the Delta, there are other factors which could be responsible for the decline of the Delta smelt. This suit targets one of those potential factors: toxins from farm runoff.
To read the rest of this Stockton RecordNet article, click here.
Pumping from the Delta is beginning to return to normal, but concerns still remain
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 18, 2007 at 10:45 pmThe state DWR increased its pumping on Sunday, and plans to be operating at nearly normal capacity by the end of the week. The pumps had been shutdown for ten days, and afterwards. operating at a fraction of capacity for a number of days. Pumping is expected to resume to near normal levels by later this week.
From Inside the Bay Area:
“We are hopeful and optimistic the pumps will not have to be shut down again this summer,” he [Lester Snow, head of DWR] said. “But if it unexpectedly became necessary because of a significant take of delta smelt, then we would take whatever protective actions are necessary.”
Susan Siravo, a spokeswoman for the Santa Clara Valley Water District, also noted that environmental groups have filed lawsuits against the state and federal governments seeking more protections for the smelt. Those could result in future cutbacks of Delta pumping. “We wouldn’t say the Delta problems are solved,” she said. “It’s an ongoing issue that is going to need further attention.”
For the full text of the Inside Bay Area article, click here.
However, even though water deliveries through the State Water Project will soon resume to near normal levels, concerns still remain. Metropolitan Water District is quadrupling its budget for its campaign to push for conservation, as well as Long Beach, San Diego, and other water districts statewide.
The reason for the conservation call is simple. Southern California’s main water supplies this summer appear to be starting to dry up.
The region in general, and the Los Angeles area in particular, is suffering through a severe single-year drought. The Colorado River, one of Southern California’s two main sources of imported water, is in its eighth year of drought. And state water and Fish and Game officials stunned regional water leaders May 31 by abruptly shutting down the pumps that deliver Southern California’s other imported water —- rain and snowmelt sent from Northern California through the State Water Project —- to protect an endangered fish, the delta smelt. Friday afternoon, state officials announced they planned to ramp back up to full pumping to Southern California by today.
Jeff Kightlinger, Metropolitan’s general manager, said the agency still believed that it would get all of the State Water Project water Southern California was slated to receive before the shutdown. But officials say they’re still worried that another dry year, or more shutdowns, could wreak havoc next year and beyond.
The article goes on to say: Metropolitan officials said the current calls for conservation were a gentle reminder that water in the West is a precious resource. But Ken Weinberg, water resources manager for the Water Authority, said that people in the region needed to “rethink our lifestyles.” “The major message in long-term conservation is that we don’t live in an area that can support the kind of landscapes that we have,” he said. “We are talking about lifestyle changes. We’re not saying it all has to be rocks and cactus, but we have to be making smarter, more efficient choices.”
To read the full text of the North County Times article, click here.
The empty waterpark in the on the way to Las Vegas
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 18, 2007 at 10:13 pmI recently took a trip out to Las Vegas, and along the way, I came across a water park out in the middle of nowhere that, each time I have passed it, always seems to be closed. It’s called “Rock-A-Hoola”, and it’s located in Newberry Springs, which is a few miles east of the agricultural inspection station, about halfway between Las Vegas & Los Angeles.
So I came home and looked it up on the internet and found out some information. Opened in 1962, the park was located next to a man-made lake named Lake Dolores, and was built as part of a campground for those who like to play in desert - off-road racing, motorcycles, and and the like. Over the years, it gradually grew in scope to something beyond what it had been intended for. The rides were faster and more thrilling then the usual waterparks of the time.
The park reached the peak of its popularity in the late 1970’s & early 1980’s, but experienced some downturns and eventually closed towards the end of the 1980’s. The park sat vacant for many years until being purchased. It was remodeled reopened under new management in 1996, but due to financial issues and a lack of interest, it was closed by 1998.
The property was sold again in 2001, renovated and reopened in 2002, lasting for two seasons before closing yet again. An employee who was off-duty had an accident on one of the slides and successfully sued the park for workman’s compensation. The park has not been open since 2004.
The fate of the park currently is unclear.
For more information:
For the Quartz City blog with pictures, click here. For more pictures, click here.
For the Wikipedia article, click here.
And, if you’ve read this far, perhaps you’d be interested to know that Zzyzx Road, located about 8 miles outside of Baker, formerly led to the Zzyzx Mineral Springs and Health Resort. The health resort was run by an evangelist who delivered sermons over loudspeakers at least twice a day and who sold treatments promising miraculous cures for all manner of ailments, including hemorrhoids and baldness. The BLM evicted the owners and closed the spa in 1974. The site is now occupied by the California State University’s Desert Studies Center. To find out more, click here for the Wikipedia article.
Project demonstrates water waste and runoff in Orange County
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 18, 2007 at 9:41 pmA demonstration project has been set up in Orange County to show how homes can be designed to be more water efficient and minimize runoff.
Part experiment, part demonstration project, the three houses are designed to reveal how Orange County homeowners create torrents of contaminated water runoff – and to showcase state-of-the-art technology for controlling it. “They’re designed so people could see what they could implement to improve water quality,” said Darren Haver, a water quality adviser with the University of California Cooperative Extension. “‘What are a few things I could do around my home?’”
The project, dreamed up by Haver three years ago and recently completed, has become a minor sensation among the landscapers, developers, consultants and master gardener groups who receive firsthand training on the site. They learn how to control urban runoff which, with its burden of contaminants, pesticides and fertilizer, can pollute beaches when it rolls downstream or prompt unwanted algae blooms in places like Upper Newport Bay.
To read the rest of this article from the Orange County Register, click here.
The Political Side of the Peripheral Canal
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 17, 2007 at 12:11 pmThe California Progress Report posted an article regarding the politics involved with the Peripheral Canal. I think it really explains very well the challenges ahead for supporters of such a project.
The Peripheral Canal was put to vote 25 years ago in a hotly contested ballot measure. The issue divided up the state not so much across party lines but became a north vs. south issue. It was seen by northerners as a water grab by Southern California, and was defeated resoundingly 63% to 37% statewide. However, in some counties in the Bay Area especially, the measure was defeated by a margin of 95% to 5%.
The article is titled, “Can Southern California Voters be Relied on to Protect the San Joaquin Delta if They No Longer Need It to Convey Water South?” I highly recommend following the link and reading the entire article, but here is the thesis in a nutshell:
At the end of the day, the option of a peripheral canal eliminates the need of Southern California voters to protect the fragile ecology of the San Joaquin Delta. No hostage would exist in the North against the sheer numbers of the South. Today, the Delta is the toll gate through which water must pass to get to L.A. The toll required is Delta Protection. Allow the circumvention of the toll gate and the North loses the wherewithal to protect the Delta. That’s the politics of the issue.
I don’t know what the statewide demographics were back then, but today, 44% of the state’s population resides in Los Angeles County, Orange County, and San Diego County. A peripheral canal would mainly benefit agricultural users in the Central Valley and urban dwellers in Southern California. The fear is that southern California, together with the agricultural Central Valley, might have the political and voter clout to ensure passage this time.
The Delta has been seriously impacted by water diversions, and there is great fear that a peripheral canal would allow the water to be ’sucked dry’ by southern California and agricultural users, while northern California suffers the impacts. Many look to the desertification of the Owens Valley as proof that southern Californians will do anything to get their hands on ‘their’ water, without looking back once they’ve got it.
It doesn’t help that water and its related environmental issues are routinely covered in the press in other parts of the state, but little mention is made of it in Southern California. Many southern Californians aren’t really aware of where their water comes from, appreciate the efforts to get it here, nor understand the environmental and other impacts that these diversions have caused in the areas where the water is drawn from.
While it is true that the population of Southern California has grown while water consumption has stayed relatively flat, this has been accomplished through passive efforts such as low-flow showerheads and water-saving toilets. The next round of conservation is going to require active participation among southland residents. We’re going to have to start thinking differently about how we view and use our water resources.
No doubt we’ll be hearing a lot more about the peripheral canal in the upcoming months, and the issue promises to be at least as contentious now as it was 25 years ago.
Delta Pumping to Increase on Sunday
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 16, 2007 at 6:57 amThe Department of Water Resources will begin increasing the amount of water pumped from the Delta pumps on Sunday.
From Stockton’s Record.Net:
Limited pumping resumed last weekend, but cities served by the pumps warned that water shortages were imminent if more water was not delivered soon. Pumping is slated to increase from about 100 cubic feet per second to 2,500 cfs by next week, closer to normal but still well below the facility’s capacity.
Rising water temperatures were expected to push smelt into the cooler far western Delta, away from the pumps, the state Department of Water Resources said. “We decided it was safe to increase pumping levels to meet water needs for cities and agriculture based on the fact that most of the Delta smelt are moving away from the pumps,” Water Resources spokesman Ted Thomas said.
Water Resources said it would closely monitor smelt while addressing other factors that have contributed to the decline of the once-abundant species, including toxic chemicals, exotic plants and animals, and other diversions of Delta water.
Conservation groups said more must be done. They called upon government leaders to alter operations so that rivers in the south Delta flow toward the Bay, as nature intended. When the pumps are operating, “reverse flows” occur in the Old and Middle rivers, sucking juvenile smelt into the danger zone.
The Natural Resources Defense Council and The Bay Institute said the federal and state governments “knowingly and deliberately” ignored the recommendations of agency scientists, who called for reverse flows to be eliminated.
For the full text of the Stockton Record.net story, click here.
Governor speaks out in favor of the peripheral canal
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 16, 2007 at 6:45 amWith all the attention given to the Delta pumps situation, Governeor Schwarzenegger has begun speaking out in favor of the ‘peripheral canal’. From the Sacramento Bee:
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called Thursday for a canal to transfer water around the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, marking the first time he has expressed support for the historically controversial project. The Republican governor, speaking at a town-hall forum in Bakersfield, told farmers he would fight to ensure they have enough water for the next two to three decades.
“We need more water,” he said, according to a recording. “We need to build more storage, and we have to build conveyance, the canal, and all of those kinds of things.”
The governor’s reference to a canal apparently referred to a project that could move water around the Delta from Northern California to Southern California, his aides confirmed. Politicians have been averse to such a system ever since voters rejected the Peripheral Canal in 1982. The project involved a 44-mile channel that would have circumvented the Delta to deliver water to the California Aqueduct.
The plan initially was envisioned as a way to preserve the Delta estuary but became political anathema when it was seen as a water grab by Southern California. Schwarzenegger acknowledged Thursday that water storage and a canal are “politically risky.”
Some said the call for a peripheral canal is premature, as the Delta Vision task force is determining whether a canal is necessary, along with examining other conveyance issues.
To read the full text of the Sacramento Bee article, click here.
From the San Francisco Chronicle:
Supporters say building a canal along the eastern edge of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta would provide a more stable way to transport water from Northern California’s rivers to about 25 million people in Southern California and the San Francisco Bay area. The water also irrigates about 750,000 acres of farmland. But it remains contentious among environmentalists and those who live in the delta’s small towns. They fear a canal would siphon out too much fresh water.
The governor last September issued an executive order launching a comprehensive review of the delta and its many problems. At the time, he said it was not sustainable for the state to base its water-delivery system around the estuary because of high risks from flooding and earthquakes. The situation has become increasingly bleak in recent weeks.
For the full text of the San Francisco Chronicle article, click here.
The IndyBay.org website posted a different point of view on the peripheral canal, saying the Governors call for the peripheral canal confirms ‘the worst fears of fishing and environmental groups’:
The voters in 1982 turned down a proposition funding a canal, due to the environmental catastrophe it was expected to inflict on the Delta, and each legislative attempt to build it has been defeated because of strong opposition by conservation groups.
The call for building a canal and more storage facilities couldn’t have come at a worse time. The Delta smelt, a small 2 to 3 inch fish that is found only in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, is on the verge of extinction, due to massive increases in water exports by the state and federal governments over the past five years. Other species, including winter run chinook, spring run chinook, longfin smelt and green sturgeon, are expected to follow the smelt over the abyss if the Delta smelt becomes extinct.
Yet Scharzenegger has no concern whatsoever for the Delta smelt and other imperiled fish on the Delta – or for following the state and federal and state Endangered Species Acts and other laws that mandate the protection of fish populations.
To read the full text of the IndyBay.org article, click here.
Look for more on the peripheral canal issue in the upcoming months.
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