Water Education Foundation

Salmon collapse as Delta water exports top record

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 31, 2008 at 10:40 pm

From Dan Bacher at IndyBay.org:

John Beuttler, conservation director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, in his latest advisory emphasizes the catastrophic nature of the sudden and unprecedented crash of Central Valley fall run chinook salmon to the California environment and economy.

Could it be that this salmon collapse, along with the crash of delta smelt, longfin smelt, juvenile striped bass, and threadfin shad, has been engineered by the Bush and Schwazenegger administrations to destroy what is left of the commercial and recreational sport fishing industry? By removing the commercial and recreational anglers from the water, the Bush and Schwarzenegger administrations will effectively remove the strongest opponents of their environmentally destructive water policies.

The state and federal governments exported 7,000,000 acre feet of water out of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta in 2007, a record year for water exports. So whatever garbage you have heard in the media about “poor farmers” suffering from mythical “water cuts,” subsidized agribusiness in the San Joaquin Valley and southern California received record water shipments in 2007.

“The Department of Water Resources and federal Bureau of Reclamation cannibalized the storage in our northern California reservoirs to provide the largest amount of water exported from the Delta in California history last year,” said Bill Jennings, chairman of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance.

With the opposition to their water policies removed or seriously weakened, subsidized agribusiness and greedy developers will see their ultimate dream fulfilled: the construction of the peripheral canal, the building of more dams and the destruction of the Bay-Delta Estuary as an ecosystem. The Delta then will be maintained by the state and federal governments as just a water supply for the corporate water barons and southern California, with no pesky delta smelt, chinook salmon, striped bass or fishermen in their way.

Click here to read the rest of this article from Dan Bacher at IndyBay.org.

January 31, 2008 · Filed Under Delta Issues, Endangered Species & Wildlife, Salmon

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Trout Underground wants *you* to submit comments against the toll road

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 31, 2008 at 9:38 pm

From Tom Chandler & the Trout Underground:

Jim Troyer - the Underground’s Director of Saltwater Fly Fishing and Beach-Related Alcohol Consumption – asked for some quick help on this one.

In Southern California, they’re fighting a pretty desperate battle to keep some yutzes form building a private, freeway-sized toll road that would run right through San Onofre State Park and Beach in Southern California. (As if SoCal needs ONE MORE DAMNED FREEWAY to clog.)

This would put the boots to San Mateo Creek — the southernmost home to steelhead (which just happen to be endangered). Not to mention doing a number on famous surf spot Trestles beach.

This isn’t some idle threat — they’re on the verge of approving this “let’s privatize a public resource for someone else’s profit” thing, and even Ahhnold the Terminator has thrown his considerable, steroid-enhanced weight behind it (”Ahllll be back… for your pawks and beaches).

Tom’s looking for a few good men & women to submit comments against the toll road. For the rest of this post from the Trout Underground, including a link where you can send your comments to, click here. And if you haven’t already, check out the Trout Underground blog. It’s chock full of good stuff - and be sure to read the comments; they’re great!

January 31, 2008 · Filed Under Oceans and Beaches (all), San Onofre Toll Road

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Scripps Institute researchers say people are to blame for climate change in the west

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 31, 2008 at 5:10 pm

Thanks to Aquafornia reader Daniel, who sent me this link from Yahoo News:

Human activity such as driving and powering air conditioners is responsible for up to 60 percent of changes contributing to dwindling water supplies in the arid and growing West, a new study finds. Those changes are likely to accelerate, says the study published Thursday in Science magazine, portending “a coming crisis in water supply for the western United States.”

The study is likely to add to urgent calls for action already coming from Western states competing for the precious resource to irrigate farms and quench the thirst of growing populations. Devastating wildfires, avalanches and drought have also underscored the need.

Researchers at Scripps Institute studied climate changes in the west during the latter half of the twentieth century and determined that human activity was the cause:

The changes they observed differed significantly from trends that could be attributed to natural fluctuations between wet and dry periods over time, they said. “The climate’s changing in the West. We’ve known that. The question is why, and no one’s really addressed that,” Barnett said in an interview. According to his study, “The answer is it is us.”

“The picture painted is quite grim so it’s time to collectively sit down and get our act together,” Barnett added, suggesting the need for conservation, more water storage, and a slowdown on development in the desert Southwest. “The building is just going crazy, so it would be a pretty good idea to put a curb on that unless they can figure out how to get more water,” he said.

To read the full text of this article from Yahoo News, click here.  And read on to the article below for more coverage on this study.

January 31, 2008 · Filed Under Climate change & water supply

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Coverage from around the web: Study says drought & global warming in the Western U. S. are man-made

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 31, 2008 at 5:09 pm

From National Geographic News:

The U.S. West will see devastating droughts as global warming reduces the amount of mountain snow and causes the snow that does fall to melt earlier in the year, a new study says. By storing moisture in the form of snow, mountains act as huge natural reservoirs, releasing water into rivers long into the summer dry season. “We’re losing that reservoir,” said research leader Tim Barnett, an oceanographer and climate researcher at the University of California, San Diego.

“Spring runoff is getting earlier and earlier in the year, so you have to let water go over the dams into the ocean.” Summers are also becoming hotter and longer. “That dries things out more and leads to fires,” Barnett added.

“Our results are not good news for those living in the western United States,” the scientists write in their report, which appears in today’s online edition of the journal Science.

But wait a minute, some of you are thinking, there’s so much snow this year! Whatever do you mean?

Those findings may come as a surprise this year, when the West is getting so much snow that skiers and snowmobilers are dying in avalanches in places that normally don’t get that much snow. But that doesn’t mean the future won’t see significantly less snowfall. “We’ll still have wet years and dry years,” Barnett said. “People have a problem distinguishing weather events and things that happen on a long scale. … It’s important to think of climate on time scales of a decade or more.”

Sadly, he said, residents of states like California, Utah, and Arizona are in line for some rude surprises. “Global warming is an abstraction to most people,” he said. “Well, the people who live in the West, if they haven’t already, are going to very shortly find out what global warming really means to them.”

Barnett predicts a crisis in water management that will require not only government action but individual sacrifices.

To read the full text of this story from National Geographic News, click here.

The National Geographic News article does see some positives in climate change, and the Pacific Institute’s Peter Gleick does as well, in this article from the New Scientist:

Hopes that the drought is temporary have been dashed by the analysis, prompting leading researchers to intensify their calls for policy change.

Peter Gleick, a water policy expert at the Pacific Institute, an independent think tank based on Oakland, California, says that water use in his state could be reduced by a fifth by 2030, even if the population and economy continue to grow.

Many sectors need to change to achieve that goal. Agriculture would have to shift towards drip irrigation, in which small amounts of water are focused on individual plants, rather than whole areas being sprayed. Home owners would also have to adopt toilets and washing machines that use less water, he says.

Gleick is cautiously optimistic about the chances about the willingness of politicians to make the necessary changes. New standards for water-saving toilets were adopted in 2007, for example. “We can do the things we want for less water,” he says. “But we need more federal and state legislation.”

To read the full text of the article from New Scientist, click here.

From Wired News, which is also reporting on the same study:

The new research comes as Western states are already struggling to supply water for both their farms and cities. Increased migration to the water-poor regions of the Southwest into cities like Los Angeles, Phoenix and Las Vegas has increased the amount of water necessary to support the rising U.S. population. With such a constrained supply and rising demand, the cost of water is likely to rise, experts said. Some California farmers, responding to a record water shortage, are even beginning to consider selling their water rights, instead of their crops.

Barnett’s team worked with climate models to simulate the impact of greenhouse gases on the Western water cycle. If their models for the future prove as accurate as their modeling of the past, the paper predicts unprecedented water shortages.

“We’re already at a level that can’t be sustained,” said Barnett. “Climate models show there will be less water supply while we continue to grow more cities out in the desert.”

Under the new conditions, what to do with the water we do have will become increasingly important, said Erik Straser, a partner at the venture capital firm Mohr Davidow Ventures, a firm that invests in clean technologies.

“Four out of five gallons of water go to agriculture,” Straser said. “We have to make hard choices and the choices are going to be between agriculture and people.”

To read the full text from Wired News, click here.

The U.K.’s Nature.com adds this:

“What they’ve got is quite scary,” comments Ian Cluckie, a hydrologist at the University of Bristol, UK. The trend looks likely to make water shortages even more severe for residents of southern California, Arizona and New Mexico, he says. These naturally arid regions already receive a lot of their water by ‘north–south transfer’ — careful manipulation of water flow through damming and aquifer management — from wetter regions to the north, Cluckie says. “This area only survives by major water transfer and it’s going to get much, much worse,” he adds.

Just how much worse is difficult to say. Much of the rainfall in the region occurs through thunderstorms and these are too localized to be predicted accurately by climate models, which are usually organized in grids with squares several hundred kilometres across.

Other regions likely to suffer similar problems include the entire area surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, and the southern parts of Africa, says Chris Milly, of the US Geological Survey. Syria, for example, looks set to suffer a more than 40% drop in freshwater runoff by 2050, according to computer models based on IPCC emissions predictions (see Map).

To read the rest of this story from Nature.com, click here.

January 31, 2008 · Filed Under Climate change & water supply

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Second snow survey shows snowpack is about 119% of normal

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 31, 2008 at 3:32 pm

dwr-logobig_thumb.gifFrom the Department of Water Resources:

SACRAMENTO – Results of the manual snow survey completed today by the California Department of Water Resources off Highway 50 near Echo Summit are as follows:

Location

Elevation

Snow Depth

Water Content

% of Long Term Average

Alpha

7,600 feet

89(e) inches *

26(e) inches *

123

Phillips Station

6,800 feet

73.1 inches

23.6 inches

123

Lyons Creek

6,700 feet

81.8 inches

23.5 inches

120

Tamarack Flat

6,500 feet

74.3 inches

21.9 inches

115

* (e) electronic sensor reading

Today’s survey was DWR’s second of the 2007-2008 snowfall season and shows the Echo Summit area’s snow pack water content to be about 75 percent better than this time last year.

“January is typically the wettest month of the water year,” said DWR Hydrology Branch Chief Arthur Hinojosa, “and this month’s storms have been an excellent shot in the arm to the State’s water supply. January’s precipitation has bolstered the snow pack and made up for a sub par December. Season to date is just above average and 65% of the April 1 average peak.”

In addition to the snow survey results issued today, reporters can find real-time readings of statewide water content posted on the Internet at http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/snow/DLYSWEQ. The latest electronic sensor readings show Northern Sierra snow water equivalents at 119% of normal for this date, Central Sierra at 102%, and Southern Sierra at 122%. Statewide, the percentage of normal is at 111%.

The next manual survey is scheduled for early March. DWR’s Public Affairs Office will issue a news advisory before the event.

Importance of Snow Surveying

Snow-water content is important in determining the coming year’s water supply. The measurements help hydrologists prepare water supply forecasts as well as provide others, such as hydroelectric power companies and the recreation industry, with much needed data.

Monitoring is coordinated by the Department of Water Resources as part of the multi-agency California Cooperative Snow Surveys Program. Surveyors from more than 50 agencies and utilities visit hundreds of snow measurement courses in California’s mountains each month to gauge the amount of water in the snow pack.

For more information on snow surveys and California’s snow pack, click here.

January 31, 2008 · Filed Under Drought, Weather & Snowpack

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Answers needed to ‘unprecedented collapse’ of the salmon, editorial says

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 31, 2008 at 3:16 pm

From the Sacramento Bee, an editorial that notes the ‘unprecedented’ decline of the salmon and the strong possibility of fishing restrictions in the upcoming season - if salmon fishing is allowed at all. From the editorial:

If only it were easy to understand what is driving this downturn. Dams, water diversions, pollution and loss of shady river habitat clearly are hurting the effort to rebuild numbers of natural spawners.

But water diversions have spiked steadily since the 1990s in the Central Valley, and salmon nonetheless had impressive runs from 2001 to 2003. That suggests that stresses on salmon go beyond the Valley’s water projects and extend far out into the ocean.

While out at sea, salmon eat shrimp-like creatures called krill, as well as anchovies and other small fish. Some scientists have found that changes in West Coast wind patterns have disturbed a normal “upwelling” of the ocean that helps energize the food chain. This could be a harbinger of climate change or just a temporary cycle. Much more research is needed to understand the links.

In coming decades, California is expected to invest billions of dollars in new water projects, including a possible canal to divert fresh water around the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. But will such projects help or hurt salmon? Or have no impact? Californians will want answers before opening their wallets.

To read the full text of this article from the Sacramento Bee, click here.

January 31, 2008 · Filed Under Delta Issues, Endangered Species & Wildlife, Salmon

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Draft State Water Project Delivery Reliability Report 2007 offers ’sobering assessment’

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 31, 2008 at 2:58 pm

From the Central Valley Business Times:

 

January’s series of storms merely masks a deeper problem that will see the amount of fresh water available to Californians dwindling year after year, a report from the Department of Water Resources says.  Its “Draft State Water Project Delivery Reliability Report 2007” updates estimates of its ability to maintain current (2007) and future (2027) State Water Project delivery reliability.  The report, issued every two years, also identifies factors that may impact water availability and changes that can be made to improve future water supply reliability.

It says continued declines in water supply reliability are likely if water delivery through the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta remains unchanged.  Delta pumping restrictions imposed by a federal court to help protect threatened and endangered fish and the near-term effects of climate change are two of the major factors.

Based on historical data, the analysis shows that annual SWP deliveries would decrease virtually every year in the future, and by as much as 20 percent from current levels one-quarter of the time.

To read the full text of this article from the Central Valley Business Times, click here.  For the press release and the report, click here.

January 31, 2008 · Filed Under DWR & State Water Project

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Northern California water transfer to Palmdale Water District has a big benefit for Butte County

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 31, 2008 at 2:49 pm

From the Oroville Mercury Regsiter, the water transfer between Butte County and the Palmdale Water District. Butte County holds rights to more SWP water than it can use, and in previous years was not required to pay for its unused water. However, this year, DWR informed Butte County that they would have to pay for the unused water. At the same time, DWR changed the rules, making it easier for the water to be transferred elsewhere. From the article:

Previously State Water Project contractors, including Butte County, could only sell water within their designated service areas. However, DWR changed the rules to allow contractors to sell water to each other, even outside of the service area. That gave Butte County authority to peddle its allocation elsewhere.

Tuesday, Paul Gosselin, director of the county Water and Resource Department, and assistant director Vickie Newlin, briefed the Board of Supervisors on a proposal to sell the local share. Newlin said her department had received a “letter of intent” from the Palmdale Water District seeking to purchase the county’s water.Just how much water the county would be allowed to sell is dependent on DWR’s water guarantees to its contractors. Late last year, before the arrival of the current rains, DWR predicted it would provide 25 percent of the contractors’ maximum allotment in 2008. If the 25 percent allocation holds for 2008, according to Newlin’s figures, the county could receive $1,437,500 from a deal with Palmdale.

As the percentage of the allocation the county gets grows, the per-acre-foot payment for the water would drop. However the increasing amount of water sold would more than make up the difference. Newlin told the board if the county could sell 100 percent of its water allotment, Butte could receive $4.4 million.

“Although the cost to the county for water year 2009 and future years is still unknown at this time, using the 2008 price as an indicator, the county could meet and exceed its costs for 2008 through 2010 with the revenue generated through the sale” of the water in 2008 and 2009, states a report prepared for the board by Newlin.

To read the full text of this article from the Oroville Mercury Register, click here.

January 31, 2008 · Filed Under Antelope Valley, Water Transfers

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Farmers coalition sues over striped bass - more information from the Sacramento Bee

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 31, 2008 at 9:01 am

From the Sacramento Bee, finally more on this story about the Coalition for a Sustainable Delta’s lawsuit over the non-native striped bass:

After months of losing fights over how much water can be pumped to farms from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, a coalition of farm groups is striking back with a federal lawsuit blaming state agencies for endangering native fish in the Delta.

In a suit filed in Sacramento federal court, the groups ask for a halt to California’s practice of maintaining predatory, nonnative striped bass in the Delta for the benefit of fishermen, claiming the policy violates the Endangered Species Act.

The bass feed on spring- and winter-run chinook salmon, steelhead and Delta smelt – all protected by the Endangered Species Act – and their dwindling populations harm the overall health of the estuary, ultimately resulting in reduced water deliveries to farmers, the lawsuit charges.

“Allowing this destruction to continue when the populations of several of these species – including the Delta smelt – are crashing is outrageous,” said Michael Boccadoro, spokesman for the Coalition for a Sustainable Delta, the lead plaintiff in the suit filed late Tuesday.

Just who makes up this coalition?

Members of the coalition include four large agricultural water districts in Kern County, at the southern tip of the San Joaquin Valley. The districts supply State Water Project deliveries to land within their respective boundaries through contracts with the Kern County Water Agency.

The agency has grown over the past 10 years into one of the most powerful and wealthy water players in California.

The coalition’s tactics suggest it aims to draw attention from the effects of water exports on the Delta’s habitat and fish. Its Web site, for example, offers information about virtually every other problem affecting the Delta except the major pumping systems.

The Delta ecosystem is deteriorating due to a number of factors, including degradation of water quality from urban and agricultural runoff and water withdrawals to support the needs of the state’s growing human population.

To read the rest of this article from the Sacramento Bee, click here.

To visit the website for the Coalition for a Sustainable Delta, click here.

Dan Bacher at the Fish Sniffer weighs in on this issue here.

January 31, 2008 · Filed Under Delta Issues, Endangered Species & Wildlife

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Salmon report spells disaster for local fisherman; “it’s probably going to be worse than anything we’ve experienced before”

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 31, 2008 at 8:53 am

From Inside Bay Area:

Local fishermen saw doom in a report released Tuesday warning that the Sacramento River’s fall chinook salmon population fell by two-thirds in 2007 and is headed for collapse, according to data from the federal government. The sharp drop in chinook, or “king,” salmon returning from the Pacific Ocean to spawn in the Sacramento River led the Pacific Fishery Management Council, which released Tuesday’s report, to suggest that it may be necessary to close the salmon season entirely.

That would spell disaster for both commercial and recreational fishermen at Pillar Point Harbor, who typically depend on the salmon and Dungeness crab seasons for their entire incomes. Poor salmon returns from the Klamath River in 2006 and 2007 previously caused regulators to cut the first month and a half of salmon season, which normally starts May 1, resulting in untold financial losses for fishermen.

Those losses would be compounded by an even poorer season this year. And the pain would be borne not just by fishermen, but by all the groups that benefit from salmon season — from processors to bait shops, RV parks, and fishing guides along the Klamath River.

Duncan MacLean, a Half Moon Bay fisherman who is on a team that advises the fishery council, said he’s bracing for hard times.

“It’s probably going to be worse than anything we’ve experienced before,” said MacLean, 58, who relies on salmon fishing for as much as 70 percent of his income.  “It’s going to put a lot of us out of business.”

To read the full text of this article from Inside Bay Area, click here.

January 31, 2008 · Filed Under Delta Issues, Endangered Species & Wildlife

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Recent rains shouldn’t dampen conservation efforts, editorial says

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 31, 2008 at 8:43 am

From the North County Times:

Our view: Recent rains shouldn’t dampen conservation efforts

If you think recent rains mean the drought is over, think again.

As of Monday, this season’s storms had dropped 5.53 inches of rain at Lindbergh Field, San Diego’s official weather station. That’s compared with droughtlike conditions that brought only 1.71 inches by that same date last year. Total rainfall for all of 2007 was only 3.85 inches. The rainy season in California is tracked from July until June.

 

That is certainly good news, but thus far, it is not enough to make up for years of drought. And it is nowhere near the 13-plus inches that had been measured at Lindbergh by January 2005, one of the wetter rainy seasons on record.

In fact, most weather forecasters are standing by predictions that this winter will be drier than normal.

Bill Patzert, a climatologist for CalTech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, also is predicting that annual rainfall in Southern California could be 20 percent below average by the end of the rainy season.

At best, the recent rains have given us a little breathing room. We’ve still got a long way to go before reservoirs and lakes are replenished, and we still face the long-term challenges posed by environmental problems in the Sacramento-San Joaquin bay delta.

To read the rest of this story from the North County Times, click here.

January 31, 2008 · Filed Under Conservation

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Builders see profit in installing smart water management systems

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 31, 2008 at 7:38 am

From Greener Buildings:

As American consumers and businesses look for new ways to reduce the environmental impact of daily life, the notion of green buildings is extending beyond their four walls and into the surrounding landscape. Certifications such as LEED and others provide a suite of standards for environmentally sustainable construction, including landscaping and grounds keeping.

Developers, builders and contractors can leverage smart water management technology to gain points necessary to achieve LEED certification of their outdoor areas. Smart water management uses smart irrigation controllers that monitor and use information about site conditions (such as soil moisture, rain, wind, slope, soil, plant type and more), and apply the right amount of water to the landscape based on those factors. Once the smart controller is installed and set up, it automatically makes seasonal weather and site-specific adjustments, and does not require ongoing monitoring.

Water consumption is being targeted because, quite simply, it is becoming a scarce commodity — and its price is rising. More than half the U.S. suffers from drought conditions and, as a result, water rates are rising faster than energy costs. In fact, water use also consumers energy; every one billion gallons of water consumed requires 4 billion watt-hours of power, and results in an environmentally unfriendly 5.4 million pounds of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

Awareness of water conservation is growing, particularly in western states, some of which are enacting laws to enforce recommendations to lower consumption. Conservationists have zeroed in on landscapes, which typically contribute 20 percent of a property’s value, because they account for 58 percent of all urban water usage. Landscapes are routinely over-watered by 30 to 300 percent, presenting a high-value target for sustainability programs.

In addition to water, energy and cost savings, any reduction in over-watering also lowers the damaging environmental effects of runoff, which transports landscape chemicals and other contaminants into the local water supply.

There are sound business reasons for building houses with water-saving landscapes, too. Click here to read the rest of this article from Greener Building.

January 31, 2008 · Filed Under Conservation, Drought Tolerant Landscaping

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As water conservation gets tougher, the City of San Diego is spending less

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 31, 2008 at 7:30 am

From the Voice of San Diego:

When a major drought hit San Diego from 1987 to 1992, the region’s water conservation began. To save water from being wasted, the initiative focused indoors: replacing showerheads and toilets. As the threat of another water shortage looms, that effort is shifting outdoors, an area where water managers say saving water is harder. At the same time that shift is occurring, though, the city of San Diego is spending less to promote conservation.

The city’s Water Department will spend $2.7 million this year on everything from a staffer who investigates complaints of water waste to educational campaigns. Spending is down 20 percent compared to last year (and 5 percent compared to 2006). The cut comes at a time when attention is increasingly focusing on the region’s precarious water supply. Court-ordered reductions in water exported from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and an almost decade-long drought on the Colorado River have left the region facing one of its tightest water supplies since a drought ended in the early 1990s.

That drought launched water conservation efforts throughout Southern California. But as another possible shortage sets in, many of the early efforts have run their course. The city of San Diego has lowered its annual conservation targets for its residents — though it has set informal internal goals that boost those figures.

To read the full text of this story from the Voice of San Diego, click here.

January 31, 2008 · Filed Under Conservation, San Diego

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Official surveyors sent out to determine which city owns dead whale on the beach; plus a dead whale video you don’t want to miss

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 30, 2008 at 11:01 pm

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

A whale carcass that has lain on a Pacifica beach for seven months was the stuff of high intrigue Wednesday when an official surveying party was dispatched to do a little official surveying. It was the first dead whale survey that anyone could remember. “We’re here to lay this matter to rest,” said whale surveyor Sean Stasio, staring at the remains of the whale halfway down the beach.

The whale washed up in the summer on the beach opposite Sharp Park Golf Course, west of the 16th hole. The golf course is located in Pacifica, but the property belongs to San Francisco.

For months, the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department has received calls about the whale. On Wednesday, the department at last decided to dispatch two staffers to Sharp Park Beach to figure out which city was on the hook for the whale and its possible removal. Their instructions were nothing less than to take an official reading of the dead whale’s latitude and longitude with an electronic gizmo.

It turned out to be a beautiful day to survey a dead whale. The rains let up and the sun poked out. Dog walkers and kite fliers, unaware of the history about to be made, went about their business. A dozen crows pecked at the twisted, leathery remains of the whale which, after so many months, looked less like a dead whale than a pile of coiled rope or a collapsed old tent.

But the crows scattered when Stasio, a Recreation and Park Department planner specializing in geospatial information, arrived on the beach, accompanied by a colleague. Stasio stood beside the whale and unholstered his electronic device, a Thales Mobile Mapper, Model CE. It was a honey.

He punched a few buttons and the device sprang to life and began flashing numbers.

After a moment, the screen gave its verdict.

The whale, it declared, was located at 38 degrees 16 minutes 31 seconds by minus 114 degrees 37 minutes 29 seconds. That information turned out to be historic, too, as it meant that the official location of the whale was 50 miles south of Ely, Nev.

To read the rest of this humorous article from the San Francisco Chronicle, click here.

Okay, so dead whale on the beach. Whatcha gonna do about that? Here’s an lesson in what not to do in this classic video that I found on youtube: click here and prepare to laugh.   (Hint:  Dynamite is not the answer!)  Stay with it - it starts out slow, perhaps, but only gets better. Definitely worth taking the link!

January 30, 2008 · Filed Under Weird & Wacky Water News

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Lobbyist tells Castaic Lake Water Agency that 2008 ‘looks good for water infrastructure bonds”

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 30, 2008 at 10:44 pm

From the Santa Clarita Signal:

A state lobbyist acting on behalf of the Castaic Lake Water Agency assured some members of the board this week that state politicians and, particularly the governor, remain committed to plans to store water and, at the same time, find ways to conserve it.

Lobbyist Ralph F. Simoni, in a report presented to the agency’s Governmental Relations and Outreach Committee, said the future for 2008 looks good for water infrastructure bonds set up to protect the state against diminishing resources.

Simoni prefaced his sentiments by referring to the State of the State speech delivered by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger earlier this month in which he called for California to invest in itself.  “Most importantly,” Simoni said in his report, “he specifically stated that he would continue to pursue a water infrastructure bond proposal to protect the state and plan for future population growth.  “He (Schwarzenegger) invited the Legislature to continue the dialogue to resolve what he described as the few remaining details — in reality, the tension between storage versus conservation measures.”

To read the full text of this story from the Santa Clarita Signal, click here.

January 30, 2008 · Filed Under Water Legislation

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Swift water rescue teams patrolling Los Angeles area flood channels

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 30, 2008 at 10:40 pm

From the Long Beach Gazette:

Robert Hamilton drives a red, four-wheel drive pickup truck loaded with lifejackets, helmets, bodysuits and other gear. Next to him in the passenger seat, Scott Mitchell rolls down his window to a gaunt man in frayed clothes standing beside a rusty shopping cart. “You need to find somewhere else to go,” he says to the homeless man. “It’s dangerous to be down here.” The man nods as Hamilton presses his foot gently on the accelerator, the truck steadily climbing up the narrow bike path adjacent to the San Gabriel River flood channel, which on this day runs a few feet deep between two steep, angled cement walls.

los-angeles-river-by-peggy-archer.jpg “Most of the speed is in the center of the river,” says Mitchell, who wears a red protective bodysuit in case he needs to jump into the channel. “The bottom of the water is (slippery) like ice. It’s slower along the edges, so that benefits us.”

Several storms blew through Long Beach last week, prompting these swift water rescue team members to patrol the area for people who may have fallen victim to the river. It’s a regular protocol for these Long Beach Lifeguard and Fire Department professionals, even through it puts their lives at risk. So far this year, there have been 25 “advisals,” warning people away from the rivers, but no water rescues.

Using their equipment, which includes flotation gear, helmets and other water rescue devices, the team uses every method possible to extract the victim from the water before actually entering the water.

“You’re looking for movement — something out of the ordinary,” says Mitchell, whose rescue experience includes helping pull a man who was under the influence of drugs out of the Los Angeles River in an earlier rainy season.

To read more about the Swift Water Rescue Team, click here.

Photo of the LA River by flickr photographer Peggy Archer.

January 30, 2008 · Filed Under General Water Issues, Los Angeles River

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Residents of Central Nevada gearing up for Southern Nevada Water Authority hearings next week

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 30, 2008 at 9:46 pm

From the Ely Times, locals are getting ready for the upcoming hearings regarding the Southern Nevada Water Authority’s plans to pump groundwater from White Pine County to send south to Las Vegas. Local satellite links will be available for residents who cannot make the long trip to Carson City, state capital and site of the hearings. From the article:

At issue are the SNWA’s application for substantial water rights in Cave, Dry Lake and Delmare valleys. A set of SNWA water rights applications in Snake Valley will be considered separately after a ruling is made for the Cave, Dry Lake and Delmare applications.

great-basin-water-network-pond.jpgThis hearing is critical to water rights in White Pine and Lincoln counties according to Simeon Herskovits, an attorney from Taos, N.M., representing several protesters to the SNWA’s plan to acquire water rights and pipe water to Clark County. He is affiliated with Advocates for Communities and Environment, a non-profit organization. Herskovits said his clients for the hearing include White Pine County, the Lund Irrigation Company, Preston Irrigation Company, several White Pine County ranchers and the Sierra Club.

“This hearing will determine whether the Southern Nevada Water Authority is granted water rights for that ground water they’ve applied for across three valleys. It’s about 35,000 acre feet total,” Herskovits said.

“This hearing will determine if there is any water available to them (SNWA),” Herskovits said, adding that the upside for the SNWA is if they won the full amount of water rights they are seeking. “The downside would be if they get nothing. For White Pine County it’s the opposite.”

Herskovits said the hearing will lead to a final decision as far as the state engineer is concerned. Whatever decision is made it is likely that someone will not be satisfied.

Further court proceedings are possible. To read the full text of the article from the Ely Times, click here.

Photo by Kristi Fullman, courtesy of Great Basin Water Network.

January 30, 2008 · Filed Under Las Vegas

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Delta Vision Task Force meets tomorrow and Friday (Jan 31st - Feb 1st)

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 30, 2008 at 5:34 pm

The Delta Vision Task Force will be meeting tomorrow and Friday in Sacramento. The meeting will be webcast. Agendas, meeting materials and links for the webcast can be found by clicking here.

January 30, 2008 · Filed Under Delta Issues, Delta Vision Task Force

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New York Times: The Preservation Predicament - how global warming could impact our conservation efforts

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 30, 2008 at 3:37 pm

From the New York Times:

Conservation organizations that work to preserve biologically rich landscapes are confronting a painful realization: In an era of climate change, many of their efforts may be insufficient or beside the point.

Some scientists say efforts to re-establish or maintain salmon runs in Pacific Northwest streams will be of limited long-term benefit to the fish if warming makes the streams inhospitable. Others worry about efforts to restore the fresh water flow of the Everglades, given that much of it will be under water as sea level rises. Some geologists say it may be advisable to abandon efforts to preserve some fragile coastal barrier islands and focus instead on allowing coastal marshes to migrate inland, as sea level rises.

And everywhere, ecologists and conservation biologists wonder how landscapes already under preservation will change with the climate.

“We have over a 100-year investment nationally in a large suite of protected areas that may no longer protect the target ecosystems for which they were formed,” said Healy Hamilton, director of the California Academy of Sciences, who attended a workshop on the subject in November in Berkeley, Calif. “New species will move in, and the target species will move out.”

As a result, more and more conservationists believe they must do more than identify biologically important landscapes and raise money to protect them. They must peer into an uncertain future, guess which sites will be important 50 or 100 years from now, and then try to balance these guesses against the pressing needs of the present.

“It’s turning conservation on its head,” said Bill Stanley, who directs the global climate change initiative at the Nature Conservancy. He said the organization has a goal to protect 10 percent of major habitat types — like grasslands, forests and freshwater systems — by 2015.

“We are not sure exactly how to treat this yet,” Mr. Stanley said. “Areas that we preserved as grasslands are going to become forests. Does this mean we are going to have to have more than enough forest and less grassland than we had before? Or does it mean we should fight it — try to keep the forest from coming into those grasslands? Or should we try to find new areas that are least likely to change, that seem to be the least susceptible to change, and prioritize those areas?”

As Dr. Hamilton put it, “Our whole strategy is going to have to shift.”

To read the rest of this story from the New York Times, click here.

January 30, 2008 · Filed Under Endangered Species & Wildlife, Environment & Water

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Wet weather is great, say Antelope Valley officials, but we still need to conserve

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 30, 2008 at 3:31 pm

From the Antelope Valley Press:

After a weekend awash in heavy rains and avalanche-inducing snowfall, Antelope Valley experts said the water situation is looking up but still urged residents to conserve. “Having rainfall is a good thing. It’s much better than no rain, which is what we were afraid of,” said Melinda Barrett , water conservation program manager for the Los Angeles County Waterworks District. But she added, “The local supply is not sufficient by itself, rain or no rain. That’s something to be aware of. … Hopefully it will keep raining.”

So far, precipitation seems to be on a positive trend, with more rain falling last week than in the previous year. In the 2006-07 rain year, which started July 1 and ended June 30, Lancaster saw only 1.4 inches of rain, and only 0.65 inches fell on Palmdale. Between Wednesday and Sunday, 2.41 inches of rain fell on Lancaster, while Palmdale got 0.68 inches. That puts Palmdale still slightly behind its average for this point in the year, but Lancaster is more than an inch ahead of the curve.

The wet weather brought problems, including local flooding in the lower elevations, winter road restrictions and avalanches in the upper elevations.

The Valley draws 40% of water from area sources and 60% from state supplies via the California Aqueduct, she said, so “it’s still really important to conserve.” She urged residents to continue measures like turning off sprinkler systems on rainy days.

“In ‘07 we started with full reservoirs from a very wet ‘06. … That’s like having money in the bank,” said Russ Fuller , general manager of the Antelope Valley-East Kern Water Agency. “In ‘08 what we’re starting with is very dry reservoirs. We’re already in much better shape this year, (but) we’re really counting on the precipitation we get this year to get us through.”

To read the full text of the story from the Antelope Valley Press, click here.

January 30, 2008 · Filed Under Antelope Valley, Conservation, Drought, Weather & Snowpack

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