Governor Schwarzenegger’s letter to Senators Perata, Steinberg & Machado, outlining peripheral canal study plans and calling for a 20% reduction in statewide per capita water use by 2020

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 29, 2008 at 3:33 pm

From the Office of the Governor:

Governor Schwarzenegger Outlines Comprehensive Actions Needed to Fix Ailing Delta

Governor Schwarzenegger sent the following letter to Senators Perata, Steinberg, and Machado in response to their unfounded concerns that his administration is “unilaterally” beginning work on a so-called “peripheral canal.” Consistent with the extensive work done by his administration over the last two years to gain consensus on a bipartisan legislative solution for a comprehensive plan to upgrade California’s water infrastructure, Governor Schwarzenegger detailed his agenda in the following letter:

February 28, 2008

The Honorable Don Perata The Honorable Darrell Steinberg
President pro Tempore California State Senate
California State Senate State Capitol
State Capitol Room 4035
Room 205 Sacramento, California 95814
Sacramento, California 95814

The Honorable Mike Machado
California State Senate
State Capitol
Room 5066
Sacramento, California 95814

Dear Don, Mike and Darrell,

My administration has been working on solutions for addressing California’s water supply and the environmental crisis in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta for more than two years. As you all have acknowledged during our negotiations on a comprehensive water infrastructure package over the last year, the heart of California’s vital water supply system is in jeopardy of collapse without both immediate action and long term solutions to restore the ecosystem and protect water supplies.

I created the bipartisan Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force by administrative action in 2006. The Task Force has issued its Vision and will develop a Strategic Plan to implement the Vision by the end of this year. In its recommendations, the Task Force identified a series of near-term actions that should be taken to protect the estuary, including studying the options for improving water transfer in the Delta. Far from acting unilaterally, my administration has been transparent in working with stakeholders and legislators on identifying both administrative and legislative actions that will be necessary to address the recommendations of the Task Force. As part of that effort, I will continue to negotiate in good faith with legislators on a comprehensive water infrastructure package.

To clarify the administrative actions we are considering as part of a comprehensive solution in the Delta, let me outline some of the key elements under development: Read more

Metropolitan Water District responds to the Governor’s press release

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 29, 2008 at 3:33 pm

LOS ANGELES–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Timothy F. Brick, chairman of the board of directors of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, issues the following statement regarding Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s letter to the state Senate leadership addressing the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta:

Gov. Schwarzenegger has outlined the kind of comprehensive path to a fix in the Delta that both the ecosystem and water system need. This is not a problem that will be solved with a single solution. The Delta needs more habitat, improved levees, better land use protections and a smarter way to move water supplies that is in harmony with the estuary.

The public needs an open process that examines the range of options so that there is confidence in the eventual package of solutions. We need to maintain a bipartisan approach and continued leadership from the Legislature and the governor in solving the water problems we face. The strategy outlined by the governor is moving the Delta process in all the right directions.

“Metropolitan welcomes the governor’s call for all Californians to be wiser users of water. With the governor initiating what is hopefully a fruitful discussion, we can create a legacy in water conservation to match his and the Legislature’s efforts addressing climate change.

In Metropolitan’s six-county service area, per-capita water use has declined dramatically since 1990, allowing the region to meet its current water needs with the same amount of imported water used nearly 20 years ago, even though our population has grown by more than 4 million people. While urban Southern California is ahead of most other regions of the state, an approach that identifies local opportunities and creates incentives to promote conservation would be particularly effective.”

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is a cooperative of 26 cities and water agencies serving 18 million people in six counties. The district imports water from the Colorado River and Northern California to supplement local supplies, and helps its members to develop increased water conservation, recycling, storage and other resource-management programs.

Association of California Water Agencies responds to Governor’s press release

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 29, 2008 at 3:33 pm

SACRAMENTO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA) today urged lawmakers to continue working with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to reach agreement on a bipartisan plan to address a deepening crisis in the Delta.

“Everyone understands the Delta is rapidly deteriorating,” ACWA Executive Director Timothy Quinn said. “ACWA strongly supports moving forward based on a bipartisan agreement in the Legislature to deal with this crisis.

“Time is not our friend on this issue. Every day is a day of lost water supply and further deterioration of the environment. There are two very good public processes under way, but they are lengthy. The governor’s decision to get the ball rolling on environmental documentation makes sense, provided there is opportunity for that work to be informed by negotiations in the Legislature and within the Delta Vision and Bay-Delta Conservation Plan processes.

“Since the governor has directed state agencies to analyze four options for addressing Delta conveyance, there should be plenty of room for negotiations to continue to achieve a comprehensive plan with broad-based support.”

ACWA is a statewide association of public agencies whose 450 members are responsible for about 90% of the water delivered in California. For more information, visit www.acwa.com.

People of the Sea: High Country News covers the people side of the Salton Sea

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 29, 2008 at 3:26 pm

From High Country News:

The village of Bombay Beach, Calif., is quiet, save for the occasional screams of gulls on the nearby Salton Sea. It’s 10:30 a.m. on a winter morning. Gusts of wind flecked with sand and salt whip for-sale signs in front of broken-down mobile homes and boarded-up bungalows. Front yards and empty lots are strewn with the relics of lost hope - an abandoned green motorboat tagged with graffiti, lifeless sedans, rotting camper shells, piles of used clothing, filthy couches, broken bottles, plastic garbage bags.

Eight years ago, census takers counted 366 residents in Bombay Beach; it’s unclear how many live here now. Bombay Beach does not attract many newcomers. The current townies tend to stick to themselves, gathering for entertainment at the town’s popular bar, the Ski Inn, where Mayor Wacko holds court.

On this particular morning, Wacko sits on a barstool, sipping a pink drink. His real name is Wayne Graham, but he prefers his nickname, which someone gave him years ago for reasons he can’t remember. He is not really the mayor, either; his bar friends gave him the title and it stuck. He is 70, thick-set, with a gray walrus moustache and sad blue eyes. He struggles to compete with a TV tuned to a World War II movie with lots of explosions and a woman at the end of the bar who’s bellowing that she’s thinner than most of the old cows in Bombay Beach.

Wacko has been enchanted with the Salton Sea for 35 years, ever since he worked for the telephone company in Long Beach. He remembers the waning heyday of the Sea, back in the 1970s, when it was still known as California’s Riviera. Cars lined up for miles to get a beachside camping spot. Tourists came to fish for orange-mouthed corvina, to race speedboats and water-ski, to spot celebs like Sonny Bono and Frank Sinatra. They came to escape the frenzy of Los Angeles, just 180 miles or so to the west.

Read the full text of this story from the High Country News by clicking here.

Water back in focus in Sacramento

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 29, 2008 at 3:21 pm

From the Capital Ag Press:

Stalled efforts to deal with California’s water woes got a boost last week as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein met with state lawmakers and water stakeholders at the Capitol to reinvigorate the debate for a state water bond.

Schwarzenegger and Feinstein expressed optimism after the meeting that consensus on a comprehensive water fix can be found to place a bond on the November ballot.

Feinstein, in an audio statement issued by the governor’s office, said a legislative solution appears to be best way to forge ahead with a plan to address all of the state’s plumbing and environmental problems. She was heartened by the discussions with both Democratic and Republican leaders. “If that is transparent, everybody has an opportunity, but there has to be something that is bipartisan that comes out of it,” Feinstein said. “I found it very productive and very constructive and I think the key is to keep it together, to keep these people together.”

So far, progress has been elusive, with the main sticking point being dams. Republicans want them and the Democrats do not, saying that conservation efforts and ground storage will be enough. Feinstein supports building new reservoirs, saying that climate change conditions will demand more surface storage.

Schwarzenegger, who called a special session of the Legislature last year to deal with water issues, remained hopeful that progress can be made to craft a water deal even as the state faces a massive $15 billion budget shortfall.

“Despite our current budget emergency, we still must address the severe water shortages that we are facing with court-ordered reductions in deliveries to Southern California, the Bay Area and the Central Valley,” Schwarzenegger said in a statement. “It is critical that we stay focused on rebuilding our water infrastructure - the economy, the environment, hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland and 25 million Californians depend on us finding a solution. The longer we wait the worse and more complicated the problem will get.”

To read the full text of this article from the Capital Ag Press, click here.

Schwarzenegger to move ahead on peripheral canal study

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 29, 2008 at 6:48 am

From the Sacramento Bee:

Despite stalled negotiations with Democrats on a comprehensive water plan, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger intends to move forward on studies of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, including a controversial canal, as well as call for a 20 percent per capita reduction in statewide water use, according to a letter he sent Thursday to Senate Democrats.

Department of Water Re- sources Director Lester Snow compared the water conservation proposal to a 2006 law that requires the state to reduce state greenhouse gas emissions 25 percent by 2020.

The Republican governor’s four-page letter came after leading Democrats alleged Wednesday that he was working “unilaterally” to pursue a canal that would move water around the Delta, a sensitive ecosystem that provides water to 25 million California residents and 2 million acres of farmland.

In a copy of the letter obtained by The Bee, Schwarzenegger wrote that he intends to direct DWR to begin federal and state environmental reviews on at least four Delta canal alternatives. Those include no new Delta transfer system, a two-part system with a canal and pumps, a stand-alone canal and substantial improvements to the existing pumps. The studies could take two to three years and cost more than $100 million, paid for by water users under existing contracts, Snow said.

When the news broke earlier this week, senators were reportedly angry, and three of them sent a letter to the Governor, telling him to back off. However, at least one of those senators seems to be moderately okay with this:

Sen. Mike Machado, D-Linden, said he was satisfied the governor answered questions posed in the letter he sent with Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, and Sen. Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento. Machado said he was particularly concerned beforehand that the governor sought to pursue only one Delta option that involved a canal and water pumps, but he believes all options need to be considered.

“I’m glad he’s finally being open with that, but I’m going to reserve my praise until I see what actions will be taken that improve the Delta,” Machado said.

Get the whole story from the Sacramento Bee by clicking here.

Backers of water storage projects seek support on Capitol Hill

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 29, 2008 at 6:34 am

From the Fresno Bee:

Supporters of two water-storage projects proposed in the central San Joaquin Valley are looking for help this week on Capitol Hill.

The Tule River Tribe wants to gather water in a new reservoir. Madera County officials want to collect water underground. Both require congressional help, and both face Bush administration skepticism.  The Porterville-based tribe’s proposed reservoir would pool water from the Tule River flowing from the Sierra Nevada. Ultimately, the proposed reservoir could cost roughly $150 million. For now, the tribe needs $3 million for a feasibility study.

The proposed Madera County water bank — a $90 million project — would percolate water into underground aquifers near Highway 99 and release it during dry years.  “It is part of our plan to stop the over-drafting of ground water in our district,” Madera Irrigation District board president Carl Janzen told a Senate subcommittee Thursday.

The projects have different histories, but they face similar hurdles.

One of those hurdles:

So far, the Bush administration opposes the Tule River feasibility study, with Bureau of Reclamation official Robert Quint last year calling it “premature” and potentially costly. On Thursday, Quint was voicing similar reservations about the Madera County water bank project.

Indian water rights is a significant issue here in the Western U.S.  In fact, western governors list Indian water rights as one of their major issues.  Check out Water Wired’s analysis by clicking here, or check out the USA Today’s article by clicking here.

Water: the ultimate liquid asset, and maybe the ultimate investment vehicle?

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 29, 2008 at 6:24 am

From Money & Markets:

Two centuries ago, people in New England were harvesting a resource for practically nothing and selling it at a fat profit in such distant locales as Calcutta, Martinique and Havana. As the wheel of history turns around, it may be time to start harvesting and selling that resource again. I’m talking about water — the ultimate liquid asset.

If you believe, correctly, that gold, oil and wheat are some of the most valuable commodities on Earth, think about water for a moment!

Today, I want to tell you more about this valuable natural resource … its colorful history as an investment vehicle … and how you can capitalize on what just may turn out to be the most lucrative commodity of the 21st Century.

Read the rest of this article from Money & Markets by clicking here. (Note: no endorsement given or implied.)

Business backed coalition drops plan to put water bond initiative on the November ballot

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 29, 2008 at 12:20 am

From Riverside’s Press-Enterprise:

A coalition of business and farming groups said Thursday it is dropping plans to put a water bond initiative before voters on the November ballot.

The group said it instead will work with Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein to negotiate a compromise that can be passed this year by the state Legislature.

The coalition, dubbed “Californians for Clean and Reliable Water”, had proposed a $11.6 billion ballot initiative that included funding for reservoirs.  The initiative met with much criticism, and generated little support.  However, the coalition is not abandoning the cause:

The business groups still believe more reservoirs and new aqueducts to move water around the state must be part of any compromise, coalition consultant Rick Claussen said.

“An unreliable and outdated water supply system leaves California just one earthquake or flood away from a massive catastrophe,” Claussen said in a statement announcing the group would drop its initiative.

Drought, climate change and recent court decisions requiring more water to protect fish in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta are endangering the water supply for California residents, he said.

Get the rest of the story from Riverside’s Press-Enterprise by clicking here.

Weird happenings in the water wars, says Hank Shaw. Will anything substantive emerge from all of this? He consults his magic 8-ball on these ‘curious events’ and reports on his blog - click here.

Mexican developer wants to build desalination plant in Baja California, possibly to swap water with a U.S. urban water agency

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 29, 2008 at 12:09 am

From the Voice of San Diego:

The developer behind the Bajagua Project LLC, the controversial effort to boost Tijuana’s lagging sewage treatment infrastructure, has come up with a new proposal to build a desalination plant in Baja California.

The proposal from San Marcos businessman Enrique Landa has been dubbed Nevagua. It calls for the city of Tijuana to use water from a Baja California desalination plant. In exchange, the Mexican government would give up an equal amount of its annual slice of the water it receives from the Colorado River. Instead of flowing to Mexico, that swapped water would be stored in Lake Mead, a massive reservoir east of Las Vegas, where a United States-based urban water agency would tap into it. If it succeeded, the proposal would give water agencies from across the arid West a way to tap into the Pacific Ocean without having to shoulder the impractical costs of directly connecting pipes to the ocean.

Landa’s group would guarantee the water supply to the yet-to-be-identified urban agency, while building and operating the desalination plant, according to a 13-page presentation the developer prepared in March 2007.

Craig Benedetto, a spokesman for Landa, said the proposal was a back-burner idea that had never gained traction with any water suppliers in the United States. This project is nothing,” Benedetto said. “It’s going nowhere, it’s gone nowhere.”

Interesting he should mention that.   I wouldn’t count that option out yet.  I attended the Southern California Water Dialog meeting on Wednesday, and one of the speaker presentations was on the upcoming meeting with Mexico on March 11th to discuss Colorado River issues. Desalination plants are on the agenda. From the article:

Mexico’s share of the Colorado River has been a controversial subject with the United States for decades. The United States and Mexico signed a treaty in 1944 that guaranteed Mexico 1.5 million acre feet of water from the Colorado each year. (An acre foot is about 326,000 gallons, enough to supply two families for a year.)

But as the United States increased its dependence on the Colorado, the water that flowed into Mexico became saltier and seriously declined in quality. The United States eventually agreed in the early 1970s to build a desalination plant in Yuma to improve water quality. The treaty and subsequent negotiations have given Mexico a valuable trading chip as the West faces its predicted dry future.

“The Mexicans have 1.5 million acre feet that they can use for trading purposes. If the price is right, why not?” said Steve Erie, a political science professor at University of California, San Diego, who has studied water politics.

Building a desalination plant would be easier and less expensive in Mexico than in California, he said, because “you don’t have the regulatory system down there that you have here. You don’t have the speed bumps. All of the hoops that Poseidon has gone through with the Coastal Commission (to permit its Carlsbad desalination plant) aren’t there south of the border.”

Poseidon currently operates six desalination plants in Baja California. Get the full story from the Voice of San Diego by clicking here.

Snow survey: reason to party or reason for concern?

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 28, 2008 at 11:57 pm

From the San Jose Mercury News:

We all know it’s been wet this winter. But has it been wet enough? As state snow surveyors measured the snowpack at a meadow along Highway 50 in the Sierra Nevada today, the answer - for the first time this year - was yes. The snowfall season should end above-average - and that means Californians, warned to brace themselves after an exceptionally dry 2007, almost certainly won’t face water shortages this summer.

That’s right. No dirty cars. No brown lawns. And no saving the bath water. “Fears should be put to rest,” said snow surveyor Dave Hart of the state Department of Water Resources. “There’s no way you could say we’re in any kind of drought.”

Mostly because of three heavy storms that smothered the high country with snow in January and February, the Sierra snowpack is 118 percent of normal for this date, officials from the Department of Water Resources reported. By comparison, last year at this time the snowpack was 63 percent of normal.

“It’s a good positive sign for water supplies for the summer,” said Frank Gehrke, a hydrologist with the state Department of Water Resources, as he measured the density and water content of the snow at Phillips Station in El Dorado County near South Lake Tahoe.

More from the San Jose Mercury News by clicking here.

But wait, before you head out to fill up the swimming pool and fire up your decorative fountain, the San Francisco Chronicle’s article says not so fast:

The Sierra snowpack continues to exceed normal levels, meaning good news for skiers and the state’s water users, but state water officials say more above-average snowfall is needed this season to wipe out the state’s water-supply deficit.

A sampling of four Sierra monitoring stations Wednesday and today showed snow levels ranging between 110 and 138 percent of normal for this time of year, compared to a 74-85 percent subnormal range at the same time last year, according to the state Department of Water Resources. Estimated water content of the snowpack is at about 120 percent of normal, compared to 68 percent last year, said Elissa Lynn, a meteorologist with the state Department of Water Resources. “That’s so much better than a year ago,” she said.

Today’s results are the latest in monthly snowpack surveys. The results for all of the Sierra’s 260 monitoring stations showed the snowpack water-content at 131 percent of normal for end of January, Lynn said. But even with the extra snow, the state’s reservoirs are not expected to fill up this year because of the shortages last year, when the water content of the peak snowpack on April 1 was only 40 percent, she said.

More from the San Francisco Chronicle by clicking here.

The farmers are happy, according to the Fresno Bee:

Recent storms have boosted southern Sierra Nevada snowpacks, raising hopes for many farmers who saw their water deliveries slashed last year. “The snowpack is the key for us,” said Kathi Woodward, an Easton-area farmer and dairy operator. “It means we’ll have to pump less ground water, it’s better for the environment, and it’s a lot less costly for us. All around, it’s been great.”

Thanks to the snowpack — which already exceeds typical annual peaks — the Fresno Irrigation District will begin delivering water Saturday, two months earlier in the season than last year, officials said this week.

A dry year that severely limited Kings River runoff meant farmers received just three months of water deliveries last season. This year, they’re expected to get water for six months. But with reservoir levels still recovering from last year’s parched conditions, it may be too early to say that California’s water outlook is back to normal. Despite the larger snowpack, water worries remain, particularly for growers on the Valley’s west side. Much of their water comes through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

“The delta is still the Achilles heel in this thing,” said Mark Borba, a Riverdale grower. Protections of the delta smelt last year brought restrictions in deliveries of water to west side farmers. And still more curbs could result from the listing this month of the longfin smelt by the state as an endangered species.

You can read the full text of the story from the Fresno Bee by clicking here.

So is the drought over? Depends on which paper you’re reading. The other piece of news these articles fail to mention is that the Wanger court-mandated pumping restrictions went into effect today, curtailing pumping from the Delta by 25% for at least the next seven days. (See press release from DWR below.)

CORRECTION:  Pumping has been cut to 25% of normal for up to seven days.

DWR releases results of third survey; Delta pumping restrictions have gone into effect

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 28, 2008 at 5:33 pm

From the Department of Water Resources, the results of today’s snow survey, plus the announcement that Delta pumping restrictions have gone into effect.  From the press release:

Results of today’s snow survey by the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) show Sierra snowpack conditions at 118 percent of normal for this time of year.

While this would normally be a positive indication that the state’s water supply is in good shape, DWR also announced that it will need to further reduce Delta pumping starting today to comply with a federal court order limiting water exports to southern California, the Bay Area and Central Valley.

State Water Project exports, which would typically be at about 8,000 cfs this time of year to fill south of Delta storage and provide water to communities and farms, will be cut to about one-quarter of that amount to protect Delta smelt that might be impacted by water project operations. This reduction initially will last up to seven days.

Today’s snow survey was the third of the 2008 snowfall season. The most recent electronic sensor readings show Northern Sierra snow water equivalents at 122 percent of normal for this date, the Central Sierra at 110 percent, and the Southern Sierra at 130 percent. Statewide, the percentage of normal is at 118 percent. Electronic sensor readings one year ago showed the Northern Sierra at 69 percent of normal, the Central Sierra at 64 percent and the Southern Sierra at 52 percent. The statewide average was 63 percent.

The Delta pumping reductions are a result of Federal Judge Oliver Wanger’s decision in December 2007 to curtail pumping by state and federal water projects to protect the threatened Delta smelt, a tiny fish vital to the ecosystem that has seen its population decline drastically in past years.

This year’s pumping reduction will reduce the amount of water that can be allocated to the 29 state water contractors this year between 11 and 30 percent.

Manual results from the February 28, 2008 snow survey

Location	Elevation	Snow Depth	Water Content	% of Year to Date Average
Alpha	7,600 feet	85.9 inches	30.8 inches	110
Phillips Station	6,800 feet	86.1 inches	33.7	136
Lyons Creek	6,700 feet	100.7 inches	35.2 inches	138
Tamarack Flat	6,500 feet	92.4 inches	29.7 inches	127

 

Read more

Central Valley Project farmers told they can expect 45% of their water allocations

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 28, 2008 at 5:19 pm

From the Central Valley Business Times:

Farmers who purchase their irrigation water from the Central Valley Project can expect 45 percent of their allocations, according to the Bureau of Reclamation.  But the Bureau says allocations for those north of the San Joaquin-Sacramento Delta may be subject to further review for Sacramento River water temperatures to protect salmon.  The bureau is also implementing interim court-ordered measures this year to protect the delta smelt, and water supply for the allocations south of the delta could change.

 

Farmers south of the delta face an even more uncertain season for irrigation water, according to a Sacramento-based private water law attorney.  Additional court decisions about endangered species protections for salmon and a new fish that may be added to the list could further reduce water flows.

“The Delta smelt interim decision regarding additional restrictions to protect Delta smelt is ongoing. There also has recently been a state decision on the longfin smelt and so we may get additional restrictions on the State [Water] Project,” says Becky Sheehan, a private water law attorney in Sacramento.

Get the rest of the story from the Central Valley Business Times by clicking here.

Measuring groundwater in Nevada: an inexact and controversial science

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 28, 2008 at 5:13 pm

From Las Vegas City Life:

An interesting story on how things have changed in last 50 or so years.  Nevada’s groundwater basins were originally mapped back in the 1960’s, using techniques of the time.  Basically back then, they spent a couple of months in a basin studying vegetation and making crude estimates of how much water might lie beneath.

“They spent a couple months in a given basin using a standard approach, but they didn’t have a lot of data to go by,” says Andrew Burns of the Southern Nevada Water Authority. “In terms of an estimate, it’s pretty decent, and since that time a lot of additional data has been collected.”

The statewide “reconnaissance” survey from the ’60s was a piece of thumbnail-sketch science that went broad, but not very deep. But the results are nothing to sniff at; heck, they’re what the state engineer uses as a guide when deciding how to dole out groundwater rights. The comprehensive water portrait shows that Nevada has more than 230 groundwater basins. Now, more than 40 years later — in a rapidly growing state where water is gold — scientists still refer to that dated snapshot of our groundwater situation. There hasn’t been a statewide inventory of water since the ’60s. Since then, a patchwork of studies have offered updates here and there, but the overall picture isn’t as clear as you’d think.

“The interesting thing is that, obviously, some of that data is old,” says Allen Biaggi, director of Nevada’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. “And there are some new methods of evaluating basins.”

To date, only 81 of Nevada’s groundwater basins have been mapped using modern technology.   The need exists for a more comprehesive evaluation, but finding the funding is difficult.  Several bills have been introduced in the state’s legislature, but none have passed as of yet.   Another attempt is planned for 2009.

Meanwhile, not only our techniques for mapping groundwater basins has improved, so also has our understanding of groundwater dynamics:

While water officials and scientists offer reassurances that there’s plenty of water out there in Nevada — in fact, many studies have found there’s more than previously thought — the most recent research has shed further light on a new conception of groundwater. It’s decidedly different than the popular idea of groundwater as big bathtubs of liquid, static and placid, just waiting for someone to dip in.

Even when the money’s there to plumb the desert depths for water, the science isn’t always crystal clear. A case in point resides to the north, where from 2005 to 2006, federal scientists were dispatched to study the area where the Southern Nevada Water Authority wants to tap rural groundwater. The $6 million study scrutinized 13 basins straddling the Nevada-Utah border. The Basin Area Regional Carbonate Aquifer System Study (aka BARCASS), paid for by an amendment to the Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act, was seen by critics of the rural pipeline plan as a scientific sop to skeptics and a Pass-Go card for the water authority — There, there, now. There’s plenty of water in the area, see?

The good news is there seems to “extra” water flowing out of the 13-basin study area. But the study also had the perhaps ironic effect of reinforcing another idea that’s quickly gaining traction — and one that might make water authority officials squirm. The emerging idea is that groundwater, scientists are finding, isn’t merely confined to a basin as though it were sitting in a sink. Rather, the water slips and slides around beneath the earth in larger patterns called regional flow systems. The inconvenient result: Pumping water at Basin A could spell trouble for Basin Z — or, say, the endangered species of fish that call Basin Z home. Indeed, some critics think BARCASS raised more questions than it answered.

“These aquifers are all connected, and they’re the source for surface water, including rivers that feed Lake Mead, and springs and seeps that are critical habitat for rare plants and animals,” says Launce Rake of the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, a foe of the rural pipeline plan. “We don’t understand what’s happening out there. Some scientists are getting a grasp, and the more we know, the more fragile those interconnected environments look.”

Read the full text of this story from Las Vegas’s City Life by clicking here.

Photo illustration by Bill Hughes and Las Vegas City Life. 

Water conservation worked so well, rates are going up for some Northern California cities

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 28, 2008 at 4:41 pm

From the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat:

Frugal water use last year helped the Sonoma County Water Agency achieve a state-mandated reduction in diversions from the Russian River. Now, the region’s primary water purveyor says it must increase wholesale rates to its customers - North Bay cities and water districts - in part to compensate for the lost sales.

Wholesale rate hikes of 6.7 percent for Santa Rosa and Windsor, 7.2 percent for Sonoma and 10.7 percent for south county cities including Rohnert Park and Petaluma are proposed for adoption in the spring. Officials in some cities said the increases will be absorbed but others said the higher costs are likely to be passed on to water users.

In Petaluma, City Council members said it was frustrating to learn that conservation efforts led to a rate hike - although city officials said it won’t be felt by Petaluma residents just yet. “You don’t want to get penalized for doing the right thing,” Councilwoman Teresa Barrett said at council meeting Monday.

Some cities planned ahead, and not all are considering passing on the increased costs - at least not yet.

“It’s an unfortunate paradox with conservation,” Ban said. “If the revenue goes down you still have to keep the pumps running and the equipment maintained.”

Read the full text of the article from the Press-Democrat by clicking here.

Climatologists declare drought over for Orange County

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 28, 2008 at 4:16 pm

From the ScienceDude at the O.C. Register:

Federal climatologists today declared an end to Orange County’s long and damaging drought, reclassifying the region as abnormally dry, the lowest level of concern in a comparatively dry year.

Orange County thus becomes the last area of coastal Southern California to be removed from any of the drought categories that climatologists list on the U.S. Drought Monitor, which is updated weekly.

“Over the last 180 days or so, Orange County hasn’t done quite as well as other coastal areas when it came to rain, which is why it took longer for it to be listed as abnormally dry” said Brad Rippey of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which is part of the U.S. Drought Monitor team.

The situation was eased, in part, by three modest, back-to-back storms last week.

The reclassification simply means that there are few lingering signs of drought, such as wildlands covered by dry grass. The county is now mostly green, and wildflowers are popping up everywhere, including the areas scarred by October’s huge wildfires.

Get the rest of the story from the ScienceDude by clicking here.

Salton Sea Authority hopes to remain a viable force in the face of funding difficulties

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 28, 2008 at 4:13 pm

From MyDesert.com:

The Salton Sea Authority projects to have $97 in available funds by the end of April.

At their meeting today, Authority board members will discuss doing away with virtually all committees, and changing their meeting schedule from monthly to bi-monthly or quarterly.

Despite the agency’s continuing challenges, members said it’s important that they stick together, as the process for restoring California’s largest lake becomes more state-driven.  “Eventually they are going to need us or somebody just like us to do anything out there,” said Riverside County Supervisor and Authority member Marion Ashley.  “We have to hang around, stay a viable agency, stay involved in the issues, and be ready to act whenever the opportunity comes.”

Read the rest of the story from MyDesert.com by clicking here.

Webcast links for today’s Delta Vision Meeting

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 28, 2008 at 6:58 am

The Delta Vision Task Force will meet today to continue working on their strategic plan for implementing the vision. They will continue their meeting tomorrow.

Here are the weblinks:

Meeting Agenda: click here.

Link for the webcast for today’s meeting: click here.

Webcast for tomorrow’s meeting: click here.

You can visit the Delta Vision Task Force website by clicking here.

Also today: DWR’s snow survey. I’ll post the results once they’re in!

Delta photo by flickr photographer crumj.

Salton Sea Authority’s money is drying up

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 28, 2008 at 6:50 am

From MyDesert.com:

As the Salton Sea slowly dries up and dies, members of a local group fighting to preserve it don’t want to see the same thing happen to their agency.

The Salton Sea Authority, without an infusion of cash from its members, expects to run out of funds by April. Its executive director and other paid employees have left the organization, leaving staff from member agencies in charge on a rotating basis.

While the group will discuss its future at its meeting today, its mission is as important as ever, Imperial County Supervisor and Authority member Gary Wyatt said Wednesday. “We need this vehicle to have a way for the region to be working together and be a cohesive force to drive the restoration efforts,” he said.

More on this story from MyDesert.com by clicking here.

Salton Sea picture by flickr photographer kallao.

Despite all the rain and snow, the drought is not over for Arizona

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 28, 2008 at 6:45 am

From the Western Farm Press:

Winter has been a pleasant diversion with plenty of snow in Arizona’s high country and rain at lower elevations. Still, the long-term drought persists, according to the members of the Arizona Department of Water Resources’ State Drought Monitoring Technical Committee (MTC).

“The wet winter has definitely been a bonanza for us,” said Tony Haffer with the National Weather Service, chair of the monitoring committee. “But the Southwest in general, and Arizona in particular, has been in deficit for many years. Naturally, it will take many winters like this one to get us back into balance.”

“Reservoirs still are refilling and long-term groundwater deficits in the state will take many years to replace,” said Tom Carr, assistant director for statewide planning for the Arizona Department of Water Resources.

“We are entering our 14th year of drought,” said State Climatologist Nancy Selover. “I believe it started after the very wet winter of 1993, which was the end of the wet period. Lakes Powell and Mead were pretty full at that time.”

The wet conditions experienced across most of Arizona over the past two months have been unusual for a La Niña event of this strength and magnitude. Intra-seasonal variability related to pulses of moisture traveling across the Pacific Ocean, in conjunction with a persistent jet-stream pattern favorable for Arizona precipitation, have produced the welcome wet winter conditions.

Read the full text of the story from Western Farm Press by clicking here.

Tulare County irrigation districts to receive full allotment

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 28, 2008 at 6:42 am

From the Visalia Times-Delta:

Good news for Tulare County irrigation districts with long-term water contracts with the Central Valley Project: Most will get the water they counted on this year, officials said Wednesday.

The Bureau of Reclamation announced that Friant Division Contractors will receive 100 percent of their “Class 1″ water — the fixed amount recipients depend on year after year. A year ago, contractors received less than 60 percent of their Class 1 water.

No “Class 2″ water — which varies, depending on seasonal rain and snowfall — will be released. “With Class 2, there really is no guarantee,” said Mark Larsen, assistant manager of the Kaweah Delta Water Conservation District. “It’s extremely affected by a water year, and usually only during the wetter years do you receive Class 2 water.”

The Friant division of the Central Valley Project delivers water from the San Joaquin River for irrigation, and does not pull water from the Delta.  They are therefore not affected by the Wanger court ruling.  For the rest of this story from the Visalia Times-Delta, click here.

Coverage from around the state: Senators tell the Governor to back off peripheral canal plans

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 27, 2008 at 11:20 pm

Yesterday’s top story from Hank Shaw of the Stockton Record regarding the possibility of the Governor signing an executive order beginning the initial work on the peripheral canal reverberated around the state today. Here’s a wrap up of the latest:

From the Associated Press & the San Francisco Chronicle:

Three Senate Democrats accused Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday of jeopardizing negotiations over water projects and generating regional tensions by moving ahead with planning for a canal around the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

“Launching a peripheral canal without addressing ecosystem, water quality, structure and governance simply enflames old sectional passions and suspicions,” Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, Sen. Mike Machado and Sen. Darrell Steinberg said in a letter to the Republican governor.

“And it moves us in the exact opposite direction from a comprehensive water policy. Frankly, we find it difficult to negotiate seriously with (the Department of Water Resources) and other interests in view of this.”

The concept of a peripheral canal has been controversial for decades, with many Northern Californians fearing it would enable the more heavily populated southern part of the state to take more water from northern reservoirs. In 1982, voters rejected a plan to build the canal.

The senators said they had been told that the administration was preparing an executive order requiring environmental and engineering work on a canal, even though lawmakers had not approved the governor’s request for funding to pay for staff to do the work.

The information about the executive order came from an unidentified California Resources Agency official who made a comment about it during a public meeting on a delta conservation plan last Friday, the lawmakers said.

They said they also were disturbed by the Department of Water Resource’s assertion last November that it had “broad authority and discretion to construct facilities like the Peripheral Canal” without additional authorization from the Legislature.

From the San Diego Union-Tribune Newsblog:

Signing the letter were Senate leader Don Perata of Oakland and Senators Mike Machado of Linden (near Stockton) and Darrell Steinberg of Sacramento. All three are from the north, a region traditionally wary of water transfers south.

As further evidence of a possible scheme to bypass lawmakers, the trio also cite the governor’s bid in the 2008-09 budget to fund eight new positions to work on conveyance and an agency letter that claims the Department of Water Resources has “broad authority and discretion” to construct facilities under current law.

Feinstein, a Democrat, came to the Capitol last week at the invitation of Schwarzenegger to help broker a deal on an approximately $11 billion bond that would include funding for new storage, environmental projects and conservation. A second round of high-level talks may be held next week.

Republicans also want the bond to contain explicit authority to build a new conveyance system, although Southern California water interests, including Metropolitan and the San Diego County Water Authority, have offered to pay for most of it.

The Sacramento Bee’s Capitol Alert has a transcript of what Schwarzenegger said when asked about the possibility of an executive order:

“Well, I’m very proud to say that we have for the last 18 months all worked together very hard, all the stakeholders, Democrats and Republicans, to come up with a solution and to improve our infrastructure and water.

Because right now we cannot guarantee the people of California water in the future. If it is 10, 15 years from now, we cannot guarantee that. We have seen already one year of drought, and as you know most of our reservoirs are down by 50 to 75 percent. So we are really in a crisis situation.

We have seen water prices go up. We have seen that permits for businesses and building have been denied because of a lack of water and so on. So it’s hurting our economy and it’s hurting folks out there in California and we want to fix that.

This is why we recommend to redo that infrastructure and to build the new infrastructure and water. To build more above the ground, below the ground water storage. To fix the Delta once and for all. And to build a new delivery system.

We are in the middle of negotiating right now. We were very happy that Senator Feinstein came out last week and helped us with the negotiations and kind of inspired everyone again to go in there. So we are all going to work together. I am not off doing anything, I am right now working with everybody and bringing everyone together to make sure that we rebuild our water system so that we can guarantee people not only 20 years from now but 30, 40, 50 years from now, water.

So when they turn on the faucet, there’s water coming out. When the farmers turn on, want to irrigate their land, there’s water coming out. That’s what I want to guarantee.”

The California Progress Report adds this commentary by Dan Bacher:

The Governor, by trying to undermine the Delta Vision process and negotiations with the Legislature over a water bond by taking independent and dictatorial actions to build the canal, has reached a new low in an administration already known for its repeated sabotage of efforts to restore imperiled delta smelt, longfin smelt, spring run chinook salmon, winter run chinook salmon and other fish populations.

Since 2005, a team of state and federal scientists has documented an unprecedented decline of four species of Delta pelagic (open water) fish - delta smelt, longfin smelt, juvenile striped bass and threadfin shad. The scientists have pinpointed massive increases in Delta water exports in recent years, followed by invasive species and toxics, as the major factor behind the Pelagic Organism Decline (POD). But rather than reducing exports, the Department of Water Resources has actually exported record amounts of water from the California Delta to subsidized agribusiness and southern California.

It is very clear from the latest moves by the Governor that he sees the California Delta, the largest and most significant estuary on the West Coast, as only a water supply that happens to have an ecosystem, rather than as ecosystem that happens to serve as a water supply. To pursue the canal at a time when Delta fish populations, as well as Central Valley salmon populations, are in collapse shows Schwarzenegger’s absolute contempt for California’s fisheries, the Delta ecosystem, Delta residents, recreational fishermen, commercial fishermen and California Indian Tribes. I urge everybody concerned about the Delta to actively oppose the Governor’s efforts to build a peripheral canal - and I am very glad that Perata, Machado and Steinberg sent this letter to Schwarzenegger blasting his latest machinations.

Read Hank Shaw’s original article from Stockton’s Record by clicking here. The follow-up from this morning is here.

More coverage from Mike Taugher and the San Jose Mercury News here.

Rumors of executive order starting peripheral canal work anger some senators

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 27, 2008 at 6:50 am

From Stockton’s RecordNet.com, a follow-up on yesterday’s story that an executive order was being prepared for Schwarzenegger to sign which would jump-start work on the peripheral canal - without legislative approval.

Yesterday at a Senate Natural Resources Committee meeting,  Resources Secretary Mike Chrisman faced an angry Senator Machado, who suggested  that ‘issuing an executive order starting environmental analysis of potential canal routes was tantamount to a declaration of war against the Legislature.’  From the article:

Senate Natural Resources Committee Chairman Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, pushed Chrisman further about an executive order.  “So there’s not going to be an executive order in the next seven to 10 days?” he asked.

“I don’t know the answer to that question,” Chrisman said. “Executive orders are always a possibility.  The governor can do what he wants in this particular area.”

That is debatable. No one disputes Schwarzenegger’s power to begin analysis of a peripheral canal; whether he can build it without the Legislature may be a question answered in the courts.

Both sides are leaning on a 1984 advisory opinion from then-Attorney General John Van de Kamp.  Van de Kamp’s opinion was that the state Department of Water Resources could build a canal “across” the Delta, even if it included a short portion of a newly dug canal south of Hood, known as “Duke’s Ditch” for then-Gov. George Deukmejian.  But Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee Chairwoman Lois Wolk, D-Davis, questions whether the state could unilaterally build a canal “around” the Delta.

DWR Chief Lester Snow thinks he can. He responded in a letter back to Wolk that he interprets Van de Kamp’s opinion to mean that he can indeed build a canal around the Delta. Snow also cited favorable opinions in 1981 and 1982 by the Legislature’s counsel and its analyst.

But Snow said it was unlikely the administration would go it alone.  “I want to assure you that I also do not think there is any question about the key role the Legislature has to play,” he wrote to Wolk.

Get the whole story from Stockton’s RecordNet.com by clicking here.

 

 

State’s water issues need more than just talk; “The Governor & Legislature must not continue to duck their responsibilities for ensuring California’s water needs”, editorial says

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 27, 2008 at 6:39 am

From the San Jose Mercury News, this editorial, which says that although the Feinstein-Schwarzenegger meeting was nice, don’t expect much to come of it; the bipartisan divide seems as big as ever.  From the editorial:

California must move ahead with ensuring its long-term water supply, even in a tough year for the state budget and economy.

Tight finances are just one reason why voters and policy-makers should be skeptical of an $11.7 billion water bond initiative the California Chamber of Commerce hopes to put on the November ballot. The initiative, backed by agricultural interests, calls for spending $3.5 billion on dams, reservoirs and other water storage.

The chamber is right to press for a comprehensive solution on water, but its proposal lacks bipartisan support - a recipe for failure at the ballot box. It also has been attacked by environmental groups such as the Natural Resources Defense Council. And the Legislative Analyst’s Office estimates the bonds would cost California taxpayers $22.8 billion over 30 years, requiring $760 million a year in debt repayment.

What’s more, the chamber’s proposal attempts to make an end-run around policy-makers. A long-term water plan should reflect bipartisan consensus between the governor and state lawmakers. Water is too complicated and too important an issue. The governor and the Legislature must not continue to duck their responsibilities for ensuring California’s water needs.

Read the full text of this editorial from the San Jose Mercury News, click here.

ACWA presents 2007 Legislative Leadership Award to Senator Barbara Boxer

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 27, 2008 at 6:28 am

From Business Wire:

The Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA) today presented its 2007 Legislative Leadership Award to U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) for her efforts to secure passage of the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA).

The award recognizes lawmakers for outstanding achievement in the legislative and policy arenas, including authoring legislation of major importance to California’s public water agencies. ACWA Federal Affairs Committee Chair Randy Record presented the award to Boxer during ACWA’s annual conference in Washington, D.C.

“The successful passage of the Water Resources Development Act was a direct result of Senator Boxer’s leadership, hard work and persistence,” Record said. “WRDA is by far the most important piece of legislation passed during 2007 in terms of benefits to ACWA member agencies and Californians in every part of the state.”

The bill authorizes $1.3 billion in funding for 54 projects in California, including flood control, environmental restoration and levee stability. Among the projects authorized are $600 million to improve flood protection on the American and Sacramento Rivers, $144.5 million for environmental restoration at Matilija Dam in Ventura County, $134.5 million for the Napa River Salt Marsh Restoration project, $106 million for Delta levee improvements and $30 million for environmental pilot projects for Salton Sea restoration.

ACWA Executive Director Timothy Quinn said passage of WRDA reflected years of work by ACWA and other supporters in cooperation with Boxer. Congress had not passed a WRDA bill in over seven years, leaving many water infrastructure needs without funding.

“Senator Boxer deserves our thanks and recognition for taking on this issue,” Quinn said.

San Diego’s Mayor Sanders pushing water conservation

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 27, 2008 at 6:25 am

From the Voice of San Diego:

Mayor Jerry Sanders admits he hasn’t been flushing the toilet as much at home. It’s just one step he’s taken to conserve water.  And he’s not just saving water in the privacy of his own bathroom. This year, the mayor is delivering messages publicly about the benefits of water conservation more frequently than he has before. Just last week, Sanders stood behind a podium on a city sidewalk and touted the beauty of a Kensington family’s lush (and drought-tolerant) garden.

Sanders lauded homeowners Martin and Cynthia Offenhauer as “urban environmentalists,” pointing to the native species they’d planted in the garden behind him as perfect examples of ways to conserve water. The mayor repeated several conservation messages: Half of the region’s water is used for irrigation. Much is wasted on over-watering — enough annually to fill the Sweetwater Reservoir. Saving water saves money.

It was the second press conference about water conservation that Sanders has held in the last month, part of a mayoral mini-barrage on ways to save water. In late January, he visited the Miramar Wholesale Nursery to showcase its low-water-consuming plants. His office has sent out five press releases exhorting the benefits of conservation this year. And Sanders highlighted its importance during his annual State of the City address.

The mayor talked less about water conservation last year, despite helping to launch the San Diego County Water Authority’s 20-Gallon Challenge in June. Sanders addressed conservation later in the summer, but it was largely a response to City Attorney Mike Aguirre’s call for the city to institute a Stage 2 water alert, which would bring some mandatory water-use restrictions.

Sanders said he has realized he needed to continue touting the benefits and ways city residents can save water.  “What I’ve learned about news and media cycles is that people will watch it and it won’t register on the first time,” Sanders said. “It’s repetition. We’re trying to provide that repetition. I think it lets people know I’m serious about it. It’s just a critical issue.”

The mayor has not only been talking the talk, but walking the walk as well, reducing his water usage at home this year by 39%.  You can read the rest of this story from the Voice of San Diego by clicking here.

Kern River rights not that simple, commentary says

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 27, 2008 at 6:20 am

From the Bakersfield Californian, this commentary, written by Michael Young, a farmer and president of the Kern County Farm Bureau, regarding recent editorials in the paper which urged residents to support the city’s efforts to obtain water for the Kern River:

As a person who has logged hundreds of miles on the bike path that runs through our great city, I would love nothing more than for the Kern River to always be full and flowing.

 

I have to agree with columnist Lois Henry when she says that “this ribbon of water through the city changed things.” She’s right, it does make our city a more beautiful and comfortable place to live. What was not said in her recent columns and a subsequent editorial is the fact that all the water that was affected by the forfeiture of one of the existing right holders, has always been diverted and used by the other existing right holders of Kern River water, according to the prior rights as confirmed by the State Water Resources Control Board.

We all need to remember that we live in an “irrigated desert.” The natural flow of the Kern River is highly variable and rarely sufficient to meet all the beneficial needs of the region.

Long before the City of Bakersfield first acquired its right to use Kern River water in 1976, all of the natural flow of the river had been fully appropriated to legally authorized users, as determined by the State Water Resources Control Board. In fact, the SWRCB ruled that prior to 1894, all the natural flow of the Kern River had been fully used according to established court decisions for beneficial uses of irrigation and ground water replenishment.

It is crucial to understand that the water rights of the Kern River which the courts have determined to be partially forfeited would only flow during the months of October to January. This is certainly not the period mentioned in The Californian when outdoor recreation use is most popular. Also, zero effort was made to explain that the city’s plan will take water away from long-established users. Nor was any consideration given to the consequences that such a proposal will have on the local agricultural economy, which is one of Kern County’s core industries. It is an industry Supervisor Michael Rubio stated in his State of the County address that gives Kern County many “homegrown advantages” and adds $3.5 billion to the Kern economy.

Read the rest of this commentary in the Bakersfield Californian by clicking here.

Large water agencies form coalition to tackle climate change

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 27, 2008 at 6:15 am

From the San Jose Mercury News:

Eight of the nation’s largest water providers from California to New York announced the formation of a coalition to develop strategies on dealing with climate change.The newly formed Water Utility Climate Alliance includes the giant Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the San Diego County Water Authority and the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission.

Members, which together provide water to more than 36 million people, also include Denver Water, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, the Portland (Ore.) Water Bureau, Seattle Public Utilities and the Southern Nevada Water Authority.

“Our systems are facing risk due to diminishing snowpack, bigger storms, more frequent drought and rising sea levels,” said Susan Leal, general manager of the San Francisco commission and chair of the newly formed authority. “We need to be organized to respond to these risks—that’s why we’ve formed this alliance.”

The group has been in the works since 2007, after San Francisco hosted a water utility climate change summit that drew more than 200 executives and government officials. In September, the eight agencies gathered to further discuss the impacts of climate change and began studying existing research.

“The whole goal was to wrap our arms around the potential impacts of climate change on water infrastructure and water supplies,” said Bronson Mack, a spokesman for the Southern Nevada Water Authority.

Get the rest of the story from the San Jose Mercury News by clicking here.

Department of Fish & Game vote for increased protection of the longfin smelt

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 27, 2008 at 6:02 am

From Dan Bacher at IndyBay.org:

The California Fish and Game Commission at its meeting in San Diego on February 7 voted 3 to 0 designate the rapidly declining longfin smelt (Spirinchus thaleichthys), a cousin of the delta smelt, as a “candidate species” for listing under the California Endangered Species Act (CESA).  The decision, spurred by a petition by three environmental groups, is the first step toward a formal listing of the fish as an endangered or threatened species under CESA. The longfin declined to record low numbers in the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary in 2007 and is nearing extinction in other northern California estuaries.

“There has been a lot of talking,” said Richard Rogers, the Commission’s president. “There have been a lot of plans, decades worth. This is something we have to solve and we have to solve now.”

The Commission also voted to adopt interim regulations to protect longfin smelt that will require water managers to reduce water exports from the California Delta when longfin smelt are present in areas where they could be killed at the State Water Project and Central Valley Project pumps. Thousands and thousands of longfin smelt, delta smelt, striped bass, chinook salmon and other species are killed every year in the state and federal pumps.

The Department of Fish and Game (DFG) recommended that the Commission make the fish a “candidate species” because the facts contained in the petition and the dramatic decline in the species since 2000 warranted it.

The Commission’s decision gives the DFG the authority to protect the smelt larvae in the Delta when the fish migrate through the Delta during the spring. At an undetermined date, the Department will then go back to the Commission to petition for the authority to protect the adult longfin when they become vulnerable to being killed in the pumps in the late fall and early winter.

Get more on this story from IndyBay.org by clicking here.

Rumors of Governor Schwarzenegger issuing executive order to jump-start peripheral canal

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 26, 2008 at 9:26 am

From Stockton’s RecordNet.com:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger may issue an executive order jump-starting a controversial plan to build a canal around the Delta, sources familiar with the matter said Monday. Doing so would bypass the Legislature, which is divided over whether such a canal should be built.

Schwarzenegger supports the idea of a new way to ship water from the Sacramento River to the giant pumps near Tracy that supply roughly 25 million Californians with their drinking water. Schwarzenegger spokesman Bill Maile neither confirmed nor denied that an executive order is in the works.

Opponents, such as Sen. Michael Machado, D-Linden, say a canal around the Delta would divert the flow of fresh water away from the area of the estuary near Stockton, turning it into a fetid backwater. “I don’t think this is helpful at all,” said Machado, who represents the part of the Delta that would be affected. “This executive order is a presumption of a direction without any determination that it is the right direction to go. It could be a disaster for San Joaquin County.”

No argument from Dante Nomellini, a Stockton attorney who represents central Delta farmers. Nomellini said Monday he’s heard whisperings about an impending executive order. “We’ll have to see what it says,” he said.

He calls the governor’s entire Delta Vision process a “sham,” saying that state officials have long known they wanted to build a canal.

Get the rest of the story from Stockton’s RecordNet.com by clicking here.

Photo by Stockton’s RecordNet.com. 

Baja California governor protests the lining of the All-American Canal while in Washington D.C.

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 26, 2008 at 9:26 am

From the Imperial Valley Press:

Baja California’s governor protested the cement lining of the All-American Canal while in Washington, D.C., on Sunday, according to Mexican news media.

During the Winter National Governor’s Association meeting here this weekend Gov. Jose Guadalupe Osuna Millán reportedly complained that the encasement is negatively impacting agricultural and economic activity in the Mexicali Valley.

Osuna privately met with Department of Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne on Sunday and discussed “water issues along the U.S.-Mexico border,” confirmed Shane Wolfe, a spokesman for Kempthorne. Details on that discussion were not being released as it is the department’s policy not to publicize details of the secretary’s private discussions with governors.

Mexican and Baja California lawsuits had held up construction of the lining for about year. The cement lining of a 23-mile stretch of the canal is under way to recapture 67,000 acre-feet of water per year that would otherwise seep into the Mexicali Valley. Construction began in July and is expected to be completed before the decade’s end, said Kevin Kelley, spokesman for the Imperial Irrigation District. The IID manages the U.S.-owned canal and is the lead agency in the lining’s construction.

Kelley said Mexican opposition to the canal is expected. “It isn’t surprising because there have been ongoing discussions at diplomatic levels … since the project began,” he said.

Water flows through the unlined All-American Canal from Imperial Dam to the Imperial Valley, and seepage from that canal has replenished the aquifer that sits underneath a productive Mexican agricultural region just across the border. The loss of the seepage will have a direct, negative impact on the agricultural area on the other side.

The Imperial Valley farmers have signed the QSA agreement to transfer water to urban areas, and the lining of the canal and the resultant water savings make up a significant portion of the water being transferred to San Diego.

You can read more about this debate by checking out the All-American Canal category here on Aquafornia. Choose from the list of categories on the right, or click here.

A meeting with Mexican & United States water and diplomatic officials is scheduled for March 11th in Phoenix. Get the rest of the story from the Imperial Valley Press by clicking here.

Drowning California in Canals and Dams

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 26, 2008 at 9:26 am

Sorry for the headline repeat (see below).  From the California Progress Report:

It may be hard to remember, but last fall the state had not one but two special sessions. The first, on health care, ended with the rejection of the flawed mandate proposal ABX1 1. The second, on water, appeared to have also ended in acrimony, as Republicans insisted on $3 billion for new dams that Democrats were unwilling to support.

But even though the issue slipped below most of our radar screens, supporters of dams and canals have been hard at work promoting these obsolete 20th century technologies as some sort of “solution” to a 21st century crisis. The Planning and Conservation League reports on the California Chamber of Commerce’s efforts to enlist Arnold and DiFi to promote an $11 billion water bond - with $3 billion for dams:

“PCL has recently gotten an Insider scoop that the California Chamber of Commerce is pressuring both U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to endorse its environmentally-devastating $11.69 billion water bond initiative.”

The bond, which the Chamber hopes to place on the November 2008 ballot, is strongly opposed by environmental groups throughout California for its potential effects on the state’s natural resources. The bond would:

• Include $3.5 billion explicitly for dam construction, plus billions more that could be used for dams on California rivers.

• Establish a dangerous new “water commission” empowered to fund and build a peripheral canal and divert massive amounts of water from the Sacramento River around the imperiled California Bay-Delta Estuary for large-scale corporate agriculture in the San Joaquin Valley and sprawl development in Southern California. (Over-pumping of water from the Delta during the past eight years has already contributed to the collapse of the Delta ecosystem, including plummeting salmon and other fish populations.)

• Eliminate public and legislative oversight and leave the fate of the Delta and Northern California rivers in the hands of politically appointed bureaucrats likely to have strong ties to special interests in the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California.

The Chamber’s push is seen by many as an end-run around the Governor’s own Delta Vision process, which has brought together stakeholders from the environmental, business, water, agricultural, and Delta communities.

Read more from the California Progress Report by clicking here.

Farmers stumping trees to prepare for cutbacks; “People need to know that in Southern California, water is a precious resource. But they’d rather water their lawns and cut off the farmers”, says LA Farm Bureau director

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 26, 2008 at 9:03 am

Faced with a significant cutback in water deliveries, some farmers have begun preparing for a drier year  by cutting down their trees.  From the LA Times:

Less than two months after a mandatory 30% cutback in agricultural water deliveries, some Southern California growers have begun “stumping” hundreds of healthy, well-nurtured avocado trees, putting them out of production for the next one to three years to leave more water for the rest of their trees.

Their actions represent the downside of a water deal between area farmers and the region’s water wholesaler, the Metropolitan Water District. Over the years, thousands of farmers signed up for a program that gave them discounted water in return for their willingness to be first in line for a water cutback.

This winter is payback time.

Farmers all over the state are rethinking their crop plans, and generally planting less.  Less pumpkins, watermelons, potatoes and other crops.  And citrus producers are considering stumping some of their trees as well.

The tree-cutting comes as residents in Los Angeles, San Diego and most other area cities are still getting 100% of the water they need, with most of it going for lawns and landscaping.  “People need to know that in Southern California, water is a precious resource. But they’d rather water their lawns and cut off the farmers,” said Laura Blank, executive director of the Los Angeles County Farm Bureau.

The state agriculture industry is often criticized by environmentalists, who say that it wastes water and raises moisture-hungry crops such as rice and cotton. Several Fallbrook-area farmers, however, say they have worked for years to reduce consumption.

Carl and Ed Kessel, who are tending 3,100 lemon trees on their Fallbrook farm, added water-stingy flow devices to their computerized irrigation system and installed 28 moisture sensors, hoping to reduce water use by 50%.

January meter readings showed that Fallbrook-area farmers reduced their use by 85% from the dry January last year. Still, Keith L. Lewinger, general manager of the Fallbrook Public Utility District, had to start making calls to customers using the most water.  “Some of them said, ‘I had a broken pipe,’ ” he said. He warned they would be fined $2.51 per 1,000 gallons, or nearly twice the regular rate of $1.36.

If they fail to make a 30% cut two months in a row, the district will install a meter flow restricter, a washer-like device that reduces water delivery.  “If push comes to shove,” Lewinger said, “we can shut the meter off.”

Lewinger said he has no extra water to give them. If every farmer in town were to exceed the water limits by 10% for the year, the Fallbrook district would owe the MWD $609,000 in penalties, he said.

Get the rest of the story from the Los Angeles Times by clicking here.

Wanter smelt ruling literally lacks appeal; commentary ponders why

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 26, 2008 at 8:51 am

From the Appeal-Democrat (I think this is Marysville & Yuba City), this commentary by Thomas Elias regarding the Wanger smelt decision, and the lack of anyone appealing it to a higher court. From the commentary:

But no one talked about an appeal. Why?

For one thing, there’s the reputation of Judge Wanger, a jurist whose decisions are rarely overturned by higher courts. For another, there’s the fact that his ruling, aimed at protection of the endangered minnow-like delta smelt, appears to rest on solid legal ground. And for a third, some of the people bleating loudest are likely to benefit from this in the long run.

The law on this — the often controversial Endangered Species Act — is clear and has stood for almost 35 years since that greenest of Republican presidents, Richard Nixon, signed it in 1973. If it can be shown that the pumping kills smelt, whose threatened status no one has seriously questioned, something has to be done to try to bring its numbers back.

Never mind that plenty of experts believe other invasive species, toxic runoff from farms and other land uses, wastewater dumping and the obsolete system of managing the overall delta water scene are all at least as responsible for the plight of the smelt as any pumps. The pumps are highly visible and can be shut down, at least in part, while it’s tough to screen out predator fish and waste dumpers. So when a judge has to do something, he goes for what he can control.

No one seriously affected really objects. Environmental groups have no problem with the decision because they don’t want any species anywhere to die out. Business interests also don’t mind much.

Their reasons are a bit more complex. But the fact is that no one has managed to significantly expand California’s water supply since the last reservoir in the State Water Project opened while Ronald Reagan was governor. A drought, even a manmade one, might prove very useful to large farms, water districts and others who want more water storage in California, both because of the lower Sierra Nevada snowpacks expected to result from climate change and to facilitate more population growth and housing development.

They reason (but not for the record) that water shortages, whatever the cause, just might dent public consciousness enough to win passage of some of the water system expansions now under discussion in Sacramento.

Environmentalists, thinking similarly, reason that a drought of whatever origin might accelerate the process of fixing the delta, where levees are no longer considered reliable in earthquakes and salt water intrusions threaten water quality and the long-term survival prospects of many other fish besides the smelt.

So there’s a convergence of facts and interests here, one that no one involved likes to discuss. The result is that the most significant federal court decision in California in decades goes essentially without challenge, while untold numbers of appeals are filed in far less important cases.

Read the full text of this commentary in the Appeal-Democrat by clicking here.

Calitics: “Drowning California in Canals and Dams”

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 26, 2008 at 7:49 am

An extensive post on the Calitics this morning about water issues.  The article quotes a press release from the Planning & Conservation League, and the writer then provides some analysis of his own.  From the Calitics blog:

  …  the Peripheral Canal would be a catastrophe for the Delta. The main environmental threat to the Delta is increased salinity due to export of fresh water for farmers and residential users further south. The Peripheral Canal is designed to bypass the delta altogether - finishing off the Delta as a freshwater system. The result would be ruinous for water quality, fishing, and stressed levee systems. It would be sacrificing the Delta once and for all in order to continue allowing California users to overuse what they already have.

It’s worth reminding ourselves why dams and canals are such a bad idea. First, they simply are not necessary. The Planning and Conservation League has weighed in with its own plan that emphasizes conservation programs, watershed restoration, and groundwater retention (in other words, pumping the water back into aquifers to be stored underground, a more environmentally friendly and sustainable solution than dams). If properly funded, they note, several million acre feet of water could be produced through these more sustainable methods. One acre foot typically equals the annual water usage by a family of four. The state’s own water assessment plan shows that conservation can eliminate the “need” for these new dams.

Second, and perhaps more importantly, we face a changing climate that is likely to leave us with less water to go around - making these dams even more unnecessary, a waste of precious money that should go instead toward global warming appropriate solutions. California is a very drought-prone climate. Climate change in California is expected to produce a hotter and drier climate, with a reduced snowpack. Precipitation in the Sierra is expected to fall as rain more often than snow, forcing significant shifts in how water is stored.

Read the rest of this post from the Calitics blog by clicking here.

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