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: 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: Continue reading “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” »

Metropolitan Water District responds to the Governor’s press release

Posted by: 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: 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: 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: the ultimate liquid asset, and maybe the ultimate investment vehicle?

Posted by: 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.)

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

Posted by: 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

 

Continue reading “DWR releases results of third survey; Delta pumping restrictions have gone into effect” »

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

Posted by: 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.

Webcast links for today’s Delta Vision Meeting

Posted by: 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.

ACWA presents 2007 Legislative Leadership Award to Senator Barbara Boxer

Posted by: 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.

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

Posted by: 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.

Drowning California in Canals and Dams

Posted by: 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.

Calitics: “Drowning California in Canals and Dams”

Posted by: 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.

Delta landowner files suit against DWR, alleging negligence by failing to dredge accumulated sediments, thus raising flood risk

Posted by: Maven on February 25, 2008 at 2:52 pm

From Business Wire:

Delta landowner Dino Cortopassi sued the state of California today for allegedly failing to meet its historic responsibility to maintain the water-carrying capacity of Delta channels, asking the court to order state officials to dredge accumulated sediments – which increase flood risks – from channel beds.  Failure to dredge North Delta channels “is irresponsible, incompetent, unreasonable, inexcusable, and demands immediate remediation,” the lawsuit asserts.

On behalf of Cortopassi Partners, a family company which owns Canal Ranch on the Mokelumne River near Walnut Grove, Reclamation District 2086 joined in filing the lawsuit in San Joaquin County Superior Court.

“This lawsuit is about much more than our family’s farmland,” said Cortopassi. “The state’s 30-year failure to remove sediment from channels and sloughs threatens property in the North Delta.” Continue reading “Delta landowner files suit against DWR, alleging negligence by failing to dredge accumulated sediments, thus raising flood risk” »

Monday’s odds and ends

Posted by: Maven on February 25, 2008 at 12:58 am

I’ve got a bunch of tidbits here on my desktop:

Nevada Governor against the Las Vegas pipeline plan? Nevada’s Governor Gibbons remarked at a meeting in rural Nevada that he felt the SNWA should be considering the desalination option (build plants in California, swap for Colorado River water) rather than build the pipeline. The Governor is apparently not a particularly popular guy, and his remarks have caused ripples of reaction; here’s just some of it:

From Rake’s Green Las Vegas: Gubantor sez “no, no, no.”
OK, Amy Winehouse references are officially banned on this website, forever and ever, amen. The real news buried behind my clever lead is that Silver State Gov. Jim Gibbons told a Rotary Club somewhere in the frozen tundra up north that the pipeline was a craptastic waste of time. Or something to that effect.
He has made such statements before, but this time, he’s not running from them. Over at the Southern Nevada Water Authority’s cleverly concealed secret bunker headquarters, officials are wondering whether the governor got the memo that said the future of rural Nevada is irrelevant to the grab and grow schemes of Las Vegas developers.
But go Gibbons! More of that and I’ll start voting Republican!

Here’s a quote from a website called Vote Gibbons Out:

When it comes to taking a position on the proposed water pipelines from central Nevada to, well, here of course, Gibbons is stalwart and consistent, in a mealy mouth, flip-floppy way. Gibbons’ latest position is that he’s agin, and he favors a rather old plan of building a desalination plant in California and exchanging any resulting fluids for bits of California’s rights to Colorado River water.

Enough of this small minded thinking!  Why should just Las Vegas get the desalinated water?  Maybe the Governor ought to talk to this guy; he’s got a plan to supply the whole state of Nevada with the stuff in pipelines bringing it across California and into the silver state.

Waterblogged gets serious about privatization of water resources with a whole page of web resources on the subject. Check it out by clicking here.

Move over, Angelenos! Los Angeles is getting ready to sell 17,263 new water meters over the next few years, and this blogger calculates Angelenos will have to conserve 20% in order to accomodate them. Check out this post from the Westchester Parents blog by clicking here.

Heads up!  Delta Vision Task Force will meet on Thursday and Friday of this week. Here’s the agenda. For more information on the meeting and for the weblinks, visit the Delta Vision Task Force website by clicking here.  I’ll post the weblinks later on this week.

Organizing the Aquafornia photo library was my weekend project, which is now posted on Flickr. I was intending to post my Yuma pictures, but got sidetracked into this project instead. I’ll be adding more photos, descriptions and tags as time goes on. For pictures of dams, aqueducts, farms and more, check out the Aquafornia page on flickr by clicking here. Enjoy!

DWR wants to start preparing for peripheral canal; estimates it could be completed by 2015

Posted by: Maven on February 25, 2008 at 12:24 am

From the California Progress Report:

While countless hours are being spent in the Governor’s Delta Vision process and in water bond negotiations to determine how to restore the Bay-Delta Estuary, the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) has apparently decided to bypass the Delta altogether.

According to a recent budget change proposal submitted to the state Legislature, DWR intends to start preparing to build a new “Alternative Delta Conveyance” facility, which would divert water directly from the Sacramento River before it enters the Delta, sending it directly to the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California. Despite the looming budget deficit, the proposal specifically asks for authorization to hire eight new staff that would be responsible for everything from completing Environmental Impact Reports to negotiating land purchases, and constructing the new facility.

Under its proposal, DWR would revive studies and update construction plans that it abandoned in 1982 after voters overwhelmingly rejected its “Peripheral Canal” proposal in a statewide referendum due to fears that such a facility would result in more Northern California water exported to the ever-growing south state, and that the Delta would be left as a saltwater lake rather than a true estuary.

DWR estimates that the canal, or some new version of the old idea, could be constructed by mid 2015.

More from the California Progress Report by clicking here.

Report finds that 84% of the world’s coasts have invasive species; the California Delta named ‘most invaded aquatic region on Earth’

Posted by: Maven on February 25, 2008 at 12:08 am

From the Environmental News Service:

Eighty-four percent of the world’s coasts are being colonized by foreign aquatic species, according to a Nature Conservancy study published this week. San Francisco Bay is the most invaded aquatic region on Earth, the study finds, with 85 invasive species in its waters, 66 percent of them considered harmful.

More than half of San Francisco Bay fish and most of its bottom-dwelling organisms are not native to the Bay, and new invaders are constantly being introduced.

Invasive species are non-native species that have been introduced into a new landscape, freshwater system or ocean region. Because this new area often lacks natural competitors and predators, the invaders tend to displace native plants and animals, disrupt food webs, and alter fundamental natural environmental processes.

The Chinese mitten crab is one of more than 200 exotic species which have invaded the Delta and San Francisco Bay since the 1850s. These small crabs, which were brought to the San Francisco Bay via ships’ ballast water, were first were documented in California in 1992. They reproduce rapidly and have spread throughout the Delta. They may imperil the state’s threatened and endangered salmon populations due to the crabs’ appetite for juvenile salmon.

“The scale of this problem is vast,” said Jennifer Molnar, conservation scientist at The Nature Conservancy and lead author of the study, “Assessing the Global Threat of Invasive Species to Marine Biodiversity,” published in the journal “Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment.”

“Every day, thousands of vessels cross our oceans with invasive species hitchhiking on their hulls,” Molnar said. “Because of this, as many as 10,000 species are estimated to be in transit at any one time.”

Hawaii has been identified as an area with high invasion, but they’ve found some innovative ways of dealing with the situation:

“Many in Hawaii have seen what alien algae have done to some of our reefs. We need all the tools that can be provided for wise management of our coasts,” said Celia Smith, a professor and seaweed specialist in the University of Hawaii’s Botany Department. “Our next concern is that reefs in other parts of the Pacific may be similarly impacted but have no scientists there to help.”

An effective tool in combating invasive algae in Hawaii is the Super Sucker, an underwater vacuum cleaner that sucks invasive algae off the reef and places it on a barge above water so that non-invasive marine life can be sorted and returned to the water.  The alien algae is packed into sacks and delivered to taro farmers for use as fertilizer. The full-size device can scoop up about 800 pounds of algae an hour.

Get more on this story from the Environmental News Service by clicking here.

Schwarzenegger & Feinstein’s closed door meetings: who were the stakeholders present?

Posted by: Maven on February 23, 2008 at 8:49 am

From Dan Bacher at IndyBay.org, this commentary regarding Feinstein & Schwarzenegger’s recent closed door meetings:

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Senator Dianne Feinstein met with legislators and “stakeholders” on Thursday in the hope of finding a legislative solution to California’s water problems, according to Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, campaign director of Restore the Delta, in her “Delta Flows” e-newsletter.

The good news is that the Governor and Feinstein, at least for the time being, are apparently not going to support the Chamber of Commerce water bond that would build new dams and support the construction of a peripheral canal. The massive opposition of a broad-based coalition of fishermen, environmentalists, California Indian tribes and Delta residents to an earlier water bond supported by Schwarzengger has undoubtedly had a big impact.

The bad news is that the meeting was held behind closed doors without public scrutiny. I have a real problem with closed door meetings like this because the people most impacted by the legislator’s decision are invariably left out of the process. To me, transparency is the number one requirement of democratic process.

Schwarzenegger yesterday issued the following vague and surprisingly short statement “after he hosted a meeting with Senator Feinstein, legislative leaders and key stakeholders to discuss rebuilding California’s water infrastructure,” according to the Governor’s office.

“I would like to thank Senator Feinstein and all of the participants of today’s meeting where we discussed the critical water issues facing California. 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. 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. I encourage our state leaders to keep up their momentum and work toward a consensus on a proposal to put before voters as soon as possible.”

My big question is who were the “key stakeholders” invited to this closed door meeting? Were any recreational anglers, commercial fishermen or California Indian tribal leaders, the people most impacted by the proposed peripheral canal, more dams and increased water exports, invited? I suspect that they weren’t, but why doesn’t the Governor’s office list the “stakeholders” who were represented there?

To read the rest of Dan Bacher’s commentary, which includes comments from Barbara Barrigan-Parilla of Restore the Delta, click here.

A grandiose plan for meeting Nevada’s water needs

Posted by: Maven on February 23, 2008 at 8:31 am

Oh, how did I miss this! I have so many news alerts and places to look and here’s one that got by me, but didn’t get by Michael over at WaterWired. I just love grandiose solutions to water problems, and here’s another one. This guy has a plan for securing water for Nevada – all of Nevada, now – not just Las Vegas. From the Nevada Appeal, written by Fred Kessler, a general contractor in Carson City:

Given the impending effects of global climate change, the time has come to plan for Nevada’s future water needs, which will be substantial given the past three decade’s population growth. In Roman times when emperors did not have to run for re-election it was much easier to finance, design and construct large-scale public works projects than it is today, when politicians are more concerned with short-term political gain than long-term societal goals affecting future generations.

What is needed is an independent public water authority with a nine-member board to take charge of the situation. The governor, Assembly and Senate should each appoint a single member, and three members should be elected at-large from Southern Nevada and three members from Northern Nevada. This will ensure both equal representation and accountability to all of the people of Nevada. Once constituted, the independent public water authority should be relatively immune from political interference and be able to focus upon long-term intergenerational solutions to Nevada’s future water needs.

The water authority will have to begin the process of raising capital from (1) federal funds, (2) state funds and (3) private capital markets through the sale of public bonds for design, acquisition of land and right-of-way, and construction of public water works projects. The water authority should be a wholesaler of potable water selling to local municipal and private water districts, charging and collecting user fees for the water that they provide. These fees will be the revenue source from which to pay bond holders. The water authority bonds will range from 30 to 50 years in term depending upon financing requirements. User fees also will pay for ongoing operations, maintenance and administrative costs.

The water authority will need to develop vast uninterruptible supplies of drinking water to feed the growing Nevada population. The closest supply to both Northern and Southern Nevada of raw material from which to process potable water is of course the Pacific Ocean. Desalinization plants on the Pacific coast, cross-country pipelines and pumping stations across California and Nevada can produce a steady supply of potable water that is limited only by the maximum flow rate of the system. A northern leg running from the Pacific along the I-80 corridor to service the northwestern Nevada counties, and a southern leg running from the Pacific coast across California to service Clark County will provide potable water to Nevada’s main population centers.

Read the rest of Mr. Kessler’s plan in the Nevada Appeal by clicking here. You can check out Water Wired thoughts on it all by clicking here.

Free classes on drought-tolerant landscaping offered this weekend in San Diego

Posted by: Maven on February 22, 2008 at 6:50 am

Two free classes are being offered in the San Diego area on drought tolerant landscaping.  The classes are sponsored by the City of San Diego, the San Diego County Water Authority, and Metropolitan Water District.

The four-hour workshops will be held on Saturday and Sunday.  Get more information from the San Diego Union-Tribune by clicking here.

Business Week covers water issues; are we nearing the next major natural resource crisis?

Posted by: Maven on February 21, 2008 at 7:36 am

From Business Week:

Water may be the source of the next major natural resource crisis. A rising world population; increased demand for water for agriculture, industry, and energy production; and a growing desire for safer and more plentiful water supplies are pressuring existing resources. At the same time, climate change may be reducing the availability of fresh water. Most citizens of Europe and North America have taken for granted access to cheap, safe water. People in Asia, Africa, and Latin America would like to. Will all of us have to start thinking harder about it?

Drought conditions in several parts of the world have increased the attention paid to water resources recently. In the U.S., the drought in the Southeast that began last year is the second-worst in the region’s history and has strained state and city governments, including that of Atlanta. Australia, a country where water has always been very limited, has been suffering from a severe dry period. The continuing lack of rainfall in much of Africa has increased fears of famine and war.

At the same time, nonhousehold demand for water, particularly for irrigation, has been growing. Ethanol production requires more crops, which in turn demand more water. Potential exploitation of shale oil and tar sands for energy also requires water for processing. Increased development raises the need for electrical power, which requires water to generate electricity at hydro dams or to cool nuclear or fossil-fuel plants.

But the most significant problem is that an increasing population is pressing on limited water resources. The most rapid population growth is in the Middle East and Africa, the part of the world with most limited water resources.

Get the rest of this in-depth story from Business Week by clicking here.

Unprecedented Collapse of Central Valley Salmon Is No Surprise

Posted by: Maven on February 20, 2008 at 6:50 am

From Dan Bacher at IndyBay.org:

The latest federal government data on 2007’s chinook salmon run on the Sacramento River points to an “unprecedented collapse” in the fishery considered for years to be one of the most healthy on the West Coast.

To anglers and environmentalists working to restore California fisheries, the collapse is no surprise, since it parallels the dramatic decline of delta smelt, longfin smelt, juvenile striped bass, threadfin shad and other species on the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. Both the salmon collapse and the precipitous decline of California Delta pelagic (open water) fish species are believed to be largely the result of massive increases in state water exports since 2001.

If the data is verified in upcoming meetings of the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC), commercial and recreational salmon fishing in California and Oregon ocean waters and recreational salmon fishing in Central Valley rivers could be closed or severely restricted in 2008. This alarming news couldn’t come at a worse time, since recreational and commercial fishermen are already reeling from draconian restrictions on rockfish, lingcod and other groundfish in California.

“The magnitude of the low abundance, should it be confirmed in verification efforts now underway, is such that the opening of all marine and freshwater fisheries impacting this important salmon stock will be questioned in the upcoming Council process to set 2008 ocean salmon seasons,” according to an internal memo of the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) by Donald O. McIsaac, Ph. D, Executive Director. “This is particularly disconcerting in that this stock has consistently been the healthy ‘work horse’ target stock for salmon fisheries off California and most of Oregon.”

Get the rest of the story from IndyBay.org by clicking here.

Sam Johnson, Santa Margarita Water District director, passes away

Posted by: Maven on February 20, 2008 at 6:45 am

Aquafornia reader Gary sent me this link:

Sam Johnson, a member of the Santa Margarita Water District’s board of directors for 11 years, died Friday, Feb. 15 at his home in Mission Viejo, succumbing to heart-related problems. He was 66.

Johnson was recently selected by the district’s board to serve as its president. It would have been his second term as president of the board.

Johnson worked as a public works director for various cities and agencies for more than 30 years. He retired in 1996, but served as a construction management consultant for seven more years.

Johnson is survived by his wife Letty; daughter Amy; son-in-law Michael; and grandson Michael.

A celebration of Johnson’s life is planned for 2 p.m. on Saturday at the Irvine Presbyterian Church, 4445 Alton Parkway, Irvine 92604.

In lieu of cards, gifts or flowers, the family requests that donations be made in Sam’s name to Saddleback Church’s PEACE Plan missions program. Details are available from the church, or visit: www.saddlebackfamily.com/missions.

The Santa Margarita Water District serves the communities of Coto de Caza, Las Flores, Wagon Wheel, Ladera Ranch, Mission Viejo, the Talega area of San Clemente and Rancho Santa Margarita.

Rest in peace, Sam.

From the OC Register.

State Water Control Board to consider actions on global warming

Posted by: Maven on February 19, 2008 at 8:56 am

From the California Progress Report:

Tomorrow [which I think is today, the 19th], the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) will meet in Sacramento to explore a set of proposed measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from water use in California.

That’s big news; the guidance that the board gives to their staff at next week’s hearing will shape the agency’s submittal to the California Air Resources Board for inclusion in the AB 32 Scoping Plan, which will show how the State plans to reduce California’s greenhouse gas emissions back to 1990 levels.

The proposed measures are generally commendable though at times a bit short on details. Here are a few of the best:

• Require water recycling at wastewater treatment plants;
• Review water rights allocations to account for climate change implications and mandate water conservation measures through water rights; and,
• Ensure that water managers implement Best Management Practices.

We hope the Board members support the bold proposals that their staff have presented and strengthen those measures that are currently weak or vague.

Mayor lets Owens River sweep him away for Valentines Day

Posted by: Maven on February 16, 2008 at 8:16 am

From the Owens Valley Committee:

OWENS RIVER INTAKE, INYO COUNTY, CA–Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa let the Lower Owens River sweep him off his feet Wednesday, February 13.

After presiding over a ceremony to celebrate the beginning of the first artificial seasonal habitat flow since the river’s official rewatering in December 2006, the mayor climbed into a yellow canoe and rowed gently downstream. Many others joined him in a small celebratory flotilla, including Mark Bagley, local Sierra Club representative, and David Nahai, new DWP general manager, who sat elbow-to-elbow at the bow of a drift boat.

The Lower Owens River Project partly mitigates environmental damage from groundwater pumping from 1970 to 1990. Yearly seasonal habitat flows–including this, the first for the newly rewatered river–are meant to imitate natural flooding by redistributing muck from the river bottom, helping to distribute and germinate seeds from riparian vegetation such as willows and cottonwood, and recharging groundwater tables in the flood plain, among other purposes.

Several speakers at the ceremony wryly acknowledged that mitigation projects for Los Angeles’ water exports from the Owens Valley have often been a labor of law more than a labor of love.

“We recognize that Los Angeles was a desert before we came to the Owens Valley and that the Owens Valley was an oasis,” the mayor said. “….Today we say we’re going to share the prosperity….We’re here to be the neighbors we should have been one hundred years ago.” Continue reading “Mayor lets Owens River sweep him away for Valentines Day” »

Getting rid of lawns saves 68 billion litres of water per year

Posted by: Maven on February 15, 2008 at 10:13 pm

From the Yomiuri Shimbun (a Japanese news website):

Busy construction workers used bulldozers to strip away turf from the biggest golf club in Las Vegas, a city known for its location in the middle of a desert, in December.  A putting green sat almost forlornly in a swath of red sand and rock at the Angel Park Golf Club as a cart carrying players trundled along the course followed by a cloud of dust.

Comments made by Bill Rohret, 55, the club’s director of golf course maintenance, at first sounded ominous.”We’re getting rid of the grass and changing it b  ack to what it used to be–desert,” Rohret said.

However, the golf club is not about to go out of business. Far from it. Instead it plans to leave the greens and fairways of the course intact, while removing about 30 percent of the course’s total grassed area by the end of 2008.

The move was prompted by incentive measures introduced to remove lawn surfaces under the Water Smart Landscapes Rebate Program, introduced by the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) in 1999. If an individual or company removes a patch of grass, the water authority will pay 1 dollars (108 yen) for every square foot (930 square centimeters).

According to the golf club, although all the incentive funds it has received from the SNWA have been plowed into the remodeling project, the club will eventually save about 200,000 dollars (21 million yen) on its water bill each year. The club also will save on labor costs involved in maintaining the grass and on fertilizer expenses.

To read the rest of this story from the Yomiuri Shimbun, click here.

The Blogosphere: some odds and ends before I head out

Posted by: Maven on February 15, 2008 at 8:22 am

OK, just one more before I leave.  Here’s a few tidbits:

Ready to drink toilet water?  Gadget Girl’s not so sure, but maybe her mind is changed.  Meanwhile, Mayor Sam doesn’t think much of Villaraigosa’s “carbon intensive photo junket”, while the California Greening blog ponders climate change denial and our moral obligation to do something for the benefit of future generations.

Juicy tidbit:  here’s a comment from Market Ticker Forums regarding the recent news that Lake Mead could go dry by 2021:

Sorry. WE here in Las Vegas will be fine. Why? Because Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is going to have all of you pay to build a pipeline from northern Nevada to us here in LV. It’s commonly known as FEDERAL APPROPRIATIONS.

Imagine it.

Jobs.

Billions.

We thank all of you in advance.

California Chamber of Commerce proposes another bad water bond

Posted by: Maven on February 15, 2008 at 7:50 am

From the California Progress Report:

The Chamber of Commerce just filed their 5th water bond intended for the next ballot. They are proposing the bond to fund water development infrastructure we don’t need that would waste billions of taxpayer dollars. So, I’m proposing they change their name just so we could have a little truth in advertising. How about calling it the “Chamber of Corporate Agriculture,” or maybe it could be called the “Chamber of Horrors,” because they don’t seem to care about the commerce of most of the state’s citizens?

True to their long-standing history, their current focus is in the political arena where corporate agriculture has been their dominant focus. The bond they’ve proposed will fund a Peripheral Canal and several new dams. Should the bond pass, it could result in more subsidizes for a very profitable industry at a huge public expense and, very possibly, the end of Delta as we know it.

I’ve yet to see them propose a bond to improve commerce for businesses that really need the help such as those in the sport or commercial fishing sector. When did they last propose something to improve the management of the public’s natural resources? Where’s the bond that reduces 3 million acre feet of Delta export so the Delta farmers, the local communities, and all of the people whose jobs and recreation depends on a healthy estuary can recover and once again experience economic viability? You’re not likely to see such a bond because Central Valley corporate growers will always want to maximize their profits by utilizing the public’s water resources.

More on this story from the California Progress Report by clicking here.

Unnatural preservation: conservation efforts in the face of global warming

Posted by: Maven on February 14, 2008 at 9:19 am

From the High Country News:

In the age of global warming, public-land managers face a stark choice: They can let national parks and other wildlands lose their most cherished wildlife. Or they can become gardeners and zookeepers.

Armored in a rain slicker and floppy hat against guano-bombing waterfowl, Russ Bradley pokes about for signs of life on a craggy island paradise just off the California shore. One might expect the search to be easy, given the hundreds of thousands of common murres, ashy storm petrels, Brandt’s cormorants, Leach’s storm petrels, Western gulls, double-crested cormorants, glaucous-winged gulls, black oystercatchers, pigeon guillemots, rhinocerous auklets, tufted puffins, bald eagles, peregrine falcons, and Cassin’s auklets that summer on the Farallon Islands, 27 miles off San Francisco in the Pacific Ocean.

During the past three years, however, Bradley has been checking on the breeding sites of the black, burrow-nesting Cassin’s auklet, and he’s been finding abandoned eggs; dead, black, cue-ball-sized chicks; and skinny, faltering fledglings. “Most of the chicks have died,” says Bradley, a research biologist with PRBO Conservation Science, a nonprofit founded as the Point Reyes Bird Observatory, that has spent the past 40 years counting and observing the birds that nest yearly on the Farallons. “This was as complete a failure response as we’d ever seen before. And we’d been following this species for 35 years.”

The apparent culprit: Ocean currents, redirected by rising sea temperature, have swept out of range the millions of tiny krill that the adult birds scoop into their beaks, chew into purple, smelly goo and then spit up for their young. In other words, this unprecedented starvation wave may be a result of global warming.

Get the full story from the High Country News by clicking here.

“Water contractors launch new assault on California Delta fish”, says John Beuttler of CSPA

Posted by: Maven on February 14, 2008 at 8:40 am

From John Buettler of the California Sport Fishing Protection Alliance, posted on IndyBay.org:

Just when I though it couldn’t get much worse for the public’s Central Valley fisheries than the tragic collapse of the fall-run Chinook salmon, growers from Kern County decided to fired a shot at the heart of the Delta and its once premier sport fishery, striped bass. They same shot was also aimed at people who love to fish (about 3 million anglers statewide), and at the very existence of the Delta’s ecosystem. My point is they don’t give a damn about the people who fish or the public who owns the water and the fish, or even those that just care about the Delta and estuary of which it is a part.

Striped Bass were introduce in 1887 and again in 1892 by the Fish and Game Commission to establish a public fishery in the Bay-Delta estuary. After nearly seventy years it became the premier fishery of the estuary and a surrogate species for the health of the Delta estuary during the 1970′s & 80′s. The reason this happened was because striped bass are true estuarine species that has critical needs shared by other Delta species. These life sustaining requirements were demonstrable, in part, by scientific correlations between the fisheries population size and the fresh water that used to flow through the Delta into Suisun and Honker Bay’s to maintain striped bass and the health of the Delta.

As water exports began taking an ever increasing toll during the last four decades, the fish fell from being one of the greatest urban sport fisheries of all time to being targeted for extinction because some believed too much of the Delta’s fresh water was needed to maintain the fisheries abundance. When the population fell from 4 million to 1 million during the past decade, the attacks to eradicate it escalated under the disguise that it was “nonnative” species. When some of these same folks figured out that fish in the estuary had an actual symbiotic relationship with the Delta’s food web and that they might eat species listed under Endangered Species Acts just as it was being eaten, it because a scapegoat and a target of opportunity.

To read the full text of this story from IndyBay.org, click here.

Surfer’s story emphasizes why we need to clean up toxic runoff

Posted by: Maven on February 14, 2008 at 7:20 am

Just a month or two ago, CalTrans reached an agreement to work on cleaning up toxic runoff from roadways that enters the ocean and other watershed areas. This first-hand account from a surfer explains why. From the Daily Nexus:

Whenever it rains in Southern California, local surfers have a serious choice to make. Brave the storm and surf in the thick, brown, hepatitis-filled nugs, or sit your ass on the couch, fire up the PlayStation 2 and go nerd with some surfing games. It’s shocking how disgusting our water gets here in Isla Vista. A few weeks ago during the rain, I decided to chance it and go for a session behind my house, but this mistake was almost my last. As I walked down the beach I saw the confused look on the faces of the bums that seemed unimpressed by the hard rain as they sipped their tall boys of Icehouse and talked about something that I could not discern. Probably politics. One of them forgot the cardinal rule of the wind, which of course is to not piss into it.

I gazed at the scene for a few moments and considered popping open a beer with this rowdy bunch, but realized that I was braving the storm for more than just a beer. This was not going to be fun. This session was strictly business. I hadn’t surfed in way too long, and even though the waves were garbage, I had the itch. It took only a minute from when I paddled out to realize that this session was a mistake. I turned and looked up toward my house and noted that just below it and to the right was a pipe that was shooting run-off water from the street straight into the Pacific. In just a few rainy days the Pacific Ocean had turned from a gorgeous, sparkling blue beauty, to a filthy brown pirate wench that made me gag as I paddled out. You could even see the blue line near the horizon where the run-off hadn’t arrived yet.

Read the rest of this story from the Daily Nexus by clicking here.

Central Valley Chinook population at record lows

Posted by: Maven on February 13, 2008 at 6:56 am

From IndyBay.org:

The Sacramento San Joaquin Delta is the source of drinking water for an estimated 22 million people in California, and it serves as the main water source for Central Valley’s agricultural fields. It is also home to the West Coasts largest salmon run. The recent low return of spawning salmon has put fishing and environmental interests at odds with the state and federal government. Zeke Grader president of the North Coast Fishing Alliance, received a memo from the Pacific Fisheries management Council last week detailing low salmon populations in the central valley.

“The memo said that we’ve got a crisis with our central valley salmon stock. The number was 90 thousand returning spawners. Keep in mind we’ve had virtually no fishing on these stocks for the last few years because of constraints. So we should have been looking at numbers much higher. In fact a few years ago we had returning stocks of 800 thousand instead of 90 thousand.”

The memo also states 2000 baby salmon returned to the San Joaquin Delta this year compared to a healthy average of 40 thousand salmon, and an all time low of 10 thousand salmon.

The state Department of Fish and Game estimates they release 32 million salmon into the delta annually. The salmon migrate to the pacific coast line, where fisherman lay their nets. Ben Platt, a fisherman in Fort Bragg, says they’re not seeing those numbers along the coast.

“We’re not catching these fish and the data shows that. The fish just weren’t there to catch the last couple years, so we saw this coming. Salmon that is reared in the Central Valley System has to run the gauntlet. There’s huge farms- big agribusiness, developments, and cities, highways and the water diversions are getting worse every year.”

To read the rest of this article from IndyBay.org, click here.

Nation’s first large-scale desalination plant is now operating in Tampa Bay

Posted by: Maven on February 13, 2008 at 6:54 am

From PR Newswire:

The nation’s first, large-scale seawater desalination plant is delivering drinking water to more than 2.5 million residents of the Tampa Bay area. It’s a timely solution as continued drought is forecast across the southeastern United States.

While parts of Alabama, Georgia and North Carolina are facing exceptional drought conditions, officials in west-central Florida say their residents are benefiting from the nation’s first drought-proof drinking water supply, a project pioneered by the area’s regional utility, Tampa Bay Water.

“Nearly a decade ago the Tampa Bay region suffered from an extreme drought, just as we are currently, and at that time we explored how we might drought-proof our system so that this didn’t have catastrophic consequences,” said Jerry Maxwell, General Manager of Tampa Bay Water, “As we did so seawater was a natural place for us to look. We live in Florida, we are on a peninsula, surrounded by seawaters, and even though it hadn’t been undertaken on a large-scale, it seemed the natural thing to do.”

Cost was the reason the utility had not considered seawater desalination in the past, Maxwell said. But when technology advances brought the cost of desalinated water down significantly, the utility felt the time was right.

The Tampa Bay Seawater Desalination Plant can produce up to 25 million gallons per day of drinking water.

Find out more in this press release by clicking here.  The webpage includes photos and a video.

Lava and water have battled in the Grand Canyon

Posted by: Maven on February 12, 2008 at 10:53 pm

From the Discovery Channel:

The Grand Canyon was not just carved by water — it has also been the scene of periodic wars between the Colorado River and volcanic eruptions which dammed the river and then burst.  New airborne elevation survey data and radioisotope dating of lava the Grand Canyon’s lava flows sheds new light on the battles between water and molten rocks there over the last 725,000 years.

Among the conclusions: Over that time there have been no less than four lava flows that dammed the river in the western Grand Canyon. Some of these dams were breached by dramatic floods and others may have been simply eroded away as the river flowed over their tops.

What’s more, there have been many more lava floods into the canyon which did not necessarily dam the river. The trick for geologists has been sorting all the lava flows out, since the terrain is particularly hard to work in.  “The area is extremely rugged and the relief extreme,” said Ryan Crow, a planetary scientist at the University of New Mexico and lead author of a paper on the new data in the February issue of Geosphere. “It’s extremely difficult to get around.”

Get the rest of the story from the Discovery Channel by clicking here.

PBS’s Justice Talking series covers water policy

Posted by: Maven on February 11, 2008 at 1:45 pm

Thank you to whoever sent me this link! Public Broadcasting’s “Justice Talking” series covers water policy this week, and the rundown of the segments looks great:

• Whose water is it?
• Our water resources in decline
• The Perspective from Las Vegas (includes Pat Mulroy & Peter Gleick)
• Water and Agriculture
• Endangered Species and Drought
• What about Water from the Tap?
• Plus commentary on the bottled water backlash.

The program description:

An unprecedented drought throughout the nation’s Southeast has forced some of the region’s largest cities to declare water emergencies. Western states have been dealing with similar water shortages for a much longer time. But what can policy-makers do when increasing populations, development and global warming place undue strains on an area’s water supply, especially when current law is antiquated, complicated and varies from state to state? Tune in to this week’s Justice Talking for a look at whether current water policies ought to be flushed down the drain.

You can listen to or download an mp3 of the entire show, or listen/download each segment individually. Check it out by clicking here.

Pyramid Lake to close for repair project

Posted by: Maven on February 11, 2008 at 1:10 pm

From the Department of Water Resources:

The Department of Water Resources (DWR) will close Pyramid Lake to public recreation use beginning Tuesday, February 19, 2008, until Saturday, April 5, 2008. The closure will affect boat ramps at Emigrant Landing and the Vaquero Day-Use Area, as well as all other day-use and picnic areas.

A lake-level drawdown of about 23 feet will begin on Monday, February 18, 2008. The reduced lake level is necessary to remove sediment that has accumulated around the United States Forest Service (USFS) boat dock over the past 34 years. The California Department of Boating and Waterways will also make repairs to the boating launch ramp’s east boarding float system.

Sediment removal is scheduled to end on Monday, March 17, 2008, and a refill process will begin – culminating with reopening of the lake and park on April 5.

Located in the Angeles and Los Padres National Forests about 60 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles, Pyramid Lake and Dam were completed in 1973 as part of the massive State Water Project (SWP), the largest state-built multipurpose water project in the United States. The name comes from a pyramid-shaped rock carved out by engineers building old Highway 99. Today, Interstate Highway 5 passes by the lake and the 18,500 square foot Vista del Lago Visitors Center.

Pyramid Lake stores water for delivery to Los Angeles and other south state coastal cities. It also provides regulated storage for Castaic Powerplant and flood protection along Piru Creek.

Once the sediment removal and repair project is complete, the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department and USFS will be able to navigate to and from the boat dock during normal low water levels and the boating public will have a new launch ramp boarding float.

San Diego farmers struggle with less water

Posted by: Maven on February 10, 2008 at 10:31 am

From NPR:

Severe droughts have combined with an unexpected culprit — a tiny fish — to put the squeeze on Southern California’s water supply. Farmers in places like San Diego County are the first to feel the pinch.

Last month, the Metropolitan Water District, which supplies water to 18 million mostly urban customers in Southern California, started cutting water supplies to most agriculture customers by 30 percent. Urban users still have unlimited water.

The cutbacks have their roots in California’s last big drought, which took place in the late 1980s and early ’90s. After that, the Metropolitan Water District invested in big water-storage projects, and to pay for them, it doubled water prices over a short time.  To keep their businesses afloat, most farmers made a kind of “deal with the devil.”

“The deal was that, in exchange for a discount on the water rate, we would be willing to take the first cutbacks in an emergency situation,” says Al Stehly, who manages about 450 acres of avocado trees for himself and other landowners in the county.

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

Miami Beach is running out of sand; Florida hopes to import sand from Mexico & Panama

Posted by: Maven on February 9, 2008 at 7:07 am

Florida beaches, particularly Miami Beach, are running out of sand, and officials want to do something about it. They are asking for a ban on the importation of sand to be lifted, so they can purchase sand from Mexico or Panama to replace it. From the Arizona Republic:

“We’re the first county in Florida that’s run out of sand,” said Brian Flynn, who heads the beach-restoration project for Miami-Dade County’s Department of Environmental Resources Management. “People are starting to realize sand is a finite resource.”

Miami Beach sits on a barrier island next to the city of Miami, which has a large port but not much beach. The island emerged from mangrove swamps when developers dredged Haulover Cut in 1925.

“We might as well be in Nebraska if we don’t have sand and surf and beautiful beaches,” said U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, whose district includes Miami Beach.

The beach in front of the Fontainebleau Hotel is down to just 60 feet. At some locations around Miami Beach, the beach is as narrow as only 20 feet.

Miami Beach for many years replaced sand lost to hurricanes and tides by pumping it from the ocean floor. By 2001, the county determined that supply was too depleted. Officials in nearby St. Lucie, Martin and Palm Beach counties turned down requests for help, saving their sand for their own beaches. As a stopgap measure, Miami Beach builds up its skinniest spots in the north with sand from the better-endowed southern beaches. There isn’t enough surplus sand to do so indefinitely.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers scrutinized the coastline of Florida and other states for more than a decade before concluding in December that the sand was exhausted.

The county is asking Congress to appropriate funds in the next federal budget to help buy foreign sand and pay half of the initial $120 million cost of refilling Miami Beach. Mexico, Panama, Turks and Caicos Islands, Dominican Republic, the Bahamas or other parts of the Caribbean could be sources, Flynn said. Their sand is likely to match the color and texture of Florida’s, and price would be a factor, he said.

The goal is to make the 10 miles of beach at least 200 feet wide. To maintain that size for 25 years, the county would need 12 million cubic yards of sand, or about 600,000 dump-truck loads, Flynn said.

Tropical storms and hurricanes can wash the sand away, and rising sea levels mean higher tides and more erosion. Progress could be difficult to achieve. To read the rest of this story from the Arizona Republic, click here.

Erosion in Death Valley’s Gower Gulch offers insights into the effects of stream flooding and climate change

Posted by: Maven on February 8, 2008 at 3:38 pm

From Boston College:

CHESTNUT HILL, MA (1/28/08) – Death Valley may be known by its three superlatives: hottest, driest, and lowest – as in temperature, rainfall, and elevation in the United States. But it was the flow of water through the National Park that attracted Boston College Geologist Noah P. Snyder to the desert of eastern California.

In one of the few places where rivers do not flow to the sea, Snyder’s new research into a 1941 stream diversion in the historic park uncovered a rare glimpse into a range of geological changes that might otherwise take centuries to unfold but instead are revealed following the flashfloods that strike the park, located against the Nevada border.

Furnace Creek Wash, diverted to protect a village from flooding during infrequent but powerful rainstorms, has carved through Gower Gulch over the years. The way the creek cuts through the sandy hills highlights the effects original landscape and changing channel dynamics exert on the responses of diverted rivers and streams, according to research by Snyder, published in February edition of the journal Geology.

“This is an unusual opportunity to see how a river system responds to an extreme change in the historic rates of water and sediment flow,” said Snyder, who co-authored the paper with former graduate student Lisa R. Kammer ‘05. “It’s a hot topic in the earth sciences where we’re interested in learning more about the interaction of climate change, tectonics and bedrock erosion.” Continue reading “Erosion in Death Valley’s Gower Gulch offers insights into the effects of stream flooding and climate change” »

Water bond poised to sink progress and ignite new water wars, says commentary

Posted by: Maven on February 7, 2008 at 11:26 pm

From Mindy McIntyre at the California Progress Report:

The Chamber of Commerce, in a full court press, is pressuring both Senator Feinstein and Governor Schwarzenegger to support an $11.69 billion water bond initiative for the November ballot. The $11.69 billion bond is strongly opposed by environmental groups throughout California. The bond includes $3.5 billion directly for dams, plus billions more that could be used for dams on California rivers.

It also establishes a dangerous new “water commission” empowered to fund and build a peripheral canal and divert massive amounts of Sacramento River water around the already endangered 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 for the past 8 years has already led to the collapse of the Delta ecosystem, including salmon and other fish populations.

More disturbing, the bond would eliminate public and legislative oversight and leave the fate of the Delta and Northern California rivers in the hands of politically appointed bureaucrats with strong ties to special interests in the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California.

The divisive bond push comes just as stakeholders from the environmental, Delta, business, water and agricultural communities are beginning to unite on solutions for California as part of the governor’s Delta Vision process. The Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force just issued its Final Delta Vision, and is now setting to work on developing an implementation plan. Several stakeholders strongly support the Vision and have been diligently working to develop and implement both short and long term actions to restore the Delta and provide water for California’s environment and economy. The Chamber’s bond is seen by many as an end-run around the Governor’s own process.

“We are committed to quickly working toward solutions to the crisis in the Delta. It is unfortunate that some special interests are choosing to deliberately derail the progress being made in the Governor’s process. The Delta and California cannot afford to return to the Water Wars that will be reignited with such an obviously polarizing water bond initiative,” said Planning and Conservation League’s Executive Director Traci Sheehan.

To read the rest of this article from the California Progress Report, click here.

Water contractors file another bond initiative today

Posted by: Maven on February 6, 2008 at 11:26 pm

From IndyBay.org:

This morning the California Chamber of Commerce filed yet another version of a “water contractors bail out” bond filled with new language to incorporate recommendations for “conveyance” – the peripheral canal – to the Delta Vision Task Force and members of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan. Of course, the water barons are not including any possibility of reducing, rather than increasing, water exports from the Delta in their water measure. “Like the multi-headed Hydra, the push for a water bond, that includes a peripheral canal, seems to continually spring a new head despite our efforts,” said Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, campaign director of Restore the Delta.

This resurrected water boondoggle is being introduced at a time when the Delta ecosystem and Central Valley salmon stocks are collapsing. The California Department of Fish and Game recently released the results of the fall mid water trawl suvey data that revealed that delta smelt, longfin smelt, Sacramento splittail, American shad and juvenile striped bass populations continue to plummet. Meanwhile, the Pacific Fishery Management Council last week disclosed that Central Valley salmon stocks are in “unprecedented collapse,” declining from 802,000 fish in 2002 to 90,000 fish in 2007.

Massive increases of water exports from the Delta by the state and federal governments over the past several years are believed to be the main culprit behind the pelagic fish and salmon population crashes. The state and federal water projects exported 7,000,000 acre feet of water, a new record for water exports, from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, in 2007. This massive delivery of water to subsidized agribusiness and southern California can no longer continue if we want to see salmon, steelhead, sturgeon, striped bass and other fish populations restored.

Restore the Delta’s Barbara Barrigan-Parilla would like you to call Senator Feinstein and Governor Schwarzenegger to let them know you are opposed to these water bond initiatives.  Click here for contact information & more from IndyBay.org.

Next Page →

Aquafornia's Information Desk

• Where does California’s water come from?
• Where does Southern California’s water come from?
• California’s Water Crisis

Why the Delta is Important

Salinity in the Central Valley: A critical problem

State Water Project Slideshow

Los Angeles Aqueduct Slideshow

Other Slideshows & Videos

• Water Conservation Tips
• Research and Publications

Recommended Reading

Click here for full-sized calendar

Aquafornia's Photos on Flickr

Click here to view the Aquafornia Photo Library

Aquafornia's Mission

Aquafornia's mission is to educate readers about the complex and often controversial issues surrounding water in California.
 
Aquafornia is affiliated with the Water Education Foundation, an impartial, nonprofit organization, whose mission is to create a better understanding of water resources and foster public understanding and resolution of water resource issues through facilitation, education and outreach.

E-mail Newsletter

To receive email announcements from the Water Education Foundation, sign up here.

Your email address:    

Web Resources

• Agriculture

  • California Agriculture Online
  • California Department of Food and Agriculture
  • California Farm Bureau Federation
  • California Farm Water Coalition
  • California Rice Commission
  • Family Farm Alliance

• Climate Change & Water

  • California Climate Change Portal
  • Carpe Diem – Western Water & Climate Change
  • DWR's Climate Change Page
  • SCVWD's Climate Change Portal
  • Southwest Climate Change Network
  • Southwest Climate Change Network

• Conservation

  • Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency
  • Be Water Wise
  • California Urban Water Conservation Council
  • H2O Conserve Website
  • H2ouse.org
  • Save Our Water
  • Water – Use It Wisely

• Current Conditions

  • California Nevada River Forecast Center (NWS)
  • Climate Data Exchange Center (DWR)
  • Hydrologic Conditions-Executive Summary
  • Major Reservoir Conditions (DWR)
  • Precipitation Summary (NWS)
  • Significant River Flood Outlook (NWS)
  • Statewide Summary of Snow Water Content (DWR)
  • U. S. Drought Monitor – West

• Delta & SF Bay Resources

  • Bay Delta Developments
  • Bay Institute
  • Bay-Delta Conservation Plan
  • Delta Atlas
  • Delta Protection Commission
  • Delta Stewardship Council
  • Delta Vision Foundation
  • Delta WaterMaster
  • Discover the Delta Foundation
  • Restore the Delta
  • San Francisco Bay and Delta (Access USGS)
  • San Francisco Baykeeper
  • San Francisco Estuary and Watershed Science website
  • San Francisco Estuary Partnership

• Employment & Water

  • Get Hydrology Jobs

• Environmental Organizations

  • American Rivers
  • California Invasive Plant Council
  • California Water Impact Network
  • Environmental Water Caucus
  • Foothill Conservancy
  • Friends of the River
  • Mokelumne River News & Info
  • Mono-Logue
  • R4RD: Residents for Responsible Desalination
  • San Joaquin Basin
  • Sierra Club
  • Tree People

• Fishing Blogs/Organizations

  • California Sportfishing Protection Alliance
  • Fish Sniffer
  • Fishing the Aqueduct with Striper Bill
  • Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations
  • Trout Underground
  • Zeke Grader's Blog

• Investing & Water

  • Water-Stocks.com

• Landscaping

  • High Country Gardens
  • The Garden Spot
  • The Prickly Palace

• Legal Blogs

  • Legal Planet – Environmental Law & Policy
  • Pacific Legal Foundation
  • Somach Simmons & Dunn Environmental Law & Policy Alerts

• Legislative Committees - State & Federal

  • California State Assembly Committee on Water, Parks and Wildlife
  • California State Senate Committee on Natural Resources & Water
  • House Natural Resource Committee, Water & Power Subcommittee
  • New State Water Legislation Mandates (KMTG)
  • Senate Commitee on Environment & Public Works, Water and Wildlife Subcommittee
  • The California Channel

• Los Angeles River

  • Friends Of Vast Industrial Concrete Kafkaesque Structures
  • Los Angeles River Project

• Maven's Other Websites

  • Maven's Manor
  • Maven's Photoblog

• News

  • ACWA's Water News
  • All the top water news
  • AWE Federal Legislation Watch
  • B C Water News
  • High Country News
  • New State Water Legislation Mandates (KMTG)
  • Total Capitol (Legislative News)
  • YubaNet.com

• Public Policy Organizations

  • Pacific Institute
  • Planning and Conservation League
  • Public Policy Institute of California

• Regional Water Associations

  • Mountain Counties Water Resources Association
  • Northern California Water Association
  • Southern California Water Committee
  • Water Association of Kern County

• Salton Sea

  • Salton Sea (University of Redlands)
  • Salton Sea 101
  • Salton Sea Authority
  • Salton Sea Ecosystem Restoration Program (DWR)

• Stormwater & Flood Control

  • Army Corps of Engineers – Los Angeles Area
  • Army Corps of Engineers – Sacramento Area
  • Central Valley Flood Management Protection Planning Program
  • LA Stormwater Blog

• Water Agencies

  • ACWA – Association of California Water Agencies
  • Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency
  • Contra Costa Water District
  • East Bay Municipal Utility District
  • Imperial Irrigation District
  • Kern County Water Agency
  • Long Beach Water Department
  • Los Angeles Department of Water & Power
  • Metropolitan Water District
  • Municipal Water District of Orange County
  • San Diego County Water Authority
  • Santa Clara Valley Water District
  • Sonoma County Water Agencies
  • South San Joaquin Irrigation District
  • State Water Contractors
  • West Basin Municipal Water District
  • Westlands Water District

• Water Agencies - State & Federal

  • Bureau of Reclamation – Lower Colorado Region
  • Bureau of Reclamation – Mid Pacific Region
  • California Dept of Water Resources
  • California Public Utilities Commmision – Water & Sewer
  • California Resources Agency
  • California Water Commission
  • State Water Resources Control Board

• Water Blogs

  • ACWA's Voices in Water blog
  • Aguanomics
  • Alex Breitler's Blog
  • American Water Resources Assn. Blog
  • Barry Nelson at the NRDC Switchboard
  • Bay Delta Blog
  • California Water Blog
  • California Water Wars blog
  • Chance of Rain
  • Chronicles of the Hydraulic Brotherhood
  • Delta National Park Blog
  • EDF's On The Waterfront
  • Greed, Green & Grains
  • Green Roots Blog (PCL)
  • GrokSurf's San Diego blog
  • Inkstain – jfleck
  • Klam Blog
  • L. A. Creek Freak
  • On the Public Record
  • Peter Gleick’s City Brights blog
  • Restore the Delta's blog
  • Southern California Water Committee Blog
  • Spouting Off – Mark Gold of Heal the Bay
  • State of the Planet Blog
  • The California Spigot
  • Thirsty in Suburbia
  • Tom Philp's Blog
  • Valley Economy Blog
  • Water Cooler Blog
  • Water Librarian's Blog
  • Water SISWEB
  • Waterblogged (Shawn McKinnon)
  • Watering the Desert
  • WaterWired

• Water Information

  • ACWA’s California Water Crisis Website
  • California Water Plan 2009
  • UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences
  • USGS California Water Science Center
  • USGS Water Resources of the US
  • Water Education Foundation
  • Water Resources Collections and Archives
  • Where Does My Water Come From?
  • Wholly H2o

News Article Archives

• Agriculture
• Aquafornia News & Exclusives
• Central Valley Project
• Climate change & water supply
• Conservation
• Delta Issues
• Desalination
• Development & Population
• Drinking Water & Bottled Water
• Drought Tolerant Landscaping
• Drought, Weather & Snowpack
• Energy & Water
• Events
• Flood Control/Stormwater
• General Water Issues
• Groundwater
• History
• Indian Water Rights
• Infrastructure
• Innovative Ideas
• International Water Issues
• Invasive Plants & Species
• Investing in water
• Legislation – State & Federal
• Levees
• National water news
• Oceans & Beaches
• People in the News
• Politics of Water
• Recycled Water
• Regional Water Issues
  • Bakersfield
  • Bay Area
  • Central Coast
  • Coachella Valley
  • Colorado River & the Southwest
  • Eastern Sierra
  • Imperial Valley
  • Lake Tahoe, the Sierras & foothills
  • Las Vegas & Nevada
  • Northern California
  • Sacramento
  • Salton Sea
  • San Diego
  • San Joaquin Valley
  • Southern California
• San Joaquin River Restoration
• State Water Project (DWR)
• Storage and supply
• Transfers
• Uncategorized
• Water Agency News
• Water Banking
• Water Quality
• Water Rights
• Weird & Wacky Water News
• Wildlife & Endangered Species

Contact Aquafornia

Admin

• Log in

Admin

• Log in

Credits

Powered by Vertigo & WordPress
WordPress Themes by Brian Gardner