Dwindling water supplies: political leaders need to get moving on solutions, says commentary

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 31, 2008 at 12:29 pm

From the Western Farm Press, this commentary by Richard Comett, Communications Director of the Western Plant Health Association:

One has to wonder these days just exactly what it’s going to take to get more water storage in California — empty faucets?

This state of 38 million thirsty Californians continues to teeter on disaster as the likelihood of global warming and actual drought conditions promise to make water a more precious commodity than oil.

While Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger continue talks on a state water bond to be placed on this November’s ballot, legislative water solutions remain beyond arm’s reach as the problem mounts. Feinstein has long pushed for state money for dams, parting ways with other leading Democrats who have strongly opposed using public money to pay for surface water storage. To the senator’s credit, she has called for a “comprehensive solution” that would include money for dams and groundwater storage, as well as repairs to the deteriorating Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

Meanwhile, while Feinstein and Schwarzenegger are busy crafting some kind of water bill for the fall, a proposal sponsored by the California Chamber of Commerce and other business and farm groups is gathering names to place an $11.7 billion water bond initiative on the ballot. Among the water projects is $3.5 billion set aside for dams. The group has until July 14 to collect 433,971 valid signatures from voters.

I realize that it is hard to get worked up about water shortage concerns when the ground is saturated from the several recent storms we’ve had in California, but when I speak with my association members the subject of water storage remains a hot topic that members consider a top priority. And, of course, they too are scratching their heads over the stalled negotiations.

The commentary urges political leaders to get moving on solutions to the water crisis, before the effects become serious and more widespread.  You can read the rest of this commentary posted on the Western Farm Press by clicking here.

Blogger finds 1989 draft report of Southern Nevada Water Authority pipeline project; document “has lots of ugly implications for the environment, the economies and the governments of rural Nevada”

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 31, 2008 at 12:18 pm

From Rake’s Green Vegas Blog:

Hey, remember how the Southern Nevada Water Authority bought up just about every ranch in White Pine County’s huge Spring Valley and claimed that it was doing so to “manage” groundwater levels? And remember how we thought that was a lot of cowflop because the SNWA doesn’t do anything if it doesn’t serve the interests of the Las Vegas developers who call the shots?

Well, funny enough, I found a document last week that dates way back to the antediluvian days of 1989. It appears to be the first draft of the study of the impacts of the Southern Nevada Water Grab, and lays out a road map for the exportation of many billions of water from the rurals to the urban area.

The study notes that if the state Water Engineer denies a large portion of the SNWA request (then under the auspices of the Las Vegas Valley Water District) the agency will buy up ranches and take the water anyway in what the authors call “water ranching.”

“In the event the District (the SNWA) is unable to win approval of enough of it’s (sic) applied for water, outright purchase of existing water rights within Lincoln, Nye, Clark and White Pine counties is another vehicle available to acquire enough water to meet the anticipated needs of Las Vegas,” it says.

Find out more of what this blogger has to say about this by clicking here.

California’s agricultural output tops most nations

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 31, 2008 at 5:32 am

From the Fresno Bee:

So, what’s the big deal about this farming stuff in California, anyway?  Let’s put it this way: If California were a country, its agricultural output would rank fifth to ninth in the world, ahead of countries like Canada, Mexico and Spain.

Those are among facts contained in the unpublished report “Agriculture’s Role in the Economy,” by the University of California Agricultural Issues Center. It can be found on the Web at www.aic.ucdavis.edu.

The report is intended as the fifth chapter in a forthcoming book, “The Measure of California Agriculture.” Center staff posted it online so other researchers and policy analysts can begin to use the data right away.

“California agriculture is large, diverse, complex and dynamic,” said center director Daniel Sumner, a professor of agricultural and resource economics at UC Davis. “It contributes significantly to the economies of the state and nation.”

The report found that California farms and related processing industries generate 7.3% of the state’s private-sector jobs and account for 5.6% of labor income. The calculations include ripple effects. They are based on an analysis of data from the 2002 U.S. Census of Agriculture, the most recent one available.

Read the rest of this article from the Fresno Bee by clicking here.  Read the report from U.C. Davis by clicking here.

Scientists breeding smelt in case the species goes extinct in the Delta

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 31, 2008 at 5:18 am

From the Sacramento Bee:

Inside a makeshift collection of modified shipping containers lined up on a patch of asphalt, a system of gurgling pipes and buckets holds the Delta’s future. Or, at least, one future. These faded steel boxes house the beginnings of a new refuge population of threatened Delta smelt. The fish, only finger-length at adulthood, could be used one day to restore the population if their wild kin go extinct.

Unfortunately, extinction is all too likely after five years of steep population declines for the smelt and four other fish species in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. All are known as “pelagic” fish because they live in the Delta’s moving water column.

Scientists have been unable to explain the decline, much less solve it. So the refuge smelt are intended as a last-ditch effort to save the species, long considered a bellwether for the health of the estuary as a whole. If the smelt disappear, scientists believe, other species will follow, along with a decline in water quality that could make Delta water undrinkable for the 25 million Californians who depend on it.

Smelt, in other words, are the lead car in an ecological train that’s in danger of derailing. “It’s bigger than smelt,” said Bradd Baskerville-Bridges, a marine biologist and co-director of the UC Davis Fish Conservation and Culture Laboratory, where the smelt are being raised. “It’s affecting all the pelagic species right now, and there’s no easy solution.”

Read the rest of this article from the Sacramento Bee by clicking here.

Report details alternatives to Colorado River water

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 31, 2008 at 5:07 am

From the Las Vegas Review Journal:

The ideas range from tearing out thirsty groves of salt cedar to towing icebergs down from the Arctic, from seeding clouds over the Rockies to filtering salt from seawater. When it comes to squeezing every drop from the shrinking sponge of the Colorado River, few options, it seems, are too complicated or expensive.

A new report examines 12 ideas for augmenting the river’s flow, and not even the most audacious of the plans — importing icebergs, for example — has been rejected out of hand.
Bill Rinne, director of surface water resources for the Southern Nevada Water Authority, said he took two things away from the report: All options are still on the table, and none of them seem to provide the perfect solution. “I don’t see a real silver bullet,” he said.

The report, paid for by the Southern Nevada Water Authority and compiled by an outside panel of experts, was delivered to Secretary of Interior Dirk Kempthorne last week. Water managers in the seven Western states that share the Colorado will use the findings to help them decide which of the 12 options to pursue first and when. Rinne said he expects those talks to begin before the end of the year.

The stakes are high for Nevada, which stands to receive the first 75,000 acre-feet of water created through so-called augmentation of the Colorado River. If expanded through reuse, that’s enough water to supply more than a quarter of a million homes.

The report cost about $750,000 and took more than a year to complete. It evaluates options in terms of water quality, reliability, relative cost, projected water yield, technical difficulty, environmental concerns, and permitting issues.

Among the more promising options: cloud seeding and tamarisk (salt cedar) removal. Read the rest of this article from the Las Vegas Review-Journal by clicking here.

Palo Verde farmers to fallow 26,000 acres of farmland under Metropolitan’s water transfer deal

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 30, 2008 at 11:02 am

From the Riverside Press-Enterprise:

Thirsty Southern California cities are turning to water-rich farmers on the eastern edge of Riverside County for additional supplies to make up for the ongoing drought and other restrictions on the life-sustaining resource.

Starting this summer, farmers in the Palo Verde Valley along the Colorado River will forgo planting crops on nearly 26,000 acres, the most land yet under a little-known fallowing agreement with Metropolitan Water District. The pact will double the amount now being sent to MWD and its 18 million urban customers.

In exchange, MWD will pay the farmers $16.8 million each year for 115,000 acre-feet of water — almost 37.5 billion gallons. That’s on top of startup fees the district has already paid the farmers, making it more costly than the water the district traditionally relies on from the Colorado River and the Sacramento Delta.

Metropolitan Water District has to notify the farmers a year in advance of their request for more water, and that decision was made after the Wanger smelt decision in August:

The region, he said, will still be short of water. MWD is projecting a 300,000-acre-foot loss from the Delta decision, and the Palo Verde transfer accounts for only about one-third of that. But MWD officials said the injection of new supplies will help prevent the water district from drawing even more on its stored reserves in such places as Diamond Valley Lake near Hemet.

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

For a fact sheet from Metropolitan Water District on the Palo Verde water transfer deal, click here.

Well-drillers doing booming business in the Central Valley as farmers prepare for water cutbacks

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 30, 2008 at 11:02 am

From the Sacramento Bee:

Steve Arthur loves a good drought. But trouble in the Delta serves him just as well.  Arthur, a stocky 48-year-old, runs one of the biggest agricultural well-drilling operations in the state. This year, he has enough orders to launch himself into early retirement.  “Everybody’s planning ahead, because they know the water situation’s not going to get anything but worse,” he said.

A well-drilling boom not seen since California’s last big drought in the early 1990s is under way in the San Joaquin Valley, as farmers chasing high crop prices tap the region’s vast, largely unregulated groundwater reserves in the face of an increasingly bleak outlook for water from the state’s rivers and reservoirs.

“Business is unbelievable,” Arthur said on a recent morning in a field soon to be planted with almond trees. Through sunglasses splattered with mud, he watched the hoses on his drill rig buck as they spat water and sand from 700 feet underground.

California’s reservoirs will be filling up this spring, thanks to an average winter snowpack. But court-ordered pumping restrictions intended to protect fish populations in the Delta mean that many San Joaquin Valley farmers won’t get as much water this year as they would have in the past.

Read the rest of this story from the Sacramento Bee by clicking here.

Assemblywoman Garcia defends her bills to potentially change water codes; if passed, it could see two seats added to the IID from Coachella Valley

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 30, 2008 at 10:18 am

From the Imperial Valley Press:

On Friday, Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia defended two bills she has authored that could potentially change California Water Codes and directly affect the Imperial Irrigation District. During a meeting held at the El Centro Chamber of Commerce on Friday, Garcia took on a barrage of questions and concerns by IID representatives and local business people about the bills.

One of the issues was in regard to a 99-year agreement between the IID and the Coachella Valley Water District that expires in 2033. “Why is it important for you, as an outgoing elected official, to bring this up now?” El Centro Chamber chief executive officer Cathy Kennerson asked.

“When the issue was first brought up a few years ago, it was decided that it was not a good time to bring it up,” Garcia said. “Now, this was an issue raised by the consumers, not the water districts. “This is about doing what’s best for the community and not waiting until we have a lawsuit,” she said. “I don’t need to load my own gun and shoot myself on the way out.”

Part of the legislature could also see two seats added to the IID Board of Directors from the Coachella Valley.

IID Director John Pierre Menvielle said by introducing her bills, Garcia would be pitting the Coachella Valley against the Imperial Valley. She called the IID reckless, but I believe she is the one being reckless in trying to pass this legislation on changing the water code,” Menvielle said.

Read the rest of this story from the Imperial Valley Press by clicking here.

Lake Cachuma open again as boaters heed new regulations

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 30, 2008 at 10:04 am

From the Lompoc Record:

Lake Cachuma opened Friday to boaters just happy to get back in the water. It was the first day the new rules were in place to protect the lake from the Quagga mussel, which can quickly destroy a lake’s ecosystem, clog water pipes and cause costly maintenance for water resource agencies.

Although boats were subjected to a visual inspection at the main entrance, a high-powered wash at the west marina parking lot area and a final double-check from a park official at the launch site, boaters agreed that the process was better than a closed lake. By noon, more than 40 boats had passed through the process, but three were turned away for not being clean and dry, said park naturalist Liz Mason-Gaspar.

Gaspar and other park employees performed duties outside of their normal job description to help with the new regulations.

Read the rest of this story from the Lompoc Record by clicking here.

Picture of Lake Cachuma by flickr photographer Visual Thinker.

Salton Sea: A great time for bird-watching at one of the nation’s best spots

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 30, 2008 at 9:43 am

With the Colorado River rarely reaching the Gulf of California most months of the year, the Salton Sea has become a critical link on the Pacific Flyway. Over 400 species have been documented there, many of them endangered or threatened. The Salton Sea is home to eared grebes, endangered brown pelicans, great blue herons, ospreys, burrowing owls, gulls, ducks, geese and terns; and not to mention the hundreds of thousands more birds that make the stop on their annual migration.

From MyDesert.com:

More than 380 species of birds have flocked to the Salton Sea for mating season, drawing hundreds of binocular-toting spectators to the state’s largest lake. “People love it because there’s so many different species,” said Jose Renteria, biological science aid at the Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge. “We tell them to come in the morning because it’s a great time to explore.”

The Salton Sea is an important stop along the Pacific Flyway - a sort of freeway for millions of migratory birds as they travel south for the winter and north in the spring every year.

The most popular bird, Renteria said, is the burrowing owl often found in the Imperial Valley. Birders also have the chance of spying Caspian Terns, California Brown Pelicans, American White Pelicans, White-Faced Ibis, flamingos, ducks, Yellow-Footed Gulls, Soras and Abert’s Towhee.

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

For more on birdwatching at the Salton Sea, as well as information on other Salton Sea issues, click here or click here.

The proposed Sites Reservoir could have captured a lot of runoff this year, says editorial

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 30, 2008 at 8:33 am

From the Chico Enterprise-Record, and editorial which essentially points out that just because we had a decent - not spectacular, but utterly normal - winter snowpack, this is not a reason to be complacent about water issues. From the editorial:

Without an abundance of snow and with the rapid decline of several threatened species in the delta, requiring more water from reservoirs, there’s not enough water to go around. The cities and farmers that contract with the state will get about 35 percent of what they want.

This fickle rainfall year just goes to prove, once again, how unstable our water supply is. We can’t help but point out that an off-stream reservoir at Sites, west of Maxwell, would have been a perfect place to store runoff from high water in the Sacramento River in January. That reservoir is still the best solution to add capacity to the state’s water storage system. It has been discussed for a decade. Several water bonds have been passed since then, but nothing has been spent on work at Sites.

So why isn’t anything done? Because our state’s leaders would rather argue and pontificate than act.

Schwarzenegger’s water plan in the past has included building two new dams, Temperance Flat and Sites, and raising the height of a third, the Los Vaqueros Dam in Contra Costa County. For whatever reason, the one project which has always gotten the most attention has been Temperance Flat.

Read the rest of this editorial from the Chico Enterprise-Record by clicking here.

Looking ahead, Denver Water prepares for climate change

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 30, 2008 at 7:43 am

From the Summit Daily News (Colorado):

Although this cold and snowy winter has spelled good short-term news for Dillon Reservoir and the rest of Denver Water’s supply, global warming is keeping the Front Range utility modest. Climate change is real, and it’s here, so Denver Water recently tried to determine how increasing temperatures would affect stream flows and water supplies, said Marc Waage, manager of water resource planning.

Waage said Denver Water considered two different scenarios:

• With a temperature increase of two degrees over a 50-year stretch — assuming no change in precipitation — streamflows and water supplies would decrease by 7 percent.

• The second scenario plugged a 5 degree temperature increase into the model. Streamflows would drop by 19 percent, with a 14 percent impact to Denver Water’s supply.

Both temperature scenarios are “modest” compared to what many climate change models are predicting, he added. Most of the decrease in stream flows and supplies is due to increased evaporation and sublimation. The bottom line is that Denver Water’s system is very sensitive to warming temperatures, Waage said.

Read more of this article from the Summit Daily News by clicking here.

Water is the Great Lake’s prize, but depsite assurances otherwise, some remain concerned of massive water diversions to the Southwest

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 30, 2008 at 7:38 am

From the Cleveland.com, a blog/news site:

They’ve been praying for rain in the thirsty American South. Will they prey upon the Great Lakes next? Whether diverting Lake Erie or other Great Lakes water to bail out our dried-up fellow states is preposterous or possible is a matter of dramatically different opinions.

But when Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue and some state lawmakers bowed their heads last November, they illustrated the continuing desperation as drought persists in parts of the United States. “That picture — the governor of Georgia praying for rain on the Statehouse steps — has been burned into my memory, that’s for sure,” said Sean Logan, director of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. “It was a reminder of an important message: Water issues can bring you to your knees.”

Despite assurances from Pat Mulroy that she isn’t eyeing the great lakes, the fears still continue:

Some are worried that the South might soon take matters into its own hands by petitioning the federal government for help. “I think a large-scale diversion of water from the Great Lakes is fairly likely sooner than later,” said Noah Hall, an environmental law professor with Wayne State University in Michigan. “There are a lot of frightening developments out West and in the Southeast and the climate change models don’t offer much hope.”

David Naftzger, executive director of the Council of Great Lakes Governors, said a water grab is virtually assured. “Look at a map showing water shortages and population growth and see how they match up,” he said. “Now look at us and you can see a concern that, as time moves on, those areas will be looking at the Great Lakes to bring them water — either through a tanker, pipeline or natural channels.”

But others dismiss entirely any idea that Lake Erie water is going anywhere. Las Vegas Water Department General Manager Patricia Mulroy, head of a water department where drought is a constant threat, said it would take “an Armageddon-like series of events” to force Western states to start sniffing around the Great Lakes to solve their water crisis.

Julius Ciaccia, until recently her counterpart in the Cleveland Water Department, agreed. “In 20 years of discussing and debating water issues at a national level, I’ve never once heard a utilities director in the South or West say one word about tapping Lake Erie for water,” said Ciaccia, now head of the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District. “Those cities are more interested in water reclamation, re-use or even desalination than in coming to get our water.”

Mulroy said Las Vegas is now recycles all of its waste water, for example. There are also now more than 13,000 desalination plants worldwide, producing more than 12 billion gallons of drinkable water daily from salty ocean water, according to the International Desalination Association.

But as for long-distance water diversions: “It’s not technically impossible, but it’s also not economically feasible,” Ciaccia said.

The rest of this comprehensive article discusses national water issues and how this might impact the Great Lakes. It’s worthy of the click through, so to read the rest of this interesting article from Cleveland.com, click here.   Here’s a related article, also from Cleveland.com, about other massive water diversion efforts that have occurred worldwide - click here.

Weekend odds and ends from the blogosphere

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 29, 2008 at 11:01 am

It’s time once again to clear off all the interesting tidbits I have collected over the week.

Water Wired Wisdom: As always, there’s been some interesting posts on the astute Water Wired blog. Michael weighs in on California’s salmon crisis, the price of ignoring our ecosystems, and a story about how some Oregon farmers are installing pipes instead of using leaky canals, and how this might help the salmon.

Climate Change: adaptation vs. mitigation debate: Such a busy week, I haven’t had time to catch up on all of this until now, but Aqua Blog Maven doesn’t want you to miss a good debate. Is it cheaper to adapt to climate change, or should we try and stop it? It all starts with this article from the LA Times where Roger Pielke argues that it is indeed cheaper and perhaps a better alternative than to try and stop climate change. But not everyone agrees: “You can’t adapt to melting the Greenland ice sheet,” said Stephen H. Schneider, a climatologist at Stanford University. “You can’t adapt to species that have gone extinct.” The Daily Grist responded, saying Pielke’s remarks were mischaracterized. John Fleck at Inkstain takes a different view, saying: Over and over, I see climate change in the west used as an argument in favor of greenhouse gas reductions, and over and over I have seen the necessary political and policy discussions of what might be needed for adaptation either implicitly or explicitly off the table, most often because of a fear that such discussions will somehow sap the political will needed to change our energy habits. John Fleck follows it all up this morning in this post about New Mexico’s climate change policy, and yet again in this post about the latest report from California’s state government interagency Water-Energy Subgroup of the Climate Action Team (WET-CAT). In order for it to make sense, though, you’ll have to start at the beginning!

Bottled Water Woes: I am proud to say I have kicked my bottled water habit. I’ve purchased regular water bottles and have the family trained to fill up a bottle here before heading out. I’ve discovered the added advantage of being able to fill it up with ice, ensuring a long cool drink on my travels - yum! Tom Chandler over at the Trout Underground wraps up the latest news in the bottled water wars in this post from the Trout Underground.

Are beavers good or bad? Good, says this group, whose blog is about beavers in Southern California. According to beaverdam.info, “A keystone species is one that modifies the natural environment in such a way that the overall ecosystem builds upon the change. The ponds, wetlands, and meadows formed by beaver dams increases bio-diversity and improves overall environmental quality.It is our opinion that many environmental decision makers do not fully understand the positive effects that beavers and dams bring to ecosystems.” Check out Martinez Beaver’s Blog by clicking here.

Just for fun: Ok, I admit it: these next two have nothing to do with water. I just thought they were funny! Only in Los Angeles would you have a blog solely dedicated to abandoned couches. And I thought this post from the Borowitz Report was funny: Bush to phase out environment by 2009.

May I suggest you get out and enjoy the wildflowers if you haven’t already done so, but above all, enjoy your weekend!

Water & Landscaping in Southern California: the benefits of going drought-tolerant

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 29, 2008 at 7:29 am

From the Going Green in Orange County Blog (although this blog really applies to Southern California as a whole):

How do we keep Orange County so green in what is, more or less, a desert region and at what cost are we paying for such extravagance?

As our population in Orange County continues to grow, we’ll need to use more water for the things we need to have and less water for things we’d like have. To my knowledge, the amount of fresh water on earth has not changed much in recent history. So with the same amount of water being available to us year after year and more and more people demanding it, those who control water rights and the communities that use their resources most efficiently will reap the rewards. Which is why many argue that the wars of tomorrow will be fought over water rights instead of oil.

Why should Orange County become more water efficient?

The benefits in becoming water efficient as an individual, a city, a county and a state are massive! Besides the destruction to wild habitats we cause by importing water to support our excessive lifestyles, it’s COSTING US A LOT MONEY and putting our well being in unnecessary jeopardy! As tax payers and consumers of water, we’re subject to higher energy and water rates. The more water and energy needed to push it to us in order to sustain our lifestyle, the more costly infrastructure we need to support our thirst.

The rest of this entry covers landscaping tips and has a multitude of useful links on reducing your water use and applying drought tolerant landscaping to your yard. Read more from the Going Green in Orange County blog by clicking here.

Want more ideas about water savvy landscapes? How about edible front yards, xeriscaping and permeable hardscapes. Check out the LA Times Emerald City blog, which also has links to useful web resources, by clicking here.

Shark sightings in Southern California: Is it “Jaws” in real life, or is there another explanation?

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 29, 2008 at 6:59 am

From the Los Angeles Times:

Tom Larkin is convinced that a shark jolted his surfboard and left what looks like a bite mark on the back end while he waited for a wave in the waters near Bolsa Chica State Beach earlier this month. After paddling in as his damaged surfboard took on water, the 26-year-old stock analyst from Manhattan Beach said he “proceeded to freak out in the parking lot. I don’t know what else it could have been.”

But Huntington Beach lifeguards dismiss the reports as hogwash — even though great whites have been spotted in the area in years past. “As far as we know, there’s not any evidence there’s great whites in our vicinity,” said marine safety officer Steve Reuter of the Huntington Beach city lifeguards.

And Los Angeles County lifeguard patrols haven’t recorded any unusual sightings, said Capt. Terry Harvey. “It’s springtime; people are saying ’shark’ and they’re freaking out,” Reuter said.

So, is it a real-life version of Jaws occurring in Southern California waters?

Alison Sheltrown, a marketing manager for www.surfline.com, has another theory: The rumors, she said, are just a ploy “to keep everyone out of the water because it’s spring break.” Local surfers, she said, want to keep the waves for themselves.

Read the full text of this story from the Los Angeles Times by clicking here.

Picture of Laguna Beach by flickr photographer Shannon Bullard.

California’s plan to reduce water use and the connection to global warming

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 29, 2008 at 6:53 am

From the California Progress Report:

Last Thursday, representatives of the Governor’s interagency Water-Energy Subgroup of the Climate Action Team (WET-CAT) unveiled five broad strategies to reduce global warming pollution from water use in California.

The strategies, which will be submitted to the California Air Resources Board for inclusion in the Scoping Plan for AB 32 implementation, include increasing water recycling, water conservation, water infrastructure efficiency, and the use of renewable energy, along with better management of storm water in urban areas.

The WET-CAT has also proposed two specific targets: increasing water recycling to 23 percent by 2030 and increasing urban water use efficiency by 1.76 million acre-feet (MAF) by 2020.

Although the WET-CAT has received detailed recommendations by PCL and other organizations about the creative water management tools at their disposal, they have released few details about how they plan to carry out their strategies. And while their targets are a good start, the latest State Water Plan and several other statewide evaluations show that they could be substantially more aggressive.

WET-CAT co-chair Fran Spivy-Weber has asked for outside input, particularly suggestions for measures that state agencies should be taking. You can email Fran and her co-chair Mark Cowin or contact PCL’s Global Warming Program Manager, Matt Vander Sluis for more information.

Click here for more information on legislative bills which will aid in reaching the governor’s 20% conservation mandate, and an update on proceedings at the State Water Resources Control Board.

Snow surveyors: brave souls that peer into our watery future

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 29, 2008 at 6:32 am

From Stockton’s RecordNet.com:

Snow surveyors are a happy bunch. Once a month each season, dozens of them strap on skis or snowshoes and gallivant through the frozen Sierra Nevada while everyone else, it seems, is sitting at a desk.  But let’s not trivialize their task.

These hardy hikers give us our first glimpse of the state’s water fortunes for the coming year. Their work is relevant to anyone who uses water to drink, bathe, wash, rinse, irrigate or play.

A maddeningly dry March is nearly over, and so comes the realization that we’re not likely to get much more snow. What started out as a superstar water year is now a ho-hum average - and average isn’t much when you consider climate change, reservoirs that are already lower than normal and legal clashes over how much water should be available for cities, farms and fish.

“What’s amazing is you look all around at all this snow, and it’s still not enough,” said Mike Hewitt, 61, of Pioneer, a volunteer who helps with snow surveys on federal lands each winter.

Stockton, incidentally, is on pace for the driest March since 1956, when the city got precisely zero inches of rain. This year, as of Friday afternoon, the city had seen two-hundredths of an inch.

But the focus this week is on the Sierra snow, which is more valuable than rain since it slowly melts during the spring and summer and can be stored more efficiently in reservoirs.

Read the rest of this story from Stockton’s RecordNet.com, which also includes a video of the snow survey process,  by clicking here.

Agriculture is one of America’s success stories

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

From the Western Farm Press:

Most likely, a lot more people around the country guzzled green beer to celebrate St. Patrick’s day than celebrated National Ag Day this past Thursday, March 20.

It’s a pretty good bet that the average man or woman on the street didn’t even know about the Ag Day observance, or that this week is National Ag Week.

U.S. agriculture quietly goes about its job of producing ample food and fiber for our own citizens and a good portion of the rest of the world, but it gets little attention except when the mainstream media are berating farm bills or sensationalizing some issue related to farming.

Despite the boom-and-bust cycles and market vagaries that have characterized agriculture for decades, the American farmer has persevered and become a true success story. Few sectors of the economy can match the tremendous gains in productivity and efficiency that have taken place in agriculture, aided in the last couple of decades by remarkable advances in science, machinery, technology, and biotechnology that allow farmers to get more, high quality yield from each acre with fewer inputs, less labor, less land, and a greatly reduced environmental footprint.

And fewer people: today’s agricultural cornucopia is produced by only about 3 million farmers, less than 2 percent of the population.

Read the rest of this story from the Western Farm Press by clicking here.

Survey shows consumers are ignorant of farmer’s role in the food chain

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 29, 2008 at 6:27 am

From the Western Farm Press:

A recently released survey by The Center for Food Integrity shows an alarming number of U.S. consumers are oddly unaware of the role farmers play in providing food to the world. The findings may bolster those claiming agriculture must do a better job of getting its positive message to the masses.

But in some instances the chasm between fact and public perception is so large one hopes those surveyed aren’t indicative of the general population. The chickens may be coming home to roost in the current “gut-versus-science” rhetorical environment.

Titled “Consumer Trust and the Food System,” the Web-based survey was conducted last August and September among 2,008 U.S. adults (3.6 percent vegetarians) who are the primary buyer of food in the home and shop at least weekly. According to the authors, the survey provides a 95 percent confidence level with a sampling error of plus-or-minus 2.2 percent.

“All of us recognize the way food is produced today is dramatically different from the way it (once was),” said Charlie Arnot, CEO of The Center for Food Integrity (largely supported by agricultural advocacy groups and several food companies – see http://www.foodintegrity.org/current-supporters.php) in early February. “Times truly have changed.”

If the majority of those surveyed are on the level, they don’t believe many of the changes have been for the better.  The 2007 research objectives were to gauge consumers’ levels of concern regarding the following five issues: food safety, nutrition, environmental protection, the humane treatment of farm animals, and treatment of workers in the food system.

Within each of the five issues, respondents were asked to assign 100 points of responsibility. “For example, if you had farmers and producers, grocery stores, advocacy groups and restaurants as groups that were responsible and you thought each was equally responsible for food safety, they’d each get 25 points.”  Further, with some questions the level of competence, confidence and trust were judged on a scale of zero to 10.

Key takeaways

Among the remarkable things in the findings: consumers believe it’s more important for groups in the food system (processors, producers, retailers) to do the “right thing” from an ethical perspective than to demonstrate their level of technical skills and abilities.

“This is a bit of a change for us in agriculture because we tend to want to focus on science. But the research results say that it’s confidence (ethics and value similarity) more than competence (technical capacity, skills and ability and science) that drives trust. Frequently, that’s by a factor of five. So it really is the ethical perspective and the commitment to do the right thing that drives consumer trust.

“That tends not to be where we’ve focused agriculture communications historically.”

 The survey also showed that consumers ranked “Humane farm animal treatment” above “Worker Care”.  For the rest of this story from the Western Farm Press, click here.

Native intelligence: Native plants can be both beautiful and drought tolerant

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 29, 2008 at 6:22 am

From High Country News:

Smell this, it’s called ’Cowboy Cologne.’ ” Lili Singer stands in the nursery rubbing the leaves of a small gray-green plant between her fingers and takes a deep whiff. I follow her lead. The scent is pungent and heady - pure California hillside. We are visiting a new shipment of native plants that has just arrived at the Theodore Payne Foundation - a Sunland, Calif., organization dedicated to restoring native California landscapes and habitats and educating people about them. Singer greets the plants like old friends. “Somewhere around 18, I discovered my God was in a carrot seed,” she says. “To me, that process alone - growing something from seed - is miraculous.”

So it’s fitting that Singer, a brusque, apple-cheeked woman with a ragged, ready laugh, took a position at the foundation as the director of special programs. Theodore Payne also found God in a seed. A young British horticulturist, Payne settled in Santiago Canyon in Orange County in 1893. “While he was there, he discovered matilija poppies and other California natives, and he saw development coming in,” Singer explains. “He saw that people in California had no affection for their own beautiful plants. So he started collecting seeds and promoting them.”

Now, Singer carries on Payne’s legacy, bringing native plants to the masses at the Hollywood Farmers’ Market and coordinating the foundation’s popular garden tour, where members can see firsthand the beauty of native gardening.

There is far more at stake here than pretty flowers, Singer says. “There are shrinking wilds out there and the garden can play an important role in preserving local plants and animals” by maintaining the continuity of native habitat.

More on this story from the High Country News by clicking here.

Here’s another related article from High Country News about native plants in the west: click here.

Every drop of water in a bucket helps the planet

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 29, 2008 at 5:43 am

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

Not long ago, a friend confided a shameful little secret: His four-person, eco-conscious household was chugging 400 gallons of water a day. Filled with dread, I pulled open the creaky file cabinet that houses my old utility bills and pulled out the most recent East Bay Municipal Utility District statement. I was pleasantly surprised: Our three-person family was consuming 120 gallons a day. Compared with my friend, we were water conservation heroes, but I wondered if we could do better.

Three months later, our family is down to a lean 62 gallons a day. Here’s how we did it and how you can too. (Hint: There’s more to it than installing a low-flow showerhead):

– Fix it. We fixed one leaky toilet and replaced the other, which was beyond repair, with an ultra-low-flow model.

– Save it. We keep a large bowl on the counter where we pour unfinished glasses of water, starchy pasta water and other excess water and use this to water outdoor plants or flush the toilet.

– Smell it. I know I’m swimming against the riptide here but, let’s face it, Americans are BO-phobic. Like insecure adolescents, we are so scared of having someone smell anything resembling a bodily odor emanating from us that we wash our bodies and clothes - dare I say -obsessively. Most low-flow showerheads deliver 2.5 gallons a minute. That means a 10-minute shower amounts to 25 gallons of water. Baths are even worse. Our family showers two or three times a week, usually after exercising. And my husband doesn’t even use deodorant, so there.

– Time it. Five-minute showers. If you want longer showers, take fewer.

Read the rest of this article from the San Francisco Chronicle by clicking here.

Snowpack normal, but water deliveries are not

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 29, 2008 at 5:40 am

From the Western Farm Press:

The 2008 winter snow survey conducted this by the Department of Water Resources (DWR) indicates that snowpack water content is near normal for this time of year.

However, no one knows how much of that normal amount will reach cities and farms. Although there has been a return to average snowpack figures, State Water Project (SWP) deliveries remain near record lows because of a federal court ruling restricting Delta pumping to help protect the threatened Delta smelt.

“The snowpack is back to normal, but a broken Delta means water deliveries to millions of Californians will be far below normal this year,” said DWR Director Lester Snow. “We must move ahead on the comprehensive plan outlined by Gov. Schwarzenegger to invest in our water systems, restore the Delta and ensure clean, safe and reliable water supplies.”

The pumping reductions are a result of federal Judge Oliver Wanger’s decision last December to curtail pumping by state and federal water projects to protect the tiny fish vital to the ecosystem that has seen its population decline drastically in past years. Delta smelt populations are also adversely affected by other activities such as other water diversions, water pollution, and non-native species.

Currently, the SWP is projected to deliver only 35 percent of requested amounts this year to communities, farmers and businesses in the Bay Area, Central Valley and Southern California.

Manual snow surveys are conducted monthly from January through May to help forecast the amount of spring and summer runoff into reservoirs. The readings at this time of year are generally considered the most significant in gauging how much water is being held in the Sierra snow pack.

More on this story from the Western Farm Press by clicking here.

Salmon run will collapse unless we reverse underlying causes of decline, says commentary

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 28, 2008 at 1:40 pm

From the San Francisco Chronicle, this commentary written by Steven R. Beissinger, a professor of conservation biology at UC Berkeley. He starts his commentary by talking about the history of salmon in California, and then relates it to the present day decline:

Multiple causes, perhaps as many as 40, have been identified as possible agents of the contemporary decline. Many on our list of culprits were identified in 1886 - over-harvesting, dams that stop the spawning movements of salmon, diversion of freshwater to the Central Valley for agriculture and the siltation from erosion (due now to deforestation but in those days caused by the legacy of Gold Rush mining in the foothills). Now, we can add climate change, which warms the oceans and robs young salmon of their foods.

Better science is needed to diagnose the causes of decline and to determine their relative influences - a difficult, yet required, task for recovering any threatened species.

The commissioners in 1886 expressed confidence that salmon fry produced in California hatcheries would restore the stock. Hatcheries have forestalled the ultimate decimation of the salmon, but at the same time they create genetic and behavioral changes in salmon and may introduce diseases.

Hatcheries disguise the long-term problems facing salmon, and create a put-and-take fishery that can never lead to self-sustaining populations.

The salmon fishery must be closed temporarily to both commercial and recreational fishing as the first step for recovery, and smaller limits will probably be needed in the future. Serious consideration must next be given to removing dams and reducing water diversions in the Central Valley, restoring many watersheds and reducing agricultural run-off, while we work to abate climate change. The pain must be shared by all. We can’t let the sea lions be the “fall guys” forever.

Read the full text of this commentary from the San Francisco Chronicle by clicking here.

Small oil refinery in Santa Barbara County is the state’s worst polluter

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 28, 2008 at 12:56 pm

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

When a Firestone Vineyard employee discovered oil trickling down a creek in January in this wine country town, the source of the contamination was no surprise to firefighters.

Of 21 refineries in California, Greka Oil & Gas Inc. is the fourth-smallest producer, but the state’s biggest inland oil polluter, according to state officials. Broken pumps, busted pipes, overflowing ponds and cracked tanks at Greka installations have spilled more than a half-million gallons of oil and contaminated water since 1999, fouling the water, soil and air in the Southern California county many consider the birthplace of the nation’s environmental movement.

Over the past nine years, the Santa Barbara County Fire Department has responded at least 400 times to oil spills and gas leaks at Greka, resulting in fines, citations, federal and local prosecutions and investigations by the Environmental Protection Agency and state Fish and Game. “I’ve been in the hazardous materials business for 20 years and this is the worst oil company I’ve ever seen,” said Robert Wise, who works at EPA’s Superfund division.

The company says it is a victim of sabotage - a claim local and federal authorities dispute - and overzealous regulators. “To say that Greka is a major polluter is a joke,” said President Andrew deVegvar. “To the extent to which we’re being portrayed as some kind of Darth Vader of the oil industry is not appropriate.”

Get the rest of this story from the San Francisco Chronicle by clicking here.

Can those ugly oil platforms actually help sustain marine life?

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 28, 2008 at 6:33 am

From KABC News, Los Angeles:

OFFSHORE LONG BEACH (KABC) — To most people, the more than two dozen oil rigs off the Southern California coast are just big, ugly eyesores. But to fish, and millions of other marine animals, they appear to provide refuge — a safe spot to swim and reproduce. Should they stay, or should they go?
There are 27 platforms off the California coast. Part of the deal when the platforms were built was that oil companies would pay for the complete removal of the immense structures when the oil dried up. But now there’s a push to keep the rigs in place.

When Cal State Long Beach (CSULB) marine biologist Chris Lowe looks at an offshore oil rig, he sees something most of us don’t. “You’ll get thousands, maybe even millions, of bait fish swirling around in these beautiful silver balls. Sea lions are diving through them,” said Dr. Lowe.

It seems to defy reason. Something so alien to nature actually sustaining life in a way most never would have imagined.

The question at the heart of the research done by Dr. Lowe and his students at CSULB is, Do these oil rigs give refuge to fish and other marine life? “We’ve taken fish off an oil platform and translocated to natural habitat to see if they’d come back. And it turns out 25 percent of the fish taken off have gone back to their platform — and done it within a couple days to a week,” said Dr. Lowe.

Read the rest of this story, which includes a link to the video of this broadcast by clicking here.

Photo of oil rig off the coast by flickr photographer Philip Bouchard.

Colorado River could peak well above average; Experts see potential for big flows, floods and a long rafting season

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

From the Aspen Times:

Water experts at the Colorado River Water Conser­vation District bet each year to see who can most closely predict peak river flows.

With extra snowpack this year, water resource specialist Mike Eytel’s guessing the Colorado Riv­er’s peak flow near Glenwood Springs could come in at 20,000 cubic feet per second or more. That’s more than two times the nor­mal 6,000 to 9,000 cfs peaks the riv­er sees in the middle or end of June, he said. “We’re sitting at the best snowpack in easily a decade for this time of year,” he said.

The Upper Colorado River Basin currently has about 119 percent of the normal water content in its snow­pack, compared to a 30-year average. The Bureau of Reclamation has pre­dicted runoff this year will raise Lake Powell by 30 feet or more.

On Thursday, the Colorado River near Glenwood was flowing at around 2,200 cfs, slightly above aver­age. Flows usually increase and get cranking in mid-April, Eytel said. A few consecutive nights without a freeze could lead to a significant increase in runoff, or colder, freezing nights and more precipitation could even continue to build snowpack and cause the peak flow to come later.

“It’s really mother nature depend­ent on how she wants to bring it out,” Eytel said.

Read the rest of this story from the Aspen Times by clicking here.

Photo of the Colorado Rockies by flickr photographer dsearls.

Support habitat restoration in the Delta, says blogger commentary

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 28, 2008 at 6:25 am

From the California Progress Report:

“Assemblywoman Lois Wolk, D-Davis, is authoring legislation for the state to purchase a trio of Delta properties – Prospect Island, the Little Holland Tract and Liberty Island – which are now owned by the federal government and a nonprofit land trust. Wolk’s Assembly Bill 2502 “would transform these tracts into a state recreation area, with an endowment fund to help restore marshes and levees.” (Sacramento Bee March 25, 2008) California residents should write to their state representatives to express support for this proposed legislation.

• California State Legislature - Find Your Legislator & Contact Information.

• Know Your Legislators - leginfo.ca.gov.

On many California Delta islands farming has caused soil erosion as much as 10 to 20 feet below the level of the river that surrounds them. Due to their ancient inadequate levees, these islands are certain to become flooded during one of our next big storms or earthquakes. Perhaps we should take advantage of this opportunity to buy-out the most severely eroded islands and add them into the habitat restoration program.

Read the rest of this story from the California Progress Report by clicking here.

The writer, Bruce Thomas, writes the blog BRT Insights about whitewater kayaking and water issues in general.  You can visit his blog by clicking here.

Orange County officials refuse to remove rejected San Onofre Toll Road from their long-range plans

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 28, 2008 at 6:21 am

From the Los Angeles Times:

Transportation officials are so intent on building a toll road through south Orange County that they refuse to remove it from long-range plans, even though a powerful state commission has vetoed the route.

Frustrated environmentalists and others said this week that the Orange County Transportation Authority’s reluctance to change its assumption that the Foothill South tollway through San Onofre State Beach will be built amounts to “putting their head in the sand.”

“For purely political reasons, the Transportation Authority doesn’t seem to want to evaluate future transportation ideas with realistic options,” said Michael Fitts, an attorney for the Endangered Habitats League.

Fitts made his comments after a meeting on a major investment study for transportation projects through 2030 in south Orange County. He and others took exception to the OCTA’s stand on the toll road, which was defeated by the California Coastal Commission last month but is included in the authority’s long-range planning.

The authority operates the toll lanes along the 91 Freeway and is the county’s largest transportation agency. The Irvine-based Transportation Corridor Agencies, operator of the other Orange County toll roads, proposed the controversial Foothill South route.

Opponents of that proposal also are angry about an idea to lower tolls by half on the 241, 73 and 133 to encourage more motorists; the reduced rate would be subsidized with taxpayer dollars. The OCTA has included the so-called shadow tolls as part of the study ideas.

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

New report on climate change says West is warming faster than the rest of the world

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 27, 2008 at 10:09 pm

From the Salt Lake Tribune:

Death Valley-like daytime highs and hot nights in Utah and the West last summer reinforced the Southwest’s status as ground zero for deadly global climate disruption, a new report says.

Using government data collected over five years, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization show that Utah and Arizona are heating up faster than anywhere else in the world, with the other southwestern states close behind.

The report released today shows that from 2003-2007, the average temperature in the Colorado River Basin, stretching from Wyoming to Mexico, was 2.2 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than the historical average for the 20th century. The accelerating temperature increase was more than twice the global average increase of 1.0 degree during the same period. Only in the Arctic are temperatures climbing faster than the West.

Without concerted, meaningful policy change and financial support for new energy endeavors the West’s future is dim, said Theo Spencer of the NRDC, one of the report’s co-authors. “Many people don’t think global warming is actually upon us. They think it is something that will happen sometime down the road,” said Spencer. “It’s changing life in the West as we know it today.”

From the Los Angeles Times:

Globally, warming varies according to region — with more heating over land than over oceans. In California, with its coastal location, the study showed an increase of 1.1 degrees above the global average over the last five years. Arid interior states, including Utah, Wyoming, Arizona and Montana, experienced rises more than 2 degrees higher than in the world overall.

“Temperature rises have been much larger and more noticeable in the Western states,” said Kelly T. Redmond, regional climatologist at Nevada’s Desert Research Institute. “The past 10 years have been particularly warm, unlike any similar 10-year period we have seen over the past 115 years.”

According to Udall, the data suggest that the trend will accelerate — with the West warming about 1 1/2 times faster than the global average. Martin Hoerling, a NOAA meteorologist, has predicted that the West could heat up as much as 5 degrees by mid-century. In Alaska, the annual mean air temperature has risen 4 to 5 degrees Fahrenheit over the last three decades.

“If we don’t want this problem to get really bad, we need to pass a climate bill with teeth,” said Theo Spencer, a project manager at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group that funded the Rocky Mountain Climate analysis. “Western senators need to take the lead, considering what’s at stake in their states.”

The Associated Press article details some of those changes that are now occurring:

Around the same time the American West started heating up five years ago, Colorado started losing its lodgepole pine forests to a beetle infestation.

“The population built up rapidly and exploded. It takes out the mature trees,” said Ingrid Aguayo, an entomologist for the Colorado State Forest Service, which estimates that about 60 percent of the lodgepole pines have turned red and brown.

“Now we’re seeing a new carpet of forest coming up,” she said.

Scientists can’t be certain global warming is to blame, but the evidence is damning. Now, a new calculation of government temperature data shows that over the past five years, average annual temperatures in the Colorado River basin — the heart of the West — have risen by 2.2 degrees, or about twice as fast as the global rate.

The report is from the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization, a coalition of local governments, businesses and others working to protect the climate, and the advocacy group Natural Resources Defense Council. It says the West is heating up faster than any other region in the continental U.S. with more catastrophic wildfires among the consequences.

“It’s already begun. We are already seeing the effects, and scientists are telling us it’s going to get markedly worse,” said Stephen Saunders, the organization’s president in Louisville, Colo.

Climate change researchers are hesitant to ascribe a single cause for the warming, but they agree it’s happening.

“By and large, there is a very detectable warming in this region,” said Martin Hoerling, a meteorologist at the NOAA-funded Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, Colo. His own research suggests the West could heat up a lot more, possibly by 5 degrees by the midpoint of the century, depending on the level of greenhouse-gas emissions.

A warmer climate has dire implications for water supply, and especially California:

The upper basin states have the water, but lower basin states including California have senior water rights — a crisis in the making, said Bradley H. Udall, director of the Western Water Assessment Cooperative at the University of Colorado.

“There’s an old saying, ‘I’d rather be upstream with a shovel and a ditch than downstream with a decree,’” he said.

Much more about this in the days to come, I’m sure.

San Diego County Water Authority to launch new conservation campaign

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 27, 2008 at 9:58 pm

From the North County Times:

With tight water supplies likely for another decade, San Diego County’s main water supplier is stepping up its efforts to get residents to save water. In addition, the agency adopted a model ordinance for mandatory supply cuts.

The San Diego County Water Authority voted Thursday to spend up to an additional $1.6 million on a marketing and advertising campaign to persuade the public to conserve. The program is being prepared by Mentus, a San Diego-based marketing firm that has already begun putting together its campaign on a $162,000 pilot budget. It is to be launched this spring and continue through the summer.

As a backdrop to the program, agency officials explained that water supplies are limited by nature and human decisions.  The Colorado River basin is receiving a normal amount of precipitation this year, but reservoirs remain very low, said Bob Yamada, the authority’s desalination manager.  It will take about 10 years of weather like we’ve had this year to refill the Colorado River reservoirs,” Yamada said.

Meanwhile, the authority and its main supplier, the Metropolitan Water District, face continued cuts in the state’s other main source of water, the environmentally sensitive San Francisco Bay-Sacramento River Delta region. Water flow is being restricted to protect an endangered fish.

Guy Iannuzzi, Mentus’ president and chief executive, told the board his agency is stressing the cuts as a new reason to conserve in its campaign, featuring radio, TV and newspaper ads, and a contest to create a conservation commercial that will be aired locally. The slogan is “Water: Save it or Lose it.”

 Click here for the rest of this story from the North County Times.

Cachuma Lake will remain open to boaters, but with strict inspections

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 27, 2008 at 9:55 pm

Lake Casitas in Ventura County remains closed to private boaters because of a fear of quagga mussel infestation, but another popular bass-fishing destination will remain open to all comers.  The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors today voted to allow trailered boats at Cachuma Lake after a thorough pre-launch inspection and high-pressure wash.

As was the case at Casitas before the Casitas Municipal Water District voted three weeks ago to impose a controversial one-year ban, vessels arriving at Cachuma must be clean and dry upon arrival or face quarantine.

Boats longer than 24 feet, those with out-of-state stickers or registered in close proximity to quagga-infested lakes will be quarantined on site for 14 days before being allowed onto the reservoir.

“Before anybody complains about these new procedures and rules, I caution them to stop and consider the alternative,” said Tom Raftican, president of the United Anglers of Southern California, which argued against a ban at both reservoirs. “I bet the folks around Lake Casitas wish they had the opportunity to get in line for inspection and to keep fishing.”

Read the rest of this article from the Los Angeles Times by clicking here.

Castaic Lake Water Agency looks to buy 3.7 million bathtubs of water from Northern California

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 27, 2008 at 9:36 pm

From Aquafornia’s home base newspaper, the Santa Clarita Signal:

There’s a sale on water right now in Yuba County, and local water officials are expected to take full advantage of the deal.

The Castaic Lake Water Agency Board of Directors is tonight expected to endorse a plan to buy about 850 acre-feet of water - enough to fill more than 3.7 million bath tubs - at a price of between $50 and $125 an acre-foot. The wide price range is due to availability and the cost of moving that much water from Yuba County, north of Sacramento, to the Santa Clarita Valley.

Local water resource officials at the agency began eyeing the available water - which is not part of the water normally supplied to Santa Clarita Valley - as a security investment that would offset any shortage of water in times of drought.

“This is favorably priced water,” Dirk S. Marks, the agency’s water resources manager, said Tuesday. “It’s a good deal, given the nature of the supply. This is a dry year water supply. The price is good compared to buying this water from other places.”

Click here to read the rest of this story from the Santa Clarita Signal.

Yucaipa City Council approves $3.6 million for project to provide flood protection, recreation, and aquifer recharge

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 27, 2008 at 8:10 pm

From the Inland Daily Bulletin:

Yucapia - The City Council approved a contract for about $3.6 million to begin building the Oak Glen Creek Basins Project - a string of three holding ponds that will catch rainwater and improve the area’s flood-drainage system.The primary purpose of the project - near Bryant Street and Oak Glen Road - is to provide flood-control protection for residents near the area. It will also add trails and rest areas for visitors.

Including design work, the cost to build the first phase of the project is estimated at $5.4 million, said Ray Casey, director of public works.

“With this project completed, the Dunlap area should be removed from the (Federal Emergency Management Agency) flood map,” he said. “But the most important thing is it will prevent the flooding in Dunlap.”

The project also provides another purpose - an eventual source of drinking water. The retention basins are designed to collect rainwater runoff in three basins. The water will leach into the ground, flow into the aquifer, and eventually be tapped as a source of drinking water by the Yucaipa Valley Water District, Casey said.

Corona-based KEC Engineering is set to begin construction in mid-April.

Read the rest of this article from the Inland Valley Bulletin by clicking here.

New report: “Hotter and Drier: The West’s Changed Climate”

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 27, 2008 at 8:05 pm

From the California Progress Report:

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization (RMCO) have released a report, “Hotter and Drier: The West’s Changed Climate” which analyzes temperature data from Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. The full report runs to 64 pages and has an appendix with state-by-state figures. There also is a 4 page Fact Sheet that has also been released.

This is not just about global warming as some isolated concept—this report shows the effects of what is happening on water—the subject of much discussion in California.

Read this and you’ll find out that the American West is heating up more rapidly than the rest of the world. This new finding is based on an analysis of the most recent federal government temperature figures. The news is especially bad for some of the nation’s fastest growing cities, including Los Angeles and San Diego, which receive water from the drought-stricken Colorado River. The average temperature rise in the Southwest’s largest river basin was more than double the average global increase, likely spelling even more parched conditions.

For the report, the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization analyzed new temperature data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for 11 western states. For the five-year period 2003-2007 the average temperature in the Colorado River Basin, which stretches from Wyoming to Mexico, was 2.2 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than the historical average for the 20th Century. The temperature rise was more than twice the global average increase of 1.0 degree during the same period. The average temperature increased 1.7 degrees in the entire 11-state western region.

Read the rest of this story from the California Progress Report by clicking here.

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• Water Banking
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• Water Legislation
• Water Quality
• Water Rights
• Water Storage
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• Water Transfers
• Weather Modification
• Weird & Wacky Water News

Web Resources

• Agriculture

  • California Department of Food and Agriculture
  • California Farm Bureau Federation
  • California Farm Water Coalition

• Conservation

  • Be Water Wise
  • Earth 911: Water Conservation
  • H2O Conserve Website
  • H2ouse.org
  • Water - Use It Wisely

• Delta Resources

  • Delta Vision Task Force Website
  • Restore the Delta
  • San Francisco Bay and Delta (Access USGS)
  • San Francisco Estuary and Watershed Science website

• Environmental Organizations

  • American Rivers
  • California Sportfishing Protection Alliance
  • California Water Impact Network
  • Foothill Conservancy
  • Mokelumne River News & Info
  • R4RD: Residents for Responsible Desalination
  • Restoring Rivers Blog
  • Riparian Rap
  • The Reef Tank

• Fishing Blogs

  • Fishing the Aqueduct with Striper Bill
  • Fly Fishing Community
  • Trout Underground

• Landscaping

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

• Los Angeles River

  • Friends Of Vast Industrial Concrete Kafkaesque Structures
  • Los Angeles River Connection
  • Los Angeles River Project
  • Nature Trumps: An L.A. River Blog

• News

  • All the top water news
  • AlterNet Water News
  • AWE Federal Legislation Watch
  • B C Water News
  • High Country News
  • San Joaquin Valleyfornia
  • Total Capitol (Legislative News)

• Salton Sea

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

• Southern California Blogs

  • Griffith Park, Interrupted
  • L. A. Observed
  • Ron Kaye L.A.
  • Westchester Parents

• Water Agencies

  • CA Dept of Water Resources
  • LA DWP
  • Metropolitan Water District

• Water Blogs

  • Aguanomics
  • American Water Resources Assn. Blog
  • Aqua Channel
  • Chronicles of the Hydraulic Brotherhood
  • EDF’s On The Waterfront
  • Great Lakes Law Blog
  • H2ONCoast Blog
  • Inkstain - jfleck
  • Misu Blog
  • Spouting Off - Mark Gold of Heal the Bay
  • Water Cooler Blog
  • Water SISWEB
  • Water Words That Work
  • Waterblogged
  • WaterCrunch
  • WaterWired
  • Western Water Blog

• Water Information

  • ACWA’s California Water Crisis Website
  • USGS California Water Science Center
  • USGS Water Resources of the US
  • Water Education Foundation
  • Water Reources Center Archive - UC Berkeley
  • Where Does My Water Come From?

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