Bad News for State’s Water Supply Future; Dry March/April leaves snowpack well below normal for the year

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 30, 2008 at 3:44 pm

From the Long Beach Water Department, this press release:

LONG BEACH, CA – The Long Beach Board of Water Commissioners are again calling for more aggressive action from southern California on the eve of the California Department of Water Resources May 1st Sierra snowpack survey announcement. Tomorrow, it will be announced that Sierra snowpack is now roughly 67 percent of normal for the year, following a dry March and April. Just two months ago, statewide snowpack was 116 percent of normal. Additionally, Lake Oroville, the primary reservoir for the State Water Project, is lower today than any April 30th since 1991. In fact, the volume of water stored in our most critical supply reservoirs is, collectively, 2.4 million-acre-feet (28 percent) less today then at this time last year.

Meanwhile, the State Water Project allocation (the amount of water State alots to the San Francisco Bay Area, the Central Valley and to southern California cities) remains at a meager 35 percent, meaning southern California is, today, expected to receive only 35 percent of normal imported water deliveries from the California Bay Delta. The State Water Project allocation has not been this low since 1991, at the end of the 1987-1991 drought. Last year, State Water Project deliveries were around 60 percent.

“Once again, we call on the Metropolitan Water District and the southern California water supply community to join Long Beach and take a more aggressive, long-term, public stance on the need to immediately implement extraordinary conservation measures,” stated Bill Townsend, President of the Long Beach Board of Water Commissioners. “We continue to deplete our State’s water reserves at an alarming rate,” said Kevin Wattier, General Manager of the Long Beach Water Department. “Bold action is needed now by water agencies throughout southern California to reduce demands on our rapidly depleting water resources.”

In March, during a joint Senate Committee hearing held in Sacramento, Roger Patterson, Assistant General Manager with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD), read a prepared statement into public record, stating that his agency “is rapidly depleting its existing water supply reserves with no relief in sight.” The MWD wholesales imported water supplies to communities throughout southern California, who are dependent on imported supplies. Fifty percent of Long Beach’s water supply is purchased from the MWD.

In June of 2007, the Long Beach Board of Water Commissioners implemented extraordinary conservation measures, including enforcement of new citywide restrictions on certain outdoor water uses. These efforts have achieved an additional 7 percent reduction in water use citywide through March of this year.

The Long Beach Water Department is an urban, southern California retail water supply agency and the standard in water conservation and environmental stewardship.

See illegal uses of water, HERE

Ryan J. Alsop
Director of Government & Public Affairs
Long Beach Water

Peripheral canal bill shelved in committee; bill’s author told to try again next year

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 29, 2008 at 4:09 pm

From the Sacramento Bee:

An Assembly committee on Tuesday shelved legislation to build a canal around the suffering Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, telling the bill’s author to try again next year.

Two years in the making, Senate Bill 27 tackled a subject so politically charged that author, Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, carefully avoided using the “P” word — peripheral canal — as he presented the bill as a way to shore up state water supplies without harming the environment.

But with environmentalists, farmers and Delta-area interests all opposed for different reasons, the legislation went the way of so many other water bills — to the shelf to wait for more studies. “We don’t know what will fix this yet … so to leap to the conclusion that it is a conveyance facility and to focus attention on that I think truly is premature,” said Assemblywoman Lois Wolk, D-Davis, head of the Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee.

Read the full text of the article from the Sacramento Bee by clicking here.

Odds and ends: MWD, economics, and water; plus water conservation, the LA Aqueduct yesterday and today, and a hat tip to the Pastie Lady

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 29, 2008 at 2:50 pm

Interesting tidbits this week out there in the blogosphere:

Metropolitan Water District the topic of dissertation: Aguanomics blog writer and newly minted PhD David Zetland has posted his dissertation (economics, I believe) on Metropolitan Water District. Congratulations, Dr. Zetland, is it? He has posted his abstract and a link to download a copy. Writes David: This case study explains how MET—as a cooperative—is inefficient and how its member agencies suffer from this inefficiency. I show that MET is inefficient by demonstrating that its members have heterogeneous preferences over outcomes: Members that are more dependent on MET prefer policies that increase water supply; others prefer lower rates. He also writes:I use 60 years of panel data to show that water increases land value, dependency lowers it, and water may have been misallocated during the 1987–1991 drought. I describe how marginal water can be auctioned after inframarginal, “lifeline” water is allocated and present experimental results for “water” auctions in which water managers suffer endowment effects but compete more (relative to students). [Huh? I say, blowing the dust off my economics book....] You can read it all from the Aguanomics blog by clicking here.

More economics & water: Water Wired’s Michael Campana weighs in on Jeffrey Sach’s new book, Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet, which discusses water issues, among other things. Writes Michael: If the [Newsweek] article is any indication of what Sachs thinks about water and the solutions we need, then it’s nothing new for us Water Wonks. Yeah, things are bad and will probably get worse. But perhaps Sachs’ book will convince others – politicians, “regular people”, et al. – that action is needed. If it does that, then he’s done us all a service. Michael goes on to say that what the United States needs is a national water policy – not a plan but a policy. Check it all out from the Water Wired Blog by clicking here.

Water Conservation on the Surviving LA blog: Here’s a blog that has posted an article on water conservation. Says the writer: Water management has traditionally involved the manipulation of water supplies, rather than focusing on altering water demand. There are many advanced techniques and devices to help conserve water, such as greywater reuse, rainwater collection, water-conserving landscaping and irrigation practices, the installation of low-flow fixtures and appliances, and proper swimming pool maintenance, but few are taking such measures. The article discusses a myriad of ways to conserve water, and includes good ideas for homeowners with swimming pools. Click here for Surviving LA’s Water Wise Redux.

The Los Angeles Aqueduct through Elsmere and Whitney Canyon: Here’s a website which shows sections of the Los Angeles Aqueduct as it passes through the Santa Clarita area on the way to the Cascades facility. The writer describes the infrastructure extensively, and has historical photos of the construction, along with present day pictures of the area. Check it out by clicking here.

Pastie Lady, I owe you one …. On Saturday, I posted a story about the Ojai Pastie Lady – click here to read the post. I commented how posting pictures of girls would raise my readership, and quipped quite tongue in cheek at the end, “I’ll be sitting here, watching my sitemeter count soar … ” Well, that is exactly what happened. Seemed everybody, their brother and their dog were searching “pastie lady” over the weekend, and I got five times the usual number of hits. Traffic has been slowing down somewhat since then, but still remains busy. So, hat tip to the Pastie Lady!

Now if I could only figure out how to get rid of those darned hacker “Guru Sucks” ads…

Extensive video series on the Pacific Garbage Dump; and a trash-eating boat

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 29, 2008 at 2:50 pm

I’ve covered the story numerous times about the swirling gyre of trash out there in the southern Pacific Ocean. Curious to know what it looks like? Now, via the Aguanomics blog, here’s an extensive video series on the situation from VBS.TV: Click here.

The New York Harbor gets a lot of trash in it, too. Trash-eating boats hauled in an average of 12 tons a day, according to the watercrunch blog. How do they do that, you ask? Check out video of Marine International’s Trashcat boat on the watercrunch blog by clicking here.

Learning from our arid past; More droughts, less water — our future depends on adapting to scarcity, says commentary

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 29, 2008 at 6:42 am

From the Los Angeles Times, this commentary, written by Brian Fagan, emeritus professor of anthropology at UC Santa Barbara and the author of “The Great Warming: Climate Change and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations.” He begins his commentary by discussing tree ring data, which has shown that the earth has suffered through severe droughts unlike any seen in modern times.

Although today’s droughts are minuscule compared with the dry spells of 1,000 years ago, the future is truly frightening. Sophisticated computer models by Britain’s Hadley Center for Climate Prediction and Research predict a 3% to 18% increase in the amount of the Earth’s surface that will be exposed to extreme drought by 2100; 40% of the world will suffer from severe drought, up from the current 18%; 50% will suffer from moderate drought. California and other Western states, at the very least, will suffer from severe drought. By 2025, an estimated 2.8 billion of us will live in arid areas like California.

Today, we harvest water on an industrial scale — from rainfall, from rivers and lakes and from rapidly shrinking water tables. Many of us in California live off what are, effectively, looted water supplies, brought by canal from Owens Lake or the Colorado River or drained from aquifers.

But at best we have accommodated ourselves to nature’s fickle realities. Our greatest asset is not necessarily our technology but our opportunism and endless capacity to adapt to circumstances. We must learn from the history of the great droughts and begin to think of ourselves as partners with, rather than potential masters of, the changing natural world.

Read the full text of this commentary by Bruce Fagan by clicking here.

Judge rejects delay to All-American Canal work

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 29, 2008 at 6:33 am

From the Imperial Valley Press Online:

A request from opponents to the All-American Canal lining project to prevent the flow of water into the new channel was denied by a state appellate judge last week.

Jim Abatti, a member of Protect Our Water and Energy Rights, said the lawsuit did not attempt to stall the project. Abatti said the request asked that water not be diverted into the newly lined canal until safety measures were put into place to save lives. “It’s already a dangerous canal now,” Abatti said of the earthen canal. “There is no dollar on anything I’m suing for. I’m suing on the principle of making sure they do things right.”

At the center of the debate is whether the new canal, which is already under construction and scheduled to come on line in 2010, should have ridges in the concrete sides to allow animals or humans who fall in a chance to get out.

Imperial Irrigation District spokesman Kevin Kelley said the ridges presented a structural flaw to the district and other agencies lining the canal. “Those ridges were eliminated based on the input of all the project partners including the Bureau of Reclamation,” Kelley said.

The construction of the canal includes metal ladders that have been placed on alternating sides of the canal every 250 feet.

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

Smelt hatchery plan draws fire

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

From Stockton’s Record:

A southern San Joaquin Valley lawmaker wants to help restore the endangered Delta smelt by dramatically increasing a tiny hatchery operation in the Delta town of Byron, but the proposal has drawn immediate fire from the environmental community.

State Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, has sponsored a bill to use $5 million in water-bond funds to help the state Department of Water Resources expand hatchery operations for the little fish, possibly on Stockton’s Rough and Ready Island. Florez sees his measure as a way to restore a species that has suffered greatly from the giant pumps near Tracy, which chop up thousands every year. That loss has forced the state to curtail pumping operations, reducing the amount of water available to the south San Joaquin farmers Florez represents.

So what’s the problem?

Tina Swanson of the Bay Institute doesn’t think much of Florez’s idea. “It avoids the problem,” Swanson said. It is hardly wise to spend money to put smelt into an ecosystem that will kill most of them, she noted. Water quality, water flow, nonnative predators such as the largemouth bass and other factors all affect smelt populations in addition to the pumps. What’s more, population levels of threadfin shad, salmon, green sturgeon, steelhead trout, striped bass and several other species are in trouble, too.

Swanson, who has studied the Delta smelt, said large-scale breeding of the fish may or may not be feasible. A small hatchery run by the University of California, Davis, near Byron has been successfully raising smelt for 15 years, but even those scientists are skeptical about the notion of restocking the Delta with hatchery smelt.

So is state Sen. Michael Machado, D-Linden, one of the Legislature’s experts on water issues. Machado says Florez’s idea is misplaced. “I think in concept it’s a nice idea, but it’s being applied to the wrong set of circumstances. It, in effect, just camouflages the problem,” Machado said.

Read the full text of the article from Stockton’s Record by clicking here.

Solving global warming with giant vacuums (& other technological devices)

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 29, 2008 at 6:20 am

From the LA Times:

Here’s a simple solution to global warming: vacuum carbon dioxide out of the air.

Klaus Lackner, a physicist at Columbia University, said placing enough carbon filters around the planet could reel the world’s atmosphere back toward the 18th century, like a climatic time machine. After a decade of work, his shower-sized prototype whirs away inside a Tucson warehouse, each day capturing about 10 pounds of the heat-trapping greenhouse gas as air wafts through it.

Only a few billion tons to go.

In the battle against global warming, technology has long been seen as the ultimate savior, but Lackner’s machine is a clunky reminder of how distant that dream is.

He estimates that sucking up the current stream of emissions would require about 67 million boxcar-sized filters at a cost of trillions of dollars a year. The orchards of filters would have to be powered by complexes of new nuclear plants, dams, solar farms or other clean-energy sources to avoid adding more pollution to the atmosphere.

Despite the scope of the proposal, the allure of high technology is irresistible for modern humans. Salvation has arrived again and again over the last century: the automobile, the jet, the Internet, the iPod. That dream has pushed scattered groups of scientists to work on massive schemes to reengineer the planet.

Artificial volcanoes? Tiny satellites that arrange themselves in formation to reflect sunlight back out into space? Click here to read the full text of this article from the LA Times and find out what other schemes scientists have been working on to try and combat climate change from a technological perspective.

Schwarzenegger among politicians opposing Prop. 98

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 29, 2008 at 6:13 am

From the San Diego Union-Tribune:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger yesterday came out against a ballot measure that would greatly restrict the ability of government to seize private property, citing concerns it could stall important water projects.

“Eminent domain is an issue worth addressing; however, Proposition 98 would undermine California’s ability to improve our infrastructure, including our water delivery and storage,” Schwarzenegger said in a prepared announcement. “California voters strongly support rebuilding our transportation, housing, education and water infrastructure, so it would be irresponsible to support a measure that would prevent the state from accomplishing our goals.”

Schwarzenegger joins a growing list of influential figures opposed to Proposition 98, including U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat, and former Gov. Pete Wilson, a Republican.

What’s the problem with Proposition 98?

Proposition 98 would protect most private property – homes, businesses, churches and farmland – from being seized and turned over for private use. But it would allow eminent domain to be used for other public benefits. It also includes provisions to phase out rent control for apartments and mobile home parks, raising alarms among advocates for the poor and elderly.

The language addressing water projects appears ambiguous, prompting differing legal views over whether it would block reservoirs, pipelines or a new north-to-south canal.

The governor apparently believes a legal analysis developed within his Department of Water Resources that says: “It would very likely disable government from acquiring the necessary property for water development projects through eminent domain by prohibiting the condemnation of property to be used for the consumption of natural resources.”

The ballot initiative goes before voters on June 3rd. Read the full text of this story from the San Diego Union-Tribune by clicking here. Metropolitan Water District also is on record opposing Prop 98 – click here. Find out more about the opposition to Proposition 98 by clicking here.

ACWA participates in scoping meeting on Bay-Delta Plan; Association calls process a critical step toward comprehensive water solution

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 29, 2008 at 5:49 am

From Business Wire:

Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA) President Glen Peterson today took part in the first in a series of scoping meetings in the environmental review process for Bay-Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP). The plan is a collaborative effort by state, federal and local agencies and environmental organizations to map out a comprehensive conservation plan for the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

The BDCP process is aimed at protecting Delta species in way that provides for sufficient and reliable water supplies. Improving the sustainability of the Delta is a key policy priority for ACWA, and association members will be participating in scoping meetings around the state in the coming weeks. Peterson said ACWA members view the BDCP process as a critical step toward fixing the troubled Delta and the larger goal of securing a more sustainable water system for California.

“We welcome the start of this environmental review process because there is not a minute to lose when it comes to the Delta,” Peterson said. “We need to get moving on a solution because every day we wait is another day of environmental decline and lost water supplies. Improving the sustainability of the Delta is in everyone’s best interest. California simply cannot hope to achieve a comprehensive water solution without a plan to stop the Delta’s downward slide.”

He noted that without a sustainable Delta, important tools such as recycling and local surface and groundwater storage cannot work effectively in many areas of the state. Significant public investments in local programs are at risk as a result.

The scoping meetings continue through May 14. The environmental review process is expected to be completed in 2010.

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.

Lois Wolk discusses the crisis in the Delta and what the public can do to help in interview with California Progress Report

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 29, 2008 at 5:46 am

Here is an excerpt from an interview with Lois Wolk, published on the California Progress Report:

Delta Protection has become your hallmark issue, those of us who went to Congressman Thompson’s fundraiser last weekend, learned a lot about efforts underway to protect the delta—how did you get involved in this issue, what are you looking for the state to do on this effort, and finally what can we as citizens do?

District 8 represents the northern part of the Delta. I have been very much involved in water issues and environmental issues from the time that I entered the Davis City Council. As chair of Water, Parks, and Wildlife, I know that the Delta is the heart and soul of the California water system. It is the core and it is in terrible crisis. That has not only a major environmental impact, but a potentially disastrous economic impact of the entire state.

We’ve asked the Delta to do many things and many of them are incompatible with each other. We want it to supply an unending or increasing supply of water to Southern California and to the Bay Area. We want it to be an extraordinary estuary to breed and facilitate fisheries. We want it to be the repository of agricultural and urban runoff. We want it to, I don’t, but it has become an area of increasing urbanization. We’ve asked it to do far too many things and it is dying, it is absolutely dying. Of course it is surrounded by levies that are basically 19th century piles of dirt, and they are failing. And it is seismically at risk. You can’t imagine an area that is of more significance and at risk.

What can we do? We can do a number of things. The people of the state of California voted for a bond in 2006 to repair the levies and to begin the process of improving the water quality in the Delta, and the fisheries, the habitat, and the agriculture. What we can do is to try to raise the profile of the delta. Most people know where the coast is and know why it’s important to protect it. Most people know about the Sierra Nevada, and they will protect it. They know about Yosemite and they will protect it. They know about their local parks and they want to protect those. But the Delta has very few people in it and very little political clout. So we need to be able to raise the profile of the Delta so that it takes its place as the key water and environmental issue for California.

Then we need to put in place structures that will protect it. It needs are steward. There is no steward—no body, no agency—whose sole purpose is to protect the delta. And if I’m elected to the Senate, that’s what I’ll spend many years trying to accomplish. It won’t be easy, but there has to be a body like the Coastal Commission that focuses exclusively on the Delta and has responsibility for all water decisions and all environmental decisions that affect it. That won’t be easy to do, but I am convinced that has to occur.

The average person needs to educate themselves and speak to their representatives. Here we are very blessed with a delegation that understands all of that—both in the surrounding Assembly Districts and the Senate Districts. And at the Congressional level—Mike Thompson and Doris Matsui have been strong supporters of the Delta—they know where it is, they know how important it is to our region. But we don’t have the same recognition other places. That’s very hard for citizens here to accomplish. We have to educate those in the Bay Area, further in the southern part of the Central Valley, in San Diego, in Los Angeles, to the importance of the Delta to them but to California as a whole. And we’re trying to do that. We’ve been working very carefully with members of my committee who represent those areas, in educating them about the Delta.

Hurricane Katrina had an effect in that area. After Katrina, people were suddenly aware that the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta was in fact at greater risk than New Orleans. And look what happened to New Orleans, so that recognition has helped us with flood protection, it’s helped us with environmental legislation in the Delta; it’s helped us get resources to the Delta. Every cloud has a silver lining, Katrina really the knowledge of how fragile this area is. We have to continue that because we need resources from those who might want to put those resources elsewhere.

Read the full text of the interview with Lois Wolk from California Progress Report by clicking here.

A fisherman’s view of the salmon crisis

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 29, 2008 at 5:37 am

From the Sacramento Bee, this commentary, written by Dave Bitts, a fisherman, as well as board member and secretary of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations and Humboldt Fishermen’s Marketing Association:

I wanted to become a salmon fisherman the first time I saw boats trolling around Bodega Bay and Fort Bragg as a kid. I have always approached this business with the attitude that we must leave the salmon fishery in good shape for the next generation.

Now, I worry whether we will leave our children and grandchildren any salmon at all. We’ve abused our rivers to the point that the fish are on the verge of permanently vanishing. Commercial and recreational fishermen, ice houses, fuel docks, boat yards, gear stores and other businesses could disappear along with the salmon.

Mr. Bitts commentary discusses the salmon crisis from the first person view, and he believes that the salmon crisis is due to poor management of the watersheds. He ends with this:

Like most fishermen, I’m willing to forgo fishing this season. But for decades, the government’s main fish recovery strategy has been to force more restrictions on fishermen, while ignoring flow and water quality issues. This is true in spite of the hundreds of millions that have been spent on restoration projects. The result is fewer salmon and fewer fishermen. We’re not addressing the real cause.

We need Congress to immediately investigate the West Coast salmon crisis. Tell your senators and representatives to make sure federal agencies stop suppressing science and start following the law. In addition, West Coast fishermen and the broader economic community that depends upon salmon for its livelihood need immediate disaster relief.

Most of all, tell our leaders: We owe it to our coastal communities, to the hard-working families who have depended upon fishing for 150 years and to everyone who enjoys salmon for dinner, or even just knowing salmon are around, to make our rivers safe for salmon so we all have a future. If we can’t learn to coexist with salmon, are any wild creatures safe from us?

Read the full text of this commentary in the Sacramento Bee by clicking here.

Can you get by on just 5 gallons of water per day? A British woman tries it out

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 29, 2008 at 5:28 am

From AlterNet:

Full marks to those who keep a tight rein on their carbon footprint, but don’t relax just yet: water is the new carbon, and our engorged water footprints need to be scrutinised before the rivers really do run dry. At the World Economic Forum in January, the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, warned that water and food shortages would be the crises of 2008. Last week we watched the escalating food crisis reverberate around the globe. Conflicts fuelled by water shortages may well be next, triggered by climate change, population growth and poor water management.

The phrase “water footprint” was coined to describe the embedded or “virtual” water in a food or industrial product — the real volume of water used to create that product. It is difficult to avoid using products which have not been involved in a water-intensive process somewhere along the line, and the figures are staggering: it takes 1,760 litres to get one pint of milk out of a cow and into your fridge; a kilogram of cheddar swallows up 5,000 litres.

There is also, of course, plenty of water embedded in everyday activities other than eating, such as washing, cooking and cleaning. The average Brit splashes about 155 litres of water each day, compared with 20 litres for most people living in sub-Saharan Africa. Water might flow freely from our taps, but our small island is not immune to global shortages. Water is a limited commodity, and is becoming more expensive as its supply grows more difficult to guarantee.

How do we get through almost nine times more water each day than someone living in Africa? Thirsty Planet, a bottled water brand which donates part of its profits to the charity Pump Aid, challenged me to survive on 20 litres for 24 hours to find out.

Read the rest of this story from AlterNet by clicking here.

Join the fight against MWD tyranny – drought is not the problem, says commentary; the problem is unemcumbered growth

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 28, 2008 at 6:34 am

From the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, this commentary:

As California’s centuries-old water war threatens to once-again engulf the entire state, op-ed writers are already rolling out that old saw usually attributed to Mark Twain: “In the West, whiskey is for drinkin’, water is for fightin’.” Not only does the current water fightin’ pit North against South, but communities in Southern California are now engaged in a civil war.

The problem is not drought. The culprit is unencumbered growth.

One need only consult the rainfall chart published annually in the local newspaper to see that we still enjoy a humid climate in the Los Angeles basin. Since the 1870s rainfall has fluctuated cyclically but the average has hardly changed. What has changed is the proliferating and unquenchable demand we have placed on that finite amount of liquid.

To keep up with our seemingly insatiable and ever-growing thirst, we first drained the artesian supply that once abounded on the plain. We built an aqueduct, than a second, to the Eastern Sierra. We diverted the Colorado River. Finally, we tapped the water of Northern California.

But even that wasn’t enough. And now concern for the Delta Smelt has temporarily curtailed a significant portion of that supply.

So now we are about to fight among ourselves for what remains. This fight pits Lynwood against Beverly Hills, Covina against San Diego, in fact all the smaller and in many cases less affluent communities against the big, powerful and expanding ones. And the little guys aren’t about to quit.

Read the rest of this commentary from the San Gabriel Valley Tribune by clicking here.

San Jose Mayor urges united support of delta-repair bond measure

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

From the San Jose Mercury News:

Water authority leaders are praising San Jose residents for cutting back water use in recent years, but they warn that half the city’s water supply hinges on fixing levees at the fragile Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

The San Jose City Council recently met with the Santa Clara Valley Water District board to discuss water supply and delivery challenges. San Jose receives roughly half its water from the delta, and Mayor Chuck Reed said that city officials should prepare to support a potential state bond measure on the November ballot aimed at fortifying the delta. City and Santa Clara Valley Water District leaders at the meeting said they would start coordinating projects that could use possible state bond money, including desalinization and recycled water programs.

Reed said he met with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s staff four weeks ago to discuss the delta, and they convinced him of the importance of repairing it. Aging levees, salt issues and animal habitat concerns have focused controversy on the area in recent years. Natural disasters also could cripple its supply to the South Bay. “The thing that got me was that one 6.5 earthquake could knock out water there and put it under salt water,” Reed said.

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

Desalination can boost US water supplies, but more environmental research needed

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

From Science Daily:

Recent advances in technology have made removing salt from seawater and groundwater a realistic option for increasing water supplies in some parts of the U.S., and desalination will likely have a niche in meeting the nation’s future water needs, says a new report from the National Research Council. However, a coordinated research effort with steady funding is required to better understand and minimize desalination’s environmental impacts — and find ways to further lower its costs and energy use.

“Uncertainties about desalination’s environmental impacts are currently a significant barrier to its wider use, and research on these effects — and ways to lessen them — should be the top priority,” said Amy K. Zander, chair of the committee that wrote the report and professor at Clarkson University, Potsdam, N.Y. “Finding ways to lower costs should also be an objective. A coordinated research effort dedicated to these goals could make desalination a more practical option for some communities facing water shortages.”

The report recommends that R&D efforts be overseen by the White House Office of Science and Technology, and that it be funded at $25 million per year. Currently, desalination research is funded by earmarks, which is not a steady source of funding. Currently, the private sector is funding much of the research.

Substantial uncertainties remain about the environmental impacts of desalination, the report says. Limited studies suggest that desalination MAY be less environmentally harmful than many other ways to supplement water — such as diverting freshwater from sensitive ecosystems — but definitive conclusions cannot be made without further research.

Researchers should investigate the extent to which fish and other creatures get trapped in saltwater intake systems in various settings, and seek ways to mitigate this and other impacts. Studies also should examine the long-term ecological effects of disposing of the salt concentrate that remains after desalination in rivers or the sea, a common practice. In addition, environmental evaluations of new desalination plants should be conducted, including ecological monitoring before and after the plant starts operating. The results should be synthesized with existing data in a national assessment that can guide future decision making, the report says.

Desalination also has raised concerns about greenhouse gases because it uses large amounts of energy. Seawater reverse osmosis uses about 10 times more energy than traditional treatment of surface water, for example, and in most cases uses more energy than other ways of augmenting water supplies. Researchers should investigate ways to integrate alternative energy sources — such as the sun, wind, or tides — in order to lower emissions from desalination, the report says.

Read the rest of this article from Science Daily, which has a lot of useful links for more information, by clicking here.

Getting water-affluent from use of effluent: Tuscon begins to ponder recycled water system

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 28, 2008 at 6:15 am

From the Tuscon Citizen, an article about how Tuscon is considering a recycled water system, much like what is used in Orange County. From the article:

A similar plant to put treated wastewater in the ground in Avra Valley could close a gap that will emerge in coming decades between Tucson’s demand and supply, said Tucson Water Director David Modeer. “You could offset it all” with treated wastewater, Modeer said. And treated sewage is much cleaner than what most Tucsonans are drinking now – including local groundwater and Colorado River water.

Many Tucsonans, especially in midtown and the near South Side, get the city’s Clearwater blend of Avra Valley ground water and Colorado River water. The river water contains chemically treated wastewater from cities upstream, along with traces of chemicals and drugs that a system such as Orange County’s would remove.

Even Tucson’s most vocal critic of drinking wastewater can’t deny that water processed that way is clean. “Given enough money, you can treat water to make it pure – more pure than what we’re drinking now, for sure,” said John Kromko, a former state legislator who last year spearheaded an effort to ban the use of wastewater in drinking water. “But for what reason? That’s the question.”

.

The article also notes:

Though some people are disgusted by the thought of drinking treated effluent, many of us have been drinking it from birth.

In most cities along America’s rivers, wastewater is chemically treated then put back into the rivers to be used as drinking water downstream. The treatment process – perfectly legal – leaves behind traces of chemicals and drugs that eventually wind up in drinking water. Virtually every major waterway in the nation contains treated effluent, Deshmukh said.

Colorado River water – which many Tucsonans are drinking in the city’s Clearwater blend – is recycled this way seven times before it gets to Lake Havasu’s Central Arizona Project intakes, he said.

Read the full text of this article from the Tuscon Citizen by clicking here.

California water policy and fish: If at first you don’t succeed (in complying with endangered species laws) try, try again

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 28, 2008 at 6:05 am

From the California Progress Report:

Following last week’s unprecedented cancellation of the salmon season and a federal court determination that operations of the two largest water projects in the state failed to comply with the Endangered Species Act, water operators have announced a series of workshops to prepare for their next attempt at complying with endangered species laws – the Bay-Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP).

Beginning on Monday, the California Department of Water Resources and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation will hold ten scoping meetings to begin their environmental review of the BDCP. The agencies are seeking a fifty-year permit which would grant regulatory “assurances” for Delta pumping that may limit future actions to protect threatened fish such as salmon and Delta Smelt for the duration of the permit, even if those populations continue to decline.

If ultimately approved, the BDCP will take the place of court-ordered operations of the State Water Project and the Central Valley Project. The court-ordered operating rules are the result of a 2007 judicial decision which found that water project operations jeopardized the continued existence of Delta Smelt, in violation of the federal Endangered Species Act. The same court is expected to issue additional operating rules, which may further limit Delta water exports, following last Wednesday’s decision to reject the Biological Opinion covering at-risk species of salmon and steelhead trout.

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

Southern California is facing a water crisis, but the public remains largely disconnected and apathetic

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 27, 2008 at 8:16 am

From the Inland Daily Bulletin:

With the simple twist of a knob, clean water spills from the tap. At the end of the month, the bill comes, and if it’s higher, it’s not by much. So what’s to be worried about?

According to local water officials: more than most people know. “It’s kind of like gasoline,” said Albert Robles, director on the Water Replenishment District of Southern California. “The public didn’t notice when gas was $2 a gallon, but at $4 they are starting to see that there is a problem.”

Even as cities and water agencies warn of impending crisis, asking for increased conservation and promising hikes in rates, the public remains apathetic, water officials say.

At the polls, few voters turn out. Water board meetings rarely attract an audience. And even when elected water officials are caught in scandals, such as Three Valleys Municipal Water Director Xavier Alvarez, who is on trial for lying about receiving the Medal of Honor and has been censured by the board, the public shows little interest in their water districts. “Are we in a water crisis? You bet your life we are,” said Edward Little, director at the West Basin Municipal Water District. “The public needs to understand that there are water problems and they need good people to represent them. But it’s a very complicated business, and it is hard for people to understand it.”

Droughts, contaminated groundwater, a reduced supply of imported water, environmental pressures and a lack of money for infrastructure are a few of the obstacles facing water agency and governmental officials.

In February, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called on the public to reduce water usage by 20 percent in 12 years by doing things like cutting back on watering their lawns, taking shorter showers and getting low-flush toilets. But water officials contend these requests may soon become demands and that the public soon will see the crisis reflected in their bills.

“We’re not talking about, `Gosh, maybe we need to prevent a future crisis.’ We are facing the crisis today,” said Tim Quinn, executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies. “There is a disconnect with the public.”

That is largely because regional water agencies have spent billions in developing water storage, and those reserves are being drawn on today. In five years, those supplies will be gone, he said.

“All of our sources are suffering challenges,” said John Morris, a director on the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California who represents San Marino.

Mr. Morris hits it right on the nose with that last statement. Read the rest of this story from the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin by clicking here.

Want to know more about the issues facing California’s water supply? Check out Aquafornia’s exclusive article, California’s Water Crisis.

Eco-tourists to the Colorado River Delta contribute much-needed revenue to struggling small communities

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 27, 2008 at 8:03 am

From the San Diego Union-Tribune:

‘Be still, be still,” the woman next to me whispered urgently. A dozen binoculars had suddenly shot up, focusing on a brown bird stepping gingerly from the nearby bullrushes. It was a Yuma Clapper Rail, a threatened species that is rarely seen, making a brief public appearance at La Ciénega de Santa Clara, a desert wetland that survives on agricultural runoff from Arizona.

On this cool, cloudless morning, I had joined a group of 17 people touring the Colorado River Delta, an area devastated by decades of diversion upstream. After rattling down a dirt road through a parched brown landscape, La Ciénega had at first seemed more dream than reality. La Ciénega has become a key stop on the Pacify Flyway for plovers, sandpipers, dowitchers and other migratory species. Though some 350,000 ducks, geese and other birds annually visit La Ciénega, the largest wetland in the Sonoran Desert, few tourists make it to this remote spot some 60 miles from Yuma, Ariz.

But this was not your typical tour. Conceived by the Tucson-based conservation group The Sonoran Institute, the five-day trip was designed to give us a feel for the people and places that make up the Colorado River Delta. The region spans the U.S.-Mexico border, much of it in the Mexican states of Sonora and Baja California. The tours are operated by the nonprofit La Ruta de Sonora Ecotourism Association, an Institute offshoot. The tours allow many overlooked communities to showcase their amenities and provide a source of revenue for residents. Visitors gain unusual insight into local cultures and issues.

Read the rest of this article from the San Diego Union-Tribune by clicking here.

Federal government’s commitment to Indian water rights settlements questioned

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 27, 2008 at 7:59 am

The next big thing to affect Colorado River usage. In 1908, a Supreme Court decision guaranteed adequate water to tribal lands; however, when the Colorado River Compact was drawn up in 1922, Native Americans were simply left out of the deal. At a recent Western Governor’s Association meeting, Indian water rights were listed as a major concern.

This morning, a story from the Gallup (New Mexico) Independent, questioning the feds commitment to settling Indian water rights:

Last year, U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman introduced H.R. 1970 — the Northwestern New Mexico Rural Water Projects Act — which is currently pending in Congress and would authorize the settlement and the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project to provide safe drinking water to the Navajo Nation and Gallup. The Department of the Interior has testified against the bill, and the Office of Management and Budget has opposed funding despite the critical lack of drinking water infrastructure on the Navajo Nation. Gallup may run out of water in less than 10 years.

The federal government is expected to be an aggressive trustee of Indian water rights, according to Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr., however, Navajo is concerned that the feds’ current application of Criteria and Procedures in settlement negotiations creates incentives for the United States to oppose the interests of Indian tribes.

The Navajo Nation has considerable experience with water rights settlements. “We are currently involved in finalizing a settlement with the state of New Mexico, and we are in discussions with the states of Arizona and Utah to quantify our water rights through negotiated settlements, rather than through the litigation process,” Shirley said. The president explained how the United States has neglected the Navajo Nation’s water rights claims to the Colorado River, and has instead pursued a wide variety of activities concerning the management and allocation of the river without consideration of the needs of Navajo.

John Echohawk, executive director of the Native American Rights Fund of Boulder, Colo., has worked on Indian water issues for more than 38 years. In the last three decades, he said NARF has encountered one consistent challenge: the federal government’s inability to commit adequate financial and human resources to resolving tribal water rights claims.

“For centuries, the federal government has promoted and subsidized non-Indian water rights to the detriment of vested tribal water rights,” he said. “The lack of federal commitment to developing tribal water rights is especially troubling considering the conditions we see across Indian Country. It is not uncommon for tribal members to drive over 50 miles to haul water for their homes, many which still have no access to electricity. It is as if Native Americans fell through the web of the federal system that is charged with ensuring our well-being under the trust responsibility.”

The federal commitment to Indian water rights settlements remains inconsistent, and the lack of federal funding plagues the settlement process, Echohawk said.

Read the rest of this story from the Independent by clicking here. For more on Indian water rights, check out the Indian water rights category.

Judge Wanger orders reports on three imperiled fish species; sets court date for June 6

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 27, 2008 at 7:46 am

From the Fresno Bee:

A federal judge in Fresno set a June 6 hearing to discuss the possibility of more water cutbacks for farms and cities this summer to protect three imperiled species of fish.

U.S. District Judge Oliver W. Wanger also ordered federal agencies to file a report by mid-May on the status of winter-run chinook salmon, spring-run chinook salmon and the Central Valley steelhead. The judge on Friday said he needs more information to determine whether the fish need immediate protection from water pumping. Wanger last week invalidated a key part of a major federal water plan, saying it does not adequately protect the fish under the Endangered Species Act.

One of the many questions surrounding the case: Are the fish suffering from a problem occurring in the ocean or in the delta? Environmentalists and federal officials are expected to address such issues at the June hearing.

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

Local community group, R4RD, debuts website following desalination news

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 27, 2008 at 7:31 am

There’s a new website up and running coming from Huntington Beach, where Poseidon is planning another desalination plant. The group, called “Residents for Responsible Desalination” or R4RD, is a local volunteer organization with a coastal community mission to:

Educate the public about ocean water desalination;
Protect local control of water resources and marine life;
Advocate the highest and best uses of technology and practices that minimizes environmental and health impacts; and,
Promote environmentally preferable alternatives to ocean water desalination, such as water conservation, reclamation,retention, and recycling.

The website has a links to the latest desalination news, the organizations newsletter, and other useful web resources. Check it out by clicking here (www.r4rd.org).

San Diego area relieved to see no sign of killer shark

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 27, 2008 at 6:58 am

From the Associated Press:

Fear and shock turned to wary relief as a golden Southern California beach weekend unspooled with no sign of the great white shark that killed a swimmer in a rare attack near San Diego.

Thousands fled record inland temperatures for the relative cool of the coast, though 17 miles of San Diego County’s coast remain under advisory closure Sunday, patrolled by helicopters and lifeguard trucks keeping an eye on unwitting swimmers.

Only a hardy few paddleboarders on Saturday ignored posted signs warning that the shark could still be lurking below the Pacific’s calm surface. “It’s like going to see ‘Jaws’ — getting in the water the next day, all you could think about was the music,” said Bob Rief, 63, who was teaching a friend how to stand up on a paddleboard. “But if you’re afraid of the ocean, you shouldn’t be in it.”

The San Diego-area native was worried that the attack would scare away vacationers or weekend beachgoers and hurt businesses. Solana Beach is 14 miles northwest of San Diego.

Beaches were emptier than usual Saturday near where triathlete David Martin was killed Friday. Farther north, Orange and Los Angeles county beaches were packed with people on a bright, hot day. Lifeguards were more concerned with crowds and riptides than sharks.

“The most dangerous part of the day, if you’re going to the beach, is getting on the freeway to come here,” said Garth Canning, section chief of the Los Angeles County Fire Department Lifeguard Division.

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

Water rights and water wrongs in the Sierra Nevada

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 27, 2008 at 6:53 am

From the California Progress Report:

Water law in the state of California can best be described as one of those incredibly complex multiple level chess games, with varying and not necessarily consistent rules for each level. In the crazy California water game different norms control, depending on whether ground water, riparian rights, appropriative rights, or prescriptive rights are involved (and this is short form-there are many other variations), and even whether rights were acquired before or after 1914. Add in all the various water projects, which divert water far away from its mountain origins, and its one-time inevitable flow towards the sea, to provide water for agricultural interests and urban needs, and you get an even more layered, confusing system, with consequent over appropriation of surface waters, and overdraw of groundwater.

There are many who feel the current system of water allocation in California is unfair, inefficient, and sadly broken. This year’s collapse of the salmon fisheries, and the precarious situation of the Delta underscore the need to reassess how California’s water is used, abused, and wasted. The debate promises to be heated, with, on one side, those who are convinced dams, and canals are a magic bandaid, and on the other side, those who favor protection of the environment, and who emphasize conservation and wise use of water over building yet another dam, and who think it’s absolutely profligate to ship water to places like Westlands Water District to grow thirsty crops and forage, when that water is taken at the expense of protection of instream uses, such as keeping endangered fish out of the maws of the vast water project pumps.

There is a basic core of rationality in California’s water system, though. The Public Trust Doctrine requires a balancing of consumptive and instream uses. This doctrine was successfully applied to water appropriation through the vigilance of those who fought for more than 20 years to prevent the siphoning away of Mono Lake to slake Los Angeles’s thirst. Further, the California Constitution prohibits waste and unreasonable use of water. The terms “waste” and “unreasonable use” are a virtual full employment act for attorneys specializing in water law, but I’ll spare you a treatise on “legally correct” usage. What I’d like to talk about is a real-life, shameful waste of water in the Sierra Nevada, up near Donner Summit.

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

IID delegation heads to Sacramento to discuss Garcia bill; “we felt very optimistic that they saw and appreciated our perspective”

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 27, 2008 at 6:40 am

From the Imperial Valley Press:

The Imperial Irrigation District has taken its fight against Bonnie Garcia’s proposed bill to Sacramento and has found sympathetic ears.

On Wednesday, IID general manager Brian Brady, Board of Directors president John Pierre Menvielle, Director Stella Mendoza and spokesman Kevin Kelley met with elected officials and staff members to discuss Assembly Bill 2564. The group met with and discussed the bill with Assemblywoman Anna Caballero, D-Salinas, who chairs the Assembly Local Government Committee. The committee will hear and make a decision on the bill Wednesday.

“From my impressions, in speaking with Assemblywoman Caballero, she really listened to our arguments,” Brady said. “She didn’t come out and express a definite opinion, but I think she appreciated our side of the story. “Bottom line, we felt very optimistic that they saw and appreciated our perspective,” he said.

The bill, proposed by Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia, R-Cathedral City, would have Coachella Valley voters decide whether they want their own utility district or continue service with the Imperial Irrigation District in the future. According to the proposed legislation, if the number of Coachella area IID energy customers reaches 75 percent, a vote would be held. There are an estimated 60 percent of IID energy users in the Coachella area.

Menvielle said while the meetings went well, there was confusion on the parts of the people the IID representatives met with. He said many questions were asked about why Garcia was pushing for the bill. He said he believed there were local Imperial Valley forces that were behind the bill and pushing Garcia.

Part of the Garcia bill could lead to the separation of the IID controlling water and power sources. Mendoza said such a split would be detrimental to all of the Imperial Valley. “That’s not going to happen on my watch,” she said. “And in speaking with Ms. Caballero, obviously I can’t speak for her, but I feel very comfortable that this bill would not go forward.”

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

Climate change adds twist to San Joaquin River restoration project

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

Water is such big news in California, as regular readers know. I can easily post ten to twelve stories per day. Aquafornia focuses on Southern California water issues, but I cast a wide net because Southern California is hydrologically connected to many areas. This is one story which, up until now, I have not been following. However, with the collapse of the salmon run, Aquafornia will now follow San Joaquin River restoration stories.

The San Joaquin River is one of the rivers in Central California which feed into the Delta. The San Joaquin River is part of the federal Central Valley Project. The river in some areas is dry most months of the year, and during the summer, some stretches consists solely of irrigation drainage flows. The players in this story are the farmers, who have been mandated to give up irrigation water to the river, and the environmentalists who want the once-prodigious salmon runs restored.

From the Fresno Bee:

The best hope for cold-water chinook salmon to survive global warming may be near sweltering Fresno — in the San Joaquin River, where salmon have been extinct for 60 years. That’s the latest twist in the long-running debate over restoring the San Joaquin, a project that will begin in less than 18 months.

Farmers, forced by legal settlement to give up irrigation water for the project, are skeptical about the claim. They see global warming as a reason to reconsider the half-billion-dollar restoration. Warmer conditions will kill the restored fish runs, they say.

But fishery experts say San Joaquin salmon would tolerate climate warming better than salmon in cooler places, such as Northern California. The reason: The highest of the High Sierra would continue to provide the cold water that salmon must have to survive in the San Joaquin. Northern California has the lower end of the Sierra and, scientists predict, eventually won’t have much of a snowpack, eliminating a lot of cold water. “The restored San Joaquin may be an important place for the survival of salmon in the next century,” said fishery biologist Peter Moyle of the University of California at Davis.

The back-and-forth over restoring the river has been unfolding for decades, with debate focused mostly on a troubled, 149-mile section of the San Joaquin between Fresno and its confluence with the Merced River. Global warming came into the picture last year when a report from a worldwide panel of experts said about 40% of the salmon habitat in the Pacific Northwest could be lost during climate change.

If the San Joaquin is revived, as is planned over the next decade, it would have the southernmost salmon fishery in North America. And the San Joaquin Valley is expected to warm up faster than the Pacific Northwest or Northern California. This prompts some farmers to question the wisdom of trying to return salmon to the San Joaquin.

“Does it really make sense to spend this money and restore salmon down here?” asked Chowchilla-area farmer Kole Upton.

But Moyle, an authority on California’s native fish, said it is a very good idea for spring-run salmon. The fish will move up the river from the ocean in spring and spend summer in deep, cool ponds near Friant Dam before spawning during fall. The release of cold snowmelt from Millerton Lake in summer should keep the ponds cool enough for salmon even as the climate warms up, Moyle said.

The undercurrent of this discussion is political, as it has been all along.

Read more on this story from the Fresno Bee by clicking here. For more information on San Joaquin River Restoration, click here.

Jumbo squid invade waters off Pacific coast

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 27, 2008 at 6:05 am

From Wenatchee World (a newspaper in the state of Washington):

They aren’t your normal calamari. But the jumbo squid now lurking off the Pacific Northwest coast could threaten salmon runs and signal yet another change in the oceans brought on by global warming.

The squid, which can reach seven feet long and weigh up to 110 pounds, are aggressive, thought to hunt in packs and can move at speeds of up to 15 mph. In Mexico, they’re known as diablos rojos, or red devils. They reportedly will attack divers when they feel threatened.

No one knows exactly why they started appearing in increasing numbers off Washington state and Oregon, or how many of them there are, but scientists and commercial fishermen have found them in their nets every year since 2004. One ship trawling for Pacific hake captured an estimated 50 tons of the squid in one net haul. Though they usually prefer deep water, between 1,000 and 1,500 squid washed up on the Long Beach Peninsula in southwest Washington in the fall of 2004.

“This is a new phenomenon,” said Jason Phillips, a faculty research assistant at Oregon State University’s Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport. A briefing paper from the science center suggested that the jumbo squid may be “well established” in the Pacific Northwest.

Check out the rest of this story from Wenatchee World, which has lots of pictures, by clicking here. (I’d post a picture over myself, but they look a little creepy…. )

Ojai’s scantily-clad Pastie Lady touts healing benefits of water

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 26, 2008 at 6:29 am

“Girls”, he said. “If you want to increase your readership, you need pictures of pretty girls.”

OK, but how to do that, I think, drumming my fingers on my desk. I mean, post pictures of girls in bikinis? Naw, that’s just too yesterday. You’ve all seen that before. Aquafornia needs something different. Maybe Aquafornia needs ….

The Ojai Pastie Lady!

From the Los Angeles Times:

Cars were whizzing past one of Ojai’s busiest corners when Jennifer Moss decided to do a headstand, clad in only a G-string and flower-shaped pasties.

Why?

“Headstands are good for you!” she said, beaming, as she pulled a yellow smiley-face pillow out of her bicycle’s small trailer. With athletic grace, Ojai’s “Pastie Lady,” a self-described social artist and environmental activist, quickly pulled her legs up to salute her adopted hometown.

Not that this artsy, liberal-leaning city of 8,000 is all that impressed. In the year since Moss began pedaling her bicycle down Ojai’s main street in barely-there attire, she’s been arrested twice and ticketed repeatedly for obstructing traffic. Irate parents have asked the City Council to force Moss to put on more clothes. Now she may face prosecution for public indecency.

“The issue we’re looking at is exposure,” said Jim Ellison, Ventura County’s chief assistant district attorney. “We’ve assigned an attorney to do some research.”

Ojai’s citizens, meanwhile, have divided into pro- and con-Pastie Lady camps, venting their opinions in the local newspaper nearly every week. “Ojai tolerance is not eternal,” local filmmaker Leland Hammerschmitt wrote in a guest editorial in the Ojai Valley News, in which he scolded Moss for her “naked narcissism.” “You’ve had more than your day. Go away. Just stop.”

But Moss, whose social activism appears to revolve around natural-fiber clothing and the healing powers of water, also has ardent defenders. They say “Earth Friend Jen” is not hurting anyone and that naysayers should leave her alone. “In the South, they actually embrace you if you are eccentric or even a little crazy. . . .,” Dusty Fernandez, an Oak View resident, wrote in the paper. “So lighten up people! Enjoy the view or turn the other way.”

(Note the vague reference to water which nonetheless means I can post it and still be considered staying on topic…) Read more about Ojai’s Pastie Lady in the LA Times by clicking here.

Meanwhile, I’ll be sitting here, watching my sitemeter count soar ….

Glenn Colusa Irrigation District says it is drilling wells for test purposes, but nearby Butte County fears water will be exported and files suit

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 26, 2008 at 6:13 am

From the California Progress Report:

Residents in the Sacramento Valley are fighting what they see as the first steps in exporting Northern California groundwater to the San Francisco Bay Area, the Central Valley, and Southern California.

Earlier this year, Butte Environmental Council filed a lawsuit against the Glenn Colusa Irrigation District (GCID) after discovering plans to tap into the Lower Tuscan aquifer, the community’s primary source of drinking water, without conducting an environmental review as required under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The Lower Tuscan provides water for over eighty-five percent of Butte County residents. It also contributes stream-flow to the state’s richest spawning habitat for the critically threatened Central Valley Chinook salmon.

GCID claimed the seven proposed groundwater extraction wells were strictly for research purposes and therefore exempt from any review requirements. However, the Butte Environmental Council discovered that the project’s federal grant documents told a different story, stating that the project will “provide additional water supply for the Bay-Delta,” and “make water available for in-basin and out-of basin transfers that will improve statewide water supply reliability.”

“This confirms our worst fears. The federal and state agencies see our groundwater basin as a solution to their disastrous manipulation of California’s water,” said Barbara Vlamis, Executive Director of the Butte Environmental Council.

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

Coleman Hatchery to release 1.4 million salmon smolts into Bay acclimation pens to increase their rate of survival

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 26, 2008 at 6:02 am

From Dan Bacher at the FishSniffer:

For the first time in over a decade, the Coleman National Fish Hatchery, operated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, will truck 1.4 million of its 12.6 million Chinook salmon smolts to be released this spring to San Pablo Bay to assess the effect of the release site on salmon harvest and returns to the hatchery.

The smolts trucked to San Pablo Bay will be placed in net pens operated by the Fishery Foundation of California for acclimatization and then released into the bay. When salmon smolts released by the California Department of Fish and Game have been placed in the acclimation pens, smolt survival is five times what it would have been if the fish had released directly into the river, according to Dick Pool, owner of Pro-Troll Fishing Products.

“They have accommodated our request and will truck 1.4 million smolts around the California Delta to the acclimation pens in San Pablo Bay,” said Pool. “The first batch of 400,000 fish will join 17 million smolts being trucked by DFG from the state hatcheries to the release pens. We hope these fish will provide a good base for rebuilding the stocks in the ocean.”

The program occurs at a time when Central Valley salmon stocks are in a state of unprecedented collapse. Although water exports from the California Delta and declining water quality, combined with bad ocean conditions, are regarded as the key factors in the collapse, fishing and conservation groups are trying to improve hatchery release practices so that more salmon will survive and return to spawn as adults.

For two years, 2005 and 2006, the DFG’s salmon smolts weren’t placed into the pens. During this time, the mortality among salmon increased dramatically as the unacclimated smolts were decimated by birds and predatory fish after being released directly into the bay. This undoubtedly contributed, along with other factors, to the Central Valley salmon collapse.

Fortunately, Nels Johnson, outdoor editor at the Marin Independent Journal, last year prodded Assemblyman Jared Huffman to conduct an investigation of why the pens weren’t being used, resulting in the decimation of stunned salmon smolts as they were dumped into San Pablo Bay without being acclimated. Johnson and fishing groups pressured the DFG to make sure that the highly successful acclimation pens were used in future releases of salmon smolts from state fish hatcheries.

A portion of the smolts to be released by Coleman Hatchery will have coded-wire tags to identify them as part of this experiment. As these smolts are harvested or return as adults, fisheries biologists will be able to determine the rate of return of these fish.

More on this story by clicking: Read more

New desalination report downplays Arizona’s desal plans

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 25, 2008 at 10:33 pm

From the AzStarBiz website, an article on the latest desalination report.

… while technological fixes exist for [desalination's] environmental issues, it would be risky for Arizona to rely on desalination, said Amy Zander, the academy report’s committee chairwoman and a professor of interdisciplinary engineering and management at Clarkson University in upstate New York.
Arizona officials are looking closely at desalination, said Arizona Water Resources Director Herb Guenther. He calls desalination the ultimate solution to the state’s water problems.

One possibility, now under review, is to build a plant in the Kino Bay-Rocky Point area of Sonora. Another is working with California to build desalination plants along the coast. Getting a plant built in Mexico could take 12 to 20 years, but it could take 50 years before salt water can replace a large portion of Arizona’s current supply, he said.

A quicker way might be for Arizona to pay California for plants in exchange for some of California’s Colorado River supplies, Guenther said.

But the biggest uncertainty for desalination is that it still needs a lot of energy, raising economic and environmental concerns unless renewable sources such as solar energy make large advances, the academy panel chairwoman said. “The energy prices are not known and are likely to increase,” Zander said. “You’ll also have greenhouse-gas emissions from most energy sources. It is a piece of the portfolio, but is it the entire solution? That’s unlikely.”

Read the full text of this article from the AzStarBiz website by clicking here.

Beaches closed after fatal shark attack in North San Diego County

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 25, 2008 at 9:21 pm

From the San Diego Union-Tribune:

SOLANA BEACH – Several North County beaches were closed Friday morning after a man was killed in a shark attack north of Fletcher Cove, officials said.

The swimmer, 66-year-old David Martin of Solana Beach, was attacked as he was swimming about 150 yards offshore shortly after 7 a.m., officials said.

Beaches from Torrey Pines State Beach to south Carlsbad will be closed to swimming and surfing for 72 hours, with the advisory to be lifted Monday.

Richard H. Rosenblatt, a professor emeritus of marine biology at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, said he believed the shark involved in the attack was a great white shark, between 12- and 17-feet-long. He said he made his determination based on the wounds on the victim and the description of the attack from witnesses.

“I was told the victim was pushed up and out of the water in a violent attack. That is just typical of the white shark feeding behavior,” Rosenblatt said. “They normally feed on seals and attack from below and make a very powerful bite, then pull away and wait for the seal or other marine mammal to bleed to death.”

To read the rest of this story from the San Diego Union-Tribune, click here.

The L.A. Times coverage adds this:

The attack occurred about 7 a.m. near Fletcher Cove in an area known as Table Tops, said Lt. Phil Brust, a spokesman for the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department. Martin was part of a group that swims every Friday morning in the Fletcher Cove area.

“They were swimming and the victim apparently yelled ‘Shark,’ or words to that effect, and the witnesses that were in the water apparently saw him actually being lifted out of the water and drug under,” Brust said. “They went to his aid and dragged him onto the beach, where he succumbed to his injuries.”

The attack reportedly took place about 150 yards offshore. Martin was among nine people swimming north when he was attacked, Sheriff’s Sgt. Randy Webb said. Martin surfaced and began screaming. Four other swimmers helped him to the beach, where lifeguards performed CPR. A helicopter was called to take him to a hospital, but he was declared dead on the beach. Three volunteers arrived to provide grief counseling to other swimmers, Webb said.

Martin was declared dead at approximately 7:50 a.m. The shark bit him on both legs, said Deputy Solana Beach Fire Marshal Dismas Abelman. Martin had apparently separated from the rest of his group when he was attacked, he said.

The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department ordered 5 to 8 miles of beach closed while helicopters searched for other sharks in the waters.

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

Outcry over state marine sanctuary plan that would declare prime spots along Sonoma, Mendocino coasts off-limits to fishing, diving

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 25, 2008 at 9:14 pm

From the Santa Rosa Press Democrat:

Fishing has been a way of life in Arch Richardson’s family ever since his ancestors used gold to purchase property on Sonoma County’s northern coast. But that 130-year legacy will vanish, the retired store owner said, if state officials move forward with a proposal to declare the waters off Stewarts Point off-limits to ocean-going activities. “No more taking the kids fishing. No more getting abalone for dinner. No nothing,” said Richardson, whose family owns nearly 5 miles of coastal land.

Stewarts Point is among several areas along the Sonoma and Mendocino coast under consideration for permanent fishing bans or other restrictions as a way of protecting marine life. About 80 square miles from Santa Cruz to Mendocino County could fall under the most severe restrictions, including many areas on the North Coast that are beloved by abalone divers, fishermen, kayakers and others.

The state Fish and Game Commission will study four proposals put forth this week by a blue ribbon task force that was convened as part of the Marine Life Protection Act.

Read the rest of this story from the Santa Rosa Press Democrat by clicking here.

Sticker shock: Peripheral canal’s price tag has soared

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

From the San Jose Mercury Times:

The price tag for addressing the declining health of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta while providing a reliable water supply to California cities and farmers keeps getting higher.Officials met Thursday to discuss one of the state’s most contentious proposals—piping fresh water around the delta and into the canals that carry it south and into the San Francisco Bay area. The various options are projected to cost between $4 billion and $17 billion.

The estimates were provided to a panel created by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to come up with solutions to preserve the delta. The estimates are far higher than the $1.3 billion cost in 1982, when California voters rejected the so-called Peripheral Canal.

“All the cost estimates for all water projects get higher the more you study them,” said Phil Isenberg, a former state assemblyman who is chairman of the Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force. “There has not been a serious, detailed study for more than a decade.”

The peripheral canal is being studied as a possible option to improving the Delta’s ecosystem, but it remains a controversial issue. Northern Californian’s worry that too much water will be diverted to Southern California, and farmers worry that there will be less freshwater in the Delta, and water quality will deteriorate.

Engineers at the state Department of Water Resources presented the task force with four options to move water from the Sacramento River around the delta and into the California Aqueduct:

— A $4.2 billion canal in the eastern delta that runs parallel to the Deep Water Shipping Channel, which stretches from the upper reaches of the delta to West Sacramento. The canal later would cross beneath the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers by tunnel.

— An eastern canal coupled with a second system that funnels water through the Middle River, west of Stockton, at a cost of between $5.4 billion and $14 billion.

— A $7.4 billion canal in the western delta that diverts Sacramento River water near Hood, similar to the path selected for the Peripheral Canal before the 1982 vote spiked the idea.

— A western canal coupled with the Middle River system, costing between $8.6 billion and $17.2 billion.

Paul Marshall, an engineer in the Department of Water Resources’ Bay-Delta office, attributed the higher price to rising construction and labor costs. He said the costs were only preliminary estimates.

Read the full text of this story from the San Jose Mercury Times by clicking here.

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