Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 25, 2008 at 10:00 am
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!
Thank you for your continued readership and support. I wish for all of you and your families a wonderful and memorable holiday season.
From Aqua Blog Maven and the staff at the Water Education Foundation
It’s a white Christmas for much of the north state, and a wet Christmas for the south state
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 25, 2008 at 9:03 amFrom Redding’s Record Searchlight, news that it’s a white Christmas for the north state:
Much of the north state will see a white Christmas today – perhaps the whitest in 20 years. And out in the real world, that could mean having to chain up to get over the hill to Grandma’s house.
Snow fell as low as 700 feet around Anderson and west Redding early Wednesday before the air warmed a couple of degrees and the flakes turned to rain. But the snow stuck above 1,000 feet in places like Lakehead, Shasta and French Gulch.
As another polar front bore down on the north state Wednesday afternoon, and National Weather Service forecasters expected more snow in already slushy spots. They issued a Winter Storm Warning for the mountains and foothills around the far northern Sacramento Valley through 4 p.m. today. The winter weather warning includes the Burney Basin and all of eastern Shasta County.
Up to an inch of snow could fall at the 1,000 foot-level in the foothills around the valley through this morning, said Holly Osborne, a National Weather Service forecaster in Sacramento.
Read more from the Record-Searchlight by clicking here.
And it’s a wet & breezy Christmas for the south state, as the Sciencedude from the O.C. Register reports:
The edge of a North Pacific storm that mostly bypassed Southern California is dropping light rain across Orange County on this Christmas morning, and the wind is gusting hard in some areas. The National Weather Service, which incorrectly forecast that the storm would veer into the county and drop 1-2 inches of rain, says today’s showers will occur off-and-on through early afternoon. But the winds will linger, and temperatures won’t rise above the low 50s in many areas. The Anaheim Hills already has reported gusts to 28 mph, and Tonner Canyon has hit 22 mph.
Read more from the Sciencedude by clicking here.
Enjoy your holiday!
Protect a levee, protect the world; A method of buttressing California’s aging levees shows promise for capturing carbon dioxide
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 25, 2008 at 8:53 amFrom Miller McCune Magazine:
It’s obvious that carbon is stored in wetlands. But could it be stored at a rate that would merit their inclusion in carbon cap-and-trade programs?
That question has been asked since researchers looking at the safety of levees uncovered a promising way to capture atmospheric carbon. The preliminary answer is a definite … maybe.
Well before Katrina, scientists studying central California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta speculated that restoring wetlands on abandoned farmland would mitigate the hydraulic force on miles of delta levees, which in some places hold back 20 feet of water. Then, Katrina’s devastation of New Orleans drew national attention to concerns about the delta’s aging levees and the potential for another catastrophic failure.
Exacerbating the problem was the likelihood of certain disasters (such as California’s looming “Big One”) allowing saltwater intrusion from San Francisco Bay, a threat to millions of acres of farmland in the state’s Central Valley as well as freshwater supplies for some 25 million Californians.
As U.S. Geological Survey scientists studied the subsidence of land drained for agricultural uses in the delta, they began to notice surprisingly high rates of carbon captured — or accreted — in their study plots.
Could restoring these freshwater wetlands not only help save the levees, protect farmland and save freshwater supplies but also address global climate change? That was something USGS scientist Robin Miller said people inside and outside her 10-year-old project on Twitchell Island have started asking.
Read more from Miller-McCune Magazine by clicking here.
The man who bridges troubled waters: Aaron Wolf mediates disputes around the world, bringing entrenched enemies to a common understanding: No one deserves to have the water shut off
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 25, 2008 at 8:50 amFrom Miller McCune Magazine:
In 1991, as Aaron Wolf was finishing his doctoral dissertation, the Madrid Middle East peace process was just getting under way. The two sides decided to tackle five sets of regional issues, including the equitable division of water resources. As a budding expert on the subject — his research focused on the Jordan River and its dual role as “a flashpoint and a vehicle for dialogue” — Wolf agreed to advise the U.S. team designing the talks.
Fifteen years later, one remnant of that failed attempt at Palestinian-Israeli peacemaking remains: the water negotiations. “They still go on,” Wolf says. “The two sides have cooperative projects. In the second intifada, when they realized how much violence there was going to be, they took out a joint advertisement asking both sides to try to protect the water infrastructure.”
The lessons of that enduring success have stayed with Wolf as he has pursued his remarkable dual career, as an Oregon State University scholar studying water-resource issues and a hands-on mediator of water disputes around the world. Water, he has come to understand, is so central to the human experience that it can help even bitter enemies find common purpose.
“That’s what’s so heartening about this,” the gentle geoscientist says. “Water can be used as a means for people of different ideological backgrounds to talk about a shared vision of the future.”
Read more from Miller-McCune Magazine by clicking here.
Hat tip to Water Wired’s Michael Campana, who describes Mr. Wolf as such: He is someone who is truly making this world a better place to live, and I am proud to have him as a friend and colleague.
Clean Water Act ‘decimated’
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 25, 2008 at 8:30 amFrom Nogales International:
In a letter to President-elect Barack Obama, two Democrat house leaders blasted the Environmental Protection Agency for not enforcing pollution laws and the Army Corps of Engineers’ alleged deliberate failure to protect the Santa Cruz River under the Clean Water Act.
In a three-page letter on Tuesday to Obama, Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and James Oberstar (D-Minn.) cited this as an example of the Bush administration causing the “decimation (of the Act) over the past two years, imperiling the health and safety of the nation’s waters.” The letter concluded, “We would like to work with you in a cooperative manner to restore the effectiveness and integrity of a program that is vital to the health and environment of the American people.”
Waxman is chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Oberstar heads the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
In July, Obama campaign spokeswoman Shannon Glisan wrote this reporter that “A variety of court rulings have left about half of the nation’s streams, rivers and over 20 million acres of wetlands less protected than the federal Clean Water Act intended.”
If elected, Glisan said, “Sen. Obama will support and sign into law legislation that effectively restores the historical scope of the Clean Water Act and thereby advances environmental protection, community values and public health objectives.”
Oberstar is a sponsor of the House-Senate Oberstar-Feingold bill that would restore the strength of the Clean Water Act.
Read more from Nogales International by clicking here.
San Diego County Water Authority asks Obama for $175 million for Carlsbad desal project
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 25, 2008 at 8:29 amFrom the North County Times:
Poseidon Resources Corp.’s proposed desalination plant would get its own economic stimulus, if a $175 million federal funding request from the San Diego County Water Authority is approved. Construction on the plant, which would convert sea water to drinking water for thousands of consumers, is scheduled to begin in mid-2009.
Meanwhile, a global credit crunch has made such projects difficult to finance. Officials at Poseidon, which hasn’t secured financing, say they are confident funding will be available by the middle of next year.
The Water Authority’s request for federal cash is included in a lengthy wish list county agencies submitted to the incoming administration. President-elect Barack Obama has said he intends to jump-start the faltering economy with massive public works projects.
Both Poseidon and the nine public agencies that have signed a 30-year contract for the desalinated water stand to benefit if federal funding is approved. The money would help pay for a pipeline and pumping station to deliver the desalinated water to the water system.
With the $175 million, Poseidon will break even on the desalination plant earlier than originally projected, said Scott Maloni, a vice president with the company. In turn, Poseidon would speed up the date when it begins sharing cost savings from desalinated water with customers.
Read more from the North County Times by clicking here.
Advocate: Watch your water rights; Nonprofit founder warns ‘beneficial use,’ other terms could be redefined
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 25, 2008 at 8:25 amFrom the Capital Press:
An escalating competition for California’s limited water supply could cause a redefinition of water rights and a host of lawsuits, a private property rights advocate contends.
The outcomes from such environmental initiatives as Delta Vision, the Bay Delta Conservation Plan and others could also increase pressure to send more Northern California water south, asserts Susan Sutton, of Maxwell, who helped found a nonprofit organization that assists families with water rights issues.
In a newsletter essay last week, Sutton zeroed in on statements in a recent primer by the Legislative Analyst’s Office that the “reasonable use” requirement under the state’s water rights system should be updated to reflect the scarcity of resources. “It is in the interest of the state to undertake a concerted effort to realign the water rights system to better reflect modern needs and circumstances,” reads the primer, published in October. “For example, this could be done by accounting for the potential for water conservation and water use efficiency in managing water rights.”
Sutton argues that if the legislature were to try to redefine “beneficial use,” its definition might well favor urban areas to the detriment of agriculture and other rural rights holders, particularly in the north. “I think the net-net is it’s all going to end up in the courts,” Sutton said in an interview. “It’s all going to end up in lawsuits.
“We want to do our part” to conserve water and protect fish, she said. “But we also want to do what we can do to protect our water rights.”
Read more of this article from the Capital Press by clicking here.
Big impact for little fish on California’s water outlook, says editorial
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 25, 2008 at 8:22 amFrom the Capital Press, this editorial, which begins by giving basic background information as to why the biological opinion was rewritten and released last week:
Wanger found the 2005 Fish and Wildlife Service’s opinion “contrary to law,” and directed the rewritten biological opinion. Director Donald Koch of California Department of Fish and Game said in a prepared statement, “The information contained in the document clearly underscores the fact that the Delta as a natural community is in trouble.”
So are two out of three California residents and the farmers who irrigate roughly 3 million acres of the Central Valley. Dozens of irrigation districts and millions of people look to the Delta pumps for part or all of their water supply.
Family Farm Alliance, a water-user advocacy group with members in 17 states, filed a request for Fish and Wildlife Service revisions, saying it violates a 2001 law by reaching conclusions not backed by data and relates all manner of degraded ecological conditions to the proposed pumping plan. In addition, parties to the smelt lawsuit, ranging from the city of Redding to the State Water Contractors Association are studying the biological opinion, weighing a legal challenge.
The Fish and Wildlife Service alternative to shutting down the whole multi-billion-dollar water transfer system contained in what are called “reasonable and prudent alternatives” in a formal biological opinion, turns out to be just about the same operational strategy Wanger ordered one year ago.
The Fish and Wildlife Service, in the 410-page opinion, restricts export pumping from December through June. Added to the Wanger strategy is a set of November and December Sacramento River flows during wet years. Designed to flush smelt into wetland rearing areas, the flows would effectively cancel the ability to replenish Sacramento Basin reservoirs during those months.
Read more of this editorial from the Capital Press by clicking here.
San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District joins Bay Delta Conservation Plan study
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 25, 2008 at 8:16 amFrom the Highland Community News:
The San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District (Muni) has decided to take a seat at the table when plans are made for a trans-delta system to bring water to Southern California while protecting endangered species.
The present system has been severely limited because it tends to kill off the endangered delta smelt, a tiny fish that gets sucked into the pumping system that serves the California Aqueduct.
A Peripheral Canal was proposed by State Senator Ruben Ayala in the 1970s which would have accomplished the same thing, but was rejected by voters with strong opposition from Northern California.
The idea gained fresh support, however, when a federal judge ruled that pumping had to protect the delta smelt, which reduced the amount of water taken. That, combined with the recent drought, left Southern Californians and Central Valley farmers looking for new sources of water.
A Bay Delta Conservation Plan has broad support for developing a way to address the combined issues of delivering water to the State Water Project and protecting endangered species.
Read more from the Highland Community News by clicking here.
Troubled Waters: The Golden State’s trout and salmon are in peril, and that’s bad news for humans
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 25, 2008 at 8:14 amFrom Bohemian.com:
Two years ago, UC Davis biologist Peter Moyle set out to document the condition of California’s salmon and trout. The findings took him by surprise.
“Basically, two things impressed me,” says Moyle. “One was how many fish were in trouble. I had a feeling things were not good, but I didn’t realize collectively how many were in serious trouble.
“The second thing that surprised me, though, is how many of these fish are hanging in there.”
Moyle’s research, commissioned by the sportfishing group California Trout and summarized in SOS: California’s Native Fish Crisis, found that if present trends continue, 65 percent of California’s native trout and salmon will be extinct within a hundred years. Moyle and his fellow researchers applied seven criteria to each of the state’s 32 salmonids (a family that includes trout) and came up with an index. On a scale of 0 to 5, with 0 being “extinct” and 5 being healthy, 20 of the fish scored a 2 or lower. Only five scored a 4 or 5. The state’s 12 salmon species are under particular pressure; 83 percent of them could vanish in the next century.
“Only two populations of Chinook are at low risk of extinction, but even these are declining,” Moyle told reporters at a press conference last month announcing the results. “At the end of the century, they’ll be curiosities.”
On the other hand, Moyle points out, most of the fish still persist in their native range, albeit in small pockets. “Like the steelhead in Southern California—that’s truly amazing,” he says. “So the fact that these fish are still maintaining marginal populations in so many areas tells you conservation efforts are worthwhile.”
Read more from the Bohemian.com by clicking here.
Bid to save fish could reduce water supply in California
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 25, 2008 at 6:24 amFrom NPR, this radio broadcast:
A new effort to save an endangered fish may cut southern California’s water supply by as much as 50 percent. To preserve water for the state’s Delta Smelt, water is being taken away from farmers and cities such as Los Angeles.
Click here to listen to the 3:53 radio program by clicking here.
Restrictions increase uncertainty over Delta water
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 25, 2008 at 6:22 amFrom the Patterson Irrigator:
Federal rules issued last week could further limit the state’s scarce water supply to protect an endangered fish unique to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Local water officials say the new restrictions — issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in response to the declining population of a tiny fish called the Delta smelt — aren’t likely to have a major impact on their water supplies. But they add to the increasing uncertainty farmers must deal with.
The restrictions themselves, which cut the amount of water the state is allowed to pump during times of year when the tiny fish are spawning, are basically in line with similar restrictions imposed last year.
But under certain hydrologic conditions in the driest of years, those restrictions could double. The state Department of Water Resources said last week that out of 80 years of past records, about 20 percent would have received the strictest cutbacks.
Still, the mere possibility that the cuts could be that drastic is unsettling for water officials and farmers alike.
“We’re going into every year with high uncertainty about how much water people will have,” said Lester Snow, DWR director. “It significantly affects the agricultural community trying to plan crops for the year.”
Read more from the Patterson Irrigator by clicking here.
Mount Diablo’s mercury mine to get cleanup attention
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 25, 2008 at 6:19 amFrom the Contra Costa Times:
Some guys retire and play golf. Jack Wessman putters around with heavy equipment trying to clean up an old mercury mine. “I just love it,” said Wessman, adding, “I think golf would have been a lot cheaper.”
When Wessman bought his 109-acre property on Mount Diablo in 1974, he knew there was an old mine there. That was obvious enough. What he did not anticipate was the expense and headache that came with it. He battled regulators with one hand while, with the other, he cheerily recontoured drainages, capped waste rock and did what he could to prevent mercury and acid mine drainage from washing into Marsh Creek and the Delta.
But there’s only so much one person can do, and as Wessman points out, of all the mining that took place here in the course of a century, he’s responsible for exactly none of it. “It’s hard to require someone who never did any mining to clean up the whole area,” said Mitch Avalon, deputy public works director for Contra Costa County.
Now, for the first time, it looks like Wessman might be getting some help.
Read more from the Contra Costa Times by clicking here.
Cloud seeding plan in California sparks debate
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 25, 2008 at 6:17 amFrom Scripps News:
A power company’s plans to amplify snowstorms in northern California have sparked a debate about cloud seeding.
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. has installed seven propane-burning cloud seed “generators” — collections of equipment that propel silver iodide particles into the air — atop ridges in Siskiyou and Shasta counties. The generators are set to go into use by the end of winter and should enhance storms over the Pit and McCloud river watersheds, said Byron Marler, a supervising meteorologist for the San Francisco-based company. “It’s like having a whole new Burney Falls added to those rivers,” he said.
The cloud seeding, which will be done 40 to 50 times a winter, should more than match the amount the water that flows over northern California’s signature waterfall, said Paul Moreno, company spokesman. He said it will produce 130,000 acre feet of water per year, enough to flood 130,000 acres a foot deep in water, or 1.2 times as much as flows each year over the falls near Burney.
But the company’s plans also have caused a flood of concern, especially from people in Siskiyou County, where much of the snow would fall.
Read more from Scripps News by clicking here.
Aquafornia is home for the holidays!
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 24, 2008 at 8:09 amYes, dear readers, while all those other water news services may let you down by taking some time off over the holidays, your water-news-obsessed Aqua Blog Maven will not let you down. Aquafornia will be in the house and blogging for you throughout the holidays, with water news posted by 8am (on most days) including weekends, so stay tuned and stay informed!
For those of you traveling today, travel safe.
Happy Holidays to all,
-Aqua Blog Maven
New report from Pacific Research Institute: Go with the Flow; Why water markets can solve California’s water crisis
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 24, 2008 at 7:26 amFrom the Pacific Research Institute:
California should lift bans and restrictions to help alleviate the water distribution problem, according to Go with the Flow: Why water markets can solve California’s water crisis, a Pacific Research Institute report released today.
The challenge for the Golden State is to move water from areas with abundance to areas with high demand, and to do so in the most efficient manner. Dr. Amy Kaleita, PRI Environmental Studies fellow and author of the study believes that there are more cost-effective strategies for providing water for Californians than continued centralized management and investment in massive infrastructure. The water problem in California is not insufficient supply but uneven distribution and convoluted management explains Dr. Kaleita.
The report analyzes California’s water resources and offers key policy solutions such as the need for more accurate water pricing to encourage conservation, the facilitation of water transfers by removing bureaucratic red tape, and legislation to enable the creation of fully functional statewide or regional water markets.
Among the issues discussed include a costly $9.3 billion water bond plan promoted by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Senator Diane Feinstein to provide funds for California’s water storage and conveyance infrastructure. Dr. Kaleita explains that it is more cost-effective to avoid construction and instead invest in policies that encourage conservation, reducing water consumption in a number of sectors. “California needs a policy that allows water consumers the flexibility to implement technology and management strategies best suited to their situation,” she said.
Read the report by clicking here. Find out more about the Pacific Research Institute by clicking here.
Note: This report will be added to Aquafornia’s Research and Publications page under the heading “Water Markets”.
PacifiCorp tells Siskiyou County they should weigh in on dam removal
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 24, 2008 at 7:04 amFrom the Siskiyou Daily News:
Much of this week’s board of supervisors meeting was taken up with presentations and discussions from two Pacific Northwest power giants. Both PacifiCorp, which supplies power to Siskiyou County residents, and Pacific Gas and Electric, who plans to conduct weather modification cloud seeding in Southern Siskiyou County, sent representatives to explain their recent actions to the board members.
Dean Brockbank, vice president and general counsel for PacifiCorp, made a presentation and engaged in a discussion with county supervisors regarding the Agreement in Principle (AIP) that was reached recently concerning the possible removal of four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River. The AIP announced Nov. 13 between the federal government, the states of California and Oregon, and PacifiCorp presents a scenario for possible removal of the hydroelectric dams starting in 2020, after a four-year period of study.
The supervisors announced their unanimous opposition to the AIP recently and began preparations to assemble a legal team to assist county counsel in fighting dam removal. The supervisors also oppose the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement reached last year by various stakeholders and environmental groups.
“We are in the business of generating power,” explained Brockbank as he presented a historical perspective of how PacifiCorp, parent company of Pacific Power, arrived at the point of signing the AIP. “Our license for operating the hydroelectric dams expired in 2006,” explained Brockbank. “We’ve been in the [license] renewal process with FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) for years. The issue became very contentious; it became apparent over the years that the state of California, the state of Oregon and the federal government were pushing hard for decommissioning.”
Brockbank further explained, “If it were completely up to us, we’d like to relicense this project.”
However, he said, the risk involved for PacifiCorp was “rising every day.” He explained that the mitigations heaped upon the project, if they sought renewal, were going to cost ratepayers a lot of money. And, Brockbank added, there was no guarantee that PacifiCorp would be able to operate the dams following the mitigations. They may still have been required to be removed, he said.
Read more from the Siskiyou Daily News by clicking here.
DWR Climate News: Warm November; update on reservoir levels, white (or wet) Christmas? Santa’s sleighride tracker, CA Extreme Weather Symposium 2009
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 24, 2008 at 7:03 amFrom DWR meteorologist Elissa Lynn, it’s Weather and Climate News for December 23:
There were 21 days in November that California set new temperature records! Almost all of them were high records (153 new high maximums, 40 new high minimums, with 196 total new records; 3 were new lows). Some of the mid-month coastal high temperature records had stood since 1895.
NOAA has put out a summary of readings which put the globe on track for one of the top-10 warmest years again this year:http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2008/20081216_climatestats.html
Several storms have hit California since mid-December, providing a boost to Sierra snow, if not making a major impact to current reservoir storage. At least one big weather maker will slide through between now and New Year’s. There’s good news and bad news with this present situation.
Good news is, anything will help from a drought standpoint. A 75% of average runoff year would keep things just as poor, reservoir-wise. So we really need to see something more substantial than that. Last water year (hydrological water year ending September 30, 2008) ended with 57% of average runoff; the year prior, 53%. Hence this is the start of what could be a 3rd dry year. If we did end with close to average runoff (95-100%), the upstate reservoirs could spring back up to normal. Areas
south of the Delta will have supply issues even if we had a great snowpack, but that’s not my department, as they say. Other positive factors are that the systems have so far been fairly cool (snow levels low to moderate). That provides snowpack, while keeping down the risk of flood in burn areas.Bad news factors: The season started okay, took a hiatus most of November, and now we’re looking at a drying trend after Christmas. Yes, a couple systems come by, but they may be fast. Quicker storms, less resulting precip. Also the precipitation that has occurred has not brought significant runoff into the reservoirs. Shasta stands at 46% of average for this time of year, Oroville at 44% of average, and Folsom (Have you SEEN it lately?!?) at 44% of average; 21% of capacity.
Daily Reservoir Summary: http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/reservoirs/RES
(Note the group average at the end of this summary is only an average of those on the page, which is a small number of all reservoirs across the state. This link is best used to track individual reservoirs.)
Monthly storage graphic: http://www.water.ca.gov/drought/conditions.cfm
New wetlands plan worries San Francisco Bay fishermen
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 24, 2008 at 7:02 am
From the San Francisco Chronicle:
When it’s complete, it will be one of the largest wetlands restorations in U.S. history, a sprawling complex of critical habitat in the North Bay that scientists believe will benefit threatened and endangered species, provide a nursery for fish and even help ease the effects of global warming.
Many within the San Francisco Bay’s fishing industry and some environmentalists, however, see the ambitious plan as a potential threat to fisheries, bird species and the very health of the bay.
Work on the Hamilton Wetlands Restoration Project began in 2001 after receiving congressional approval. The goal is to rebuild nearly 2,600 acres of wetlands in Novato at the site of a former army airfield and an adjoining parcel of land at Bel Marin Keys.
To restore the wetlands, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and state Coastal Conservancy are building up land using millions of cubic yards of sand and mud from dredging scheduled around the bay, with most of the initial material gathered from Port of Oakland deepening projects.
The agencies started to fill in the land with dredge material in 2006, but at the current build rate – with each barge of material towed in, tediously offloaded and pumped to Hamilton – project leaders estimate it will take another 18 years to complete the project.
Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle by clicking here.
Can California’s native fish species be saved?
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 24, 2008 at 7:00 amFrom Good Times:
Spawning trout and salmon may be lost due to magnetic interference, soil erosion, and water use. Can they be found?
Researchers now postulate that fish can take magnetic imprints of the streams in which they are born, and are thus able to find their way home to spawn. The findings bolster a report published by a local nonprofit—it shows the fish that fed the famous outdoor tourist industry now face extinction, and are in need of critical support.
The San Francisco-based California Trout, Inc. published a comprehensive review of the state’s native fish species in late November. After reviewing 32 independent, unaffiliated studies, they found that 65 percent of steelhead, salmon and trout will likely become extinct within the next 50 to 100 years, including three species found in the Central Coast. Known for its classic maroon sides and dark green heads, the Central California coast coho salmon is nearly extinct today, and is rarely spotted in local waters.
To help prevent future calamity, the organization recommends more stringent environmental laws and local protection efforts. “The report is a message of hope because there is still time left for people to wake up and rally around these fish,” says Scott Feierabend, interim executive director at CalTrout.
The problem is that reintroducing fish species may be more difficult than previously imagined. CalTrout’s report follows a wave of new studies on fish navigation—while many fish return to their home streams to spawn, hatchery fish often don’t fare as well. New findings suggest this may be due to magnetic imprints the fish use to navigate through the water.
“We propose that salmon and sea turtles form imprints of the unique magnetic signature in their area, and this is how they find their way back to their home,” says Kenneth Lohmann, a biologist at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. “We found that some fish and turtles have the biologic equivalent of a GPS system that helps them with navigation.”
Read more from Good Times by clicking here.
Environmentalists renew attacks in battle over Delta water
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 24, 2008 at 6:58 amFrom the California Real Estate Journal:
A lawsuit seeking to shut down the large pumps that remove water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta has opened a whole new chapter in the protracted battle over the state’s thirst for water and the threat of ecological collapse in the delta.
The two environmental groups that filed suit Dec. 1 in Sacramento Superior Court are also seeking to take hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland, reliant on delta water, out of production. In California Water Impact Network v. California Department of Water Resources, the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance and the California Water Impact Network claim that water draining off mineral-damaged land in the western San Joaquin Valley is ending up in the delta and harming fish.
“California has regulated its waters like the feds have regulated Wall Street and the result has been a collapse of fisheries and aquatic ecosystems,” Bill Jennings, chairman of the sportfishing alliance, said in a statement. “Given bureaucratic paralysis, we have little alternative but to turn to the courts to prevent the extinction of our historic fisheries.”
Ted Thomas, spokesman for the state Department of Water Resources, which runs the state pumping operation, said the suit focuses too narrowly on the pumps as the center of the delta’s environmental problems.
“There are myriad factors contributing to the decline of the delta ecosystem,” Thomas said. Shutting down the pumps would leave Central Valley farmers and city water users high and dry and the economic impacts would be draconian, he added.
“We are totally concerned about the condition of the delta and we understand the groups’ impatience regarding the delta but we’re very cautious that any hastily constructed ’solution’ could have unintended consequences,” said William Rukeyser, spokesman for the state Water Resources Control Board, which was named in the suit.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, also named in the suit, declined to comment.
Read more from the California Real Estate Journal by clicking here.
Funding crisis threatens park, levee, science projects
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 24, 2008 at 6:52 amFrom the Sacramento Bee:
Near Placerville, long-sought park land might fall out of escrow. In the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, vital ecosystem research has been halted. And in West Sacramento, officials fear a delay in rebuilding levees.
These problems and more are piling up in the Sacramento region as California’s budget crisis worsens.
This week, many nonprofits and local agencies are coming to grips with a decision Dec. 17 by an obscure state financing agency, the Pooled Money Investment Board.
The board was forced to preserve cash flow for basic government operations. It did so by freezing payment for some 2,000 projects funded by more than a half dozen voter- approved bond measures.
The funding stream will probably be restored for many projects once the governor and Legislature make a deal to resolve California’s $40 billion budget deficit. But some may not be able to wait, and there’s lots of fretting over how much the delay will hurt in the meantime.
Read more from the Sacramento Bee by clicking here.
POWER lawsuit status unknown; new lawsuit said to be filed
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 24, 2008 at 6:43 amFrom the Imperial Valley Press:
Copies of the latest lawsuit against the Imperial Irrigation District have been circulating among farmers and others for the past week, but district lawyers have yet to receive official notice that the suit has been filed formally in court. “The courthouse today says they didn’t have it,” IID attorney Jeff Garber said Tuesday.
James Abatti, one of the founding members of Protect Our Water and Environmental Rights, is the key plaintiff in the suit and brother to IID director Mike Abatti.
The suit claims the IID violated environmental regulations by going forward with its water rationing plan, also known as equitable distribution, for 2009. It also brings up the issues of water rights and geothermal development.
Tom Virsik, an attorney who works with the Imperial Group on its lawsuit against the IID, said at the IID meeting Monday the suit had already been filed last week.
Garber said if that was the case, he wasn’t sure why he had not received word.
Read more from the Imperial Valley Press by clicking here.
State sending Delta ferry to dry dock for repairs
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 24, 2008 at 6:41 amFrom the Sacramento Bee:
Like a motorist fixing up the old jalopy instead of buying a new car in precarious financial times, the state will try to eke out additional nautical miles from an aged Delta ferry.
The Real McCoy, a venerable workhorse of a ferry in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta for more than 60 years, will go to dry dock for repair. “Last month we had to pull it out for emergency repair,” said Caltrans spokesman Ben Edokpayi. “It needs to be overhauled. It is a crucial link.”
The ferry service will cease at 3 p.m. Jan. 12 for at least 30 days.
The California Department of Transportation, which said in 2007 it was time to retire the Real McCoy, is postponing the purchase of a new barge. Another nearby ferry that also services Ryer Island – the J. Mack cable ferry – also will be fixed up.
Read more from the Sacramento Bee by clicking here.
South San Joaquin Irrigation District sets $24M budget; Funds to improve efficiency, keep workers employed
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 24, 2008 at 6:37 amFrom Stockton’s Record:
South San Joaquin Irrigation District directors Tuesday approved a $24.6 million expense budget along with a $20.2 million capital improvement budget for 2009. The budget anticipates $28.8 million in revenue during the coming year and $18 million in bond sale proceeds.
The capital budget includes projects first expected to take three years but now scheduled for completion in 2009. District General Manager Jeff Shields said the decision to fast-track the projects was made as a way to help its contractors and to keep about 100 workers employed during the current economic slowdown.
The new budget also includes funds to construct a demonstration pressurized drip system for about 4,000 acres southwest of Manteca that now relies on flood irrigation. Shields said once in operation in 2010, the acreage will use about 30 percent less water and the crops should show a 30 percent increase in yield, because the trees will not experience the normal 10-day, wet-dry cycle between waterings.
Read more from Stockton’s Record by clicking here.
New septic rules may be costly
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 24, 2008 at 6:32 amFrom the Colusa Sun-Herald:
New and existing septic systems in California may soon fall under new regulations that could cost land owners and developers in rural areas a chunk of money.
Among the proposed regulations is a requirement to have existing septic systems inspected and cleaned every five years, according to Dave Clegern of the State Water Resources Control Board. He estimated the cost at $325.
If analysis for sampling and reporting is required, that would cost another $325, he said.
New septic systems will require new designs. Land surveyor and developer Steve Butler of Precision Surveying in Orland said, “leach lines will be a thing of the past. We’ll have irrigation systems much like a drip line in an orchard.”
“Systems are out there right now, but in many cases, they’re cost prohibitive” – about $30,000, Butler said.
Read more from the Colusa Sun-Herald by clicking here.
Before the levees break: A plan to save the Netherlands
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 24, 2008 at 5:00 am
From Wired News:
On a late fall afternoon on the western edge of the Netherlands, coastal engineer Marcel Stive stands atop a 40-foot dune. He stares out beyond the posse of wet-suit-clad surfers wading into the breakers of the North Sea. Where the surfers see inviting waves, Stive sees dry land—and a distant storm. He points south toward Rotterdam, Europe’s busiest port. Arm outstretched, Stive rotates 180 degrees to face the shoreline running north. “As far as you can see, in both directions, we’re going to push the coast out 3, maybe 4, kilometers,” he says. “We have to—to keep the water out.”
The dunes here alongside the village of Ter Heijde are among the weakest links in the complex network of natural barriers, dams, levees, canals, pumps, and storm-surge barricades that keep this lowest of low countries dry. More than half of the Netherlands sits below sea level, and if a megastorm were to break through these not-so-formidable dunes, the water could inundate Rotterdam and surrounding cities within 24 hours, flooding thousands of square miles, paralyzing the nation’s economy, and devastating an area inhabited by more than 2 million people.
More than half of the Netherlands sits below sea level, and if a massive storm were to break through the dunes, Rotterdam would be inundated in 24 hours. Photo: Ralph HargartenStive is part of a Dutch team charged with reducing that risk. Narrowing the gap between the Netherlands and North America by a couple of miles would be a start, and as a bonus it would create valuable new real estate for recreation and development. Also on the drawing board are massive new storm-surge barriers and reinforcements around cities like Rotterdam and Dordrecht, built on the marshy delta where the Rhine and Meuse rivers meet the sea. “If you see a certain future, you must react,” Stive says. And as he sees it, that future looks wet.
Read more from Wired News by clicking here.
Delta issues hold key to future water supply reliability
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 23, 2008 at 1:04 pmFrom the California Farm Bureau Federation:
Three key developments involving the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in the past week set environmental parameters for protecting delta species and laid the foundation for addressing the region’s environmental problems and the future reliability of the state’s water supply. Experts say drought conditions, court decisions and a collapsing ecosystem have turned up the heat on finding solutions to these problems, elevating the importance of solid planning and prompt action.
A Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force forwarded its final recommendations last week to state agency heads, who in turn sent them on to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. An implementation plan comes in January.
A few days later, a completed draft conservation strategy for the Bay Delta Conservation Plan was presented to stakeholders, tentatively identifying a plan for water conveyance through and around the delta.
Added to that, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service delivered its biological opinion on the effect of pumping water from the delta. The opinion found that operation of the federal Central Valley Project and the State Water Project jeopardizes the continued existence of a protected fish, the delta smelt, and adversely modifies its critical habitat. The opinion outlines what the FWS calls “reasonable and prudent alternatives” intended to protect each life stage and critical habitat of the delta smelt.
For the State Water Project, deliveries throughout California could be permanently reduced by up to 50 percent under the biological opinion. Water deliveries to cities, farms and businesses throughout much of the state will be reduced about 20 percent to 30 percent on average, but cuts could be even greater under certain hydrologic conditions, analysts said.
“Recent headlines about the interruption of export water pumping operations in the delta to protect fish species underscore for all Californians what farmers and ranchers have been acutely aware of for years–the water supply for much of the state is in jeopardy,” said Chris Scheuring, managing counsel of the California Farm Bureau Federation Natural Resources and Environmental Division. “Without workable solutions for a reliable water supply, agriculture and the entire state economy are in peril.”
The guacamole crisis
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 23, 2008 at 12:59 pmFrom the San Diego Reader:
Throughout last winter and spring, one could put one’s ear to the wind almost anywhere in North [San Diego] County and hear the buzz of chainsaws as avocado farmers cut down their trees.
While this tropical fruit has beaten the odds in Southern California’s desert climate for decades, the local avocado industry has taken a turn for the worse. Orchards heavily damaged by drought, frost, and fire produced a 2008 crop just 57 percent of average, and the 2009 harvest is not expected to be much better, say industry eyeballers. The most recent hit taken by the county’s 23,000 acres of avocado farms was a 30 percent cutback on water allocation in January at the direction of U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger, who ordered reduced pumping from the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta to protect the threatened delta smelt. Judge Wanger’s action has in turn sparked a drastic, last-resort tactic of grove management called “stumping.” To ensure the survival of at least some of their trees, farmers began sawing down as much as 40 percent of their acreage after stripping the trees of fruit early in the year.
Stumping does not kill an avocado tree but merely leaves a dormant relic three to five feet tall. Lacking fruit, flowers, or foliage, such trees immediately cease guzzling water, allowing surrounding trees full access to the available supply. According to Guy Witney, director of industry affairs with the California Avocado Commission in Irvine, stumped trees will spring back to life and begin producing fruit again in two or three years.
“This is just a means of temporarily halting their use of resources,” said Witney. “The hope is to keep cutting them back until the water issue resolves.”
Read more from the San Diego Reader by clicking here.
Kayaking the Los Angeles River: Who knew you could paddle from the Burbank Airport to the Long Beach port? But you can
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 23, 2008 at 12:57 pm
From Plenty Magazine:
A great blue heron spooks the same way on every river. When confronted by kayakers, the stork-like, gray-blue bird takes a few mechanical steps, wings akimbo, then lofts 50 yards downstream to the next bend, never reasoning that if it just landed upstream of the paddlers, it could be rid of them. But these awkward birds behave the same no matter where you find them. What’s more surprising than their escape plan is that the herons, the fish on which they feed, and various other parts of this functioning ecosystem, exist here at all, 15 miles into the concrete channel that is the Los Angeles River.
For nearly 40 years, the river—the reason the Spanish chose the site that became LA—has been almost completely paved over and mercilessly straightened into an artificial canyon. A fence runs along both sides of the riverbanks, and five yards beyond that, a wall separates the river from twelve lanes of highway and the four million people that make LA proper the country’s second largest city. The river runs 51 miles through the metropolis, from its start behind a high school football field in the San Fernando Valley past Paramount Studios, downtown, and Compton, and ends in Long Beach. But many LA residents can’t even identify it. That’s just fine to the US Army Corps of Engineers, who straight-jacketed the river more than 60 years ago for flood control and restricted access to it. Which means the group of twelve boaters I’m with is breaking the law.
We are paddling near the border of Studio City in the July heat, early into a planned three-day trip. Only a few inches of water—almost all of it reclaimed from the wastewater treatment plant upstream—lap the river’s concrete banks, barely floating our fleet of yellow plastic boats. We figure the police will stop us at some point, since two members of our group were escorted from the channel twelve months ago, and because the Corps denied us a permit to float the LA River this year. When the Corps announced in the spring of 2007 that the river wasn’t a navigable waterway and therefore not eligible for full Clean Water Act protections, the trip we’d been planning mostly for sheer adventure suddenly became a cause. Now we hoped to create a grassroots uproar that would force the EPA to supersede the Corps and secure those protections. Not only was clean water at stake but so was the recently adopted $2 billion river-revitalization plan—the efforts of a city notorious for ignoring nature to reconnect with its natural history.
Read more from Plenty Magazine by clicking here.
Soggy Southern California Christmas could make up for a dry year
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 23, 2008 at 12:52 pmFrom the Los Angeles Times:
A heavy rainstorm, paired with wind gusts and snowfall in the mountains, is on the way to the Southland, just in time for Christmas, officials said.
“It will make it a little sloppy going to grandma’s house,” said Bill Patzert, a climatologist with Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge. “After it’s been so dry all year, up to a couple of weeks ago, it’s like we’re trying to catch up all at once.”
The big holiday storm should arrive tonight or Wednesday morning, bringing an inch to 3 inches of rainfall to Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside and Ventura counties, said Bill Hoffer, a spokesman for the National Weather Service in Oxnard.
“This looks to be an energetic storm,” Hoffer said. “The potential exists for a very significant rainfall event lasting through Christmas.”
Read more from the Los Angeles Times by clicking here.
Weekend highlights: a $10K bet, DiFi’s letters, the Colorado River, and more
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 22, 2008 at 7:57 amWeekend highlights, for those of you who were too busy preparing for the holidays to keep up with the fast paced, ever changing California world of water….
In Sunday’s Stockton Record, Jeffrey Michael, an economist at the University of the Pacific, thinks the PPIC has it all wrong and is willing to bet $10K he’s right.
In Sunday’s Sacramento Bee, Laura King Moon of the State Water Contractors wrote a commentary saying it’s not only the export pumps causing problems. Diane Feinstein apparently has the same thought in mind, as she’s written two letters to officials asking them to address Sacramento’s wastewater treatment plant’s discharges and the proliferation of invasive species.
The San Diego Union-Tribune’s Sunday paper included a comprehensive article on the future of the Colorado River, while a development in Arizona wins approval to use groundwater to irrigate a golf course.
Wired Science is reporting on a study which determined that ocean waves are getting bigger and stronger; good news for surfers but bad news for shorelines.
Aqua Blog Maven needs some more peeps!
Holiday note: DWR Water News and the BC Water News may take a break over the holidays, but rest assured, all you water news junkies, Aquafornia will be open for the holidays, seven days a week, with news posted in most cases by 8am!
Delta dilemma: Comprehensive solutions for our uncertain water supply do exist, but it’s impossible to find any coming out of Sacramento, says editorial
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 22, 2008 at 7:02 am
From the San Francisco Chronicle, this editorial:
Stepping in where the state of California has feared to tread, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released a new set of rules designed to protect the endangered delta smelt in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. The new rules represent the fish’s last chance for survival, and a last-ditch chance at preserving the Delta’s collapsing water quality. But they will come at a high cost – the ruling will result in reduced water pumping out of the delta, and that means less water for the farmers and urban areas that have come to depend on it.
No one should be surprised by this. It’s old news that the delta smelt are on the verge of extinction, and that the fragile delta cannot continue to serve as a trough for eternity. The ruling is the result of three years worth of lawsuits and negotiations between environmentalists, fishermen, and the state and federal water agencies that do the pumping. Last year, a federal judge ordered cuts in an attempt to save the fish, and the ruling caused a reduction of nearly a third in water exports this year. Despite warnings of Armageddon, the state appears to have survived this reduction just fine.
Read more of this editorial from the San Francisco Chronicle by clicking here.
Accept delta’s limits, says editorial; Regions can’t take endless amounts of water, and environmentalists can’t save every fish
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 22, 2008 at 6:52 amFrom the Merced Sun-Star, this editorial:
California is on the cusp of crucial decisions about its water future. Plans for new reservoirs and canals are gaining traction, pushed by interests that have the most to lose from court decisions and possible droughts.
Before the state plunges feet-first into a new generation of water works, though, it must recognize the limits of its hydrological heart — the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
For far too long, California has treated the delta and its vast watershed as a resource to be tapped and exploited.
Excessive pumping and diversions, from all parts of the vast watershed, have hurt fish and other wildlife. Excessive conversion of wetlands has turned the delta into a mono-culture of sinking islands, vulnerable to floods and earthquakes. Excessive pollution has made the delta a filthy place to draw drinking water.
There’s no need to demonize past acts. Water agencies built water pumps, farmers converted wetlands and cities built sewage plants long before anyone recognized the delta as a fragile ecosystem — our version of the Everglades.
But we know better now — or at least we should.
Read more from the Merced Sun-Star by clicking here.
Desert winds blow poisonous mine debris into California towns
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 22, 2008 at 6:47 am
From Fox News:
Heaps of toxic mine waste rise like church steeples over this wind-swept desert town, threatening the health of residents and of thousands of off-road bikers.
Tests on dust samples have revealed some of the highest arsenic levels in the country — as much as 460,000 times the level deemed safe by the federal government.
But while the poison can cause cancer in people and harm wildlife, little has been done to remove the costly waste here or similar hazardous waste at thousands of other abandoned mines around the nation. “Worst case scenario, we’ll have to clean up everything, which could do more environmental damage than leaving it and monitoring it,” said Richard Forester, who oversees the Rand Mining District cleanup for the Bureau of Land Management.
Forester and others worry that particles of arsenic scattered by the area’s stiff wind could be slowly poisoning the estimated 300 residents of Randsburg, Johannesburg and Red Mountain.
The dozens of old gold and silver mines in the sparsely populated area about 150 miles northeast of Los Angeles are among the estimated 500,000 abandoned mines nationwide that have been largely ignored because of their remote locations.
In recent years, however, development has crept closer and off-roaders in search of open spaces have descended on many of the sites.
Read more from Fox News by clicking here.
Aquafornia's Information Desk
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Recent Posts
- Saturday’s top of scroll: Science panel says Delta pumping restrictions are justified in California
- Senator Feinstein urges administration to respond to new National Academy of Sciences report on the Delta biological opinions; Calls for greater flexibility, robust adaptive management and integration of federal actions in the Delta
- Boxer statement on National Academy of Sciences’ review of Delta water issues
- Congressman Costa’s response to National Academy of Sciences review of Bay Delta water issues
- Score one for science, says SF Chronicle editorial on NAS findings
- Doug Obegi: National Academy of Sciences confirms that protections for endangered salmon and other species are “scientifically justified”
- Western Growers: 1st NAS Delta water study released, data lacking
- EarthJustice: Top scientists validate restoration plan for California salmon
- Remaining appointees to the Delta Stewardship Council named
- Hearings could set new course for Delta
- Barge-scale cleanup in the Delta
- Nunes on YouTube: “Water torture on Glenn Beck”
- Congresman Cardoza calls on government agencies to address predator fish that hurt Delta smelt and Valley agriculture
- PCL’s Green Roots blog: Californians ask “With 23,000 teachers receiving pink slips, how can we afford an $11.14 billion water bond?”
- Powerful state agency was weak when it came to the Delta
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