Happy New Year from Aquafornia and the Water Education Foundation!
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 31, 2008 at 11:06 pmBye bye 2008….
(Picture is from a test run on Wednesday night at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia):
Hello, 2009!
Water news will follow later this morning….
and special New Years posts coming soon….
(when I get around to writing them, that is)
Pajaro Valley water mystery could solve statewide question
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 31, 2008 at 5:36 pmFrom the San Jose Mercury News:
Every winter millions of gallons of water are pumped from Harkins Slough to a pond off San Andreas Road. There, by design, the water percolates into a natural clay-lined storage basin so it can be tapped later for irrigation.
But so far only a fraction has been recovered. Where the rest of the water from the Pajaro Valley Water Management Agency’s Harkins Slough Recharge Project goes is a mystery, one researchers from UC Santa Cruz, Stanford and the University of Alaska are trying to solve.
The answer could lead to a desperately needed increase in local water supplies, but it has implications far beyond the Pajaro Valley. That’s why researchers have been able to tap into more than $1 million in grants to study the system.
Tuesday, researchers deployed a new tool, an osmotic sampler, in an effort to trace the flow of underground water. “This pond is not going to solve Pajaro Valley’s groundwater problem, but it’s a piece of the puzzle,” said UC Santa Cruz earth sciences professor Andy Fisher.
Hat tip to the Circle of Blue blog for this one! Read the rest of this story from the San Jose Mercury News by clicking here.
Golf Week special report: Courses in the dry Southwest innovate for efficient water use
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 31, 2008 at 5:33 pm
From Golf Week:
With plenty of golf courses across America still looking lush and green, it’s often difficult for golfers to grasp what a growing water shortage might mean for them. But a glance at the Las Vegas Valley brings an arid future into focus.
Drought conditions there have restricted new courses to 50 acres of turf cover – less than half the acreage of a typical 18-hole layout. It’s a formula for extreme target golf with tiny tee boxes and greens, and slivers of fairway.
No surprise, such restrictive policies have stunted development in the valley and spurred course operators throughout the Southwest to deal with the water crisis on their terms – or else.
But the innovations they’re adopting – using recycled water, alternative plants and new technologies – are more than self-preservation.
It turns out, they’re also helping the environment and their communities-at-large.
Click here to read the rest of this story, which highlights some successful practices of golf courses in the Southwest from Golf Week.
Golf Week special report: Irrigation planners key to keeping the greens green
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 31, 2008 at 5:30 pm
From Golf Week, the last installment of their special report on golf courses and the water challenges facing them:
Forget course architects; the new heroes of design are irrigation planners. These so-called spigot wizards may soon become your best friends because they keep courses healthy when watering aplenty isn’t an option.
Ultimately, it’s the superintendent who is responsible for how much – or how little – water is applied. But the hardest-working greenkeeper in the world can’t be an efficient, ecologically minded steward without a high-quality irrigation system in the ground.
Think of irrigation planners as golf’s equivalent to policy wonks or math geeks. Except instead of nerdy, plastic pocket liners filled with pencils and protractors, their tools of the trade are decidedly high-tech: digital cameras, hand-held Global Positioning System trackers and pressure gauges for testing sprinklers.
Richard Slattery, who has been superintendent at Locust Hill Country Club in Pittsford, N.Y., for 14 years, knows the value of a well-designed irrigation system.
“We had a rickety old system,” says Slattery, describing his previous network of 450 heads, spaced 80-85 feet apart, which delivered 500 gallons per minute. It took nine to 10 hours to water overnight and required an additional eight or nine workers watering by hand.
“All told on a dry day, we’d use 250,000 gallons per day,” he says.
But startling efficiency surfaced when Slattery’s new irrigation system, designed by veteran consultant Jim Barrett, became operational in spring 2007.
It sports 1,300 computer-controlled valves, spaced at 60-foot intervals, and delivers 1,800 gallons per minute. The entire course can be watered in a two-hour cycle and uses only 150,000 gallons per day. That’s a 40 percent reduction in water and considerable energy savings in pumping costs. The closer spacing of sprinklers sprays water more on target and reduces loss through evaporation.
Read the rest of this story from Golf Week by clicking here.
Who loses when the state plants trout? Maybe the angler, says commentary
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 31, 2008 at 5:25 pmFrom the San Francisco Chronicle, this commentary by Roland A. Knapp, a research biologist at the University of California Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Laboratory in Mammoth Lakes:
California anglers are concerned that an agreement to limit stocking nonnative trout in California lakes and streams in 2009 while the state prepares an environmental impact report on the stocking program will rob them of opportunities to fish.
Not so. The agreement allows stocking to continue in all large reservoirs, by private businesses and in areas where the state Department of Fish and Game knows there are no sensitive native species. The areas where stocking will be limited offers a reasonable compromise that balances the interests of anglers with the need to protect native species.
It is not true that these waters will never be stocked again. Future stocking will depend on the results of the EIR and whether it is determined that these waters can be stocked without contributing to the extinction of native species.
Mr. Knapp says that stopping stocking of fish can actually lead to increases in fish populations:
… studies in Montana conducted in the 1960s and 1970s indicated that stocking of catchable trout into rivers and streams actually caused decreases in overall trout densities. Based on the results of these studies, in 1974 Montana stopped all stocking of flowing waters (to large protests from anglers) and the result was dramatic increases in trout populations.
Read more of this commentary from the San Francisco Chronicle by clicking here.
Battle over Little Lake heats up over plan to extract 4800 acre-feet for Coso Geothermal Plant
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 31, 2008 at 5:20 pmFrom the Los Angeles Times:
The latest round in the battle between a private hunting club and a geothermal plant for control of an Owens Valley aquifer got underway today with the release of a 900-page final environmental impact report.
The report predicts that the Coso Geothermal Plant’s plan to extract 4,800 acre feet of water per year from the aquifer and construct a nine-mile pipeline could have a significant impact on Little Lake Ranch, a 1,200-acre retreat on spring-fed wetlands adjacent to U.S. Highway 395 and east of the Sierra’s tallest peaks.
The project could also lead to the spread of invasive species and harm threatened and endangered animals, including the desert tortoise.
The report also points out, however, that Coso plans to implement an array of mitigation measures and to stop pumping if regional water levels fall too low.
That’s not good enough for opponents led by the 50-year-old hunting club, made up mostly of Southern California doctors, lawyers and business owners. Little Lake Ranch argues the project would suck Little Lake dry, wiping out foraging grounds for migrating waterfowl in a place held sacred by Native Americans and surrounded by lava cliffs festooned with vivid petroglyphs.
The club’s concerns are based, in part, on a hydrology model included in the report, which shows that the Coso project could siphon off as much as 10% of Little Lake’s water in less than a year and half.
“It could easily mean the end of a lake that has been around 10,000 years,” said Little Lake Ranch attorney Gary Arnold. “It would take more than a century for the aquifer on which Little Lake relies to recover from just 14 months of groundwater pumping at a rate of 4,800 acre feet per year.”
Read more from the Los Angeles Times by clicking here.
How underground ‘hot rocks’ could power America’s future: With enough investment, geothermal power could satisfy 10 percent of the US energy diet, energy experts say
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 31, 2008 at 5:17 pmFrom the Christian Science Monitor:
Could hot rocks miles below the earth’s surface be the “killer app” of the energy industry? Google thinks so. It’s investing more than $10 million to develop new technology that would make this subterranean resource a widespread, economically viable competitor to fossil fuels.
Geothermal heat could meet 10 percent of America’s energy needs by mid-century, according to the US Department of Energy. What’s more, it would not generate the climate-warming carbon emissions associated with fossil fuels.
Once tapped, a geothermal system would stay online for centuries. Unlike wind and solar, it would be a “base load” energy source, available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
That all sounds great – but of course there’s a catch. A geothermal well costs millions of dollars to drill and drilling is the only way to determine if a location has the right kind of hot rock. The result: With only a trickle of federal aid allotted to developing the resource, geothermal is growing slowly.
That may change under the Obama administration, which has pledged strong support for renewable energy.
“If sufficient [research and development] funding were invested in the next 20 years or so, as much as 10 or 20 percent of the electricity in the United States could come from geothermal,” says Robert Neilson, who manages the Renewable Energy and Power Technologies Department at the US Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory.
Read more from the Christian Science Monitor by clicking here.
PPIC Analyst: State adapting now to climate change
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 31, 2008 at 5:15 pmFrom the Public Policy Institute of California, this commentary by Louise Bedsworth, research fellow:
What is adaptation to climate change and why do we need it now?
We have discussed our report on preparing for climate change with a variety of audiences over the past several weeks, beginning with a half-day event in Sacramento on December 2nd that included state leaders, representatives from environmental organizations, and city officials from all over California. We found that while the topic of adaptation can seem to be all doom and gloom, there are several programs in place and underway that should help California prepare for the effects of climate change that we can’t prevent. One important question that keeps coming up at these events is why we need to be thinking about adapting to global warming now that the state has focused on fighting it.
Adaptation, or climate change preparedness, refers to the adjustments that can be made to help to cope with the effects of climate change. These impacts include higher temperatures, accelerated sea level rise, and disruptions to the state’s water supply, all of which have real consequences for California. For example, the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission has prepared maps showing what the Bay would look like with one meter of sea level rise. These maps show the significant impacts on San Francisco Bay communities and infrastructure, including inundation of the region’s airports and Silicon Valley.
Read more of this commentary by Louise Bedsworth of the PPIC by clicking here.
California sues federal government over changes in Endangered Species Act
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 31, 2008 at 7:05 amFrom the Los Angeles Times:
California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown filed suit against the federal government Tuesday, charging that a recent rule change by the Bush administration illegally gutted provisions of the Endangered Species Act, essentially quashing the role of science in decisions made by federal agencies.
Ken Alex, senior assistant attorney general, said the state took the action because it has both the legal right and the moral responsibility to protect California’s environment and resources. The new federal rules, he said, could put California’s threatened and endangered wildlife in greater jeopardy and could ultimately cost the state more to protect plants and animals on California’s Endangered Species List.
From the San Francisco Chronicle:
The Interior Department issued the revised rules this month. They allow federal agencies to issue permits for mining, logging and similar activities without getting a review from federal wildlife biologists if their own research shows the project will not affect plants and animals. The changes also block agencies from using the Endangered Species Act to consider the effects of greenhouse gas emissions on ecosystems when reviewing projects such as new roads or coal plants on federal land.
Interior Department spokeswoman Tina Kreisher said the revised rules will continue to protect threatened and endangered species and noted that the law says federal agencies will ensure no listed animals are killed.
The lawsuit also names the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Department of Commerce and the National Marine Fisheries Service as defendants.
Brown is asking the court to block the new rules, which could give the incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama time to review them.
Three environmental groups have also filed lawsuits against the changes. The Los Angeles Times points out that California suing the Federal government is nothing new:
It is not uncommon for California to sue the federal government. In recent years the state has taken on Washington regarding federal forest policy, clean-air and clean-water rules, and automobile emissions standards. Alex said California has won practically every case that has been ruled on.
Read the Los Angeles Times article by clicking here, and the San Francisco Chronicle article by clicking here.
Coverage wrap-up: Sierra snowpack thicker than last year at this time, but still is behind water needs; add to this, La Nina returns
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 31, 2008 at 6:45 amFrom the San Diego Union-Tribune:
State officials on Tuesday reported a deeper Sierra snowpack than last year but cautioned that California needs a much wetter winter to recharge its water supplies.
The state Department of Water Resources reported from its first snow survey of the season, taken at an elevation of 6,800 feet near South Lake Tahoe. The snow depth measured 41 inches, compared to 29.2 inches a year ago, while the water content was 83 percent of normal. Electronic sensor readings taken throughout the range show the overall water content of the Sierra snowpack at 76 percent of normal, compared to 60 percent last year.
“While today’s conditions are an improvement over last year’s initial snow survey figures, the strain on California’s water supply persists,” Lester Snow, director of the Department of Water Resources, said in a statement.
Measurements of snow depth and snow water content are important because they help hydrologists forecast water supplies and deliveries for the coming year. A series of late-arriving winter storms boosted the snowpack just before Christmas, but officials say it’s too early to tell whether the wet weather will continue in the months ahead.
And although recent storms were good for the snowpack, they’re not really enough to make up for two dry years, as this article from Riverside’s Press-Enterprise tells us:
“We need to see that week after week for quite awhile to make up for the loss we’ve had over the last two years,” said Elissa Lynn, a state meteorologist.
“What really matters is how much is still up there in the spring. It needs to pack down, with runoff to fill our reservoirs. We’re kind of off to a slow start. We’re not even where we should be already for winter,” she said.
Last year, when the snow melted early, statewide average runoff was 57 percent of normal; the year before it was 53 percent. And now reservoirs have been drawn down to supplement shrinking water supplies; Lake Oroville, the state’s main storage reservoir, is at 28 percent of capacity.
From the San Francisco Chronicle:
Forecasters believe this will be another dry winter based on ocean temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific that are cooler than normal, which impacts global weather patterns. “Unfortunately, that’s frequently the sign of a dry West,” Frank Gehrke, chief of snow surveys for the state Department of Water Resources, said Tuesday.
In October, the agency announced it would deliver just 15 percent of the water requested by cities and farmers statewide in 2009 - the second-lowest level since deliveries began in 1962.
Surveyors measure several components of the snowfall throughout the Sierra Nevada - the source of a majority of the state’s water supply - at monthly intervals during the winter season. The most important reading is the snow’s water content. The higher the saturation, the more potential runoff.
Although last season’s levels were below average at the turn of the year, sunny, windy conditions in late winter “sublimated” the snowpack, Lynn said, meaning that snow evaporated from the slopes.
From the San Jose Mercury News, more bad news as La Nina makes another appearance this year:
News that ocean conditions switched from neutral to La Niña comes as state snow surveyors announced the results of an end-of-the-year check — the snowpack is about 76 percent of average nearly halfway through the water year.
“Even though the last few weeks have been great, it’s still below normal,” said Department of Water Resources senior meteorologist Elissa Lynn. “The worry now with La Niña back, there’s a concern that the second half of the winter or the spring could shut off,” Lynn said. “We were hoping we weren’t in one and that we could have a whole winter.”
La Niña is associated with cooler ocean temperatures off South America’s western coast. It usually means dry conditions in the Southwest — though last year was an exception — and wet conditions in the Pacific Northwest. Northern California, between those two regions, cannot use either La Niña nor El Niño as a reliable predictor of weather.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported in an update Monday that La Niña conditions were present and likely to continue for the next several months. A La Niña has to be in place for a longer period of time before it is characterized as a full-fledged “episode.”
But what concerns water managers is the possibility that, like last year, the snow season could end abruptly. “Last year, we didn’t get anything (rain or snow) in March and April,” Lynn said. “One of the reasons it stopped last year on March 1 was we were in La Niña.”
The Pasadena Star News gives the perspective for Southern California:
Southern California gets approximately 30 percent of its water from the Sierras. That supply has been slashed not only by drought, but also by recent regulatory decisions meant to prevent the environmental collapse of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. The delta serves as the epicenter of California’s water delivery system - pumping northern water south.
Decisions by the Fish and Wildlife Service this month and Judge Oliver Wanger last year to protect native fish by reducing pumping in the Delta could each reduce water deliveries by 20 to 30 percent. To make up for the shortfall, Southern California has had to increasingly rely on local water sources.
“We know some areas have already found alternatives, and gone to their reserves, and those reserves may be running out. If we don’t end up with more precipitation in Northern California, if we have a third dry year, we are going to end up with a supply crisis,” Lynn said.
The Main San Gabriel Basin Watermaster, which is responsible for managing groundwater in the Main San Gabriel Basin, has already asked cities to cut water demand by 20 percent.
The Watermaster won’t know until next week the effects of recent rain and snow on groundwater levels, but director Carol Williams said she certainly hopes there is more to come. “If that is all we have to look forward to, we are going to see a big push for more conservation,” she said.
Arizona, on the other hand, is looking real good, as Shawn McKinnon’s Waterblogged tells us:
Although this is still early in Arizona’s snow season, it’s safe to say we’re off to a wet, slushy start. The Verde River basin (where streamflows spiked through the roof in the wake of last week’s storms) looks the best right now: a snow-water equivalent of 341 percent of average for the end of December. Precipitation so far is running 155 percent of average.
On the Salt River watershed, another source of metro Phoenix’s water supply, snowpack is at 190 percent of average, with precip at 124 percent of average.
Elsewhere, snowpack on the Central Mogollon Rim is at 311 percent of average; in the San Francisco River basin above the Gila, snowpack is 145 percent of average; and on the upper Gila itself, snowpack is 116 percent of average for this time of year. Way up on the Little Colorado River headwaters, around Mt. Baldy, snowpack is 238 percent of average.
Conditions in the Colorado River Basin are not quite as good, ranging from 59% to 140%. (For more information, check out Waterblogged’s post.)
For more information on California’s snow survey:
Read the DWR Press Release
DWR Climate News for 12/30 - La Nina is back
Coverage from the Sacramento Bee
Coverage from the Long Beach Press-Telegram
Sacramento Bee editorial on wastewater treament plant: A half-million on spin, not science
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 31, 2008 at 6:25 amFrom the Sacramento Bee, this editorial:
Wondering why California’s water crisis never seems to end? Part of the answer lies with the behavior of individual water agencies.
Instead of devoting their ratepayers’ money to projects that might increase water supply or resolve environmental conflicts, these districts spend far too much on campaigns to assign blame or divert attention from their own actions.
Such a set of campaigns is occurring now. Some of the biggest exporters of water from the Delta – the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the Contra Costa Water District, the State Water Contractors and others – are targeting Sacramento for contributing to the decline of smelt and other fish in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
In filings with regulators and in media commentaries, the south-of-Delta water agencies claim that Sacramento’s treated wastewater is harming phytoplankton and hurting the ecology and water quality of the Delta.
And the editorial points out that there is reason for concern, as the Sacramento Bee noted in an editorial published last June, especially given the plans to increase the plant’s output by 40%. But the case against the wastewater treatment plant is not airtight; more research needs to be done:
In this effort, it would be helpful if everyone involved – from water contractors to the Sacramento sanitation district – would help to advance the basic research. Determining if ammonia from Sacramento’s treatment plant is actually damaging the estuary would be money well spent, especially since ammonia removal could cost the sanitation district up to $1 billion.
Sadly, instead of taking such a proactive approach, the Sacramento sanitation district is spending its money in more dubious ways. Last month, the district’s board – made up of Sacramento County’s five supervisors and other elected officials – hired a local public affairs firm to launch a “strategic communications plan” to counter any suggestion that ammonia might pose a threat.
According to a copy of the contract, this strategic plan will cost this public agency and its ratepayers an astounding $532,500 to $630,525.
Such is the nature of water politics. Instead of resolving conflicts and letting science drive policy, water agencies devote enormous sums of public money to litigation, perks, wasteful spending and – above all – spin.
Read the full text of this editorial from the Sacramento Bee by clicking here.
Agreement to take down Klamath dams? Not likely, says commentary
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 31, 2008 at 6:20 amFrom the San Francisco Chronicle, this commentary by Ani Kame’enui, the Klamath campaign coordinator for Oregon Wild, an educational and scientific organization that works to protect and restore Oregon’s wildlands, wildlife and water:
The Klamath Basin agreement for removal of the river’s lower four dams, is 32 pages long. I am beginning to wonder if those commenting in support of the it only made it through the first two-and-a-half pages. A thorough read of the document reveals that the devil is most certainly in the details.
A diverse group has worked for dam removal in one of the West’s most debated and ecologically valuable watersheds. Unfortunately, rather than a road map for dam removal, the recently signed tentative agreement is the dysfunctional product of a Bush-led Department of Interior - an agency that has failed the Klamath time and again over the last eight years. It is a mystery why cooperating parties, including the states of Oregon and California, would allow a lame-duck president to lay a faulty foundation for Klamath Basin policy for President-elect Barack Obama.
There is no doubt that dam removal is necessary to restore the Klamath River’s salmon runs, and the cultures and wildlife that depend on a healthy river. However, the agreement would delay any work to remove the harmful dams until 2020.
While the delayed time line is troubling, even worse is the provision that strips Oregon and California of their ability to keep Klamath River water clean. The agreement allows PacifiCorp to bypass Clean Water Act certification, a process viewed as an insurmountable hurdle on the road to dam relicensing. Rather than mandating a change from conditions that led to toxic water and dead salmon, the agreement guarantees status-quo management for at least another decade.
Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle by clicking here.
State’s water woes require a broad approach, says commentary
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 31, 2008 at 6:13 amFrom the Sacramento Bee, this commentary by Steve Danna, chairman of the Northern California Water Association:
It’s no secret that California is possibly facing the worst drought year in its history. Two critically dry years combined with Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta pumping restrictions, climate change, and population increases have left California in a severe water shortage situation, with water supplies in major reservoirs and the groundwater basins in the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California at or below historical lows To help address the state’s water needs, the California Department of Water Resources unveiled its 2009 drought water bank. This is the first time the state has established a drought water bank since the last major statewide drought in 1994.
The function of this state government plan is to buy water primarily from local water agencies and farmers upstream of the Delta, and make the water available for sale to public and private water systems expecting to run short of water in 2009 due to ongoing drought conditions and regulatory restrictions. Sounds great? To some maybe, but to others, it is concerning.
A key concern is that expectations for water transfers are high. The state’s and buyers’ expectations are that about 600,000 acre-feet of water will be available for transfer. Yet water supplies in major upstream reservoirs have been stressed following the past two years of critically dry conditions. Given normal rainfall for this year, and restrictions that the state has placed on sellers’ potential participation in the 2009 drought water bank, about 150,000 acre-feet of water may be a more realistic expectation.
However, even that amount may be optimistic.
Read more of this commentary from the Sacramento Bee by clicking here.
Storms help bolster Folsom reservoir; Rain gives lake an additional five-foot cushion
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 31, 2008 at 6:06 amFrom the Folsom Telegraph:
Recent storms have helped bolster Folsom Lake, replenishing what it lost during the first half of December and adding 8,500 acre feet of water.
In the first two weeks of the December, the lake was down approximately 10,000 acre feet and within just 46 feet of the intake pipe that feeds water to the residents of Folsom. The intake pipe now sits a more safe distance of 51 feet below the water’s surface when measured at Folsom Dam, according to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
In early October, Folsom Utilities Director Ken Payne said the city hoped to keep the lake’s level around 390 feet. A stage two water alert went into effect in September. The lake now sits at 371 feet and was at its lowest on Dec. 14 when it was at 366.77 feet. The intake pipe is at the 320-foot mark.
“We’re in a stage two now and we operate as we are now and hope there’s a lot of rain,” Payne said.
Folsom Lake is still only at less than 25% capacity. Read more from the Folsom Telegraph by clicking here.
Milestone in water rights negotiations between Pechanga Band & Rancho California Water District
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 31, 2008 at 6:04 amFrom the North County Times:
Leaders of the Pechanga Band of Luiseno Indians and the Rancho California Water District say they have put together the framework for lasting water rights peace in the Temecula Valley. Whether this framework turns into actual legislation that is approved by the U.S. Congress remains to be seen. Matt Stone, Rancho Water’s general manager, said recently that he is cautiously optimistic. But he added, “there is still more work to do.”
Congress is part of the equation because any money given to the Pechanga tribe as part of the Indian Water Rights Settlement must be approved in a piece of legislation. Under the 1908 settlement, the federal government pledged to provide sufficient water resources to tribes forced to live on reservations.
The work Stone referenced is complicated because a sovereign tribal nation, the federal government, the Santa Margarita River Basin and the always politically sensitive resource of water are involved.
Both the tribe and the district draw water from aquifers in the basin —- 750 square miles stretching from Southwest County to northern San Diego County.
In the last few years, the tribe and the district have been trying to cordially hash out competing claims to the water in those aquifers without going to court, an expensive and time-consuming process that both parties said they are hoping to avoid.
Read more from the North County Times by clicking here.
Malibu’s vanishing Broad Beach a sign of rising sea levels, experts say
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 31, 2008 at 6:02 am
From the Los Angeles Times:
Broad Beach has long been a scenic backdrop to Malibu’s public access wars. The tranquil rhythm of surf has been routinely shattered by security guards and sheriff’s deputies bouncing beachgoers who spread towels on the confusing mosaic of public and private sand.
Today, Broad Beach has shrunk into a narrow sliver of its former self. And like other skinny Malibu icons, its slenderness qualified the beach for a different kind of trend-setting role: How California will deal with rising sea levels.
Sandwiched between the advancing sea and coastal armor built to protect multimillion-dollar homes, the strip of sand is being swept away by waves and tides. Soon, oceanographers and coastal engineers contend, the rising ocean will eclipse the clash between the beach-going public and the private property owners: There will be no dry sand left to fight over.
“If the latest projections of sea level rise are right, you can kiss goodbye the idea of a white sandy beach,” said Bill Patzert, a climatologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Cañada Flintridge. “You are going to be jumping off the sea wall onto the rocks below.”
Read more from the Los Angeles Times by clicking here.
Paspalum grass can help golf courses meet water supply and water quality challenges
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 31, 2008 at 5:46 am
From Golf Week, a second installment of a special report on how golf courses can meet water supply challenges discusses a new turfgrass:
Fifteen years ago, Ron Duncan, then a researcher at the University of Georgia, was trying to narrow the focus of his turfgrass research efforts. He needed to dial in on a species that would attract funding, the lifeblood of any scientific endeavor. And he understood money flows to problem-solvers.
Duncan’s vision became clear. “Water, I knew, was going to be like gold,” Duncan says. “And I knew water quality was going to be an issue.”
That insight led to seashore paspalum, a turfgrass cultivar that can exist in sandy conditions with little nutrition or water. Most remarkable – and valuable – it can tolerate undrinkable water that’s off-the-charts high in salt content.
For the golf course industry, facing unprecedented pressures from shrinking water supplies, seashore paspalum could find itself in high demand. So far, its advocates say, about 150 of the nation’s 17,000 courses have adopted the turfgrass. And it has almost single-handedly triggered a course-development boom in the Caribbean, which, until the advent of paspalum, couldn’t grow quality turfgrass because of the region’s salty water. Paspalum’s usage won’t stop there.
Once thought that the grass could thrive only in sandy conditions, its limitations now seem dictated more by climate than soil type. In fact, it is suited for use anywhere below southern Virginia on the East Coast, westward to Albuquerque, N.M., and Las Vegas, and north to Sacramento, Calif., according to Duncan.
“Research we conducted at the University of Georgia clearly indicates that we haven’t found a soil it won’t go into,” he says.
Read more from Golf Week by clicking here.
Special note to golfers: For some golf tips on playing courses with “environmentally sensitive areas” and different turfgrasses, click here.
Researchers say global warming to have devastating impact on certain California crops
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 31, 2008 at 5:38 amFrom the Western Farm Press:
Global warming will likely put enormous strain on California’s water supply and energy systems and have a devastating impact on certain crops.
Stanford researchers predict this outcome based on projections from two different emission scenarios. One assumes a continuing moderate increase in greenhouse gas emissions until 2100; the other assumes emissions would increase until mid-century and then start dropping off.
Both of the scenarios indicate there will be more frequent heat waves and generally rising temperatures, the only difference being just how dramatic the increases will be.
“We will very likely see our current high temperatures much more often and also temperatures hotter than anything we’ve seen before under both projected levels of carbon dioxide emissions,” said Michael Mastrandrea, a lecturer in the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Environment and Resources and a research associate at the Woods Institute for the Environment. “This is something that’s going to be a huge challenge for California to deal with in the future.”
Read more from the Western Farm Press by clicking here.
DWR announces snow survey results
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 30, 2008 at 8:21 pm
From the Department of Water Resources:
The Department of Water Resources (DWR) first snow survey of the 2008/2009 winter season indicates snow water content is 76 percent of normal for the date, statewide. This time last year, snow water content was 60 percent of normal statewide.
“While today’s conditions are an improvement over last year’s initial snow survey figures, the strain on California’s water supply persists,” said DWR Director Lester Snow. “Recent regulatory actions that further limit pumping through the Delta and deficits from the previous two dry years will require a very wet year to relieve the drought. We must take immediate steps to protect the Delta ecosystem, conserve more water and develop additional groundwater and surface storage facilities to meet our future needs.”
Governor Schwarzenegger has outlined steps to safeguard the state’s water supply through a comprehensive plan that includes water conservation, more surface and groundwater storage, new investments in the state’s aging water infrastructure, and improved water conveyance to protect the environment and provide a reliable water supply.
While this year’s water content is higher than last, winter storms arrived late. It is too early to tell whether improved figures will translate into a better water year than the state experienced last year, when winter storms ended early leading to California’s driest spring on record.
Electronic sensor readings show northern Sierra snow water equivalents at 54 percent of normal for this date, central Sierra at 76 percent, and southern Sierra at 99 percent. The sensor readings are posted at http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/snow/DLYSWEQ.
Storage in California’s major reservoirs is low. Lake Oroville, the principal storage reservoir for the State Water Project (SWP), is at 28 percent of capacity, and 44 percent of average storage for this time of year.
Continuing dry conditions and court-ordered restrictions on Delta water exports are limiting water deliveries to farms and urban areas. DWR’s early estimate is that it will only be able to deliver 15 percent of requested State Water Project water this year to the Bay Area, San Joaquin Valley, Central Coast and Southern California. Increased precipitation this winter could increase this figure.
In December 2008, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released a Delta smelt Biological Opinion which could reduce Delta exports by 20-50 percent. In December 2007, Judge Oliver Wanger restricted pumping to protect the Delta smelt, resulting in a 25 percent reduction in water deliveries. In a November 2008 decision, the California Fish and Game Commission implemented take restrictions for the longfin smelt which also could reduce water delivery pumping. And a Biological Opinion from the National Marine Fisheries Service to protect salmon and steelhead is expected in March. These regulatory actions have and will continue to significantly decrease deliveries to homes, farms, cities and industry by both the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project.
Results of today’s manual survey by DWR off Highway 50 near Echo Summit are as follow:
Location
Elevation
Snow Depth
Water Content
% of Long Term Average
Phillips Station
6,800 feet
41 inches
10 inches
83%
Importance of Snow Surveying
Snow water content is important in determining the coming year’s water supply. The measurements help hydrologists prepare water supply forecasts as well as provide others, such as hydroelectric power companies and the recreation industry, with needed data.
Monitoring is coordinated by the Department of Water Resources as part of the multi-agency California Cooperative Snow Surveys Program. Surveyors from more than 50 agencies and utilities visit hundreds of snow measurement courses in California’s mountains to gauge the amount of water in the snowpack.
DWR Climate News: La Nina is back!
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 30, 2008 at 8:18 pmFrom DWR meteorologist Elissa Lynn:
Quick update today. The Climate Prediction Center now says La Nina conditions are in place over the Pacific. The central and eastern Pacific temperatures have dropped considerably over recent weeks, and are now about as cool as a year ago. This server does not allow pictures, so please see the slide imagery (specifically page 10):
http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/lanina/enso_evolution-status-fcsts-web.pdf
If the link gets cut off (its automatically truncated if too long), please go to http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov and seek out the La Nina Expert Discussion pdf.
At any rate, the graph looks like the stock market; dropping temps.
A possible concern is that Northern California will have a winter like it did last year when we were in a La Nina. Briefly, the spring last year was a dry one. We had nothing come down in March or April, which for the Sierra make up about 20% of the season. La Nina’s can do that “second half shutdown” of precip, although they are capable of wet winters, too. Earlier on, when we went out of the La Nina this summer, it was hoped we’d be able to cobble together an entire season. But now with its return, if the winter ends abruptly, we’d have a 3rd dry year in the State.
La Ninas and El Ninos can occur back to back, and/or you can go without either for long periods of time. But La Nina conditions are now projected to continue through early 2009.
Last year’s La Nina was atypically kind to Southern California, however. The southwestern U.S., which can often have a dry winter during La Nina, fared very well. Arizona had one of its wettest La Nina’s on record, and the snowpack over the Colorado River basin was quite good last season. So, we’ll see what this year’s La Nina does.
Next update is on today’s Snow Survey. This first of the winter field measurement involves only a limited number of sites. These course readings are more accurate than automated sensor data, but are coming pretty close in line with expectations from the storms that we saw over Christmas. Today, at Phillips Station, along highway 50, the reading showed 83% of long term average; 41″ snow depth, and 10″ water content.
Its the snow water equivalence that is key to supply. The year so far has been about at that level; 80-90% or so, statewide, and for the Sierra precipitation.
For more information on today’s survey, see the DWR Press release, which should be out shortly:
http://www.water.ca.gov/news/ [see Aquafornia post above this one]
Additional surveys will be conducted on or near the first of the month from February to May, for over 200 sites. They provide important information for forecasting California’s water supply.
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