Introducing … the Aquafornia Discussion Forum!

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 23, 2009 at 7:30 am

Do you have something to say about California water issues? Now you can have your chance in Aquafornia’s new discussion forum. You can access it by clicking on the “Join Our Discussion Forum” graphic located below the Information Desk, or by clicking here.’

I’ve put some questions in there to get things started, or you can start your own thread. Please note that you need to be registered and logged in to participate. Click here to register.

Register now for the Lower Colorado River Tour, March 4 – 6

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 23, 2009 at 7:00 am

From the Water Education Foundation:

A few seats remain for the Water Education Foundation’s March 4-6 Lower Colorado River Tour. This 3-day, 2-night tour follows the course of the lower Colorado River through Nevada, Arizona and California, and includes a private tour of Hoover Dam, a boat ride on Lake Mead, and visits to the Imperial National Wildlife refuge, farms in the Imperial and Coachella valleys, the All-American Canal lining project and the Salton Sea. Issues discussed include Colorado River drought management options, the Central Arizona Project, southern Nevada’s water needs, border issues, endangered species and tribal water rights. The tour begins in Las Vegas and ends at California’s Ontario International Airport.

The tour is a must for water policy-makers, water district managers and directors, lawyers, consultants, journalists, and anyone interested in Colorado River issues. To learn more about the tour and register online, visit the Water Education Foundation website at www.watereducation.org/tours. Register now to ensure your place on this educational and fun tour.

Odds and ends: Your lawn an ‘unreasonable use’ of water?, rationing and development in LA, our real crisis not budget but water, Aguanomics water chats in the Imperial Valley, PLF on the priorities of water allocations, the good and bad of desal, update on TCID case, Australia’s toilet tax – “pay as you go”, and beautiful aerial shots of the Delta, plus more!

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 22, 2009 at 11:03 pm

With my desktop filling up, this post is long overdue…..

Could your thirsty green lawn be determined an ‘unreasonable use’ of water? Quite possibly, says the Pasadena Sub Rosa blog, and we all had better pay attention: An anonymous apparent insider to the backstage dealings of California’s water crisis has alerted this blog to the real possibility that imported water could be shut off soon to Southern California’s cities if the cities have the wrong type of landscaping (i.e., water thirsty home gardens). This shut off scenario could hit Southern California cities out of nowhere much like the world-wide financial meltdown appeared nearly overnight. And like the financial meltdown, it would be wise to listen to those who are furtively trying to give us an early warning signal of this emerging situation. Read all about it from the Pasadean Sub Rosa blog: Imported water to So Cal cities could be shut off soon if they have the wrong landscaping

LA’s rationing plan & penalties especially unfair to the residential class, especially considering Los Angeles city council’s penchant for building more and more housing without regards to infrastructure, says the Westerhcester Parents blog: Imposing penalties on residents is bad policy given that the drought was created by ill-managed housing policies throughtout Southern California and not mother nature alone. The problem is.. our elected officials “build at all opportunities” housing policy. As if there are no other Southern California regions participating in the larger equation. Participants such as the other five counties including Imperial, Orange, Riverside, Orange and San Bernadino counties who all have similar myopic goals to meet California’s populaton projections. This is classic “silo mentality” thinking at the county and city level. Read more from the Westchester Parents blog: Wrecking L.A.’s residential class

Forget the budget – California’s real crisis is water management, says the TreeHugger blog: Last minute negotiations may have solved California’s budget crisis; but, a more protracted problem shadows the future of civilization-as-they-know-it: water reservoirs are drying up; and climate change is likely to worsen the problem. Food prices throughout North American, and even parts of Asia, which import produce from California, will be affected in the short-term. Long-term water shortage prospects point to an either-or scenario: social disorganization on a large scale or, alternatively, to massive, government-funded water project expansions, plus water conservation measures, and dietary changes. Read more from the TreeHugger blog: California’s Real Sustainabilty Problem: Not Budgets, Water Resources Management

Aguanomics travels south for ‘water chats’ in the Imperial Valley: Here’s his photo essay, his chat with Imperial Valley farmer Joe Tagg: Water is too expensive at IID. $17/AF is way more than $6-12/AF that farmers pay elsewhere. and The Imperial Irrigation District does NOT own the water. It belongs to the farmers. Then he chats with IID staffers, writing about it in two posts. In the first post (click here), he writes: I came out of this interview convinced that IID is walking into a shitstorm of its own making: 1. Nobody appeared to know how much revenue IID has made from water exports to urban areas or when or how that revenue would be distributed to farmers who fallowed land. Farmers are angry about that. 2. IID is trying to set quantity (5.25AF/acre) AND price ($17/AF) at the same time. It’s basic economics that you can’t set both without getting a surplus or shortage. 3. IID appears to think that water rights do not belong to the farmers whose land initially attracted those water rights. That’s just silly. In the second post (click here), he tries to explain why he thinks IID is so dysfunctional, pointing to a divergence between voting and economic power: At IID, this means that one-man, one-vote political power does not match the concentration of economic power in farmers who are few in number (about 300) but responsible for 97% of water purchases. The result is that the majority (by vote) makes policies that serve it (e.g., no water trades or reform of water institutions), and the minority (by vote) suffers from a reduction in the value of their assets (irrigated farmland). The answer, he says, is to split the power and water divisions, but there’s no political will within IID to do that. From the Aguanomics blog.

The Pacific Legal Foundation responds to the news that the state and feds knowingly violated rules to protect the smelt in order to protect the salmon: If you’re a farmer in California’s Central Valley, it’s news like this that makes you wonder. On the one hand, you’re told that the amount of water you receive is restricted in part due to required protection for the delta smelt. On the other hand, California water officials are restricting the amount of flow into the delta, making the recovery of the delta smelt species and the needed lifting of water export restrictions that much less likely. In other words, the order of priorities for the allocation of water seems to be 1) salmon, 2) delta fish species, 3) farmers. Read more from the Pacific Legal Foundation: News on Delta interspecies conflict

Desalination – there are both good and bad reasons to pursue it, but eventually it will be necessary in some locales more so than others, says the California Greening blog: The economic costs of dealinization are one of the most promising areas for ventue capital application right now. New membrane products from NanoH2O are many times more efficient than current technologies. New processes such as those being developed by Oasys in New England project a 90% reduction in energy consumption. Industrial permaculture processes could reduce costs even more. Read more from the California Greening blog: Desalination – neither savior or devil

Update on Truckee Carson Irrigation District trial: It has been delayed for at least a year.

Australia considers changing sewage charges based on volume of sewage generated by the household: Says official: “It would encourage people to reduce their sewage output by taking shorter showers,recycling washing machine water or connecting rainwater tanks to internal plumbingto reduce their charges,”Professor Young said. “Some people may go as far as not flushing their toilet as often because the less sewage you produce, the less sewage rate you pay.” And what do they plan to call this new system? “Pay as you go”, of course…. From the Environmental Economics blog: I love when the jokes write themselves

More stunning Delta pictures: I love the patterns the fields and water makes on the earth. Check out this aerial gallery of pictures of the Delta and other places by photographer Adrian Mendoza. And here’s a great photo gallery of Eastern Sierra photos by Kevin McNeal Photography.

Honorable mentions for interestingness: Aguanomics weekend discussion on moving water between watersheds; Our precarious levee system by Romick in Oakley; Torqopia blog on Water in the West; The California water vs Delta smelt war by RBO, Drought in California to suck worse than ever by La Vida Locavore; the Porterville Nerd responds to Jim Gogek’s post about water conservation beginning down on the farm; A sponge brick in the toilet tank – why Pasadena’s rainfall flows to the sea in a drought from the Pasadena Sub Rosa blog, and last but not least, Winter Ascent of the Complete North Ridge of Lone Pine Peak – okay, this isn’t necessarily water related, but it does mention Owens Valley, which is how I found it, but I did get a kick out of Astronaut, Viking and Pirate’s crazy adventure of actually hiking to the top of a mountain in the middle of winter – folks, don’t try this one at home – these guys are seriously nuts!

San Joaquin River restoration settlement puts Valley on verge of a catastrophe, says columnist

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 22, 2009 at 8:25 am

From the Fresno Bee, columnist Bill McEwen:

California’s water system is failing. And now the House of Representatives is about to break it completely by providing $88 million to bring salmon back to the San Joaquin River.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m for restoring the San Joaquin River below Friant Dam. But the plan that Congress is expected to approve in a few days will cripple the Valley economy and create an environmental nightmare.

The problem with the plan is that it only puts water in the riverbed. There isn’t another spending bill dealing with farmland retirement and the spike in unemployment that will occur if land goes fallow. There’s also no acknowledgment that farmers with significantly reduced access to river water will pump groundwater until the aquifer is degraded and exhausted. Finally, there isn’t a dime for infrastructure to offset the effects of cutting water deliveries to farms.

If you’re wondering who to blame for this pending disaster, look no further than Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the key player in the river’s restoration settlement.

Read more of this column from the Frenso Bee’s Bill McEwen by clicking here.

Making a ‘new’ case for the Auburn Dam; Rumors of the dam’s demise greatly exaggerated, says commentary

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 22, 2009 at 8:23 am

From the Sacramento Union, the first in a three-part commentary series on the Auburn Dam:

The Auburn Dam is dead. Late last year, the state of California revoked water rights issues issued to the federal government to build the Auburn Dam. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation did not protest the move. Thus, an obscure bureaucracy and gleeful environmentalists tell us the deed is done.

But wait: The Auburn Dam has been declared dead many, many times.

Using one complaint and lawsuit after another, environmentalists have obstructed new surface water storage anywhere in California. “Death by a thousand lawsuits,” Laura King Moon of State Water Contractors has said about water storage projects.

Studies, engineering reports and lawsuits disproved or mitigated every complaint—so much so that the Auburn Dam remained a vital part of every single California Water Plan until 1998. Thereafter, a white water rafter, Jonas Minton, became deputy director of the California Department of Water Resources. As he had in the Sacramento Water Forum, Minton stacked the water planning process with environmental extremists; inflated water conservation projections; summarily dismissed any new water storage; delivered a report years late and waterless; and dropped the Auburn Dam from the state plan for the first time.

To win, opponents of the Auburn Dam shout the loudest and speak the longest. Ultimately, intimidated bureaucrats and politicians have failed to protect the public interest they are obligated as civil servants and elected officials to protect.

So on Dec. 2, an obscure California bureaucracy, the State Water Resources Control Board, unanimously voted to steal water from the Auburn Dam project. Last nail in the coffin, it is said.

The board’s hearing was a phony show trial in which environmental extremists dominated the judge, jury, plaintiff and most of the defendants. Except for public comment from the Auburn Dam Council (an advocacy group backing the construction of a dam at the Auburn site), the interests of the people of California were not represented. The water board stacked or solicited letters on the opposing side; almost all letters came from outside the Auburn Dam area.

Read more of this commentary from the Sacramento Union by clicking here. The second installment of this three-part commentary series will be posted next Sunday. Hat tip to the Parkway blog!

Drought may cut off federal water to California farms, devastate farmers

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 22, 2009 at 8:22 am

Here’s the obligatory third-day posting on the drought, with links on the bottom for more drought stories posted in recent days. From the Capital Press:

State and federal water officials delivered dire news Friday, saying users would receive anywhere between 0 and 15 percent of contracted deliveries in 2009.

California’s recent rains, along with those forecast for the coming week, will prove barely a drop in the bucket, said Lester Snow, director of the state Department of Water Resources. Snow announced that the state’s early estimate of 15 percent of contracted water deliveries would remain unchanged.

“The message here today is California remains in a very severe drought condition,” Snow said. “These storms have been great, but they have done nothing to alleviate the drought conditions in this state.”

The low deliveries from the State Water Project could cause thousands of acres in the San Joaquin Valley to be taken out of production this year, Snow said.

Of water from the federal Central Valley Project, agricultural users will receive anywhere from 0 to 10 percent of contracted allocations, said Donald Glaser, regional director of the Bureau of Reclamation’s Mid-Pacific Region.

As many as 1 million acres of Central Valley land will not receive any federal water this year, Glaser said.

“The Central Valley Project would (normally) deliver between 6 and 7 million acre-feet of water to water users north and south of the delta,” Glaser said. “This year we will probably deliver about 3 million acre-feet. Bottom line, it’s going to be a tough year for us.”

Read more from the Capital Press by clicking here.

The drought and the water cutbacks were the subject of NPR’s All Things Considered:

The long-running California drought has so parched water resources in the state that federal water managers announced Friday they would likely completely cut surface water deliveries to some key growing areas. The state estimates the water cutoff could cost $1 billion in lost farm revenue and cost 40,000 jobs.

Click here to listen to the 4 minute segment from NPR’s All Things Considered.

An editorial in today’s Manteca Bulletin reminds us that wasting water is wasting our economic wealth:

California as we know it was made possible by the ability to transfer water from areas of the state with great abundance to the Mediterranean-style dry climate regions of the state that lacked adequate precipitation. It is what created our agricultural production that is second to none on earth. It is also what created our great coastal cities. It is what made towns like Manteca, Ripon, and Lathrop possible.

The experts say the drought in 1976-77 wasn’t as severe as what we’re experiencing today. That’s scary for several reasons. First, there are 15 million more Californians today – 38 million in all – than there was in 1977. The reason we have been able to get as far as we have in the current three year drought without major cutbacks to this point has to do with conservation efforts, particularly among the farming community.

Pumping water costs money. If you doubt that ask a farmer how much his PG&E bill is each month. Irrigation water from surface sources is also costly. So farmers – particularly those who aren’t corporate endeavors such as down the west side of the Southern San Joaquin Valley – have come up with innovative ways to use less water. The same is true of urban users although their water reduction numbers aren’t quite as impressive as the farming community.

And by all indications, we can still cut water use further by doing everything from watering lawns less – the first drought we learned we had been overwatering them and helping keep them a bit unhealthy – to cutting down on the length of showers.

Water is California’s lifeblood.

Spilling it in waste is the same as squandering our future.

Read the full text of this editorial from the Manteca Bulletin by clicking here.

FOR MORE DROUGHT COVERAGE ON AQUAFORNIA:

Coverage wrap up from yesterday (Saturday): Drought still on tap; rain did little to fill major Northern California reservoirs; Farms and cities prepare for the worst

Check out California’s drought in pictures and graphs by clicking here.

Read DWR’s press release announcing that State Water Project allocations will remain at 15% by clicking here.

Read the Bureau of Reclamation’s press release, announcing the CVP’s allocation of 0 (to 10%) for ag this year by clicking here.

Even more stories by clicking here (category page for Drought, Weather & Snowpack articles), or simply keep reading the scroll.

Great Lakes scourge infects West: Quagga mussels are clogging Hoover Dam, colonizing lakes, rivers

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 22, 2009 at 8:12 am

Here is a great read from the Milwaukee Sentinel-Journal:

It took some of America’s best engineers, thousands of laborers and two years of around-the-clock concrete pouring to build the 726-foot-high Hoover Dam back in the 1930s. It took less time than that for the tiny, brainless quagga mussel to bring operators of this modern wonder of the world to their knees.

While federal lawmakers continue to squabble over how to stop overseas ships from dumping unwanted organisms into the world’s largest freshwater system, the Great Lakes’ most vexing invasive-species problem has gone national.

And so is the pressure to change the way the lakes’ shrinking overseas shipping industry operates. An average of fewer than two ocean ships per day now arrive in the Great Lakes during the nine-month shipping season, yet the industry is still responsible for most of the invasive species introductions into the lakes since the St. Lawrence Seaway opened 50 years ago.

“Some people think we just have a handful of ships coming in and that it’s just a Great Lakes problem, but it’s not,” says Jennifer Nalbone of the conservation group Great Lakes United. “Our invasions are spreading like wildfire across the continent.”

This article is filled with a lot of interesting details, including the impact that the quagga mussels are having on Hoover Dam:

U.S. Bureau of Reclamation researcher Leonard Willett works in the lower intestines of Hoover Dam, in a windowless office converted into a war room to beat back the clustering mussels with chemicals, heat and even bacteria. He says common sense tells him this little speck of a critter shouldn’t be a threat to something as grand as this concrete dam, which is thicker than the lengths of two football fields.

Yet Willett is in a nonstop fight against a foe that is clogging the dam’s cooling pipes like plaque in the arteries of a heart-diseased patient.

If he loses, the generators will overheat, and a power plant that can supply electricity to half a million homes will shut down.

“You wouldn’t think that a little fingernail-sized mollusk could stop or slow down a dam this size, but when you see what these little critters can do, it is amazing,” he says. “They can quickly start shutting down even the largest infrastructures.”

And here’s another thing I didn’t know: the shells are very sharp:

It’s already pretty bad for marina dock worker John Koeller, who figures he cuts himself 10 to 15 times a day because anything he plucks from the water “is like grabbing something that’s covered in broken glass.”

The worst is when hot weather hits – which is, of course, much of the year – and he can’t wear a protective wetsuit while working in the water.

His thumb freshly sliced up from a morning’s work on a dock truss, Koeller lifts his T-shirt to reveal arms scored by mussel shell scars. He says there are some days he comes out of the water so bloody “it looks like you’ve been attacked by a shark.”

Good reporting! An interesting and comprehensive article on the quagga and zebra mussel problem, well worth clicking here to read.

At Grand Canyon, water battle rages anew: Utilities’ needs trumping habitat, scientists allege

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 22, 2009 at 7:59 am

From the Arizona Republic:

Nearly a year after the federal government flooded the Grand Canyon in a test of resource restoration, questions persist about whether the agency in charge watered down the experiment to protect power providers and ignored high-level critics of the operation.

The allegations resurfaced with a January memo written by the superintendent of Grand Canyon National Park, who accused his bosses of disregarding science in preparing for the flood designed to reverse some of the damaging effects of Glen Canyon Dam on the canyon and on the Colorado River. He also described the environmental review of the experiment as one of the worst he’s seen.

Conservation groups say the Interior Department tailored the experiment, a four-day flush of water from Lake Powell down the Colorado River, to appease providers whose power is generated by Glen Canyon Dam. The providers have long complained about the money lost whenever changes are made in the way water is released from the dam.

The episode further feeds a long-simmering feud between environmentalists and power interests and raises the issue yet again of whether a dam and a fragile riparian ecosystem can coexist.

A sustainable solution would require each side to yield some ground, which seems unlikely anytime soon: Conservationists have sued the federal government to force changes even as the Interior Department defends its five-year plan.

Both sides share the rocky but unbreakable link between water and energy in the arid West, a connection that will grow more critical if climate change reduces water flows or leads to surcharges on fossil fuels used to produce power.

Read more from the Arizona Republic by clicking here.

Engineered osmosis: Revolutionizing saltwater desalination

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 22, 2009 at 7:54 am

From Clean Technica:

As we reported last month, Yale researchers Rob McGinnis and Dr. Menachem Elimelech have developed a proprietary desalination system called Engineered Osmosis that they say could produce clean drinking water from seawater or other wastewater at half the current cost. Now that their new company— Oasys Water—has secured Series A funding, it can proceed with the development of its potentially revolutionary commercial desalination platform.

Company officials claim the Engineered Osmosis (EO) process can produce drinking water at less than half the cost of current desalination methods by eliminating the need the for high-pressures used in modern Reverse Osmosis systems, thereby cutting electricity and fuel demands by more than 90%.

The result is a reduction in the economics of seawater desalination that will ultimately bring the cost of producing water from the ocean below the cost of conventional surface water, such as that used in California’s aquaduct system.

“Water shortages are no longer a ‘far-away’ problem,” said Aaron Mandell, President and CEO of Oasys, in a statement. Mendell noted that the ongoing drought in California, coupled with the fact water production is already the single largest use of California’s electrical grid, makes such developments so timely.

Read more from Clean Technica by clicking here.

Study: Economic impacts of reductions in Delta exports on Central Valley agriculture

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 22, 2009 at 7:52 am

From the University of California, Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics, this article about a recent study which is summarized as this:

We estimate the short run effects of environmental and drought induced reductions in Delta exports using a regional model of farmer decisions in California. Economic results are summarized in terms of losses in employment, revenues, and income.

They indicate that current projections of reductions in Delta exports have significant impacts that are mostly concentrated among low-wage workers, but a South-of-Delta water market could mitigate these effects.

Check it out from the Giannini Foundation’s Agriculture and Resource Economics Update by clicking here. Hat tip to the Sisweb for this one!

Are we really a desert? Yes

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 22, 2009 at 7:47 am

From MyDesert.com:

Most people have a good idea what constitutes a desert. “It’s a place that receives little rainfall, a region that can be very hot and an expanse where plant life is sparse,” a colleague once remarked.

For most purposes, his description was adequate since it covered the three characteristics possessed by true desert regions.

Of course, discerning individuals would like to know just what constitutes “a little rainfall,” what is “very hot” and at what point “plant life is sparse.” These are subjective concepts, and such descriptions make comparisons difficult — what is “a little rainfall” in North America’s Pacific Northwest would most assuredly be a deluge of biblical proportions in the Coachella Valley.

Read more from MyDesert.com by clicking here.

Commentary: Will Sugar Bowl be the white knight that rescues Royal Gorge Cross Country? Or is it out of the frying pan and into the fire for Donner Summit?

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 22, 2009 at 7:43 am

From YubaNet.com, this commentary by Kathryn Gray:

Since 2005, when Todd and Mark Foster, of Foster Enterprises, and Kirk Syme, of Woodstock Development, purchased Royal Gorge Cross Country and surrounding properties from Rancho Monterey, Donner Summit has had the sword of development hanging over its head. The Bay area developers, aka Royal Gorge LLC, who purchased the properties stunned the Summit with proposals for 950 + houses and condo/timeshares, commercial developments, hotels, artificial lakes, ski lift links to Sugar Bowl, and even a ridge top restaurant looming in the rugged viewshed of the North Fork American River.

Their big plans, however, failed to factor in the dearth of water at Donner Summit, the resistance by those who love the South Yuba River, and people whose drinking water comes from the headwaters of the South Yuba, to yet even more effluent and algae befouling the river, and the dogged insistence by Placer County, and associated fire agencies that additional egress to protect residents was nonnegotiable.

Factor in the economy, and Sugar Bowl’s early 2008 withdrawal of their letter of intent to connect and support ski lifts for Royal Gorge LLC’s proposed “ski camp”, and it’s been a long, dry year for any proposed development on Donner Summit. In fact, it’s been over 6 months since Royal Gorge LLC has had any communication with Placer County Planning regarding development, large or small.

Of late, there’s been a small, persistent buzz on the Summit that all the Royal Gorge properties may be hitting the market soon – whether as a fizzbo (for sale by owner), or a discretely placed ad under “Western Properties” in the Wall Street Journal. Speculation, which is steadily growing, has also shifted to the possibility that Sugar Bowl interests may be actively pursuing acquisition of all or part of Royal Gorge LLC’s assets.

Read more from YubaNet.com by clicking here.

It’s dry down on the farm, but Mid-Valley growers aren’t in as bad of shape

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 22, 2009 at 7:35 am

From the Appeal-Democrat, a story which demonstrates that Friday’s bad news does not distribute equally across the state:

While growers elsewhere in the Central Valley face the prospect of leaving fields fallow or even uprooting orchards for lack of water, many local farmers are looking to plant as much as possible, drill for more groundwater if necessary — and hope more rain can at least partly turn the tide of one of the driest periods in three decades.

“We’ve never had a situation like this. I can’t quite say what’s going to happen now,” said Franz Niederholzer, a farm adviser at the University of California extension in Yuba City.

The heaviest blows came to farmers in the southern part of the valley, but in some parts of the middle valley, things don’t look so bad, comparatively speaking:

Most water contracts in the Mid-Valley have been made with the federal Central Valley Project, where allocations have remained relatively generous compared to the south. The system supplies water to about two-thirds of California.

Water users who had contracts before the project’s founding get a larger share than those whose contracts were written afterward — a boon for local farms established a century or more ago. Districts with federal contracts signed in later years received no water share on Friday, though they may get partial shares later as the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation reviews water supplies monthly.

With three-quarters of their usual water shares, farmers such as Brett Scheidel, a rice grower in south Sutter County, said they could avoid large-scale retrenchments for now — though the cost of opening more wells or arranging trades with other water districts likely would raise food prices later this year.

“I think we’ll decrease the acreage slightly,” said Scheidel, who cultivated about 1,400 acres last year across several water districts. “With 75 percent of our (federal) supply it’s very close as to if we can grow the same acreage as before. We’ll probably pump more groundwater to make up the difference.

“It’s a frustrating year; with rice prices so good, it’s hard when you can’t grow all the crop you want.”

Though the federal water cuts are the first in 15 years for many North State growers, another rice grower called the cuts survivable if dry conditions don’t extend into another year.

“Everyone’s getting anxious, but there’s a lot that can happen in another month,” said Joe Carrancho, a contract farmer from Maxwell who tends to about 1,200 acres belonging to various owners. “If this continued, we may run into a problem. But for this year, I think, we can make it through.”

Read the full text of this article from the Appeal-Democrat by clicking here.

Grant to help San Joaquin County dispose of paint, protect environment

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 22, 2009 at 7:23 am

From Stockton’s Record:

San Joaquin County residents don’t mind getting their hands dirty. They have a do-it-yourself spirit, and that shows in the estimated 800,000 gallons of unused paint piled up in garages and other storage spaces across the county, said Alison Hudson, a program manager at county Solid Waste Division.

And that’s not ordinary clutter. Paint is both flammable and toxic, and it is illegal to just toss it in the garbage, she said.

Residents can drop off unused paint at a county facility, but a new grant now in place will meet them halfway, establishing drop-off points for recycled paints at more locations, such as the stores frequented by these handymen and handywomen.

But the $400,000 grant is expected to do more than just make life a little easier for people cleaning out their garages. The hope is it can save the county hundreds of thousands of dollars in dealing with unwanted paint and serve as a model to be used across the state.

Paint can harm wildlife and pollute groundwater, and it costs money to keep paint out of landfills. Dealing with paint costs the county about $425,000 a year, about half its budget for the household hazardous waste program, according to the county. Last year, the county collected 80,000 gallons of unused paint.

That paint can be reused as-is, or it can be recycled, said Kimbra Andrews, management analyst at Solid Waste. Even the oldest latex paint can be used to make concrete, she said. “It all gets recycled one way or another.”

Read more from Stockton’s Record by clicking here.

Roseville requires water customers to reduce water use by 20 percent

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 22, 2009 at 7:21 am

From YubaNet.com:

Today, the City of Roseville’s Environmental Utilities Department increased its voluntary Stage One Drought Level to a mandatory Stage Two Drought Level requiring water customers to reduce water use by 20 percent. This announcement stems from today’s joint briefing from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) and the Department of Water Resources on 2009 water supply allocations from the Central Valley Project. The briefing, which was the Bureau’s first water supply forecast for 2009, reported that Roseville’s water supply will be reduced by 50 percent.

“We have been working very hard the past few months preparing for this announcement,” said Derrick Whitehead, Roseville Director of Environmental Utilities. “With Roseville’s water supply being cut by 50 percent, we need to activate a Stage Two Drought Level now and will monitor the available water supplies over the next few months to evaluate the need to increase the level of water conservation throughout the community.”

Read more from YubaNet.com by clicking here.

Forest report cites dangers to water source

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 22, 2009 at 7:18 am

From the Durango Herald:

Calling Colorado’s high-altitude forests a national asset, the region’s top forester thinks urban water utilities should consider charging their customers a monthly forest-health fee.

Rick Cables, head of the U.S. Forest Service’s Rocky Mountain region, told state lawmakers Wednesday that forest protection is every bit as important for water supplies as building dams and pipelines. “The new water project is protecting the headwaters – investing in where the water comes from,” Cables said.

Cables and Colorado State Forester Jeff Jahnke visited the Legislature’s two agriculture committees to release the annual forest health report, which this year focuses on threats to high-altitude forests.

Trees above 9,000 feet provide biodiversity and homes for wildlife, Jahnke said. “Probably more than anything – and I think of national strategic value – is their role in producing water,” Jahnke said.

Cables agreed. People in 143 counties in 10 states rely on water from Colorado’s headwaters, he said.

The trees collect snow and keep it high on the peaks until the spring melt. But with the climate changing, runoff is arriving 10 days before it used to, Cables said. “This is really spooky stuff, folks,” he said.

Foresters can’t stop climate change, but they can try to keep the high-altitude trees healthy and free of bug outbreaks, he said. Cables proposed charging urban water users for the expensive forest thinning projects.

“If we could add 50 cents a month to the water users in Denver … that generates $6 million a year to invest in the watershed,” Cables said. “And if we get Las Vegas and Phoenix and Los Angeles on board, it could be 10 cents a month, or 5.”

Read more from the Durango Herald by clicking here.

Upgrade to warning system on tsunamis is going slowly

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 22, 2009 at 7:11 am

From the New York Times:

After a tsunami in the Indian Ocean killed hundreds of thousands of people in 2004, the American government moved to improve the nation’s tsunami warning systems. But some of the upgrades are temporary and have not been made to the highest standards. Bureaucracy has delayed others.

Charles McCreery, the director of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, first thought the improvements, which began in 2005, would take about two and a half years. But Mr. McCreery now says the center’s efforts are only “more than halfway done.” The work includes moving some seismometers to better locations and acquiring permission from landowners to install monitors on their property.

“We initially thought it wouldn’t take us this long,” Mr. McCreery said. “We were probably a little naïve.” The center has made progress, he said. Its capabilities, he said, “are hugely better today than they were just a few years ago.”

Read more from the New York Times by clicking here.

Greenest Nation: A laggard no longer, America could soon out-innovate Europe and Japan

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 22, 2009 at 7:07 am

From Newsweek:

This is a trick question. What big country is, by most measures, greener than Japan and Germany and produces more geothermal energy than all of Europe combined? It might help to know that this nation is also a pioneer in environmental stewardship, having passed many of the world’s toughest regulations on vehicle emissions, energy efficiency and nature conservation.

It couldn’t possibly be the United States. By now all the world knows that America, with its cheap gas, plentiful coal and eight years of a Kyoto-treaty-bashing president in the White House, is the world’s biggest environmental villain. After all, America emits 50 percent more greenhouse gases than the European Union for each dollar of GDP. Per capita it’s even worse: 20 tons of carbon dioxide for each American per year versus just 8.4 for a citizen of Europe.

And yet, if you were to answer the United States, you’d be more right than wrong. The statistics for the country as a whole obscure tremendous differences among the individual states—several of which, on their own, would rank as major “green” countries in their own right (which gets us to the trick). California, with its 37 million people, emits 20 percent less CO2 per dollar of GDP than Germany. It generates 24 percent of its electrical power from renewable fuels like wind and solar, compared with only 15 percent in Germany and 11 percent in Japan. It also has the world’s largest solar-power plant (550 megawatts in the Mojave Desert), the largest wind farm (7,000 turbines at Altamont Pass) and the most powerful geothermal installation (750 megawatts at The Geysers north of San Francisco). Although California isn’t immune to the economic crisis—its finances are on the brink of collapse, which could translate into growing support for those who argue that green measures cost jobs—its green accomplishments put it at the head of the pack. If California were a country, its economy would rank as the world’s 10th largest and could lay claim to be one of the world’s greenest.

Read more from Newsweek by clicking here.

Coverage wrap-up: Drought still on tap; rain did little to fill major Northern California reservoirs; Farms and cities prepare for the worst

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 21, 2009 at 8:02 am

From the Associated Press and the San Diego Union Tribune:

Federal water managers said yesterday that they plan to cut off water, at least temporarily, to thousands of California farms as a result of the withering drought gripping the state.

U.S. Bureau of Reclamation officials said parched reservoirs and patchy rainfall this year were forcing them to stop surface-water deliveries for at least two weeks beginning March 1. Authorities said they haven’t taken such a drastic move since the early 1990s, the last time California struggled through a prolonged drought.

The situation could improve slightly if rain and snow fall over the next few weeks, and officials will know by mid-March whether they can release some irrigation supplies to growers.

Farmers in the nation’s No. 1 agriculture state predicted the dire shortages would cause consumers to pay more for their fruits and vegetables, which will have to be grown using expensive well water.

Jeff Peracchi, a pomegranate and grape grower in the small Fresno County town of Huron, said he was winnowing his staff down to a skeleton crew because without water, there wouldn’t be much fruit to pick. “I can’t just say I won’t farm this year – I have to do something. But I’m having to lay off guys who have been with us for years,” Peracchi said. “At this point, I’m planning to farm to keep the fruit as healthy as I can, but I’m not sure I’m going to be able to be profitable.”

The AP article is the only one that has the ‘temporarily shut-off for at least two weeks’ angle that I’ve not seen mentioned anywhere else, not even in the Bureau of Reclamation’s press release. Central Valley farmers are preparing for the worst, says the Los Angeles Times:

“We’re hoping we can squeak by,” said Chuck Dees, an irrigation specialist and farmer at S&S Ranch, a 14,000-acre spread known for its broccoli, cantaloupes, sweet corn and bell peppers about 40 miles west of Fresno.

Dees said the ranch began preparing for a severe drought and a water crisis about 10 years ago and installed 50 miles of pipeline to carry water from 14 wells. In a good year, the ranch receives about 30,000 acre-feet of water. “If we get 5,000 acre-feet, we’ll be tickled to death,” he said.

In order to cope, S&S Ranch managers are choosing not to grow crops on at least 2,000 acres and will hire only about 60% of the roughly 2,000 people they employ in a good year. “There’s some people that are not as in good a shape as we are. But if this goes on year after year, there’s going to be some real bad problems,” Dees said.

In Mendota, about eight miles east of the ranch, unemployment “has soared to 40%” mostly because of the drought, Tom Birmingham, general manager of the Westlands Water District, said in a statement.

“Farmers in the Westlands Water District have already begun destroying thousands of acres of almond orchards and plan on fallowing over 300,000 acres of land. Wherever possible, almond production will be stunted in hopes of keeping the trees alive through this desperate time,” Birmingham said.

Santa Clara County called the federal decision “a big hit” to their water supply:

Santa Clara County depends on the delta for half of its water, with the other half coming from local groundwater pumping. “Even if we are getting a lot of local rain, we still need the imported water to supplement it,” said Siravo, who called the federal decision “a big hit.”

There’s no way to say precisely how much more rain Northern California needs to prevent rationing. The summer water picture depends on a complex series of issues, from when the rain falls, to where it falls, to even when endangered fish, like salmon and smelt, are swimming in front of giant delta pumps.

But chances are slim that more rain — including the storm expected this weekend — will bring enough water to make up for three dry years. Friday’s decision was solely based on rain patterns, and not the restrictions placed to protect the endangered fish, Glaser said.

The problem so far is that most of the recent rain has seeped into the dry ground and not run off into reservoirs in significant quantities. Northern California’s five largest federal reservoirs — Shasta, Folsom, Trinity, New Melones and San Luis — were 35 percent full on Jan. 27. After the recent heavy rains, they are now 38 percent full — far short of the 15-year average of 72 percent for this time of year.

It isn’t all farming in California, however; some areas are not dependent upon state or federal water. The Salinas Valley itself isn’t in bad shape, according to the Salinas Californian:

In the Salinas Valley, which doesn’t receive any water from these state or federal projects, the outlook is sufficient for the near term, thanks to the Nacimiento and San Antonio reservoirs that supply water to replenish the groundwater.

“We have at least a year’s worth of water in those reservoirs,” said Robert Johnson, chief of water resource planning at the Monterey County Water Resources Agency.

And parts of San Joaquin County won’t be in as bad of shape, either, reports Stockton’s Record:

Most of San Joaquin County does not rely on state or federal water from the Delta, and thus is in better shape than other portions of California.

However, Friday’s announcement does mean Tracy’s share of federal water from the pumps will likely be slashed, perhaps by half. The city has groundwater and another water contract that will help see it through.

Also, the Stockton East Water District, which feeds eastside farms and the city, is not projected to receive any water from New Melones Lake this year. This will increase dependence on groundwater and the Calaveras River.

The Central Valley Project serves not only farms south of the Delta, but also farms north of the Delta as well. From the Capital Press:

“You’re causing a catastrophe here,” Johanna Trenerry told bureau officials at the meeting in Redding on Friday, Feb. 20, moments after they announced that Central Valley Project contractors may get no water for agriculture this year because of the drought.

“It’s interesting that (wildlife) refuges get 75 percent and farmers get nothing,” said Trenerry, who grows fruit in western Shasta County. “How are we supposed to feed the nation? How much food comes out of California?

The Happy Valley farmers were joined by those from Bella Vista, a rural community in the rolling hills east of Redding. They all had two things in common: They grow their goods on small-acreage plots, and they’re served by two of the scores of small water districts in California that contract for federal water.

Previous cutbacks have made it tough for small farms to survive, asserted Arnold Wilhelmi, a retired schoolteacher who grows fruit in Bella Vista. In the past dozen years, the number of agricultural users in his area has dwindled from 6,000 to about 270, he said.

With the allocations announced Friday, farmers’ land will go dry while swimming pools in Southern California will still get their water, he said.

“I think what’s happening is homes and people who live in lot-sized dwellings are going to take priority over agriculture,” Wilhelmi said.

The news from the CVP overshadowed Lester Snow’s announcement that the 15% SWP allocation would not be increased. From the Press-Enterprise:

Also on Friday, the state Department of Water Resources announced that, despite recent storms, there will be no change to its 15 percent allocation from the State Water Project, which ferries supplies from Northern California to millions of residential users in the Inland region. The lowest allocation — 10 percent — came in 1993 at the end of a six-year drought. The amount was increased later that year after more rain and snow fell.

State officials had hoped for a wet winter that would allow them to revise their cautious preliminary appropriation upward, but that probably won’t happen.

“January was dramatically disappointing, with 34 percent of normal precipitation on top of historically low reservoir storage,” said Lester Snow, director of the Department of Water Resources. “There’s not much chance of even getting up to 30 percent (allocation) by summer.”

Snow urged all major California communities to impose mandatory conservation in the next two months. Residents should reduce water use by 20 percent by eliminating runoff in the yard, not irrigating in the rain and capturing water from the tap while waiting for it to get hot, he said.

“We’re targeting urban use because agriculture’s response to drought is obvious: They lay people off and fallow acres. Their conservation level is way above 20 percent because they’re just not getting the water,” Snow said.

Even communities as far south as the Coachella Valley will be affected, as noted in the Desert Sun:

The Coachella Valley’s two major water agencies could end up getting only 15 percent of their contracted supply from the State Water Project as California faces its third dry year, it was announced Friday.

Steve Robbins, executive director of the Coachella Valley Water District, said his organization, along with the Desert Water Agency, are entitled to 171,000 acre-feet of State Water Project water and need to send 140,000 acre-feet into the aquifer annually to replenish it as water is pumped for use in the region.

‘‘It just adds to the long-term deterioration of the basin” when water isn’t resupplied, Robbins said.

The Coachella Valley doesn’t actually get State Water Project water but exchanges its allocation with the Metropolitan Water District for Colorado River water.

From the Sacramento Bee, officials called for a 20% reduction in water use statewide:

State water officials sent out an urgent call Friday to all Californians, urging an immediate 20 percent cut in water use to ease a drought that could be the next serious hit to California’s economy. …..

Officials aimed a warning at those who thought recent storms broke the drought: California is already deep into a third year of drought, with little of winter left to make up ground.

“These storms have been great, but they have done nothing to alleviate the drought,” said Lester Snow, director of the California Department of Water Resources.

“You’ve got to think about water as a precious commodity,” he added. “It is relatively easy to reduce your water use by 20 percent. We need to do that now.”

MORE DROUGHT COVERAGE ON AQUAFORNIA:

Check out California’s drought in pictures and graphs by clicking here.

Read DWR’s press release announcing that State Water Project allocations will remain at 15% by clicking here.

Read the Bureau of Reclamation’s press release, announcing the CVP’s allocation of 0 (to 10%) for ag this year by clicking here.

Even more stories by clicking here (category page for Drought, Weather & Snowpack articles), or simply keep reading the scroll.

ACWA Statement: Low water allocations point to severe challenges in 2009

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 21, 2009 at 7:07 am

From the ACWA, this press release:

Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA) Executive Director Timothy Quinn issued the following statement today on the 2009 water supply allocations announced by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the California Department of Water Resources. The Bureau announced that some agricultural contractors stand to receive no water deliveries this year, while municipal contractors can count on receiving a 50% supply. DWR said urban and agricultural customers of the State Water Project stand to receive just 15% of requested supplies, among the lowest forecasts ever. The allocations may be updated based on conditions in the coming weeks.

“As expected, the outlook for water deliveries is grim and will put local water agencies in critical territory this year. As water agencies continue to deplete their reserves, more and more Californians will face tighter restrictions on water use, including mandatory conservation, rationing and higher costs for water. We’re in a new era, and Californians are going to have to rethink the way they use water, not just during this drought but from this day forward.

“Extremely low reservoirs make it clear we are in a drought, but there is more at work than back-to-back dry years. We have a water supply system that simply cannot support everything we are trying to do today, whether it’s protecting species, adapting to climate change or meeting the needs of a growing population. Layering on a three-year drought just magnifies the problem.
“It becomes more urgent every day that we move immediately to implement a long-term solution that works for the environment and the economy. If we had already made the investments in infrastructure recommended by Delta Vision, we would be having a very different conversation today. We could have significantly more water in storage south of the Delta, a more resilient system to deal with current drought conditions, and a much better outlook for the environment and our ability to reduce or avoid the dire economic consequences that California will experience in 2009.”

ACWA is a statewide association of public agencies whose 440 members are responsible for about 90% of the water delivered in California. For more information, contact ACWA at 916.441.4545 or visit www.acwa.com.

Farmers sue S.J., Stockton over water

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 21, 2009 at 6:46 am

From Stockton’s Record:

A group of farmers and water users in the south San Joaquin Valley filed suit against Stockton and the county Friday, claiming storm- water runoff from the urban area is harming the Delta.

The Coalition for a Sustainable Delta, whose members receive water pumped from the estuary, said last summer that it intended to file such a lawsuit.

The lawsuit is part of an ongoing effort to pinpoint causes for the Delta’s decline other than the state and federal export pumps near Tracy. The coalition has also filed suit against the state Department of Fish and Game, alleging that nonnative striped bass in the Delta eat smelt; the coalition has also threatened to sue the Mirant power plants in Pittsburgh and Antioch, alleging that they, too, kill fish.

Read more from The Record by clicking here.

Low water at Shasta renews call for better boat ramps

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 21, 2009 at 6:43 am

From the Redding Record Searchlight:

Recent wet weather has done little to dampen enthusiasm within the business community to improve boat-ramp access at Lake Shasta.

The lake has been sucked down from months of dry weather, leaving only three of the seven public boat ramps usable. Come summer, when millions converge on the state’s largest reservoir, limited access could wreak havoc on the north state’s important tourism business.

An estimated 3 million people visit the lake each summer, many renting houseboats and cottages.

“I am hoping it rains for another 30 days and fills the lake up. That doesn’t change the fact that this is a long-term need,” said Bruce Dean, co-owner of the Black Bear Diner and president of the California Restaurant Association’s North State Chapter. “It seems more and more, you have a situation where many of the ramps, if not out of the water, they are very close to it.”

Dean calls Lake Shasta a world-class attraction. So he doesn’t understand why boat-ramp access, especially in dry years, is “substandard.”

Read more from the Record Searchlight by clicking here.

Rain: Saving it for a sunny day includes easy conservation measures

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 21, 2009 at 6:40 am

From the Sacramento Bee:

It never fails, lamented David Roberts. “Tuesday, I was driving around in that pouring rain,” related the Sacramento landscaper, “and there were homes with their sprinklers on. What a waste!”

That’s literally water down the drain. Friday, state water leaders urged all Californians to voluntarily cut their water consumption by 20 percent as we head into a third consecutive drought year.

That has homeowners and professional landscapers alike looking for ways to make the most of the water we have. That includes designing conservation-minded gardens and eliminating runoff as well as “harvesting” the rain itself.

“It’s not exactly breakthrough technology,” said Bethallyn Black, a UC master gardener who has been harvesting rainwater since the 1980s. “People started collecting water when they first started building homes (in ancient times). Even our grandparents had catch basins. But we got out of touch with it the last couple of generations. We got used to just turning on a tap and expecting water to come out.”

Read more from the Sacramento Bee by clicking here.

Hopes dry up: Tight water year is here

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 21, 2009 at 6:33 am

From the Manteca Bulletin:

There’s a silver lining in the dry cumulus clouds that have passed over the South County during the past year – the foresight of the founders of the South San Joaquin Irrigation District.

Many California farmers are plowing under crops and tearing out orchards while mandatory water rationing is in effect in a number of urban areas as the state reels under the news Friday that the Central Valley Water Project is reducing water deliveries to zero for farm users for the start of March while drastically cutting back urban customers. That, however, isn’t the case in SSJID territory.

General Manager Jeff Shields believes with aggressive management and everyone working in unison to watch water use from SSJID ditch tenders and farmers to urban users the South County will survive the third year of the drought.

Read more from the Manteca Bulletin by clicking here.

War declared on Asian clams in Lake Tahoe; experts hope to engineer a “clam calamity”

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 21, 2009 at 6:29 am

Interesting story from the Reno Gazette-Journal:

Scuba divers plunging into Lake Tahoe’s frigid waters are prepping for battle against a quarter-sized critter thriving on parts of the lake bottom. By mid-March, war will be under way against the Asian clam as scientists try to kill the invading mollusk by smothering, starving, and sucking it to the surface.

Experts would like to engineer a clam calamity.

The stakes appear increasingly high because scientists fear the clams could open the door for invasion by even more dangerous pests, potentially endangering a national treasure that taxpayers have spent more than $1 billion to preserve. “This needs to be done. We have to get our hands around this Asian clam problem,” said Dennis Oliver, spokesman for the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency.

Read more from the Reno Gazette Journal by clicking here.

Tahoe Regional Planning Agency: Controversial from the start; history filled with debates among developers, environmentalists and homeowners

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 21, 2009 at 6:19 am

From the Sierra Sun:

The debate surrounding the best way to manage development in the Tahoe Basin raged for months. Since the first draft of an interim regional plan was presented at a public meeting in May 1971, the newly formed Tahoe Regional Planning Agency had received hundreds of comments and letters. Some came from homeowners, worried that the new land designations would strip them of their property rights. Other comments came from their neighbors, worried that without a plan, the beauty of the Tahoe Basin would be stripped. Still, the agency stressed that this was just a preliminary study — no ordinances had been put into place yet.

“This is not an ultimate plan upon which the doors are locked and the situation fixed, but a picture of the planning process as it has evolved to today in an effort to satisfy the requirements of the compact,” said Executive Director Justus K. Smith on June 21, 1971, at a meeting at the Kings Beach Elementary School auditorium. “This is merely a view of where we are today; we have a long way to go even between now and September, let alone the period following.”

But his comments did not quell the roar of worries coming from the public — concerns about private property rights, the future of development and gaming in the basin, but most of all what would happen to the lake.

Read more of this historical retrospective of the Tahoe Regional Planning Authority from the Sierra Sun by clicking here.

Glendale riverwalk waits for unfrozen funds

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 21, 2009 at 6:14 am

From the Glendale News Press:

Plans to redevelop Glendale’s frontage along the Los Angeles River, which were delayed by the state budget crisis and easement issues, are back on the table as parks officials await word on a frozen $1.1-million state grant for the project.

The California Resources Agency had awarded the Glendale Narrows Riverwalk Project a $1.1-million grant in August, but in the time it took to shore up the rest of the project’s funding sources and finalize plans, the state’s fiscal crisis took hold, freezing up a major portion of the project’s $1.61-million budget.

On a parallel track, the city was forced into negotiations with DreamWorks Animation LLC over gaining access to a 15-foot strip of land along the studio’s southernmost edge along the river.

That roadblock is in the process of dissolving after DreamWorks reached a tentative agreement last week to give up the easement in return for moving a trail exit closer to Flower Street to make room for extra operations equipment, said George Chapjian, director of the Parks, Recreation and Community Services Department.

Read more from the Glendale News Press by clicking here.

South Coast Water District readying water-use regulations; Imperial Beach declares water alert

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 21, 2009 at 6:12 am

From the Dana Point Times:

Do you expect your waitress to serve you water without asking when you’re eating out? Do you run your sprinklers during the day? Do you hose down your patio, or wash your car in the street, or put off fixing a leaky pipe on your irrigation system?

In a few months all of these actions may be prohibited by a new water ordinance currently under development by the South Coast Water District, a move water officials hope will help lead the community through future water rationing which is likely coming as early as this summer. District general manager Mike Dunbar believes the ordinance will help educate residents and business owners in conservation and does not intend for his staff to become a police force.

“Policing is a dirty word around here,” he said. “I don’t want our staff to go out and become water cops. I’d much rather work on educating people. We have a very sophisticated clientele and, given the importance of water, I think people will do the right thing.”

Read more from the Dana Point Times by clicking here.

From the San Diego Union Tribune:

As water rates are set to increase in Imperial Beach, the city has declared a Stage 1 water emergency, calling on residents to voluntarily conserve.

While San Diego and other cities in the county and agencies have issued similar conservation requests, City Manager Gary Brown said the goal of Wednesday’s City Council decision is to educate residents.

“We hope to get the word out of a very likely drought condition come summer and what we’re asking residents to do,” Brown said.

Brown said the San Diego Regional Water Authority reports it would take six years of regular rainfall to bring the region’s reservoirs up to normal-season levels. Combine low dam levels, a drought and recent court orders prohibiting water delivery from the north, and that makes the situation worse, he said.

A 1990 city ordinance, which allows the city manager to declare a water emergency, outlines the various conservation levels. The Stage 1 “Water Watch” applies when the city’s water supplier, California-American Water Co., may not be able to meet the water demands of its customers.

More from the San Diego Union Tribune by clicking here.

“Green” golf course shrinks turf; Barona Creek Golf Club rolls out turf reduction project

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 21, 2009 at 6:08 am

From MSNBC:

In a voluntary, pro-active approach to water conservation and environmental stewardship, Barona Creek Golf Club, recipient of the Bronze Signature Sanctuary Certification from Audubon International, today announced an ambitious turf reduction project that will lower irrigation and maintenance needs to enhance its conservation of natural resources.

Don King, Barona Creek’s executive director of golf operations, says the project will eliminate alternate tee boxes and convert 10 to 12 acres of out-of-play turf to waste bunkers or more natural landscape. These measures will address several important environmental issues ranging from reduced fuel and energy consumption to the use of fewer fertilizers and chemicals used for maintenance.

“Barona’s commitment to protecting and preserving the environment has always been at the forefront of the golf industry, and moving forward with this turf reduction initiative our goal is to further reduce our carbon footprint,” he says.

Read more from MSNBC by clicking here.

Bubbles of warming, beneath the ice: As permafrost thaws in the Arctic, huge pockets of methane — a potent greenhouse gas — could be released into the atmosphere. Experts are only beginning to understand how disastrous that could be.

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 21, 2009 at 6:03 am

From the Los Angeles Times:

Four miles south of the Arctic Circle, the morning sky is streaked with apricot. Frozen rivers split the tundra of the Seward Peninsula, coiling into vast lakes. And on a silent, wind-whipped pond, a lone figure, sweating and panting, shovels snow off the ice.

The young woman with curly reddish hair stops, scribbles data, snaps a photo, grabs a heavy metal pick and stabs at white orbs in the thick black ice.

“Every time I see bubbles, I have the same feeling,” says Katey Walter, a University of Alaska researcher. “They are amazing and beautiful.”

Beautiful, yes. But ominous. When her pick breaks through the surface, the orbs burst with a low gurgle, spewing methane, a potent greenhouse gas that could accelerate the pace of climate change across the globe.

International experts are alarmed. “Methane release due to thawing permafrost in the Arctic is a global warming wild card,” warned a report by the United Nations Environment Programme last year. Large amounts entering the atmosphere, it concluded, could lead to “abrupt changes in the climate that would likely be irreversible.”

Read more from the Los Angeles Times by clicking here.

Weekend weather outlook: stormy in Northern California, little precipitation for Southern California

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 20, 2009 at 3:12 pm

From Accu-Weather’s Western Weather Blog, an update on our weekend weather:

A large, complex upper level low is swirling well west of California right now. This low is tapping into a lot of sub tropical moisture which is mostly in the form of high level clouds right now in California. This storm is likely not to move much through tomorrow before moving east Sunday and Monday. Some rain will arriving in northwest California and southwest Oregon later tomorrow and move farther north tomorrow night. This rain is likely to be light in nature tomorrow night but could be moderate to locally heavy in northern California only on Sunday. This is a much different storm than we have seen of late in a couple of ways. First, snow levels are likely to be pretty high, generally 7,000 to 7,500 feet Sunday. Second, southern Oregon to Central California will see the most precipitation and if any gets into Southern California it will be light.

More on the storm, plus the forecast for NASCAR and the Oscars from the Western Weather Blog by clicking here.

Drought may cut off federal water to California farms and prompt rationing statewide; Voluntary 20 percent cut in state water consumption sought

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 20, 2009 at 1:39 pm

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

Federal water managers say they may have to cut off all water to some of California’s largest farms as a result of the deepening drought affecting the state.

U.S. Bureau of Reclamation officials said Friday that parched reservoirs and patchy snow and rainfall this year would likely force them to completely cut surface water deliveries. It would be the first time in more than 15 years such a move was taken.

Farmers say today’s is “ugly” in this story from the Fresno Bee:

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation made it official today: West Valley farmers will receive no federal water this season.

The toll on the region is expected to be severe. A University of California, Davis study predicts that up to 75,000 people will lose their jobs and more than $2 billion will be lost from the San Joaquin Valley’s economy.

“It is ugly,” said Mark Borba, a longtime west Fresno County farmer. “There are growers out there who have no water or who are drilling wells in hopes of getting them operating in time and still others are bulldozing their almond trees.”

Three consecutive dry winters and reduced water pumping to protect dwindling fish in Northern California rivers helped create the dismal forecast. West siders get water from northern rivers through canals belonging to the federally operated Central Valley Project.

Farmers aren’t the only ones who will be affected by the news today. Cities dependent upon CVP water will receive only 50% of their allocation. This could mean rationing for Contra Costa County residents according to the Contra Costa Times:

The Contra Costa Water District’s 500,000 customers will likely face mandatory water rationing in the coming months and some of the biggest farms in the state will get no water at all, water officials said Friday.

The heads of state and federal water projects that deliver trillions of gallons of water each year from the Delta to East Bay cities, San Joaquin Valley farms and Southern California said major water supply cutbacks are likely as the state braces for what is shaping up almost certainly as a third dry year.

“We would expect almost all of the major communities in California to go to some form of mandatory conservation,” state Department of Water Resources director Lester Snow said at a Sacramento news conference this morning.

The grim news was an early projection of water supplies this year. It included a 50 percent cut in Contra Costa’s water supply and 85 percent cut for Southern California. San Joaquin Valley growers were told they will get no water at all from the Delta this year.

Those numbers could go up, but officials said it was unlikely they would go up by much. If the rest of the year sees average rain and snow, Contra Costa’s water 50 percent allocation would rise to 60 percent.

“We will very likely be asking for some form of mandatory rationing,” said Contra Costa Water District assistant general manager Greg Gartrell, who said a board decision on rationing could be made in April.

Rationing is likely for any community dependent upon the CVP or the SWP, and DWR director Lester Snow is calling on all Californians to reduce their water consumption by 20% in this article from the Sacramento Bee:

Water leaders today urged Californians to make every effort to cut water consumption by 20 percent this year because of the growing likelihood of a third straight drought year.

The state today held its water delivery forecast for the year at just 15 percent of contracted amounts. It is very rare for that forecast to flat-line, rather than grow, as winter unfolds. It means all state water contractors — mainly cities from the Bay Area to San Diego — will likely impose mandatory water rationing soon, if they haven’t already.

Even worse was the forecast by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which operates Folsom and Shasta dams. It told agricultural contractors both north and south of the Delta that, for now, they can expect zero water deliveries this year, which has never happened. Its urban customers can expect only half of normal supplies.

MORE DROUGHT COVERAGE FROM TODAY:

Check out California’s drought in pictures and graphs by clicking here.

Read DWR’s press release announcing that State Water Project allocations will remain at 15% by clicking here.

Read the Bureau of Reclamation’s press release, announcing the CVP’s allocation of 0 (to 10%) for ag this year by clicking here.

Even more stories by clicking here (category page for Drought, Weather & Snowpack articles).

Barry Nelson: Responding to California’s drought

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 20, 2009 at 1:22 pm

From Barry Nelson of the NRDC’s Western Water Project:

Today, the federal Bureau of Reclamation announced that the Central Valley Project’s initial water supply delivery allocations would be extremely low.

When faced with a crisis, a community can pull together or pull apart. We believe that the water crisis we are now facing provides an opportunity for everyone in California to work together. We’re all going to feel this drought, and we all need to be a part of the solution. Although today’s announcement is unquestionably bad news for our water supply this year, there is a remarkable amount of agreement about the future and the solutions to our water woes.

California is facing a third consecutive dry year. This January was the driest in history. As a result, the state’s reservoirs and rivers will be at near-record lows. Many urban residents will face mandatory rationing this year. Conditions for farmers will be even tougher. Some farmers, facing near total cut-offs of surface water, will pump more groundwater and try to buy water from neighbors with somewhat greater supplies. Commercial and recreational fishermen know that California’s quarter-billion dollar salmon fishery is likely to be closed entirely again this year and that the few remaining spawning fish will face some of the worst habitat conditions ever in our rivers – which bodes ill for the future of salmon in California, and salmon fishing. California’s public, its economy and its environment will all suffer this year. This brings us the first area of agreement – we must do a much better job of preparing for droughts and investing in a more reliable water supply.

Read more from Barry Nelson at the NRDC Switchboard blog by clicking here.

Farm leader urges ‘immediate, decisive’ response to water crisis

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 20, 2009 at 1:20 pm

From the California Farm Bureau Federation, this press release:

Saying that water reliability for Californians “has hit rock bottom,” the leader of the state’s largest farm group urged the state government to take immediate, decisive actions to address the state’s water emergency. California Farm Bureau Federation President Doug Mosebar responded to today’s announcement that the federal Central Valley Project may deliver no water to many of its customers this year, and that the State Water Project will meet only 15 percent of demand for its water.

“It doesn’t get any worse than zero,” Mosebar said. “Our water reliability has hit rock bottom. We’re in an emergency that threatens tens of thousands of jobs in the Central Valley and elsewhere in California. It’s time for the state to take immediate, decisive action.”

Mosebar outlined steps the state should take to provide at least partial relief to water-short regions.

He said the State Water Resources Control Board should assure that voluntary, short-term water sales and transfers proceed quickly, and keep review of proposed transfers as a top priority.

“People will be scrambling this year to find enough water to keep their crops, farms and businesses alive,” Mosebar said. “If people are willing to sell water to people who want to buy it, those transactions should move without delay. Review by the water board is important to protect water rights and protect people who might be indirectly affected by transfers, and that review should continue at an accelerated pace.”

Mosebar also urged the water board to provide the CVP and SWP with more flexibility to operate their systems, in order to maximize water deliveries while avoiding unacceptable impacts on third parties or the environment. He said state water officials should “fast-track” design, permits and construction of pilot projects in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to create barriers that could keep fish away from delta water pumps and improve water quality and supply reliability. He said the state should also move rapidly to conclude long-term delta planning work and ongoing studies of new water storage facilities.

“Continued improvements in water-use efficiency will be crucial in meeting this short-term emergency and our long-term water crisis,” Mosebar said. “As part of a comprehensive plan to address this crisis, the state must provide new strategies and incentives to encourage increased investment in water-use efficiency for every sector of society.”

Finally, Mosebar urged the state Legislature to take urgent action to address California’s pressing water needs.

“It’s obvious that California must act, now, to complete a comprehensive, long-term plan to fix our overtaxed water system,” he said. “The Legislature must adopt a plan that features new surface water facilities and improved water-delivery systems as essential strategies along with water recycling, efficiency and other features. And, the water plan must recognize the crucial importance of growing food to sustain our state’s increasing population.”

The California Farm Bureau Federation works to protect family farms and ranches on behalf of 85,000 members statewide.

State water officials finally sound the alarm, urge Californian’s make immediate 20% cut in water consumption; Federal water officials say California agriculture should “expect zero water deliveries this year”

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 20, 2009 at 1:18 pm

From the Long Beach Water Department, this press release:

Today, Lester Snow, the Director of the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) urged Californian’s to heed calls for immediate reductions in water consumption, following announcements that State water deliveries this year are still expected to be 85% below contracted amounts, and that agricultural contractors both north and south of the Delta, for now, can expect no deliveries at all this year. “You’ve got to think about water as a precious commodity,” he said. ” It’s relatively easy to reduce your water use by 20 percent. We need to do that now.” The situation may improve if the weather cooperates, but officials are urging the public to brace for a historically dry year.

Despite the over 10 feet of snow received in some parts of the Sierra Nevada last week, California needs much more to adequately recover from such a dry beginning to the winter season. The Sierra snow pack remains below average. Early last month, the Long Beach Board of Water Commissioners issued a water supply ALERT for the City of Long Beach and southern California, due to extremely weak precipitation and snow pack in the northern Sierra Nevada; an uneventful forecast for northern California watersheds, including new predictions of dry La Nina conditions forming in the Pacific Ocean; extremely low water supply reserve levels; and the anticipated additional curtailment of imported water deliveries from north to south due to endangered species issues. The ALERT urged Long Beach residents to sustain the City’s record breaking reductions in water use. More importantly, Long Beach Water officials took another opportunity to urge area cities to engage their residents. “Our current water supply conditions should be a catalyst for southern California water supply managers to immediately increase action on extraordinary conservation measures, particularly prohibiting certain outdoor uses of water, stated John Allen, President of the Long Beach Board of Water Commissioners. “Southern California water suppliers should be practicing and preparing for the worst; hope is not an adequate strategy.”

Today’s announcement likely signals the beginning of much more aggressive, mandatory water rationing from San Francisco to San Diego. On September 13, 2007, the Long Beach Board of Water Commissioners issued a Declaration of Imminent Water Supply Shortage and activated the City’s Emergency Water Supply Shortage Plan. As a result, the Board of Water Commissioners issued mandatory prohibitions on certain outdoor uses of water. “The Board took the action it did to forestall and lessen the impact of an expected water supply shortage,” according to Board president, John Allen. The Board’s Declaration in 2007 was necessitated by the profound impact of permanent reductions to imported water deliveries into southern California; the dramatic reductions in water storage levels in key reservoirs in northern California; and climate realities.

Long Beach Water Department customers continue to shatter 10-year record lows for water consumption, during what is shaping up as the worst California water supply crisis in modern history. Long Beach water consumption for January ‘09 was 19.3 percent below the 10-year historical average.

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

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

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