Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
March 26, 2007
5. Agencies, Programs, People
SACRAMENTO
West Sac re-examines flood peril; Seeping levees mean the city's risk may be much greater than it thought - Sacramento Bee
LAKE
State water code allows water district to pursue power line - North County Times
Experts to look at state diver safety; Study a response to 2 deaths in aqueduct near Los Banos - Associated Press
SACRAMENTO
West Sac re-examines flood peril; Seeping levees mean the city's risk may be much greater than it thought
Sacramento
By Deb Kollars, staff writer
Property owners in
Preliminary geotechnical findings indicate the city of
Although final analyses are still being conducted, the early results indicate the fast-growing community on the west side of the
On Tuesday,
Although final details are not yet known, it has become clear
"Virtually every segment of our levee system will need one form of work or another," Quinn said. "We do have significant work to do. It is not unexpected."
"We have seen the devastation that major floods like Katrina can cause, and it is our responsibility as public officials to do everything we can to protect our citizens from this sort of catastrophe," Mayor Christopher Cabaldon said in a statement.
West Sacramento is wrapped by levees, with the Sacramento River running along the eastern edge and the
Over the past two decades, the city has conducted major levee projects, including one completed in 2002, which left the community believing it had as much as 300-year flood protection. This meant the levees were believed capable of withstanding huge storms with a one-in-300 chance of occurring in any year.
By contrast, other communities in the region have struggled to achieve the federal government's minimal 100-year protection threshold, a much lower safety margin.
"We met the previous standards. We thought we exceeded them," Quinn said.
In recent years, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers changed its standards for what constituted 100-year protection as awareness of underground seepage and other issues emerged.
Over the past winter,
"These levees have similar issues to the Natomas levees," he said. "We know their flood protection is going to be far less than what they thought they had."
Earlier this year, the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced flood insurance would become mandatory in the Natomas basin in November because the levees there no longer met 100-year protection levels.
With the upcoming new assessment, West Sacramento hopes to bring all levees up to a 200-year level of protection, said Steve Patek, West Sacramento's director of public works and community development. The work will involve substantial improvements, Inamine said, such as seepage berms, slurry walls, slope repairs and relief wells.
The new assessment will be handled through the West Sacramento Flood Control Agency, a joint powers authority consisting of the city and two local reclamation districts that maintain area levees.
If the new assessment is approved by property owners, it would replace an existing flood control assessment, approved in 1994, that has collected $4.4 million so far out of an authorized $5.85 million. It costs the average homeowner about $20 a year.
Financial details of the new assessment have not been determined, Patek and Quinn said. On the east side of the river, the Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency is trying to raise $326 million over 30 years through the current assessment election.
City Councilman Bill Kristoff, who sits on the West Sacramento Flood Control Agency, estimated the new assessment could be in the $40 million vicinity, but cautioned the numbers are not yet crunched.
"I think people will understand the importance of this," Kristoff said. "We plan to give everyone as much information as we can."
In the weighted mail ballot election, assessments will be tied to direct benefits to properties and will vary, depending on the parcel type and size and potential flood depths. For each dollar of assessment, property owners will get a vote, with a majority required for passage.
Stephan Thurtle,
"We're happy to pay our fair share," Thurtle said. "If there is not good flood protection, it is hard to develop in that area." #
http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/143808.html
LAKE
State water code allows water district to pursue power line
By Jose Carvajal, staff writer
LAKE ELSINORE ---- As federal energy regulators continue to consider a local water agency's request for a license to build a hydroelectric power plant in the hills southwest of the lake, questions about the district's involvement in the project are emerging.
At issue is whether the water district can legally be involved in the effort to build a high-voltage transmission line that would accompany the hydroelectric power plant. The line would link the plant to the state power grid and would allow for the transmission of additional electricity not created by the plant.
Among the dozens of letters the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has received in response to an environmental impact report it released on the project in February, several are questioning whether the district can legally be involved in the power-line portion of the project.
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Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District officials have responded recently that the issue has been raised and addressed in the past.
"As far as I know, FERC wouldn't even consider the project if we couldn't do it," district spokesman Greg Morrison said.
But some opponents of the project contend it's still a valid question that needs to be addressed by the feds.
For more than a decade, the district has been trying to build the Lake Elsinore Advanced Pumped Storage project. The plan is to build it in the hills southwest of the lake and to link it to the state power grid by a 30-mile high-voltage transmission line that would run partly through the
The plant would pump water from the lake up the hills at night when power is less expensive. The water would be stored in a 100-acre reservoir behind a 180-foot dam in either Decker or Morrell canyon. The water would then flow down toward the lake during the day to energize turbines in an underground powerhouse.
The district and its private partner on the project, The Nevada Hydro Co. of Vista, plan to sell the plant when a license is granted by the regulatory commission, with the buyer being responsible for building the plant.
While the district contends the project would have positive economic benefits to the community by ensuring that the lake is always full, and to the region by providing as much as 500 megawatts of much-needed electricity to the state grid, opponents have fiercely fought it every step of the way. They see it as a threat to the local environment and to property values.
Doug Pinnow, a retired engineer with experience in power plant projects, is one of those opponents. While he tends to focus on the project's economic viability and its potential environmental, Pinnow said recently that the nature of the proposed transmission line raises questions in his mind.
The transmission would do far more than just link the hydro plant to the state power grid, he said. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission only has the authority to license lines that connect a particular plant to the grid.
"Such a line would require only one connection to the grid," Pinnow said. "However, the (proposed line) has two planned connections to the grid," one to the south in
Also, Pinnow notes, the line would carry 1,000 megawatts more than would be created by the project. It would clearly be more than just a link to the grid, he said, but a stand-alone transmission line that would do more than serve the project.
The federal commission can't license that line, Pinnow said. Instead, it would have to be licensed by the California Public Utilities Commission.
Project opponents are asking federal officials to determine if that's the case before they made a decision on the hydro plant later this year.
Jim Fargo, an administrator for the federal commission, declined to comment.
If the opponents' contention holds water, some opponents argue, that would disqualify the water district from being allowed to participate in the transmission line. They point to a provision in the state Water Code that only allows water districts participating in hydroelectric projects to be involved with transmission lines that directly serve the plant.
Water district officials don't agree with that contention.
District board member Phil Williams calls the fuss about the district's involvement in the transmission line "a technical split of the hair."
He points to the fact that the commission has spent years and millions of dollars studying the project. If the commission didn't think the project was being pursued properly, he said, it wouldn't have used so many resources to put out the environmental report in January.
It is correct that the commission can only license the portion of the transmission line that connects the plant to the grid, he also said. That segment would only be a couple of miles.
The remaining 30 miles of it, he said, would have to be licensed by the U.S. Forest Service, which is working with the commission on studying the project while considering whether it should be licensed.
And besides, Morrison said, there's another provision in the state Water Code that does allow water districts to be involved in transmission line projects. He points to Section 71663.5, which states that "a district may provide, generate, and deliver electric power, and may construct, operate, and maintain any and all works, facilities, improvements, and property ... necessary or convenient for that generation and delivery." #
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/03/25/news/californian/lake_elsinore/22_28_123_24_07.txt
Experts to look at state diver safety; Study a response to 2 deaths in aqueduct near Los Banos
Associated Press – 3/24/07
By Samantha Young, staff writer
SACRAMENTO — An independent task force will examine the safety of a state diving program after two divers were killed last month while inspecting a section of the California Aqueduct near Los Banos, Department of Water Resources Director Lester Snow said.
The task force is being formed as questions remain about whether the department's divers were ill-equipped to navigate the hazardous waters of the state's aqueduct during their Feb. 7 dive.
"The safety of our employees is our highest priority," Snow said in a statement Thursday. "This panel of experts will thoroughly examine our dive program and recommend measures we can take to improve the program and avoid future accidents."
A preliminary internal investigation by the department last month revealed that divers Tim Crawford, 50, and Martin Alvarado, 44, were swept in front of the lone pump that remained working while they inspected the trash gate at the Dos Amigos Pumping Plant, about nine miles from Los Banos.
They had been scheduled to search for invasive mussels on the metal grates at three other underwater pumps that had been shut down that day. The pumps lift water into a section of the California Aqueduct that funnels water to
Crawford and Alvarado are the first members of the department's dive team to die while on duty. The 13-member dive program has been suspended pending results of an ongoing investigation, department spokeswoman Sue Sims said.
Diving professionals have said the murky and fast-moving water in the California Aqueduct should have required a safer method of diving that involved helmets, as well as air and rope lines to the shore. The state divers used what professionals have called recreational scuba gear for their dive, which took them about 30 feet under water.
The task force will be led by Jim Stewart, the former chief diving officer at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in
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