A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
April 11, 2007
2. Supply
DELTA ISSUES:
Farm-friendly dams in danger; Both the seasonal rock barriers and the water pumps in the Delta are suspected of killing fish and are at risk of being cut - Contra Costa Times
WATER CONSERVATION:
Bay Area drought worries are back; UTILITY CALLS ON 2.4 MILLION USERS TO CUT WATER USE BY 10 PERCENT - San Jose Mercury News
DELTA ISSUES:
Farm-friendly dams in danger; Both the seasonal rock barriers and the water pumps in the Delta are suspected of killing fish and are at risk of being cut
Contra Costa Times - 4/11/07
By Mike Taugher, staff writer
The resurgent clash between
A gregarious fourth-generation farmer, Ratto grows tomatoes, asparagus and other crops just upstream from pumps that deliver water to Southern California, the
Those pumps are strong enough to draw down the water in south Delta rivers, leaving smaller pumps owned by Ratto and others to suck sand.
To allow south Delta farmers to irrigate, state water officials each year install temporary rock dams that trap incoming tides and raise the water level. It is an annual exercise that costs more than $5 million, paid for by big water users throughout
But this year, with the fate of endangered Delta fish the subject of increasing alarm, regulators decided to delay those dams until June. The dams, it turns out, also trap fish.
It was the kind of decision that sends shudders down the spine of anyone whose livelihood depends on irrigation.
"If they don't put those dams in, I'm in serious trouble," Ratto said as the sun shone brightly on fields of grain and a long stretch of
This year, however, the farmers got a reprieve. In late March, regulators reversed their position on the dams, saying the Delta smelt they were trying to protect appear to be almost entirely in the northern Delta, where the dams pose no threat.
The barriers now are expected by the end of the month.
But in a dry spring, the Delta farmers are left to wonder what happens if the fish move south in the coming weeks, as well as what happens next year.
"That's the million-dollar question," said
In the big picture, the tough decisions tend to favor big water users or endangered fish, not farmers such as Ratto.
"It's always touch-and-go every springtime," said Kathy Kelly, the state Department of Water Resources Bay-Delta branch chief. "This being a dry year, it's coming into play even more."
Ratto's predicament is not unique. Herrick estimated that the low water brought on by the big state and federal pumps affects more than 100 farms.
Moreover, the future for farmers here is bleak.
Some experts say the farmers will be the big losers if the state ever sorts out a sustainable plan for the Delta. Among the reasons: The farms depend on fragile levees to deliver water and much of their land continues to subside, increasing the pressure on those levees.
A comprehensive plan for the Delta could very well reduce the state's reliance on, and therefore public funding for, levee maintenance.
During low tide one day last week, Ratto showed a visitor one of his pumps on
"I think it would empty it pretty fast, 15 minutes max," Ratto said.
A few moments later, Ratto's cell phone rang. It was a neighbor who told Ratto he had just shut off two pumps to vineyards because of a lack of water.
The drying
"If we had hot weather right now, this would be 100 times worse," said Herrick, who had threatened to sue shortly before regulators decided to reverse course on installing the temporary dams.
At the time of Herrick's threat, biologists already were reconsidering the dams in relation to the north Delta fish.
But with the overall Delta smelt population severely depressed, they had a lingering concern that the dams would trap fish.
To Herrick, the problem is not the decision to protect fish.
The problem, he said, is the big pumps.
His threat to sue the state amounted to this: Either install the dams or slow down the pumps. If you leave the dams out, then you cannot pump the Delta farmers out of existence.
His clients have water rights that in many cases are far superior, if smaller, than the big water projects.
But the Delta farmers figure it is unlikely they will ever gain water at the expense of bigger water users. That means the best way to secure a reliable source of water is a healthy ecosystem.
"Our short- and long-term solutions are things like Delta smelt recovery," Herrick said. #
http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_5640915
WATER CONSERVATION:
Bay Area drought worries are back; UTILITY CALLS ON 2.4 MILLION USERS TO CUT WATER USE BY 10 PERCENT
By Paul Rogers and Julie Sevrens Lyons, staff writers
More than 2 million Bay Area residents today will be told to cut their water use 10 percent by June or face the kind of mandatory water restrictions that the area hasn't seen in 15 years.
The order comes from managers of the Hetch Hetchy water system who are worried about summer water shortages after an unusually dry winter.
"I'm nervous. We want to do what we can now and get people on track so we can avoid mandatory restrictions. We're way below normal," said Susan Leal, general manager of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, which runs the Hetch Hetchy system.
The system provides water to 2.4 million people - from north
The
Water managers say they aren't ready to call 2007 a drought year yet because it still might rain in the winter months at the end of the year.
But this is the closest the region has come to a drought, they say, since the last drought - which stretched from 1987 to 1992.
"We don't know what next winter's going to be like," said Bill Kocher, director of the Santa Cruz City Water Department. "If we did nothing this year with the horrible winter we had, I just think it would be careless."
Officials at the East Bay Municipal Utility District say they also are considering requests for voluntary cutbacks.
"We aren't nervous," said Candice Kwok-Smith, a spokeswoman for the Santa Clara Valley Water District. "But if we continue with this dry weather pattern for several years, we will be concerned."
Throughout the Bay Area, rainfall totals are about half of what they should be for this time of year.
The problem for the Hetch Hetchy system, like East Bay MUD, is that it depends heavily on
"When you are saying, `Gee, do I have enough water to get through next year?' you look at the reservoirs and the hills," said Art Jensen, general manager of the Bay Area Water Supply & Conservation Agency, in
"If the reservoirs are full but there is no snow on the hill, there's a problem. That's why they are concerned."
The Hetch Hetchy system, opened in 1934, captures melting snow from the Sierra Nevada into Hetch Hetchy Reservoir at
In all, 27 cities along the Peninsula and in
Most of the state's reservoirs are reasonably full. The massive reservoirs that anchor the State Water Project and Central Valley Project look good: Shasta and Oroville are 88 percent full, San Luis Reservoir near Los Banos is 86 percent full, and New Melones in
Leal said that the San Francisco PUC will ask customers to take the following steps:
Plant drought-tolerant plants as part of spring gardening.
Water their yards at night.
Buy water-efficient washing machines and dishwashers if they were planning an upgrade.
Install low-flow shower heads.
"It's been my experience that when you ask the public for help they usually respond," Leal said. "If they don't, we will have to start taking more drastic measures."
The PUC will be monitoring use closely. If customers don't cut back 10 percent, she said she expects to ask the board in June for the first mandatory water restrictions since 1992.
Compounding the Hetch Hetchy system's problems, Calaveras Reservoir on the Santa Clara-Alameda County border - one of the main reservoirs in the Bay Area that stores Hetch Hetchy water - is only one-third full. It had to be drained in 2003 for earthquake upgrades that won't be completed until 2011, a loss of 60,000 acre feet of water - enough for about 300,000 people a year.
EBMUD, which serves water to more than 1.2 million customers, is considering water rationing or restrictions, but likely won't make a final decision for another week or two, spokesman Charles Hardy said.
"We're definitely concerned. It's been a dry year and we're not going to be able to refill our reservoirs," Hardy said.
But getting people to cut back on their water usage may prove more difficult now than 15 years ago, simply because many residents already are conserving, Hardy said. Low-flow toilets and shower heads are the norm in many households, and drought-savvy gardeners have ripped water-thirsty tropical plants out of their yards and planted drought-resistant varieties instead.
Along the
"People have tightened up. The building codes have changed," Jensen said. "But we still can save more water."
Weather forecasters, meanwhile, are predicting a 60 percent chance of rain today, with light showers expected for much of the region. Still, the storm would add little more than a quarter inch of rain to local reservoirs, and barely any snow to the watershed.
"But," said National Weather Service meteorologist, Brian Tentinger, "anything is good right now." #
http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_5639904
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