[Water_news] 2. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: SUPPLY - 4/18/07

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment 

 

April 18, 2007

 

2. Supply

 

PROPOSED RESERVOIR:

Reservoir would ease drought - Imperial Valley Press

 

BAY AREA WATER SUPPLY CONDITIONS:

Drought: How bad this time? - San Francisco Examiner

 

NEVADA WATER ISSUES:

Editorial: Sending rural water to Vegas a troubling precedent - Nevada Appeal (Carson City)

 

LOCAL CONSERVATION MEASURES:

Editorial: Making water conservation a way of life; The message from North Bay water officials to residents in Sonoma, Mendocino and Marin counties last week was clear: we must voluntarily and immediately reduce water use ... - Petaluma Argus Courier

 

 

PROPOSED RESERVOIR:

Reservoir would ease drought

Imperial Valley Press – 4/18/07

By Darren Simon, staff writer

 

With an unprecedented seven-year drought drying up available water to the states that depend on the Colorado River, hundreds of millions of dollars are being earmarked for conservation methods.

Much of that money will be spent in Imperial County.

There have been court battles and much debate over one project to build a $230 million cement-lined All-American Canal.

That project would save 67,000 acre-feet of water per year — enough water to serve at least 100,000 homes per year — and ship it off to San Diego as part of a water transfer.

But there is a second proposed project that has moved through planning stages with far less debate — one that could save as much as 70,000 acre feet of water annually generated by rains.

 

 

The project calls for building a 500-acre water reservoir — the size of six farm fields — in the Imperial Valley’s eastern desert along the All-American Canal.

The facility would store excess water generated by rain storms from Nevada to California. That water has flowed into Mexico because of a lack of storage facilities to capture it.

“If we had a wet year like we did three years ago — that’s a lot of water lost to Mexico that could have been captured and stayed here,” said Mike King, IID’s Water Department manager.

DROP 2 RESERVOIR

On Tuesday, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation gave a report to the Imperial Irrigation District board on the so-called Drop 2 Reservoir, hailed as a key part of the process to save water in light of the ongoing drought.

The $160 million project calls for the bureau to build a six-mile canal that will tie into the AAC and allow surplus water from rains that occur anywhere along the Colorado River — from Lake Mead in Nevada to California — to flow into the reservoir.

The reservoir will have capacity to store as much as 8,000 acre-feet of water at any one time.

The project, expected to start in 2008 and be finished in 2010, likely will be paid for by the Southern Nevada Water Authority, which is working on a pact with the bureau to gain more access to Lake Mead water.

Bureau officials said Southern Nevada is requesting 40,000 acre feet per year in additional water from Lake Mead for 20 years for funding the reservoir in the Valley.

NO NET LOSS

Bureau and IID officials are quick to point out that if Southern Nevada accesses more Lake Mead water that will have no impact on the Valley’s supply of Colorado River water.

“IID’s water order will always be fully satisfied,” said David Palumbo, the reservoir project manager for the bureau.

But what will occur is that a portion of the Valley’s water will start to come from the reservoir as excess water is stored there.

“There is no net loss or gain for IID,” said IID spokesman Kevin Kelley.

Officials say in the end there is only one entity that will lose water — Mexico.

As per a 1944 treaty with Mexico, that country is entitled to 1.5 million acre-feet of water per year.

But it has historically captured an additional 67,000 acre-feet per year extra of seepage water from the All-American, and it has had access to an average 70,000 acre-feet of excess water caused by rains that the U.S. has failed to capture.

While Mexico has fought against the All-American Canal lining project, there have been no reports of Mexico coming out against the reservoir project. #

http://www.ivpressonline.com/articles/2007/04/18/news/news03.txt

 

 

BAY AREA WATER SUPPLY CONDITIONS:

Drought: How bad this time?

San Francisco Examiner – 4/18/07

 

SAN FRANCISCO  - Drought is back — at least the threat of it — in California. Despite occasional storms, this winter was the fourth driest on record and delivered far less than the usual wet-season rainfall. Those of us residing in Northern California during the previous drought in the early ’90s retain vivid memories of our brown lawns, short showers and postponed flushing.

 

The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission warned its 2.4 million Bay Area customers last week that mandatory water rationing might be imposed as early as this summer if we do not voluntarily cut our consumption by 10 percent right now.

 

All the usual ominous signs are already in place. The Sierra snowpack — source of 65 percent of the water supplying San Francisco, the Peninsula and Silicon Valley — is less than half of normal. The SFPUC’s 117 billion-gallon Hetch Hetchy Reservoir is only 27 percent full.

 

Most of California’s major water providers joined SFPUC in issuing the first call for immediate water conservation, which now seems like an almost obligatory overture to the now-familiar inconveniences of cyclical drought in the western U.S.

 

However, there are some worrisome differences this time around. For one thing, California already made major strides in reducing its water use, so another new round of significant cutbacks could be harder to achieve. Impressively, the state’s total annual water consumption has held steady since 1970, even while population more than doubled to some 37 million.

 

This means water use is less than half of what it was 37 years ago. But with the state’s population on track to reach 55 million by 2050, overall water demand is going nowhere but up.

 

Meanwhile, even those experts remaining unconvinced that man-made pollution contributes greatly to long-term climate changes now generally agree that the Earth seems to be entering one of its recurrent warming cycles. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change this month presented detailed projections from hundreds of scientists about the harmful local effects of even mild global warming.

 

Much of California and the West have a predominantly dry climate. Our water supply relies heavily on an annually replenished snowpack and rivers. But both of these sources would shrink considerably as a result of even a few degrees of long-term temperature increase. Salt water from rising ocean levels could contaminate the crucial Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta water supply.

 

Remedies suggested range from building more dams to spending billions on consumer rebates for installation of water-saving low-flow toilets, shower heads and washing machines. Large-scale measures with potential promise include greatly increased use of recycled water for irrigation, and improved coordination of reservoir water releases in response to weather conditions.

 

As SFPUC general manager Susan Leal put it, Californians will really need to become accustomed to drought-time water habits for the long term. #

http://www.examiner.com/a-680356~Drought__How_bad_this_time_.html

 

 

NEVADA WATER ISSUES:

Editorial: Sending rural water to Vegas a troubling precedent

Nevada Appeal (Carson City) – 4/18/07

 

So Las Vegas gets the water it's been seeking from White Pine County, at least a good percentage of it, and environmentalists mark it a victory. Problem solved?

Not quite.

The state water engineer gave approval for Vegas to pump 40,000 of the 91,000 acre feet it had been requesting, but that's only a short-term solution for the rapidly growing city. It's expected to grow by more than a million people by 2020.

Where's the water going to come from to support all that growth? No one seems to know, but there are plenty of rural counties that should be expecting calls following Monday's ruling.

The plan to pump water from White Pine County is not without its flaws, either, even if some opponents are relieved the entire amount wasn't granted. If monitoring shows a dramatic impact on the water table, what happens then? Would it really be that easy to just turn off the tap in Vegas, where people will have become dependent on its uninterrupted flow.

During his campaign, Gov. Gibbons called for further study before any plan would be approved.

That made sense. But doing the study while the water is being withdrawn could create irreversible problems.

There is little question that Las Vegas needs the water, and there's no ignoring the fact that a downturn in the city's economy would equate to a downturn statewide. Yet what's the permanent solution to the Las Vegas water problem? Nobody seems to know for sure, but it's clearly not going to come from the Colorado River, which already supplies 90 percent of the city's water.

Nor should it be expected to come entirely from rural Nevada, even if that's the message that was sent this week. #

http://www.nevadaappeal.com/article/20070418/OPINION/104180080

 

 

LOCAL CONSERVATION MEASURES:

Editorial: Making water conservation a way of life; The message from North Bay water officials to residents in Sonoma, Mendocino and Marin counties last week was clear: we must voluntarily and immediately reduce water use ...

Petaluma Argus Courier – 4/17/17

 

The message from North Bay water officials to residents in Sonoma, Mendocino and Marin counties last week was clear: we must voluntarily and immediately reduce water use by 10 to 15 percent now, or face mandatory restrictions later this year.

California is on track to have the fourth driest rainy season on record. The dry winter is predicted to result in dangerously low levels in the Russian River water system that supplies water to local residents. Last year, Petaluma had received 40.19 inches of rain by this date. So far this year, we’ve received only 13.17 inches.

Lake Mendocino, the reservoir that supplies water to Sonoma County, is currently projected to drop to 10,000 acre-feet of stored water — the lowest level in more than 30 years. This is due to lack of rainfall, reduced water flows from PG&E’s Potter Valley hydroelectric project, and continued high demand from urban and agricultural users in the North Bay.

Petaluma gets the bulk of its water from the Sonoma County Water Agency, a public entity run by county supervisors, which also supplies cities from Healdsburg to Novato using wells located deep beneath the Russian River near Forestville. The Russian River, which used to run dry in the summer months, has been kept artificially full year-round since a dam was completed in the 1920s that diverts water out of the Eel River and into the Russian River.

But due to orders from federal regulatory agencies tasked with protecting fisheries habitat, diversions from the Eel River to Lake Mendocino have been reduced by 33 percent this year so that Chinook salmon will be able to migrate and spawn in the Russian River. That will mean much less water available to Sonoma County residents.

If we don’t cut back on our water use now and if we don’t get some substantial late-season rainfall, mandatory restrictions will become a reality this summer.

Longtime Petaluma residents will recall that this has happened before. Thirty years ago, two consecutive dry seasons — 1975-76 and 1976-77 — resulted in the driest year on record and mandatory water restrictions were enacted. In Petaluma, this included using outdoor water hoses every other day — an odd-and-even system based on the day on the calendar and which side of town you lived on.

Yet the prospect of drought has always been a reality in California. Ongoing global climate changes promise to exacerbate the problem in coming years. There are also 13 million more people living in California today than in 1977, and Sonoma County’s population is up by about 200,000 since that time. So there are a lot more people turning on the tap than there used to be.

Unlike 1977, today water conservation practices have become much more of a way of life due to public policy. Low-flow toilets, drip irrigation systems, landscaping with drought-tolerant plants and common-sense water usage are steps that many residents have already taken.

If we are to have enough water to drink, shower, flush our toilets and water our plants and trees later this year, we all need to do more to conserve water now. Here are some suggestions by the county water agency and the city water department:

• Reduce your irrigation system run times by lowering the minutes per cycle or reducing the days per week the system turns on.

• Do not hose off your driveway or patio. Use a broom to sweep instead.

• Take your car to a car wash that recycles water.

• Wait until you have a full load of laundry or dishes before you start your washer.

• Call the city water department to schedule a free inspection to evaluate your water use and get water-saving recommendations.

 

Call 1-800-548-1882 to schedule a free residential survey or 778-4507 to schedule a commercial survey. The county water agency provides a similar service. Call 547-1910.

• Upgrade to a new high-efficiency clothes washer and get a rebate on qualified models.

• Tune up your irrigation system.

• Install new high-efficiency toilets. They use 20 percent less water than standard toilets. Rebates are available.

• Choose native and low-water using plants for your landscape. These plants thrive with less water.

• Cover your pool or hot tub when not in use.

• Check for and fix leaks. See the Green Team column by David Iribarne on page C7 of this issue.

Taking sensible steps to conserve water now will help us avoid having to face far more severe consequences later on. #

http://www1.arguscourier.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070418/OPINION01/70417038&template=printart

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