A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
April 17, 2007
3. Watersheds
DELTA ISSUES:
Turning off the flow; California could face loss of billions in ruling over endangered fish species - Modesto Bee
Editorial: Delta danger - Riverside Press
LA RIVER:
State park to open near
DELTA ISSUES:
Turning off the flow;
By Michael G. Mooney, staff writer
Millions of Californians would lose at least a portion of their water supply and 750,000 acres of productive Central Valley farmland would dry up if the state cannot satisfy an
Late last month, Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch gave the
The Harvey O. Banks Pumping Plant and its related facilities near
Water flowing down the aqueduct has transformed
Shutting off the pumps would have a potentially devastating effect on the state's economy. Officials at the Department of Water Resources say they won't let that happen.
"If (Judge Roesch) makes the ruling permanent," said Ted Thomas, a DWR spokesman, "we will appeal."
On Thursday, the agency filed an objection to Roesch's tentative ruling and requested a hearing within 30 days.
For decades, environmental and sport fishing groups have argued that the pumps — a vital cog in the State Water Project — are a primary reason behind precipitous declines in the populations of endangered delta smelt and chinook salmon.
Work on the State Water Project began in the late 1950s. Major components include Oroville Dam, built on the Feather River, and the aqueduct, which links the San Joaquin-Sacramento Delta to
Roesch, in a tentative ruling issued March 22, ordered the DWR to obtain permits from the state Department of Fish and Game for the "incidental taking" or killing of endangered fish such as the delta smelt or shut down the pumps.
Without the pumps, the aqueduct would dry up.
"We're hoping against hope that (shutting down the pumps) doesn't happen," said Bill Harrison, who manages the Oak Flat Water District in western
Harrison said the Oak Flat District provides water to about 2,000 acres of
He also pointed out that Diablo Grande, a golf and resort community in the foothills west of Patterson, is a State Water Project customer that draws water from the aqueduct.
"We're still betting that reason will prevail," said Harrison, "(but) we're taking the threat seriously."
Earlier last week, Lester Snow, director of the DWR, told reporters the problems with certain species of fish, such as delta smelt, have been unfairly focused on the pumps powering the State Water Project.
"Over 90 percent of the species in the delta are introduced species," Snow said. "They're not native and that has changed a number of things, including dramatically changing the food web in the delta, and that is considered to be a significant part of this."
Snow said a number of factors are to blame, including land use changes and modification of habitat.
"Certainly, when it comes to modifying habitat, we do not deny that the (pumping) projects are having an impact," Snow said, "but my point (is) that you could cut off the pumps, lay waste to the entire economy of
"I think it's important people understand that. This happens to be the easiest knob to turn in the delta, but it doesn't necessarily mean it is effective."
Shutting down the Banks pumping plant, named after an engineer who became the DWR's first director, would deal a devastating blow to the state's economy, with losses estimated at $300 billion, Snow said.
"So, we are going to do everything we can to make sure that doesn't happen, at the same time we are going to do everything we can to ensure protection and eventual recovery of delta smelt."
Snow said his agency has "multiple plans in place to make sure the economy doesn't suffer from some inadvertent response to endangered species compliance."
He said water storage facilities south of the delta, including San Luis Reservoir, are in "as good shape as to be expected for this time of year."
Groundwater basins are in respectable shape, he continued, "and most of our water agencies that we supply water have also developed contingency plans."
Environmentalists, however, say the goal isn't a permanent shutdown of the pumps that power the State Water Project.
"Obviously, that would be drastic," said Patrick Koepele,
Alison Boucher, project manager for the Friends of the
Instead, Boucher said, the state needs to examine its pumping practices during two critical six-week periods:
In the fall, when the salmon travel from the Pacific Ocean through the delta and make their way up the Tuolumne River to spawn.
In the spring, when the young salmon begin their trek back to the ocean.
"The pumps create such strong currents," Boucher said, "the young fish don't have enough strength to break through. Some of them are weakened and fall prey to predators, and some are sucked into the pumps."
Boucher said the currents created by the pumps flow backward, moving water south into the aqueduct rather than allowing it to follow its natural course to the
"I think the judge was sending a wake-up call," Boucher said, "telling (the Department of Water Resources) they must do a better job managing those pumps. They knew when they put them in that they would be killing fish.
"We look forward to a careful analysis of how those pumps are operated during spawning season." #
http://www.modbee.com/local/story/13492117p-14100491c.html
Editorial: Delta danger
Riverside Press
So legislation that seeks to find a solution to the delta's peril is timely and necessary. SB 27 sets a 2008 deadline for legislative action to fix the delta, and focuses on approaches outlined in a February report by the Public Policy Institute of California. The bill builds on Gov. Schwarzenegger's appointment in February of a blue ribbon panel to report on potential solutions by Jan. 1, 2008. A coalition of state senators led by Joe Simitian, D-
The entire state has a stake in the delta's fate. The 738,000-acre delta supplies 23 million Californians with water, including much of Southern California, and irrigates 45 percent of the fruits and vegetables produced in the
Delta solutions will be neither easy nor cheap, and require painful political choices. But the state has little choice if it hopes to avert disaster.
The 1,100 miles of levees that protect the delta are aging and at risk of failure, endangering people, property and water systems.
The delta's habitat and wildlife face threats from invasive species, pollution and pumping that sends water elsewhere. The pollution and rising salt water levels threaten the quality of water that serves two-thirds of the state.
The approaches in the Public Policy Institute report include channeling water supplies around the delta -- shades of the
The governor and Legislature cannot let this effort repeat the patterns of previous failures to fix the delta. For example, the state-federal CalFed Bay Delta Program has labored for more than a decade, at a cost of $3 billion, without resolving the matter.
Delta issues are a complex tangle of conflicting interests. But delay in finding a solution is irresponsible and dangerous, and the consequences of failure unacceptable. #
LA RIVER:
State park to open near
By Steve Hymon, staff writer
Just a few decades ago, the Taylor Yards was a two-mile-long expanse of railroad tracks where trains were coupled together to connect
Today, most of those tracks and grimy rail yards are gone, and something else has risen in their place: a 40-acre state park that is intended to revive the working-class neighborhood of
The Rio de Los Angeles State Park opens Friday, complete with soccer fields, baseball diamonds, a playground and a new community center — not to mention vast expanses of grass and a field strewn with wildflowers.
"This park is a symbol; it's almost like a fresh start," said Gus Lizarde, president of the Greater Cypress Park Neighborhood Council and a longtime business owner in the community. "It brought us together because it was such a long fight to get it."
A little more than a decade ago,
Union Pacific phased out most of the rail yards in the 1970s and '80s and began moving those operations to the
In July 2001, a judge agreed with the groups.
"There would not be a park here if not for the community," said Melanie Winter, a
The court ruling opened the door for the state to purchase the land from funds generated by a $2.1-billion parks and water bond measure approved in 2000. The money enabled the state to purchase 40 acres for the new park, a 17-acre parcel along the river that hasn't been developed and to acquire the Cornfield — another abandoned rail yard next to Chinatown — for the Los Angeles State Historic Park, which is being designed. But there was a problem: Nearly all of the state parks in
The matter was resolved when legislators devised a way for the city to lease the land and build much-needed playing fields. In addition to the five soccer fields — including one with a synthetic surface — and two baseball diamonds, the new park features an expansive children's playground and walking paths through an area of natural-appearing grasslands.
City parks General Manager Jon Mukri called it "the greenest park from an environmental standpoint we've designed," from the waterless urinals in the community center now under construction, to the park's permeable parking lots, intended to absorb storm runoff.
Ruth Coleman, chief of the state parks system, said that she views the local park as a return to an earlier time.
"Really, this is a new vision for state parks to create large-scale places of beauty and nature in the city because the cities are so park poor," Coleman said. "It's kind of going back to the vision Frederick Law Olmsted had for Central Park" in
One question that remains is whether the city or state will be able to acquire a key parcel, owned by Union Pacific, that separates the new park from the
"We are still assessing any impacts to the environment that may have taken place over the years in the areas where rail cars and locomotives were serviced and repaired," wrote Mark Davis, a Union Pacific spokesman, in an e-mail. "This property may be retained for railroad uses."
River activists covet the property because it is a site where the river channel could potentially be widened to create more riparian habitat. The feasibility of reworking that stretch of the river is under study by the Army Corps of Engineers.
Even if the land were acquired, there would be challenges. Union Pacific and Metrolink commuters use tracks that form a barrier between the new state park and the parcel along the river. That corridor also is being considered for a proposed high-speed rail system tying
City Councilman Ed Reyes, whose district includes Taylor Yards, is still hopeful that something can be done to make the tracks less of an obstacle. Reyes grew up three blocks from the new park and came to be a supporter of it after initially working on building proposals for the site as a deputy to former Councilman Mike Hernandez.
Reyes said he appreciates
"I went down there after they had finished the cleanup of the site and had taken the tracks out," Reyes recalled, "and it just blew me away because we're actually living in a beautiful valley here. I never appreciated it before." #
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-taylor16apr16,1,4336907.story
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