[Water_news] 5. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: AGENCIES, PROGRAMS, PEOPLE - 4/5/07

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment

 

April 5, 2007

 

5. Agencies, Programs, People -

 
Our View: Supreme Court sides with states
Justices give EPA right to regulate vehicle emissions, despite Bush administration's objections

Merced Sun-Star

 

Today’s Guest commentary: MID’s flood role misunderstood

Merced Sun Star

 

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Our View: Supreme Court sides with states
Justices give EPA right to regulate vehicle emissions, despite Bush administration's objections

Merced Sun-Star – 4/5/07

 

The U.S. Supreme Court struck another blow Monday against the Bush administration's inaction on global warming with a ruling that keeps intact California's pioneering efforts to cut greenhouse gases.

 

In a 5-4 decision, the court ruled that, contrary to the arguments pushed by Bush's lawyers, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has authority to regulate vehicle emissions that are warming the Earth's atmosphere. It also determined that individual states have the right to challenge the EPA for stronger standards, since rising sea levels and other consequences of global warming could pose direct harm to these states.

 

Had the court ruled the other way, it would have tripped up a five-year-old California law -- since enacted by 10 other states -- that requires auto manufacturers to sell motor vehicles with the lowest feasible carbon dioxide emissions by 2009.

 

California has federal authority to establish pollution standards stronger than the federal government's. But if the court had determined that the EPA and the states lacked authority to treat carbon dioxide as a pollutant, it would have crippled California's law. It also would have taken away one of the state's key tools for reducing greenhouse gases, since vehicles account for 41 percent of these emissions in California.

 

Until Monday, there appeared to be a strong chance that the court would rule against the states. In oral arguments last November, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and other conservative justices seemed skeptical that Massachusetts, California and others had standing to sue the federal government over carbon dioxide. Scalia, in particular, questioned if Massachusetts was imminently imperiled by sea level rise and, if it was, whether the federal government could do anything about it.

 

"I mean, when is the cataclysm?" said Scalia, seeming to mock the science that state lawyers were presenting the court.

 

On Monday, however, Scalia ended up in the minority, largely because Justice Anthony Kennedy of Sacramento joined with four other justices in clarifying the EPA's responsibility. Writing for the majority, Justice John Paul Stevens made clear that states faced serious harm from a warming planet, and that the EPA has authority to act, even if its actions alone can't be expected to reverse global warming.

 

"The harms associated with climate change are serious and well recognized," wrote Stevens. "The government's own objective assessment of the relevant science and a strong consensus among qualified experts indicate that global warming threatens ... a precipitate rise in sea levels, severe and irreversible changes to natural ecosystems, a significant reduction in winter snow pack."

 

The court's decision does not mean that EPA will immediately start hitting Detroit with tough regulations. In its decision, the high court ordered the agency to review again its discretion over greenhouse gases, but it did not order it to regulate. That leaves it likely that the states will be taking the lead in pressing Detroit for cleaner cars and fighting off challenges by the auto industry -- at least until Bush leaves office.#

http://www.mercedsunstar.com/opinion/story/13458010p-14070010c.html

 

Today’s Guest commentary: MID’s flood role misunderstood

Merced Sun Star – 4/5/07
By Garith Krause

Editor's Note: Garith Krause is the general manager of the Merced Irrigation District.

 

Two recent letters to the Sun-Star have contained some misinformation and factual errors about flood control in our community. Both writers misunderstand the function of the Merced Irrigation District and how its system works.

 

For example, Black Rascal Creek does not originate from the Le Grand Canal but has always been, and continues to be, a tributary of Bear Creek. Black Rascal Creek rises in the low foothills of eastern Merced County and crosses the Le Grand Canal into the Black Rascal Bypass channel which empties into Bear Creek. Bear Creek flows through the city of Merced carrying the water of its tributaries like Black Rascal with it. There are some residual water flows through the original Black Rascal Creek channel, which results from runoff occurring downstream of the Black Rascal Bypass.

Unlike the other foothill creeks, which have flood control facilities maintained by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Black Rascal Creek has no such protection. A flood control dam, Haystack Reservoir was proposed for Black Rascal Creek in the foothills northeast of the city of Merced as part of a corps regional flood control project known as the Merced Streams Project in the early 1950s. That project is still known as Haystack reservoir. However, the dam was never constructed. It remains today a proposed project of the corps.

 

It is important to understand what MID's mission is in serving the community. MID is an irrigation district, a public agency charged with providing Eastern Merced County growers and farmers with water through 780 miles of canals that it maintains for that purpose. MID is a "special district" that is a public agency with specialized and limited authority, tasked with specific responsibilities established by the state of California. The district has not been assigned flood control responsibility for eastern Merced County.

 

The district has been providing much needed irrigation water to more than 120,000 acres in the county since 1919 and by its predecessors for 50 years before that. Agriculture, with MID's water delivery system, has driven the economy of eastern Merced County for a century and a half. In addition, MID's water operations provide significant groundwater recharge, which benefits the cities and rural residential communities of eastern Merced County in that it is the largest source of groundwater recharge in the region maintaining reliable groundwater supplies for domestic and urban water supply.

 

Although MID is not a flood control district, it did partner with the city of Merced and county of Merced in the late 1950s to maintain specifically designated reaches of local streams that are used for conveying stormwater runoff. However, everyone should understand that MID canals were not designed to convey flood waters. MID has cooperated with the corps in allowing its facilities to be used by the Merced Streams Group to augment flood protection of eastern Merced County when possible by rerouting water away from the urban areas where possible, which is not always the case. The MID system is not a substitute for needed flood control projects.

 

Legislation sponsored by state Sen. Jeff Denham provides for funding of flood control alternatives on Black Rascal Creek, which is public property and does not belong to MID. This project is just one aspect of the bill, which is part of the larger, corps-sponsored Merced Streams Project mentioned earlier.

 

MID has allowed the use of its facilities for storm drainage that "runs off" of developed areas, nearly all of which have their own retention basins to prevent flooding. In the absence of larger floodways, riparian corridors and/or alternative land uses, the ability to convey water away from urban areas without flooding requires that there be flood control facilities like basins or flood control dams in place to hold water back, making sure the capacity of the conveyance system is not exceeded. That was the intention of Haystack Reservoir.

 

This flood control facility envisioned by the Denham bill should be built to protect Merced citizens, but is not primarily a responsibility of MID farmers.

As to MID's early start to the 2007 irrigation season, this was critical to the ag community because of the extremely dry weather since December 2006. January was the fourth driest January in 110 years. The district has started its irrigation season in March many times; this is not an unusual event.

 

MID would be happy to meet with anyone who would like to discuss the system and how it works more fully. Additional information is available on the district's Web site at MercedID.org.#

http://www.mercedsunstar.com/opinion/story/13458011p-14070007c.html

 

 

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