A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
May 3, 2007
2. Supply
WATER BANKING:
Water agency gives green light on land; AVEK's general manager gets OK to finalize purchase agreement of acreage - Antelope Valley Press
GROUNDWATER:
Groundwater level decline no surprise - Chico Enterprise Record
WATER METERING:
Lodi to require water metering for homes - Stockton Record
Editorial: Are we facing a drought? -
WATER BANKING:
Water agency gives green light on land; AVEK's general manager gets OK to finalize purchase agreement of acreage
Antelope Valley
By Alisha Semchuck, staff writer
PALMDALE - Antelope Valley-East Kern Water Agency directors intend to land a deal by dealing in land - for water banking purposes.
They took another step forward in the land acquisition process by voting last week to grant General Manager Russ Fuller the authority to finalize the purchase agreement on roughly 1,450 acres comprising six or seven parcels near Gaskell Road between 60th and 120th streets west in Kern County, farmland owned by longtime Valley resident
Board President Andy Rutledge speculated the deal possibly could close escrow as soon as three or four weeks on property that carried a price tag of roughly $13 million.
Resource Manager Tom Barnes agreed the property title could transfer ownership that soon.
"It should be around the end of May, if everything goes OK," Barnes said.
So far, so good, according to Rutledge. "We got a good report back from the person doing environmental assessments - no (contaminants) in the area."
"As far as we know, there's nothing significant," Barnes concurred. Because banked water is meant to meet drinking standards, water quality is a concern.
Rutledge said the water agency plans to practice two types of banking - the spreading of water on land for recharge, allowing the water to seep into the ground, and in-lieu banking, in which users rely on imported water rather than pumping ground water, thereby not depleting the water table.
If all goes as planned, the current owner will farm about a third of the land, Rutledge said.
"That's always been our concept for (agricultural) land," Barnes said. "It's normal rotation for any farmer." That prevents draining all the nutrients from one section of land. "We'd have the potential to water bank on the other two-thirds."
Though they still don't know exactly how much water can be banked at the site, Barnes said, "we're hoping to bank half a foot a day" on each acre.
That means, if two-thirds of the property, or 966 acres, is fit for banking, approximately 483 acre-feet of water can be banked daily. Each acre-foot equals 326,000 gallons, the amount used by an average single-family home in one year. #
http://avpress.com/n/01/0501_s12.hts
GROUNDWATER:
Groundwater level decline no surprise
By Heather Hacking, staff writer
With a dry winter and only light rain during what is typically the wettest month, it's not surprising to water leaders that groundwater levels have lowered slightly in some areas of the county.
The county recently started a program called the "basin management objective," which includes reports on water levels. The goal is that if water levels begin to lower, investigation will be done to ensure there is not overpumping.
There are three levels of "alert," explained Vickie Newlin, assistant director of the county Department of Water and Resource Conservation.
Stage one alerts were noted in the city of
Measurements are taken in March, July, August and October.
Level three measurements were seen in the Rancho Esquon sub-region. That part of the basin management program only has one piece of property — Rancho Esquon. Newlin said they'll talk to the manager and see if there have been changes in water use recently.
The Butte Sink area also had larger water level dips. However, Newlin said only one well was tested, because the Department of Water Resources did not have good enough communication with property owners to have gates unlocked when testing was done. Newlin said she's sure these kinks in the program will be fine-tuned.
Newlin said the dry weather this year meant some agricultural growers irrigated in January. That's part of the reason for the slight lowering in groundwater in some places.
At the time the measurements were taken March 7 and 8, there had been between 7 and 8 inches of rain, which is less than half of average for the time period of July 1 to June 30.
Current and historic groundwater levels can be viewed on DWR's Water Data Library. That web page is:
http://wdl.water.ca.gov/gw/map.
http://www.chicoer.com/newshome/ci_5805697
WATER METERING:
By Keith Reed, staff writer
The City Council approved a plan Wednesday night that will require water meters to be installed in all homes that purchase water from the city over the next four years. The meters will measure the amount of water used by each home, and the city will read the meters in order to charge customers by the gallons used each month.
State law will require all cities in
Under the
The council voted 4-1 in favor of the four-year plan. Council member Joanne Mounce dissented, citing concerns for low-income citizens who can't afford the cost of retrofitting their home with a meter.
No residents at the meeting spoke out against metering.
Installing a meter won't come cheaply. It will cost about $350 to install a meter in many new residences built with the proper fittings to install one. Putting meters on homes built before 1979, however, will cost even more - around $1,200, according to
Prima said the city could approve a retrofit program that includes a payment plan for people facing the larger fees.
City Manager Blair King said residents also would be given the option to install water meters in their homes by themselves. Self-installation could save homeowners about $1,000 on the $1,200 installation.
"You would come by, get a permit, buy the meters, install the meter, and an inspection would incur," King said. "All they would pay for is the meter, which is about $200."
Water customers in
Owners of a three-bedroom home pay $34.35 a month, although the city plans to raise the fee to $37.85 on July 1 - the last of three steps to implement a $10.50 surcharge to pay for the cleanup of contaminated groundwater in central
The Public Works Department said the average
However, the 10 homes with the highest use in the test run averaged 34,000 gallons. But the homes with the lowest usage averaged about 6,000 gallons each.
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070503/A_NEWS/705030344
Editorial: Are we facing a drought?
It's official. The Sierra snowpack is the slimmest in nearly two decades. The final survey found the snowpack at 27% of normal.
But
But think of it this way: By the time the government officially declares the weather situation to be in a drought,
Conservation should be a way of life for Californians, and water shouldn't be wasted. We shouldn't have to wait for government to tell us to do the right thing.
Carefully using water is something to do every year, not just when a government bureaucrat officially declares a drought. #
http://www.fresnobee.com/274/story/45426.html
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