A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
May 22, 2007
2. Supply
WATER TRANSFER:
District, farmers discuss future - Imperial Valley Press
MOKELUMNE RIVER WATER:
Mokelumne water talks buoy hopes; S.J.-East Bay pact could increase supply - Stockton Record
WATER METERING:
Meters are on the way in Hughson; City to send notices of rate hike in June -
DEVELOPMENT:
Jones Valley residents consider water costs - Redding Record Searchlight
WATER CONSERVATION:
Cal Am not yet to stage of rationing; Conservation still working despite dry year - Monterey Herald
WATER TRANSFER:
District, farmers discuss future
By Darren Simon, staff writer
Saving water in the
It could cost as much as $5 billion for farmers to set up conservation programs on their farms.
It will cost another $110 million for the Imperial Irrigation District to upgrade its water delivery system to prevent water waste.
The question is, at a time when the
That is a question the Imperial Irrigation District finds itself wrestling with and it was a question that brought the district board together with farmers Monday to consider the future when the water will now flow as freely as it once did.
Discussion centered on the so-called Definite Plan, a proposal that mixes IID water system upgrades with on-farm conservation and automated water measurement systems to ensure water is not wasted.
IID General Manager Charles Hosken issued a warning to those who attended Monday’s meeting. He said he had just attended a water conference in
“Their attitude is this: IID has more water than it needs or can possibly justify at a time when all other water users are being asked to do more with less,” Hosken said.
“And the solution they offer is as transparent as their motives: more water transfers in the
The meeting did not lead to any resolutions on how the district will conserve water.
But it did lead the IID board closer to defining the conservation methods that will forever alter the way farmers use water and change the way water is delivered to them.
In a larger sense, talk of water conservation will eventually impact cities and household water users as much as it does farmers.
One point of discussion focused on mixing the water conservation program with another project to limit water use known as the equitable distribution plan.
Equitable distribution is a system of rationing water to both farmers and cities and while it is a plan that initially was to be used in times of emergency when water demand outpaces supply, there are many who say the time to ration is now.
It would be a system of setting a baseline for water use and as such it would be a system of measuring and controlling water use.
“We can tie these together,” said John Eckhardt, who is heading the creation of the Definite Plan.
Establishing a system of measuring how much is conserved will be key no matter what water-savings plan is implemented.
One local farmer, Jack McConnell, said on his ranch he already has built a $150,000 gravity-flow system to capture water that otherwise would flow off his farm fields.
McConnell estimated his conservation methods are saving 400 acre-feet of water from his fields.
Eckhardt praised the steps McConnell has taken but said the problem the district is facing is it cannot simply estimate water savings.
“We have to know we are saving,” he said.
More meetings are expected to occur as the district moves toward finalizing the Definite Plan. #
http://www.ivpressonline.com/articles/2007/05/22/news/news03.txt
MOKELUMNE RIVER WATER:
Mokelumne water talks buoy hopes;
By Alex Breitler, staff writer
New talks with a large Bay Area water supplier could bless San Joaquin-area cities and farms with more water from the
But it is too early to tell if a solid pact will emerge from the negotiations, local water officials said Monday.
Earlier this year, Stockton-area water agencies protested a request by the East Bay Municipal Utility District for more time to make full use of its Mokelumne water. The district takes most of the river's flows and ships the water to 1.3 million people, but it does not use all of the water to which it holds rights.
That could change in the future as the population grows, district officials say. In the meantime, agencies in
Enter the recent talks, which some water officials say signify a major milestone and a departure from the typical protests and arguments.
"I think something can be worked out. This could be an important turning point," said Dante Nomellini, who represents farmers in the central Delta.
Basically, the local agencies would drop their protests against East Bay MUD in exchange for up to 20,000 acre-feet of Mokelumne water each year.
"We're saying, let's contract with East Bay MUD to see if we can put that water to beneficial use while they develop their demand," said state Sen. Michael Machado, D-Linden, who has helped shepherd the negotiations.
The water could offset the state's recent revoking of water rights belonging to the North San Joaquin Water Conservation District, which has not been able to pay for the infrastructure needed to take a deeper drink from the river.
"It would make a big difference," said Ed Steffani, whose
Groundwater levels in the east county have dropped, and little new surface water is available for future residents, officials say.
Details of the agreement are still in flux, said Mel Lytle,
Mel Panizza, who heads the board of the Stockton East Water District, said past talks with East Bay MUD dating back as far as 1990 did not yield much in the way of results. Today's situation remains "fluid," he said.
"It's extremely difficult to pull these things together," Panizza said.
East Bay MUD spokesman Charles Hardy said an agreement on the
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070522/A_NEWS/705220323
WATER METERING:
Meters are on the way in Hughson; City to send notices of rate hike in June
By Ken Carlson, staff writer
HUGHSON — City residents and business owners will be paying metered water rates. It's just a matter of when.
The city, in an effort to comply with state law, will start the process of establishing a metered rate schedule when it sends notices detailing the proposed rates to customers in early June.
Property owners will have 45 days to protest the new rates if they wish. The new charges will be established unless the city receives written protests from more than 50 percent of affected property owners.
The City Council then will decide whether to start charging customers who have water me-ters in September, or wait until all customers in Hughson have meters, City Manager Joseph Donabed said. The city also has the option of waiting until the state's established date for starting to read existing meters.
"The council knows we have to start reading the meters that are there by 2010," the city manager said. "Whether we start early or not, we haven't made that decision."
Generally speaking, homes built in Hughson before 1992 don't have water meters. The city is in the process of installing meters that can be read electronically in the older sections of Hughson and, if money is available in the 2007-08 budget, could have all residential customers on meters by early 2009, Donabed said.
Hughson currently charges a flat water rate of $38.65 a month, but a state law is requiring cities to bill customers based on the amount of water used.
A city-hired consultant, Bartle Wells Associates, has developed a rate schedule that will reward customers who conserve water and penalize those who don't.
The proposal calls for slowly reducing the flat monthly rate while phasing in the metered rate, so people can adjust their consumption as they see how their bills change.
'We want to be very careful'
The metered rate will start at 25 cents per 1,000 gallons and gradually increase to $1.37 per 1,000 gallons in five years.
The consultants said the average bill for a single-family home — using 750 gallons a day — will be $41.83 per month the first year, increasing to $54.58 per month in the fifth year.
Heavy users, such as a family consuming 1,250 gallons per day, will be charged $45.58 a month the first year and could be paying $75.13 a month in five years.
Residential customers who strictly conserve water won't see much of an increase. Those able to get by with 400 gallons a day will be paying $40.10 a month in five years.
Doug Dove, president of Bartle Wells Associates, said the consultants are not sure how much water the average residential customer uses in Hughson. As a general rule, residential consumption averages about 250 gallons per person per day.
Hughson resident Adam Bradley said the proposed rate is too high, since the city has been raising utility charges in recent years.
The
"I don't feel we should start paying extra for that," he said. "We are paying close to paying $100 now for water, sewer and garbage combined."
Dove said the consultants are working on metered rates for industrial and commercial accounts. Those rates will be listed in the Proposition 218 notices mailed in early June.
"Because typically they are larger users of water, we want to be very careful in transitioning them to the metered rates," Dove said.
Once the rates are established, the city likely will review the commercialandindustrial charges to see if the rates need to be adjusted, he said.
To establish metered water rates, the city must follow a Proposition 218 protest hearing process. The procedure differs from Proposition 218 balloting required for special property assessments.
The city has to notify utility customers 45 days prior to a hearing date. There is no ballot to mark, but property owners can file written protests with the city. The owner's address or parcel number must be on the written protest.
Under a tentative schedule, the city will count the protests at a hearing July 23. Each property has one vote, and the proposal is defeated if protests are filed for a majority of the 1,779 utility accounts.
According to a report to the City Council this month, the metered rates were calculated to generate enough revenue to cover operating and capital expenses in the next five years. The water enterprise fund expenses are projected to rise from $877,225 this year to $1,487,500 in 2011-12.
Donabed said the metered rates should encourage conservation.
"We have been told there is a strong correlation between metered water and conservation," he said. #
http://www.modbee.com/local/story/13610369p-14207919c.html
DEVELOPMENT:
Redding Record Searchlight – 5/22/07
By Dylan Darling, staff writer
A public meeting today at the Jones Valley Fire Hall will focus on the costs of stringing waterlines connected to the Jones Valley County Service Area through a pair of subdivisions, said Pat Minturn, Shasta County's public works director.
Pace Civil Inc., a
But that figure could be cut in half, thanks to grants, Minturn said.
Depending on what state and federal grants the county pursues, Steve Boyd, who lives off Elk Trail West, said the cost could be even lower.
"There's a huge number of possibilities out there," he said.
As is, houses in both subdivisions are supplied water by wells. In recent years, many of the wells have stopped providing water in the summertime, forcing many residents to haul water to their homes. The two subdivisions have 188 parcels combined, 102 of which are developed, Minturn said.
Boyd, who hauls water year-round, said he's worried that the county is holding the meeting prematurely and the figures that are presented could cause people to oppose the idea of joining the service area.
About 130 will probably show up for the meeting, said Paul Stout, president of the Elk Trail Water Association. The association, which formed earlier, is focused on getting reliable water for the subdivisions.
He also said people will need to wait and see how grants could affect the cost before making a decision.
"We don't want to scare people away," he said. #
http://www.redding.com/news/2007/may/22/jones-valley-residents-consider-water-costs/
WATER CONSERVATION:
By Kevin Howe, staff writer
It's been a dry winter but voluntary water conservation seems to have held back the prospect of rationing on the
Darby Fuerst, senior hydrologist for the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District, reported to the district board Monday that production in California American Water's Monterey Peninsula service area remains below limits set by the state Water Resources Control Board and below the "triggers" that would move water out of the permanent Stage 1 conservation mode to more restrictive usage rules.
State 2 is triggered when Cal Am customers exceed year-to-date conservation targets set by the state or the court, and Stage 3 kicks in when conservation targets are exceeded a second time. In addition, charges for water use are increased.
The "water year" set by the state runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30, and Cal Am is limited to drawing no more than 11,285 acre-feet from the
As of Wednesday, he said, Cal Am has drawn 6,164 acre-feet from the river aquifer, 1,527 from the
In the past month, Fuerst said, Cal Am has increased its water buffer by 90 acre-feet by reduced production to 228 acre-feet. He noted that last year was a "wet" year and the buffer was 880 acre-feet at this same time.
Fuerst noted that demand is expected to go up during the summer but "we have not exceeded the triggers to go to Stage 2 or 3 conservation."
Cal Am spokeswoman Catherine Bowie and Water District water demand manager Stephanie Pintar gave the board a joint presentation on a conservation education program involving Internet sites, print, television and radio news media, and informational mailings aimed at the public.
"We're always under restrictions here,"
Watering at even-numbered addresses and north and east unnumbered
The water company also levies a "tiered" water billing system that charges more for customers who exceed a basic amount.
David Dilworth of
Dilworth said the district needs to revisit its rationing plan, which he contends places an unfair burden of penalties on individual customers, which golf courses and businesses escape, and both he and Pratt questioned why, if the district is running low, does it continue to issue water connection and water system permits.
Information on water restrictions is available at the district Web site, www.mpwmd.dst.ca.us;
http://www.montereyherald.com/local/ci_5956645
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