A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
May 31, 2007
2. Supply
PUMPING COSTS:
Report: Big farms get unfair electricity subsidy to pump water - KESQ Channel 3 (
LOCAL WATER SUPPLY ISSUES:
Officials assess water supply - Agoura Hills Acorn (
WATER SUPPLY OPTIONS:
Water agencies will try to bring on rain - Bakersfield Californian
GLEN CANYON DAM:
Disputed dam marks 50 years -
PUMPING COSTS:
Report: Big farms get unfair electricity subsidy to pump water
KESQ Channel 3 (
FRESNO, Calif. (AP) - An environmental group is claiming that some of the nation's largest farming operations are paying rock-bottom rates for the electricity they use to pump government-subsidized water to their fields.
About 7,000 farming operations in
Officials with the Department of Water Resources say by comparison, farmers that rely on a state-run irrigation system paid about 22 cents per kilowatt hour for wholesale electricity last year.
Bill Walker -- a vice president of the Oakland-based Environmental Working Group -- says the system is what he calls "socialized agriculture supported by corporate welfare."
Federal water officials disagree with the idea that farming operations fed by the nearly 500 miles of canals and pumping stations had a competitive advantage over other
http://www.kesq.com/Global/story.asp?S=6585905&nav=9qrx
LOCAL WATER SUPPLY ISSUES:
Officials assess water supply
Agoura Hills Acorn (
By Stephanie Bertholdo, staff writer
Water is precious in arid climates like
As levels run low and the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District draws water from other local reservoirs, some consumers might notice slight differences in the taste and smell of their tap water, said John Mundy, district general manager.
"The changes are usually subtle but they are a normal experience at this time of year," Mundy said. "Many people don't notice it at all, but each year a few call us to ask why it's different."
Several factors affect the seasonal change in water taste, Mundy said. Warm weather triggers algae blooms in supply reservoirs, resulting in an "earthy" odor or taste, even after the water has been treated and filtered.
Although water might taste differently or have a slightly odd scent, Mundy said it is completely safe and healthy to drink.
During summer, the water district meets added demand by drawing supplies from the Las Virgenes Reservoir in
"No two treatment facilities are alike, so there are small differences some people notice in the water's taste," Mundy said, while renewing the district's familiar call for conservation.
"Because of the dry winter across the state, we're asking customers to reduce their outdoor water use through shorter watering times and by refraining from using water to wash down driveways and sidewalks," Mundy said. "If there is another dry winter, the water we save this year could well be water we need next year."
The last statewide drought occurred in the 19871992 period, according to the California Department of Water Resources. The department says one dry year doesn't necessarily constitute a drought.
Customers in the Las Virgenes district receive water from the State Water Project. The water travels more than 400 miles in pipes and aqueducts from the Bay Delta in the north and serves more than 20 million people in
To keep customers abreast of all things concerning water, the district distributes its annual Water Quality Report, which offers a scientific analysis of the water delivered by the district.
Potable water flowing to residents from the Las Virgenes District has no contaminants and is considered "high quality," exceeding state or federal regulatory guidelines.
"Las Virgenes Municipal Water District customers have traditionally enjoyed very high water quality, and this year is no exception," Mundy said.
Because May is Water Awareness Month, the district put several educational programs into place to remind residents about the need to conserve water due to the increased demand that coincides with rising temperatures.
The district conducted several community outreach events during the month, including its annual water awareness poster contest and its 12th annual "gifting" of waterrelated books to local libraries.
At last week's Agoura Hills City Council meeting, community library manager Raya Sagi accepted a wide assortment of books for the Agoura Hills Library from Glen Peterson, a Las Virgenes board director and Metropolitan Water District representative.
The Las Virgenes Municipal Water District serves a population of 65,000 in the cities of Agoura Hills, Calabasas, Hidden Hills,
http://www.theacorn.com/news/2007/0531/Community/005.html
WATER SUPPLY OPTIONS:
Water agencies will try to bring on rain
By James Geluso, staff writer
Faced with a dry year, three area water providers and a possible fourth are planning to take unusual measures to wring the last bits of moisture from the sky.
They'll hire Fresno-based Atmospherics Inc. to fly cloud-seeding missions over the
They already pay the firm to seed clouds in the winter, but this is the first time they're trying the summertime approach.
"I'll call it a little bit of a gamble on our part," said Florn Core,
The targets of the seeding efforts are storms that come up from the Gulf of California into the upper part of the
The idea of seeding the clouds is to make them dump their moisture over the
Core said the company already made a flight earlier this month under its existing winter-season contract. A day and a half later, there was a noticeable bump in flows, Core said, although it's impossible to be sure the seeding was responsible.
Each of the providers involved can expect to pay $16,000 to $18,000 for the service over the four months, depending on factors ranging from the number of storms that come up the trough to the cost of fuel, Core said.
For decades, the providers have paid for cloud seeding during the winter to increase the amount of snowfall over the basin. But this is the first time they will try summer seeding.
Cloud seeding involves airplanes firing silver iodide into clouds to induce rain.
The Bakersfield Water Board approved the move Tuesday. The North Kern Water Storage District and Buena Vista Water Storage District boards have already approved it. The Kern Delta Water District hasn't approved it yet, Core said. If Kern Delta doesn't join the effort, the three remaining providers will likely just split the cost, he said.
The providers are desperate because the snowmelt this year is less than a third of normal, Lafond said.
Lafond said the area is on track for the 11th driest in the 105 years that records have been kept. #
http://www.bakersfield.com/102/story/153755.html
GLEN CANYON DAM:
Disputed dam marks 50 years
By Christopher Smart,
PAGE
Yep, the city of
But some environmentalists, charting the receding waters of
Once described as the most desolate place in the contiguous 48 states, the camp where construction workers bivouacked in dusty trailers in 1957 now is an oasis complete with churches, schools and parks. And the 7,000 full-time inhabitants of this tourist hub on
We're like any other small town," says longtime Page resident and booster Joan Nevills-Staveley as she strolls along manicured Lake Powell Boulevard, "except we have this tremendous swimming pool out our back door."
It's difficult to talk about Page without considering the 186-mile-long reservoir named for explorer John Wesley Powell. About 3.5 million visitors take it in each year, spurring tourist economies in southern
Eventually, though,
A political tide aimed at damming the
Sleight and a handful of critics warned that the dam would come at a huge price, burying what he calls "the heart" of canyon country, including such natural wonders as Cathedral in the Desert,
"The momentum grew and grew, and then it became necessary to build the dam. It's like the
Nearly five decades later, burgeoning demands on the
Fifty years from now, there will be no reservoir upstream from Page, predicts Richard Ingebretsen, the founder of the Glen Canyon Institute who views the dam as an ecological disaster.
"The dam will be there, or it won't be there," he says while surveying the partially revealed Cathedral in the Desert on the reservoir's Escalante arm. "But with the overuse of the water and global warming,
Nevills-Staveley, whose father was the first commercial river runner in
"As long as people can get to the water -- they may grouse and carry on (about low lake levels) -- but they will come."
It isn't just Page's tourist economy that lies downstream of an uncertain
The $500 million aqueduct would deliver 70,000 acre-feet of water annually and double the area's present capacity. (One acre-foot is the amount required annually by a family of four.) The pipeline would nurture growth for decades to come, says Ron Thompson, manager of the Washington County Water Conservancy District.
"If we grow at the rate everyone says, we'd be tapped out (by 2020) without it."
Portentous predictions about low
"If you look at the long-term average of
Recent dry years -- with the exception of the winter and spring of 2005-06 -- show
Water released from
"The system," Wirth says, "is more important now than it's ever been."
Nonetheless, Wirth concedes, Southwest growth will keep
"It's going to fill less frequently because there is more (water) demand."
Ingebretsen, on the other hand, contends such observations are an understatement.
"The latest, very conservative data, using Bureau of Reclamation (global-warming) models, shows it will be empty 15 (percent) to 50 percent of the time. Over the next 25 years, there is a good likelihood
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