[Water_news] 5. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: AGENCIES, PROGRAMS, PEOPLE - 5/14/07

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment

 

May 14, 2007

 

5. Agencies, Programs, People

 

SAN LORENZO CREEK:

Creek seen as 100-year villain; Federal engineers find San Lorenzo Creek vulnerable in a storm of the century - Inside Bay Area

 

WATER TRANSFER:

Water authority raising aid payment; Millions will go to Imperial Valley - San Diego Union Tribune

 

PROPOSED INFRASTRUCTURE:

Dry Creek Valley pipeline debated; New study will look into controversial plan to bring more water to area, other alternatives - Santa Rosa Press Democrat

 

CLAIR HILL WATER AGENCY AWARD:

CVWD honored as finalist for water agency award of excellence - Desert Sun

 

CASTAIC LAKE WATER AGENCY OPEN HOUSE:

Folks Go With Flow at CLWA Event - Santa Clarita Signal

 

 

SAN LORENZO CREEK:

Creek seen as 100-year villain; Federal engineers find San Lorenzo Creek vulnerable in a storm of the century

Inside Bay Area – 5/14/07

By Rachel Cohen, staff writer

 

SAN LORENZO — Though it has been a dry year, scientists know that the Bay Area's rainfall has become heavier over time, which has hydrologists studying how well the levees will hold in a hundred-year storm.

 

Engineers from the Federal Emergency Management Agency met with Alameda County Public Works counterparts on Wednesday to share their newest mappings. They found that San Lorenzo Creek is likely to overflow its banks in the biggest storm in a century, and they mapped where the water would flow. The agencies will be making flood insurance recommendations in the fall, said Hank Ackerman, principal civil engineer with Alameda County Public Works Agency Flood Control Program.

 

The program aims to make the insurance recommendations as accurate as possible. San Lorenzo Creek, which collects at the Cull Canyon Reservoir and Don Castro dams, runs through Hayward, unincorporated Hayward and San Lorenzo, where it forms the southern border of San Leandro until emptying into San Francisco Bay. After major flooding in 1954, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers used data it had collected since the mid-1940s to complete a concrete bed and levee building project in 1959, Ackerman said.

 

Back then, the Corps designed the levees to hold more than the highest predictable flow, which it estimated at 10,400 cubic feet per second. But in 2003, the U.S. Geological Survey, armed with nearly 50 more years of data, calculated the flow from a hundred-year storm to be much greater, at 15,290 cubic feet per second. More data in 2005 caused the USGS to make a still higher prediction: 16,100 cubic feet per second, Ackerman said.

 

With this volume of water in San Lorenzo Creek, engineers know it will overflow its banks west of Interstate 880, with the worst area between the freeway and Washington Avenue, but with flooding also between Washington and the railroad bridge near the Bay shoreline. While San Lorenzo Creek's watershed was mostly farmland in the 1950s, now it is densely populated.

The flood control program aims to determine who would be affected when there is a deluge.

 

"Let's find out truly which area will flood," Ackerman added.

 

Alameda County engineers used a detailed model to figure where the water would flow, which takes into account the land elevation and where buildings and roads are. The FEMA model takes a more uniform approach, modeling the flood plain on the assumption that everywhere around the creek is the same elevation. The FEMA model contends a flood will cover two to three times the surface area as the county version, explained Rohin Saleh, a county hydrologist.

 

Around the lower San Lorenzo Creek, for example, FEMA has calculated that both the north and south banks will overflow, but the local public works model shows only the south side flooding.

 

Moses Tsang, another county hydrologist, said that some 2,000 parcels would be flooded in the hundred-year storm.

 

"We're talking with FEMA and will work to create something that's more realistic," Ackerman said.

 

Ackerman also explained that raising the height of the walls in the part of San Lorenzo Creek that could overflow would cause the water to back up in the channels that feed the creek and possibly into surrounding areas, where it would be difficult to drain without pumps.

 

FEMA cannot require people to buy insurance unless they have a federally backed loan, but private lenders can decide to adopt the federal recommendations.

 

Once FEMA has reviewed Alameda County's maps, it will issue a preliminary map of the areas that would be affected by a severe flood and encourage local agencies to inform citizens and invite them to public meetings. They would be offered flood insurance at a lower introductory rate for about a year, before the cost goes up. Those who buy within the first year would be able to continue paying at the lower rate.

 

The largest recent precipitation occurred in 1998 when it rained continuously through January, saturating the ground. Saleh said the area was fortunate the 20-year storm did not cause San Lorenzo Creek to spill over.

 

Of the other federally constructed creekbeds in southern Alameda County, hydrologists are confident that San Leandro Creek, which is fairly small, and Alameda Creek, which with a 450-square-mile watershed dwarfs San Lorenzo Creek, will not overflow.

 

"Anything that's manmade is subject to failure," Ackerman said. "There's a very good certainty that they are safe, but there is still a slight risk." #

http://www.insidebayarea.com/search//ci_5892277

 

 

WATER TRANSFER:

Water authority raising aid payment; Millions will go to Imperial Valley

San Diego Union Tribune – 5/13/07

By Michael Gardner, Copley News Service

 

SACRAMENTO – The San Diego County Water Authority will dramatically boost its spending by $29.5 million to help cushion potential economic blows blamed on a controversial deal to transfer water out of the Imperial Valley, bringing its total commitment to $40 million.

 

In return, the water authority avoids writing even larger economic aid checks in the future and can exit from the politically touchy talks over who in the Imperial Valley should qualify for payments.

 

When you look at the totality of the transfer and what it means for our community, it's a manageable number,” said Mark Watton, a water authority director.

 

The additional $29.5 million, which will be paid over the next 10 years, is not expected to lead to sharp rate increases, Watton said.

 

“Those pennies add up quick, but it's just pennies on the water bill,” he said.

 

Ed McGrew, who has farmed in the valley for 45 years, welcomed the settlement announced Tuesday by San Diego and Imperial Irrigation District officials.

 

“This $40 million will be helpful to us – no question – depending on how it's disbursed,” McGrew said.

 

As part of a seven-state pact to share shrinking Colorado River supplies, the water authority in 2003 struck a deal to eventually buy up to 200,000 acre-feet of water annually from the Imperial Irrigation District. An acre-foot is 326,000 gallons, or enough for two average households for a year.

 

Originally, the water authority accepted allocating up to $20 million to help offset any downturns as farmers leave fields unplanted to free water for sale. About half of that $20 million, however, was a credit toward future water purchases.

 

San Diego officials also had agreed to be responsible for the difference if a special panel of economists determined that the Imperial Valley would lose more than $20 million. Wrangling over the economic losses had pushed the parties into arbitration.

 

Watton said the water authority chose to settle rather than risk having arbiters order larger mitigation payments.

“It's a reasonable settlement considering what we felt our financial exposure was,” he said.

 

Under the agreement, arbitration proceedings will be dropped, and the Imperial district will contribute $10 million to the overall $50 million aid package. That package is in addition to the millions San Diego pays for the water.

 

“Some people will say San Diego isn't paying enough. We had to close the door. It was causing too much grief,” said John Pierre Menvielle, an Imperial director. “I'm a farmer. I know there will be impacts.”

 

The Imperial Valley is sharply divided. Some believe the money should go directly to farmers, businesses that cater to agriculture and farmworkers. Others want to see more of the funds invested in the broader economy as protection against the cyclical nature of farm profits.

 

“The market is better than it's been in years,” McGrew said. “But that's just a coincidence. The water transfer will hurt us.” #

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20070513/news_1m13water.html

 

 

PROPOSED INFRASTRUCTURE:

Dry Creek Valley pipeline debated; New study will look into controversial plan to bring more water to area, other alternatives

Santa Rosa Press Democrat – 5/14/07

By Bleys Rose, staff writer

 

It's just too easy to describe a pipeline through Dry Creek Valley conveying water from Lake Sonoma to the Russian River as nothing more than a pipe dream.

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But that's what some claim it is.

There's no route to trace on a map of Dry Creek Valley. And no blueprints available that detail pipe sizes or the complexity of pumping stations necessary for increasing by one-third the amount of water proposed to be sucked out from behind Warm Springs Dam.

Yet the Dry Creek Valley pipeline will become part of an environmental impact study because some experts view it as a way to comply with federal endangered species protection for salmon in Dry Creek.

Or, more appropriately, a way around it if Dry Creek is left to the fish and Lake Sonoma water shuttles down the pipeline.

Debate has opened among county officials, north county residents and environmentalists over whether a pipeline siphoning water from Lake Sonoma and sending it to the collector ponds near the Wohler Bridge is an idea worth pursuing. That's a stretch of about two dozen miles if the pipeline follows a likely course along Dry Creek Road and Westside Road.

Currently, the idea of a pipeline exists only in the dreams of engineers and planners in the Sonoma County Water Agency who view it as one of several alternatives to be examined in a long-delayed environmental impact report.

The study on the north county water project is aimed at figuring out how to increase from 75,000 to 101,000 acre-feet the amount of water the agency can extract from Lake Sonoma for about 600,000 customers in Sonoma and northern Marin counties.

Already, the pipeline is the center of a debate among supervisors over whether it should be analyzed at the level of being a program (a concept worth more study) or a project (a site-specific study).

The difference is important because, as a project, the pipeline achieves greater priority that will extend the review process by several years.

West county Supervisor Mike Reilly thinks a Dry Creek Valley pipeline is inevitable. So, the sooner the public gets a look at the pipeline, the better.

"It is becoming obvious that we will need some sort of conveyance to get water down Dry Creek," Reilly said. "Why can't we send a clear message on the pipeline? I don't see any other way to do it."

But north county Supervisor Paul Kelley, who represents the valley, said it's too soon to say the pipeline is the only solution.

"My preference is to not rule out the alternatives," Kelley said. Those alternatives include: salmon habitat restoration that satisfies federal endangered species protection guidelines, thus allowing more Lake Sonoma water in Dry Creek; storing more water in aquifers; increasing the amount of ground water; and raising the level of Coyote Dam so more water can be drawn out of Lake Mendocino.

Water Agency engineers and planners admit they are struggling with a draft environmental impact report on what's properly called the Water Supply, Transmission and Reliability Project.

A previous effort to draft an environmental impact report on this project started in 1998, but was derailed by a lawsuit in 2003, prompting the Water Agency to start over.

Estimates of future water needs from contractors aren't all in yet, as most cities and Sonoma County are in the process of updating their general plans, so water needs aren't resolved. So far, only Santa Rosa, Cotati, the Valley of the Moon and northern Marin County have detailed their future water needs.

"We need to document that contractors have need for added water," said Erica Phelps, the Water Agency's environmental resources coordinator.

Phelps said there are also "delays and constraints" in completing the environmental review because the National Marine Fisheries Services has not delivered its opinion on how Dry Creek flows will affect endangered fish.

In addition, county supervisors are asking state authorities for permission to get more water from upstream dams, which could affect the size and scope of this pipeline.

At the moment, the state is reluctant to grant it unless Sonoma County can demonstrate that conservation measures are being undertaken and unless it can show more water won't damage habitat of endangered fish.

Water Agency officials recently informed county supervisors that a draft report won't be complete until June and a final version won't be ready for their consideration until June 2009.

"It takes a very long time to implement a water project," said Amy Harris Mai, senior environmental specialist with the Water Agency. #

http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070514/NEWS/705140304/1033/NEWS01

 

 

CLAIR HILL WATER AGENCY AWARD:

CVWD honored as finalist for water agency award of excellence

Desert Sun – 5/11/07

 

The Association of California Water Agencies recently honored the Coachella Valley Water District as a finalist for its Clair Hill Water Agency Award for Excellence.

The award is presented annually to recognize innovative programs in water resources management.

CVWD was named a finalist for a combination of successful water conservation programs for homeowners, golf courses and agricultural water users, a press release issued by the agency said.

The programs fall under the umbrella of the district’s Water Management Plan, which takes a three-tier approach to ensuring a sustainable water supply: conserving water, importing new water sources and helping non-domestic groundwater users convert to an alternative source. #

http://www.thedesertsun.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200770511035

 

 

CASTAIC LAKE WATER AGENCY OPEN HOUSE:

Folks Go With Flow at CLWA Event

Santa Clarita Signal – 5/13/07

By Jesse Munoz, staff writer

 

Water conservation was the theme Saturday as Santa Clarita Valley residents of all ages attended the Castaic Lake Water Agency's open house at the Rio Vista Water Treatment Facility, located near Central Park in Saugus.

 

"May is California Water Awareness Month, so we do this every May," said CLWA event coordinator Karen Denkinger, "and we try to promote water conservation as always."

 

With an assortment of water trivia games, an interactive treatment facility model, landscaping workshops, and representation by each of Santa Clarita's four water purveyors and the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works, the event also provided residents the opportunity to view the facilities Conservatory Garden - which was planted with a mixture of drought tolerant vegetation.

 

"We're just trying to make people aware of, not necessarily conserving, but being more efficient," said Robert McLaughlan, Newhall County Water Division conservation coordinator who was handing out low-flow shower heads, information pamphlets and coloring books filled with water saving tips.

 

Just across the garden, representatives from the county's public works office were used a watershed model to teach visitors about the process in which polluted water runoff flows down storm drains and into the ocean.

 

"We live in the upper Santa Clara River watershed. And anything we put into the streets - trash, the oil and grease residue we leave (on the road) when we drive our car - when it rains that will all go into a storm drain," said Thong Ngov, L.A. County Public Works watershed division civil engineering assistant. "So when it rains that will go into a storm drain, or if you're in a more natural environment, it can go directly into the Santa Clara River."

 

The event's selection of games seemed to be a hit with younger attendees, who were able to pick from an assortment of CLWA items by correctly answering a water trivia question.

 

"On average, how much water is used to wash a car?" asked CLWA representative Bonnie Deagon of one participating youth, before revealing the correct answer was 50 gallons.

 

"I've really enjoyed everything about the event, especially the games," said Castaic resident Janet Dominguez, who attended the event with her 5-year-old daughter Liberty. "Especially the games they have up there, because they actually talk to the kids and let them know (about water safety), so they're actually educating the kids."

 

Though the fun facts, educational workshops and free samples were all welcomed aspects of the event, the beauty of the Conservatory Garden - which though somewhat hidden behind Central Park is open to the public from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday through Sunday - seemed to be the hit of the day.

 

"People don't know about (the garden) because it's out of sight," said Saugus resident Ed Carstens, who came to the event looking to get ideas for what type of hillside vegetation he should plant at his home. "It's a beautiful location. They've got all sorts of great plants."

 

"I was always curious about what was up here," said Saugus resident Alva Corral. "It's really nice here. Very relaxing. ... There's so much to see and so much to do, it's, like, where do I begin? It's a nice event." #

http://www.the-signal.com/?module=displaystory&story_id=48304&format=html

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