[Water_news] 1. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS - Top Item for 6/13/07

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation for DWR personnel of significant news articles and comment

 

June 13, 2007

 

1.  Top Items -

 

Delta's pumping volume to increase

Scarce smelt were killed in low-level transfers, but irrigation clamor is rising. -

Sacramento Bee

 

'A real urgency' for water conservation

GET WORD OUT: Regional officials want to inform people that a drought has thinned supplies. -

Riverside Press Enterprise

 

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Delta's pumping volume to increase

Scarce smelt were killed in low-level transfers, but irrigation clamor is rising.

Sacramento Bee – 6/13/07

By Matt Weiser - Bee Staff Writer

 

Water exports from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta are expected to increase significantly today, despite additional smelt killed this week and a lingering risk to the threatened fish.

 

A sharp decline in smelt numbers prompted an unprecedented shutdown of the state's Delta water export pumps on May 31, and a reduction in federal pumping. The pump systems provide drinking water to 25 million Californians from Livermore to San Diego, and irrigation water for 5 million acres of farmland.

 

The state Department of Water Resources resumed limited water exports on Sunday and Monday, moving a daily average of about 100 cubic feet per second into the California Aqueduct, or less than 10 percent of normal volumes. Yet it also killed 27 smelt on Sunday and nine on Monday, even though pumping occurred for only two hours each day.

 

Officials said these smelt were already trapped in Clifton Court Forebay, a charging basin for the pumps that has been closed to the Delta since pumping stopped May 31. Biologists consider smelt in the forebay to be doomed anyway because they are prey for bigger fish trapped there.

 

On Tuesday, 15 more smelt died when the forebay was reopened to the Delta and exports boosted to a daily average of 400 cubic feet per second, DWR spokesman Ted Thomas said.

 

These may seem like small numbers of fish killed. But biologists say the smelt, an indicator of ecological health in the Delta, is in a precarious state. An annual netting survey by the state Department of Fish and Game has found only 35 smelt throughout the entire Delta so far this year, compared with more than 400 in each of the past five years.

 

This comes after three years of decline blamed on water exports, water contamination and competition from non-native species.

 

"They're closer to extinction than they've ever been," said Bill Bennett, a UC Davis fisheries ecologist and author of the most thorough assessment of the species yet published. "The other worry is, we don't know what the critical threshold is from which they cannot return."

 

Greg Hurner, Fish and Game deputy director, said it seemed likely the additional 15 fish killed Tuesday were previously trapped in the forebay, rather than freshly drawn in from the Delta. A ruling by biologists on that question was pending.

 

"We're taking a very cautionary approach," he said. "If we see additional take (of smelt) in the future, obviously we're going to sit back down with DWR and evaluate whether the pumps should be turned off again for a period of time."

 

DWR planned to continue pumping at a daily average of 400 cfs through the end of the week, with the forebay open periodically, then consider whether to increase pumping further.

 

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which operates the federal pumps, planned to boost Delta export pumping to 2,700 cfs today after running at 850 cfs since April, spokesman Jeff McCracken said. The federal pumps have not recorded any smelt kills since May 30.

 

State and federal water officials said there are several reasons to increase pumping now.

 

One is that Fish and Game surveys have found no smelt in the south Delta near the pumps.

 

There is also a concern that the dam at San Luis Reservoir could be damaged by heavy demand for water there. It has been the primary supply for Southern California farms and cities during the shutdown. But continued rapid drawdown could cause the earthen dam to slump and fail, said McCracken.

 

Also, water users have become increasingly vocal about looming shortages.

 

On Tuesday, the Santa Clara Valley Water District urged residential and business customers to voluntarily reduce consumption by 10 percent. Half of Santa Clara County's water comes from the Delta.

 

Today, Westlands Water District in the San Joaquin Valley holds a meeting with its farm customers to discuss emergency plans to share water equitably if shortages continue. The district is the largest agricultural consumer of Delta water and is considered a political powerhouse.

 

Mark Borba, a Westlands customer who grows vegetables near Riverdale, said area farmers are beginning to consider abandoning low-value crops like cotton to save water for precious commodities such as tomatoes and fruit trees.

 

As the crisis drags on, he said, it becomes difficult to make up for lost supplies later due to limited delivery capacity and crop demands. Tomatoes, he said, need water now, not in September.

 

"Every day, it's like a ticking time bomb waiting to go off," he said. "Out here, if you miss irrigation during the critical summer season, you lose your entire year's crop."

 

Gary Bobker, program director at the Bay Institute, said it is premature to increase water exports now because the fish still haven't moved to safety in Suisun Bay. Rather, they remain clustered within range of the pumps, at the confluence of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers.

 

"I'm just really worried," he said. "We really have to question everything we're doing to see if it could have an impact, because we're that close to extinction."#

http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/219532.html

 

'A real urgency' for water conservation

GET WORD OUT: Regional officials want to inform people that a drought has thinned supplies.

Riverside Press Enterprise – 6/12/07

By JENNIFER BOWLES

Regional water officials on Tuesday approved spending an unprecedented $6.3 million over the next year to expand a campaign aimed at convincing Southern Californians to conserve at their taps and outside hoses.

 

The vote by the Metropolitan Water District board signifies the extent of the region's dire water situation.

 

The state shut down pumps that provide Southern California with vast amounts of water less than two weeks ago. In addition, a drought has thinned supplies in the Sierra Nevada, the Colorado River and locally.

 

"There's a real urgency. We can't wait anymore, we really need to be proactive," said Randy Record, a San Jacinto farmer and Metropolitan board member representing Perris-based Eastern Municipal Water District.

 

The California Department of Water Resources turned off the pumps at the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta because pools of a federally protected fish are being sucked into the massive system and killed. The state is waiting for the smelt to migrate away from the pumps before turning them back on at full speed, said Sue Sims, a department spokeswoman.

 

The pumps were turned back on Sunday but only for limited pumping to Northern California counties hit hard by the move.

The Inland region and the rest of Southern California are getting supplies from San Luis Reservoir further south on the aqueduct system, but that is not an indefinite source.

 

"The clock is ticking on how much longer we can do that," Sims said.

 

The Metropolitan campaign, called Let's Save, started around Memorial Day weekend. The augmented campaign plans to cast a wider net and feature advertising on radio, TV and Web sites that ask people to voluntarily conserve.#

http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_H_drought13.3cd4014.html