A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
June 25, 2007
2. Supply -
Officials: Desert thirsty for change -
The Desert Sun
State's share of a coal plant is assailed
Critics say Nevada
To keep water flowing, cut usage by 15% -
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Officials: Desert thirsty for change
The Desert Sun – 6/24/07
By Keith Matheny
Ongoing drought forcing new look at landscaping habits
Celeste Cantú recalled feeling heartened when she saw a model home in a new development landscaped with water-conserving, native
Then she drove through the development, and saw none of the homeowners had followed the model's example.
"Everyone had the
The lush, green
Ongoing drought with no let-up in sight. Global warming. Court battles with environmentalists and levee problems in the Sacramento-San Joaquin river delta that supplies much of
But the alarms many Western water experts are sounding haven't yet resonated in most desert neighborhoods.
Nancy Speer with Speer Business Services in
While desert landscaping is utilized in most of the local associations, some, such as Aliso La Quinta, require homeowners to have at least 20 percent of their lawns in grass.
"The rest can be desert plants, but people just haven't chosen to do that," she said.
"It comes from where they came from. If they relocated from
Most homes use well more than half their water on their lawns and outdoor landscaping.
That has many worried.
"We need to stop pretending we live in someplace else," said
Changing long-held perceptions of what the desert should look like has proven a difficult task, Coachella Valley Water District general manager Steve Robbins said.
"For many years, people came out here and the symbol was building something green in the desert," he said.
Changing minds has included educating that desert landscaping doesn't have to mean "a gravel front yard with one spindly cactus in it," he said.
He noted such areas as Bighorn in
Crackdown coming?
The county board of supervisors earlier this year adopted a water-efficient landscape requirements ordinance. The Coachella Valley Water District has a similar ordinance, as do at least six of the valley's nine cities.
Most of the tough requirements, however, are for newly developed or redeveloped public areas, large businesses or multi-family homes. Cracking down on lush-lawned, single-family homes is now viewed as a last resort, not a first step, said Randy Record, chairman of the Riverside County Water Task Force.
"If we can't set the right example in the public landscaping, we have no business telling people what they can do in their back yard or front yard," he said.
The valley water agencies are getting together to "give a unified message" on water conservation, said Bob Edwards, environmental compliance coordinator for the Indio Water Authority.
The effort is about "trying to do something most people can go along with and accept - trying to make it easy to follow; not complicated," said Dave Luker, general manager of the Desert Water Agency.
Rather than focusing on limiting grass, the Coachella Valley Water District's ordinance sets parameters for annual water use at a development.
"We're trying to build in flexibility," Robbins said. "We're saying to the developers, 'Here's the amount of water you have to use. You be creative and you can do that however you want in your development.'"
Using water wisely
If aesthetics can't prod desert-dwellers to give the sprinklers more off-time, other options that could eventually be implemented might, such as tiered pricing, charging customers higher rates based on higher water use.
"In that way, those who think it's truly a priority to have a green lawn, make them pay for it," said Mark Buehler, assistant general manager of the Coachella Valley Water District.
Bringing landscaping ordinances in line with the desert's water realities is only a part of what must happen, Robbins said. Determining how to follow up at developments and deal with noncompliance is required as well in order to effectively reduce water consumption, he said.
"We've had cases where developers submit a landscape plan and on paper everything looks great; then you go out into the field three months later and they didn't build anything close to what's in the plan," he said.
"You've got to put the restrictions in the plans and check the plans. But you've also got to be able to go out and make sure they actually installed what's in the plan," Robbins said.
"And put in some kind of incentive through (water) pricing to make sure they keep it that way five years down the road."#
State's share of a coal plant is assailed
Critics say Nevada
By Judy Lin - Bee Capitol Bureau
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger once proudly proclaimed that
But the state not only buys power from a
The state Department of Water Resources confirms that it has a majority stake in one of four generating units at the Reid Gardner coal-fired plant 50 miles northeast of
"It reflects the department's business-as-usual attitude toward global warming and that's not good enough," said V. John White, executive director of the Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technology. "They have an undistinguished history and they ought to be looking at alternatives, such as solar panels."
Schwarzenegger spokesman Bill Maile said the state is tied to a long-term contract that was signed years ago. He said the state will not renew the Reid Gardner contract when it expires in 2013.
"The governor wants to clean up polluting coal-powered electricity generators as soon as possible and he is leading the charge to protect
Carl Torgersen, chief of operations and maintenance for the State Water Project, said the department is responding by installing more efficient equipment. Department officials say no decision has been made to sell the state's share of the plant.
Recently the Reid Gardner plant came under environmental scrutiny. In April, the plant's main owner, Nevada Power Co., was ordered to pay $90 million in a settlement with the federal government and in fines for alleged air pollution violations.
Although the state is not a party to the settlement, Nevada Power spokeswoman Andrea Smith said California may be asked to help pay for equipment upgrades to reduce emissions of nitrous oxide, a major source of greenhouse gas. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the utility will need to spend $85 million on cleaner technology at the plant.
Coal pollution concerns come at a time when
If
"Do as we do, not as we say," he said Friday.
Unless the department decides to end its contract early, White said, "it means this brown energy source is going to continue to move water through
According to state documents,
For the past year, Schwarzenegger has been on a whirlwind tour promoting the greening of
"We don't buy any more electricity from anyone that gets it from coal," Schwarzenegger declared April 11 at an environmental conference at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. "We have changed that, so we have sent a very clear signal to the rest of the country."
That same day, Perata sent a letter to Department of Water Resources Director Lester Snow, asking what steps the department is taking to replace Reid Gardner with cleaner electricity. He noted that water-related energy use accounts for 19 percent of the state's electricity consumption.
Perata noted in the letter that the Schwarzenegger administration is implementing greenhouse gas reduction laws and the state is moving ahead with water storage and conveyance paid by infrastructure bonds. He said that presents "an opportunity to review the department's current activities with an eye toward reducing energy consumption and dependence on fossil fuels to help meet state climate goals."
Schwarzenegger last year signed legislation to prohibit public and private utilities from buying new electric power unless they comply with state emissions performance standards. Perata said, "Our best policies in state government are those we first practice ourselves."
Snow responded in an April 13 letter that said the department is "exploring alternative power options" for Reid Gardner. He noted that the State Water Project contributes less than 1 percent of the state's greenhouse gases, compared with transportation, which accounts for over 40 percent of the state's emissions.
Torgersen said the water project is improving energy efficiency by replacing 60-megawatt water pumps at the Edmonston pumping plant at the southern tip of the
"For a pump that large, it's a considerable increase," Torgersen said.
The department also has installed the first of four new turbine generators at the Hyatt power plant at
http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/237795.html
To keep water flowing, cut usage by 15%
By Titus Gee, staff writer
PALMDALE - Only conservation will get us through the summer, Palmdale Water District officials told residents Saturday at an open house.
Every household must cut 15% out of their water usage in order to keep the faucets from running dry, they said.
"If we get that, we can make it through the year without water rationing or other measures," said Greg Dluzak , production manager for the district.
If residents cannot cut back voluntarily, mandatory rationing will have to be instituted with fines as high as $1,000 for breaking regulations, officials said.
The water district lured residents with free drought-resistant plants, low-flow shower heads and other water-saving giveaways.
Households that successfully conserve 15% during the summer months may receive free plants and could win trees or a new toilet in a district raffle, they said.
The open house also featured demonstrations and displays about water-efficient landscaping and plumbing tips to keep water from escaping.
"We always want people to use (water) wisely; then we'll have enough for everyone," said Claudette Roberts , the district's water conservation manager.
"I think we won't have a problem" getting people to comply, she said. "It's easy enough to do. … Just a little bit of help goes a long way."
Roberts suggested turning the watering time on automatic sprinklers down by a minute or two, taking fewer or shorter showers and choosing to decorate with desertworthy plants.
"Plant irises," she said. "They're good flowers. They are low-water tolerant and everybody loves them."
Bill and Patricia Van Gorder did just that. The pair do not live within the Palmdale Water District, but they attended the open house because they care about water conservation, Patricia Van Gorder said.
"It's something I think everybody needs to be concerned about," she said. "Where does the aquifer go? Under all of us, so it's a good idea for all of us to conserve it.
The Van Gorders planted more than 100 irises in their yard, and they use a meter to check moisture levels before watering. The flowers often go a week without needing more water, they said.
This summer's water crisis rises from an unusually dry winter that left the reservoir in Littlerock almost completely dry, Dluzak said. The district usually pulls about 4,000 acre feet of water from behind the Littlerock Dam, a pool that is supplied entirely by local runoff, he said - runoff that never materialized this year.
Between July 2006 and the end of February, local weather watchers recorded only 1.41 inches of rain in Palmdale and 1.45 inches in Antelope Acres.
"I think we're really going to be into something this summer," watcher John Baylor said in February, and that is exactly what happened.
The 4,000 acre-feet that cannot come from Littlerock equals about 15% of the estimated demand for the summer, Dluzak said.
Adding to the problem, a conflict between the Department of Water Resources and a sport-fishing group shut down one of the major pumps that supplies the state aqueduct, he said.
The Department of Water Resources turned off the pumps at the Harvey O. Banks Pumping Plant, near
The pump could be shut down again and stay shut for up to 18 months, "which would put us in a world of hurt," Dluzak said.
Due to supply controls based on state estimates of water supply, the district will receive about 60% of its water allotment for the year, he said.
The manager urged residents not to assume that seeing water in
"They don't realize that (water supply) really is a complicated animal," he said.#
http://avpress.com/n/24/0624_s3.hts
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