[Water_news] 5. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: AGENCIES, PROGRAMS, PEOPLE - 6/27/07

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment

 

June 27, 2007

 

5. Agencies, Programs, People

 

NAPA CREEK FLOOD ISSUES:

A flood of ideas; Board seeks ways to make Napa Creek defenses a priority - Napa Valley Register

 

BUTTE CREEK LEVEE CONSTRUCTION:

Construction nearly finished on Butte Creek levee - Chico Enterprise Record

 

COACHELLA VALLEY WATER DISTRICT RATE HIKE:

Water bills to go up about $3 - Desert Sun

 

NEW OFFICE FOR YUBA COUNTY WATER AGENCY:

Yuba water agency settles into new offices - Marysville Appeal Democrat

 

 

NAPA CREEK FLOOD ISSUES:

A flood of ideas; Board seeks ways to make Napa Creek defenses a priority

Napa Valley Register – 6/27/07

By Kevin Courtney, staff writer

 

Deluged with an outpouring of concern from Napa Creek residents wanting flood protection, the local flood control board promised Tuesday to make the creekside neighborhood a higher priority.

Exactly what this means will be better known on July 24. Flood control staff will report on the options for beginning creek defenses before 2013, which is when work would start under the current schedule.

It may come down to the board’s willingness to shift money now committed to building two railroad bridges and digging a bypass channel in the Napa River Oxbow.

With more than three dozen of her neighbors looking on, Linda Kerr of the citizens’ group In Harm’s Way spoke for 30 minutes, making a lawyer-like case for putting Napa Creek on equal footing with the Napa River.

 

Unless the board can find the “political will” to change priorities, 413 residences and 125 business will be vulnerable to flooding well into the next decade, Kerr said.

Flood district staff said federal funding, which continues to be inadequate, should be focused on the Napa River. Once work in the Oxbow is done, protecting much of downtown and Soscol Avenue, then the focus could shift to the creek, project manager Heather Stanton recommended.

The flood board, representing the Napa County Board of Supervisors and five city councils, accepted Kerr’s argument that flood defenses for the creek and river proceed concurrently.

“Certainly the commitment is here,” said Napa Mayor Jill Techel, who chairs the flood board. “We’ve just begun to see the creative ways we may be able to handle this.”

Supervisor Bill Dodd suggested jumpstarting Napa Creek flood work using a potential FEMA grant or diverting local flood tax dollars for a purpose not originally intended when voters approved the Measure A sales tax in 1998.

If that’s not legal, then maybe voters could be asked to modify the purposes of Measure A money at a future election, Dodd said.

Kerr said these alternative funding possibilities left Napa Creek vulnerable to too many uncertainties. The board needs to recommend that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers divert some federal funds to the creek, even if this means slowing river work, she said.

“It’s a start,” said Kerr after the board voted to put the creek on equal footing with the river. The board’s seriousness will be determined by what happens in July, she said.

The Corps of Engineers wrote a letter opposing scheduling changes. That could leave the corps with no construction contract to award in 2008, jeopardizing future federal funding, said Col. Ronald Light.

The corps’ letter misrepresented In Harm’s Way’s request, Kerr said. Napa Creek residents want their portion of the flood project to be built concurrent with river work, not first, she said.

Staff will report in July on whether it is feasible to split federal funds in coming years without jeopardizing continued federal support.

Construction of the two Napa Valley Wine Train bridges is estimated to cost $37 million (one will go over the river, the other over the proposed bypass). Digging the Oxbow bypass could cost $15 million to $20 million.

Construction of culverts and flood terraces along Napa Creek near downtown is estimated to cost $15 million to $20 million.

Corps officials expect to be able to award at least a partial railroad contract for 2008. With design of Napa Creek defenses just beginning, creek construction couldn’t begin before 2009, according to district staff. Creek work is estimated to take two years.

The best solution to the flood control debate is for the Napa community to redouble its lobbying for more money from Congress and the Bush administration, said Stanley Ho, a corps engineer.

Napa has been getting $11 million to $12 million in recent years, but will need $20 million annually for five or so years to put the flood project back on schedule, Ho said. #

http://www.napavalleyregister.com/articles/2007/06/27/news/local/doc4681fbaa9e78f596655258.txt

 

 

BUTTE CREEK LEVEE CONSTRUCTION:

Construction nearly finished on Butte Creek levee

Chico Enterprise Record – 6/27/07

By Larry Mitchell, staff writer

 

A crew of workers is nearly done fixing a levee on Butte Creek just south of Chico.

 

Scott Feri, who heads the crew from Steelhead Constructors of Redding, said the job should be finished later this week.

 

On Monday, crew members were putting the last rocks in place as they worked to finish landscaping the levee.

 

The job has been done under contract with the state Department of Water Resources.

 

Feri said the creek had washed away parts of the levee so that a road, orchard and homes had become vulnerable to flooding.

 

His company began work on the levee last year. They widened the creek bed so the stream had more room to meander.

 

Then they built up a 1,000-foot section of the eroded levee along the west side of the creek just downstream from Highway 99.

 

In one place, the creek had gouged out a huge hole in the levee, creating about a 30-foot drop to a pool in the creek below, Feri said. That had become a popular place for youngsters to jump into the creek. Naturally, they weren't happy to see their jumping spot disappear as the repair work proceeded.

 

Rebuilding the levee itself was finished last year. This year, the crew has worked to make the levee look natural.

 

That has involved covering the rocks with dirt, then covering the dirt with fabric and staking it down.

 

Native grasses, shrubs and trees have been planted on the restored levee. The trees include oaks and cottonwoods.

 

Over time, the fabric and stakes will disintegrate, Feri said. Their function now is to prevent erosion as the plants and trees get established.

 

Levee repair projects like this one are being done throughout the Sacramento River watershed, Feri said. His company is doing several others.  #

http://www.chicoer.com/newshome/ci_6239097

 

 

COACHELLA VALLEY WATER DISTRICT RATE HIKE:

Water bills to go up about $3

Desert Sun – 6/27/07

By Keith Matheny, staff writer

 

Coachella Valley Water District customers have a rate hike coming down the pipe.

 

The district's board of directors on Tuesday approved what officials called "modest" rate increases for domestic water and sanitation and irrigation water for farms and some golf courses.

 

The hike will mean:

 

A $2.97 increase to the average monthly residential water bill. The district has nearly 105,000 domestic water customers.

 

$2.05 more per acre-foot of irrigation water delivered from the Colorado River.

 

$1.76 per month added to the average sanitation bill. More than 96,000 homes and businesses receive sanitation services from the district.

 

The sanitation fee hikes reflect a 5 percent increase for operations and maintenance, with an additional 50 cents assessed monthly to customers for capital improvements, district officials said.

 

The hikes are necessary to keep pace with increased costs of providing water, including an 18 percent increase in costs to power district pumps and machinery, board president Peter Nelson said.

 

General Manager Steve Robbins added, "We're working hard to make sure we have water at an affordable rate for all of our long-term water supplies and making sure our costs are evenly distributed to our various customers."

 

The new rates start Sunday.

 

The district board Tuesday also unanimously approved a $399 million budget for the 2007-08 fiscal year.

 

Big-ticket items include:

 

More than $30 million to complete the first phase of the Mid-Valley Pipeline project. It will bring Colorado River water to about 20 golf courses, where it will be blended with recycled water and used for irrigation.

 

The goal is to reduce the irrigation draw on limited underground aquifer water supplies to provide better quality drinking water, Nelson said.

 

$50 million to purchase more water rights from the State Water Project. The project brings water from Northern California to supply much of Central and Southern California.

 

The district uses the water allotment to recharge its underground aquifer northwest of Palm Springs.

 

$20 million to buy about 130 acres west of Avenue 62 and Monroe Street.

 

The land would be combined with existing district property to create facilities to recharge the aquifer in the eastern Coachella Valley, from which water is being drawn faster than it's being replenished, Robbins said.

 

The district board also approved a retirement benefit enhancement for virtually all of its more than 500 employees.

 

Under the improved formula with the California Public Employees Retirement Service, or CalPERS, a worker who retired after 20 years making $50,000 a year would receive another $5,000 annually in retirement for a total of $25,000 a year.

 

"The retirement plan has been upgraded to be more competitive with other public service agencies in the region," Robbins said.

 

The enhanced retirement benefits will cost the district nearly $1 million more, he said. #

http://www.desertsunonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070627/NEWS01/706270330/1006/news01

 

 

NEW OFFICE FOR YUBA COUNTY WATER AGENCY:

Yuba water agency settles into new offices

Marysville Appeal Democrat – 6/26/07

By Daniel Witter, staff writer

 

The Yuba County Water Agency is in a new Marysville location.

A growing staff, impending relicensing of New Bullards Bar Dam and a need for additional staffing space led agency officials to start planning for the move about two years ago.

Staffers made the move from 1402 D St. to 1220 F St. over the weekend, said Curt Aikens, general manager.

“We have been working on this for a couple of years. We outgrew the (D Street) facility,” Aikens said Tuesday. “The nature of our work has grown. We had people stacked on top of each other. We really didn’t have enough conference room space to accommodate people.”

The new location has 6,300 square feet of office space, which is triple the space the agency had, and the building cost about $1 million to build.

The additional room will help with relicensing, which starts next year and will continue for the next eight years. Relicensing will cost an estimated $10 million to $20 million, Aikens said. The agency is planning to bring on two or three more staffers to help with the process, Aikens said.

“Our goal is to have a facility to handle all of our needs and the post relicensing phase.”

Water Agency board members could not be reached for comment.

The agency is responsible for controlling flood and storm waters and conserving waters for beneficial and useful purposes. For example, it can sell water to other jurisdictions and also maintains water levels for fisheries in the Yuba River.

The agency moved into 1402 D St. about 15 years ago, Aikens said. The building was about 2,100 square feet.

The agency owns the building and paid for it through water transfer funds, Aikens said.

Aside from having more office space, the new building has two conference rooms and can hold two meetings at the same time, which has happened before, he said.

All of the agency phone numbers, fax numbers and e-mail addresses remain unchanged.

For more information on the water agency, visit www.ycwa.com.

http://www.appeal-democrat.com/onset?id=50360&template=article.html

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