A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
July 12, 2007
2. Supply
State takes tough line on water savings; Official says while unlikely, county supply could be cut off if conservation falls short - Santa Rosa Press Democrat
WATER RECYCLING:
Re-evaluating water; Treatment plant breakdown forces Upland to look at alternatives - Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
LANDSCAPING:
Water leaders vote to help buy synthetic turf - North County Times
SWP WATER SUPPLY:
Agencies' pump proposal irks Kern water officials - Bakersfield Californian
Kern River season will be eighth driest on books - Bakersfield Californian
WATER SUPPLY ISSUES:
Guest Opinion: Mixing reliable water, restoration -
State takes tough line on water savings; Official says while unlikely, county supply could be cut off if conservation falls short
Santa Rosa Press Democrat – 7/12/07
By Bob Norberg, staff writer
The state water board conceivably could order supply pumps shut off if the Sonoma County Water Agency fails to cut the amount of water it takes from the
"The bottom line is they have to meet the 15 percent, they must," said Bill Rukeyser, a spokesman for the state Water Resources Control Board.
He acknowledged this week that a shut-off is an unlikely "extreme end point" and suggested that other avenues are available for compliance.
"If that requires getting school kids and deputizing them as water watchers, some cities may have to do that," he said. "If that means increased meter readings and reminders to business and domestic customers that this week they went above their allocations, it might come to that."
Sonoma County Supervisor Tim Smith said shutting off the pumps is pretty drastic.
"When you start talking about doing things like that, you have to ask what hospital are we not going to let have water? What nursing home?" Smith said. "Let's get real, there is public safety involved in this stuff, it's not just watering a lawn."
State officials say shutting off the pumps is a last resort but warned they have done so elsewhere in the past.
The county Water Agency is nervously watching its meters because it didn't see the results it hoped for when it began asking for conservation in April -- and it missed the mark last week, the first week of mandatory conservation.
"We are concerned about meeting the target and are doing as much as we can getting the word out," said Pam Jeane, the Water Agency's deputy chief of operations.
The Water Agency was ordered by the state board to reduce the amount of water it takes from the Russian River between July 1 and Oct. 28 by 15 percent from what it took during the same period in 2004.
The agency in turn passed the order on to its prime contractors, Windsor, Santa Rosa, Cotati, Rohnert Park, Sonoma and the Valley of the Moon and two Marin County water districts, which serve 600,000 residents and businesses from Windsor to Sausalito.
The water saved will be stored in
During the first week of July, however, water savings were 6.4 percent, short of the 15 percent goal. Jeane said it was warmer than the first week of July 2004, and weather is a major factor in water use.
Jeane said it will take the full month of July to get a reading on where the Water Agency stands in meeting the target, which is 15 percent over the entire four-month period.
The cities and districts have had conservation programs in place, which leads Jeane to question how much more savings homes and businesses can find.
"You implement best management practices, install all low-flow fixtures, low water-use landscaping, you do all these things and you get to the point that the only way to save more is a real impact," Jeane said. "There is a very large majority of people who feel like they have done everything for conservation they could do."
The Water Agency doesn't have authority over the cities and districts that buy its water, but most have promised to help conserve and have emergency ordinances in place.
"The equity issue has also come to the forefront," said Randy Poole, the Water Agency's general manager. "The classic is the largest city, which has had an aggressive program the last 15 years.
The agency takes water from the
Jeane said 95 percent of the water the agency gets is from the river and the remaining 5 percent is from wells. It has a day and a half in storage.
Rukeyser said the state has ordered others to shut off pumps, including
Rukeyser acknowledged cutting off water is an extreme measure.
"It's not a threat and it is not hollow and under any logical scenario that any sane Californian can think of, it would never happen because the retail customers, mom and pop and the regional agencies, all act rationally before it came to the extreme end point," Rukeyser said.
http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/article/20070712/NEWS/707120316/1033/NEWS01
WATER RECYCLING:
Re-evaluating water; Treatment plant breakdown forces
By Lori Consalvo, staff writer
Faced with the driest year on record, the City Council directed the committee to create a plan to use water from city treatment plants to reduce dependence on well and imported water.
"It is all very conceptual right now," said Councilman Tom Thomas, a committee member.
This week, the committee focused discussions on what to do about a broken-down treated water plant of the Inland Empire Utility Agency that operated next to Upland Hills Country Club.
The plant, which delivered irrigation water for almost 30 years to the country club, stopped operating last year.
"We discovered that it will take well over a million dollars to get it up and running again since it broke down," Thomas said.
The city's short-term goal consists of bringing in recycled water from other treatment plants to keep the golf course irrigated as well as finding other sources.
In the long run, the city needs to identify a site for a new water treatment plant in the north or adjacent to
The old treated water plant only delivered about 10 percent of the water used by the golf course.
The city will research building a new recycling plant, which would deliver 100 percent of the water needed by Upland Hills and nearby Red Hill Country Club in
"We are revisiting the overall need of the city to see if we can put in a bigger plant to reduce sewer and provide more water supply," Public Works Director Anthony La said. "Because we're in a drought, we need as much water as we can get."
"They are the equal, if not better than other cities with their efforts to conserve," Love said.
But when it comes to recycling water methods,
"They are very proactive in getting recycled water going in to the city," Love said. "They are doing their best to catch up."
During construction on the recent Euclid Median Project, the city installed water pipes to carry recycled water between
The city is waiting for the IEUA to hook up a recycled water source, which could be activated next summer, to irrigate the newly landscaped median. #
http://www.dailybulletin.com/news/ci_6354159
LANDSCAPING:
Water leaders vote to help buy synthetic turf
By Gig Conaughton, staff writer
OUTHERN CALIFORNIA -- Regional water leaders who have already urged Southern Californians to cut water use because of supply worries got even more serious this week, deciding for the first time to pay people to use fake grass instead of the real thing.
Board members of the Los Angeles-based Metropolitan Water District voted Tuesday to immediately offer homeowners a "modest" rebate to install synthetic turf, a conservation measure that could dramatically cut outdoor water use, which makes up 50 percent to 70 percent of residential water use.
Water officials said Wednesday that they believe it is the first time any Southern California water agency is offering homeowners rebates to replace thirsty lawns -- an act that made national headlines in 2002 in drought-ridden
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Metropolitan is Southern California's main water supplier, serving nearly 18 million people in six counties, including
Metropolitan spokesman Bob Muir said the board-approved rebate for homeowners was not big -- 30 cents for every square foot of turf, or between 2 percent and 3 percent of the estimated retail cost of $12 per square foot. But Muir and others said the action was significant because of the message it sends -- that water agencies are trying to prod the public to cut water use any way they can.
Whenever water officials in the West talk about the ultimate commitment to conserving water, they talk about
Metropolitan, the San Diego County Water Authority and other agencies, meanwhile, have offered synthetic turf rebates to commercial groups.
But agencies haven't thought of offering "replace-your-grass" rebates to homeowners because they're attached to the real thing, according to Metropolitan, the
If that happens,
Encinitas Mayor James Bond, a member of the Water Authority and Metropolitan boards, said he believes Metropolitan's willingness to help sell synthetic turf represents a philosophical shift.
"I think so, and I think it's a good one," he said.
He also said he thought the idea of promoting synthetic turf was more prudent than offering incentives for homeowners to xeriscape -- landscaping that substitutes rocks, shrubs and mulches for lawns.
"People still like green grass," Bond said. "It's part of the culture. And a culture shift takes time."
Bond said he expects the agencies that buy and deliver Metropolitan's water, including the Water Authority, would probably follow Metropolitan's lead and offer additional synthetic turf rebates.
Water Authority spokesman John Liarakos said the agency was still studying Metropolitan's new policy.
Muir said people who wanted more information about the turf rebate and other water conservation financial incentives, such as high efficiency sprinklers, washers and other items, should go to www.bewaterwise.com. #
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/07/12/news/sandiego/19_79_467_11_07.txt
SWP WATER SUPPLY:
Agencies' pump proposal irks Kern water officials
By James Geluso, staff writer
The ongoing battle over delta smelt and the State Water Project took another turn, and local water officials aren't happy about it.
State and federal agencies made a proposal for how to manage the pumps in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta over the next 18 months while a long-term plan is worked out.
The state plan could cut the amount of water brought to
"This could impact as much as half the water supply for our local community," Beck said.
The State Water Project provides about 25 percent of
The plan was filed in federal court.
Opponents have until the end of the month to file responses, Beck said, before the judge hears arguments in August.
Beck said the state and federal plan puts the blame for the decline of the delta smelt on the pumps, but doesn't consider other factors such as invasive species and other pumps in the delta.
"We continue to be frustrated by the unfair targeting of export pumpers as the sole cause of the decline," Beck said.
Pumping of water out of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta was shut off for 10 days last month because of concern the pumping was killing smelt. That led
The state water supply provides water to area farmers as well as drinking water for parts of the
http://www.bakersfield.com/102/story/186752.html
By James Geluso, staff writer
This summer expected to be the eighth driest on record for the
But it can't get much worse.
With a month to go in the April-July runoff season, the Kern basin has already produced more water than in the five driest years on record.
Still, it's predicted to be the driest season since 1990. But the
"We do believe we'll get through this season without any shortages or crop losses," Steve Lafond,
Farmers who depend on the State Water Project are still facing uncertainty, though.
In related news, there will be more white water to raft in the
SoCal
Edison's water normally runs down a canal out
http://www.bakersfield.com/102/story/186753.html
WATER SUPPLY ISSUES:
Guest Opinion: Mixing reliable water, restoration
IT continues to be a challenge in semiarid
This year has been a dry one, indeed. The possibility that it marks the beginning of a drought along with fear of what global warming may do to our rainfall and snowpack raises legitimate concerns.
The call to build new dams, as well as sharp criticism of the Bush administration's recent proposal to study potential restoration of
A close look at recent trends in water management suggests, though, that new dams may not be the best way to provide reliable water supplies and that restoration of Hetch Hetchy is an option that should be kept on the table.
Since 1990, more than 6 million acre-feet of storage, 17 times the storage of Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, has been developed at six
Two of these sites, Los Vaqueros and
The other locations are groundwater basins in the Central Valley and Southern California that will be recharged in wet years, either to serve local communities or to be used as "banks" to allow exchanges of ground and surface supplies, using
For example, Santa Clara Valley Water District's contract with Semitropic Water Storage District alone has a storage capacity of 350,000 acre-feet — almost identical to the water supply that would need replacement if
Of course, additional storage is not the only way to extend water supplies.
And the 2005 California Water Plan recommends increased efficiency and water recycling in our cities, as well as groundwater development, in amounts that go far beyond the amount that would be provided by new surface storage projects.
Those who support exploring further the possibility of restoring Hetch Hetchy Valley, including the federal administration officials who proposed to spend $7 million to study the idea, understand that the needed water supply replacement would be relatively modest — far less water than Los Angeles has already dedicated to restoring Mono Lake, or than the Central Valley Project has put back into the Trinity River.
The
If Californians are to move into the 21st century with both an adequate water supply and a quality of life that continues to be the envy of much of the rest of the world, we have to balance water supply strategies with restoration of our environmental treasures.
It can be done if we remain open to new ideas and be creative and careful about how we use water.
Spreck Rosekrans is a senior analyst for Environmental Defense. For more information or to download a copy of Paradise Regained: Solutions for Restoring Yosemite's
http://www.insidebayarea.com/argus/oped/ci_6356550
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