A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
July 24, 2007
2. Supply
WATER PURCHASE:
El Dorado seeks one-time purchase of capital water - Sacramento Bee
UNKNOWN WATER SUPPLY:
Despite dry year, water still leaks from hillside - North County Times
Voluntary water conservation urged; Officials see situation as 'generally manageable' as long as everyone is pitching in -
Water usage worries officials; Glendora weighs conservation alerts - San Gabriel Valley Tribune
WATER PURCHASE:
By Cathy Locke, staff writer
In a move to provide
The move is not related to a more ambitious plan to gain more
The proposed purchase of 15,000 acre-feet would benefit El Dorado Irrigation District customers. Under a 2005 "cooperation agreement" between the water and power authority and Sacramento Municipal Utility District, the irrigation district may use reservoirs in SMUD's Upper American River Project to store up to 15,000 acre-feet as a hedge against drought.
An acre-foot is the amount of water that will cover an area of 1 acre to a depth of 1 foot. Average homes in the El Dorado Irrigation District use between 0.58 and 0.80 acre-feet of water annually.
With water remaining in district reservoirs from last year, the agency will have adequate supplies this year, said district director George Osborne. But a second dry winter could result in water shortages in 2008.
Osborne said having the additional water available could mean salvation for
The El Dorado Water and Power Authority also seeks a long-term purchase agreement with
But Osborne said the 15,000 acre-feet sought for drought protection is a separate matter.
Gary Reents, director of
Reents said through a department spokeswoman Monday that he could not comment on a one-time purchase for drought protection because his department had not received the proposal. #
http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/288122.html
UNKNOWN WATER SUPPLY:
Despite dry year, water still leaks from hillside
By Paul Sisson, staff writer
Residents who still live in the quiet east
"Where is that water coming from?" asks Patricia McKenzie, who has lived on
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The courts may be left to decide the answer. Residents have filed lawsuits against the city and against each other, alleging various reasons for the conditions that led to the devastating slide.
Dueling arguments
In 2005, the steep hillside between
The slide forced several families from their homes, and left others stuck in properties whose values had plummeted, in some cases to a fifth of their previous worth.
It wasn't the first time the slope had moved; it had slipped at least once before, in 1983, leading to significant damage for some homes in the area.
After the 2005 slide, both the city and homeowners hired geologists and hydrologists to probe the area.
Patrick Catalano, the attorney hired by 24 Arroyo and Comanche homeowners to sue the city, said his experts say the hillside holds a store of water from previously leaking city pipes.
Because the soil has a high clay content, he said, it can hold the water and release it over time.
"The density of the earth in that area does not give up water very easily," Catalano said.
However, Charles Berwanger, an attorney hired by the city to defend the lawsuit, said his experts point to the topography of the surrounding land.
"The hill appears to be at the end of a drainage area," Berwanger said.
He added that the
"We have found none," Berwanger said.
Neither Berwanger nor Catalano would provide the North County Times with access to the geologists who conducted their studies, saying they could be called as witnesses when the lawsuit goes to trial.
Homeowners on Arroyo and Comanche have said their suspicions about leaking city pipes may be buoyed by residents on Via Tercero, a street just southeast of the slide. Neighbors there have reported water bubbling out of city water fixtures.
Berwanger said the city is aware of the situation on Via Tercero, but he said tests of the water there found that it came from the ground and not from city pipes.
"Whenever there is a complaint about there being water coming out of the ground over there, we go and take samples and we test the pipes," Berwanger said.
He added that water inside the city's pipes, because it largely comes from the Metropolitan Water District, has a different chemical signature than groundwater.
"We are sure that what we are seeing is groundwater," he said.
Continuing concerns
Today, the city keeps an eye on the amount of water leaking from the Arroyo-Comanche slope by using a series of plastic pipes, called hydroaugers, to monitor the flow.
City Attorney John Mullen said last week that a water-works employee drives both streets and documents the amount of water coming out of the hillside.
In May 2005, the city installed 60 of the horizontal pipes to give the water inside the hill a path of escape.
"The point of that was to dry out the hillside and slow down the movement," Mullen said.
In April 2005, the city declared that the hill had stopped sliding.
In addition to the city's efforts, it appears that earlier attempts had been made to drain water from the slope.
An older set of black plastic pipes still extends from the hillside directly into the gutters at the base of Comanche and also up top on
Most of the residents who live at the base of the slide on Comanche say that the new pipes, the ones installed in 2005 by the city, have largely quit gushing water.
But the old pipes, the ones that have been in the hillside since 1983, continue to send water into the gutters.
Antonio "Tony" Arellano, who lives next to the long vacant lot formed when the city removed the wrecked homes, said he regularly sees water come shooting out of a plastic pipe that empties into the gutter near his driveway.
"It comes out all the way to here," he said, pointing to an arc of the asphalt roadway washed clean by the regular discharge.
Back on Comanche, McKenzie said she sees the water and simply wonders.
"I just want to know what's going to happen. Is it going to be fixed? Is it safe? There's just no answers," she said. #
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/07/24/news/top_stories/1_44_577_23_07.txt
Voluntary water conservation urged; Officials see situation as 'generally manageable' as long as everyone is pitching in
Santa Rosa Press Democrat – 7/24/07
By Bob Norberg, staff writer
With water conservation figures edging ever closer to the savings mandated by the state, the Sonoma County Water Agency's primary customers said Monday that they want to stick to voluntary efforts.
"It is not our belief that this is a crisis," said Rohnert Park Councilman Jake Mackenzie, who is chairman of a committee of cities and districts supplied by the Water Agency.
"The contractors believe this is generally manageable. We are close to the goal, and we also know our goal has to be met over a four-month period."
The Water Agency is under state order to reduce diversions from the
As the contractors group began discussions Monday about how to allocate the available supply, the Water Agency said the cumulative savings since the order took effect July 1 is now 14.2 percent.
That's a significant increase from the first four days of July when an 8.5 percent conservation rate was attributed to a hot spell.
The contractors asked the Water Agency to let them work collectively to meet the target without having individual allocations set.
"It should work without any formal allocations. We have all been pitching in, and we will continue to do the same thing," said Krishna Kumar, the Valley of the Moon Water District's general manager.
Kumar said, however, that if they should start to fall short of the target, "we will have to regroup."
The 14.2 percent savings for the first three weeks of July are an indication that people are taking the conservation message seriously, said Pam Jeane, the Water Agency's deputy director of operations.
"If we are that close to 14 percent cumulative now, that means that people are saving more than 15 percent, because we were not there at the beginning of the month," said Jeane. "The trick is to keep people thinking about it. It is easy to slip back into old patterns and forget what is going on."
The Water Agency wanted to set allocations for its major contractors, which include the cities of
"Providing an individual target may make it easier for them implementing their ordinances and doing what they need to do," Jeane said.
The allocations formula put forth by the Water Agency would take into account water conservation programs already in place and are not 15 percent across-the-board decreases.
The Water Agency can impose its allocation plan, but Jeane said that it won't as long as the target is met, at the request of contractors.
The contractors' Technical Advisory Committee will meet Aug. 6 to come up with a proposal for the Water Agency, Kumar said.
"Their intent is to not actually assign individual numbers, but to continue to do what they are doing right now, work cooperatively, meeting frequently to monitor what is going on," Jeane said. "And if it looks like it is not working, we may have to allocate at that point."
The Water Agency won't know how each individual contractor did in July until Aug. 1, after it has read all of the meters, said Jay Jasperse, the Water Agency's deputy chief engineer.
Preliminary readings by some contractors indicate that
http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/article/20070724/NEWS/707240329/1033/NEWS01
Water usage worries officials;
By Alison Hewitt, staff writer
A resolution is on the Glendora City Council agenda that, if approved, would send mailers urging locals to cut back their faucet time.
"This year has been the worst case we've had in history as far as rainfall goes ... and water tables are dropping," said Steve Patton, the city's water division manager. "We're trying to encourage residents to decrease their water use at least 10 percent."
Imported water is also getting more expensive, Patton said, with dry weather parching
A draft of the mailer that could go out includes water-saving suggestions such as taking shorter showers, installing low-flow toilets and watering the lawn in the evening instead of the heat of the day.
If voluntary water conservation doesn't work, the council might have to consider other options, Patton said.
"Things would be mandated, such as, if you get caught watering your lawn during the day, you could face fines," he said.
The Metropolitan Water District, a coalition of 26
"Conservation is becoming a watchword for a lot of
In the MWD's six-county service area, water use runs from about 170 gallons to 180 gallons of water per day, Muir said.
Small water meters that attach to shower heads and hoses can help raise people's awareness of how much water they use, said Darin Kasamoto, general manager of the San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water District.
The district hands out the water meters at city events in its coverage area of
"If people don't conserve, the bottom line is that the cities may have to go to mandatory cut-backs," Kasamoto said. #
http://www.sgvtribune.com/news/ci_6445189
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