[Water_news] 5. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: AGENCIES, PROGRAMS, PEOPLE - 7/13/07

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment

 

July 13, 2007

 

5. Agencies, Programs, People -

 

Hot and dry -- for decades

A La Niña on steroids: It happened before, it could be happening again. -

Los Angeles Times

 

Storm drain fee headed for ballot

Residents fail to gather enough written protests to stop August vote -

Woodland Daily Democrat

 

River water sale planned

Written objections to the purchase of Yuba River water are due by July 30 -

Marysville Appeal Democrat

 

Poseidon seeks coastal commission hearing -

North County Times

 

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Hot and dry -- for decades

A La Niña on steroids: It happened before, it could be happening again.

Los Angeles Times – 7/13/07

By Glen M. MacDonald, GLEN M. MACDONALD is a professor of geography and ecology and evolutionary biology at UCLA.

 

IF YOU LIKE IT hot and dry and live in Southern California, you could be in luck. Our combination of an arid winter, scorching summer and host of wildfires may not be a short-term aberration. Consider the possibility of decades of dry, hot weather, stretching from Southern California to the headwaters of the Sacramento and Colorado river systems — the lifelines that allow us to flourish in our arid to semi-arid landscape. That is the nature of a "perfect drought," and new research regarding a past episode of climate warming tells us we could be on the brink of a new one.

Historical climate records show that such prolonged droughts can and do occur. The last one began in the late 1980s and ended in the early 1990s. California dried at the same time that the flow of the Colorado River declined by almost 40%. Oceanic and atmospheric measurements tell us that this blast of hyper-aridity was associated with depressed temperatures in the eastern Pacific, sort of a persistent La Niña condition. In 1992, the rain and snow returned. However, during 1990 and 1991 alone, the drought cost California an estimated $2 billion in agriculture losses, increased energy costs and damage to the environment. What if that drought had spanned decades?

Two interlinked phenomena are looming that could provide the ingredients needed to produce droughts lasting decades. A recent study led by Rich Seager of Columbia University examined the results of 19 climate models and found one very consistent and alarming result: Warmer temperatures are producing increased uplift of air masses in the tropics. As the air rises, it cools, the water vapor condenses and produces more tropical precipitation. Eventually, though, that air descends, warms and becomes drier.

This is bad news for those places where the air descends. Unfortunately, Southern California and the Southwest are such places. Seager and his colleagues have concluded that we are experiencing the "imminent transition to a more arid climate in Southwestern North America."

There is more bad news. A number of recent studies allow us to look at what happened during the last major episode of natural global warming. During the medieval period between about 800 AD and 1350 AD, there was a slight increase in solar radiation coupled with a decrease in volcanic activity. The result was widespread warming. Recent research by Connie Millar of the U.S. Forest Service suggests that annual temperatures in the Sierra may have increased by almost 6 degrees Fahrenheit during this time. Meanwhile, a warming climate in the tropical Pacific led to higher temperatures in the western Pacific and cooling in the eastern Pacific.

Think of this as La Niña on steroids, unusually strong and capable of persisting for decades to centuries. Western North America got a double whammy from the atmosphere and oceans and experienced widespread drought, decreased flows from the Sacramento River, the Colorado River and the Saskatchewan River in Canada, falling lake levels and increased fire activity.

Sound familiar? It gets worse. New independent research from the University of Arizona and UCLA indicates that during the 12th century, a particularly severe drought in Southern California was coupled with persistent low flows in the Sacramento and Colorado rivers, and this situation lasted about 60 years.

Could we now be facing another such arid span? Given the climate warming of the past decades and the projected warming over the next century, it is possible that we are already in one. So, even if this current dry spell breaks and we dodge the bullet for a few years, it is beginning to seem unlikely that we will avoid another protracted drought if the climate continues to warm as predicted.

What can be done? According to the recent U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, it seems little can derail the global-warming ride we are on. It would therefore be prudent for local water districts, planning bodies, state officials and federal agencies to systematically consider some prolonged scenarios. Through such efforts, combining input from climate models and studies of past droughts, we can at least come up with a range of potential strategies. For us in California and the Southwest, the most pressing threat from climate warming may well be the next perfect drought.#

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-macdonald13jul13,0,5317771.story?coll=la-opinion-rightrail

 

Storm drain fee headed for ballot

Residents fail to gather enough written protests to stop August vote

Woodland Daily Democrat – 7/12/07

By CRYSTAL LEE - Democrat staff Writer

 

Woodland Public Works cleared one hurdle Tuesday in getting a storm drain maintenance fee increase passed - the number of written protests from residents fell short of what is required to halt the ballot process.

 

Only 43 negative responses were received within a 45-day notification period required by state law, City Clerk Sue Vannucci said. The balloting would have been preempted had there been a majority protest from Woodland's estimated 14,000 property owners.

 

Tuesday's public hearing on the subject, however, was not without dissension.

 

Several residents spoke out against the city's desire to increase storm drain fees from 48 cents a month to $5 a month, with a gradual increase each year to $9.50 a month by 2013.

 

The increase would alleviate a $9.2 million deficit incurred by storm drain needs, including emergency repairs, over the past 13 years, said Mark Cocke, a Public Works senior civil engineer. Public Works Director Gary Wegener has said previously that some pipes in the system date back more than 100 years and are in dire need of maintenance.

 

On May 1, the City Council unanimously approved staff to pursue the fee increase and ballot process.

 

However, residents such as Ruthie Lee, who live on fixed incomes, say the increase will put a strain on their budgets.

 

"It's not that we don't have the heart for it," Lee said. "I've lived here most of my life, been a good citizen in this community, contributed a lot - but we just can't afford the price."

 

Lee also said she thinks the increase will pass easily, despite the handful of protesters, because the voters who can't afford the increase will probably be outnumbered those who can.

 

Debbie Liles, who has lived in Woodland since 1982, said she's concerned that although she can afford the increase now, it might be more difficult as she becomes a senior.

 

"I wish the Council and the city management would be more creative and find better sources of money that is out there," Liles said.

 

Cocke said he understands the concerns, but the deficit needs to be paid back and the storm drain fund needs to start collecting enough money to pay for maintenance and repairs. Currently, the city is borrowing money from other city funds just to keep up with "bare-bones" storm drain services, which add up to about four or five times the amount collected from residents.

 

"(The increase amount is) a big number and that's going to generate a strong response from people, but the problems we face are real and there has to be a way to pay for those things that we need to do," Cocke said. "Yeah, we can always find money, but the money is coming from somewhere else that needs it."

 

If the increase passes, Public Works must immediately pay back $2.5 million of the total borrowed funds, Cocke said.

 

Cocke also noted, the fee increase was a solution that was reached by a Citizen's Advisory Committee of made up of "10 to 14 people that are widely diverse."

"At the end," he said, "they all kind of came to the same conclusion which, I think, is pretty impressive."

 

Public Works plans to mail the ballots on August 10; ballots must be returned by August 28 for the votes to count. #

http://www.dailydemocrat.com/news/ci_6359076

 

River water sale planned

Written objections to the purchase of Yuba River water are due by July 30

Marysville Appeal Democrat – 7/13/07

By Daniel Witter

 

People interested in protesting a potential sale of 200,000-acre feet of Yuba River water have until July 30 to file a protest with the state.

The Yuba County Water Agency wants to sell the water to the state and federal government for the State Water Project, fisheries and other purposes. No dollar amount on the sale was specified in a press release detailing the petition process.

The transfer would take place between Jan. 1, 2008 to Dec. 31, 2025.
Protests can be sent to the State Water Quality Resources Control Board, Division of Water Rights Box 2000, Sacramento Calif., 95812-2000. They can also be e-mailed to gwilson@waterboards.ca.gov or faxed to (916)341-5400.

All protests must clearly describe the objections to the approval and the factual basis for those objections.

The transfer would begin before the Agency adjusts its long-term Yuba River water flows for fisheries as part of the Yuba River Accord.

The accord was signed on April 21, 2005 by various state and government agencies and environmental organizations as a way to meet state water needs while providing enough water for wildlife.
For more information, contact Greg Wilson at 916-341-5427.#

http://www.appeal-democrat.com/news/water_51109___article.html/state_river.html

 

Poseidon seeks coastal commission hearing

North County Times – 7/12/07
By: GIG CONAUGHTON - Staff Writer

 

CARLSBAD -- The company that wants to turn seawater off the coast of Carlsbad into drinking water has formally requested an August hearing with California Coastal Commission, if the firm can't reach a compromise with the commission's staff over requests for more information.

Peter MacLaggan, vice president of Poseidon Resources, said the company asked for the board hearing because the staff wants more information about the project and the company believes it has submitted all the data needed to judge it.

 

However, MacLaggan said the company doesn't believe the formal hearing will be necessary because the commission's staff members and the company were working out their differences and planned to talk next week.

 

"We're in the process of resolving our differences as to whether the application is complete," MacLaggan said. "Our request for a hearing is in the event that we're unable to work it out in the next couple of weeks."

Poseidon and its partner, the city of Carlsbad, want to build a plant that would turn 50 million gallons of seawater a day into drinking water at the Encina Power Station.

The project must get a permit from the Coastal Commission to proceed. The commission's staff is responsible for making sure all applications are complete enough for the board to rule on them.

On July 3, the commission's staff issued Poseidon's application an "incomplete" for the fourth time in 10 months. If Poseidon goes to the commission board in August, it would be to ask that its application be deemed complete, that the panel bar further information requests, and that it possibly set the project for a November permit hearing.

Tom Luster, the coastal commission's desalination expert, also said Friday that the commission's staff hopes it can reach a resolution with Poseidon to the information requests next week.

Luster said that just one applicant had requested to go around the staff for a board hearing in the last five to six years, and that the board sided with the commission's staff in that case.

Luster said the commission was still seeking financial and environmental information about the proposed plant. MacLaggan said the company has been unwilling to turn over information about the company's proprietary contractual agreement with the power station. However, both MacLaggan and Luster said the two sides hoped they could allow Poseidon to submit the information on the condition that it remain confidential.#

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/07/13/news/top_stories/1_44_547_12_07.txt

 

 

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