Department of Water Resources
California Water News
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
August 31, 2007
3. Watersheds
DELTA ISSUES:
Plan impresses panel mapping out future of Delta; Proposal calls for study of peripheral canal, dams to be built in waterways - Contra Costa Times
QUAGGA MUSSELS:
Water officials brainstorm for ways to halt spread of invasive quagga mussels - San Diego Union Tribune
Boaters Asked to Help Stop Spread of Quagga Mussel; Boats and boating recreation at risk
News Release, Department of Water Resources
SALTON SEA:
Sea bill dead, but funding not dried up - Desert Sun
HABITAT RESTORATION:
Yuba habitat pact OK’d; Three Rivers helping to preserve crustaceans - Marysville Appeal Democrat
DELTA ISSUES:
Plan impresses panel mapping out future of Delta; Proposal calls for study of peripheral canal, dams to be built in waterways
Contra Costa Times – 8/31/07
By Mike Taugher, staff writer
SACRAMENTO -- Members of a blue ribbon panel assembled to help determine the future of the Delta said they were deeply impressed with a three-pronged plan to change the way water is delivered in California.
The breakthrough proposal, developed by representatives of more than 40 divergent interest groups, calls for an immediate experiment to build temporary dams in Delta rivers and study whether a highly controversial aqueduct should be built.
It appears to address immediate problems facing the Delta's declining environmental health and the state's water supply while setting out a course for reaching long-term solutions.
"This is absolutely a stunning accomplishment," said Ray Seed, a member of the panel and a levee expert at UC Berkeley.
The Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force, appointed last year by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, faces a December deadline to come up with a new plan for the Delta.
Its report will be one of several assessments due by the end of the year that point to the same conclusion: the Delta, as an ecosystem and a critical link in the state's water delivery system, is broken. In addition, the consensus is that the method -- and perhaps the amount -- of water deliveries must be dramatically changed.
"No one is talking about a magic new supply of water that will be instantly available," said Phil Isenberg, the former Sacramento lawmaker who is chairman of the panel. "The supply is being tightened while the demand is growing."
Details of the group's proposal, one of 29 put forward, were first reported Aug. 19 in the Times.
It first would implement a series of noncontroversial steps, such as developing an emergency response plan in the Delta in case of levee failures. It then calls for installing rock barriers in the Delta to separate water supply channels from environmentally sensitive habitat.
Finally, it would sanction an aggressive study to determine the cost, feasibility and operations of a highly controversial aqueduct that would carry water around the Delta toward the massive pumps near Tracy that send water to 25 million Californians and millions of acres of farmland.
Some supporters of the group's plan say that if the experimental channel modifications and aqueduct studies both pan out, then water could be delivered in both ways.
Others are set against the aqueduct because of the threat to Delta landowners, water quality and fisheries.
One variation of the plan would forego any study of the aqueduct, known as a peripheral canal, but one longtime canal critic said he was willing to endorse a study because he is sure it will prove too costly and environmentally damaging.
"I am confident that on its merits, it will fail," said Tom Zuckerman, an adviser to the Central Delta Water Agency.
Several speakers on Thursday said the agreement was made possible by the sense of crisis that has enveloped the state water supply because of the environmental deterioration in the Delta, heightened concern about levee fragility and, more recently, water supply shutdowns that were ordered in response to crashing fish populations.
And, speakers noted, that crisis could worsen today if a federal judge in Fresno, as expected, orders more water cutbacks.
The judge, U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger, ruled in May that a federal permit that is supposed to protect Delta smelt from the effect of pumping is illegal. His anticipated ruling is meant to bring the pumping operations into legal compliance until regulators issue a new permit next year.
For many water agencies, a new aqueduct, often referred to as a peripheral canal, might solve that problem because south Delta pumps that kill fish would not run as hard or as often.
However, such an aqueduct would be very expensive and carries serious risks for the environment, Delta landowners and the 500,000 customers of the Contra Costa Water District, whose water quality could be adversely affected.
Some of the panel members expressed distrust of the state Department of Water Resources and suggested a canal could cause it to abandon its stewardship of the Delta.
"In my experience, water exports have been the priority," said Isenberg, a former legislative leader from Sacramento. "My assessment is that (the Delta environment) must be a lower priority for the department than water exports."
In fact, the state water agency never obtained an endangered species permit from state regulators to run its massive Delta pumps. A state judge in April ordered the state pumps, which serve parts of the East Bay, South Bay, Kern County and Southern California turned off but that order is on hold pending the agency's appeal.
Meanwhile, its federal endangered species permit has been ruled illegal.
Sunne McPeak, a former Contra Costa County supervisor and Cabinet secretary under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and leading opponent of the original peripheral canal in the early 1980s, questioned state water officials and consultants about plans to make water available to restore the Delta in case of massive levee failures. In such a disaster, massive water releases would be needed to push seawater out of the Delta.
She found those plans lacking and accused the agency of a willingness to abandon the Delta.
"That is a prescription for an inland salt sea," McPeak said. "I sit here today refusing to accept that."
Referring to two fish species protected under endangered species laws, Delta smelt and Chinook salmon, McPeak said, "What will kill them off pretty certainly, forever, is if it's all salt. And that's where we're headed with the fix that everybody is talking about."
The blue ribbon task force is expected to meet monthly until it delivers its Delta "vision" at the end of November. The panel then will be charged with developing an implementation plan next year. #
http://www.contracostatimes.com/environment/ci_6768850?nclick_check=1
QUAGGA MUSSELS:
Water officials brainstorm for ways to halt spread of invasive quagga mussels
San Diego Union Tribune – 8/31/07
By J. Harry Jones, staff writer
To kill a quagga, you've got to think like one.
So says Gary Eaton, head of the San Diego County Water Authority, which hosted a meeting of local water officials yesterday.
The subject of discussion was how best to address the recent quagga mussel invasion of San Diego lakes.
Officials are analyzing where the county's water systems are most vulnerable “and then saying, 'If I'm a quagga, where would I be,' ” Eaton said. Then, he said, go to those places and kill the tiny, invasive creatures.
How? All sorts of ways, Eaton said.
In some cases, reservoir levels could be lowered to expose the tiny mussels to the air, thereby drying and killing them. They also could be physically pulled off things such as piers and cables. Even dredging the bottom of the lakes is possible, although that creates its own problems.
So far the mussels have been found this month in three county lakes: Dixon Lake in Escondido, San Vicente Reservoir near Lakeside and Lower Otay Reservoir in Chula Vista. Officials think it is possible the mussels may have a foothold in all 12 of the region's reservoirs that are connected to the imported water supply system. That contamination could be carried to other lakes by boaters.
One problem is that quaggas multiply remarkably fast and could eventually clog pumps and pipes. The mussels can also alter lake ecosystems by consuming vast amounts of phytoplankton.
“They eat food sources of other species,” Eaton said.
The corresponding reduction of algae increases sunlight and promotes the growth of noxious aquatic weeds, which, in turn, could sour the taste of the water. Yesterday's meeting was attended by water officials from many agencies and departments and was not open to the public.
Eaton said it was a strategy session, the first of many.
“We're developing a plan for control and hopefully the eradication of the quagga mussels,” Eaton said.
The first part of that plan is to figure out the extent of the invasion.
“We're developing a plan to utilize the resources available to us locally to inspect and control the quagga problem,” Eaton said.
Preliminary plans developed yesterday include developing a public awareness campaign to alert local boaters to beware of the mussels and to look for them on and in their boats. The quaggas are known for hitching rides on boats from one body of water to another. Boaters are being encouraged to thoroughly wash their boats, preferably with heated water.
“You will see a lot of people out there looking at the boats making sure the boats aren't carrying ballast water that could harbor the quagga mussel . . . and inspecting the exterior of boats to make sure the quagga mussel is not attached,” Eaton said after the meeting.
“You're also going to see a lot more inspections,” he said, “checking the underside of docks, checking the buoy lines so that we can get an idea in the county where these things are and to what degree they have populated.”
The mussels do not pose a health risk, but they could become costly to deal with if allowed to multiply as they have for two decades in the Great Lakes. Experts believe the mussels entered the United States in the ballast water of ships that entered the Great Lakes in the late 1980s. Since then, billions of dollars have been spent in that area to combat their spread.
How much it might cost to address the problem locally may not be known for years and could be directly linked to how successful officials are at thwarting their spread now.
In recent months, quagga mussels have been found in waterways in California, Arizona, Nevada and Utah. Up until January, the mussels had never been found west of the Continental Divide. #
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20070831-9999-7m31quagga.html
Boaters Asked to Help Stop Spread of Quagga Mussel; Boats and boating recreation at risk
News Release, Department of Water Resources – 8/3/07
Contacts: Kyle Orr, Department of Fish and Game (916) 322-8958; Pete Weisser, Department of Water Resources (916) 653-3350; Sheryl Watson, California State Parks (916) 654-7538; Gloria Sandoval, Department of Boating and Waterways (916) 263-0788 (Spanish)
Sacramento – Multiple state departments are urging boaters and watercraft users to help stop the spread of Quagga mussels along the Colorado River and into California. Particular waters of interest include Riverside County’s Lake Skinner and San Diego County’s Lower Otay Reservoir, Lake Dixon, and San Vicente Reservoir, all of which permit recreational access.
"With Quagga mussels on the move from the Nevada border to inland San Diego County, we need the public’s help to keep them from going farther," said Secretary for Resources Mike Chrisman. "Once the Quagga are established in a waterway, they have significant environmental, recreational and economic impacts."
Although they range from microscopic to the size of a fingernail, the mussels are prolific breeders and attach themselves to hard and soft surfaces, such as boats and aquatic plants.
Quagga mussels affect boaters negatively because they:
- Ruin your engine by blocking the cooling system – causing overheating.
- Increase drag on the bottom of your boat, reducing speed and wasting fuel.
- Jam steering equipment on boats.
- Require scraping and repainting of boat bottoms.
- Colonize all underwater substrates such as boat ramps, docks, lines and other underwater surfaces requiring constant cleaning.
Quagga mussel infestation can potentially lead to the closure of boating in affected waterways. They also wreak havoc with the environment, disrupting the natural food chain and releasing toxins that affect other species. Spread of the Quagga could result in millions of dollars in damage to water transport facilities.
Various watercraft are the primary transporters of Quagga mussels. All boaters and anyone who accesses freshwater aquatic environments should take the following steps to inhibit the spread of the Quagga mussel:
- Inspect all exposed surfaces - small mussels feel like sandpaper to the touch.
- Wash the hull of each watercraft thoroughly; preferably with high pressure/hot water.
- Remove all plants and animal material.
- Drain all water and dry all areas.
- Drain and dry the lower outboard unit.
- Clean and dry all live-wells.
- Empty and dry any buckets.
- Dispose of all bait in the trash.
- Wait five days and keep watercraft dry between launches into different fresh waters.
It is important for boaters to follow these steps and cooperate with vessel inspections that are being conducted at a number of Department of Food and Agriculture border inspection stations and around the state.
These invasive freshwater mollusks were first detected in California in January 2007, in Lake Havasu on the Colorado River. In subsequent months, they were found in two Southern California water systems using Colorado River water, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) and the San Diego County Water Authority.
MWD documented the mussels in March and again in July in its 242-mile Colorado River aqueduct, and also at Lake Mathews near Riverside and at Lake Skinner in Winchester, east of Temecula. On Aug. 21, the mussels were discovered in San Diego County, at San Vicente Reservoir near Lakeside.
Thus far, the mussels have not been found in California's State Water Project (SWP), which draws its water from Northern California watersheds. Environmental scientists are monitoring the system, one of the largest water and power systems in the United States. The main risk of mussel introduction in the SWP is from trailered boats.
A multi-agency taskforce that includes the Department of Fish and Game, the Department of Boating and Waterways, the Department of Water Resources and California State Parks has launched an outreach campaign to alert boaters and the public to the Quagga mussel threat. This effort is also being coordinated with MWD and the San Diego County Water Authority. For information on the Quagga mussel response, visit the DFG Web site at http://www.dfg.ca.gov/quaggamussel/.
A public toll-free number, 1-866-440-9530, has been established for boaters and anyone involved with activities on lakes and rivers seeking information on the invasive and destructive Quagga mussels. The toll-free number is available Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The Department of Water Resources operates and maintains the State Water Project, provides dam safety and flood control and inspection services, assists local water districts in water management and water conservation planning, and plans for future statewide water needs.
www.water.ca.gov
SALTON SEA:
Sea bill dead, but funding not dried up
Desert Sun – 8/31/07
By Jake Henshaw, staff writer
A bill laying the groundwork for an ambitious $8.9 billion restoration effort at the Salton Sea likely died Thursday in a powerful Assembly committee - but there still is money in the budget to begin some work this year.
Sen. Denise Ducheny, D-San Diego, the bill's author, said afterward that she asked the committee's chairman, Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, to reconsider the move.
"We thought this bill needed to move along on its own merits," she said after the vote.
The state's 2007-08 spending plan includes $23 million and the necessary authorization to begin work identified in a state restoration plan released in May.
''The money that is necessary to move things forward this fiscal year is in the budget," Ducheny said. "The direction of what to spend it on is in the budget. I think that is clear enough."
The century-old Salton Sea needs help because it's running out of water, which will lead to additional dry lake bed that'll spawn air quality problems in the Coachella and Imperial valleys, proponents and environmentalists have said.
Ducheny's measure, Senate Bill 187, specifically targeted the funding procedures and use of $47 million earmarked for the project in Proposition 84, a water bond passed last year.
Leno said the bill was "held" in committee for possible further action in 2008 because it didn't identify a permanent agency to oversee the 75-year sea restoration plan.
It has yet to be decided whether locals or the state will oversee the long-term plan.
"It's sort of a work in progress," Leno said, stressing the governing structure is "part of the same" issue and should be addressed so proponents "get it right."
The state Legislature adjourns Sept. 11.
Rick Daniels, executive director of the Salton Sea Authority, said he was not ready to give up this year on the bill to help California's largest lake.
"We will provide information to try to change the good Assembly members' minds," Daniels said, promising to get on the phone to supporters after the vote.
Daniels said there was a meeting Wednesday of all the interested parties in the sea's restoration and they agreed to work on it during the fall to prepare a proposal for next year.
"The issues of governance were too complex and controversial to move at this time," Daniels said, adding that "everybody is committed to make it work, to get it done."
He argued that now is the time to move the bill because it's an indication of support for a broad restoration effort, especially at a time when Congress is considering approving another $30 million for the project.
"It is symbolic to leverage the federal money," Daniels said. "They are looking for a signal from the state that the feds have a funding partner out here."
The state's plan, unveiled in May, would reduce the dying lake to one-fifth its current size and create wildlife ponds so it could remain a nationally recognized refuge for more than 400 bird species.
Under the nearly $9-billion plan, the lake would drop farther south into Imperial county and 2,000 acres of wildlife ponds would be added in the north near the Torres-Martinez Indian Reservation.
The state budget now includes $13.3 million from Proposition 84 and $10 million from Proposition 50, an earlier water bond, for a shallow saline pool known as Early Start Habitat as well as preliminary construction work and biological, air and water quality monitoring.
This action is outlined as the first step in what's called the "preferred alternative" of the restoration plan released in May by Resources Secretary Mike Chrisman.
Ducheny's bill also designated Chrisman as the temporary director of the initial project work while local, state and federal officials, along with other interested parties, develop a permanent agency to oversee the 75-year effort.
The expansive project has drawn skepticism from legislators outside the Salton Sea region, but Daniels said supporters made some progress this year in focusing attention on the sea.
"We got it to be a statewide priority," he said, "not just a regional priority."
But Daniels acknowledged that it's been harder than he expected to advocate for the sea.
"I think we, I, underestimated the length of time and the number of people needed to sign off on legislation to move it forward," he said. "I am surprised up here." #
http://www.mydesert.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070831/NEWS0701/308310007/1006/news01
HABITAT RESTORATION:
Yuba habitat pact OK’d; Three Rivers helping to preserve crustaceans
Marysville Appeal Democrat – 8/30/07
By Andrea Koskey, staff writer
The Three Rivers Levee Improvement Authority has approved an agreement to create natural habitats for crustaceans affected by Bear River levee work.
The $1.3 million agreement allows Wildlands Inc., a Rocklin habitat development company, to create an environment that would house local species permanently and help them survive.
“The site is beautiful. The design is to create pools around existing ones,” said Anja Kelsey, environmental project manager for TRLIA.
“We are doing our due diligence to create a huge multispecies habitat bank. Not a single non-native species will be introduced, that’s the key for survival.”
Construction on the 9.14 acre site, east of Highway 65 and south of Ostrom Road in south Yuba County known as Best Slough, will begin in April with completion expected in a year. Site monitoring could last up to five years.
“We picked this area because of its location as a buffer zone to the landfill and Beale Air Force Base and because there are already a number of natural vernal pools there,” Kelsey said Thursday. “It’s exciting. We are permitted and ready to build it.”
The pools are a part of an environmental requirement when TRLIA built the setback levee along the Bear River two years ago.
As a result of construction, natural pools are often affected or lost, so an area must be set aside to create additional natural habitats, Kelsey said.
These habitats will provide a home to native vegetation and critters such as Elderberry shrubs and a variety of shrimp species among other crustaceans.
“It’s a very delicate process,” said TRLIA Executive Director Paul Brunner. “The idea is to protect species inside (the pools) and maintain and protect them forever.”
http://www.appeal-democrat.com/news/create_53372___article.html/pools_natural.html
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