[Water_news] 1. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS - Top Items for 8/22/07

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation for DWR personnel of significant news articles and comment

 

August 22, 2007

 

1.  Top Items

 

Schwarzenegger, Feinstein describe delta in crisis, urge fixes - Associated Press

 

Events Highlight Problems With Delta System, ACWA Says; Court Hearing, High-Level Summit Called Latest Signs That Action Is Needed - News Release, Association of California Water Agencies

 

 

Schwarzenegger, Feinstein describe delta in crisis, urge fixes

Associated Press – 8/21/07

By Noaki Schwartz, staff writer

 

LOS ANGELES—State and federal officials must collaborate to restore the delta's ecosystem and preserve water deliveries to farmers and cities, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein said Tuesday in calling the crisis one of the state's most pressing challenges.

 

The two leaders appeared together at a summit in Los Angeles, underscoring the growing attention being paid to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the heart of the state's water-delivery system.

 

"This is not an easy subject, but a subject that should involve all of California," Feinstein said. "Whatever it is that we do, we have to do it together, and it's going to be big and it's going to be costly."

 

California leaders this year are scrambling to devise a strategy for the vast estuary, which serves as the hub of the State Water Project and funnels water to more than 25 million people in Southern California and the San Francisco Bay area.

 

The delta is suffering from myriad ills that experts say threaten the water supply to two-thirds of state residents, as well as native fish populations and other wildlife. Among the risks is that a massive earthquake could crumble the delta's fragile levees. There also are long-term concerns about the integrity of the earthen levees if sea levels rise under global warming scenarios.

 

"We do not want to wait until we have a Katrina-type disaster on our hands," Schwarzenegger said.

 

At the same time officials are concentrating on the delta, the state and federal governments have been taken to court over concerns that water-pumping operations have led to the decline of the threatened delta smelt.

 

All this has occurred despite a joint state-federal partnership—known as the California and Federal Bay-Delta Program—that has spent an estimated $3 billion on water projects since 1998.

 

Schwarzenegger has asked the state Legislature to approve a $5.9 billion bond to build two new dams and study the possibility of building a canal to route fresh water from the Sacramento River around the delta. But there has been little movement on the issue with lawmakers, who have spent the past two months on state budget negotiations.

 

Feinstein opposed a 1982 ballot initiative that would have built a canal around the delta but described herself as open-minded on the issue today.

 

"The situation is very different today than it was 25 years ago," Feinstein said. "I had then, no idea of the condition of the levees that I do today. The earthquake probabilities have changed in the last 25 years; the ecosystem itself has changed."

 

Jeff Mount, a geology professor at the University of California, Davis who has studied the delta extensively, said the fate of region rests with policy makers.

 

"Ultimately, it comes down to what you two decide is your highest priority," he said. "We're going to look back at a period of time when we made a decision with a great deal of uncertainty, but thank God we made a decision."

 

California voters approved a $4.1 billion water bond last November that will provide money to strengthen levees and improve flood control. But some of the decision-making may be determined by the courts.

 

As Schwarzenegger and Feinstein were addressing the issue in Los Angeles Tuesday, government lawyers and environmentalists were squaring off before a federal judge in Fresno. At issue was how best to protect the delta smelt, a species that is key to the delta's food chain and considered a bellwether for the overall health of the ecosystem.

 

The Natural Resources Defense Council and four other environmental groups urged U.S. District Court Judge Oliver Wanger to force the state Department of Water Resources and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to modify pumping year-round as a way to reduce the risks to the smelt.

 

Their plan would require agencies to slow the rate of pumping or increase the flow of river water into the delta. That would create more favorable living conditions for the fish, Earthjustice attorney Trent Orr said.

 

"The longer these fish are exposed to the pumps ... the more fish cumulatively you're going to kill," Peter Moyle, a smelt expert from UC Davis, testified. "Cumulatively, that could be a large part of the population."

 

However, water contractors said the court should wait until federal wildlife officials write a new biological plan to protect the smelt. Any changes to pumping could threaten water-thirsty crops grown in the San Joaquin Valley, said Daniel O'Hanlon, an attorney for the San Luis and Delta-Mendota Water Authority and Westlands Water District.  #

http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_6682887?nclick_check=1

 

 

Events Highlight Problems With Delta System, ACWA Says; Court Hearing, High-Level Summit Called Latest Signs That Action Is Needed

News Release, Association of California Water Agencies – 8/21/07

 

SACRAMENTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--With separate events today putting Delta issues in the spotlight, the Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA) said the one-two punch of drought conditions and Delta uncertainty already is being felt in many areas of the state.

 

“We are facing some of the most significant challenges to our water system in a half-century,” ACWA Executive Director Timothy Quinn said. “Today’s events are just the latest signs that the existing Delta system does not work for fish, people or the environment.”

 

The Delta, a key ecosystem and the main switching yard for projects that deliver water to 25 million Californians and millions of acres of farmland, was the focus of a high-level summit in Los Angeles featuring U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein and Governor Schwarzenegger. The summit covered issues such as levee vulnerability, declining fish populations and water quality needs that are raising new uncertainties for the Delta and the state’s water system.

 

“We commend Senator Feinstein and Governor Schwarzenegger for their bi-partisan leadership on water,” Quinn said. “It is this type of bi-partisan support that is need at most critical time to achieve success in the Delta.”

 

Meanwhile in Fresno, a four-day evidentiary hearing began in U.S. District Court today on what actions should be taken by the State Water Project and federal Central Valley Project to better protect Delta smelt, a threatened fish species. A range of actions have been proposed, with potentially serious impacts on water deliveries in the coming months.

 

U.S. District Court Judge Oliver Wanger ruled in May that permits under which the two projects export water from the Delta are inadequate and do not comply with the federal Endangered Species Act. The judge is expected to rule soon on interim actions to protect the fish.

 

ACWA supports a comprehensive package of investments including additional water storage, Delta conveyance improvements and expanded water use efficiency to address these critical problems.

ACWA is a statewide association of public agencies whose 450 members are responsible for about 90% of the water delivered in California. For more information, visit www.acwa.com.

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