[Water_news] 1. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS - Top Items for 8/23/07

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

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

 

August 23, 2007

 

1.  Top Items

 

Delta canal fears raised; No one knows how the project would affect fish, water quality, a panel of scientists contends - Sacramento Bee

 

Decision to affect water for Solano - Vacaville Reporter

 

 

Delta canal fears raised; No one knows how the project would affect fish, water quality, a panel of scientists contends

Sacramento Bee – 8/23/07

By Matt Weiser, staff writer

 

Though old enemies may be looking afresh at a peripheral canal to divert water around the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, a panel of scientists warned Wednesday that no one knows how such a canal will affect the sensitive estuary.

 

Gov. Arnold Schwarzegger has mounted a campaign to build the canal. Rejected by state voters in 1982, the project is getting renewed focus as a fix for the Delta, where water quality is suffering and fish are in decline as the estuary strains to provide water to two out of three Californians.

 

The original proposal called for a 43-mile canal to divert Sacramento River water near the town of Hood, and carry it around the Delta directly to state and federal export pumps near Tracy. It was thought this would isolate exports from Delta water quality problems, while preventing fish from being killed in export pumps.

 

Critics opposed the original project because they feared it was a tool for Southern California to grab more north state water.

Now, a generation later, the Delta is widely considered to be in crisis, partly because water exports near Tracy continue to kill fish, including Delta smelt, green sturgeon, striped bass and chinook salmon.

 

Also, new research warns that an earthquake could devastate Delta levees, causing a statewide water and economic disaster.

 

Schwarzenegger carefully avoids the term "peripheral canal," which still conjures one of California's biggest water wars. But even some environmental groups are open to the notion that a canal in some form might improve conditions.

 

"We have studied this subject to death. It's time for action," Schwarzenegger said in a June speech.

 

But a panel of scientists said Wednesday that we still know almost nothing about how a peripheral canal would affect fish and water quality in the Delta.

 

William Bennett, a UC Davis fisheries biologist, said diverting water from the Sacramento River at Hood could harm rather than help Delta smelt. The population of the tiny fish plunged this year and forced a nine-day shutdown of the state's Delta export pumps.

 

River channels and sloughs downstream from Hood were only recently identified as a key breeding ground for smelt. A major new upstream diversion, he said, could reverse the river's flow in drought years, killing smelt and altering water quality just as the current pumps do now in the south Delta.

 

"The peripheral canal has been touted widely as solving all the Delta smelt's problems. I don't think that's really true," said Bennett, who spoke at a science workshop on the canal convened by the CalFed Bay-Delta Program. "It's quite likely, if we're not careful about how we operate this, that impacts to Delta smelt could actually be larger than they are now."

 

Dennis Majors, engineering program manager at the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the largest urban user of Delta water, said the peripheral canal may not be immune to major floods. That's because, as currently envisioned in most scenarios, it would lie below sea level in its southern reach between the San Joaquin River and the export pumps.

 

He said most canal proposals consist of an open ditch.

 

"If you have levee breaks down there, it will just flow right in (to the canal) real nicely by gravity," said Majors, who is also a committee member for the Delta Risk Management Strategy, an effort by the state Department of Water Resources to propose sustainable alternatives for the Delta's future.

 

The solution is to build levees along the canal, which adds cost. The export water could also be confined instead to an elevated pipeline, but that is likely to be much more expensive and could require two or more pipes to equal the capacity of a canal.

 

Sam Luoma, research hydrologist at the U.S. Geological Survey, said that by diverting Sacramento River water around the Delta, dirtier waters of the San Joaquin River become a bigger problem in the estuary.

 

Compared to the Sacramento, the San Joaquin is five times saltier and carries as much as 85 times more selenium, a natural element that causes wildlife deformities when concentrated by farm runoff. Fixing water quality must come before a canal, he said.

 

"If we're talking about higher quality water for (export) users, it's going to come at a cost of lower quality water for the Delta and the Bay," Luoma said. "We have to analyze these things and we have to study them as we go along."

 

These comments echoed those of Jeffrey Mount, a UC Davis geology professor who co-authored a 2004 study that first illustrated earthquake risks in the Delta. He spoke Tuesday at a "Delta Summit" hosted in Los Angeles by Schwarzenegger and U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-San Francisco.

 

The senator, a foe of the 1982 canal, said she now intends to "look at the situation fresh," and pressed Mount to name a "best alternative" for routing water around the Delta.

 

"I can't tell you because we haven't done the science on that," Mount said. "I'm not just being a weasel to get out of having to answer your question. I'm telling you the honest truth: We haven't done that work yet."

 

Jerry Johns, DWR deputy director, said at Wednesday's workshop that he understands the uncertainties. But he said the goal of the administration's Delta investigations is to reach broad agreement on the available science, while moving ahead with a fix adaptable to new information.

 

That might include, he said, a peripheral canal built with a small intake so diversions are strictly limited.

 

If it proves effective, the intake could be enlarged later. Carefully crafted operating rules could also allay many concerns, he said.

 

"This is truly a societal issue we've got to face, and we've got to understand the science to make sure we're heading in the right direction," Johns said. "We don't know a whole lot now, but we certainly know better now." #

http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/340068.html

 

 

Decision to affect water for Solano

Vacaville Reporter – 8/23/07

By Danny Bernardini, staff writer

 

Nearly half the supply of water that cities in Solano County rely upon will be in jeopardy if a federal judge rules in favor of the Delta smelt.

 

A hearing that began Tuesday in Fresno is to lead to a ruling on whether large pumps in the Delta that send water to people and farms throughout the state are causing the decline of the Delta smelt.

 

The smelt is a threatened species of fish. Environmentalists are seeking new fish-protection measures that state water officials say would cut water delivery in half.

 

Tuesday's hearing was in front of U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger who ruled in May that a key federal permit is illegal under the Endangered Species Act. The hearing is expected to last all week and the decision could end up cutting water supplies to Solano County and others throughout the state.

 

Wanger likely will craft rules allowing the water projects to operate legally until a new permit is issued next year. It's these rules that will determine water delivery.

 

Even though Solano County uses a smaller water pump, located north of Rio Vista, it could face the same restrictions as the larger pumps sending water as far south as San Diego, say local water officials.

 

Solano County officials are watching the case closely and Solano County Water Agency General Manager David Okita said the prospect of cutting water delivery is a big concern.

 

"About half the water (cities in) Solano County use is water from the Delta. It's a pretty big deal," Okita said. "It will affect us equally as Los Angeles and the San Joaquin Valley. That would directly affect our allocation we get in Solano County."

 

Okita said many people forget about the smaller pumps, like the one on the Northbay Aqueduct that Solano County uses.

 

"Our concern is that when there are measures put in place, the focus seems to be on the bigger pumps in the South Delta," he said. "(Solano's pump is) much smaller, so people are less concerned about it. You always have to be diligent about water issues; they could affect us."

 

Okita said his agency is a member of the State Water Contractors, which has sent a representative to the hearing each day to stay aware of the case.

 

One aspect that has Okita optimistic, even if the water supplies were to be cut, is Solano County has Lake Berryessa to fall back on. The lake currently supplies most of the water for agriculture in the county. Okita said that in a pinch, the lake would help fill the void.

 

"We're lucky, we have Berryessa's supply," he said. "The cities would use more of that."

 

Some cities in the county don't heavily rely on Delta water, like Vacaville where only a third of the water comes from the Delta.

 

But Okita said other cities, like Benicia which uses only Delta water, would have to rely on Berryessa's supply in the case of Delta water being cut.

 

Another event that could help Solano County's situation would be a heavy rainfall this winter. With a lot of rain, the water supply would be able to withstand a large cut, he said.

 

"If it rains like crazy, it's not a problem," he said.

 

Until a decision is reached, Okita said he will do what everyone else has to do - sit and wait.

 

"It's kind of hard to say what will happen. You never know how a judge will rule," he said. #

http://www.thereporter.com/news/ci_6697360

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