A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
August 8, 2007
2. Supply
WATER DELIVERY ISSUES:
Sting shuts down high desert water deliveries; The state says the water was non-potable. Some residents said they didn't care, they just want deliveries made cheaply – Los Angeles Times
Water-conservation ads hit the airwaves - North
FELTON WATER SYSTEM:
FLOW vs. Cal-Am; The battle over Felton water continues - Scotts Valley Press Banner
EMERGENCY WATER SUPPLY PLANNING:
Committee to develop Rosamond water emergency plan - Mojave Desert News
WATER DELIVERY ISSUES:
Sting shuts down high desert water deliveries; The state says the water was non-potable. Some residents said they didn't care, they just want deliveries made cheaply
By Sara Lin, staff writer
Wenger, 86, and others who live in remote high desert patches started saving water in a panic Friday after state health officials and the California Highway Patrol impounded several water trucks that supplied these far-flung homesteads with the precious resource.
Authorities said the trucks were delivering non-potable water. But some customers said they didn't mind -- the water was cheap.
"There's nothing wrong with the water. We got it tested years ago and it's good, clean water," Wenger said, her voice shaking.
"All of us who live out of town depend on these water trucks. I don't know what to do."
The California Department of Public Health stopped three water trucks during a three-day sting, issuing three citations for unlicensed and unsanitary vehicles.
Two of the trucks were impounded by CHP officers because their operators didn't have drivers' licenses or permits. The third was cited for mechanical problems and ordered out of service, said CHP Sgt. Jim Fonseca.
As news of the sting spread Friday, water deliveries across eight desert communities were halted.
Residents have been conserving water ever since in Johnson Valley, Morongo Valley, Landers, Pioneertown, Wonder Valley, Lucerne Valley, Yucca Valley and Fairview Valley.
State health officials said their investigation was prompted by anonymous complaints.
"We are trying to make sure the water meets state and federal drinking water standards. You don't want the water contaminated by a dirty truck," said Lea Brooks, spokeswoman for the California Department of Public Health.
But locals were puzzled by the sudden crackdown -- most local water-haulers have been operating for years without licenses. The state didn't complain, and residents said they didn't either.
Mary Lou Huffman, 50, of
"We're delivering water to tanks that are old and aren't sanitized themselves. I think all my customers care about is getting water at a good price," she said.
Larry Edwards,
He got a call Thursday morning from state agents posing as a construction crew who said they were laying tile and needed water delivered.
As soon as Edwards handed over a receipt for the delivery, two men in bulletproof vests came around the corner of the house, he said.
They cited him for allegedly putting non-potable water in a storage tank where someone could access it for drinking or food processing.
Upgrading his truck with a food-grade tank, hoses and fixtures to comply with state law for water-haulers will probably cost him $4,000, he said. And until he does that and applies for a state license his 60 customers are trying to make their water last.
State health officials on Monday announced that they would expedite applications from unlicensed haulers and allow them to resume their deliveries as long as they were making good-faith efforts to come into compliance.
But for some residents, it might be too late.
"We're coming up on one of the hottest months of the year and we don't have any alternatives," Wenger said.
She went to a restaurant for lunch Monday so she wouldn't have to wash any dishes.
Wenger lives in a wooden ranch-style home off a narrow dirt road three miles from the highway.
On Monday, she tried to hire Ron Caruso, a water carrier from Hesperia, but he refused to come to
"I'm the only legal guy. I guess because I'm legal and they're not, I'm the jerk," he said.
Because he has to haul the water farther than the local carriers did, he charges twice as much.
"I'm on a fixed income. I can't afford that," Wenger said. #
http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-me-parched8aug08,1,3920880.story?coll=la-headlines-health
Water-conservation ads hit the airwaves
By Gig Conaughton, staff writer
Using the message, "It's time to get serious -- before it gets serious," the Los Angeles-based Metropolitan Water District started airing water-conservation advertisements on Southern California radio stations, including in
Starting next week, longer radio advertisements will begin, buttressed by Internet and newspaper ads that will pepper listeners and readers with tips on how to cut water consumption -- from fixing leaky faucets to resisting using a hose to wash down driveways.
Metropolitan -- which supplies water to nearly 18 million Southern Californians in six counties, including
But the agency is worried about next year. If
"The tone is stronger than it has been in the past," Lynn Lipinski said of the conservation campaign. Lipinski manages Metropolitan's water-saving advertising and outreach programs. "The campaign is also longer than we have done before. We will have ads running from August 6 through December 19; that's a total of 19 weeks. In the past, we have done about six to eight weeks."
Southern California, particularly the
The
Meanwhile, the massive State Water Project -- the 600-mile systems of dams, reservoirs and pipelines that deliver Northern California snow melt and rainfall to
The water-project system was only 60 percent full this year because of low snowpack. In June, state operators shut down the massive pumps that send water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay Delta to
Finally,
Most of those problems could become moot if Northern California's winter is wet and the drought ends on the
Metropolitan has already taken 300,000 acre-feet of water out of storage -- enough to sustain 600,000 households for a year -- to help make ends meet. Another dry year, officials said, could lead to water supply shortages and cutbacks.
Metropolitan board members, including representatives of the San Diego County Water Authority, voted in June to quadruple the agency's spending and mount a $6.3 million conservation advertising campaign.
The campaign urges people to take shorter showers, stop overwatering lawns and gardens, install sprinkler controllers, fix leaky irrigation systems and replace thirsty lawns with low-water-using plants.
Lipinski said Tuesday that the upcoming radio, television, Internet and newspaper advertisements will add on to the early messages.
Jason Foster, a spokesman with the Water Authority, said that as Metropolitan's biggest customer, the Water Authority helped pay for the advertising push.
"We're in the mode of trying to get out the water-conservation message through all possible channels," Foster said. "And the mass-market outreach is very helpful." #
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/08/08/news/sandiego/5_01_528_7_07.txt
FELTON WATER SYSTEM:
FLOW vs. Cal-Am; The battle over Felton water continues
By Rachael Montague, for the Press Banner
Felton Friends of Locally Owned Water, a grassroots organization that fights to gain public control of the town’s water system, has put itself on the map when it comes to fighting privately owned corporation California American Water Co.
Over the past year, stories about Felton’s water fight have been featured in local media and in an entire chapter of the book, “Thirst: Fighting the Corporate Theft of Our Water,” published in March.
The small-town fight for water resounds far beyond its borders, especially when reports such as the International Water Management Institute’s projection of global water scarcity are released.
In a special issue on water privatization, Fortune magazine predicted that water promises to be one of the world’s greatest business opportunities and will be to the 21st century what oil was to the 20th: “The precious commodity that determines the wealth of nations.”
Since the 1990s, there has been an increase in the purchasing of publicly owned water systems by private companies, sparking the philosophical question: Is water a human right or a for-profit commodity?
Most of
Cal-Am is owned by American Water Works, which is owned by Thames Water Aqua Holdings, a subsidiary of multinational RWE Aktiengesellschaft of Germany. RWE is one of the largest for-profit water providers in the world.
A few months after purchasing Felton’s water system, Cal-Am wrote a letter to
Several Felton residents became alarmed over the “new business” referred to in the letter.
“To put this in perspective,” said Jim Graham of FLOW, “the entire Felton customer base consumed only 422 acre-feet of water in 2001. An acre-foot contains 325,851 gallons. Some 200 to 300 acre-feet per year is equivalent to 65,170,200 to 97,755,300 gallons, or 178,548 to 267,822 gallons per day. What business could possibly require this much water?”
Some Felton residents wondered if a bottling company was coming to Felton, because the area generally has a surplus of water, making it a water gold mine. Evan Jacobs, community-relations manager of Cal-Am, said he doesn’t know what business the letter was referring to in 2002 but asserts that “California American Water does not, nor has it ever, intend to bottle water from Felton or the
Additional concerns were sparked over a 74 percent rate hike, and several Felton residents got together to fight for public ownership of Felton water under the name of FLOW.
Jacobs said such rate increases are normal: “Water rates have increased throughout the county, from
“The Public Utilities Commission rate-setting process is an open-book process that matches rates with cost of service. Our costs and expenditures are reviewed by accountants, engineers and other experts to ensure that the rates charged are fair and just,” he added. “We are one of the only water utilities in
Despite the prospect of an increase in property taxes of $600 a year for as many as 30 years, Felton voters in July 2003 passed measure W. It allocates $11 million for SLV Water District to purchase the Felton system from Cal-Am.
However, Cal-Am has so far refused to sell. “Cal-Am does not plan to sell because we feel we are doing a good job,” Jacobs said.
Not everybody agrees. Barbara Sprenger of FLOW said she believes that a publicly owned system could provide better water service for less money.
“When Cal-Am took over Felton’s water system, they increased rates to the point that we pay twice as much for water as our neighbors in SLVWD,” she noted. “Service has gotten much worse since Cal-Am took over. Our calls are now answered in
“We’re paying for the high salaries of layers of non-local management in
“It will actually work out to be cheaper in the long run to purchase our water system than to pay Cal-Am’s high rates. Most of
Because Felton residents are eager to purchase, and Cal-Am is not selling, the fight has erupted into legal battles.
In early 2007, RWE announced that it wanted to sell off American Water in an initial public offering of stock, a move required approval from the Public Utilities Commission and its counterparts in other states.
Felton citizens wanted the PUC to force Cal-Am to sell its Felton portion to the water district. On May 3, the PUC approved the public offering without requiring that Felton waterworks be sold separately first.
Asked why the PUC didn’t require Cal-Am to sell Felton, commission spokeswoman Susan Carothers said, “the issue is not under the jurisdiction of the PUC and must be settled by the courts.”
Despite setbacks from the PUC, Felton citizens are still trying to acquire Felton water through another strategy: eminent domain. Jim Mosher, coordinator of FLOW’s legal team, said, “the SLV Water District filed an eminent domain lawsuit against Cal-Am. On May 9, Judge Paul Burdick denied Cal-Am’s request for a change of venue, to move the lawsuit out of
Betsy Herbert, the water district’s environmental analyst, said the district is waiting to hear whether the appeals court will dismiss Cal-Am’s appeal of Burdick’s ruling on the change of venue or hear arguments in court.
If the venue stays in
http://pressbanner.com/content/view/47/42/
EMERGENCY WATER SUPPLY PLANNING:
Committee to develop Rosamond water emergency plan
By Jill Barnes Nelson, staff writer
ROSAMOND - The Rosamond Community Service District has assigned a committee to develop a "Water Emergency Plan" to deal with ways to conserve water and to set guidelines in case of a water emergency. General Manager R. Robert Neufeld will head the committee.
"We need to make up some sort of guidelines when we're in a drought situation like now," Neufeld said. "We need to know exactly what to tell residents should we need to conserve water, and to set guidelines as to what constitutes a water emergency."
In other water matters, Well 9 is getting closer to completion. The construction crew is getting ready to pour the concrete and it is hoped the well can be up and running by the end of August or the beginning of September. #
http://www.desertnews.com/mdn/story8.html
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