A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
August 9, 2007
2. Supply
WATER CONSERVATION:
Paso Robles may order mandatory water restrictions - Associated Press
WATER RECYCLING:
Water recycling project to start soon; 300,000 gallons will irrigate golf course, Pacifica fields - Inside Bay Area
URBAN PLANNING:
Editorial: Water needs trump plan for housing -
URBAN WATER USE:
Column: So Where's The Drought-Rage?; We're in a huge water shortage, but people still deluge their green lawns. Is it time to yell? -
WATER CONSERVATION:
Paso Robles may order mandatory water restrictions
Associated Press – 8/9/07
PASO ROBLES, Calif. -- The city has asked residents to conserve water for the second time this summer and warned mandatory restrictions could be imposed.
The city wants each of its 10,300 customers to conserve 40 gallons of water a day to meet the city goal of reducing consumption by 400,000 gallons daily.
"We want to slow down the use," public works director Doug Monn said. If these efforts do not produce results, Monn said, "the City Council will have to take a hard look at mandatory measures."
The city has begun placing door hangers on houses alerting residents to the shortage and giving them tips on how to save water.
"We're not talking major hardship here," Monn said. "Instead of washing two shirts and a pair of socks, do a full load."
The first attempt at conservation this summer was July 3 when the City Council passed a goal to reduce consumption by 25 percent. It didn't work.
"We didn't emphasize it hard enough. The word didn't get out," Monn said.
The city has now expanding outreach to radio, television and newspapers. #
http://www.sacbee.com/114/story/316748.html
WATER RECYCLING:
Water recycling project to start soon; 300,000 gallons will irrigate golf course,
Inside Bay Area – 8/9/07
By Julia Scott, staff writer
A water recycling plan, orchestrated by the Calera Creek Water Recycling Plant and the North Coast County Water District, will soon see construction begin on pipelines to divert up to 300,000 gallons of treated wastewater a day to irrigate the golf course and several other fields around
The water district is soliciting public comments on the plan for the rest of the week, which includes a $10 million storage tank, pump station and distribution system officials hope to break ground on this winter.
When the project is complete, 50 million gallons of that wastewater per year will be devoted to watering Sharp Park Golf Course, several Pacifica city parks and the football fields at most of the high schools.
Much of the funding for the project comes from the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, which oversees maintenance of the golf course and will use the lion's share of the water. At 85 percent of the normal price,
With
"We don't think anyone should be using Hetch Hetchy water to water golf courses, particularly when recycled water has a history of safe use around the world," he said.
"The city has always had access to plentiful Sierra water — the truth is, from a cost perspective, it has always been cheaper to use gravity-fed water," he added. That's about to change, as water becomes scarcer and the agency raises its water rates to pay for seismic upgrades and other infrastructure.
San Francisco eventually hopes to build its own tertiary treatment plant near an existing wastewater plant near the city zoo to water two other golf courses on the city's west side, according to Winnicker.
Tertiary-treated water can be used for anything from mixing concrete to watering edible crops, according to standards adopted by the California Department of Health Services, although the latter use is not common.
The Calera Creek Water Recycling Plant employs a series of multi-use tanks to clarify and purify water to tertiary-treated levels. Its five, 1.2-million-gallon tanks grow organisms that eat bacteria, human viruses and ammonia nitrogen, a byproduct of urine that is harmful to plant and aquatic life. A final stage employs more than 350 green-tinged UV lamps to zap any remaining bacteria.
Founded in 2000, the water recycling plant always planned to use its treated wastewater for something other than promoting wildlife habitat and healthy water flow through a nearby wetland. The problem was the expense —
Plant Manager Dave Gromm said he was happy to see the North Coast County Water District lead the project, which could be up and running by next spring.
"These golf courses are using a lot of water, and any impact they could make would be good," he said.
To learn more about the recycled water project, visit http://www.nccwd.com. #
URBAN PLANNING:
Editorial: Water needs trump plan for housing
Now that the Pomona Valley Protective Association has its engineering report on its San Antonio Spreading Grounds, the sparring can begin.
The PVPA commissioned the study that found that as many as 400 acres of the 680-acre spreading grounds could be developed for housing in
Pardon us if we're skeptical about that. Not that we question the engineering work in the report, but we certainly question the wisdom of doing anything that can lessen the potential for harvesting rainwater in the
We're talking here about a "protective association" that was formed in 1909 to ensure that water runoff from the San Gabriel Mountains would be captured and allowed to percolate underground for use in local water systems.
As we said in February when plans to sell the land for development came to light, we cannot imagine how there could be less need now to capture water than there was in 1909, when the Inland Valley's population was a tiny fraction of what it is today.
We've just been through the driest local rainfall year on record. The
That makes it a strange time to talk of developing land that has been used for the past century to catch runoff and replenish the water table.
Now, PVPA's engineering report claims that new pits can replace the percolation work the 400-acre parcel has been doing. Fine, we say, but maybe keeping the 400 acres vacant and building pits someday would greatly increase the water captured, and there's every indication that someday there will be that need.
PVPA is controlled jointly by Golden State Water Co. (47 percent), which owns
It appears some
Councilman Sam Pedroza, for one, said, "I would like to have another opinion, or at least have someone we can talk to, who can explain what this means to the city and not just rely on that report."
Things will get interesting as PVPA begins negotiating with the city of
Golden State Water Co., which controls the biggest chuck of PVPA, and
Some
Then there's Vulcan Materials Co., which leases about 230 acres of the spreading grounds and is dueling with
All in all, the
http://www.dailybulletin.com/opinions/ci_6577713
URBAN WATER USE:
Column: So Where's The Drought-Rage?; We're in a huge water shortage, but people still deluge their green lawns. Is it time to yell?
San Francisco Chronicle – 8/9/07
By David Curran, editor at SFGate.com
As I sit on my front porch, I look across the street at my neighbor who sits on an overturned bucket and spends an hour watering his perfectly green, meticulously manicured lawn. He holds his watering wand over specific sections slowing moving his plastic perch as he covers the roughly 15 x 20-foot space.
He chats with his pal who seems to have no problem as the water runs past the lawn and gathers into a lake on the sidewalk then cascades over the curb. Could they really not know there is a severe water shortage?
It's like watching someone clean out their car and just toss all the garbage onto the street. Do you say anything? Is it worth it?
Just watching this river forming in the gutter is its own form of water torture. Is it time to engage in complete and total DROUGHT-RAGE!
In the interest of block relations, I suppose I could cordially go over and say something like, "Gee, I can't remember what EBMUD was recommending for maximum watering. Is it 15 minutes a day? Three days a week? Maybe we should turn off that gusher of water and do an Internet search."
Such a search would find lots of other goodies about our water crisis. Raging wildfires due to bone-dry conditions. An increase in West Nile virus. And even a long term possibility that we could simply run out of water.
So why aren't people yelling at the water wasters?
In my Albany/North Berkeley neighborhood, people have no qualms about chewing out strangers for all kinds of stuff. Moms in playgrounds are accosted for bottle-feeding babies. If you're smoking in a public place, you have a big fat ashtray-shaped target on you. And that perfume you're wearing? It's upsetting my dog! But I still haven't seen a water waster get a pure unadulterated scolding.
Perhaps we're still in pre-outrage mode. But there may be other reasons that drought-rage has yet to register in people's minds. Here are a few possibilities:
Problem 1: The Emotional-Energy Crisis: Basically, you can only get upset about so much stuff. And we've already got climate change in general (drought would certainly be related),
Problem 2: Lack Of A Decent Evildoer: There's nothing like a good bad guy to help a cause. SUVs are a great target for the climate change problem. And when you buy a Prius, you feel you've joined the forces of less evil. Reviling Bush helps people focus
But maybe Michael Moore will let us know this is worth screaming about with his next film, "Hoser!" Then, who knows?
Problem 3: Dude, Where Do I Protest?: A good dose of activism could be just what's needed to give this issue some spark. The question is which of the 10 zillion overly green lawns does one yell about? Plus, you can't exactly chain yourself to a lawn. That is, unless you're Rick Moranis in "Honey, I Shrunk The Kids." Would something like a tree sit work? That would be a lawn sit. Which looks like you're just tanning. Or waiting for the bus.
OK, if the PETA woman who dresses in that skintight tiger suit wore something like that made out of sod? That could help.
Problem 4: Stars Don't Come Out For Drought: There's nothing like big names to spread the word as we saw on the Live Earth Concert to combat climate change. So why not the same for a water shortage? Can't the Police launch a "If It's Yellow Let It Mellow! Tour." Would Sheryl Crow please ditch Revlon and play at " Drought Tolerant Plants--Palooza?"
Forget it.
Plus, what about the singers whose estates have 3,000 acres of gorgeous lawn? Just let them go brown so as not to look like a hyprocrite? As if. Next cause!
Problem 5: What Does Anyone Know About Watering?: Confronting some lawn owner is also hard when what most of us know about grass care can fit on a blade of grass. This isn't a no-brainer like, say, yelling at a dog squatting in your petunias. For instance, maybe the "over waterer" has an awesome irrigation system or sprinkles at the most efficient times. Or has grass on steroids. Or a waterless lawn. Or is just a sod savant. You just don't know.
So, it would seem, the overwaterers and their perfectly green lawns have a free pass, at least for now. But if the drought persists into 2008, that's another story. I'm not saying Sting's going to be singing, "Every Bath You Take (I'll Be Watching You)," but consciousness is bound to rise. Soaring water rates can do that. So can rationing. Soon enough, it won't even matter how someone's lawn got perfectly green, just that it is perfectly green, AND IT SHOULDN'T BE!
And, if in the past those Perfectly-Green-Lawn People ever glared at your patchy, brown front yard as if to say, "You're bringing down the neighborhood!" this will be your time to glare back as if to say, "So what?! You're bringing down the water table!" High noon in the suburbs is about to get interesting. #
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2007/08/09/lawn.DTL&hw=water&sn=039&sc=1000
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