A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
August 17, 2007
2. Supply
COASTAL WATER SUPPLY ISSUES:
Drought prompts Felton water managers to seek well - Santa Cruz Sentinel
WATER SUPPLY PLANNING:
City's water supply may peak in 2010; Possible shortfall sparks worries about expansion - Monterey Herald
WATER RECYCLING:
Super water plant; East Valley Water District backs centralized facility - Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
PIPELINE BIDS:
Bids lower than projections for Nacimiento water pipeline - Associated Press
PIPELINE COMPLETED:
Valley Springs pipeline complete - Stockton Record
COASTAL WATER SUPPLY ISSUES:
Drought prompts Felton water managers to seek well
By Gwen Mickelson, staff writer
FELTON — Saying last winter’s shortage of rainfall is forcing its hand, California American Water Co. is planning to drill a new $500,000 well despite the protest of residents, who say the well is a ploy to pump up the value of the private water system at their expense.
The well, which company officials say is needed to improve drought reserves and ensure sufficient water supplies, would be paid for by the system’s 1,350 ratepayers.
Rainfall in the
To preserve the availability of water in case of another shortfall in the coming rainy season, the company wants to rehabilitate its existing Felton Acres well, built in 1962; acquire a new well or drill one at the Felton water treatment plant; and improve surface water collection.
“Our big concern, and every water agency and district’s big concern, is what happens if we have a multiyear drought,” said Evan Jacobs, spokesman for Cal Am in Felton. “We’re going to have to undergo a long and exhaustive permit process, and I think that’s why it’s all the better that we start now.”
Company officials said it’s too early to say how much rates would go up with the projects.
But Felton residents — who have been trying for years to buy out the water company and become part of neighboring San Lorenzo Valley Water District, even suing in February to use eminent domain to seize the property — see the company’s plans as yet another way to allow it to raise rates and inflate the value of the system, making it too expensive for them to purchase.
Customers are already unhappy with rates and some aspects of service. A grassroots group, Felton Friends of Locally Owned Water, is leading the charge to buy out the water system; Felton residents in 2005 passed an $11 million bond, Measure W, to buy the waterworks.
“This is so shocking,” said Barbara Sprenger, a FLOW member and candidate for state Assembly, referring to the well proposal.
“It’s just one more case where they’re trying to drive up the price of the system. They’re just harassing us.”
That’s nonsense, Jacobs said.
“We’re doing what any responsible water company would do in this instance,” Jacobs said. “I would encourage FLOW to spend more time working on conservation and less time attacking us on this well.”
Cal Am submitted paperwork to the California Public Utilities Commission at the end of July detailing its reasons for wanting to drill a new well.
If the coming season proves to provide ample rain, Jacobs was unsure whether the company would proceed with the well or not.
Water companies typically must drill a test well to check water availability and test for any effect on other area wells, he said.
The project would also require a permit from the county, said John Ricker, water resources program coordinator for the county Environmental Health Department. Cal Am has yet to apply for a permit, Ricker said, but he has been contacted by its geologist and environmental consultant.
Still, Felton residents and others said they wonder why conservation alone isn’t enough, when residents have handled past droughts that way and the town’s population of about 1,100 has remained virtually the same.
Cal Am is promoting conservation, including asking customers to cut their water usage voluntarily by 15 percent and handing out free water-saving gadgets such as low-flow shower heads. But the company has not established mandatory restrictions, which some residents feel should be done before starting an expensive process such as drilling a new well.
“Their whole strategy is to make as much money as they possibly can,” FLOW member Larry Ford said. “They can make a lot of money by drilling another well. There’s all kinds of legal fees, contracts they can give, and on all those things they get a percentage.”
FLOW members, along with the San Lorenzo Valley Water District, are preparing a protest letter to submit to the PUC. They plan to point out what they say are flaws in the company’s data supporting its need for the well. The letter Cal Am sent to the PUC does not address the multiyear drought possibility, focusing instead only on the short-term, said Jim Mueller, San Lorenzo Valley Water District manager.
“We think there are a number of inaccuracies in their project description — that they perhaps have overestimated the severity of the situation,” he said.
Drilling a well is a common practice of water agencies, said Brent Haddad, an associate professor in the Environmental Studies Department at UC Santa Cruz.
“Water agencies are always evaluating their water supply and looking for alternative and more secure sources, trying to reduce their drought risk and improve their quality,” Haddad said.
In the ongoing eminent domain proceedings, a trial date of Jan. 14 has been set in Santa Cruz County Superior Court to determine whether the San Lorenzo Valley Water District has the legal right to exercise eminent domain to take the water system. #
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2007/August/16/breaking/stories/03breaking.htm
WATER SUPPLY PLANNING:
City's water supply may peak in 2010; Possible shortfall sparks worries about expansion
By Claudia Melendez Salinas, staff writer
The report was supposed to be encouraging.
What the Salinas City Council heard instead this week from California Water Service officials was that the water supply for
"I'm not comforted by this report," Mayor Dennis Donohue told Cal Water's Salinas District Manager Jim Smith. "We're reaching peak demand more quickly than we'd prefer."
At a time when
"This is a city that's looking to flex its economic might," Donohue said.
According to the report, the projected demand will meet existing supply in 2010. If no other sources are developed, the shortfall based on current demand would reach 20,000 gallons per day — about 57 households worth — in 15 years.
But officials also expect the population, and with it demand, to have grown considerably by then, given current efforts to expand the city's sphere of influence.
Smith says the report was misinterpreted, because the company is actively looking for ways to expand supply.
"My message was loud and clear: yes, we're meeting demand at this time," Smith said. "We have a proactive vision for meeting future demands and we can meet both: residential or industrial growth. We can meet the demands, both present and future."
Cal Water, a subsidiary of San Jose-based California Water Service Group, serves 118,000 residents in 70 percent of the city of
Cal Water also provides water to several outlying areas and has applied to serve the city's future growth area. Last month the company applied to the California Public Utilities Commission to increase its rates by 54 percent over the next three years.
Smith said the increases would be used to improve existing services such as replacing water mains.
Cal Water officials say new sources will most likely come from new wells. On top of their "summary of new options" list, the company includes replacing from three to five existing wells, building six new wells, and possibly participating in one of the desalination projects under consideration.
"Desal is pretty low on the chart," Smith said. "It's costly and it has environmental concerns. ... That's why it's rated low, towards the bottom."
Donohue's economic revitalization plans include attracting new and high-tech industry, and any kind of growth is likely to demand more water. He said a talk with Smith after the presentation helped him better visualize Cal Water's plans.
"His reason was we should be pleased, and I'll accept that judgment, but I want to know if we're going to be in good shape in 2025," Donohue said. "If we hit the demand peak early in the next decade and then we have to rely on new wells ... what do new wells rely on? Are there new or existing sources we should be relying on? Or is this a city with the history of seven years drought and seven years rain?
"I certainly understand there are no guarantees in life," Donohue said, "but the question in my mind boils down to the laws of probabilities." #
http://www.montereyherald.com/ci_6646665?nclick_check=1
WATER RECYCLING:
Super water plant; East Valley Water District backs centralized facility
By Joe Nelson, staff writer
The East Valley Water District is the first of several Inland Empire water agencies that have committed to chip in on the cost of a preliminary design and environmental study for the Bunker Hill Basin Regional Water Supply Project, which would provide another source of drinking water to customers across the
At its meeting Tuesday, the district board agreed to pitch in $175,000 for the study, said Robert Martin, general manager of the East Valley Water District.
A preliminary feasibility analysis done in February estimated the new facility, expected to take about seven years to build, would cost about $120million, said Stacey Aldstadt, general manager of the San Bernardino Municipal Water Department, which is the lead agency on the project.
But Alstadt stressed the proposed project is still in its infancy stages and is dependent on the participation of other agencies.
The plan calls for the drilling of more than a dozen wells and the building of a treatment plant in north
"This project would pump groundwater, clean it up and distribute it to agencies participating in the project, and they would deliver it to their customers," said Randy Van Gelder, general manager of the San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District, one of the agencies considering participation in the project.
Other agencies that have agreed to take the proposal before their boards or councils for consideration include the West Valley Water District, the city of
"We're going to be taking it to our board at our first meeting in September," Aldstadt said.
The wells, once drilled, would channel contaminated water to a centralized plant for purification. The water is believed contaminated by industrial solvents from
"It is another source of water that we can develop locally," Martin said.
Swelling population in the
It is more cost effective and efficient, officials said, for a centralized location to be built than to have individual agencies drill their own wells to treat contaminated water.
"Then you wind up with a lot of duplication of facilities, and duplication of facilities results in more capital being spent," Van Gelder said. "It's better to coordinate and build a regional system, saving everybody money as well."
In times of emergency, additional water sources can become a dire need to the customer, Martin said.
"In any emergencies you don't want all your eggs in one basket," Martin said. "If we had a local power failure within our service area, this would provide another source of water coming from an area not undergoing a similar emergency." #
PIPELINE BIDS:
Bids lower than projections for Nacimiento water pipeline
Associated Press – 8/17/07
PASO ROBLES,
The final Nacimiento Water Project construction bids came in Thursday at about $175 million, nearly $5.2 million below designer estimates.
Three of the five participating agencies are committed to the project and the construction bids now makes pipeline completion likely, Mayor Frank Mecham said.
The Paso Robles City Council and the Templeton Community Services District will decide Tuesday on participation in the project.
"Right now at $175 million, it is doable, it's acceptable and it's imperative that we move ahead on this," he said.
The project will provide a new supply of water to communities from Paso Robles to
The San Luis Obispo City Council, the Atascadero Mutual Water Co. and
Construction of the pipeline should begin as early as December, with water delivery beginning in late 2010.
The project has been split into five phases. Hollenbeck expects the first work to be at the pipeline intake at Nacimiento Dam, with other segments beginning in early 2008. #
http://www.sacbee.com/114/story/330681.html
PIPELINE COMPLETED:
Valley Springs pipeline complete
VALLEY SPRINGS - The Calaveras County Water District has completed a 2,700-foot pipeline extension to improve flows and reduce water pressure and supply problems in the Rancho Calaveras and Jenny Lind areas southwest of Valley Springs.
The new pipeline connects two existing water circulation zones in the southernmost part of the Jenny Lind water system. It was here last summer that heavy use and a supply bottleneck caused taps to run dry during a heat wave.
Calaveras County Water District Director of Operations Bill Perley said the new pipeline should solve problems some customers have had with low water pressure.
Perley also advised customers to continue controlling their water use during hot weather, especially watering of landscaping and other outdoor use.
The system in the area is designed to deliver a maximum average of 1,500 gallons per day per home, plenty for indoor use.
But irrigating gardens and landscaping on the large lots in the area can quickly push consumption far over that amount.
For information or customer service, call the district at (209) 754-3543. #
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070817/A_NEWS/70817005
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