A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
August 23, 2007
2. Supply
WATER CONSERVATION:
IID OKs a small amount of money for conservation programs - Imperial Valley Press
PURCHASING WATER:
Viejas explores options in buying outside water - San Diego Union Tribune
Reclaimed water to cool power plant; Concerns evaporate about Barstow water supply - Victorville Daily Press
WATER CONSERVATION:
IID OKs a small amount of money for conservation programs
By Darren Simon, staff writer
The Imperial Irrigation District board has given staff the green light to fully launch the early test stages of a $5 billion water conservation program — one that could force water rate hikes in years to come.
But even as the program known as the Definite Plan begins, there still are lingering questions from board members as to why the program will cost so much and discussions could turn to cutting back expenses.
Talk of water conservation comes as the district is contractually obligated to conserve enough water to serve hundreds of thousands of homes in
Eventually the conservation program is to pay for itself through revenue from the sale of water to
That means early on the district may have to finance hundreds of millions of dollars if not more to cover the conservation costs.
“IID always knew it would have to borrow money in the so-called early years and it would make it all back in the back years,” IID spokesman Kevin Kelley said.
THE VOTE
On Tuesday the IID board voted 4-1 to allow staff to spend $5.7 million — the last of the $13 million needed to fully implement the early test stages of the water conservation program.
Director Mike Abatti cast the lone vote against freeing up the $5.7 million as he raised concerns with the costs of the testing and of the entire conservation effort.
“I have not seen a business plan yet,” Abatti said.
One concern for board members is that there will be more than a decade period, starting in 2010, in which the district will face costs with little revenue as support. That is where the fear of rate hikes comes into play.
IID staff members said by approving the funds Tuesday the district is not committing itself to future expenditures.
“In voting to approve the near-term pilot projects called for in this agenda item, the board is not committing itself to any particular course in either financing or implementing the Definite Plan,” IID acting General Manager Elston Grubaugh said.
The testing stages Grubaugh spoke of will evaluate how successfully the district can save water through upgrading its water systems and by installing pump systems to capture seepage water. The district will also start to evaluate how farmers can best save water through on-farm conservation.
That $13 million represents a drop in the bucket compared to the projected $5 billion cost the district will face over the 75-year life of the water transfer, but even spending the $13 million was cause for concern during Tuesday’s board meeting.
San Diego County Water Authority, which by 2027 is to be receiving some 200,000 acre-feet of Imperial Valley water, is obligated to pay the district $10 million by Dec. 31 and that money is to help pay for the $13 million test projects.
IID Chief Financial Officer Robert Vodzack told the board he has seen nothing in writing that
Grubaugh responded, saying the water pact with
THE FUTURE
For IID staff involved in developing the water conservation program, Tuesday’s vote proved crucial.
In water conservation terms, deadlines of years are as difficult to meet as deadlines of days, even hours, one might face in school and work.
The IID is bumping up against a 2017 deadline to move from its current method of conserving transfer water — a method that has some Valley farmers leaving their land barren to save water.
By 2017 the district must transition from that so-called fallowing program to a water efficiency-based program involving system improvements and on-farm water conservation where farmers will play a lead role in saving water.
IID staff has said that to meet that 2017 deadline they have to start the test projects immediately to see what works and what doesn’t.
On Tuesday, Grubaugh said in reality the Definite Plan “isn’t all that definite.”
“What is definite is the critical need to move forward with these near-term recommendations, which will establish a verifiable framework for what the Definite Plan will become,” Grubaugh said. #
http://www.ivpressonline.com/articles/2007/08/23/news/news02.txt
PURCHASING WATER:
Viejas explores options in buying outside water
By Onell R. Soto, staff writer
ALPINE – The Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians is working on buying outside water, even though an expert recently told the tribe there's more than enough water on the reservation.
“We're trying to be proactive,” tribal councilman Alan Barrett said yesterday, after the tribe said it was working on a deal with a
Other agreements are in the works, and the tribe plans to eventually buy water from Northern California or the
“We know that if we ever want to develop anything, we're going to need water,” he said.
Viejas has a compact with the state that allows it to have an unlimited number of slot machines. It is also working with the Ewiiaapaayp (pronounced WEE-a-pye) tribe to build a second casino on its Alpine-area reservation.
The 213-member Viejas tribe has signed a letter of intent with the Semitropic Water Storage District to get and store water for the future.
Semitropic stores water underground near the California Aqueduct as it crosses
Semitropic counts several large water agencies as partners, including the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which supplies imported water to local water distributors.
The idea is to pump aqueduct water into dried-out aquifers during wet years and then draw it out in times of drought.
“What we're trying to do is capture water that would otherwise not be used,” said Will Boschman, Semitropic's general manager.
The banking also works by moving around water that's already out of the ground, much like a bank uses cash deposits to fund loans.
Semitropic says it can store 1.65 million acre-feet of water. An acre-foot is enough water for two four-member families for a year.
Indian reservations in
Neighbors of the Barona and Campo reservations have complained that increased use of well water because of casinos and a golf course has dried up their wells.
Leaders of those tribes have denied they have drawn too much water.
Viejas' neighbors have also said they are also worried about water, but Barrett said the tribe has monitored its water table for five years and found nothing to indicate there's a problem.
He said Viejas wants to avoid those accusations altogether if it ever builds a golf course or other water-using expansion.
“We've learned from other tribes' mistakes,” Barrett said. “We can basically use our water for our own needs and not deplete the water system that we have.” #
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20070823-9999-7m23viejas.html
Reclaimed water to cool power plant; Concerns evaporate about
Victorville Daily Press – 8/22/07
By Tatiana Prophet, staff writer
VICTORVILLE — Despite concerns by state officials that there would not be enough reclaimed water to cool the city’s new power plant and supply the downstream city of Barstow, rapid population growth in the Victor Valley has actually ensured that there will be more than enough water for both.
“For every gallon we recycle, that’s a gallon we don’t have to pump from the groundwater,” said Logan Olds, general manager of the Victor Valley Wastewater Reclamation Authority.
The plant releases treated effluent into the
The roughly 8.6 million gallons per day
Currently, the
Even if the power plant were to start using 3 million gallons per day today, there would be enough reclaimed water for the plant to meet all its legal obligations.
A similar-sized power plant built earlier by the city, the 830-megawatt High Desert Power Project, uses precious groundwater to cool its towers. But plans are in the works to transfer that over to reclaimed water, too.
It’s not a surprise, then, that elected officials in Hesperia have voiced concerns that their groundwater might be pumped to the new 563-megawatt power plant, called Victorville 2, to be built on 388 acres north of Southern California Logistics Airport.
The concerns stemmed from a plan being designed by the regional Mojave Water Agency to replenish the aquifer at a point in Hesperia with California Aqueduct water and then pump the water to supply the entire valley.
But all 3,500 annual acre feet will be supplied by treated wastewater from the Victor Valley Regional Wastewater Authority, said Logan Olds, general manager of the plant.
“We have sufficient water to meet all the needs that we currently have,” he said.
The VVWRA is bound to supply 9,681 acre feet per year to the California Department of Fish & Game to maintain fish habitat, or about 8.6 million gallons a day.
That same water travels downstream to
An acre foot, which is enough water to cover an acre at a foot deep, is about 325,900 gallons and is roughly though to be enough to supply a family of four for one year.
When the idea first came up to use reclaimed water to cool Victorville 2, officials with the California Energy Commission raised concerns arose that there would not be enough reclaimed water.
But the
With projected growth, about 4,500 more acre feet is scheduled to be available to supply reclaimed water by 2012.
Perry Dahlstrom, district manager with Golden State Water —
“We are monitoring the situation to make sure that we have enough drinking water to meet our customers’ needs,” he said.
Storm water and reclaimed water from treatment plants make up only 10 percent of the groundwater’s annual recharge, according to the Mojave Water Agency’s 2004 Regional Water Management Plan. #
http://www.vvdailypress.com/news/plant_2463___article.html/water_power.html
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