A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
August 20, 2007
3. Watersheds
DELTA ISSUES:
Tiny Delta fish at center of huge water war; Delta: Sides can't agree on basic facts - Sacramento Bee
Old foes come to accord on Delta; Panel members, traditionally adversarial, agree temporary dams, studies could save smelt - Contra Costa Times
Delta has that sinking feeling; But federal project shows wetlands can reverse islands problem - Stockton Record
WATERSHED RESTORATION:
7 cities in watershed will share study cost; Pollution at issue in 4 major lagoons -
Researchers, activists urge faster pace in effort to save
10 years later -- Tahoe worse; Clinton and others laud protection efforts, sound a warning at annual summit - Sacramento
Clinton lauds Tahoe restoration; Leaders address environmental challenges at annual forum - Contra Costa Times
DELTA ISSUES:
Tiny Delta fish at center of huge water war; Delta: Sides can't agree on basic facts
Sacramento
By Michael Doyle, staff writer
Environmentalists have an ambitious plan to protect the tiny Delta smelt, but the controversial idea will require time, money and well over 1 million acre-feet of water that
Now, the stage is set for a courtroom face-off with extraordinary real-world consequences.
On Tuesday, lawyers and scientists will bring their clash before a federal judge in
"The time for timid, tentative actions to protect the smelt and other declining species is past," University of
In reply, farmers' attorneys warn of "devastating impacts for agriculture." Water contractors say that if
"This will result in significant hardship, not only on the landowner but on the local communities and economies that are highly dependent on local agricultural activities for jobs, service and supplies," Del Puerto Water District General Manager William Harrison stated.
The Del Puerto district irrigates 45,000 acres of farmland on the west side of
Once, the smelt was the most populous fish in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Now, it is listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Described in one legal filing as "small, fragile and poor swimmers," the smelt have lost their habitat, been sucked into pumps and become trapped in fish screens.
Since June, despite the fish's protected status, environmentalists report that about 1,605 delta smelt have been killed by state and federal pumps.
"The delta smelt cannot sustain further losses like this if it is to survive," Natural Resources Defense Council attorneys declared.
But Dan Nelson, executive director of the San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority, said, "The tragedy and outrage is that the proposal submitted by environmental groups ignores 95 percent of the causes for a declining fish population in the Delta."
Nelson said scientists have concluded that other factors -- such as loss of food supplies and the introduction of foreign plant and fish species -- have altered the environment, which in turn has had a greater impact on the smelt numbers. Reducing the water supply to the
As part of the lawsuit, the environmentalists have proposed a sweeping plan that will be the subject of Tuesday's hearing before U.S. District Judge Oliver W. Wanger.
Already, the plan and its potential consequences have spurred voluminous court filings that underscore the gap separating environmentalists from farmers. They can't agree on the most fundamental facts.
Environmentalists say their smelt-protection plan would require 1.5 million acre-feet of water, or about 9 percent of the average deliveries over the past several decades. Farmers insist the plan would need as much as 3 million acre-feet.
Environmentalists say the delta smelt is "near extinction."
Government scientists estimate there are more than 1 million delta smelt still alive.
Environmentalists say farmers can readily ease the conservation burden by switching to different crops and installing more efficient irrigation systems. Economists hired by farmers say agricultural losses could range from $111 million to $484 million next year under the environmentalists' plan.
The environmentalists' proposed 10-point plan covers several areas.
• Monitoring. Officials, for instance, would check for smelt four times a day at state and federal water facilities.
• Managing water flow. Officials, for instance, would maintain water flowing through the Delta at certain minimum levels during the fall. This would increase the amount of low-salinity habitat the smelt like.
• Managing irrigation contracts. Environmentalists want dozens of long-term contracts in the
Westlands Water District deputy general manager James Snow declared that "deliveries to south of Delta agricultural contractors would be reduced to zero" under the environmentalist plan. Westlands farmers say this, in turn, will cause more groundwater pumping, widespread fallowing of land and potential loss of permanent crops.
"Here we are in the place where the debate is showing other factors affecting the decline of the delta smelt," Nelson said, "and yet the only thing on the table is curtailing the water deliveries." #
http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/333012.html
Old foes come to accord on Delta; Panel members, traditionally adversarial, agree temporary dams, studies could save smelt
Contra Costa Times – 8/19/07
By Mike Taugher, staff writer
Rising from the wreckage of
For years, many of the 43 members of an obscure water panel, the Delta Vision Stakeholder Coordination Group, have been bitter adversaries in the state's water wars.
But prodded by a series of troubling developments, including a dramatic decline in fish populations and recent water supply disruptions, they have come to a remarkable degree of agreement.
The recommendations, contained in a draft report obtained by the Times, are scheduled to be presented later this month to a blue ribbon task force appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The group will suggest an experiment in which temporary rock dams would separate water supplies from more environmentally sensitive channels, thereby protecting some fish habitat. It also will propose moving forward with studies to determine the feasibility of building an aqueduct around the Delta.
If the experimental modifications in the Delta and the studies for the aqueduct pan out, many of the group's members say they hope the combination of two new ways of moving water will prove more flexible, reliable and less environmentally destructive.
"I had my doubts about what this group could come up with," said Randy Fiorini, president of the Association of California Water Agencies, which represents farm and urban water agencies that deliver 90 percent of the state's water.
But Fiorini said the downward spiral of the Delta's health during the past few years and the uncertain outlook for reliable water in the state created an opportunity.
"One, the crisis has never been worse," Fiorini added. "Two, we have leadership in the governor's office and from some legislators who have made this a priority. People have hope that the solutions they are working on will be taken seriously."
Still, the fragile agreement is possible only because it does not lock the state into a long-term solution.
And the lack of progress in addressing the Delta's problems in recent years left plenty of room for traditional adversaries to agree on actions such as preparing emergency response plans, stockpiling rock around the Delta to speed levee repairs and increasing funding to control invasive species.
"The status quo is in a freefall," said Jim Levine, chairman of the water policy committee for the Bay Area Council, an influential business group. "That had people willing to come out of their corners and consider new ideas. We all agreed that we don't have the luxury of 10 more years of rhetoric."
The Delta sits at the bottom of
But the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is in deep crisis. Its fish populations are plummeting. Its aging and rudimentary levees are fragile and could fail in a way that is reminiscent of flooding in
And in June, the crisis came to a head when water deliveries were shut down for nine days to protect fish.
The situation has become so bad -- for the Delta and for water agencies -- and so much is at stake, that old adversaries have little choice but to reconcile.
"Even with all the contentious issues, people are finding we have an opportunity we haven't seen in our lifetime," said Jason Peltier, chief deputy general manager for the Westlands Water District, a major farming region in the
Barry Nelson, a water policy analyst at the Natural Resources Defense Council, was skeptical but said: "we're starting to see creative, out-of-the-box thinking."
For example, many of the group's members are looking increasingly to the idea of moving water both through the Delta and around it.
"That wasn't in our thinking just 12 months ago," said Jeff Kightlinger, general manager of the state's largest water district, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. "The flexibility is very appealing."
One of the most striking findings in the past several years was a strong relationship between the number of fish killed at the powerful Delta pumps near
When the pumps are running hard enough to reverse the flow of Old River and
That finding, along with the Delta smelt's precarious hold on survival, was the driving factor behind the nine-day shutdown of Delta pumps.
It also was a vivid illustration of the link between the Delta's environmental health and
The first step in unraveling the two could be to separate
If wildlife agencies issue permits soon, it would be relatively quick and cheap to install the barriers.
"It all depends on how the resources agencies respond to this," said
The group also proposes new studies to examine a
At the capital, recommendations could run into resistance from the Schwarzenegger administration because the governor has insisted enough studies have been done and that it is time for action.
But members of the panel say little is known about how much a canal would cost, where it would be routed, how it would be operated or what effect it would have on fish and water quality.
"The economists tell me they don't know how much it would cost," said Levine of the Bay Area Council. "The biologists tell me they don't know how it will affect the fish. Let's get the information."
Others say the group wants targeted studies that can lead to decisions relatively soon.
"Nobody wants protracted study," said Greg Gartrell, assistant general manager of the Contra Costa Water District. "Rather, they want the immediate actions and immediate studies and decisions, with action to follow." #
http://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_6663739?nclick_check=1
Delta has that sinking feeling; But federal project shows wetlands can reverse islands problem
By Alex Breitler, staff writer
This is how the whole estuary must have looked more than a century ago. And this is how parts of it, perhaps, may look in the future.
Federal scientists in a decade-long project at this 15-acre site have proven that wetlands can help correct one of the Delta's biggest problems: the sinking of its islands.
Since 1997, the U.S. Geological Survey has documented elevation gains of 10 inches or more as the wetlands' reeds and cattails die, decompose and form new soil.
That may not sound like much on an island that has dropped to 20 feet below sea level.
"Every inch of soil we accumulate is less pressure on those levees," said Robin Miller, a USGS biogeochemist. "This is a solution - granted, a long-term solution."
Once a vast tidal marsh, the face of the Delta began changing in the late 1880s as its lands were drained and tilled for agriculture. Farming the rich organic peat compacted the fields over the years, causing the land level to sink.
A report earlier this year from the Public Policy Institute of California says the sinking islands have created a vacuum of space equivalent in volume to 70,000 football fields 30 feet deep.
This, in turn, increases the pressure on levees from surrounding waterways.
Raising the land level can correct this imbalance. Also, if a levee were to break, less water would be drawn into an island. This means less salty water would be sucked into the Delta from
It's all theoretical. What's proven is that the elevation of this tiny swath of
The state-owned land was flooded a decade ago up to 22 inches deep. The tule reeds began to grow thick and impenetrable, and over the years, a soggy soil began to form. Miller navigates a narrow, rickety boardwalk to access instruments that are nearly invisible in the towering reeds.
"It looks like this may be viable" for other portions of the Delta, said USGS Bay-Delta Program chief Roger Fujii.
While Delta islands are largely dedicated to agriculture, farmers might have an economic incentive to consider wetlands. The plants suck up and store carbon; landowners can take advantage of this by selling carbon credits to businesses that emit carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas.
"One of the main goals is to work with farmers to get them interested and involved in pursuing this as a potential land use," Fujii said.
Dante Nomellini, who represents farmers in the central Delta, said the idea has merit.
"We're not against shallow flooding for wetlands purposes or even to grow tules," he said. "It makes some good sense."
Next up for USGS is a larger project, maybe 100 to 200 acres, also likely on
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070818/A_NEWS/708180333/-1/A_NEWS
WATERSHED RESTORATION:
7 cities in watershed will share study cost; Pollution at issue in 4 major lagoons
By Angela Lau, staff writer
That translates to big spending for cities and agencies that are believed to have contributed to the polluted state of creeks, lagoons and the ocean.
This time, seven
For almost two decades, these municipalities have been cleaning up pollution to comply with state and federal mandates. But the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board, which enforces the laws through its storm water permits, says the cities have not made enough progress.
The fertilizers that homeowners use to keep their lawns green, the dog waste that pet owners fail to pick up, the sudsy water that drivers hose off their cars and other pollutants have washed into creeks and lagoons. Even increasing the amount of pavement in the cities has made it easier for contaminants to flow into natural waterways.
Recent studies show that the creeks and lagoons in what is called the Carlsbad Watershed are contaminated with bacteria, algae and minerals and silted with sediment that harm wildlife, contaminate the ocean and affect recreation.
The watershed is a 210-square-mile area encompassing coastal cities from
Four major lagoons are in the watershed:
Because of continued pollution, the water-quality board last year ordered more sampling and testing that will cost $2.6 million.
The expense will be shared by the watershed's cities, the
Fines could loom
The yearlong study, expected to begin in October, will determine the kinds and amounts of pollutants fouling the watershed.
The water-quality board will use the results to build a model called Total Maximum Daily Load, which means the maximum amount of pollutants that can be released into creeks and lagoons.
It will detail how much of the pollutants must be removed from the waterways.
And then it will be up to the cities and agencies to find the sources and eliminate them through enforcement and education. Otherwise, they will face fines.
The implementation part of the Total Maximum Daily Load could cost hundreds of millions of dollars, said Julie Chan, a water-quality board senior engineering geologist.
And it could take up to two decades to clean up the watershed so the lagoons are fit for recreation and wildlife could thrive.
The Carlsbad Watershed is not the only one undergoing scrutiny. Cities in the San Diego River Watershed and the Santa Margarita Watershed in
“Ultimately, we want to see pollution cleaned up (in the watershed),” said John Robertus, the water-quality board's executive officer. “The cities have come a long way. They have worked very hard to find pollution.”
Problems not new
The Carlsbad Watershed's problems are not new. The federal government listed the lagoons as polluted as early as 1992, Chan said.
In the 1990s, the water-quality board issued municipal storm water permits that require pollution-reducing measures.
In response, Encinitas, for instance, built an ultraviolet bacteria-killing system at
In
In the Carlsbad Watershed group's January report, the cities decided to step up inspection of restaurants and nurseries that are believed to release bacteria and/or sediment and nutrients that encourage algae growth.
“Improvement is happening, but it cannot happen overnight,” said Mo Lahsaie,
And the Total Maximum Daily Load study comes at a cost not welcomed by the cities. Some city officials say they already have trouble meeting municipal needs and are deferring capital improvement projects to maintain a balanced budget. They say they are hard pressed to find money for the study.
In Encinitas, which will pay $92,000 over the next two years for its share of the study, Mayor James Bond blamed the federal and state governments for requiring expensive work but not funding it.
“(Cleaning up is) the right thing to do, but to tell people to do it without funding is not the right thing to do,” Bond said.
Using reserve funds
In
“The reserve fund is there for other emergencies. But there's no way we could not respond to it. If we don't do it, there will be fines.”
In
“It is increasingly becoming a burden,” Pfeiler said. “You are trying to pay for infrastructure and get a return on it, and you are not sure what kind of return you get. I just find it frustrating because we don't participate in what the goals should be.”
Eric Stein, principal scientist for the Southern California Coastal Waters Research Partnership, a joint powers authority funded by regulatory agencies and municipalities, said cities suddenly find themselves facing a lot of cleanup and monitoring work because, historically, regulators have focused on the cleanliness of water that came out of storm water pipes.
It was not until the 1990s that they began focusing on water running off of individual properties.
“There is still a lot of work to do, much harder problems to solve,” Stein said. #
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/northcounty/20070819-9999-1mc19lagoons.html
Researchers, activists urge faster pace in effort to save
By Margot Roosevelt, staff writer
The effort to restore
A report by UC Davis scientists found that conditions at the nation's second-deepest lake have changed significantly in recent years. The 45-page report -- a summary of tens of thousands of observations of water conditions and aquatic life collected since the 1960s, along with a century of meteorological data -- shows that days and nights are warmer, rain is replacing snow, and lake water temperatures are rising, setting a record in July 2006 of 78 degrees. Invasive species are multiplying.
"The lake's ecosystem is at a point where it is changing rapidly," said Geoff Schladow, director of the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center. "We can't stop climate change, but we can account for it. Business as usual won't bring us to where we need to be."
In the last decade, the environmental restoration was focused on regaining Tahoe's dazzling clarity, which had declined from an average depth of 102 feet to a low of 64 feet in 1997. A coalition of state, local, federal and private agencies has restored wetlands, reconstructed roads, built storm drainage systems, restricted building and encouraged public transportation in an effort to stem the erosion and pollution that dirtied the lake's cobalt-blue water.
But UC Davis' "Tahoe: State of the Lake Report 2007" takes a broader view of the region's problems -- documenting the manifold effects of global warming, which threaten to wipe out much of the progress of the last decade. Last year, Tahoe's clarity declined by 4.6 feet, to an average depth of 67.7 feet. The backsliding was due to a rainy year, which washed more sediment than usual into the lake.
But the increase in rain is no accident. In 1911, more than half of the region's precipitation was in the form of snow. Today it is only 34% -- the result of warmer temperatures. Last year, more than 48 inches of rain fell around the lake -- an 84% increase over the annual average from 2001 to 2005.
The dearth of snow has been a major concern for the area's ski industry, just as the turbidity of the lake water is a factor in summer tourism.
Days and nights in the Tahoe region are warmer. Days with temperatures below freezing have declined from 79 in 1911 to 52 now. Night temperatures have risen more than 4 degrees in the same period.
"Climate change poses a new kind of threat to
Nason estimated it would cost between $2 billion and $3 billion over the next decade to stabilize the lake.
More than 1,000 acres of wetlands should be restored to serve as a filter for sediment and pollutants before they wash into the lake, Nason said. Of the 1,400 parcels of land around the lake that remain undeveloped, as many as possible should be purchased and conserved as open space, she added.
Schladow, the study's lead author, said urgent measures should be taken to eradicate invasive species such as the Eurasian water milfoil, a plant that roots in the lake's shallows and can grow 4 feet tall, as well as such warm-water fish as carp and bass that are gobbling up native trout.
As yet, the nonnative species are growing in marinas, but "in five years, they could be all over the lake," Schladow said. "If we don't act soon, the task will be much more expensive." #
10 years later -- Tahoe worse; Clinton and others laud protection efforts, sound a warning at annual summit
Sacramento
By Todd Milbourn, staff writer
Construction of new houses is sending more runoff into the lake. Rising lake temperatures, attributable to global warming, may be threatening its native fish. And the threat of fires -- like the
Still,
Since the inaugural Tahoe Forum a decade ago, government agencies and the private sector have spent, or pledged, nearly $1.1 billion for various restoration projects in the Tahoe basin, from new roads that better capture runoff to more scientific research.
"We owe the world the preservation of Lake Tahoe,"
Held at
Devastation caused by the
Sparked by embers of an illegal campfire and propelled by dry branches and shrubs on the forest floor, the
On Friday, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne announced that $45 million in federal money has been approved for clearing forest debris and restoring wildlife habitat around
Feinstein said there's little question about the biggest challenge facing the lake.
"The risk of another conflagration is real and immediate," the senator said, referring to flammable debris -- fallen trees and branches -- she said remains on the forest floor.
Friday's summit comes on the heels of a report by researchers at UC Davis that found Tahoe's famously clear water is getting murkier.
When Mark Twain visited
In 1968,
The UC Davis report also found global warming is beginning to alter the lake's ecology. Nighttime lows in 2006 were on average four degrees warmer than in 1911. Such changes, the report said, have caused certain algae to bloom earlier and led to an increase in
"The fundamental fact is this: Tahoe represents the intersection of the two great environmental challenges we face today -- climate change and resource depletion,"
Since the first forum, the $1.1 billion in funding for restoration projects has come from an array of sources: $293 million from the federal government; $446 million from
The California Department of Transportation led one of the largest projects, a $213 million retrofitting of Tahoe roads so that they better capture runoff that can cloud the lake.
Ten years ago, research at Tahoe was spread among dozens of groups and agencies. After the forum began, researchers started collaborating more often, said Glenn Miller, a professor of natural resources at
"That is one of the great legacies," Miller said.
Still, the Tahoe basin remains vulnerable to damage from development and rising temperatures,
The only way those challenges could be met, he said, is with a sustained coalition of public and private agencies and citizens.
"This is how it's supposed to work,"
http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/332008.html
Contra Costa Times – 8/18/07
By Mike Taugher, staff writer
Speaking to a crowd of about 1,000, the
"This is the method
The 10th annual Tahoe forum marked an unofficial end to the first chapter in the massive attempt to reverse environmental degradation at the lake, including what was once feared to be an irreversible decline in its clarity, which began with the 1997 presidential summit.
Half of the $1.1 billion spent since 1997 has gone to projects meant to protect water quality, with other money going to restoring forest health, increasing public access and recreation, improving transportation and other projects.
A plan for the next chapter is being developed among 50 state, federal and local agencies, and a cost estimate is expected next year, Tahoe regulators said.
"The first 10 years was just the down payment. We're going to need a sustained commitment to meet our goals," California Tahoe Conservancy Director Patrick Wright said in an interview.
Though speakers called the environmental improvement program a good start, this summer's
"Not enough has been done to reduce that threat," Feinstein said. "The risk of another major conflagration is real, ladies and gentlemen, and it is immediate."
She called on Tahoe regulators to streamline their environmental approval process for forest thinning projects.
The threat of fire become clearer in the last decade, as have the implications of a changing climate. Feinstein said the fire threat is compounded by global warming.
Two days before the Tahoe forum,
While half of the precipitation at the lake used to be snow, now only a third is, and the rest is rain.
In addition to Clinton and Feinstein, the forum included speeches by Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of
Since 1968, when scientists began measuring the lake's clarity by lowering white disks and recording when they disappeared, the lake has been losing on average about a foot of clarity a year. In 1968 the disk could be seen 102 feet, or 10 stories, beneath the surface.
By the time
Though the trend is clear, scientists say year-to-year comparisons are difficult because so much of the annual variation depends on the amount of rain and snow. More precipitation means more runoff, which means more nutrients and sediment get into the lake to cloud it. Last year lake clarity was measured at 68 feet.
One of the most encouraging recent findings from Tahoe researchers is a computer model that appears to show that reversing the decline in clarity is not as hopeless as once thought.
In this high mountain lake filled with 37 trillion gallons of water — and only the Truckee River draining it — a drop of water that flows into the lake is expected to remain there for about 700 years.
But researchers determined that if the amount of nitrogen, phosphorous and fine sediment that flow into the lake could be cut 35 percent, lake clarity could be restored to 100 feet in about 20 years.
Still, making that cut won't be easy because much of the work will involve reducing the amount of fine sediment that runs off Tahoe's urban areas. That means expensive treatment of storm water and measures to control driving, Tahoe Regional Planning Agency spokeswoman Julie Regan said.
"I think our program has been a success, but what's clear from the recent science is we still have a long way to go to turn around the declining trend in lake clarity," Regan said.
"You have to ask what would have happened if we hadn't done this? Would we be past the point of no return? It's hard to say.
We feel like we've made a difference." #
http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/ci_6657459
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