[Water_news] 3. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: WATERSHEDS - 8/28/07

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment

 

August 28, 2007

 

3. Watersheds

 

SALTON SEA:

$47 million for Salton Sea stalls as deadline looms - Imperial Valley Press

 

ELKHORN SLOUGH:

PROTECTED AREA GROWS; Elkhorn Slough: 144 acres to be added to reserve - Monterey Herald

 

 

SALTON SEA:

$47 million for Salton Sea stalls as deadline looms

Imperial Valley Press – 8/28/07

By Jonathan Athens, staff writer

 

Time is quickly running out for California lawmakers to decide on a bill that would provide $47 million to help pay for early start restoration projects for the decaying Salton Sea.

State lawmakers on Friday will come to the end of this legislative session and they will not reconvene until January.

Last week the Senate Appropriations Committee decided to put Sen. Denise Ducheny’s Senate Bill 187 in “suspension” — a move that one major political player said was “disappointing.”

“I hear the clock ticking louder every day,” Salton Sea Authority Executive Director Rick Daniels said.

 

 

Daniels was in Sacramento on Monday to lobby lawmakers to get Ducheny’s bill back onto the floor and get it passed. If not, then it might be another 12 months before lawmakers approve it and that could further delay an already delayed effort to restore the sea.

Although Ducheny’s bill comes with a hefty price tag, the estimated cost to fully restore the sea is $8.9 billion and would take 75 years to fully implement.

And those figures are raising some concerns.

“There are a lot of people concerned about the big expenditures,” Daniels said.

Among stakeholders in Imperial and Riverside counties, where the sea is located, restoration is a priority but that’s not the commonly held view in other California counties, he said.

“Everywhere else it seems to be seen as just another big expenditure,” he said.

Daniels said this latest legislative setback is even more pressing because water transfer agreements that shift water to San Diego will go into effect in 2017.

Lawmakers will have to come to a decision soon because they know if a dam is not built in time, it could spell the beginning of the end of the sea, he said.

Scientists have predicted the Salton Sea will start evaporating in eight years.

The Salton Sea is the largest land-locked body of water in the state. During the 1950s, it was a vacation hot spot but it has been decaying for decades due to rising salinity rates from agriculture water run off. #

http://www.ivpressonline.com/articles/2007/08/28/news/news03.txt

 

 

ELKHORN SLOUGH:

PROTECTED AREA GROWS; Elkhorn Slough: 144 acres to be added to reserve

Monterey Herald – 8/28/07

By Kevin Howe, staff writer

 

Elkhorn Slough Ecological Reserve in Moss Landing is about to grow by 144 acres.

 

The California Wildlife Conservation Board has approved two grants totaling $2.7 million to purchase seven parcels that will be added to the Elkhorn Reserve area.

 

The board last week approved acceptance of almost $1.5 million from a Coastal and Estuarine Land Conservation Program matching grant administered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to buy four parcels.

 

The grant requires a 50 percent match of state funds and the board approved allocation of $1.115 million from the Proposition 17 Habitat Conservation Fund to close escrow on the properties.

 

At its meeting Thursday, the board approved allocation of more than $1.5 million from the Proposition 40 California Clean Water, Clean Air, Safe Neighborhood Parks and Coastal Protection Fund for purchase of three scattered parcels, including 24 acres of tidal wetlands, riparian riverbank habitat, grassland and oak woodlands near Moss Landing, 24 acres near Pajaro and 19 acres within Pajaro of grassland and oak woodland for inclusion in the reserve.

 

Escrow is expected to close by the end of October, said John Donnelly, executive director of the Wildlife Conservation Board.

 

He said the conservation board will seek reimbursement of the Proposition 17 funds from NOAA through a federal Coastal and Estuarine Land Conservation Program grant.

 

The acquisitions are the latest for the slough by the board, which approved its first acquisition in 1979.

 

Elkhorn is home to sea otters, harbor seals, more than 340 species of birds, 100 species of fish and many varieties of plants.

 

Endangered species that live in the slough include the snowy plover, California red-legged frog, tiger salamander and tidewater goby.

 

Mark Silverstein, director of the Elkhorn Slough Foundation, a nonprofit organization that works with the Elkhorn National Estuarine Research Reserve on conservation and preservation issues, said the funding "is contributing to the overall effort to conserve and restore Elkhorn Slough and the watershed that's been going on for more than 30 years."

 

These land acquisitions, he said, follow the Elkhorn Slough Watershed Conservation Plan that was adopted in 1999 by the state Coastal Conservancy and Coastal Commission. The criteria for acquiring them, Silverstein added, were their current significance in supporting fish and wildlife or other key natural resources critical to the long-term health of the slough.

 

He noted that all acquisitions have been from voluntary sellers.

 

"We only work with willing sellers," Silverstein said. "There has never been a taking of property in Elkhorn."

 

The Elkhorn reserve is administered by the state Department of Fish and Game in partnership with NOAA, and state Fish and Game director Ryan Broddrick cited the joint state and federal partnership as particularly significant following approval of the grants by the Wildlife Conservation Board.  #

http://www.montereyherald.com/ci_6738074?nclick_check=1

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