A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
September 25, 2007
2. Supply
Sonoma on track to meet water conservation target - Associated Press
WINTER WEATHER:
Trends point to dry winter - San Jose Mercury News
WELL DRILLING:
Wells for what? -
TEST WELLS DRILLED:
Irrigation district sued over test wells - Chico Enterprise Record
Associated Press – 9/24/07
The Sonoma County Water Agency has drawn about 20 percent less water from the river since July 1 than it did in the same period in years past, state water officials said.
The state Water Resources Control Board had ordered the county to cut back 15 percent of its water use. The conservation order runs through the end of October.
To cooperate with the effort, the county Water Agency had asked the cities and districts it serves to implement conservation measures.
The request got results, said Pam Jeane, the deputy chief of operations with the county agency.
The cities and districts "are doing their part," Jeane said. "They are taking it seriously, they have ramped up things like looking for water waste on the conservation side, they are using local sources if they can, they have really stepped up." #
WINTER WEATHER:
Trends point to dry winter
By Julie Sevrens Lyons, staff writer
After last year's bone-dry winter, it wouldn't be surprising if many
They'd better keep dancing.
Using one of the best scientific crystal balls available, weather experts say a moderate La Niña is developing. That's a weather system typically associated with minimal rain in the Southwest and above-average precipitation in the
La Niña can be a mixed bag in the Bay Area, but has meant below-average rainfall totals more often than not.
National drought experts - who say every part of
If
"It's a little early to panic, but people ought to be thinking about it. We certainly are," said Bill Kocher, director of the Santa Cruz City Water Department, which in May restricted hours for watering lawns.
"It could turn out to be marvelous or it could turn out to be absolutely horrendous," he said. "We're planning for horrendous, but we're hoping for marvelous."
But La Niña patterns can be unpredictable, meteorologists say. And while
"We really don't know," said Maury Roos, chief hydrologist for
La Niña - the word means "little girl" in Spanish - occurs when the ocean water is cooler than normal in the tropical Pacific, impeding the formation of clouds and tropical thunderstorms. Its impact is greatest close to the equator.
During the last true La Niña, in 2000-2001, the Bay Area saw less rainfall than usual. But two years earlier another La Niña left the region wetter than normal. The reverse was true for
Jan Null, an adjunct professor of meteorology at
Save for a few holdout agencies such as the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in
La Niña isn't the only unpredictable weather system.
Last winter, El Niño - often associated with torrential rain - was in play, and everyone knows how that turned out.
Even though La Niña conditions are developing and could bring extra rain to some places, it doesn't look so promising in
If that occurs, the
And don't let the Bay Area's recent rainfall fool you. The rainfall was not extraordinary for the month of September - and "it's not a harbinger of things to come," Null said. "There is no statistical correlation between September and October rain and the rest of the season."
Overall, the state's water supply is still good.
"That's down, although I wouldn't consider that drought level," said hydrologist Roos. "But if we get another dry winter, it certainly will be."
The state's water picture became even more complicated earlier this month when a federal judge decided to protect a tiny endangered fish by reducing the amount of water that can be pumped from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. The waterway provides drinking water to 25 million Californians.
Experts at the drought mitigation center are hopeful that La Niña conditions will bring rain to some areas that could really use it, including parts of
And that has many water managers nervous.
Said David Nahai, president of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power Commission: "It's a very worrisome picture." #
http://www.mercurynews.com/healthandscience/ci_6991737
WELL DRILLING:
Wells for what?
A plan supposedly designed to research the properties of the Lower Tuscan Aquifer is actually a scheme to move
BEC’s lawsuit, filed Sept. 10, charges that GCID is using public money to expand its role in water marketing, with the ultimate goal of integrating northstate groundwater into the state water supply, and therefore must do an environmental-impact report.
The GCID has signed on to the Sacramento Valley Integrated Water Management Plan, which posits that the best way to manage groundwater is first to understand it, which can be done only by extracting it and seeing how it replenishes itself. #
http://www.newsreview.com/chico/Content?oid=540060
TEST WELLS DRILLED:
Irrigation district sued over test wells
The Butte Environmental Council has legally challenged a Glenn Colusa Irrigation District's project to install wells in Glenn,
According to a press release from BEC, the environmental organization does not believe the project should be exempt from environmental review.
GCID has stated a more further environmental review would not be required until the wells are used for groundwater production, rather than testing of the aquifer.
"GCID chose to skirt the hard analysis required by CEQA by trying to assert that it is only seeking information from a research project, completely obfuscating its focus on water exports as noted in numerous documents," BEC executive director Barbara Vlamis stated in the press release. #
http://www.chicoer.com/ci_6890704?IADID=Search-www.chicoer.com-www.chicoer.com
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