Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
September 18, 2007
5. Agencies, Programs, People
SPECIAL SESSION:
All about water; California legislators are looking for solutions to supply problems after drought, Delta court ruling - Sacramento Bee
Editorial: A shot at fixing state's water woes -
WATER POLICY:
Guest Opinion: Water ruling forces sanity on
ACWA WATER CAMPAIGN:
Statewide water crisis campaign launched; Water districts unite to convince Californians their supply is in jeopardy as the Legislature is in a special session to discuss water policy - Los Angeles Times
Water crisis subject of television ads - North County Times
Coalition of water agencies launches television ad campaign - KSBY Channel 6 (
ALL
Editorial: Don’t stall All-American project -
SPECIAL SESSION:
All about water; California
Sacramento
By Matt Weiser, staff writer
Their regular session concluded for the year, state lawmakers continue to discuss water and health issues in a pair of special sessions. Here's a primer on the water debate.
Q: Why is the Legislature holding a special session on water issues?
A: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called the special session in response to growing concern about a water crisis in
Q: How does the special session work?
A: Designating a special session requires lawmakers to focus on the issue even though their regular legislative session has adjourned. It suspends some legislative rules and allows measures approved with a majority vote to take effect 90 days after the session closes.
Q: What is the governor proposing?
A: Schwarzenegger has backed a $5.9 billion water bond for new dams, a Delta canal and conservation programs. The Republican governor was focused on one dam near
Q: What is the Democratic proposal?
A: Senate leader Don Perata has proposed a $5.4 billion general obligation bond for water projects. Of this amount, $2 billion is for "water supply reliability" projects, which include new dams, groundwater storage and cleanup, conservation and desalination. Projects would be funded competitively based on their cost-effectiveness, time to build and feasibility. It requires a cost share of at least 50 percent from a local entity. In short, it allows new dams, but does not specify certain projects. The bond also allocates $2.4 billion to restore the Delta and protect water supply. Of this amount, $1 billion could be spent on a canal, but there's no specific earmark for that project. Perata believes a deal on a bond could be reached this week. But Democratic leaders in the Assembly disagree. They have not released their own proposal yet, but think it will be possible to reach a deal in time to get a proposition on the Feb. 5 ballot.
Q: Does
A: Many water experts say that, in the near term, new ways to move water are more important than new dams. That's why some water agencies are now building pipelines and canals between themselves to share existing supplies. New dams are frightfully expensive and could take a decade or more to build, partly because the "good" dam sites are already taken. Conservation and groundwater cleanup can deliver "new" water supplies faster and cheaper. Another shortcoming: The two dams in Schwarzenegger's plan won't generate as much new water as their capacity suggests. They could store about 3 million acre-feet, but would yield only around 500,000 acre-feet of new supply, because the rest already belongs to someone else. But new reservoirs could capture flood flows otherwise considered surplus. They could also ease some strain on existing reservoirs, allowing them to better serve environmental needs. If these benefits surpass the environmental cost of building the dams themselves, they'll remain in the mix.
Q: What about a Delta canal?
A: There seems to be agreement among policymakers and scientists that the future offers two choices: Build some kind of canal, or be prepared to use less Delta water. And maybe both. Wildlife cannot withstand the water supply pressure that has been placed on the Delta. That was the essence of the Aug. 31 court ruling. Also, fresh water in the Delta isn't safe from a disaster.
Q: Has anybody else studied these proposals?
A: The specific dam proposals have received only preliminary study. The same can be said for the canal proposals. But several in-depth Delta studies are in the works. The governor appointed a Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force to examine numerous solutions to the Delta's problems. Its report is expected by the end of November. The Department of Water Resources is preparing a Delta risk management strategy, expected in December. Both are likely to include some suggestions from a February report by the Public Policy Institute of California. Finally, a habitat conservation plan for the Delta is due next year that will outline how to protect the environment amid pressure from water exports, agriculture and urbanization.
Q: What do scientists think?
A: Scientists have recently reported, in short, that they have little hard information about how a canal will affect the Delta, and that more research is needed. Much depends on where a canal is built and how it's operated. The Delta is a very complex ecosystem and one of the most highly altered estuaries in the world. Amid the rush to a solution, scientists are urging officials to take small steps, study those steps intensively as they are rolled out, then be prepared to reverse course quickly if they prove harmful.
Q: How does all this affect me?
A: In the short term, many Californians could face water rationing and bigger water bills as soon as December in response to the court ruling. If we get another dry winter, rationing could be worse. Long term, it's likely Californians will have to get used to living with less water. That could mean different landscaping, new water-use habits, and new plumbing and appliance standards. Also, any bond measure is likely to include a major local cost share. This may mean bigger water bills for customers of any water agency that taps into the bond funds to build a big water project. #
http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/384703.html
Editorial: A shot at fixing state's water woes
GOV. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who seems to specialize in special sessions of the Legislature, has called another one to deal with health-care reform and to avert a water crisis in the state.
In the past, he has called special sessions to deal with the state budget, workers' compensation, pensions, redistricting and prisons, among other things. Some, like workers' comp, worked; others, like redistricting and prisons, didn't.
Now, there is optimism that can't rise above cautious about the Legislature's and governor's chances of fixing health care and securing the water supply.
On the water side, we'd like to see everything put on the table, including the long-taboo
That was the plan championed by local state Sen. Ruben Ayala 25 years ago that would have diverted some of the water from the Sacramento River into the California Aqueduct before it reached the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
The Delta's ecology has grown only more fragile since voters defeated that plan a quarter-century ago. This month a judge imposed tough restrictions that could severely cut back
But there are many other threats to the Delta and the water that passes through it. Chief among them are the 19th-century earthen levees that hold back saltwater from the
Legislators must consider everything from the levees to land-use decisions that threaten the state's water supplies in this special session. Part of that consideration should be the possibility of building the
WATER POLICY:
Guest Opinion: Water ruling forces sanity on
Redding Record Searchlight – 9/18/07
By Thomas Elias, political columnist
The historic delta smelt decision that has many
The ruling will force huge pumps at the south end of the delta formed by the
That's from December to June. By coincidence, that's also the wettest season of the year, the time when the pumps push the major share of their yearly take of water south to the huge San Luis Reservoir west of Los Banos and other points south and west. San Luis now is barely one-third filled and appears likely to stay well below capacity for years to come.
Spawning season is also the time when the rivers and the delta are most likely to cause massive flood damage. The ruling was made in the hope that fewer smelt will be sucked into the pumps and killed. But it will unquestionably cause untold millions of gallons of usable fresh water to run out to the
The widespread panic this spurs comes because water from the delta serves 400 water agencies and even more cities and counties. There has been some snickering over all this in Northern California because of a sense that
Wrong. If there's mandatory rationing in Southern California cities and counties, the same will be true for all of
And if farmers in the Central Valley are forced to fallow fields, everyone in
Which is why U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a prime opponent in the early 1980s of the
There is plenty the state can do to ensure it has copious water for many years to come without any environmental depredation.
But doing any of it will require a return to sanity, stepping away from some crazy prejudices and practices of the recent past.
Item No. 1 has got to be constructing something like the
Item No. 2 will have to be the construction of new reservoirs to handle the presumably increased water supply. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed such new storage, a change from anti-reservoir sentiments that have prevailed in
Item No. 3 must be inclusion of strong protections for the currently untapped rivers of
Her irrational opposition to the old canal plan, which did include strong protection for wild rivers, has thus been reversed. Time will soon tell how much company she has.
Item No. 4 should be a return to fiscal sanity, a move away from the constant issuing of bonds that hamstring state budget writers because so much revenue goes to interest payments. Any canal and reservoir project will take years to build. Start financing it now out of the state's general fund, with legislators committing themselves to allocating a set amount each year for that purpose, and there would be no need for bonds.
It's been both laziness and craziness that put the state into a position where it can possibly be crippled by the draconian ruling of U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger. For 25 years, no one has wanted to touch the
It's past time for all this idiocy to end and sane planning for the state's future to begin. If Wanger's decision proves to be the necessary spur driving such change, then it may yet turn out to be constructive. #
http://www.redding.com/news/2007/sep/18/water-ruling-forces-sanity-on-california/
ACWA WATER CAMPAIGN:
Statewide water crisis campaign launched; Water districts unite to convince Californians their supply is in jeopardy as the Legislature is in a special session to discuss water policy
Associated Press
The campaign by the Assn. of California Water Agencies, estimated to cost between $7 million and $9 million, will include radio and television commercials in
The group supports building more dams, and its campaign comes as the Legislature is in a special session to consider a wide-ranging water policy for the state. Officials with the association said the timing of the campaign is a coincidence.
"Educating the public about the crisis in our water system is a top priority for water agencies," Timothy Quinn, executive director of the association, said in a statement.
Legislative leaders and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger are expected to meet over the next several weeks to discuss a potential multibillion-dollar water plan that could include new dams, canals and underground storage.
Low snowfall in the Sierra this year, thinner snowpacks predicted because of global warming and a federal judge's order to drastically reduce water deliveries from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta have added urgency to the debate.
Schwarzenegger and Sen. President Pro Tem Don Perata (D-Oakland) have offered competing bond proposals that would fund dams in very different ways. Schwarzenegger wants to set aside money exclusively for two state dams, while Perata wants to give communities the option to build dams if they can find local funding.
The association's 30-second commercial calls insufficient water storage one of the state's problems. The campaign also is to include radio and newspaper ads, spokeswoman Jennifer Persike said.
The association represents nearly all the state's water agencies, including the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California in
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-water18sep18,1,1797052.story
Water crisis subject of television ads
By Gig Conaughton, staff writer
The 30-second advertisements, featuring pictures of trickling streams, vast reservoirs, parched earth, failed levees and flooded communities started Monday -- less than three weeks after a court ruling that could significantly cut
Tim Quinn, executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies, the lobbying group behind the eight-week, $6 million to $9 million ad campaign, said the advertisements purposely did not advocate for any solution.
But he said they're still aimed at
"If the voters are asked to make decisions," Quinn said, "we want them to know about the problems."
The biggest problem -- even larger than an eight-year drought on the Colorado River, low snow packs in Northern California, and a bad single-year drought in Southern California -- has been a recent court ruling that prompted Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to convene the special legislative session.
On Aug. 31, a federal court judge said pumps in the Sacramento-San Joaquin bay delta would have to be cut back in 2008 to save an endangered fish, the delta smelt. The environmentally fragile bay-delta is the heart of the State Water Project that delivers Northern California rain fall and snowmelt to Central and
Officials from the Los Angeles-based Metropolitan Water District said the pumping cutbacks could slash
Metropolitan spokesman Dennis Wolcott said the agency -- which delivers drinking water to nearly 18 million Southern Californians in six counties, including
Quinn said Monday that polls suggest that
"Some polls I'm familiar with say that people are asked, 'Do you know where your water comes from?' And the answer is 'No,'" he said. "In general, when the public is informed, they care. But the vast majority do not know that our water supplies are facing problems."
Association spokeswoman Jennifer Persike said the association had received roughly $6 million in pledges for financial support from the 450-plus agencies it represents across the state, but hoped to increase that to $9 million.
Quinn said the commercials are expected to run enough times in every major market in the state that every resident in those areas would see them at least eight to 10 times.
"It's not saturation, but it's enough to make sure that people are aware," he said.
The association itself is lobbying state legislators behind the scenes for potential solutions, including building more dams, reservoirs and pipelines throughout the state. #
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/09/18/news/top_stories/1_4_409_18_07.txt
Coalition of water agencies launches television ad campaign
KSBY Channel 6 (
In a statewide television campaign kicked off yesterday, the Association of California Water Agencies is trying to spread the word that it supports building more dams because there is not enough water storage in
Low snowfall in the Sierra this year, thinner snowpacks predicted in the future because of global warming and a federal judge's order to drastically reduce water deliveries from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta are all combining to add to concerns over the water supply.
The Association of California Water Agencies represents nearly all the state's water agencies, including the Metropolitan Water District in
http://www.ksby.com/Global/story.asp?S=7090588
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Editorial: Don’t stall All-American project
The one thing the
After being stalled by lawsuits over water seepage to
The problem now is air-quality violations. Apparently, there is some concern over emissions caused by pump generators at the construction site. There is also that pesky dust that is kicked up by equipment on roads that are not being watered down enough.
The county and Imperial Irrigation District claim they want to get this problem cleared up quickly so it won’t affect the project. The IID said it does, of course, want the law followed.
We understand that, as we also want the law followed. Poor air quality in
But this strikes us as a bit futile at best. First, when you are doing construction work in the middle of the desert there will be some blowing dust no matter how much you water the ground. This is an arid environment and it will always be dusty. We all understand that because we live with it every day.
As far as the emissions go, the company should do the best it can to mitigate the problem, but let’s put this in perspective: We live across the border from a large city that is not exactly known for its clean air. And the foul air coming from
Let’s not let this become another in a long line of problems for this project. The work is under way and should not slow down.
We hope all sides work together to get his issue handled as quickly as possible. #
DWR's California Water News is distributed to California Department of Water Resources management and staff, for information purposes, by the DWR Public Affairs Office. For reader's services, including new subscriptions, temporary cancellations and address changes, please use the online page: http://listhost1.water.ca.gov/mailman/listinfo/water_news. DWR operates and maintains the State Water Project, provides dam safety and flood control and inspection services, assists local water districts in water management and water conservation planning, and plans for future statewide water needs. Inclusion of materials is not to be construed as an endorsement of any programs, projects, or viewpoints by the Department or the State of
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