[Water_news] 5. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: AGENCIES, PROGRAMS, PEOPLE - 9/21/07

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment

 

September 21, 2007

 

5. Agencies, Programs, People

 

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA LEVEE ISSUES:

Farmer, agency find accord on levee move - Marysville Appeal Democrat

 

Editorial: Water crisis looming - Contra Costa Times

 

PLACER COUNTY WATER AGENCY:

Editorial: Officials, customers have pooled efforts for water agency's 50 years of success - Auburn Journal

 

 

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA LEVEE ISSUES:

Farmer, agency find accord on levee move

Marysville Appeal Democrat – 9/21/07

By Andrea Koskey, staff writer

 

A tentative agreement has been reached between Three Rivers Levee Improvement Authority and orchard owner Jeanette Rice over the setback levee at her south Yuba County farm.

Instead of constructing a section of the levee through some of the most important crops on the Rice farm, TRLIA agreed to move the levee 45 feet to the west, preserving some of Rice’s most profitable peach trees.

“We are pleased,” Rice said. “We wanted the whole lot, but we know that can’t be done. We are being realistic. Compromise is good.”

The compromise must first be approved by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the state Department of Fish and Game.

“The state has asked us to be agriculture-friendly, and we hope they will take that in to consideration,” said TRLIA Executive Director Paul Brunner. “Hopefully, these entities will approve these slight adjustments.”

The original offer from the county was to buy six acres for $18,000 per acre, but Rice said she was not concerned with money. Instead, she wanted to keep farming.

In addition to the 45-foot move, at least 80 additional peach, nectarine and citrus trees will be removed and relocated to another area of the property.

“We will be able to remain in business,” the 56-year-old farmer said. “Eighty is better than nothing. It will take a little while for business to be re-established, but hopefully we will remain.”

Rice, owner of the 19-acre farm off Feather River Boulevard, was notified in February the county would need portions of her land for a setback levee six miles along the Feather River as part of the $230 million in levee improvements.

Brunner said the dispute with the Rice property did not hold up design and construction of the levee.

“We stayed true to what we said we would do before by staying on good soil,” Brunner said. “We are trying to work with the populous and bring this project to light.”

The project is currently out to bid. Brunner hopes award a bid by November, after adequate funding is secured. Construction will start near the Shanghai Bend area after the rainy season. #

http://www.appeal-democrat.com/news/levee_54320___article.html/rice_brunner.html

 

 

Editorial: Water crisis looming

Contra Costa Times – 9/20/07

 

FOR TOO LONG, California has been unwilling to develop a comprehensive, long-term water-resource plan, and to build the infrastructure necessary to provide a dependable source of water for the future.

 

Now the state is facing a huge challenge with a growing population, court-ordered reduction in water pumping, a threatened Delta environment, and the possibility of a drought. This is no time for delays and protracted political battles that lead to no results.

 

That is why Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is proposing a $9 billion bond measure to construct two new dams, expand the Los Vaqueros Reservoir, improve the Delta environment and pay for conservation. Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, has a less ambitious plan, but is willing to work with the governor. Perata, like Schwarzenegger, understands the urgency of the situation.

 

He said, "Now we have a gun muzzle at out temple; unless we take swift action for immediate relief, the court will effectively cut water as much as 60 percent to millions of California consumers and thousands of businesses."

 

The governor wants to spend $5.1 billion to build two dams, one at Sites Reservoir in Colusa County and another at Temperance Flat, a dam on the San Joaquin River east of Fresno. His plan also seeks $1.9 billion for Delta restoration and an unspecified amount to expand Los Vaqueros.

 

Republicans in the Legislature are not likely to endorse any plan that does not include the two dams. Democrats are wary of building dams, but could be persuaded to support the idea if agricultural and regional interests come up with more money to help pay for the projects.

 

Certainly, the large agribusinesses in the Central Valley and elsewhere, which use most of the state's water, should be willing to pay more of their share. They are the ones most likely to lose if water supplies are diminished by court order and drought.

 

Greater water conservation, particularly by agriculture and underground storage, should be included in any long-range water plan. But there is no escaping the need for new reservoirs, which can provide water for environmental purposes as well as farms and urban users.

 

Those who argue that urban water conservation and underground storage preclude the need for new reservoirs are dead wrong, unless agriculture, which uses more than 80 percent of California's water, is severely cut back.

 

The governor and Legislature are going to have to develop a long-term strategy for California's water use that addresses the needs of agriculture, business and a growing population. Equally important is environmental protection, with adequate flows of fresh water and stricter standards against pollution from farms.

 

California is facing a water crisis, which could provide the motivation for the state to quickly develop the outline of a comprehensive water plan. Then a bond measure could be placed on the ballot in 2008 to at least begin building reservoirs and restoring the Delta. #

http://www.contracostatimes.com/opinion/ci_6958133

 

 

PLACER COUNTY WATER AGENCY:

Editorial: Officials, customers have pooled efforts for water agency's 50 years of success

Auburn Journal – 9/21/07

 

Born in 1957 out of a need to protect and develop the county's water rights, the Placer County Water Agency has turned out to be a 50-year success story.

The agency has kept to its initial goal while expanding to meet the needs of a growing population, shifting environmental concerns and a changing business environment. It has introduced programs to save water and protect the watershed while moving toward taking over its multi-million-dollar Middle Fork Project.

It hasn't gone it alone, however. Like a river, it has many tributaries feeding into it, growing as it moves steadily downstream.

Last week's 50th anniversary commemoration was as much a tribute to all those community tributaries as it was to the agency itself.

The Auburn headquarters' meeting room was filled with community leaders past and present, environmental leaders, longtime and retired agency employees and current and past agency board members.

U.S. Rep. John Doolittle, R-Roseville, was there, flying in from Washington, D.C. for the anniversary of a water purveyor he's assisted in finding funding for on many fronts. Most notably, his work in the Capitol has secured funding for the agency's pump station and river restoration project at the Auburn dam site near Auburn. Agency Board Chairman Lowell Jarvis told the audience that the pump station project wouldn't have been possible without Doolittle and his staff.

 

Sen. Dave Cox, R-Fair Oaks, attended and provided a proclamation. It was state government that took the necessary steps on Sept. 11, 1957, to establish the new government agency. County supervisors were appointed ex-officio directors and would continue to fulfill that function through 1975, when the agency had its first independently elected board. Among the attendees at the commemoration were several former board members, including eastern Placer representative Bill Briner, who served as supervisor from 1961 to 1972.

 

Jarvis picked up a proclamation this week from the county Board of Supervisors commemorating the 50th anniversary. He noted that it would be hard to find better cooperation between two governments than the agency-county partnership. The two are currently involved as partners in a re-licensing effort with federal authorities on the Middle Fork Project, a series of power producing-dams and reservoirs in the Sierra.

There were plenty of customers mingling with the notables at the commemoration. They two have played a role over the years, from overwhelmingly approving a bond issue in the early 1960s to build the Middle Fork Project, to today's efforts to use water more efficiently in cooperation with agency programs.

The party's over now and the agency and its partners have already rolled up their sleeves on a number of fronts.

There are plenty of challenges ahead, starting with preserving a clean and reliable source of drinking water. But with a little help from its friends, the Placer County Water Agency is on course to get by swimmingly. #

http://www.auburnjournal.com/articles/2007/09/21/opinion/editorials/01edit21.txt?pg=2

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 California.