A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
October 5, 2007
2. Supply
WATER CONSERVATION:
Fight at the faucet; County water agencies are initiating aggressive campaigns for water conservation to battle 'A Crisis We Can't Ignore' -
NEW WATER YEAR:
Happy new water year! -
DEVELOPMENT ISSUES:
Water concerns could torpedo planned tract - Antelope Valley Press
WATER CONSERVATION:
Fight at the faucet; County water agencies are initiating aggressive campaigns for water conservation to battle 'A Crisis We Can't Ignore'
By Zeke Barlow, staff writer
Mike Hollebrands' stress level goes up when water levels go down.
And lately, the general manager of the Meiners Oaks County Water District has a high stress level.
"We are beyond concerned," Hollebrands said of the wells in his district, which are about 95 percent empty and rely on rain.
In response to the prospect of two dry years in a row, Hollebrands and other
Across the county and Southern
The U.S. Drought Monitor says
"It's important to start tightening our belts now and start dealing with the situation as early on as we can," said Frank Royer, general manager of the Camrosa Water District, which delivers water to parts of southern
In the coming months, Royer's agency is going to issue a "20-gallon challenge" to encourage every person to save that much water every day. Statewide, Californians use about 200 gallons of water a day per person.
Mailers, notices going out
A campaign by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California encourages people to turn off the faucet when brushing their teeth, not to water plants during the hottest times of day, and use less water outside. More than half of residential water is used on landscaping. Residents can expect to see mailers, commercials and notices in their bills urging water conservation.
Metropolitan has a strong interest in lowering water consumption. A judge's ruling in August to protect endangered smelt in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta might reduce the water supply by as much as a third for Metropolitan customers. Water pumps in the delta inadvertently capture the smelt, which environmentalists say are on the verge of extinction.
The city of
Royer said he is facing two droughts — a natural one and one imposed by the judge.
Audits are planned
Don Kendall, general manager of the Calleguas Municipal Water District, said his agency and those it sells water to are starting to look at conservation. They hope to get grant money to do audits of larger water users such as schools and parks, where use can be curbed relatively easily.
"We are always thinking several years in the future, and this is one of those times where we have to,"
Since the last drought in the late 1980s and early '90s, much has been done to improve water storage for lean times, including a massive facility that holds reserves of state water near Moorpark, he said.
But things are different in
Hollebrands and Matt Bryant, general manager of the Ventura River County Water District, worry that if this winter is terribly dry, they will have to buy supplemental water from the Casitas Municipal Water District, which will drive up water rates and worsen problems for Casitas.
When other agencies buy water during dry times,
"We know our long-term water supply is on the cusp of not being able to meet demand if we are not proactive in engaging our customers in water conservation," Merckling said.
The plan to have residents curtail use by 10 percent, if successful, will give them some wiggle room. A few large storms could alleviate all problems.
The question is whether county residents will do their part by taking shorter showers and watering lawns less.
"Largely speaking, the people in
"When they turn on the tap, water comes out, and they have never given a thought to where that water comes from."
Bryant said consumers in his district have curbed use by 7.5 percent for the month of September when compared with 2004. But he still sees plenty of lawns and landscaping that require gallons upon gallons of water. He especially questions homeowners associations that require a certain amount of grass, which is destined to drive up water use.
In
Bill Patzert, a Jet Propulsion Laboratory climatologist who predicts a dry winter, said people don't need to take drastic measures to conserve water. They just need to be smarter about it.
"Down the road, we are not going to necessarily ration water," he said. "We are going to have to use it more rationally." #
http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2007/oct/05/fight-at-the-faucet-county-water-agencies-are-to/
NEW WATER YEAR:
Happy new water year!
It’s a sort of New Year’s for
Statewide rain and snowfall during the just-concluded water year totaled less than two-thirds of average, according to the state Department of Water Resources.
The
Precipitation in Sacramento River Basin the source of much of California's water supply, was about 62 percent of normal during water year 2007 compared with 150 percent of average the previous year.
In the
As a result, water supply conditions have been designated as dry in the
The northern Sierra snowpack was measured at 40 percent of normal on April 1, 2007, which was the lowest since 1988. Early melting reduced the snowpack to only 25 percent of average by May 1.
Department of Water Resources hydrologists and meteorologists measure precipitation (the combination of rain and snow) and runoff in the Northern Sierra and other key watersheds and produce runoff forecasts.
The northern Sierra and southern Cascades are of particular importance because that's where most of the state's water supply accumulates. Measurements are taken in the watersheds of the major rivers, including the
The data that is gathered is evaluated to forecast water supply for the spring and summer, the heaviest months of water use by farms and homes.
Snowmelt, which normally continues through June, had virtually ended by June 1 this year. Overall precipitation for the state ended at 60 percent to 65 percent of average. The dry year may impact water deliveries further but as of now, State Water Project Contractors are scheduled to receive 60 percent of requested deliveries.
National Weather Service long-range forecasts indicate a somewhat above average chance of wetter than normal precipitation in Northern California through the coming fall and winter months, but show a good chance that dry conditions will persist in
As of August 2007, statewide water storage was at 20.4 million acre feet (MAF), which is about 84% of average for that date. Last year, storage was at 29.2 MAF at the end of August.
http://www.centralvalleybusinesstimes.com/stories/001/?ID=6533
DEVELOPMENT ISSUES:
Water concerns could torpedo planned tract
By James Rufus Koren, staff writer
LOS ANGELES - As state leaders clamor to find solutions to water pumping problems in the Sacramento River Delta,
The amount of water from the California Aqueduct that will be available to water purveyors across the state - including the Antelope Valley-East Kern Water Agency, which supplies Northern California water to Antelope Valley water agencies and farmers - is in question because of a federal judge's ruling to protect the Delta smelt, an endangered fish species hurt by water pumps at the aqueduct's headwaters.
"Based on the fact that there has been disruption to the State Water Project … the water project contractors don't know how much water they're going to get," said Melinda Barrett, a spokeswoman for the county waterworks districts. "They may be affected by as much as 30%."
Formal approval of the proposed 650-home tract near
She also said if the waterworks district were asked to issue a will-serve letter to the project - that is, a letter saying the district will provide water - it likely wouldn't be able to do so.
"My assumption is that we would not (issue a letter)," Barrett said, adding that the project is still in its very earliest stages.
Brian Ludicke,
Ludicke said the developer filed a General Plan amendment request about three years ago and the new county water report will be added to documents in the project's environmental impact report.
The environmental impact report has not been released yet, and Ludicke said the earliest the city could make a decision about the General Plan amendment would be sometime in early 2008.
Ludicke also said the approval of the General Plan amendment and the approval of the project itself are two different processes - that is, approving the amendment would not be an implicit or explicit approval of the project.
"It takes quite a while from tentative tract-map approval to issuing will-serve letters," Barrett said. "It could be years from this point."
Barrett said the governor's office and numerous state and local agencies are working through State Water Project issues, and all parties should have a better understanding of the situation by the beginning of 2008.
"The governor is working on many projects and proposals in the Delta," she said. "We should hear by the beginning of next year from most of the state water contractors about how much water they can supply."
A rainy autumn and the completion of several water storage projects in the
"We're trying to increase the stability of the water supply so we can ride out things like this or an earthquake," she said.
Barrett also said the uncertainty that colored the report on the
http://www.avpress.com/n/03/1003_s3.hts
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