A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
October 12, 2007
2. Supply
Water agency urges cooperation;
BAY AREA WATER SUPPLY:
Water Conservation Urged In Bay Area Despite Rains - KPIX TV (Bay Area)
WATER RECYCLING:
Temecula change to save 107 billion gallons of water - Riverside Press Enterprise
Mendocino revives Eel River water plan; Piping spring flow from Dos Rios to reservoir could run afoul of Wild and Scenic Rivers Act - Santa Rosa Press Democrat
Editorial: Dry wells; Confusion grows in Barona's water dispute -
Water agency urges cooperation;
Residents, businesses, local governments and the state will have to cut
As federally protected fish in the Sacramento-San Joaquin river delta are chewed up by the thousands, a judge ordered limits on pumps there. The move is expected to cut water deliveries from
Jeff Kightlinger, general manager of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, said the situation isn't going to get better on its own, especially if the region adds an expected 7 million residents during the next two decades.
Lighter snowfall in the Sierras has made seven of the last 10 years among the driest on record, Kightlinger said. Though his agency has so far coped through efficiency and better storage capacity, he said, the region now must take more dramatic measures in conservation, efficiency and importing.
"We can't live in a world where we're short of water 70 percent of the time and still make our economy work," Kightlinger told several dozen civic and business leaders at The Diamond stadium complex in
For a venue where most breakfast meetings are for networking with local chamber of commerce members, the 7:30 a.m. confab drew an unusually large number of elected officials, some from as far away as
Kightlinger's warning Thursday came as the days tick down to a deadline for shoring up levees and pumps in the delta. State officials have called for borrowing billions of dollars for water infrastructure. Democrats and Republicans in
State Assemblyman Kevin Jeffries, R-Murrieta, said he expects any such bond vote to be pushed back until at least June unless legislative leaders call an emergency session this weekend.
"The Republicans are the ones saying we need more water, and the Democrats are the ones saying 'Buy another brick for your toilet,'" Assemblyman John Benoit,
Another sticking point is that a leading Democratic bond proposal includes additional groundwater storage, while a top GOP proposal calls for three new above-ground reservoirs in the
Kightlinger said either of those two options could go a long way to improving
"This ought not be ideological," Kightlinger said. #
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/10/12/news/californian/21_36_4610_11_07.txt
BAY AREA WATER SUPPLY:
Water Conservation Urged In Bay Area Despite Rains
KPIX TV (Bay Area) – 10/11/07
(BCN)
According to Sonoma County Water Agency spokesman Tim Anderson, mandatory water restrictions that are in place until Oct. 28 will not be lifted ahead of time.
"The community has done a great job of conserving water and we are well ahead of our goal, but we will continue to try and conserve water until winter rains really start,"
Mandatory water rationing was initiated in Marin and
"Salmon are back in the rivers, but with a little extra conservation we can ensure that the rivers get nice and cold for them,"
Santa Clara Valley Water District spokeswoman Susan Siravo said that her district asked residents to participate in a voluntary water reduction as well. Residents reduced their water usage by 10 percent, but if there is another dry winter the reductions will become mandatory.
"Another problem we have had is a reduction of water deliveries from the Delta," Siravo said. "A judge ruled in September that our deliveries are going to be reduced in an effort to save the Delta smelt."
When the district begins receiving 20 to 30 percent less water from the Delta this December they are going to need to have alternate water sources, Siravo said. The district won't know if it needs to enforce rationing until February, but it is preparing for the worst-case scenario.
"We are just really hoping to have some strong winter storms this season," Siravo said.
San Francisco Public Utilities Commission spokesman Tony Winnicker seconded Siravo's sentiment, adding that "every little bit of precipitation helps."
SFPUC asked its 2.4 million customers to cut back on their water usage in April after one of the driest winters on record, Winnicker said. Commission officials hoped to cut back their usage by 10 percent, and customers really responded.
"We got a 13 percent reduction in water usage, which was a huge help," Winnicker said. "It allowed us to avoid mandatory cutbacks this year and will help with this coming year."
Storms that passed through the Bay Area this week and last week don't really tell us whether it is going to be a dry or wet winter, according to Winnicker.
"Dry winters are a distinct possibility, especially with climate change upon us, and we urge our customers to continue their trend of conserving water," Winnicker said. He added that if the Bay Area experiences another dry winter residents will most likely face mandatory rationing.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has written a letter to legislative leaders urging them to consider a comprehensive infrastructure plan to help solve the growing statewide water crisis.
The new $9 billion proposal includes plans for new surface water storage, as well as local conservation and water recycling programs, according to the governor's office. Schwarzenegger calls for the expansion of the Los Vaqueros reservoir and the construction of two new reservoirs that would be part of the State Water Project.
According to the governor's letter, more reservoirs would mean that
http://cbs5.com/local/local_story_285013746.html
WATER RECYCLING:
Temecula change to save 107 billion gallons of water
Riverside Press
By Jeff Horseman, staff writer
TEMECULA - The city of
With no discussion, the board of directors voted 6-0 with one member absent to institute a mandatory recycled and raw-use water policy. The move is expected to save 107 billion gallons of drinking water to help the district cope with
Only customers using 3.26 million gallons a year or more are affected by the policy. Nondrinkable water is cheaper, but the city, golf courses and other large-scale users will have to pay to hook up to the recycled water.
The district was poised to pass the policy last month, but delayed a vote at the request of Temecula officials who wanted more time to discuss the policy. A meeting of city and district officials took place last month.
Mayor Chuck Washington said the city has no problem with the policy's aim. But he said the city has yet to determine what financial impact the policy will have.
The
The new policy isn't the only step the district is taking to conserve water.
Starting in January, the district expects to receive less water for agriculture, and district officials are warning farmers to brace for potential 30-percent cuts in the water they receive for crops and livestock.
Farmers get water at a discounted rate in exchange for being first on the chopping block for cuts. On Thursday, the district board amended the discount program so that no new users could take part. #
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_S_swater12.3d39f97.html
Mendocino revives Eel River water plan; Piping spring flow from Dos Rios to reservoir could run afoul of Wild and Scenic Rivers Act
Santa Rosa Press Democrat – 10/12/07
By Glenda Anderson, staff writer
A decade after Mendocino County Supervisor John Pinches first proposed piping water from a protected portion of the
The Board of Supervisors last month voted 3-2 to spend up to $50,000 to study taking water from the main fork of the
But the proposal continues to draw fire from other local officials and environmentalists, who say it's ill-advised and illegal to try to divert a significant amount of water from that part of the river, which has both state and federal designations as "wild and scenic."
"They would have a huge fight ahead of them," said Nadananda, of Friends of the
"It's a waste of money," said Richard Shoemaker, a former supervisor and member of the Russian River Flood Control and Water Conservation Improvement District board, which holds Mendocino County's right to Russian River water stored in Lake Mendocino.
He said the county's money would be better spent elsewhere, including projects that would increase water storage capacity.
The criticisms are echoes of those rendered when the proposal was introduced. At the time, its few supporters included the Redwood Valley County Water District, which has been under a water hookup moratorium for 18 years. The district pursued a water rights application on the
Pinches said he believes his plan will receive more support this time around because water has become a more scarce commodity.
Pinches' current version of the plan calls for piping an undetermined amount of water about 45 miles along the railroad right-of-way from Dos Rios to
The water would be used to top off
The plan is to take water from the
The so-called Dos Rios Project study will include an exploration of whether it's possible to get a license to take large quantities of water from a river designated as wild and scenic, said Roland Sanford, director of the county's water agency.
It appears the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act allows water to be taken for domestic use by residents living adjacent to the river, but piping it elsewhere in large quantities is delving into unchartered waters, he said.
"It would be precedent-setting,"
Nadananda said the proposal is so unlikely to succeed that her group, Friends of the Eel, doesn't expect to challenge the action in court.
"Nobody has succeeded in breaking the Wild and Scenic (Rivers) Act," she said.
The proposal has practical as well as legal problems, Shoemaker said.
It would require approval of the Army Corps of Engineers, which manages the reservoir primarily for flood-control purposes until late spring. Water storage is not the corps' responsibility, Shoemaker said.
The lake cannot be filled to capacity unless the corps is certain no big rainstorms are on the horizon, he said.
In addition, the county's biggest water issue is storage capacity, not a shortage of water. Most years, there's plenty of water in the
The problem is the lake can't hold enough water to meet the growing demands of people and wildlife, particularly now that regulations protecting fish require that a certain amount of water be kept flowing downstream, regardless of lake levels.
Pinches is undaunted by the obstacles and criticism.
"It's called looking into the future," Pinches said.
"The point of it is we're in more of a water crisis than people around here believe we are." #
http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/article/20071012/NEWS/710120312/1033/NEWS01
Editorial: Dry wells; Confusion grows in Barona's water dispute
The long-running water dispute involving the Barona Indian tribe continues to take no prisoners. Add an elderly man who wants to sell his property but can't because of a legislative blunder to those already caught in the middle of the feud.
Others, of course, are the
Further entangled is congressman and presidential candidate Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, who brokered secretive legislation in the past. A 2004 bill by a
Bonfils would like to sell the parcel but can't.
Hunter recently asked Sen. Dianne Feinstein's help for a technical correction to lift that cloud. A sentence in Hunter's request letter created confusion about whether the congressman had reversed his position on not pursuing federal legislation on importing water until the tribe and its neighbors had reached agreement.
Yesterday, Hunter reaffirmed his stance: “We have in no way changed our position. There will not be a water deal until there is an agreement between homeowners and tribe.” Further, the congressman withdrew his land title request to Feinstein until the confusion can be cleared up.
Responded Cheryl Schmit, lobbyist for the Old Barona homeowners: “There needs to be transparency. When things are done in secret, they almost always go wrong.”
We couldn't agree more.
Stepping back from this latest little skirmish, there are really two broad issues in this dispute, namely how to determine who or what is causing the valley's water table to drop, and how the sides can work cooperatively to find a solution.
The tribe is offering to share some water usage data with the county if the 35 nearby homeowners will share comparable well information. But the pace is much too slow. If the tribe does not voluntarily cut a deal with the county soon, pressure will build – and appropriately should – for federal legislation requiring Barona to share information. The tribe, after all, is Suspect Number One in the case of the plunging water table.
Much is at stake here. A water importing deal would benefit the tribe, the
Not everything is as it seems here. Barona has had a contentious relationship with Bonfils in the past, even blocking access to his land. Now, the tribe wants to help him. But the tribe's motives may be less than altruistic. The most logical buyer for Bonfils' 50 acres? The Barona Indian tribe. #
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20071012/news_lz1ed12bottom.html
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