Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
October 17, 2007
5. Agencies, Programs, People -
Longer riverfront pathway in works -
Sacramento
Public's input sought on Natomas levee plan -
Sacramento
O.C. to repair levee to cut flood risk -
Los Angeles
Opinion:
Poseidon’s Desalination Design a Decade Late -
Voice of San Diego
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Longer riverfront pathway in works
Sacramento
By Deb Kollars - Bee Staff Writer
A long-held goal to extend the city of
Currently, the promenade is just two blocks long, running from
The eventual dream is to create a continuous stretch with parks, piers, bike paths and plazas along the Sacramento River all the way to Broadway and
The first step in lengthening the promenade will be to extend it to
Council members unanimously approved seeking $3 million for the first phase's costs from state Proposition 50 funds, which are earmarked for river parkways. The council agreed to cover the remaining $3.25 million with various city redevelopment and parks funds.
"I love what we're thinking about ... trying to bring the river to the people and the people to the river," Councilman Rob Fong said.
The extension of the promenade is viewed as critical to the development of the Docks, a prime corner of riverfront land south of Old Sacramento.
Now mostly vacant, the area is being planned as a river-oriented community with shops, businesses and housing, including high-rise condo towers.
While the promenade plans moved forward Tuesday, the Docks development was dealt a setback over the weekend when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill by Assemblyman Dave Jones, D-Sacramento, to transfer three parcels of state-owned land in the area to the city.
The city needs clear title to the three parcels by March or its agreement with the master developer of the property, KSWM Docks Partners of San Francisco, will expire.
The governor said in a statement that he vetoed the bill because it did not contain a clause exempting the transaction from the California Environmental Quality Act.
"We're definitely frustrated the governor vetoed this bill," David Gonsalves, a legislative aide to Jones, said Tuesday. "The exemption they are looking for is already in the law."
On Tuesday, representatives from the city and KSWM said they hoped to resolve the problem in the next several months.
"We'll go back in January and try again," said Bethany Fischer, planning and entitlement manager with Kenwood Investments, a partner in KSWM. "This is a great site."
Fischer said the housing downturn gives the partners and the city some breathing room to work out the entitlement issues, as well as other challenges on the property such as what to do with an enormous water treatment reservoir on the site.
The promenade is being designed by Walker Macy, a
He praised the site for its proximity to the river and downtown.
"We're very excited about the potential," he said.
Zilis also noted that the site poses difficult design constraints because it is "pinched" by I-5 and a historic rail line running parallel to the river.
Current plans call for the first phase of the extension to be punctuated by a playground at
However, Mayor Heather Fargo suggested a splashier option: a Ferris wheel or other entertainment amenities that would draw more people from around the region.
Walker Macy also is designing extensions of
West Sacramento has secured two Proposition 50 parkway grants in the past two years, one for $977,000 and one for $1.7 million, said Shanna Zuspan, senior program manager with
But West Sacramento's promenade plans have been stuck for the past 1 1/2 years in the bureaucracy of the state Board of Reclamation, which regulates development on levees.#
http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/436573.html
Public's input sought on Natomas levee plan
Sacramento
Matt Weiser, staff writer
The $400 million-plus project aims to widen or raise nearly 25 miles of levees on three sides of the Natomas basin – mostly on the landward side of the levees. It also includes erosion repairs in several spots at water's edge along the
The Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency will have a public hearing about the plan at 3 p.m. Thursday in the City Council Chambers, 915 I St.
A final vote is set for Nov. 29.
The project is likely to be controversial, especially along the
The new levee, adjacent to the current one, will be up to 300 feet wider.
Many trees also will have to be removed for the project, but SAFCA intends to plant thousands of trees in a habitat strip along the new levee.
Environmental studies can be viewed online at www.safca.org.
The deadline for written comments is Oct. 29. For information, call SAFCA at (916) 874-7606.#
http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/436566.html
O.C. to repair levee to cut flood risk
Los Angeles
By H.G. Reza and Nardine Saad, Los Angeles
The Orange County Board of Supervisors declared a local emergency Tuesday amid concern that a crumbling levee in
The levee forms the north side of a channel that slices through
Supervisors voted unanimously to begin a $10-million repair job on the East Garden Grove-Wintersburg Channel that calls for shoring up a 3,800-foot section of the levee from roughly
The county will ask the California Coastal Commission to issue an emergency permit, but flood control design manager Phil Jones said officials would begin repairs with or without one. He said the job probably could be completed in 75 days.
Metal sheets 15 inches deep, 22 inches wide and 45 feet long will be driven through the roadway on top of the levee to form a barrier to hold back the water. Jones said the sheets should prevent water from soaking through the earthen levee, which has been damaged by erosion and gophers. Temporary repairs were made in 2005 after big winter storms soaked the county.
Supervisor Bill Campbell blasted the Coastal Commission for failing to act on an application the city filed more than eight months ago for the levee repair. He said the agency was "out of line" by delaying the request to make repairs to the levee.
Supervisor John Moorlach, whose district includes the flood channel, said the decision to move expeditiously "was not made cavalierly" because homeowners' lawsuits could cost the county tens of millions of dollars if the levee breaks.
"If the commission says remove [the plates] and anything happens, then they have to pay" for damages, Moorlach said. "I would think that at the end of the day the Coastal Commission will concur with what we're doing."
Coastal Commission officials could not be reached for comment.
A report by Orange County Flood Control District staff said commission officials inspected the levee recently at the district's invitation "in hopes that they would recognize the seriousness of the situation."
The report concluded that the deteriorating levee required prompt attention.
The commission's request for more detailed mitigation plans for three environmentally sensitive areas, including a nearby eucalyptus grove, affected by permanent repairs contributed to the delay in approving the application submitted in January, Jones said.
The wall of metal that will be pounded into the levee was not part of the original construction plan, but Jones said he hoped the structures would "be part of the permanent solution." The plan is also to pack dirt on the land side of the levee to reinforce it, he said.
Moorlach said his office had received e-mails and letters from homeowners concerned about flooding and the condition of levees in his district.
But Tuesday, there were few worries about either a flood or the levee among homeowners living close to the channel. If anything, most were upset over having to pay flood insurance.
"I've been here for 34 years, and I don't recall a flood. What we're doing is subsidizing flood insurance for [other] places," said retiree William Danz, 70, who lives near the channel on
George Gumbrecht, 49, a TV cameraman, said that suddenly half of his house ended up in a designated flood plain, adding about $300 in annual insurance costs.
"When we bought the place, we paid nothing for [flood] insurance," said Gumbrecht, who has lived in his
Retiree Max Benward, 75, who has lived on
Shea Homes, which wants to build 170 homes on 40 acres east of the wetlands and alongside the north levee, made the county aware of the levee's degraded condition after the 2005 storms, said spokesman Laer Pearce. The builder received a building permit in 2002 from the Huntington Beach City Council and has been waiting since 2003 for Coastal Commission approval to begin its project, Parkside Estates.
On Tuesday, county supervisors voted to bill Shea, other landowners and government agencies that will benefit from the repairs. Pearce said the company had budgeted $15 million for flood-control improvements that would benefit all nearby homeowners.
Opinion:
Poseidon’s Desalination Design a Decade Late
Voice of
By Joe Geever - Joe Geever is the
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BLINKLISTPoseidon Resources is proposing an ocean desalination plant in
Californians treasure our coast and ocean and we know how to implement water management plans that improve the environment -- not further degrade it. Ocean desalination may be in our future, but recently enacted laws and court decisions to protect our environment have made this particular design out-dated before it even gets to the state agencies for permit review.
Global warming is on everyone’s list of top environmental concerns. Californians are proud of leading the nation in efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Water conveyance and treatment accounts for nearly 20 percent of the state’s energy consumption and reducing this figure is one of our best opportunities for reaching the goals recently enacted in our Global Warming Reduction Act.
Unfortunately for Poseidon, their proposal is the most energy demanding of any option in our water supply portfolio and would increase greenhouse gas emissions even if it replaces expensive water pumped here from the
Furthermore, this factory will unnecessarily destroy marine life. Poseidon planned to co-locate its factory with the Encina Power Station to utilize the discharge from the generators’ "once through cooling" system. To its credit, NRG Energy is currently transitioning away from this antiquated practice to a system that avoids killing our precious marine life. Unfortunately for Poseidon, this leaves them without an intake for their desalination factory, unless they plan to continue killing the precious marine life NRG has decided to protect.
Also, for decades we have known our ocean is often not safe to swim in. The most successful examples of restoring our ocean water quality come from "integrated water management plans," that simultaneously meet our water needs, dramatically reduce coastal and ocean water pollution, and provide natural areas in an ever-more-urbanized region. There are economical and environmentally preferable alternatives to meet our water demands and restore our environment.
More than half of the area’s residential water consumption goes to irrigating our gardens. Fortunately, homeowners are increasingly changing their gardens to native and drought-resistant landscaping and installing "smart" irrigation controllers. This new gardening trend is beautifying our neighborhoods, conserving water that is unnecessarily wasted, while eliminating our personal contribution to polluted urban runoff. This is a win-win option already in progress.
We also now know that recycling our wastewater is safe and cost-effective. In fact, wastewater recycling employs the same technology as ocean desalination and will ensure the same employment opportunities for manufacturing the equipment locally. This alternative can fill a large component in our water supply portfolio and reduce, if not eventually eliminate, partially treated sewage discharges to the ocean. This is another win-win option.
We can also invest more in networks of "treatment wetlands" that restore watersheds and recharge aquifers, groundwater desalination and more. When you add all these alternatives up, a massive desalination factory on our beach simply isn’t necessary.
For decades the public has demanded a cleaner, healthier and more ecologically robust coastal and ocean environment. We now know how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and begin restoring our coast and ocean through thoughtful and integrated water management. Ocean desalination may one day fill a niche in our water supply portfolio. In fact, there are already proven technologies to avoid environmental degradation of our marine life and air quality from ocean desalination -- and more important research is underway. Poseidon’s factory won’t be completed in time to resolve this drought, so we can afford to take the time to get ocean desalination right and avoid outdated and unacceptable technology on our coast.#
http://voiceofsandiego.org/articles/2007/10/15/opinion/01geever101507.txt
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