Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
October 22, 2007
5. Agencies, Programs, People
MAGALIA RESERVOIR PROJECT ALMOST COMPLETED:
PID project nearing completion - Paradise Post
BELRIDGE WATER STORAGE DISTRICT:
Dispute over farm water heads to court - Bakersfield Californian
BOARD MEMBER ISSUES:
Bethel Island board in turmoil - Contra Costa Times
LOCAL ELECTIONS:
Four vie for water posts; Their solutions to shortage vary - Monterey Herald
J LEVEE CELEBRATION:
Hamilton City unites for levee - Chico Enterprise Record
MAGALIA RESERVOIR PROJECT ALMOST COMPLETED:
PID project nearing completion
By Paul Wellersdick, staff writer
Backhoes buzzed while they crawled across muddy roads and chipped away at bedrock and soil. Iron workers clanked rebar as they cut, welded and tied pieces together and others carried supplies along large black pipes.
Ridge residents may have noticed work along Skyway and the shores of the Magalia reservoir as Paradise Irrigation District nears the completion of the Magalia Raw Water Bypass Project, bid on this summer by the district. Manager George Barber said he expects a fully operational pipeline feeding the district's treatment plant by the end of December.
Crews will dig a trench next to the pipe that runs along the shores of the Magalia reservoir, roll the pipe in and back fill on top of the pipe with soft dirt, then progressively larger sized media. The pipe should be completely laid in two weeks Barber said. The pipe is mostly made from a flexible high-density polyethylene. Only in areas where the pipe will be encased in concrete will the pipe be metal. The pipe will reach the treatment plant via a steel pipe, under the dam encased in concrete.
Between the Magalia reservoir and
As a
"I'm excited. It's a really good project," he said. "It's good to spend money on good projects."
The bypass system will provide PID with water from above the Magalia reservoir. There are four reasons why the district felt it needed to spend the nearly $3 million on the project, Barber said. The district expects to receive $480,000 in grants to help foot the bill for the project contracted to Mountain Cascade Incorporated with a $2.3 million price tag. Some work was done in house, through PID to save money, and there are other engineering costs involved, Barber said.
The first of the four reasons for the bypass, not in terms of importance, is to eliminate taste and odor problems, Barber said. During the summer the district fielded complaints about the quality of the water, due to algae growth in the Magalia reservoir. By drawing water from above the reservoir, PID can avoid pumping the algae rich water.
Secondly, PID has long term plans to renovate the dam that was deemed unsafe by the
Additionally, the proposed project is to provide an alternative water supply in the event of a traffic accident or an intentional act that contaminates the water supply within Magalia Reservoir.
The county may want to widen Skyway across the dam in the future as well. Without the raw water bypass the district would have no means of delivering water to the treatment plant, just below the reservoir, during dam renovation, road widening or dam reconstruction, he said. The district looked into providing a temporary water supply to the plant during dam renovations, but a four month supply of water would cost the district $1.5 million, Barber said.
The third reason, again not in order of importance, is to save energy. By drawing water to the plant with gravity rather than pumping it from the reservoir the district could save $60,000 to $80,000 in the first year alone, with the cost savings climbing each year as energy costs rise, Barber said. PID anticipates paying $120,000 a year to pay off debt acquired from the bypass, but the net cost would in turn be $40,000 to $60,000 a year, he said. The district will still use the water in the reservoir at night and on weekends, when energy demand and prices are lower. PID intends to keep the water fresh in the reservoir by cycling it periodically, Barber said.
Lastly, the district will have a second source of water to the plant and to the down stream habitat, should the reservoir become contaminated due to a tanker spill at the dam or by other means.
In such an event
http://www.paradisepost.com//ci_7205628?IADID=Search-www.paradisepost.com-www.paradisepost.com
BELRIDGE WATER STORAGE DISTRICT:
Dispute over farm water heads to court
By Stacey Shepard, staff writer
Officials with Paramount Farms and Starrh and Starrh Cotton Growers, two of Kern's biggest farming companies, are being sued for allegedly acting unethically as members of the Belridge Water Storage District's board of directors.
The two farming giants have three of the five seats on the water district's board of directors. Sandridge Partners, another farming entity, filed the lawsuit claiming the three board members voted to block Sandridge from using water it's entitled to because it would result in a loss of water to Paramount and Starrh.
Attorneys representing the water district and the three board members, William Phillimore and Robert Baker, executives for two
Kern County Superior Court Judge William D. Palmer said he would deliver a decision in early November but that he tentatively planned to deny it and allow the case to proceed.
At issue is a situation unique to the Belridge Water Storage District.
Facilities to deliver state water were never built to reach all the farmland within the district. As a result, the district received more state water each year than it could deliver to landowners. The situation created a financial shortfall because the district couldn't charge landowners for water in the "non-service areas."
In 1999, a contract was created to better handle the financial problems created by undeliverable water. Under the contract, any district landowner who elected to participate could buy the undeliverable water. Nine companies entered the contract. In the end, two
In 2004, Sandridge requested to use some water tied to land it owned in the non-service area on land it owned in service area. Several other landowners made similar requests.
The district had a policy in place at the time to allow such transfers.
However, the transfers would reduce the amount of water available under the 1999 contract, and companies party to the contract would be forced to get extra water from elsewhere, likely at a higher cost.
The board eventually voted 3-2 to reverse the existing policy and bar water transfers from non-service area land to service area land. In effect, the vote preserved the amount of water available under the 1999 contract.
The three deciding votes were cast by Phillimore, Baker and Starrh, whose companies stood to suffer the greatest losses from a reduction in water available under the 1999 contract.
"Our contention is that the three board members who receive 94 percent of the benefits (of the contract) had a conflict of interest when they voted to prohibit the transfers," said T. Mark Smith, an attorney for Sandridge.
Joseph Hughes, an attorney for the Belridge Water Storage District and for Starrh and Starrh Cotton Growers, argued in court that water districts are structured so that board members have an inherent conflict of interest. In such cases, an exception in
Hughes said that because all nine parties to the contract would be affected by a reduction in water, the board members from
Smith, Sandridge's attorney, said the conflict-of-interest law exception was not meant to be applied to situations like the 1999 contract. Instead, it was intended to apply to decisions that affected all landowners in the district, like an assessment or a rate increase.
Palmer said he would have a decision on the matter Nov. 7.
A similar case against Belridge over the same water dispute has been filed by another landowner in federal court in
A similar motion to dismiss the case was filed, and the federal judge denied the motion. The case has not yet moved beyond that point. #
http://www.bakersfield.com/102/story/264519.html
BOARD MEMBER ISSUES:
Contra Costa Times – 10/21/07
By Lisa Vorderbrueggen, political editor
The tiny Bethel Island Municipal Improvement District is once again under investigation by the state Fair Political Practices Commission and two of its board members and general manager have resigned in recent weeks amid dissension.
An FPPC staff member briefly attended the district's Sept. 20 meeting and asked for a tape of the session but it's unclear what he is investigating. The agency spokesman would only confirm that a complaint had been filed. (The FPPC investigates alleged violations of the California Political Reform Act and has the authority to levy fines and pursue civil and criminal prosecutions.)
On the same night, board members Bill Gearhart and Bob Cameron resigned, although both men say their decisions had nothing to do with a state probe.
"I had had enough," Gearhart said. "All of sudden, (the district was) being run by attorneys and consultants, something we had never found necessary in the past."
Cameron says he has a health problem and is plumb worn out.
"The board was going in a direction that I could not influence and I knew of no other way to protest but to leave," he said.
Apparently, they don't call it "
The latest dust-up comes in the wake of a seemingly nonstop controversy trickling out of the board, which is charged with safeguarding 11 miles of levees that stand between the island's 2,300 residents and the Delta.
The FPPC, Contra Costa County Grand Jury and District Attorney's Office have all fielded multiple complaints about the district and its board members in recent years.
None of the complaints resulted in prosecutions and most of the strife stemmed from political dissent over development proposals, a plan to build a single water company on the island and post-Katrina worries about levee safety.
The most serious charge surfaced in late 2004 when the District Attorney's Office sent Gearhart an official warning. Gearhart, a civil engineer, was signing off as the district representative on projects where he was also hired by landowners to do engineering work.
State law clearly bars elected officials from voting or otherwise exercising public authority on matters for which they have a personal financial interest. But the county declined to prosecute and Gearhart says he stopped the practice, although he never saw a problem with it.
The district's project application, he says, is a check of whether the proposed dock, house or other structure falls within the required distance from the levee. A district sign-off is not an approval of the final project; that falls to the county.
"Either a project met the (distance) criteria or it didn't; it was pretty cut-and-dried," Gearhart said.
Nonetheless, Gearhart and Cameron's resignations represent a political victory for board President Sheila Goodson, who will lead her remaining colleagues through interviews Monday night with prospective replacements.
Goodson, elected in November 2004, has been the driving force behind reforms such as requiring board members to publicly disclose when they have a financial stake in projects with business before the agency. She is also pushing for outside, professional review of more significant project applications rather than relying on board members she says aren't qualified to read plans.
"Depending on who you talk to, I've either made major progress or I'm the worst thing that has ever happened to the board," Goodson said.
Undeniably, the men's departures will pop the relief valve on what has been a deeply polarized board.
But will it trigger a seachange? Maybe not. Many view the turmoil on
The county is also cracking down on those infamous Delta junkyards, illegal boat live-aboards and unpermitted houses and docks.
Delta Coves, a 450-home project similar to
Some
Finally, the state is talking about building a controversial diversion canal through the Delta, which could impact
With all these important issues on the island's horizon, its residents may want to improve the working conditions for those incoming folks on the district board, the closest thing to a local government they have.
Goodson, Cameron and Gearhart may not agree on much but they all described how they have been verbally abused, threatened and maligned. Nobody should volunteer for that. #
LOCAL ELECTIONS:
Four vie for water posts; Their solutions to shortage vary
By Daniel Lopez, staff writer
There are two seats open on the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District Board, and two candidates for each eager to fill the positions.
Depending on the outcome of the election Nov. 6, the departure of board members Michelle Knight and Larry Foy could result in a swing in the makeup of the board, which is often split along pro-growth and environmental lines.
Two of the board's seats are filled by appointees from among mayors on the
Vying for the seat held by Knight are Lee Yarborough, publisher of the Pacific Grove Hometown Bulletin, and Regina Doyle, an international health educator. Those seeking to fill Foy's seat are Bob Brower, owner of Chateau Julien Wine Estate in
All of the candidates said they agree the top priority for the district should be to find an alternative water source to comply with a state-ordered reduction in pumping from the
They say a water desalination plant will be part of the solution, but their ideas vary on what it will look like and how it will be built.
California American Water Co. and the Pajaro-Sunny Mesa Community Services District are competing to build desalination plants in Moss Landing.
Yarborough, 78, said he's seeking election out of concern for the county's water issues.
"There is a real problem and it affects every household, business and the well-being of our economy," he said. "It won't be one single thing that gets us to where we want to be."
The district is already practicing voluntary conservation, allowing watering on specific days based on addresses and asking residents to avoid using water to hose driveways and similar areas. Large landscaped properties are required to limit water use to established water budgets.
Yarborough said the district, in addition to a desalination plant, should look at using recycled water and creating additional storage aquifers.
The solutions, he said, should meet current needs while accounting for what he called "quality growth."
"We are not looking for a solution that would allow unlimited growth," he said.
His experience working with numerous public agencies and his technical background as an engineer, Yarborough said, would be a valuable asset to the board.
He was a civil engineer for the city of
He has been chairman of the Foundation for Performing Arts Center of Pacific Grove, a member of the Pacific Grove Architectural Review Committee and held other positions of public service.
"Everywhere I've worked I've advanced things and left them better than when I arrived," he said.
Doyle, 53, of
"I don't think people have a real knowledge of how blighted our water source is," she said. "Water is a precious commodity and we shouldn't squander it like we have in the past."
Doyle said residents are being led to believe that the only solution is a large desalination plant.
"There is no silver bullet," she said adding that recycling water is another viable means of addressing the water crisis. "This is the way of the future and something we haven't looked at seriously," she said.
"I think we will eventually have a desal plant," but too many unanswered questions still remain around building one, she said.
"We don't know what the costs are or what the environmental impacts will be," she said.
Doyle said residents can become part of the solution by doing more to conserve water.
"We need to look at all the options and use a little bit of everything," she said. "I'm really interested in the
Doyle said she's not opposed to growth, so long as it's sustainable and done responsibly.
She spent 22 years as a Peace Corps volunteer and worked with the United Nations Volunteers and the U.N. Children Fund in developing countries, including
"I feel if I can get on the board, I can do something," she said.
Lance Monosoff, 52, said his interest in the district's water issues sprouted after he moved next to the
To solve the water crisis, he said the district needs to focus on reducing its pumping from the
"We need to get the river flowing again," he said.
Monosoff's interest is to have a small desalination plant that would help meet the needs of current residents, not a large one that would provide additional water.
"I don't think the current residents should be subsidizing future growth," he said. A large plant would open the door to development, he said.
"I don't want to see this area turned into another
Water from a plant, he said, should be set aside for existing lots of record. He said the district should promote conservation, collect rain runoff and use recycled water.
"I think it's critical we start with something very quickly," he said. "I'm concerned with providing water for the current residents."
Monosoff has served as chairman of the political committee of the Sierra Club's Ventana Chapter and on the club's state political committee.
After the 1995 floods, he was appointed to the Carmel Valley Flood Task Force and is vice chairman of the County Service Area 50 committee to advise the
"I'm good at bringing people together and moving projects along," said Monosoff.
His opponent, Bob Brower, 58, of
Brower said a desalination plant is needed "in the worst way."
"We don't need to be talking about this much longer. We've been talking about it for 25 years," he said. "I don't care who owns it; someone has to build one."
He said the district needs to step up and make sure it gets done. There is also a need to pursue projects to recycle water, said Brower.
"It's such a scarce resource here in the West, it seems to be a waste when we let it go out to the ocean," he said.
Brower has had involvement with several community organizations. He was a director on the Monterey County Hospitality Association executive board, trustee of the Monterey County Wine Education Foundation, chairman of the Monterey County Workforce Investment Board and chairman of the Hospice of the
Monosoff said Brower is not the right fit on the board, saying that his opponent supported an advisory vote in 2002 that asked if the water district should be dissolved. Monosoff says he opposed the resolution.
"We were going nowhere," Brower said, explaining why he favored the abolition at the time. Now, he said, the board is in a position to accomplish something and he'd like to be a part of it.
"The board seems to be on the course of getting something done and I think it needs to come to fruition," said Brower. #
http://www.montereyherald.com/local/ci_7240904?nclick_check=1
J LEVEE CELEBRATION:
By Sarah Kingsbury, staff writer
The original levee, which lines the
"Our whole goal is to raise money for the levee to see us through the government process," said Lee Ann Grigsby-Puente, who has coordinated the festival for the last eight years. "We did not get this far in this project by sitting still."
An area south of the Irvine Finch River Access is deteriorating "like Swiss cheese," she said. "We're at a critical stage."
A presentation in
Rep. Wally Herger, R-Chico, and Assemblyman Doug LaMalfa, R-Richvale, who have worked to secure federal and state money for the project, commended the city for its dedication.
LaMalfa recalled how he had spent New Year's Eve patrolling the levee with law enforcement countless times when heavy rains threatened to overwhelm the eroding barrier.
Herger concluded his words of encouragement with a quip about the amount of tamales he had eaten.
The Mexican dish wrapped in corn husks has become infamous at the festival, in addition to other items such as tostadas, sopas, barbecue and baked goods this year.
Glenn County Sheriff Larry Jones assured the crowd that the department was prepared to handle an emergency evacuation if the levee should fail, but encouraged people to implement their own plans.
"You should always be prepared for at least 72 hours. You shouldn't always depend on the government," he said.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,
A large storm could have disastrous consequences to
Currently, there is a 10 percent chance in a single year that a storm could occur with enough magnitude to flood outlying areas, said Mark Boedtker, a civil engineer with the Army.
However, the weather is unpredictable and any unexpectedly large storms could flood the entire city, he said.
In the past 20 years, the city has been evacuated at least six times due to threat of flooding, according to Grigsby-Puente.
To date, about $100,000 has been raised. Some was used to create a reclamation district so citizens could impose a tax on themselves to pay for construction and maintenance of the new levee.
Construction on the new levee is slated to begin in 2009. #
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