A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
December 31, 2007
3. Watersheds
QUAGGA MUSSEL:
Tough mussel pain, no easy remedy;
The prolific quagga has invaded Southern California reservoirs, and with no way to eradicate it, water officials are alarmed - Los Angeles Times
Call for restoration; Man organizing protest, petition against modifying the Salton Sea - Desert Sun
DELTA ISSUES:
Editorial: New roadmap to a healthy future for the Delta; Delta Vision task force's report lays out a course of action; will the governor lead? - Sacramento
QUAGGA MUSSEL:
Tough mussel pain, no easy remedy;
The prolific quagga has invaded
By Deborah Schoch, staff writer
An invasive mussel first detected in
The infamous fresh-water quagga mussel, which has wreaked havoc in the
Its rapid-fire invasion this year from Lake Mead -- which straddles the border between
The quagga already has infested the 242-mile-long California Aqueduct, five
The mussel's microscopic larvae can swiftly and invisibly move through waterways and the pest is typically found only after it has implanted itself. There is no known method to eradicate the thumbnail sized mussel, but at least one agency is attempting chlorination in the hopes of killing larvae.
Although the quagga does not make water unsafe to drink, officials are concerned that it could infiltrate the State Water Project that delivers water from Northern California to
"All of that is subject to disruption by quagga," said Edwin D. Grosholz, an expert on invasive mussels and Cooperative Extension specialist at UC Davis. "There's nothing at all to limit their spread north to
He and some other scientists believe that government agencies should be more aggressive in fending off the mussel, especially because of the economic and environmental impacts it could have in Western states.
Water operators are bracing for increased costs.
"If you've got 100,000 of these things clogging up an intake grate, pumps, valves, then you have the time and expense of going in and cleaning it up," said John Liarakos, spokesman for the San Diego County Water Authority.
"It means we will inevitably suffer through higher operation and maintenance costs," said Jim Barrett, director of public utilities in
Experts suspect that the quagga is spreading via water systems and on recreational boats moved by trailer from one marina to another. State agencies have been working since summer to alert and educate boat owners and set up boat checkpoints. The state Department of Fish and Game is even training dogs to sniff out the quagga in corners and crevices of boats and trailers.
"It does represent a very serious threat, and we have to take this very seriously," said Fish and Game Department spokeswoman
"The delta is already a stressed system as is. This could be an additional stresser," Retallack said.
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has not found quagga in its system but has begun inspections at its reservoir at
The quagga and its close relative, the zebra mussel, are native to areas around the Caspian and Black seas of Eastern Europe and
The quagga had never been identified west of the Continental Divide before its surprise Jan. 6 appearance in Lake Mead, and experts say it likely stowed away west on a boat and trailer to the
The mussel's larvae swiftly moved along the California Aqueduct that carries Colorado River water to
To date, however, it has not been found in
"
The quagga and zebra mussels have caused an estimated $100 million a year in damages in the eastern
The quagga can alter the underwater food chain, weakening fish and other aquatic species and settling on clams so densely that the clams starve. It can eat so much microscopic plant growth, or phytoplankton, that water turns clear, allowing sunlight to quicken the growth of bottom algae. That algae can cause taste and odor problems in drinking water supplies.
It can also create other problems. The FitzPatrick nuclear plant in upstate
For water managers in Southern California, the quagga is one more concern after a year of sparse rain and snowpack, part of an eight-year drought in the
"The quagga has to be added to a long list of challenges," said Muir at the MWD, which supplies 26 member cities and agencies in
MWD already is spending nearly $10 million over 18 months on mussel control measures. It shut down the California Aqueduct twice this year in hopes of "drying out" the quagga.
The mussel travels in "raw water" that has not yet undergone conventional treatment. Chlorine has been added at several key spots, including the outlets of
The agency is studying special coatings that can be applied to pumps and other machinery, making surfaces too slippery for mussels to stick. When parts of the water system are shut down, workers inspect pipes and siphons, sometimes removing mussels by hand.
For more information on the quagga mussel, go to nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/FactSheet. asp?speciesID=95.
Tips for boat owners and operators on how to control the mussel are at latimes.com/mussel. #
Call for restoration; Man organizing protest, petition against modifying the Salton Sea
Desert Sun – 12/30/07
By Keith Matheny, staff writer
He's also circulating petitions of protest that he plans to provide to state and federal lawmakers for the
"We want to restore, not modify, the sea," he said. "We want it built back to what it was in the 1960s."
Davis said his dissatisfaction comes from years of promises, plans and ultimate inaction from local, state and federal officials - all as the sea slowly evaporates, becomes more salty, and the fish within it and the economy on its shores die.
The state's nearly $9 billion preferred alternative for restoration would create a sea dramatically reduced in size, an impending reality due to water transfer agreements from the Imperial Irrigation District to urban water-users in
The transfers from farmers will reduce the sea's primary source of water, agricultural runoff.
It will create thousands of acres of exposed lake bed, and the potential for air quality problems from dust in all directions, depending on which way the wind blows - including into the
Many people don't understand what the state's preferred alternative will mean for the sea,
"They think, 'OK; we're going to have the
"When businesses were open I worked at just about every one around here, until they sold it," he said.
"There's no activity on the sea anymore. The businesses have really dropped. The housing boom we had just came to a screeching halt."
Davis and others want state and federal officials to more seriously consider a canal system from the sea to the Gulf of California in
Their proposal would continually exchange highly saline sea water with less saline ocean water from the gulf, preserving the sea's water levels and stopping its increasing salinity.
Mixed support
But Dove and Emmett said the idea as they envision it has never gotten a full consideration. It's far different, they said, from earlier pipeline concepts considered and rejected by state and federal officials as costing tens of billions of dollars.
"You can't desalinate (the
"No one wants to talk about it. I can't figure out why they don't want to bring water in."
Dale Hoffman-Floerke, director of Colorado River and
Hoffman-Floerke said Mexican environmental officials were approached with the idea.
"It was met with disdain," she said. "They were not even remotely interested in entertaining this subject matter."
The Colorado River Delta at the northern end of the
Emmett, however, said more negotiation could work.
"You get a good salesman like Arnold Schwarzenegger down there, talking to the governor, saying, 'Here are the economic benefits to you. We're removing the risk of dust storms sweeping into
Others remain skeptical.
Edward Glenn, a professor of soil, water and environmental sciences at the
The birds become infected, Glenn said, from eating infected tilapia who feed on pileworms in the oxygen-starved sediments of the sea.
"Given that history, it would not be responsible to suggest dumping Salton Sea water into the
Michael Cohen, a senior research associate with the Oakland-based Pacific Institute, an environmental, economic and social equity research group, also dismissed the canal-to-Mexico concept.
"It's eight to ten times the cost of the preferred alternative," he said. "Frankly, I don't think the preferred alternative is going to be funded."
Cohen said he's encouraged citizens see the need to save the
"If we continue to focus on grandiose schemes like a canal to the gulf, we're not going to get anywhere," he said.
"I want them to see the voice of the people, the mass that shows up with their water to say no, you're not draining our sea," he said. #
http://www.mydesert.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071230/NEWS0701/712300315/1026/news12
DELTA ISSUES:
Editorial: New roadmap to a healthy future for the Delta; Delta Vision task force's report lays out a course of action; will the governor lead?
Sacramento
The multiple perils that threaten the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta look much like those that endanger the Everglades, the
Fisheries are declining. Urban encroachment is adding to the historic loss of wetlands. Exotic species are forcing out native ones. Polluted runoff is contributing to the meltdown of fragile ecosystems.
Yet
Is
Released this month, this report seeks to elevate the status of the Delta as a "unique and valued" place, one where ecosystem restoration and a reliable water supply should be "primary, co-equal goals."
This hasn't always been the case. For decades, the state has allowed powerful interests to treat the Delta as a plumbing valve and a real estate venture instead of a sensitive estuary. Although millions have been spent on supposed restoration, much of it has been frittered away. All the while, the volume of water pumped from the Delta has gone up steadily.
The Delta Vision task force, appointed by the governor and chaired by former
It also concludes that new facilities for storage and conveyance will be needed "to better manage
Not surprisingly, interests on both sides of the water divide moved quickly to quash those proposals.
Environmentalists questioned the need for more storage. Meanwhile the State Water Contractors and Westlands Water District took aim at the suggestion that reduced diversions are needed. The latter claimed the public won't support spending billions on the Delta "to get less water."
Last week saw the death of former State Water Resources Director David Kennedy, who was widely respected for his knowledge and ability to bridge gaps. More than ever, the state needs a modern-day David Kennedy who can break through the impasses and pursue "co-equal" protections for both the environment and water reliability.
Schwarzenegger could serve this role. Yet to date, he has been far too aligned with the water siphoners of the Delta to forge broad consensus. If the governor embraces the recommendations of his task force – all of them – it will show where he stands. But if the Delta Vision report ends up collecting dust, or getting picked apart, it will mean business as usual in the water world: deadlock, an outcome the state can't afford. #
http://www.sacbee.com/110/story/597048.html
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