Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
December 13, 2007
5. Agencies, Programs, People
NEW FLOOD CONTROL AGENCY:
Flood-control era dawns; Sutter-Butte agency meets for first time - Marysville Appeal Democrat
FLOOD PLAIN REVISED:
10,000 along San Timoteo Creek no longer in flood plain -
SAN LUIS REY RIVER:
Editorial: Riverbed clearing may have to wait - North
LEGAL ISSUES:
Guest Column: Water lawsuit short-sighted -
NEW FLOOD CONTROL AGENCY:
Flood-control era dawns; Sutter-Butte agency meets for first time
Marysville Appeal Democrat – 12/13/07
By John Dickey, staff writer
Local officials got the ball rolling on a new flood agency Wednesday that will oversee flood-control improvements for
Sutter-Butte Flood Control Agency directors moved quickly, approving an interim executive director, deciding on an office location, and picking a chairman at the agency’s first meeting, which lasted about two hours.
Bill Edgar, 68, a former executive director of the Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency, was chosen to get the Sutter-Butte agency started. Edgar will receive $150 per hour forthe part-time position.
“It’s going to be a very interesting assignment, as all of these flood-control assignments are,” Edgar said after the meeting. “They’re longer than they seem to be in the beginning, and more expensive, but in the end, they’re very important.”
Yuba City City Councilman John Miller was appointed the agency’s chairman, and Sutter County Supervisor Larry Montna was selected vice chairman.
“We have high expectations, and we want to move this on, that’s the real current here,” said Miller.
Administrative tasks that still remain include working out the details of the agency’s budget.
Edgar will also spearhead the search for a permanent agency executive director.
Agency directors pushed for a quick wrap-up of the administrative details so work could begin to map out a plan for levee repairs. Director Al Montna called for construction to start on levee improvements as soon as possible.
“As quick as we can, move the items out of the way administratively,” said Montna, also a Levee District 1 director.
Edgar said the best possibility for early levee improvements was some kind of fix that would be needed no matter what overall solution is decided on to improve flood control in the Yuba City Basin.
But construction on that “big project” is a ways off, said Edgar.
The agency faces an array of challenges, including a decision on a major project and fundraising through some form of a tax measure to pay for work and provide matching funds for the state’s levee bond, Proposition 1E.
“There are some really big issues we’ve got to focus on,” said Edgar. #
http://www.appeal-democrat.com/news/agency_57661___article.html/flood_edgar.html
FLOOD PLAIN REVISED:
10,000 along San Timoteo Creek no longer in flood plain
Riverside Press
By Darrell R. Santschi, staff writer
As many as 10,000 property owners from
"This item gives me more pleasure than anything I have read in 17 years on the council," Loma Linda City Councilman Floyd Petersen said Tuesday night.
He told City Council members and a cable television audience that the city had received a letter dated Nov. 19 from the Federal Emergency Management Agency announcing that it had revised its flood-plain map for San Timoteo Creek after
Loma Linda Mayor Robert Christman, who had just paid his flood-insurance premium, said the flood-map revision will save some homeowners $500 to $1,000 a year.
Petersen said, "This is the best Christmas gift that anyone can receive who lives on the north side of town. I can't tell you how this makes me feel."
Petersen was a champion of the $90 million construction project along the San Timoteo Creek Flood Control Channel that prompted the map revisions.
Petersen said earlier that his flood-insurance premium dropped from $600 to $450 annually in 2002, when the county declared the channel work three-quarters complete.
About five miles of the construction downstream from Loma Linda is a concrete-lined channel.
Two miles upstream into San Timoteo Canyon is a series of 18 earthen retention basins separated by small dams that help trap debris before water pours into the concrete channel.
The channel was widened from 120 feet to about 400 feet in places to accommodate the basins.
Construction of the channel required a new two-lane bridge across
David Lovell, assistant chief for federal projects of the San Bernardino County Public Works Department, said earlier that the channel is designed to protect the east valley from a flood so large it could be expected only once in 100 years.
During such a flood, he said, the channel would carry as much as 20,000 cubic feet of water per second. That is enough to fill an Olympic-size swimming pool every two seconds.
A flood in 1969 generated 19,000 cubic feet of water per second along the creek, destroying 400 houses, 300 vehicles, five bridges and a school. One person was killed.
The channel improvements inspired the biggest building boom in the city's 37-year history. That boom, in turn, has generated cries for growth control, leading to passage last year of Measure V, which specifies minimum lot sizes and requires developers to mitigate traffic and other problems their projects create.
Yet to be completed are aesthetic improvements along the flood-control channel, including a hiking trail, ground cover, bushes and benches, water fountains, horse troughs and hitching posts. #
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_B_bflood13.3487a6b.html
SAN LUIS REY RIVER:
Editorial: Riverbed clearing may have to wait
Our view: Latest delay for San Luis Rey vegetation management plan is another sign of Fish and Game foot-dragging
In a previous editorial published Nov. 11, ( "A river of red tape runs through it" ) we detailed the long, troubled history of the San Luis Rey River and how bureaucratic delays have prevented the city of Oceanside from clearing the riverbed of the overgrown brush that poses a serious threat to public safety.
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Despite the concerns of many in
The California Coastal Commission was scheduled to take up an item Friday that, pending approval of the commissioners and the acquiescence of the Army Corps of Engineers, would have allowed the latter agency to begin clearing vegetation from the riverbed. The corps is responsible for maintaining the riverbed until it can hand off responsibility to the city of
Instead, the corps made a request Wednesday to postpone the item until the Coastal Commission's January meeting. In explaining its action, the corps argues that because the commission's staff recommendation is based on old information provided by state Fish and Game, a hearing on the matter would be useless. Key to that recommendation is the proposed actions the corps would have to undertake to make up for the loss of habitat for the least
This delay has huge implications. The Army Corps of Engineers believes that it needs to start clearing brush now if it is to make any significant progress before March, when the
The Department of Fish and Game has said that by the end of this year, it will issue the appropriate permits to allow
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/12/13/opinion/editorials/19_03_3612_12_07.txt
LEGAL ISSUES:
Guest Column: Water lawsuit short-sighted
By Chris Malan, manager the Living Rivers Council and Earth Defense for the Environment Now
According to the Napa Register’s Nov. 15 article, The City of American Canyon is preparing to sue the State Water Resource Control Board (SWRCB), for not providing all the water they contracted for in 2007 from the Central Valley Water Project.
Our city and county leaders are short sighted in their proposed litigation. Water throughout the state is in jeopardy at many levels. Fresh water sources are already limited from over appropriation, extraction and pollution. Illegal water diversions are pervasive and the SWRCB has little to no enforcement capacity due to lack of staff funding and legislative policies governing water diversions. There are hundreds of illegal water diversions in Napa County and very little to mostly nothing has been done to rectify the illegal taking of water, yet the cities and the county want to squeeze the SWRCB for more water.
The SWRCB is faced with water chaos in the state as fresh water becomes less available. Drought, pollution, illegal use and endangered specie listings create the perfect storm of events that demand major water management reform. The State legislature must overhaul the way water is used and who gets water from where. In addition, the SWRCB needs staff and funding to manage these problems properly. Sending water south via the Central Valley Project to a burgeoning populous that can not control their glutinous uses, development that surpasses natural resource output, activities driving species to extinction and pollution to our waters that goes unabated is dangerous to the State’s water resources and future stability of our economic future.
Since the early 1900’s, water has been stolen without permission and the resource agencies have either naively approved or looked the other way. Now that water is becoming scarce and global warming is threatening our diminished fresh supply of water the State is scrambling to better manage the resource. The problem is that thousands of water users stand in line applying for water and the current status of water is that there is not enough to go around now hence the delta smelt dilemma.
According to a new five year study issued by the International Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, global warming is occurring much faster than previously thought. They predict catastrophic droughts and heat waves with rising seas that could kill and cause millions of people to become refugees. They predict less drinking water from shrinking snow packs.
Locally, the Napa County Board of Supervisors and the staff in the planning department should not approve any developments based on illegal water. Some developers get away with stealing water and then asking for forgiveness later and some County staff have turned their heads and say it is not their jurisdiction.
If we mismanage our water resources we will send ourselves into demise given unavoidable drought and flooding from global warming. We can not avoid or hide from our water woes. We must elect people who will legislate necessary reforms and better fund the SWRCB to a level of functionality to resolve illegal water uses and force polluters to face appropriate restitution and high fines. Additionally, the counties must cooperate and collaborate with the SWRCB to insure that water rights, water conservation and enforcement work seamlessly. Most of all, we need to reform who gets water and why while preserving the natural order of aquatic ecosystems. #
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