A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
January 29, 2008
2. Supply
Water dilemma reaches valley; Depleting aquifer, troubled delta putting desert oasis in jeopardy - Desert Sun
California's neighbors emphasizing water conservation - Desert Sun
WATER CONSERVATION PLANNING:
Petaluma OKs voluntary water plan; City Council backs program to encourage efficiency, conservation in coming years - Santa Rosa Press Democrat
Editorial: No single answer to water woes -
Editorial: Water is still a worry - The Daily Breeze (
Editorial: Recent rain no excuse to stop conserving water - San Jose Mercury News
Water dilemma reaches valley; Depleting aquifer, troubled delta putting desert oasis in jeopardy
Desert Sun – 1/27/08
By Keith Matheny, staff writer
An extremely fortunate, naturally occurring quirk allowed the
A vast underground qquifer has kept the desert wet as the water situation becomes increasingly desperate throughout
But now the shadow of the Western water dilemma has reached the valley:
Years of taking more water out of the aquifer than is put back is causing the valley to sink, threatening roads, pipelines and other infrastructure.
The valley's two main outside sources of water, the Colorado River and the State Water Project, are both providing reduced supplies to the valley and other growing, water-thirsty areas reliant upon them.
Questionable future water supplies halted large developments in western
Valley's aquifer depleting
The aquifer beneath the valley has made possible its soaring population, fertile farms, scores of golf courses, lush lawns and status as a resort destination.
The clays and sediments under valley residents' feet are believed to hold more than 12.7 trillion gallons of water, enough to supply 39 million homes for a year if extraction was feasible.
But during recent years, the integrity of the aquifer has been compromised as more water is taken than returned.
A recent study by the U.S. Geological Survey found the valley sinking at an increasing rate, more than a foot over the last decade in spots.
Subsidence has the potential to become a costly problem, said Steve Robbins, general manager of the Coachella Valley Water District.
"Before long, you have cracking to your infrastructure, your roads crack, they don't drain anymore, your sewer lines break," he said. "That's when it's going to cost many, many millions of dollars."
Continuing to overuse the aquifer would increase costs of pumping water from deeper out of the ground, Robbins said. And the deeper into the aquifer officials must go, the more water quality deteriorates and requires costly treatment before it's usable, he said.
Problems in the delta
An environmental crisis nearly 500 miles from the
The Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is beset with problems. And it's the delta, through the massive State Water Project, that provides two-thirds of Californians with water. It also indirectly provides the water the
The delta's levee system is aging and inadequate.
"If we have an earthquake or big storm that takes those levees out, we could lose our water supply from
The delta's ecosystem is in collapse. Fish and other aquatic organisms are increasingly threatened, including the endangered delta smelt, a finger-length fish.
A federal judge in December ruled the state must act to protect the smelt. In the short term that means reduced pumping by the State Water Project and water supplies reduced by about one-third for 25 million water-users.
"It's a major shakeup in the water world," said Rita Schmidt Sudman, executive director of the
"The reliability of the State Water Project was definitely put in question" by the ruling, she said.
The valley's other major outside source of water, the
The worst sustained drought in the
"We have to recognize that climate change is real," Robbins said.
"Whether climate change is because of man or because of nature, I think, is irrelevant."
The
"As a valley, we have negotiated amazingly well for the water that we have. But there's no more water to negotiate for," said Connor Limont, a member of both the Palm Desert Planning Commission and the Coachella Valley Association of Government's energy committee.
In large part due to the foresight of
But the "law of the river," the framework of compacts, treaties and court decisions that decide Colorado River allotments, requires rights-holders to put their water shares to their "highest and best use" otherwise the rights can transfer to the next-highest priority-holder.
"I think that the water wars are not over," Robbins said. "I think it could get ugly.
"The best way for us to protect ourselves is to make sure that we are using what we have in the most efficient manner possible. That keeps the microscope looking at somebody else."
Water summit called
Growing concerns throughout the region prompted Ashley to convene a water summit meeting Friday at the Morongo Casino, Resort & Spa. There, government and water officials from both
The group's assessments and proposed solutions then will be presented to a wider audience at the county's annual Water Symposium at Morongo on May 1, Ashley said.
The Legislature and Gov.
Ashley and many valley officials are calling on state lawmakers to develop a comprehensive water bond plan and have it on the ballot for voters to consider in November.
Any plan must include a peripheral canal or other system of delivering water from the
"I'm concerned they are going to overlook the most serious problem of all, the water supply," Ashley said. #
http://www.mydesert.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080127/NEWS07/801270343/1006/news01
Desert Sun – 1/28/08
By Jake Henshaw, staff writer
Eight years into a drought on the Colorado River,
Both regions are pushing a host of water-saving devices such as high-tech lawn sprinkler controls, drought-tolerant landscaping and voluntary customer water audits.
Some major
''Our message to our citizens is we can have as good or better quality of life with much less water by paying attention to what we do,'' said Doug Bennett, conservation manager for the Southern Nevada Water Authority, which serves Las Vegas.
The goal, said Jack Lavelle, a spokesman for the Arizona Department of Water Resources, is to persuade residents there are pleasing landscape alternatives to lush green lawns.
''We are trying to create a desert-friendly culture,'' Lavelle said.
The bid to conserve is nothing new for these two states that depend so heavily on two major sources of water, the
Lavelle said that, in 1980,
In these populated areas, the act bans new farm irrigation and requires anyone proposing new development to prove they have an adequate water supply for 100 years.
This year, for the first time, rural areas outside the most populated regions have been given the power to reject new development with inadequate water supplies.
''It's really the muscle that rural areas have been looking for,'' Lavelle said.
In
''That focused people in on the fact that this was a desert community,'' said Fernando Molina, the conservation program manager for the
This long-term shift to more drought-tolerant landscapes has relieved
Growing at the rate of a couple hundred people a day,
''We found that anything other than grass is better adopted to the desert environment,'' Bennett said.
His agency now pays homeowners and businesses $2 a square foot to remove the first 1,500 square feet of lawn and $1 per square foot beyond that, with funding coming primarily from connection fees.
Since 2000, the campaign has reached 25,000 customers who've agreed to pull out 90 million square feet of ornamental lawns, saving nearly 20,000 acre-feet a year. That's enough for about 20,000 or so homes annually. The region uses about 460,000 acre-feet annually, Bennett said.
''This is a very cost-effective way to stretch our water,'' he said.
The
Arizona also is working, with utilities' financial support, for example, on encouraging use of a ''rinse smart'' product in commercial kitchens to save water and energy, while both states have taken steps, sometimes with cost discounts, to make devices such as low-flush toilets and low-flow shower-heads the standard.
The Treasure Island resort in
Absher said that is an example of the corporation's ''green'' approach that is going to be most evident in its 18 million-square-foot
''In that work, water is definitely a part of the whole,'' said Absher, whose companies' properties include major resorts such as the Bellagio, MGM Grand, The Mirage,
The Southern Nevada Water Authority also is working on a controversial multi-billion-dollar pipeline to import about 125,000 acre-feet of water a year from rural areas of
A recent report by an environmental group and a
Patricia Mulroy, general manager of the
''Conservation is not an adequate substitute for developing an independent and readily available water supply that will provide our community badly needed drought protection,'' Mulroy said in a prepared statement.
In Tucson, the conservation effort has reduced water use by single-family homes from 120 gallons per person six to eight years ago, Molina said, to just over 100 gallons today.
''Even if we do get our
Bennett said the drought on the
''I think with the drought on the
http://www.mydesert.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080128/NEWS01/801280331/1026/NEWS12
WATER CONSERVATION PLANNING:
Petaluma OKs voluntary water plan; City Council backs program to encourage efficiency, conservation in coming years
Santa Rosa Press Democrat – 1/29/08
By Paul Payne, staff writer
The voluntary inspections are one feature of a 19-point program that is expected to save 495 million gallons a year by 2025, ensuring that the city has enough water for a projected population of 72,000 people.
A unanimous council vote came as residents on the north end of
But, perhaps fitting for a city bedeviled by shortages and surpluses of water,
The city, which uses about 4 billion gallons of water a year, began working on a conservation program following a warning in 2006 that demand could outstrip supply by the end of this decade.
In addition to voluntary inspections, the program adopted Monday includes free low-flow plumbing attachments, rebates for high-efficiency washing machines, landscape renovation restrictions and rebates for updated irrigation systems.
It requires new home developers to install high-efficiency toilets, sprinklers with rain-sensor shut-offs and offer efficient washers.
Margaret Orr, engineering manager for the Petaluma Water Resources and Conservation Department, said the plan will cost the city $591,000 in 2008 and less in each subsequent year.
It will cost developers about $2.4 million, she said.
Mandatory water-efficiency inspections were dropped after real estate agents complained last fall that the point-of-sale provision would be costly and time-consuming.
City officials and agents hammered out a compromise which will allow sellers who replace outdated toilets and fix leaky plumbing to obtain city documentation that can be used to market a home.
Kathy Hayes, the government affairs director for the North Bay Association of Realtors, said the change was a major improvement.
"It's terrific," Hayes said. "We end up working voluntarily with the city."
The city has had a de facto building moratorium in place for nearly two years, in part because of concerns about water supply. Work is continuing on an updated land use plan, which is to include elements of the conservation ordinance adopted Monday.
City officials said the conservation ordinance will ensure that the city has enough water to grow from about 56,000 people today to a projected population of 72,000 in the next 17 years, the lifespan of the new general plan.
Coupled with an ambitious water recycling project, city officials said the conservation ordinance will lead to the most efficient use of supplies from the Sonoma County Water Agency and spare the city's well water.
"This is the most cost-effective water source to
http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/article/20080129/NEWS/801290362/1033/NEWS01
Editorial: No single answer to water woes
OUR VIEW: Don't be fooled by recent rains - there are still serious threats to water availability.
It might seem almost funny.
A local congresswoman is holding a hearing today in
And a local water district is holding a workshop Wednesday to discuss the state's water shortage.
Meanwhile, we're still trying to dry out after getting soaked by rainstorms all weekend.
But it's not funny. Even though we've had some impressive storms this winter and our rainfall totals are looking good for this year, there are underlying problems that threaten
With the eight-year drought in the Colorado River Basin cutting water imports from that river, and a court ruling threatening supplies from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, there is a great deal of uncertainty in our water future.
Rep. Grace Napolitano, D-Santa Fe Springs, is holding a hearing today to examine what can be done to decrease our dependency on the Delta. A federal judge's decision that Delta water exports might have to be cut by as much as a third to protect a threatened fish makes finding alternatives a must. Some 18 million Southern Californians, as well as
Among the panelists at the hearing will be Rich Atwater, CEO and general manager of the local Inland Empire Utilities Agency, and Jeff Kightlinger, general manager of Metropolitan Water District, which provides imported water for most
Inland Empire Utilities Agency has set a good example by promoting water recycling through its own projects and on the part of its member cities. MWD takes credit for reducing regional water demands by about 15 percent through encouragement of conservation.
Another hearing participant will be Rick Frank, a member of the governor's Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force.
That panel's important report recommends a dual focus on protecting the Delta's ecosystem and the state's water delivery, and leans toward a "dual conveyance" system that would divert some water into the State Water Project before it reaches the Delta.
The task force is a many-pronged approach that includes better storage facilities for surface water and groundwater along with conservation and reuse.
That's right. There's no silver bullet to secure
That's why we're glad to see Napolitano bring together water managers, farmers, the Delta study group, the federal Bureau of Reclamation and the state Department of Water Resources.
We're also glad to see the Cucamonga Water District put on a series of workshops to make consumers more conscious of their water use.
Even if we're still drying out from the rain. #
http://www.dailybulletin.com/ci_8101938
Editorial: Water is still a worry
The Daily Breeze (
Regional supply issues remain despite recent rains.
The timing is odd, but the issue is still as relevant as ever: A Southern California congresswoman is holding a hearing today in
Meanwhile, people all over the
The seasonal rainfall total in the
Despite the recent wet weather, there are underlying problems that threaten
With the eight-year drought in the Colorado River Basin cutting water imports from that river, and a court ruling threatening supplies from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, future water supplies can't be taken for granted.
Rep. Grace Napolitano, D-Norwalk, is holding a hearing to examine what can be done to decrease our dependency on the delta. A federal judge's decision that delta water exports might have to be cut by as much as a third to protect a threatened fish makes finding alternatives a must. Some 18 million
Among the panelists at the hearing will be Jeff Kightlinger, general manager of Metropolitan Water District, which provides imported water for most Southern California water agencies, including those in the
The MWD takes credit for reducing regional water demands by about 15 percent by promoting conservation efforts such as low-flow shower heads and low-flush toilets.
Another hearing participant will be Rick Frank, a member of the governor's Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force.
That panel's important report recommends a dual focus on protecting the delta's ecosystem and the state's water delivery, and leans toward a "dual conveyance" system that would divert some water into the State Water Project before it reaches the Delta.
The task force favors a many-pronged approach that includes better storage facilities for surface water and groundwater along with conservation and reuse.
There's no silver bullet to secure
That's why we're glad to see Napolitano bring together water managers, farmers, the Delta study group, the federal Bureau of Reclamation and the state Department of Water Resources. Such efforts help make consumers more conscious of their water use, even when they are drying out from the rain. #
http://www.dailybreeze.com/ci_8104496
Editorial: Recent rain no excuse to stop conserving water
Rain, rain, rain. There's been lots of it in January. And more is coming this week.
This month's drenching has helped local precipitation and reservoir levels reach higher-than-normal levels - a welcome change from drought conditions a year ago.
But that doesn't mean you should take longer showers or run the dishwasher half-empty.
Water conservation is still needed over the long run, especially in a state where supply is limited at worst and unpredictable at best.
You certainly don't have to look far for signs of fragility in
To be sure, the rain gods have been generous lately.
The 10 local reservoirs operated by the Santa Clara Valley Water District have only recently filled up to 58 percent of capacity. While that's 120 percent of the historical average for this time of year, things could always dry up again.
In June, when faced with the prospect of a second consecutive dry year, the district asked customers to reduce water use 10 percent. So far, use has only shrunk 5 percent to 7 percent. And the district says it won't be lifting the call for voluntary cutbacks despite the recent rain.
So even as you keep your umbrella handy, don't let up on water conservation. Keep the showers short. (A household of four that commits to five-minute showers can save 10 percent of its water use.) Run the dishwasher and washer only when they're full. Turn off the faucet while you're lathering up. Install low-flow toilets, shower heads and drought-tolerant landscaping.
Whether it's short-term or long-term steps, make water conservation as second nature as waste recycling. #
http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_8107014
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