Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation for DWR personnel of significant news articles and comment
February 11, 2008
1. Top Items
Wet winter fails to raise water-supply outlook; North
Wet winter helps boost water allotments - Los Angeles Daily News
Allocation of water supply raised to 35% - Antelope Valley Press
Big snows increase water allocations; Pumping restrictions limit supplies to some areas - Capitol Ag Press
American Canyon's water woes lessen - Napa Valley Register
Wet winter fails to raise water-supply outlook;
By Gig Conaughton, staff writer
So far this winter, the rains have poured, and the Northern California snows that produce much of
But the wet weather and rising snowpack have not lifted the gloom cast over the region's water-supply picture by a tiny fish and
The state continues to issue low water-delivery predictions despite the accumulating snow, and says
Officials said last week that the supply outlook remains dreary because of a federal court's August ruling. The court ordered that the pumps that send
Trouble on the delta
The delta is the heart of
It has been troubled for decades by fish and habitat problems as well as by concerns that its ancient, crumbling, man-made levees could be swamped by earthquakes.
Water leaders say the smelt court ruling cemented their assertion that the delta is broken.
Jeff Kightlinger is the Metropolitan Water District's general manager.
He said last week that until the delta is fixed ---- possibly by building a pipeline through or around it to separate fish from drinking water ---- the region will continue to hear "grim reports" about supplies.
"These delta stressors ... you stack them all up and it's hard for us to say we can make the current system work," he said.
State reports
State officials said that the stress on the delta was the reason why two of its recent reports ---- on short-term and long-term supplies ---- were gloomier than they might have been.
In the short term, state officials last week just barely raised their forecast for how much water they'll be able to deliver to
Despite January storms that more than doubled the Sierra mountain snowpack, Department of Water Resources officials only raised their forecast by 10 percent ---- from 25 percent of what agencies want, the agency's November forecast, to 35 percent of agencies' demand.
In 2007, the state delivered a 60 percent allocation.
Rob Cooke, a division chief with the Department of Water Resources, said last week that the increase was kept low because of the court ruling ---- that it didn't matter how much snow there was if the ruling prevented the agency from moving water through the delta.
Without the smelt ruling, Cooke said the forecast "should have been 50 percent, which is good for this time of year."
Looking ahead to the long term, resources officials released a reliability report two weeks ago predicting that Southern Californians could face 20 percent cuts to their northern supplies one out of every four years for the foreseeable future.
That forecast was also based on a continued "broken" delta, officials said, because Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state lawmakers have not been able to agree on how to fix the system.
"We have to paint the picture of where we are right now," Cooke said. "There really isn't any (solution) ready to go."
Inaction
Metropolitan and San Diego County Water Authority leaders say the only long-term solution is to build a canal through or around the delta.
It's essentially a resurrection of the controversial "peripheral canal" proposal that statewide voters shot down in 1982 ---- a proposal that created heated debate about Southern California moving to steal Northern California's water supplies.
A "delta vision" task force created by Schwarzenegger said in December that the state needed to change how it channels water through the delta. But so far, Schwarzenegger has lobbied harder to spend billions of dollars to build new dams on the system, to store more water.
Officials say that would help, but it wouldn't solve the problem of sending water through the delta.
Kightlinger said last week that the 27 agencies that buy State Water Project supplies would ---- through their ratepayers ---- pony up the potential $4 billion a canal would cost.
Kightlinger said Schwarzenegger could kick start the discussion.
"I think the governor telling the state department of water resources to do the study is all it would take," he said. "It doesn't take the Legislature (to act) to do studies."
Dilemmas
New challenges to the already dysfunctional delta system continue to pop up.
A week ago, scientists warned that Chinook salmon that share the Delta smelt's habitat were dying off in alarming numbers. And on Friday, California Fish and Game managers moved to add another delta fish ---- the longfin smelt ---- to endangered lists.
Kate Poole, a lawyer with the Natural Resources Defense Council, the environmental group that filed the lawsuit to protect the Delta smelt, said the group is also suing to protect Chinook salmon.
It is unclear whether either the longfin smelt or Chinook salmon lawsuits could lead to more water-supply cuts.
Regional water officials say they plan to deal with the looming water shortages in several ways, by asking people to conserve, dipping into stored water supplies and looking for new water.
Kightlinger and others said agencies will have to judiciously balance their reliance on reserves. Before the smelt ruling, Metropolitan could recharge reservoirs and groundwater banks seven out of every 10 years. Using water out of storage was not seen as risky, because you could always refill reservoirs in short order. But officials say they may now only be able to replenish them three out of every 10 years ---- which could up the ante on any decision that would tap backup supplies.
Ken Weinberg of the San Diego County Water Authority said winter rains typically have relatively little effect on local water supplies because the county relies heavily on imported water. But he said this year's rains have helped by keeping people from watering lawns and gardens, and keeping water safe for storage.
Kightlinger, meanwhile, said finding new supplies ---- such as buying water from farmers willing to sell it, and backing seawater desalination projects ---- will be expensive. #
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2008/02/11/news/sandiego/20_42_072_10_08.txt
Wet winter helps boost water allotments
By Harrison Sheppard, Bureau
In November, the state water project announced it would only provide local water agencies with 25 percent of the water they requested for the year, leaving them to consider drastic rationing measures.
After new measurements of the Sierra snowpack, the figure increased this week to 35 percent.
"If the wet weather continues, it probably will go up again," said Don Strickland, spokesman for the state Department of Water Resources.
"But there are other factors at play here as well. The federal ruling to protect the delta smelt has a bearing on that. It probably would have been raised to 50 percent if not for the court ruling that we're operating under."
Last year, a federal judge ordered a sharp cutback in supplies from the state water project to protect the endangered fish.
More restrictions could be on tap in the future, as the state Fish and Game Commission last week began considering the longfin smelt as a possible candidate for the endangered species list.
The commission also gave state biologists new authority to cut water sources from Northern California that supply some 25 million people, including
Strickland said reservoirs throughout
So now, even with a snowpack that currently measures 122 percent of normal, the state is still far behind in the supply it needs.
With the 35 percent allocation, they will receive 907,000 acre-feet.
The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which supplies about half the region's water, asked for 1.9 million acre-feet and will receive 669,000 acre-feet.
MWD spokesman Bob Muir said the agency does not begrudge the state its "cautious and conservative approach."
But he also noted that the MWD's other main source of water for Southern California, the
"That 10 percent bump is certainly welcome," Muir said. "But we're still operating under the challenges brought before that federal court decision, which are restricting imports from Northern California to
http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_8210814
Allocation of water supply raised to 35%
By Alisha Semchuck, staff writer
PALMDALE - Nobody exactly said drought-like conditions have ended in
Following the latest rainstorm at the end of January, the Department of Water Resources raised the allocation for State Water Contractors from 25% to 35% of their annual entitlement - the water they can take from the California Aqueduct, according to Russ Fuller, general manager of the Antelope Valley-East Kern Water Agency, a water wholesaler that supplies agricultural as well as municipal and industrial users, such as the Quartz Hill Water District and Los Angeles County Waterworks District 40.
"We can credit a wetter-than-average January for an impressive increase in our water supplies and snowpack," Water Resources Director Lester Snow said in a news release the state agency issued on Monday.
A snow survey completed by the state agency on Jan. 31 off Highway 50 near Echo Summit - the second survey taken in 2008 - indicated the water content was about "75% better than this time last year," said a news release that same day.
"January is typically the wettest month of the water year," Arthur Hinojosa, the state agency's Hydrology Branch chief said in the news release. "This month's storms have been an excellent shot in the arm to the state's water supply.
January's precipitation has bolstered the snowpack and made up for a subpar December."
Hinojosa said the weather raised precipitation to "just above average" for the season at this time. Snow depth at Tamarack Flat, the lowest survey site at an elevation of 6,500 feet, measured 74.3 inches with a water content of 21.9 inches, equivalent to 115% of the long-term average. Surveys taken at higher elevations measured deeper snowpacks, which contained even more water.
"Statewide, the percentage of normal is at 111%," the survey report showed.
Armed with that information, Fuller discussed the change in allocation with AVEK's directors at the agency board meeting Tuesday night.
"We're optimistic it will go up another 10%," Fuller added.
As a contractor of the State Water Project, AVEK's full entitlement is 141,400 acre-feet per year during times when precipitation - rainfall and snowpacks - is plentiful. Each acre-foot equals 325,851 gallons of water - the amount used by the average single-family home in one year.
"Were it not for Wanger's decision, it would have already increased," he said, referring to the order issued by U.S. District Court Judge Oliver Wanger to slow down pumping operations at the Harvey O. Banks facility, the starting point for the 444-mile aqueduct that delivers drinking and agricultural water to much of
Wanger ordered the slowdown in mid-December to save the delta smelt, an indigenous species of fish whose population dwindled, in part, because they were sucked into the pumps and killed. The two-inch-long fish indicate the health of the delta's ecosystem, AVEK Water Resource Manager Tom Barnes said.
Smelt aside, those rainstorms "helped bring more water into the watershed," Fuller told the board, referring to the
"We're very pleased with the increase," said Curtis Paxton, assistant general manager of the Palmdale Water District, one of three State Water Contractor agencies in the
"We would hope that it continues to go up over the next few months - more precipitation in the watershed area of the State Water Project, basically in the
Though the water purveyors view the increased allocation as good news, Barnes said, "We're still not out of the woods, but better. We're still going to pursue north of the delta purchases of water."
That provides the purveyors with supplemental and backup supplies.
The Palmdale district's maximum entitlement from the State Water Project is 21,300 acre-feet. At an allocation of 35%, it would receive 7,455 acre-feet of water from the aqueduct.
But, Paxton pointed out, the estimated customer demand for 2008 is 30,000 acre-feet. So, the district needs another 22,550 acre-feet to meet those commitments.
Paxton believes the Palmdale district can fill those needs with a combination of groundwater pumping, extra supplies obtained from a Statewide Dry Year Purchase Program, water conservation efforts of agency customers and successful contract negotiations with
Also, Paxton said, "we're hopeful for some water from Littlerock Dam due to the recent storms."
Two streams flow into Littlerock Dam - the
http://www.avpress.com/n/10/0210_s6.hts
Big snows increase water allocations; Pumping restrictions limit supplies to some areas
Capitol Ag Press – 2/8/08
By Elizabeth Larsen, staff writer
Thanks to an improving snowpack and water supply, the California Department of Water Resources has increased this year's State Water Project allocation and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation reports that federal Central Valley Project users may also benefit.
But water supplies may still be heavily curtailed.
State Water Project users may only get about a third of their water requests filled, in spite of a statewide snowpack with water content that's 121 percent of average.
DWR reported its allocation to long-term contractors will rise from 25 to 35 percent of requests.
Lester Snow, director of the Department of Water Resources, said in a written statement that the increase was due to a wetter-than-average January.
"However, tighter pumping restrictions in the delta will limit how much of this water we can actually provide to many parts of Southern California, the Central Valley and the Bay Area," Snow said.
A federal court decision last year requires the state and federal water projects to curtail water pumping from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Bay-Delta in order to protect the delta smelt. Without that order, DWR estimated the allocation for 2008 would be at 50 percent.
DRW reported that the allocation increase will boost State Water Project water for long-term contractors from about 1.04 million acre feet to nearly 1.46 million acre feet.
The agency added that, based on recent precipitation and current water supply conditions, supplies are projected to meet 35 percent of most State Water Project contractors' 2008 Table A amounts, which collectively total about 4.16 million acre feet.
DWR said the State Water Project allocation could increase further if hydrologic conditions continue to improve.
The project's 29 contractors distribute water to more than 25 million Californians and about 750,000 acres of irrigated agricultural land, DWR reported.
Allocations for water managed by Bureau of Reclamation may also be helped by the snowpack, but the official allocation is not due until Feb. 15.
"Actually, right now it's a very positive outlook," said Louis Moore, spokesman for the Bureau of Reclamation.
Reservoirs in the state also have to make up ground in their storage capacity, which was sucked away in 2007 due to dry conditions that drew down surface water.
In 2007 the bureau designated conditions as "critical," but
In late January, the bureau issued two initial forecasts - one very conservative and one with more wiggle room should the year continue to bring more precipitation.
One forecast anticipates a dry year, with a 50 percent chance that runoff will exceed expectations and with few delta smelt protective actions.
That scenario calls for 100-percent allocations north of the bay-delta for all users - agriculture, municipal and industrial, refuges and water rights. South of the delta, agriculture would receive between 55 and 65 percent of full allocation levels, municipal would get 80 to 90 percent and refuges and water rights 100 percent each.
In the second scenario, if the year were to be termed "critical," with numerous delta smelt actions, the water allocation would be seriously reduced. Users north and south of the delta would receive the same allocations. Agriculture users would only get 25 percent of their allocation; municipal and industrial, 75 percent; and 100 percent for water rights and refuges. #
http://www.capitalpress.info/main.asp?SectionID=67&SubSectionID=616&ArticleID=39049&TM=14260.76
By Kerana Todorov, staff writer
Unlike
American Canyon, which needs about 4,000 acre-feet a year, is entitled to up to more than 4,800 acre-feet, but the state of Department of Water Resources told cities and counties throughout California they would receive only a fraction of their allocations.
The jurisdictions’ water allocations are dependent on snow levels in the Sierra. In addition, under a federal ruling the state will allocate less water in order to protect the Delta smelt, an endangered fish.
In what American Canyon Public Works Director Robert Weil and other water officials found encouraging, on Feb. 4 DWR announced that the initial water allocations increased from 25 percent to 35 percent after the Sierra received more snow than average.
“I think we’re going to be OK,” said Felix Riesenberg, principal water resources engineer for
Besides buying North Bay Aqueduct water,
According to a Public Works summary sent to the City Council, the city could spend up to $50,000 to buy up to 132 acre-feet of water from Yountville and 96 acre-feet from Calistoga. In addition,
In a report to the Yountville City Council, Public Works Director Myke Praul explained that Yountville could sell up to 660 acre-feet of North Bay Aqueduct water, the amount of water the town was entitled to last year. Yountville, which primarily relies on Rector Reservoir for water, did not use any North Bay Aqueduct water last year.
Phil Brun,
The city’s water supplies are in good shape, he said, adding the increased North Bay Aqueduct water allocations ae “very good news.”
“I’m comfortable today,” Brun said.
In the meantime, no rain is in the forecast through Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service
American Canyon’s ability to pay for water is expected to be discussed at future budget meetings.
In January, longtime
City officials say revenues from the higher rates are necessary to pay for the operations of the municipal water and sewer systems. #
http://www.napavalleyregister.com/articles/2008/02/11/news/local/doc47b027725b3fb065878566.txt
####
No comments:
Post a Comment