[Water_news] 2. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: SUPPLY - 2/1/08

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment 

 

February 1, 2008

 

2. Supply -

 

 

Sierra snowpack good - drought fears lessen -

San Francisco Chronicle

 

Snowpack is hefty – official wants more -

Sacramento Bee

 

Reservoirs drink in the rains

Local water officials hopeful for a ‘good water year’ -

Napa Valley Register

 

San Diego would gain under new drought plan

Metropolitan proposal calls for less-severe cuts -

San Diego Union Tribune

 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

 

Sierra snowpack good - drought fears lessen

San Francisco Chronicle – 2/1/08

Peter Fimrite, Staff Writer

 

 (02-01) 04:00 PST Phillips, El Dorado County -- The big aluminum pole slipped through the powdery snow and hit solid ground a good 73 inches down, prompting satisfied grins from snow survey specialists Frank Gehrke and Dave Hart.

 

"That's beauticious," declared Gehrke, who trudges every year with his colleague at the state Department of Water Resources into the snowy Sierra backcountry to measure water content and depth.

 

The measurements Thursday at historic Phillips Station, next to the Sierra-at-Tahoe resort, were too good for real words, especially after last year's meager results prompted fears of drought.

 

The Sierra Nevada snowpack, which, to hydrologists, is a better holding tank than the biggest man-made reservoir, is 13 percentage points above normal for this time of year. That, to a man who makes a living off a good water supply, can make a cold day in the middle of a quickly intensifying storm feel like a summer jaunt.

"This is practically picnic weather," joked Hart, as he stood there in wool pants and a giant parka, blinking as white flakes speckled his head.

 

The snowpack will grow as the storm continues to dump on Northern California this weekend, meteorologists said Thursday. But then they predict an extended stretch of blue skies.

 

The winter snowpack in the Sierra is not only important to skiers and snowboarders, it is an essential part of the state's water supply. Up to 60 percent of the state's water is contained in the Sierra snowpack, Hart said. When it melts in the spring and summer, the water is used to irrigate 775,000 acres of farmland and quench the thirst of California's 36 million people. About a quarter of the state's power comes from hydroelectric plants that count on heavy mountain runoff.

 

"Even in an average year it is absolutely critical," Hart said. "This is water on the ground that will melt during the spring. We depend on it."

 

For 63 years, the water content of the snow - the amount of water that would be on the ground if all the snow melted - has been measured every month between January and May. The measurements, which are taken in the same locations throughout the Sierra every year, are used to determine the water supply for the coming year.

 

Gehrke and Hart jam a tube-like instrument through the snow, catching what is essentially a core sample. They measure the depth and weigh the whole thing to determine the water content.

 

The Jan. 31 measurement at the privately owned cabin known as Phillips Station is seen by many as the Groundhog Day of water availability in the state. If the snowpack is good, chances are there won't be a drought.

 

Seven measurements, each 50 feet apart, were taken in a meadow just off of Highway 50 Thursday next to Phillips Station. The average depth of the snow was 73.1 inches and the water content was 23.6 inches. That's 23 percent above average for the site. Last year at this time, the depth was 23.2 and the water content was 7.3 inches at Phillips, only 38 percent of the average.

 

"You can certainly be optimistic," Hart said. "If we just have one or two more of these big storms we will hit our average for the year."

It is, however, dangerous to think that average or even slightly above average at this time means the state is sitting pretty, Hart said.

 

"It used to be good when you had 20 million people, but now we have more than 35 million people in the state," he said. "And in the past we didn't have the demand for environmental uses of water," like fisheries restoration.

 

"We need to be better than average if we're going to make up for the deficit from last year," he continued. "We've got all these people in Southern California now and they all want lawns. And they don't have rain down there."

 

The Bay Area is another story. National Weather Service forecasters said the rain will stop Friday but return Saturday night. It should be clear by Sunday evening, said Bob Benjamin, a forecaster for the National Weather Service.

 

"Monday's good, Tuesday looks fine and then there may be another brief interlude (of rain) on Wednesday," he said. "We might get showers in Sonoma, and maybe as far south as the Golden Gate, but we should be just catching a glancing blow of a system headed across the Pacific Northwest."

 

Hart said that since 1995 the Sierra have seen more above-average snowfall years than normal. But he and Gehrke aren't about to get too giddy as the rain and snow pummels the state. They both long ago adopted the old water game mantra to guard against optimism.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/01/MNE3UPTSC.DTL

 

Snowpack is hefty – official wants more

Sacramento Bee – 2/1/08

Bee Metro Staff -

 

Wave after wave of cold fronts, coupled with streams of rain-laden clouds, made for near-perfect storms in January, dumping enough snow to ease drought worries in the region, state water officials said Thursday.

 

The Sierra snowpack is well above average depth for this time of year, a positive sign for spring and summer water deliveries to farms and cities, said Frank Gehrke, snow survey coordinator for the California Department of Water Resources.

 

Because weather forecasters had been calling for a wet winter, Gehrke said regional water planners "were not really anxious. … But without all the storms since the start of January, it would have been problematic."

On Thursday, snowpack in the Sierra south of Lake Tahoe measured 73.1 inches deep, or 123 percent of normal.

That's good news, Gehrke said, but it'd be even better if Mother Nature would bring a bit more snow.

 

"Just because we have an average snowpack, it doesn't necessarily mean we will have an average runoff this year," he said.

Gehrke did not want to bet, yet, that the Sierra will get the snow California needs. Weather forecasts beyond 72 hours, he said, are "anyone's guess."

http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/678870.html

 

Reservoirs drink in the rains

Local water officials hopeful for a ‘good water year’

Napa Valley Register – 2/1/08

By KERANA TODOROV,Register Staff Writer

 

The recent rains have replenished the county’s water reservoirs, but more is needed, said local water officials Thursday.

Napa’s water department general manager, Phil Brun, was cautiously optimistic about the wet weather.

The city’s main reservoir, Lake Hennessey, is 76 percent full, Brun said. Lake Milliken, the city’s other water reservoir, is full.

Lake Hennessey has filled up enough that on Wednesday the city re-opened the public boat launch off Sage Canyon Road for the first time since October. The city closed the boat launch Oct. 8 because low water levels forced boaters to wade into the lake to move their crafts on and off their trailers. The city of Napa does not allow people in the waters of Lake Hennessey because it is a water supply reservoir.

Still, Brun hopes more rain.

“There is still room” for more water, he said.

American Canyon, unlike the other county cities, relies almost entirely on the State Water Project for its supplies of Delta water via the North Bay Aqueduct, a state Department of Water Resources system.

On Nov. 2 the state Department of Water Resources in issued the lowest initial water allocations since 2003. The final water allocations are expected later this year.

American Canyon Public Works Director Robert Weil said he was hopeful that the rains will boost the city’s water allocation, now at 25 percent.

“It looks like it’s going to be a good water year,” Weil said.

St. Helena is retaining its water conservation measures even though Bell Canyon, the city’s main reservoir near Angwin, began spilling over Monday, said Jonathon Goldman, St. Helena’s director of public works. Bell Canyon provides 80 percent of the city’s water, he said.

“That’s certainly good,” said Goldman. “(But) I’d like to see it spilling into March or even April before we relax a little,” Goldman added.

Watering of landscaping, vineyards and fields will continue to be restricted to three times a week.

People water their lawns even when it rains, Goldman said.

In Calistoga, Public Works Superintendent Warren Schenstrom said Kimball Reservoir, which supplies half of the city’s water supplies, is full.

Calistoga, like Napa, American Canyon, and Yountville also depends on the state’s Water Project for potable water.

On Thursday, DWR announced the latest snow survey show that the snowpack levels are above normal.

“January is typically the wettest month of the year, said DWR Hydrology Branch Chief Arthur Hinojosa in a written statement, “and this month’s storms have been an excellent shot in the arm to the state’s water supply.”

http://www.napavalleyregister.com/articles/2008/02/01/news/local/doc47a2c76cadb47835922779.txt

 

 

 

San Diego would gain under new drought plan

Metropolitan proposal calls for less-severe cuts

San Diego Union Tribune – 2/1/08

By Michael Gardner, COPLEY NEWS SERVICE

 

SACRAMENTO – A water-rationing plan for most of Southern California may be rained out.

Welcome midseason storms from Salt Lake City to San Diego have tempered drought alarms for now.

Nevertheless, the Metropolitan Water District is expected to approve a plan Feb. 12 that would establish how mandatory cuts would be put in place if the normally wet months of February and March come up dry.

 

The controversial and complex proposal is designed to provide the San Diego County Water Authority and Metropolitan's other customers with a planning guide for how much they could lose during dry spells.

 

Ken Weinberg, director of water resources at the San Diego authority, said Metropolitan's plan is “fair for everybody” because it spreads the pain of cuts.

The water authority should like it. Under the plan, if Metropolitan must reduce deliveries by 10 percent across the region, San Diego would lose an amount equal to that used by 130,000 average households a year. In contrast, if the current drought policy stays in effect, San Diego could stand to lose 209,000 acre-feet – or enough for more than 400,000 households.

 

Metropolitan officials suggest that the plan will not have to be implemented this year as long as the storms keep rolling in.

 

“We're getting good numbers on the rainfall this year,” said Timothy Brick, chairman of Metropolitan's board of directors. “But that doesn't relieve the long-range pressure.”

 

The Sierra snowpack is at 111 percent of normal, according to yesterday's survey by the state Department of Water Resources. Last year at this time, it was at 43 percent.

 

Moreover, the Colorado River outlook is promising, particularly along the sections fed by the Unita Mountains in Utah and throughout the western slope of the Rockies. Snow in the upper reaches of the river basin was measured at 101 percent of normal before the latest round of storms swept through. At this time last year, the measurement was 76 percent.

 

“We've got more storms on the horizon,” said Barry Wirth of the federal Bureau of Reclamation. The Colorado River, through Lake Mead, provides California with enough water to meet the needs of about 1 million households a year.

 

However, California and the West still have at least two months to go before any celebration.

 

Veteran water managers such as Gary Arant in Valley Center warn that February and March can bring disappointment.

 

“Sometimes it starts off gangbusters like this and then it stops. You just don't really know,” he said.

 

Because of the uncertainty, water managers continue to urge conservation. The more people shut off their sprinklers and taps this winter, the more water will be banked for summer, managers say.

 

Even if Southern California gets through 2008 without major water shortages, the long-term outlook is grim across the West, according to a study published yesterday in the journal Science. It examined disappearing snowpacks, higher temperatures and changes in runoff in nine Western mountain ranges.

 

The report, led by researchers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego, said climate change would affect the region's water supplies.

 

“Is something like that going to happen? The answer is a definite yes,” said Tim Barnett, the lead researcher and a marine physicist at Scripps.

Wirth of the Bureau of Reclamation also said hydrologists are perplexed by weather patterns, which have resulted in dryer conditions in the south and wetter conditions in the north than anticipated.

 

“So, it's a strong pattern but it's not going as we would expect,” Wirth said of the passing storms. “That will make the February-to-April period both interesting and important.”

 

San Diego's farm country already feels the uncertainty. The wet winter has brought some relief to orchard and nursery owners who had their allotment trimmed by 30 percent Jan. 1.

 

“There's no getting around the fact that at some point it's going to hurt, and it's going to hurt bad,” said Eric Larson, head of the San Diego County Farm Bureau. “We just don't know when that is.”

 

Just as the skies open up with bountiful rain and snow, the Metropolitan Water District is wrestling with how to fairly parcel out limited supplies throughout Southern California, including the San Diego region. If the plan is adopted, the Metropolitan board would review supply conditions in May before deciding how much to cut, if any.

 

Metropolitan's new allocation formula would reduce deliveries to its member agencies by varying amounts depending on existing demand, growth and conservation credits. San Diego's allocation is 499,078 acre-feet, according to the Los Angeles-based wholesaler. One acre-foot equals 326,000 gallons, or enough for two average households for a year.

 

According to the plan, the San Diego authority would receive 433,284 acre-feet, a loss of about 65,000 acre-feet, under a 10 percent rollback across Southern California. Under a 20 percent cut, San Diego would receive 404,233 acre-feet – a reduction of nearly 95,000 acre-feet. The authority would take 309,387 acre-feet – a nearly 190,000-acre-foot shortfall – under a more Draconian 40 percent, regionwide scenario.

 

Although ominous, the potential cuts under the existing plan could be worse. For example, Metropolitan's standing “preferential rights” policy would reduce San Diego deliveries by about 209,000 acre-feet – or enough for more than 400,000 households – under the 10 percent cut.

 

Not every agency supports Metropolitan's proposal. Long Beach has protested, saying Metropolitan should follow the older policy, which would increase the amount given to that city, which already imposes mandatory rationing.

 

“It will cost our ratepayers millions of dollars. We don't think that's fair or right,” said Kevin Wattier, general manager of the city's water department.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20080201/news_1n1water.html