A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
February 22, 2008
2. Supply
WEEKEND STORM IN CENTRAL VALLEY
Big storm to blast region; Wind gusts up to 70 mph expected when worst of it hits Saturday afternoon - Sacramento Bee
SNOWPACK ISSUES:
Sierra snowpack triple 2007's total - Visalia Times Delta
WATER BANKING:
More questions on AVEK water bank EIR; SCE and air district express concerns - Mojave Desert News
WATER SUPPLY ISSUES:
Editorial: A local water war -
Valley water is safe from Vegas raid; Official: 'There is no plot in
Editorial:
WEEKEND STORM IN CENTRAL VALLEY
Big storm to blast region; Wind gusts up to 70 mph expected when worst of it hits Saturday afternoon
Sacramento
By Matt Weiser, staff writer
Unlike the Jan. 4 storm, when wind gusts topped 80 mph and caused long power outages, this new storm won't be quite as powerful but it may last longer.
Forecasters say residents should plan for gusts above 50 mph for nearly a 24-hour period starting at 1 p.m. Saturday, with peak winds as high as 70 mph. The Valley could see as much as 2 inches of rain by Sunday night, while Sierra passes could see more than 2 feet of snow.
"The whole weekend's a washout," said Elyssa Lynn, senior meteorologist at the state Department of Water Resources. "Power outages are a possibility for that extended period of time. Learn your lesson from that storm in early January."
The National Weather Service on Thursday issued a high wind watch and a winter storm watch covering nearly the entire weekend.
The weather today should be relatively calm. Residents are urged to use the break to tie down or store loose objects in the yard and around the house, stockpile extra food, candles, blankets and batteries, and prepare for power outages.
The Valley's main rivers should not see flooding problems because reservoirs still have ample storage.
Localized stream and urban flooding are possible depending on how the storm develops. Clearing street drains and gutters will be good preparation.
"It's looking kind of messy," said Cynthia Palmer, a weather service meteorologist in
A gale warning is in effect along much of the
The storm is particularly strong,
The Sacramento Municipal Utility District is monitoring the storm, spokeswoman Dace Udris said, with two crews put on short notice for emergencies and more available if conditions worsen.
"If staffing needs to be readjusted as the storm comes in, we'll go ahead and do that," she said. #
http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/730944.html
SNOWPACK ISSUES:
Sierra snowpack triple 2007's total
By Hilary Meeks, staff writer
This year’s snowpack is three times larger than last year’s — good news for those disappointed by 2007 lake levels.
“Last year it was pretty grim,” said Frank Gehrke, snow surveys coordinator with the California Department of Water Resources.
Cold January storms dumped loads of snow in the Sierra Nevada range east of
Average snowpack depth translates to 22 inches of water, officials said. Last year at this time, the “snow-water” equivalent was 8 inches.
The Valley’s water supply could use an above-average snowpack by season’s end, Gehrke said.
“A lot of the reservoirs have gone down,” he said. “Because of that, we like to have quite a bit better than average snowpack to refill the reservoirs.”
The first few weeks of February saw disappointing snowfall, Gehrke said. But a weekend storm is expected to pack a wallop.
Between 4 and 7 inches of snow were expected Thursday night, with 1 to 2 feet more expected at higher elevations Saturday and Sunday, said meteorologist Kevin Durfee with the National Weather Service in Hanford.
Snow could fall as low as 4,200 feet on Sunday, he said. The storm also will affect
http://www.visaliatimesdelta.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080222/NEWS/802220328
WATER BANKING:
More questions on AVEK water bank EIR; SCE and air district express concerns
By Bill Deaver, staff writer
ROSAMOND — The Kern County Air Pollution Control District (KCPCD) and Southern California Edison have joined critics of an environmental document prepared for a water banking scheme proposed by the Antelope Valley/East Kern Water Agency (AVEK) west of Rosamond.
The complaints from SCE and KCAPCD are the latest criticism and concerns leveled at the draft environmental impact report (DEIR) AVEK has circulated. The agency wants to develop a water bank around 60th Street West and has encountered opposition from residents, Kern County Planning Dept. officials, and others.
In a letter to AVEK, KCAPCD chief David Jones complained that the district, which is responsible for managing ir quality in East Kern, was ignored in the consultation phase of the study and has not received a copy of the DEIR.
Jones also noted that the DEIR for the project, which is in
Location questions
Both the KCAPCD and SCE letters raise questions about the location of the proposed facility, which they say are not clearly spelled-out in the DEIR.
The SCE letter, written by Cathy Hart, the company’s
Hart also notes that the study ignores potential impacts to existing and planned SCE power lines in the area.
It also ignores potential impacts to birds that would be attracted to the area by water and could be killed by wind turbine blades. And it ignores “cumulative” impacts to a private water bank west of AVEK’s plus a proposed wind energy projects, Hart’s letter said.
“The (DEIR) must address all potential impacts to SCE facilities,”
Hart wrote AVEK.
Air quality questions
Jones said the DEIR doesn’t contain information to help the district determine air quality emissions during construction and operation, nor does it “address the project’s contribution to greenhouse gases.”
Jones’s letter listed 10 items of concern involving air quality questions not addressed in the DEIR.
“Due to the deficiencies in you DEIR, we cannot make a determination of whether the project will pose a significant impact,” Jones concluded.
Despite all of the questions raised by the project and the DEIR, AVEK board members have already purchased the land for the water bank and plan to lease it back to the farmer they bought it from.
A privately-developed water bank further west of the AVEK project does not appear to have the problems associated with the AVEK effort. #
http://www.desertnews.com/mdn/story4.html
WATER SUPPLY ISSUES:
Editorial: A local water war
The issue is so complicated most people don't realize it, but cities in the
The losers aren't feeling any pain yet, but they probably will in the next drought. A water allocation plan approved last week by the Metropolitan Water District tips the balance heavily in favor of
The MWD, eager to keep the peace among its municipal water customers, says there isn't really any problem, but we're not so sure. City officials and the heads of water agencies say otherwise.
It's not about supply, as Long Beach Mayor Bob Foster says, it's about money. Under the new plan, residents of cities in the
MWD officials say, soothingly, that the new plan spreads drought-related water cuts as evenly as possible. But local officials say that in a drought
MWD sells water imported from the Colorado River and Northern California to 26 cities and water agencies in
What can the losers do about it? Not much: Try to change the law (good luck), sue, or just assert the legal rights they thought they had and let the winners sue.
Creating an allocation to benefit
Problems are coming, for sure. Even assuming a normal rainfall, the MWD will draw down its water reserves this year by as much as 30 percent. Last year it was 20 percent. At that rate, there won't be reserves for very many more seasons.
Long Beach Water Department has a plan to free itself from having to buy imported water within 10 years or less: increase water recycling, implement its proprietary desalination system and, of course, continue to promote conservation.
Others would be wise to do some of the same, and soon. #
http://www.presstelegram.com/opinions/ci_8328905
Valley water is safe from Vegas raid; Official: 'There is no plot in
Desert Sun – 2/22/08
By Keith Matheny, staff writer
Despite what the mayor of
So said leaders of two of the largest providers of urban water in the western
Instead, the agencies are focusing on cooperative efforts, more conservation and finding new water sources.
They hope that will be enough in the face of challenges such as continuing drought, court-ordered supply cuts to protect endangered fish and population growth.
"There is no plot in
Tensions in the agriculture-vs.-urban water debate were stirred last week when Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman indicated valley farmers would face a water crisis before
"No one is going to allow us to dry up," Goodman said at a Feb. 14 news conference following a study indicating that Lake Mead, where
"The
That raised the ire of valley farmers and water officials.
"Those are fighting words," said Nicole Rothfleisch, executive director of the Imperial County Farm Bureau.
Fallowing is a sensitive issue in
Though farm owners are compensated for their participation, it has profound ripple effects, Rothfleisch said. Sixty percent of landowners are absentee, she said, so fallowing does not necessarily benefit the tenant farmers who actually live in the community and shop in local stores.
It also impacts those who support the farming industry: fuel providers, harvesters, tractor repair shops and fertilizer and seed providers.
One result is higher prices, as farm-support businesses try to make ends meet or competition lessens as some leave the market, Rothfleisch said.
"Anything that drives the cost of farming up is a great concern," she said.
The Lake Mead report from
Mulroy questioned the study and called the probabilities of such a water catastrophe "slim."
But Vegas is working to get more of its eggs out of the
The authority is developing unused groundwater supplies from eastern and central
One acre-foot provides a typical
The authority is also banking 20,000 acre-feet of its unused river water in
"To start declaring war on one another makes absolutely no sense - we'll all go under," Mulroy said.
Solving needs
The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California provides water to more than 17 million Californians in
The district is also solving its water needs through diversifying supply, conservation and cooperative partnerships, assistant general manager Roger Patterson said.
Blythe area farmers voluntarily fallow portions of their fields to create water supply under one program, he said.
They can fallow up to 30 percent of the land in the Palo Verde Irrigation District, under the agreement. Metro Water pays farmers up-front for signing into the program and a per-acre fee when the water is actually diverted, Patterson said.
That will produce 111,000 acre-feet of water for cities and other uses, he said.
"You can do a lot when you take the voluntary approach, rather than the hardline approach," he said.
Programs to line with concrete the Coachella and All-American canals, causing less absorption loss, also freed up water.
Metro Water has paid $200 million to Imperial Irrigation District since the 1980s for programs to improve farming efficiency and water conservation, Patterson said, giving to Metro the water saved.
Using less
Both
The
"Our board just approved another 23-percent rate hike to encourage conservation," she said. "We're serious about it."
Metro is producing 800,000 acre-feet of water per year through conservation - more water than it got off the
Metro officials can also go out on the spot market to buy water from farmers or districts who may have some to spare, such as rice farmers in
That's costlier, but possible, he said.
Desalination technology, removing salt from ocean and briny groundwater, remains in the works, though widespread usability is still far off, Patterson said.
The lower basin states along the Colorado River -
"That spirit of, 'We've got to work our way through this together,' is where we're at on this," Patterson said.
But as
"If it gets that bad, yeah, it will be a difficult conversation," she said. #
http://www.mydesert.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080222/NEWS07/802220374/1006/news01
Editorial:
Desert Sun – 2/22/08
Nevada Mayor Oscar Goodman has a lot of nerve saying he'll take Southern California water from farming before he'll allow
But it would be wise to consider the source - first of the ridiculous comments, and then of the water.
"No one is going to allow us to dry up," Goodman boasted at a news conference that followed a study about a potentially shrinking Lake Mead and an editorial in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, in which the newspaper's editorial board wrote, "We'll wager that all the farms in California's Imperial Valley, which suck up the lion's share of (Colorado River) river water, will go fallow before Lake Mead does."
We believe our counterparts at the Las Vegas Review-Journal were focusing their editorial more so on picking apart a recent study, "When Will Lake Mead Go Dry?" than on picking a fight with
Nonetheless, Goodman's words sparked ire in
First off, Goodman is known within his own territory for making provocative statements that garner loud headlines.
His Feb. 14 comments, in which he said, "Imperial Valley farmers will have their fields go fallow before our spigots run dry" did the trick, but are nothing more than the uninformed ranting of a lame duck mayor.
He can talk all day about taking water from
A
The
These states have and will continue to fight for their share, but instead of resorting to careless threats, leaders in the compact states would better serve themselves and each other by working together to find ways to conserve the water.
Leading scientists say drought and global warming will result in the shrinking of the
What our leaders must say and do is manage the
http://www.mydesert.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080222/OPINION01/802220372/-1/newsfront
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