[Water_news] 5. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: AGENCIES, PROGRAMS, PEOPLE - 2/5/08

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment

 

February 5, 2008

 

5. Agencies, Programs, People

 

Embattled PWD manager offers water solutions

Antelope Valley Press – 2/5/08

By Alisha Semchuck, staff writer

 

PALMDALE - At this time, the biggest question regarding the state's water picture focuses on the status of supplies and problems in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

 

That's the view of Dennis La­Moreaux, general manager of the Palmdale Water District, currently on paid administrative leave. La­Moreaux has been with the district 19 years and in the position of general manager for 13. As an engineer, his work on water-related projects dates back to 1984 in Gillette, Wyo.

 

For the short term, LaMoreaux said during a recent meeting at the Antelope Valley Press office, pumping in the Delta has been restricted for five years because of a decision handed down by U.S. District Court Judge Oliver Wanger.

 

The judge issued his final word in December concerning a slowdown in pumping operations at the Harvey O. Banks facility, the starting point of the 444-mile California Aqueduct, which furnishes drinking and agricultural water to the Antelope Valley and much of Southern California. Wanger's order is to remain in effect through mid-September.

 

Wanger mandated the slowdown as a means of protecting a fish called the Delta smelt, whose population has significantly declined, in part by being sucked into the pumps and killed. LaMoreaux said the "judge's hands were tied because the (smelt) is a listed species" among the at-risk species identified by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

 

Although other factors have contributed to the dwindling smelt population, LaMoreaux said the pumps were the only cause the judge could cite in court - the only quantifiable reason.

 

"Smelt has to do with the health of the entire ecosystem," LaMoreaux said.

 

As far as how severely the Delta problems will affect the Antelope Valley's water supply, LaMoreaux said, that depends on what transpires during the interim. "Hopefully in that five-year period the state will (find) a solution," he said.

 

However, it could take another five years to remedy, he said. That means the water district's "biggest source of supply is the biggest question mark."

 

Approximately 60% of the district's supply comes from surface water and the rest from wells. In wet years, when supplies are plentiful and the water district can take 100% of its entitlement from the State Water Project, that amounts to 21,300 acre-feet, or 5.6 billion gallons. Each acre-foot equals 325,851 gallons, the water used in the average single-family household in one year. Water from the aqueduct is stored in Palmdale Lake. Other surface water is collected in Littlerock Reservoir from rainfall and runoff of melting snow from the San Gabriel Mountains.

 

The Littlerock Reservoir can retain up to 3,500 acre-feet.

 

"The district is unique here in the Valley. It does have local surface water," LaMoreaux said. That puts the water district "in a better position than other (Valley) agencies, except Littlerock Creek Irrigation District," which shares Littlerock Reservoir.

 

Groundwater accounts for the balance of the water district's supply, pumped from roughly 23 wells, some of which go as deep as 550 feet to reach the aquifer. If a drought continues and the smelt situation isn't fixed, the district could be forced to pump a bit more groundwater, according to its Web site. Yet in an already overdrafted groundwater basin, an area in which more water has been pumped than is replenished by rainfall, that's not a long-term fix.

 

How would a sustained water shortage affect construction in the Valley?

 

Large projects are included in the Palmdale Water District Master Plan and the Urban Water Management Plan, he said. "Will-serve" letters promising home builders their houses will get water are issued on a long-term basis, taking into consideration precipitation averages over a period of time, "not on what's happening tomorrow," he said.

 

"The Valley as a whole is in trouble now, because one of the main supplies to the Valley is less reliable than it was - the State Water Project. Until there's a solution on that, it's going to be a hold-back."

 

Even with all the projects identified in the Antelope Valley Integrated Regional Water Management Plan, a Valleywide document that proposes solutions to beef up the water supply, LaMoreaux said that "doesn't close the gap fully" between water supply and water demand.

 

"Potentials to close the gap on the supply side (require) obtaining new supplies," which involves finding new sources, "bringing additional water to the Valley," he said.

 

Also, LaMoreaux said, consumers must learn to "use resources better than they're being used now.

 

"In the Central Valley, there's a lot of subsidized water," he said. "One problem agriculture is having, they've switched to more permanent crops - vineyards and fruit trees." Those crops take a lot of water all the time. The biggest potential for urban planning to cut water use without loss of plant material is more efficiency, such as installing evapotranspiration controllers - sprinklers that save water by adjusting to the weather. When it rains, those sprinklers don't turn on. If the grass is moist, they give less water.

 

LaMoreaux said developers of new construction projects should be required to install evapotranspiration-based controllers, and rebates should be offered to existing water users for switching from conventional sprinklers to evapotranspiration-based systems.

 

The main water shortage problem last year resulted from the Department of Water Resources' granting a lower allocation to State Water Project contractors at the start of the year - an allocation that didn't increase as the year progressed, he said. In other years, even if the allocation started out at 60% of the contractors' entitlements, several months later, the amount would go up. That didn't happen in 2007.

 

The prior year was a wet one, he said. "All reservoirs were left in good condition. So DWP started at 69%. Then there was a dry 2007."

 

Not only was the aqueduct low, but the "second surface source" for the water district - Littlerock Dam - was also low. Other parts of Southern California also face the dilemma.

 

The state was taking more than its share from the Colorado River for years, he said. Then development and population growth in Nevada and Arizona forced California to take only the amount of water that was originally agreed upon.

 

"Everything is related. If one supply is less than anticipated, it has to be made up somewhere else," LaMoreaux said.

 

During his years at the water district, LaMoreaux has been involved with increasing the amount of State Water Project entitlement for the agency from 17,300 acre-feet to 21,300 acre-feet. He also had a hand in developing the concept of AquaDog as a mascot for the district. He was active in the formation and continued development of the Antelope Valley State Water Contractors Association, the Air Force Plant 42 Environmental Restoration Advisory Board and the Greater Antelope Valley Economic Alliance.

 

He represented the Palmdale Water District at the Southern California Association of Governments Water Policy Task Force, the Palmdale Chamber of Commerce, the Antelope Valley Chapter of the Building Industry Association, the Antelope Valley Board of Trade and various other organizations.

 

He also was involved in the Littlerock Dam and Reservoir restoration in the 1990s and related projects. He reviewed various options and the final design with the Division of Safety of Dams and secured state and federal project permits, as well as state grants. He also completed an electrical energy study in response to the 2001 energy crisis.

 

But LaMoreaux declines to take total credit for any of the district's advances.

 

"It's always a board or staff and the manager that gets things done," LaMoreaux said. "These are just things I played a part in." #

http://www.avpress.com/n/05/0205_s4.hts

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