[Water_news] 2. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: SUPPLY - 3/14/08

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment 

 

March 14, 2008

 

2. Supply

 

WATER CONSERVATION REGULATIONS:

New law will affect landscape watering in Indio - Desert Sun

 

WATER CONSERVATION:

Column: Conserve water and save California's future - Gilroy Dispatch

 

WATER POLICY:

Guest Column: County looking wrong way on water use - Napa Valley Register

 

 

WATER CONSERVATION REGULATIONS:

New law will affect landscape watering in Indio

Desert Sun – 3/14/08

By Xochitl Pena, staff writer

 

Indio has a new landscaping and water conservation law for new development.

 

City leaders say they hope the law, adopted March 5, will help reduce the depletion of the valley's water supply. It goes into effect April 4. Stipulations are:

 

Inefficient landscape irrigation that causes runoff, low head drainage and conditions where water flows onto roadways are prohibited.

 

All new commercial, industrial and apartment buildings must have separate meters for landscaping installed by Jan. 1, 2013.

 

Rain sensing override devices shall be required on all irrigation systems.

 

Sprinklers must be equipped with vertical stops installed just below the sprinkler head to automatically shut off water to a broken sprinkler head.

 

If violated, the city can send a notice of violations, compliance order or cease and desist order; terminate service; or impose civil penalties. #

http://www.mydesert.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008803140351

 

 

WATER CONSERVATION:

Column: Conserve water and save California's future

Gilroy Dispatch – 3/13/08

By Marty Cheek, columnist

 

Water is life. It's also energy. Recently, I chatted about the water-energy connection with State Assemblyman John Laird, who represents the communities of Coyote Valley, Morgan Hill and San Martin in the South Valley along with the Monterey Bay and Big Sur regions. Laird happens to be one of California's most knowledgeable experts on the state's water politics, having made management of our most crucial liquid resource a major part of his public

service career over the last 30 plus years.

 

"One of the biggest uses of energy in California is the extraction, cleaning, pumping and management of waste water," he said. "Those processes of water are probably the largest single use of electricity in California. Every time you save a gallon of water, you're actually saving an equivalent of electricity and power."

 

The water-energy connection is a big issue in the Golden State. About 20 percent of our total energy use goes to the processing and pumping of water. That's a big deal because it means managing our water resources efficiently also helps us cut down on our fossil fuel consumption. And everyone can understand that the need to cut down considerably on fossil fuels is growing increasingly important as we face climate change problems as well as the peaking of the world's "easy oil" supplies.

 

Water is definitely life energy for California. Without it, our state could never have grown to 36 million people, or more than one-tenth the population of the the United States. It also provides California with life energy in another way - economic life energy. Our state is now a global financial powerhouse because people in the California's past realized the importance of water for economic survival and took steps to ensure we would have an abundant supply of the stuff. If it hadn't been for leaders who created the dams and reservoirs and network of canals that now manage our water resources, there's no way we could have become the sixth largest economy in the world.

 

Silicon Valley and the entire South Valley itself would never have been able to achieve any significant degree of economic success without the water of life. Luckily, back in the 20th century, local leaders decided to manage the water here for the benefit of the growing population. They built several reservoirs to store the water throughout the year.

 

The biggest storage lake in our region by far is Anderson Reservoir on the eastern boundary of Morgan Hill. It is capable of storing more water than all the other reservoirs in Santa Clara County combined. Without it, Silicon Valley would never have become the world's high-tech center. Anderson's water made a crucial difference in our region being able to sustain the population and the electronics industry that has makes us famous.

 

Laird pointed out to me that California's population is projected to rise by another 10 million people in the next quarter century. During the same period of time, California is expected to start seeing some severe climate changes due to global warming. The Sierra snowpack - which supplies billions of gallons of water to about 65 percent of the state's population as it melts throughout the year - will be especially hard it over the next 100 years, Laird said.

 

Analysts told a select committee he served on that the Sierra snowpack could be only 90 percent of what it is now in the next 30 years, and about half of what it is now by the end of the century. That doesn't bode well for South Valley's future because much of our water supply comes from mountain melt that eventually winds up here.

 

What's more, as the state faces increasing drought potential with climate changes, its booming population will require more energy to manage and distribute a decreasing amount of water. We need to become water wise to avoid some serious energy problems in the coming decades.

 

Luckily, there are ways we can be smarter about water. One is to eliminate wasting this precious resource by educating people to use water more efficiently. We can use the most important power source we have - brain power - to change our social attitudes about water and the energy needed to manage it. "People don't realize that the city of Los Angeles has grown by 1 million people in the last 25 years on exactly the same amount of water," Laird said.

 

This water efficiency directly correlates with energy efficiency, he added.

 

So if you want to ensure South Valley's economic survival, find ways in your daily life to cut down on your water use.

 

You'll not only save energy, you'll save California's future. #
http://www.gilroydispatch.com/lifestyles/238224-conserve-water-and-save-californias-future

 

 

WATER POLICY:

Guest Column: County looking wrong way on water use

Napa Valley Register – 3/14/08

By Jeffery Warren, St. Helena resident

 

Back in 1987, I asked an appraiser in Pope Valley, “What is land going for these days?”

“Kid, I appraise the water. I reckon they throw the land in for free.”

 

Anyone who grew up in the country knows not all land has the same amount of water. It is not uncommon for one 40 acre-parcel to sport a gusher, while its neighbor produces nothing. One has enough water to grow grapes. One doesn’t. The market place then fixes the price for each.

Rural people literally live off their wells. (We grew up on a well that produced only three gallons a minute. We would often drain it dry. We’d have to wait a minimum of 24 hours for it to replenish).

 

During the last drought, it stopped producing. We had to buy water from a truck, until Laurie Wood witched another spot. Soon we had 20 gallons per minute. Alas, it was rife with silica and stained glasses, toilets, and sinks, brown.

Welcome to the country.

You get what Mother Nature gives you. Country people understand that. Stained glassware became one of the tradeoffs one made in order to live in Conn Valley.

In the past few years, a powerful minority in Napa Valley has been flexing its muscle. They tried to pass measures O and P. Measures so draconian that one couldn’t cut a tree within a thousand feet of another dwelling. Measures that would prohibit fences, barns, or any clearing within 150 feet of wherever a Benthic Macro invertebrate (read: round worm) called home. It was done in the name of “water” quality and erosion.

The good people of Napa voted those measures down — resoundingly.

Apparently, the “Central Committee” won’t be quieted. They’ve come back with a new “Water Resources Element” of the General Plan.

In other words, if you lose at the ballot box, create a document formulated by “staff.”

Here’s the give-away from their proposed document: “The County shall protect and enhance water shed lands, including the downstream delivery of essential watershed resources and benefits from headwater channels.”

We know what that means. The land is no longer ours. “They” will dictate what you can build, plant, and harvest — all for the benefit of the headwaters, of course.

Apparently, to some In Napa, the ballot counts about as much as Pakistan.

The buzz words that float around are depleted aquifers (not true), conservation and recycling.

There are bad water areas to be sure. The Milliken-Sarco-Tulocay area is one of them. Wells often stop producing. But there is no less water in the ground, or falling from the sky, than there ever was. In fact, with climate change, rainfall is predicted to increase.

Water in Napa is fairly simple. We have homes, vineyards and businesses that use the water which doesn’t wash to the sea or seep into the ground.

At an average rainfall of 33 inches per year, that means we get something like 1.3 to 1.4 million acre feet from Heaven each year. Experts say 90 percent runs off. The rest is either captured above ground, or hangs out under the ground in various “aquifers.”

The county reports that each year around 400,000 acre feet stays under the ground. That number is not going down. That means that roughly a million acre feet escape to the ocean.

An acre foot is 326,000 gallons. We have 40,000 acres of grapes. They use about one third of an acre foot per year, but call it an even acre foot. That’s only 40,000 acre feet of water — in reality much less.

Vineyards are unable to deplete our aquifers. There are not enough of them to put a dent in our underground supplies.

Few homes use one acre foot per year, but say they do. We have around 50,000 homes in Napa County. That means around 50,000 acre feet are needed each year for residential use. Between residences and Ag, we use less than 90,000 acre feet each year!

If in 50 years we add 10,000 acres of vines (unlikely), we need only an additional 10,000 acre feet. The same holds true if the county caves in to pressure and adds (God forbid) 10,000 additional homes.

With 400,000 acre feet underground, we have more than enough to sustain additional plantings.

No one will say it, but the discussion should be about how to mine for more water, and how to capture above ground more of the abundant water that Mother Nature gives us each year.

Milliken reservoir has been overflowing since December. Couldn’t we pump that back into the ground somewhere, or at least raise the dam a few feet?

But the dialogue is not about water development — capturing and drilling — but how to control private wells and private property.

Why is that?

http://www.napavalleyregister.com/articles/2008/03/14/opinion/letters_to_the_editor/doc47d9e12cc7c0e055227406.txt

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