A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
March 27, 2008
2. Supply
WATER TRANSFERS:
Local agency looks to buy 3.7M bath tubs of water;
WATER CONSERVATION:
Conservation push planned by county water authority; $1.6 million could be spent on campaign -
RATE HIKES:
Coachella Valley Water District may change water rates; Possible tiered structure could force excessive water users to pay more - Desert Sun
Guest Column: Wasting our water is like eating soggy cornflakes - Desert Sun
WATER TRANSFERS:
Local agency looks to buy 3.7M bath tubs of water;
Santa Clarita Signal – 3/27/08
By Jim Holt, staff writer
There's a sale on water right now in
The Castaic Lake Water Agency Board of Directors is tonight expected to endorse a plan to buy about 850 acre-feet of water - enough to fill more than 3.7 million bath tubs - at a price of between $50 and $125 an acre-foot. The wide price range is due to availability and the cost of moving that much water from
Local water resource officials at the agency began eyeing the available water - which is not part of the water normally supplied to Santa Clarita Valley - as a security investment that would offset any shortage of water in times of drought.
"This is favorably priced water," Dirk S. Marks, the agency's water resources manager, said Tuesday. "It's a good deal, given the nature of the supply. This is a dry year water supply. The price is good compared to buying this water from other places."
The Yuba water package became available to agencies such as the Castaic Lake Water Agency as the result of a settlement agreement between the California Department of Water Resources, the Yuba County Water Agency and the Bureau of Reclamation.
If the board endorses the recommendation made by its water resources committee, the Yuba supply will allow the Castaic Lake Water Agency to keep the water it has already set aside in storage for times of drought in Santa Clarita Valley.
"It's particularly important to us that this water supply is available to us in drier years," Marks explained.
"Rather than pulling water out of our bank account, we use their water and save what we have in storage."
The amount of water delivered to Santa Clarita from Yuba depends on how much is available as a result of that county's hydrology for any given season - meaning how wet or dry the season turns out to be. It also depends on how many other water agencies affiliated with the State Water Project take advantage of the same opportunity.
The water supply in
The Castaic Lake Water Agency is entitled to about two percent of the water made available. #
http://www.the-signal.com/news/article/1025
WATER CONSERVATION:
Conservation push planned by county water authority; $1.6 million could be spent on campaign
By Mike Lee, staff writer
Residents in the county didn't heed the call for voluntary water conservation in 2007, when the region set an all-time record for water use.
Water officials are trying to make sure the trend doesn't continue this year, and they're ready to act as the weather heats up and causes irrigation demands to increase.
Today, the San Diego County Water Authority's board will take up a proposal to create the largest public relations campaign for conservation since the drought of the early 1990s. If the panel approves the $1.6 million package – and it probably will in some form – residents will likely hear a lot more about water conservation.
TV, radio, print, online and outdoor ads will be rolled out starting in May, and many of them will incorporate the theme of “Save it or lose it.” The water authority expects to get a boost for its public service message by securing extra promotional spots and discounts worth nearly $1 million.
Mandatory cutbacks in urban water use may be unavoidable if the message doesn't sink in.
“We have to get (residents') attention – let them know there is an urgent need,” said Yen Tu, chairwoman of the water authority's conservation committee.
In addition to the countywide program, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed a goal of cutting
“When people don't hear the message, their assumption is that . . . the problem is solved,” said Lynn Lipinski, manager of Metropolitan's conservation outreach program.
The giant water wholesaler is near the end of a $6.3 million outreach program for 2007-08 and it's planning to match that spending in 2008-09. Its effort relies heavily on radio spots, including ads played in
Lipinski and other water officials are concerned that a series of winter rainstorms and a solid snowpack in the Sierra Nevada mountains will lull people into forgetting the fundamental problems with water deliveries to
State water officials yesterday released the latest snow data, which showed that snowpack water content in
Not enough residents know that a court ruling to benefit the smelt, an imperiled fish, has slashed water deliveries from Northern California, said Ron Morrison, mayor of
Also, Southern California's other main water source, the Colorado River, has suffered so many consecutive years of drought that one good winter won't come close to refilling reservoirs along that waterway.
“People are (saying), 'We don't have to do anything.' . . . They don't realize the complexity of this,” Morrison said.
The county water authority hopes a major awareness campaign will be more effective than the “20-Gallon Challenge,” the low-profile push that it unveiled in June. The goal of that effort – which relied mainly on free media, such as mentions in news stories – was to have each resident reduce water use by about 10 percent.
The water authority has set a new conservation goal that's not likely to be reached without an advertising blitz.
Its 24 retail member agencies aim to save 56,000 acre-feet of water this year through what they call
“extraordinary” conservation. That's equivalent to the amount of water used by 112,000 typical families each year.
It would cost about $34 million to buy, transfer and treat that much water on the short-term market, water officials said.
“We are actually going to be saving the public a huge amount of money if we can talk everyone into doing (conservation),” Morrison said.
The water authority's first conservation ads will be “motivational and emotional” said Jason Foster, public affairs director for the agency. By summer, they will include tips for trimming water use.
The outreach campaign would include tracking polls to see if the message is having any effect. It will be paid for by cutting expenses in other areas at the water authority and possibly by asking the board for more money. #
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20080327-9999-1m27water.html
RATE HIKES:
Coachella Valley Water District may change water rates; Possible tiered structure could force excessive water users to pay more
Desert Sun – 3/28/08
By Keith Matheny, staff writer
Water-wasters in the
Coachella Valley Water District officials are considering moving from flat-rate water pricing to a tiered structure as early as next year. Residential water customers' rates would be based on how much water they use.
The plan is still preliminary, and a new rate structure has yet to be devised, district General Manager Steve Robbins said.
Most customers would not see rate hikes, he said.
"It all leads back to conservation - promoting people to be efficient with their water use," he said.
As the
The district would generally follow water agencies in
About 80 percent of customers in a successful
In the valley, different classes of domestic water-users would be established, taking into consideration lot sizes, he said.
Baseline water-use figures would then be developed for customers in that classification, which would change based on the season. In the desert, far more water is used in the summer than in winter. A look at
http://www.mydesert.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080327/NEWS01/803270358/1006/news01
Guest Column: Wasting our water is like eating soggy cornflakes
Desert Sun – 3/27/08
By Paul Quill, La Quinta resident and land development specialist
With all of the dire media coverage of a water scarcity in the
The Coachella Valley Water District has an entitlement of approximately 430,000 acre-feet of
Additionally, CVWD and Desert Water Agency will be entitled to nearly 195,000 acre-feet of water from the State Water Project in the next few years for a combined total of over 625,000 acre-feet per year or about 50 percent more than our valley presently consumes.
Imagine our valley as a big bowl of cereal with a little straw for a child to use to suck out the milk. All of our drinking water comes from little straws we call water wells. The rocky, sandy soil that fills the valley is the corn flakes and the milk is the water reservoir below. We have one of the largest underground reservoirs (the milk) of water in
Where's the milk?
We do not have a water shortage, we have a water management challenge. We need to put the milk (water) back into the bowl (valley) in the right locations to prevent the corn flakes (soil) from sinking (subsidence) and to make sure we can keep using the straws (water wells) to suck it out. CVWD and DWA are working diligently to improve recharge technologies so we will get the water into the right locations to keep the reservoir (cereal bowl) filled.
Should we advocate the wasting of our precious water from the cereal bowl for extensive grass and flowers along Highway 111 where sprinklers waste water into the gutter? Absolutely not! Each of us has an enormous responsibility to conserve and continually use water more wisely. We should applaud the efforts of CVWD, Desert Water Agency and the cities of
Climate change may cause drought or it may cause more wet years. We do not know the answer for sure. Unlike
Looking to the future
Most new development in the
With the implementation of new water-saving technologies and low water use landscaping standards now dictated by CVWD, the amount of water used per developed acre will be consistently lower over time. It is foreseeable, even likely, that with the water conservation measures being implemented over the decades to come we will use less water in this valley in the future than we do today even with continued growth.
Considering that our legal entitlements to water are far in excess of our present use and our cereal bowl can be filled for storage and depleted during times of stress, our valley's water future is very optimistic. #
http://www.mydesert.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080327/COLUMNS26/803270356/1026/news12
####
No comments:
Post a Comment