A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
April 1, 2008
2. Supply
PUMPING ISSUES:
Faceoff in pumping limits plan; Peninsula officials have chance to plead case Tuesday - Monterey Herald
WATER TRANSFERS:
Colorado River farmers skip crops, send water to Southern California instead - Riverside Press Enterprise
Bone dry March to carry over; April due to bring same parched conditions; Lake Shasta still low - Redding Record Searchlight
DAM RELEASE:
Water released from dam boosts basin reserves - Pasadena Star Tribune
SNOW SURVEYING:
High in the Sierra Nevada, brave souls peer into our watery future - Stockton Record
Water supply concerns persist despite precipitation -
BAN LIFTED:
Santa Cruz lifts daytime watering ban - Associated Press
SNOWPACK CONDITIONS:
Snowpack is 100% of average, NID says - Nevada Irrigation District
California’s snowpack at normal level - Central Valley Business Times
Snowpack normal; water deliveries are not - Western Farm Press
Guest Column: Dwindling water supplies: Who will protect us? - Western Farm Press
VARIED OPTIONS: Big ideas, slim hope for water; Report lists 12 alternatives to Colorado River water - Las Vegas Review Journal
PUMPING ISSUES:
Faceoff in pumping limits plan; Peninsula officials have chance to plead case Tuesday
By Kevin Howe, staff writer
Local mayors have lined up against it. Politicians are recommending alternatives.
And the state Water Resources Control board is expected to get an earful about its proposed cease-and-desist order to California American Water that would slow the pumping of well water from the
Representatives from Cal Am, the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District, Peninsula city governments, the Ventana chapter of the Sierra Club, the Carmel River Watershed Conservancy and other organizations are expected to testify at the hearing, which begins at 1 p.m. in the De Anza I Room of the Portola Hotel and Spa at Monterey Bay, 2 Portola Plaza.
The state water board issued the cease-and-desist order in January.
The draft order, which must be approved by the state board before taking effect, would compel Cal Am to reduce its take from the
A pre-hearing conference was held March 19 in
At the hearing, Baggett was asked that the water board consider pushing its June 19 final hearing on the cease-and-desist order to a later date.
Baggett gave the attorneys until April 9 to file briefs on issues raised during the pre-hearing conference and file responses by April 23.
A decision on whether to reschedule the final hearing, he said, would be made by May 8.
Peninsula hearing request
The Monterey County Mayors' Association voted unanimously at its March 7 meeting to oppose the cease-and-desist order, and urged that if the state board goes ahead with the hearing, that it be held on the Peninsula, rather than in Sacramento as planned.
The mayors said the ruling could affect "thousands of jobs and revenues, which account for major portions of the municipal budgets of Cal Am's customer base."
They noted that water conservation measures implemented by the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District have reduced water use by more than 30 percent. They also cited the state water board's own finding in its original order "that the people and businesses on the
And the mayors noted that at the time of the 1995 order, the population of the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District was 103,000.
By last year, the population had grown to 111,483, and they contended that further reductions in water production would be a risk to public health and be devastating to the local economies and job markets.
The order could put
Laird weighs in
Assemblyman John Laird, D-Santa Cruz, weighed in with a letter to the state water board asking members to defer acting on the draft order regarding the
"If the State Water Resources Control Board proceeds with hearings on the draft order," Laird wrote, "Cal-Am and the local community — already well-known statewide as leaders in water conservation — may respond by working hard to resist the order because the schedule calls for larger and larger water reductions.
"It would be better if they could fully focus on the alternatives that will soon be presented to them. In addition, it would be ideal if the various state agencies collaborated and coordinated their expertise to assist the community in selecting the least costly, most environmentally appropriate alternative."
Laird also said in the letter that "it is difficult to understand why it has been almost 13 years without action since the original Board order. And yet, the draft order effectively proposes to punish residents and businesses in the Monterey Peninsula area (rather than Cal-Am, due to the way PUC rules are structured with regard to profit and Cal-Am's financial investment in the Monterey area) by cutting back on water diversions and thus water deliveries."
Health a concern
In February, Cal Am attorneys sent a letter to James W. Kassel, the board's assistant deputy director for water rights, saying the health of the company's approximately 38,000 metered water customers could be jeopardized if they can't get adequate water supplies.
They contend the company is meeting the terms of the 1995 order and actively pursuing water reclamation and supply projects. They also say the cease-and-desist order's schedule conflicts with mandates of the state Public Utilities Code and actions to protect health and safety.
In November, Cal Am filed an application to raise rates 120 percent by 2011 for system improvements, maintenance and other costs. A month later, the company proposed rate structure changes to promote water conservation by sharply raising charges for heavy water use.
Cal Am is counting on customers to save more water because of the rate increases, and company officials said compliance with the water board wouldn't be very difficult during the first four years, when 15 percent to 20 percent reductions would be required.
After that, it might be far more difficult to trim Carmel River pumping because Cal Am's key project to replace that water supply — a $200 million coastal desalination project — wouldn't be able to operate until 2015 at the earliest.
Taking too much
The
Cal Am gets about 75 percent of the water for its Peninsula customers from 18 wells along the lower
But over the last 10 years, Cal Am's annual diversion of river water has ranged from 9,538 to 11,178 acre-feet.
Those numbers exceed the company's legal limit by an average of 7,150 acre-feet annually, state officials say.
When the state first cracked down on Cal Am's use of
The draft order says the current water strategy employed by Cal Am and the Peninsula water district hasn't significantly reduced the illegal take from the
Along with promoting more conservation, Cal Am is working on several new sources of water besides its coastal desalination plant: storing winter runoff from the
The cease-and-desist order was triggered by the length of time — 13 years — that the original order has been in effect and because state wildlife officials now consider the Carmel River watershed to be one of the state's "priority watersheds," said Liz Kanter, spokeswoman for the state water board.
Cal Am's overpumping contributes to low water levels that threaten steelhead and other wildlife in the river corridor, officials say. #
WATER TRANSFERS:
Colorado River farmers skip crops, send water to
Riverside Press
By Jennifer Bowles, staff writer
Thirsty Southern California cities are turning to water-rich farmers on the eastern edge of
Starting this summer, farmers in the Palo Verde Valley along the
In exchange, MWD will pay the farmers $16.8 million each year for 115,000 acre-feet of water -- almost 37.5 billion gallons. That's on top of startup fees the district has already paid the farmers, making it more costly than the water the district traditionally relies on from the
MWD's request to ramp the program to 100 percent comes at the three-year mark of a 35-year transfer deal between the valley's farmers and the water district. The district can request the maximum amount of water for only 10 of the 35 years, officials said.
"I don't think anyone anticipated that it would come this quickly," said Bart Fisher, a third-generation valley farmer who has fallowed some of his crops. "I don't think anyone had an inkling that this drought would be so sustained and such a deep drought at the same time."
Fisher, who helped negotiate the transfer deal, said it was expected back then that the full allocation wouldn't be requested until 2015. The ramp-up will leave 29 percent of the valley fallowed.
"I think we'd all rather be farming the land, but a deal is a deal, and we're all being fairly compensated," he said.
Under the program, MWD has to give a year's notice before requesting more water from the valley's farmers. It gave that notice last August, when a federal judge ruled that supplies from the Sacramento Delta that flow to Southern California would be decreased by about 30 percent to protect a threatened fish, said Jeff Kightlinger, MWD's general manager.
The request for additional supplies from Palo Verde can last for as long as two years, Kightlinger said.
"It's not willy-nilly," Smith said. "The farmers know well in advance and can do their management accordingly."
The problems in the Sacramento Delta also led MWD to reduce by 30 percent the amount of water that goes to farmers in suburban Southern California, including western
The injection of additional supplies from Palo Verde Valley farmers will not affect that in any way, Kightlinger said.
The region, he said, will still be short of water. MWD is projecting a 300,000-acre-foot loss from the Delta decision, and the Palo Verde transfer accounts for only about one-third of that. But MWD officials said the injection of new supplies will help prevent the water district from drawing even more on its stored reserves in such places as
The
Lined by canals, the Palo Verde Valley produces vegetables, melons, wheat and other crops. The valley's biggest crop is alfalfa, which Fisher sells to dairymen to feed their cows.
The region's crops were valued at $90 million in 2006, according to the
The valley is south of where pumps divert water from the Colorado River into MDW's aqueduct, which transports the water to urban
The Palo Verde water transfer is not as well-known as the deal that sends even larger amounts of water from Imperial Valley farmers south of the Palo Verde Valley to
Starting Aug. 1, the 90 farmers enrolled in the Palo Verde transfer program that began in 2005 will have to fallow the same percentage of fields and decide which crops they'll go without, said Ed Smith, general manager of the Palo Verde Irrigation District.
Fisher said it's likely cotton may be a crop that's not planted because of its lagging price. Grain crops are high because so much corn in the
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_D_farmers30.3e5e77c.html
Bone dry March to carry over; April due to bring same parched conditions;
Redding Record Searchlight – 4/1/08
By Scott Mobley, staff writer
March 2008 will leave a warren of dust bunnies in the north state weather annals.
Last month was the driest March in and around the far northern
There's scant hope for an "amazing April" that will scrub away the red-ridged bathtub ring around
"We don't see anything in the forecast that says we are expecting any big rains, just maybe a sprinkle here and there," said Tami Corn, public affairs assistant for the Bureau of Reclamation at Shasta Dam. "We would absolutely love to see more rain but we are not alarmed."
The lake stood at 1,007 feet above sea level, or 60 feet below the dam's crest on Monday. The water rose 16 feet during the month even though Shasta Dam recorded only 0.28 inches of rain -- a mere 3 percent of the 8.91 inches falling at the dam during a typical March.
The lake's been collecting about twice as much water as it's been letting out, Corn said. So the lake's been adding about a half-foot a day, she said.
The dam had soaked up 45.28 inches of rain since July 1, thanks mainly to a tempestuous January and a reasonably wet February. Only 37 inches -- about half the season normal -- fell during the entire 2006-2007 season, Corn said.
The lake is nearly 40 feet lower than this time last year, state Department of Water Resources figures show.
Obligations to downstream water users drew down the water through the warm season last year. Dam operators will face those obligations again this summer, although farmers and cities could see smaller deliveries if storage winds up drastically lower, said Corn.
The
What little precipitation fell last month around the far northern valley seemed to funnel into Shingletown, where rogue showers dropped smothering snowbursts that spawned local power outages. Yet while Shingletown mustered an impressive 2.92 inches of rain and melted snow last month, the total was still only about half the 5.66-inch March norm for that town. #
http://www.redding.com/news/2008/apr/01/bone-dry-march-to-carry-over/
DAM RELEASE:
Water released from dam boosts basin reserves
Pasadena
By Jennifer McLain, staff writer
The Morris Dam opened its gates this weekend and released thousands of acre feet of water to local groundwater basins.
The dam, located in the
"We started releasing on Thursday afternoon, and this morning we closed the valves," said Sterling Klippel, civil engineer with the public works department. "We released 3,000 acre feet of water."
One-acre foot can supply two average families of four for an entire year, Klippel said.
The release this weekend was part of a normal operation done during and after the rainy season. #
SNOW SURVEYING:
High in the
By Alex Breitler, staff writer
PIONEER - Snow surveyors are a happy bunch. Once a month each season, dozens of them strap on skis or snowshoes and gallivant through the frozen
But let's not trivialize their task.
These hardy hikers give us our first glimpse of the state's water fortunes for the coming year. Their work is relevant to anyone who uses water to drink, bathe, wash, rinse, irrigate or play.
A maddeningly dry March is nearly over, and so comes the realization that we're not likely to get much more snow. What started out as a superstar water year is now a ho-hum average - and average isn't much when you consider climate change, reservoirs that are already lower than normal and legal clashes over how much water should be available for cities, farms and fish.
"What's amazing is you look all around at all this snow, and it's still not enough," said Mike Hewitt, 61, of Pioneer, a volunteer who helps with snow surveys on federal lands each winter.
But the focus this week is on the Sierra snow, which is more valuable than rain since it slowly melts during the spring and summer and can be stored more efficiently in reservoirs.
Enter Hewitt and two colleagues, Marilyn Muse-Meyer and Mike Stroude. On Friday, they pulled their green U.S. Forest Service rig to the side of the Highway 88 somewhere west of
It's not so much the depth they're interested in - it's the water content. That's why they weigh the snow that accumulates inside the pole, dutifully noting numbers that will soon be plugged into a huge statewide database.
The ritual is repeated monthly at 264 other snow courses throughout the state. Some are virtually right off the highway; others involve miles-long trips into the backcountry in snowmobiles or by helicopter.
Some surveyors will ski 10 to 15 miles and climb more than 5,000 feet in one day.
"When the weather's good, this is one of my favorite jobs," said 55-year-old Stroude, who's been adding up the inches for a quarter-century.
On Friday, the crew started at a familiar large Jeffrey pine and punched holes in the snow every 50 feet, a distance checked carefully with a tape measure that has seen many a survey season.
Dealing with the pole is tricky. Sometimes you hit a sheet of ice and have to bust your way through. If you remove the pole and there's no dirt on the end, that's a do-over, because you may not have hit the ground.
"It can be brutal," Stroude said.
Sometimes the weather turns. When it does, Stroude, said, "You try to get out of there as fast as you can."
The first snow surveying in the
In the past, surveyors did their jobs in relative obscurity.
Not anymore. Snow surveys in
"I'm kind of surprised," said Frank Gehrke, who heads the state program, which relies heavily on data submitted from other agencies, including the Forest Service.
"Usually, there's a lot of attention if there's a really dry or really wet year," he said. "Here we are, smack dab in the middle. But I do think there's more heightened awareness of the overall water problem." #
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080329/A_NEWS/803290332
Water supply concerns persist despite precipitation
By Alisha Semchuck, staff writer
PALMDALE - The water picture seemed a bit brighter after the January and February rains, but what has happened so far in March has put something of a damper on the earlier optimism, a Valley water official says.
Statewide precipitation levels had reached 118% of normal for the season by the end of February. Now those precipitation levels have dropped as the result of a dry March, Russ Fuller, general manager of the Antelope Valley-East Kern Water Agency, told directors at a Tuesday night board meeting.
"March was an extremely dry month," Fuller said.
"March was pretty much a duster," agreed Frank Gehrke, chief of the snow surveys program for the state Department of Water Resources.
Snow-water content in the northern
AVEK, the Palmdale Water District and the Littlerock Creek Irrigation District are State Water Contractors, meaning they are entitled to draw a limited amount of water from the California Aqueduct. That amount varies for each contractor.
Snowpack measurements are taken monthly through May to determine the amount of spring runoff. Those measurements are taken at different altitudes of the mountain range at
A news release from the state agency on Wednesday said the 2008 winter snow survey "indicates that snowpack water content is near normal this year. Despite this fact, the news is not good for water deliveries."
Water content in the snowpack at Phillips Station off Highway 50, at an elevation of 6,800 feet, measured 27.8 inches, or 98% of the long-term average, the news release said.
Gehrke said more snow information will be forthcoming.
"Right now we're gathering the snowpack information (to) make a runoff forecast," Gehrke said.
Then State Water Project officials will analyze the data and "determine whether to alter the allocation" to the contractors. At this point, contractors were allocated 35% of their annual entitlement.
"Good news, we've got close to average snow. Bad news, we can't get the water through the delta," Gehrke said, referring to the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, the starting point for the 444-mile state aqueduct.
"A broken delta means water deliveries to millions of Californians will be far below normal this year," state agency Director Lester Snow said.
Fuller, Gehrke and Snow said that even if precipitation numbers are at normal or higher by the beginning of spring, allocation amounts from the State Water Project will be hampered by the order to slow pumping in the delta handed down in December by U.S. District Court Judge Oliver Wanger as a means of protecting an indigenous species of fish called delta smelt. That fish population declined as they were sucked into the pumps and died.
Fuller told the AVEK board that Wanger's decision posed a "significant and costly loss for us."
The Wanger decision has had an impact of about 12,000 acre-feet for AVEK," said Mike Flood, senior engineer for the agency. An acre-foot equals 325,851 gallons of water, nearly the amount consumed in the average single-family home for one year.
"Right now we're getting a little less than 50,000 acre-feet out of the State Water Project," Flood said. "Normally we get at least 62,000 acre-feet."
It takes about 60,000 acre-feet for AVEK to meet its customer demand, Flood said. The water wholesaler supplies agricultural users as well as municipal and industrial entities such as Los Angeles County Waterworks District 40 and the Quartz Hill Water District.
With the shortage from the State Water Project, Flood said, "we're out looking for additional water."
That search has its challenges, Fuller said.
AVEK has negotiated for approximately 125 acre-feet from the TurnBack Water Pool program, Flood said.
That program, developed by the state agency and the State Water Contractors, allows contractors in a given year to turn back the surplus so that other contractors can augment shortages.
This year, that surplus came from the Ventura County Watershed Protection District. TurnBack water will cost AVEK customers $12 more an acre-foot than their usual rate of just above $300.
A bigger hurdle is the dry-year purchase program, according to Fuller and Flood.
"We may or may not get some dry-year water," Fuller said.
"We face some challenges now. There's still water in Oroville they're trying to move the second half of the year," he added, referring to the Oroville Dam in Northern California, site of a power plant that's crucial to the State Water Project.
The challenges involve getting farmers in
"We're trying to get about 10,000 acre-feet out of the dry-year program," Flood said.
The State Water Contractors Joint Powers Authority is attempting to work out that deal. "We've been able to find enough sellers to give us a share. That would amount to about 6,000 acre-feet. But until the deal's done, the contracts signed ... there's no guarantee," Flood said.
He said AVEK solicited orders from its customers. Some, including Waterworks District 40, said they would purchase water from that program. But, Fuller said, District 40 "has been able to drop out ... because of the wells they have. They're helping us."
With the purchase request from District 40 off the table, AVEK can use that supply for other customers that don't have the well capacity to pump sufficient groundwater.
The dry-year purchase program doesn't come cheap.
Flood said it will cost about $200 an acre-foot "on top of the normal cost" of in excess of $300 an acre-foot for water treatment and energy costs.
The dilemma facing AVEK and other water suppliers highlights the need for plausible solutions to the state's water situation, officials agree.
"We must move ahead on the comprehensive plan outlined by Gov. (Arnold) Schwarzenegger to invest in our water systems, restore the delta and ensure clean, safe and reliable water supplies," Snow said. #
http://www.avpress.com/n/30/0330_s6.hts
BAN LIFTED:
Associated Press – 4/1/08
City water officials ended the ban Monday because rainfall totals have reached 90 percent of normal. But
Water Department director Bill Kocher says residents should still conserve.
The ban on daytime watering in
SNOWPACK CONDITIONS:
Snowpack is 100% of average, NID says
Nevada Irrigation District – 3/29/08
The Nevada Irrigation District reported Friday that the snowpack on mountain watersheds holds 100 percent of average water content for this time of year.
The measurements were recorded Wednesday and Thursday by NID snow surveyors as part of the annual April 1 snow survey. The survey is a key indicator of water availability for the coming year.
A month ago, the March 1 snow survey measured 122 percent of average snowpack but March has produced only 2.5 inches or 24 percent of average precipitation at Bowman Reservoir, elevation 5650 feet.
Even so, this is shaping up to be a much better water year than last year when the mountain snowpack held just 53 percent of average water content on April 1.
"With March being quite dry, I feel fortunate that we are still at average levels for April 1," said NID snow surveyor and operations supervisor Sue Sindt. "As the snowpack melts, we are gaining storage. We will continue to be conservative with our water releases as we try to fill the reservoirs."
In the official April 1 snow survey, NID snow surveyors measured snowpack depth and water content on six snow courses ranging in elevation from 4,850 to 7,800 feet.
A member of the California Cooperative Snow Survey, NID conducts three official snow surveys each year. #
http://www.theunion.com/article/20080329/NEWS/298479659
The water content of the
But the DWR says the 25 million Californians who depend on melting snow for the water they use during the year should not expect normal levels of water delivery.
The department points to a 2007 ruling by U.S. District Court in Fresno that requires water plumps used by the State Water Project and the Central Valley Project to be turned down to avoid decimation of the Delta smelt, a minnow-like fish that is endangered. It is though the small fish are sucked to their deaths by the pumps near
Currently, the SWP expects to deliver only 35 percent of requested amounts this year to communities, farmers and businesses in the Bay Area, Central Valley and
Manual snow surveys are conducted monthly from January through May to help forecast the amount of spring and summer runoff into reservoirs. The readings at this time of year are generally considered the most significant in gauging how much water is being held in the Sierra snow pack, the department says.
Separately, electronic sensor readings show Northern Sierra snow water equivalents at 105 percent of normal for this date, Central Sierra at 89 percent, and Southern Sierra at 103 percent. Statewide, the percentage of normal is at 97 percent.
The figures at this time last year were 53 percent for the Northern Sierra, 48 percent Central Sierra, 39 percent for Southern Sierra, and 47 percent statewide. #
http://www.centralvalleybusinesstimes.com/stories/001/?ID=8248
Snowpack normal; water deliveries are not
Western Farm Press – 3/28/08
The 2008 winter snow survey conducted this by the Department of Water Resources (DWR) indicates that snowpack water content is near normal for this time of year.
However, no one knows how much of that normal amount will reach cities and farms. Although there has been a return to average snowpack figures, State Water Project (SWP) deliveries remain near record lows because of a federal court ruling restricting Delta pumping to help protect the threatened Delta smelt.
“The snowpack is back to normal, but a broken Delta means water deliveries to millions of Californians will be far below normal this year,” said DWR Director Lester Snow. “We must move ahead on the comprehensive plan outlined by Gov. Schwarzenegger to invest in our water systems, restore the Delta and ensure clean, safe and reliable water supplies.”
The pumping reductions are a result of federal Judge Oliver Wanger’s decision last December to curtail pumping by state and federal water projects to protect the tiny fish vital to the ecosystem that has seen its population decline drastically in past years. Delta smelt populations are also adversely affected by other activities such as other water diversions, water pollution, and non-native species.
Currently, the SWP is projected to deliver only 35 percent of requested amounts this year to communities, farmers and businesses in the Bay Area, Central Valley and
Manual snow surveys are conducted monthly from January through May to help forecast the amount of spring and summer runoff into reservoirs. The readings at this time of year are generally considered the most significant in gauging how much water is being held in the Sierra snow pack.
Meanwhile, electronic sensor readings posted on the
Snow-water content is important in determining the coming year's water supply. The measurements help hydrologists prepare water supply forecasts as well as provide others, such as hydroelectric power companies and the recreation industry, with much needed data.
Monitoring is coordinated by DWR as part of the multi-agency California Cooperative Snow Surveys Program. Surveyors from more than 50 agencies and utilities visit hundreds of snow measurement courses in
The Department of Water Resources operates and maintains the State Water Project, provides dam safety and flood control and inspection services, assists local water districts in water management and water conservation planning, and plans for future statewide water needs. #
http://westernfarmpress.com/news/snowpack-water-0328/
Guest Column: Dwindling water supplies: Who will protect us?
Western Farm Press – 3/31/08
By Richard Cornett, Communications Director, Western Plant Health Association
One has to wonder these days just exactly what it’s going to take to get more water storage in
This state of 38 million thirsty Californians continues to teeter on disaster as the likelihood of global warming and actual drought conditions promise to make water a more precious commodity than oil.
While Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger continue talks on a state water bond to be placed on this November’s ballot, legislative water solutions remain beyond arm’s reach as the problem mounts. Feinstein has long pushed for state money for dams, parting ways with other leading Democrats who have strongly opposed using public money to pay for surface water storage. To the senator’s credit, she has called for a “comprehensive solution” that would include money for dams and groundwater storage, as well as repairs to the deteriorating Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Meanwhile, while Feinstein and Schwarzenegger are busy crafting some kind of water bill for the fall, a proposal sponsored by the California Chamber of Commerce and other business and farm groups is gathering names to place an $11.7 billion water bond initiative on the ballot. Among the water projects is $3.5 billion set aside for dams. The group has until July 14 to collect 433,971 valid signatures from voters.
I realize that it is hard to get worked up about water shortage concerns when the ground is saturated from the several recent storms we’ve had in
•As pointed out elsewhere in this publication a few issues back, farmers on the West Side of the San Joaquin Valley may be facing water rates as high as $500 per acre foot later this year for surface irrigation water deliveries. That was the bid for water on the auction block last summer after state and federal officials slowed down the Delta pumps because smelt were swimming too near the pumps. Farmers have no reason to believe the price will be lower this year.
•Late last year, the California Department of Water Resources told the water agencies that serve two-thirds of Californians that they can expect just 25 percent of their normal allocations this year, down from 60 percent in 2007.
Several cities in
The high premium for water has been especially painful for those served by
•In
•
•Adding another bleak component to the problem is global warming. Whether you believe in global warming or not, a recent study by climate researchers at the
Their computer simulations of shrinking sea ice show that, outside of the Arctic itself, the most striking impact is the formation of a large, stubborn atmospheric feature off the West Coast that, like a boulder in a stream, deflects winter storms northward. While their climate simulations were interesting when events in the
In September, at the end of the 2007 “melt season,” the area covered by Artic sea ice had shrunk 23 percent below the previous record set in 2005 and was 43 percent less than in 1979, when satellite measurements began. Several scientists called the event “shocking.”
When they ran the computer model with sea ice conditions as they are anticipated to exist in 2050, along the West Coast, from southern British Columbia to Baja California, winter precipitation dropped as much as 30 percent, and even as far inland as the Rocky Mountains it fell by 17 percent. The study, published in the journal Science, noted: “Almost all models have a drying trend in the American Southwest, and they consistently become drier throughout the century.”
All the red flags are waving and have been for years. But the pending water crisis is upon us and presents a very real threat, but a political vacuum and internecine warfare continue to stall sensible action. Environmental activists appear to be in a philosophical quandary over the matter: on the one hand they see water supply as the key element in land use and other development issues and believe that restricting supply will somehow slow growth; on the other hand they oppose restrictions on immigration (that add to population growth) while also believing in global warming scenarios that imply the state needs more storage to capture winter rains and offset the loss of snowpack.
Let’s hope our state’s political leaders soon will come to their senses over this important issue and resolve it, whether it is by building new reservoirs, conservation and other forms of non-storage water management, replenishing underground aquifers, or a combination thereof. Our survival, and that of generations to come, depends on it. #
http://westernfarmpress.com/news/water-supplies-0331/
VARIED OPTIONS: Big ideas, slim hope for water; Report lists 12 alternatives to
By Henry Brean, staff writer
The ideas range from tearing out thirsty groves of salt cedar to towing icebergs down from the Arctic, from seeding clouds over the
When it comes to squeezing every drop from the shrinking sponge of the
A new report examines 12 ideas for augmenting the river's flow, and not even the most audacious of the plans -- importing icebergs, for example -- has been rejected out of hand.
Bill Rinne, director of surface water resources for the Southern Nevada Water Authority, said he took two things away from the report: All options are still on the table, and none of them seem to provide the perfect solution.
"I don't see a real silver bullet," he said.
The report, paid for by the Southern Nevada Water Authority and compiled by an outside panel of experts, was delivered to Secretary of Interior Dirk Kempthorne last week.
Water managers in the seven Western states that share the
Rinne said he expects those talks to begin before the end of the year.
The stakes are high for
The report cost about $750,000 and took more than a year to complete. It evaluates options in terms of water quality, reliability, relative cost, projected water yield, technical difficulty, environmental concerns, and permitting issues.
Among the most cost-effective options is seeding clouds in an effort to increase snowfall at the headwaters of the
By contrast, some of the most expensive options considered in the report could cost $4,000 an acre-foot or more.
Rinne said the problem with cloud seeding comes when you try to quantify exactly how much additional water the process may have produced.
"There is always a debate about that," he said.
The report concludes that a significant amount of water, perhaps as much as 150,000 acre-feet, could be saved by removing salt cedar groves along the banks of the river and its tributaries.
Left unchecked, the nonnative plant could spread from its current range of about 300,000 acres to 600,000 acres by 2020, siphoning as much as 1 million acre-feet more from the river in the process.
Rinne said salt cedar removal is already "under way" or actively being pursued by individual river states. So is cloud seeding.
One of the most popular ideas for saving the
The report estimates 20,000 to 100,000 acre-feet a year could be kept in the
That water would cost between $1,100 and $1,800 per acre-foot.
Water authority spokesman J.C. Davis said ocean desalination might one day prove to be a major source of water for
He said the process is expensive, requires vast amounts of energy and produces a brine by-product that is difficult to dispose of safely.
The report calls for more detailed study of desalination of both ocean water and brackish groundwater in
One of the wildest and most expensive ideas addressed in the document involves ferrying fresh water to
Another possibility involves the construction of an undersea pipeline that would carry fresh water to Southern California from the
"It does pass the straight-face test enough to where you have to look at it," Rinne said. "Look at our petroleum supply. We move that all over the place, and we've done that forever."
The report also considers the diversion of water to Colorado River tributaries from the Bear River in
Ultimately, the panel deemed those projects too vast and complicated for detailed review in the report.
Rinne called the report "a very good and important first step" in managing the
He said
Unlike
"And we obviously don't have an oceanfront," Rinne said, so in-state desalination is not an option.
As a result,
Today, the
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