A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
May 5, 2008
2. Supply –
Growers' frost fight squeezes water supplies: Efforts to prevent grape damage reduce Russian River
The Press Democrat – 5/3/08
Editorial:
Every precious drop: Dry weather drives home need for water conservation in California
Editorial:
Dry spell raises tensions over state's future
The Sacramento
Editorial:
Water rationing isn't in
The
Farmers struggle with water price, cuts: 'A tree is a wonderful thing to take care of'
Editorial
With drought a possibility, it's time for change
The Sacramento
YubaNet - 5/1/08
Water conservation blitz hits street: But water officials stressing conservation 'more than ever'
Californians urged to conserve water amid drought worries
The Associated Press – 5/2/08
Growers' frost fight squeezes water supplies: Efforts to prevent grape damage reduce Russian River
The Press Democrat – 5/3/08
By Bob Norberg
The use of water by grape growers for frost protection during this unusually cold spring has taxed
When growers turned on their sprinklers the morning of April 21, the
"It didn't drop a little bit -- it dropped significantly, a 30 or 40 percent drop," said Pam Jeane, the Sonoma County Water Agency's deputy director of operations.
The flow dropped from 230 cubic feet per second to 140 at Hopland, below the state minimum of 185 cubic feet per second, triggering a release of extra water from Lake Mendocino.
"It has impacted the flows of the
The water released from
"It is extremely dry, and some form of conservation is going to be needed to ensure we have enough water in
Growers also tapped into ponds and reservoirs, which could affect how much water is available for irrigation later this year, and they used ground water and reclaimed wastewater from
"I have heard some people have used most if not all of their water for the summer," said Nick Frey, president of the Sonoma County Winegrape Commission. "Some guys have wells to replenish reservoirs, but some that are catching surface flow from winter rains, they are locked into a fixed supply."
There are 10 growers who have contracts with
"When they were really cranking up, they were collectively using between 3 (million) and 4 million gallons a night," Piazza said.
Frost and freezing temperatures in March and April were a major problem for growers this year. Keeping water flowing over the vines protects grape buds from freezing.
Grower Saralee Kunde said she and her husband used sprinklers and reclaimed wastewater for frost protection on their
Growers have said that compares with a half-dozen times that frost was an issue last year. This year, frost has damaged as much as 15 percent of the
"We know frost damage occurred throughout the county, but not at every vineyard," Frey said. "The impact on the yield you don't know until you see how the secondary buds grow and then you have to get through flowering -- that is the next big window."
Last year, the Sonoma County Water Agency was under a state order to cut back the amount of water it took from the
The agency is meeting with its water customers Monday morning to discuss conservation measures.
Those customers include the cities of Windsor, Santa Rosa, Rohnert Park, Cotati and Petaluma, and several special water agencies, serving 600,000 residents and businesses as far south as San Rafael.#
http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/article/20080503/NEWS/805030322/1033/NEWS&template=kart
Editorial:
Every precious drop: Dry weather drives home need for water conservation in California
'It's a knock-out punch to have that combination."
That was the stark assessment of Frank Gehrke, the snow survey chief at
Gehrke was taking part in the final snowpack reading of the season. It was not good: The snowpack, a key source of
Snow levels are down, way down, and that means the spring runoff will not fill the massive reservoirs dotting the lower elevations of the Sierra. The amount of water running into streams and reservoirs is only 55 percent to 65 percent of normal, according to the figures collected by the DWR.
Most of
Trouble is, the rain/snow cycle is erratic. In fact, we're facing rationing - voluntary rationing at a minimum - because the 2006-07 water season was even drier. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called for voluntary rationing almost immediately after receiving the snowpack figures Thursday.
Others think the situation is much worse.
"It's going to be a rough decade," said Tim Quinn, executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies. "You will see mandatory rationing, I believe."
Schwarzenegger also renewed his call for the construction of more dams and reservoirs.
"I know that legislative leaders share my goal of comprehensive water reform, but time is running out. The longer we wait, the worse our situation becomes," he said in a statement.
The Democratic-controlled Legislature has blocked Republican proposals to build dams, favoring increased conservation and water recycling as way to meet the needs of
The fact is, conservation, recycling and quite possibly rationing are the only real tools we have, certainly the only tools we have today. We must treat water like the incredibly valuable life substance it is. That is especially true in Cali-fornia, with its huge population, huge farming industry and utter dependence on erratic weather cycles.#
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080505/A_OPINION03/805050313/-1/A_OPINION
Editorial:
Dry spell raises tensions over state's future
The Sacramento
By Daniel Weintraub
PHILLIPS STATION – Frank Gehrke has been coming to a Sierra meadow here behind an old stagecoach stop for 21 years to check the depth of the snow for the Department of Water Resources, part of a tradition that is
On Thursday, after Gehrke made the short walk from Highway 50, he found not snow but a pencil, one he'd lost earlier this year when he made the same walk along the top of what was then an ample snowpack. That pencil, now lying in the dirt, was bad news for
It foretold what Gehrke was about to see all along his walk: very little snow. As he worked his way, 50 feet at a time, through seven stations where he typically shoves a hollow metal tube into the snow until he hits the soil below, five of the spots were completely dry. The other two had just 9 inches and 14 inches of snow. Overall, the snow here averaged just 3.3 inches, and the water content was just 1.7 inches. That was 11 percent of normal for May 1.
Elsewhere in the Sierra the findings last week were better, but overall the snow and the water it stores averaged just 67 percent of normal. A March and April that were the driest on record delivered what Gehrke called a "double whammy": no new snow to add to the pack and plenty of sunshine to melt what was there. A year that looked bountiful in late January and still promising by March 1 had turned, in Gehrke's words, "grim."
So far, Gehrke's bosses in
The first to feel the pinch might be the residents of 29 Bay Area cities and unincorporated towns served by the East Bay Municipal Utility District. The district depends heavily on the Sierra snows for its water supply.
The district's board of directors is scheduled to meet May 13 to decide whether to adopt restrictions on car washing, outdoor watering and water fountains. Water users might also see a rate increase.
In
It will take at least one more dry year to trigger a similar reaction statewide. The state's reservoirs are at about 80 percent of capacity now but will drop to about 65 percent by the end of the summer. If they are not replenished next winter, it is likely that the entire state will be in a drought emergency a year from now.
"What this situation reminds us all of is the need to begin … to deal with the fact that we really have a resource that is a precious resource that needs to be preserved," said Mike Chrisman, secretary of the Resources Agency for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. "We need to recognize that we are in a shortage and begin to act accordingly."
With the short-term situation tenuous but not yet critical, Chrisman tried to shift the focus to the long-term. Schwarzenegger has called for a 20 percent reduction in water use by 2020 and also supports the construction of at least two new dams in the
But Democratic Senate leader Don Perata, who opposes new dams, said Schwarzenegger should quickly draw upon more than $600 million the state already has available to protect the Delta, clean up groundwater supplies and promote conservation.
If next winter does not bring a healthy dose of rain and snow, that debate is going to move very quickly from the back rooms of the Capitol to boardrooms and living rooms across California.#
http://www.sacbee.com/110/story/909339.html
Editorial:
Water rationing isn't in
The
By Robert Price
| |
Rationing is an unpleasant word. It conjures up images of angry mobs pillaging relief trucks and humanitarian workers abandoning their distribution stations and running for their lives.
The word sounds considerably more palatable through the prism of the American experience. In fact, it has patriotic overtones.
No sugar, no coffee, no tires, no fuel oil? That'll be pretty tough, but our boys in uniform need those things. We can manage.
Water rationing could be in
But not in
But it turns out we're water-wealthy -- at least as water-wealthy as a desert city can be in the chronically parched American West.
"We have built systems that prepare for droughts," says Florn Core, the city of
But the dry conditions are already forcing water officials to pump water from those underground aquifers. Allow those water levels to continue to dwindle each year and, if conditions persist, restrictions become inevitable. The water we've been saving for the proverbial rainy day -- or, in this case, a devastating succession of non-rainy days -- becomes an even more valuable commodity.
Water rationing is not pretty. I know, because I saw its effects years ago when I lived through a Bay Area drought.
People reported their neighbors for watering their lawns on odd days instead of the prescribed even days. Hosing down one's driveway became a no-no. Car washes shut down. Golf courses withered.
Then there were those toilet guidelines, widely (and probably erroneously) attributed to then-Gov. Jerry Brown: "If it's yellow, let it mellow; if it's brown, flush it down." The idea might seem distasteful now, but 30 years ago, when TV announcers were regularly reminding you to keep your daily shower under two minutes, it made perfect sense.
Still does, actually. The average person could save about 10 gallons of water per day by flushing only under the recommended circumstances. Multiply that by the 36 million or so people in
That kind of water savings sounds even more appealing to me today than it did 30 years ago because I'm paying the monthly water bills these days.
It can't hurt to start considering a residential water-savings program right now, before we absolutely have to. Start getting in the habit. We're a city of water wasters. Our lawns are lush, green and large. Faced with swimming-pool problems, we tend to empty and refill as a first resort.
What can we do about that mind-set? A hundred little things, rolled out gradually.
I'd rather go back to two-minute showers than install shower-head flow restrictors. (And please, no low-flow legislation. That would only create a black market for illicit, full-flow shower heads.)
But I could see tax breaks for builders or homebuyers who replace lawns with drought-resistant plants, especially in parts of
Some of this stuff might seem unnecessary now, but check back in a few years.#
http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/1491584/
Farmers struggle with water price, cuts: 'A tree is a wonderful thing to take care of'
By Bradley J. Fikes, Staff Writer
Instead of groves of citrus and avocado trees and other crops, rocks and scrub vegetation dominated the landscape.
That desert could be returning. Faced with rising water costs and a water shortage, farmers in the breadbasket communities of
Dead citrus trees and the white-painted stumps of avocado trees ---- avocados are one of the county's biggest cash crops ---- can be found in groves throughout
"I think eventually there'll be no agriculture in Southern California," said Bob Polito, a
Polito said he's already removed about 1,000 citrus trees from among his roughly 6,000 citrus and avocado trees, cutting them down and turning them into mulch. Stumped avocado trees can regrow, but stumped citrus trees die.
Once trees come down, they're usually not going to be replaced, said Gary Arant, general manager of the Valley Center Municipal Water District. Because agriculture is increasingly marginal in
Citrus trees are the first to go because citrus isn't as profitable a crop as avocados, Arant said. But as water prices inexorably rise, growers say avocado trees will also come down in increasing numbers.
About 10 to 15 percent of the 24,000 acres of tree crops in
If agriculture does mostly vanish from
"We have pictures of
Pushed out
Growers say they have been able to cope with water prices until recently --- in large part owing to a program that provides discounted water from the Metropolitan Water District, the water wholesaler for
In exchange for a 30 percent discount, growers agree to be first in line to get reductions of up to 30 percent or more if there's a severe enough water shortage. About 80 percent of the agricultural water in
Last year, for the first time in the program's two-decade history, that cutback clause was invoked. So growers with thirsty trees have "stumped" some trees to keep the others in production.
In Fallbrook, growers are stumping about a third of their avocado trees, said Bob Lucy, partner in the Del Rey Avocado Company Inc. Lucy said his company's growers have between 4,500 and 5,000 acres of avocado trees.
Some growers are removing the trees for good, Lucy said. Others are hoping that they'll be able to resuscitate their trees next year, if a 30 percent cut in their water supply is restored.
White-painted stumps are those avocado-tree growers are trying to preserve, Lucy said. These trees need a minimal amount of water while dormant but must be allowed to grow again in a year or two or they die.
Growers are frustrated, Lucy said, because they are not given the option of buying more water at full price. Some growers think they can survive even without discounted water, but aren't being given the chance.
The willingness of local governments to allow continued residential development in the face of a shortage also rankles, Lucy said.
Metropolitan isn't allowing growers to leave the discount program until the current water shortage is ended. The problem is, nobody can tell when that will be.
Environmental balance
The immediate cause of the cut is a court decision requiring a reduction in water exports from Northern California to
So with 30 percent less water, growers must cut production by 30 percent, said Keith Lewinger, general manager of the Fallbrook Public Utility District. In Fallbrook, the main crops are avocados, flowers and nursery-grown plants, Lewinger said.
Flower growers and nurseries have large overhead to cover, Lewinger said, "and now you chop off 30 percent of revenue."
He added: "I'm not sure how long they can go producing only 70 percent of their products. That's a business-by-business decision."
Lucy said growers also provide an environmental benefit, and trees should be considered in the equation along with endangered fish.
"Doesn't an avocado tree, as a living organism, have a right?" Lucy said. "It produces food, it gives off oxygen. A tree is a wonderful thing to take care of."#
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2008/05/03/business/zd71da86990fc694d882574340066cc3.txt
Editorial
With drought a possibility, it's time for change
The Sacramento
February came in like a lion and left like a wimp.
The next month didn't bring a drop of precipitation to
April? Almost bone dry. And May? Don't waste your time doing a rain dance. It almost never rains in May. The water year is effectively over – and it's a worrisome year indeed.
According to the Department of Water Resources, the average snowpack statewide is now about two-thirds of normal. That's better than last year at this time, when the snowpack was at 27 percent. But two years of subpar precipitation means that people and water districts must get serious about how they use and abuse H20. Every gallon they conserve this year will mean more in groundwater basins and reservoirs next year – when we may need it. If
It's been 15 years since
That's going to change, although slowly – perhaps too slowly. Because of a 2004 law,
For decades,
That's true, but
Scientists are projecting that global climate change will reduce the state's snowpack by trillions of gallons each year. That means less water for cities, farms, fish and landscaping.
Yet here in
http://www.sacbee.com/110/story/909233.html
YubaNet - 5/1/08
On April 30, 2008, the City of
A Stage One Drought Alert does the following:
- Increases water waste patrols to ensure water is being used efficiently and leaks in residential and commercial properties are repaired per the Roseville Municipal Code;
- Requests all city water users to reduce their water use by ten percent (10 percent).
-Prohibits the washing of streets, parking lots, driveways, sidewalks or buildings, unless public health requires it. This does not apply to street sweepers.
-Requests restaurants not serve water, except upon request.
"We are asking our residents and businesses to do their part and make changes in their water use to achieve a 10 percent reduction in 2008,"
said Derrick Whitehead, Director of Environmental Utilities. "We have a whole host of free water conservation programs and generous rebates that residents and businesses can take advantage of that will help us reach the 10 percent reduction in water use."
USBR reduced
Over the past few years, the City of
The city will be mailing letters to all households and businesses in
Residents and businesses looking to take immediate action to reduce their water use are encouraged to call 774-5761 or go to www.roseville.ca.us/savewater to learn more about the free water saving programs and rebates the city has to offer.#
http://yubanet.com/regional/Roseville-Issues-a-Stage-One-Drought-Alert.php
Water conservation blitz hits street: But water officials stressing conservation 'more than ever'
By Dave Downey, Staff Writer
Following a disappointing end to this year's rainy season and a court order aimed at protecting an endangered fish,
Ted Thomas, spokesman for the California Department of Water Resources in
According to department records, deliveries totaled 2.4 million acre-feet last year, 3.5 million in 2006 and 4.05 million in 2005. The last time deliveries approached 1.5 million acre-feet was 1992.
An acre-foot is the amount it takes to cover an acre to a depth of one foot, or nearly 326,000 gallons. It's what two families use in a year.
Bob Yamada, water resources manager for the San Diego County Water Authority, said the sharp decline in deliveries from the massive plumbing system that taps the storehouse of frozen water in the Sierra Nevada will not trigger rationing ---- at least not this year.
Even so, supplies remain tight and suppliers have launched media blitzes to persuade residents to cut back, voluntarily, on how much they water lawns and gardens.
For the first time, the region's giant wholesaler, the Metropolitan Water District, is specifically asking people to turn sprinklers off one day a week. And water agencies in
Individual communities also are tackling the issue head on.
Farmers, meanwhile, already are under mandatory restrictions. That's because Metropolitan invoked a plan that slashes deliveries to agricultural customers who pay discounted water rates during times of strained supplies.
Many avocado, citrus and flower growers in
No 'March miracle'
Supplies remain strained despite the fact more rain fell this winter than the previous one. It was wet in December, January and February, Yamada said, but not enough to reverse the effects of several years of drought.
And there was no "miracle" this March like the one in 1991 that delivered several inches of rain in one month and broke the back of another drought.
Indeed, hardly a drop fell in March and April. The northern Sierra Nevada, source of much of the water that flows south to San Diego and Riverside counties, recorded the lowest precipitation totals for those two months since records began being kept in 1921, Thomas said.
On Thursday, the state water department reported the total blanket of snow over the Sierra is two-thirds as deep as it usually is this time of year, at the end of the precipitation season, and the amount of water flowing into reservoirs is little more than half-normal.
And not only did someone turn off the spigot that was replenishing the storehouse of frozen water, abundant sunshine has spurred people to water lawns more often than usual for early spring, said Bob Muir, a spokesman for Metropolitan Water District of Los Angeles.
"The storms earlier this year have left many people with the mistaken impression that our water worries are over," said Jeff Kightlinger, general manager for Metropolitan,
'Save it or lose it'
Consequently, while area residents aren't likely to see mandatory cuts, they are already seeing ---- and hearing ---- an advertising blitz that is filling the airwaves, cyberspace and newspapers with pleas to conserve.
Metropolitan launched a six-county, $6.3 million "Cut your water use" campaign in April that asks homeowners to avoid watering at least one day a week.
And the San Diego County Water Authority kicked off Thursday a similar, $1.8 million "Water: Save it lose it" campaign that aims to slash residential consumption 10 percent this summer, or 20 gallons a day per home.
Also on Thursday,
Tedi Jackson, a spokeswoman for the Riverside-based Western Municipal Water District, said it makes no sense to water lawns when the sun is out because much of the spray is lost to evaporation.
Neither does it make sense to let water run down the street, said Peter Odencrans, spokesman for the Eastern Municipal Water District, which serves the Interstate 215 corridor of
The water-wasting penalty is one initiative the Eastern board is to consider in a few weeks, Odencrans said. Another would establish a surcharge for water use above a certain amount to reinforce voluntary conservation efforts.
"We can encourage all we want, but if we get something that affects their wallet, that may be more effective," he said. "We don't want to be water cops, but it has come to that."
Now, more than ever
Likewise, Metropolitan was quick to defend its suggested one-day-a-week rest from lawn irrigation.
"We think it's something that people can do without really sacrificing," Muir said. "In many cases, we are killing our plants because we are overwatering them."
Odencrans said lawns get watered twice as much as they should. He said most need 50 inches of water a year and they tend to get 100.
If people will water less, Muir said, Metropolitan will be able to hold onto much of its 1.8 million acre-feet of reserves in reservoirs such as
"Now, more than ever, we're looking for people to help us save our water," he said. "We want to keep water in reserve for an emergency."
Metropolitan is the primary supplier in most of
While the region is not now in an emergency, there is plenty of cause for concern.
Thomas said that, because a large chunk of the melting snow is soaking into soil still parched from last year, the amount of water flowing into
That water eventually reaches the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the hub of the state's gigantic plumbing system.
Making matters worse for
Things look a little better on the Colorado River, the region's other major source, because the Rockies recorded higher-than-average snowfall, said Yamada, of the
"We're still dealing with the lingering problems of eight years of drought on the
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2008/05/03//news/sandiego//z8f419b3ba17944348825743900812f4.txt
Californians urged to conserve water amid drought worries
The Associated Press – 5/2/08
Sacramento, CA (AP) -- Californians are being asked to water their lawns less, plant native shrubs and install more-efficient irrigation systems to stave off water shortages and mandatory rationing amid growing worries about a possible long-term drought.
The increasingly urgent call to conserve water comes as state officials said Thursday that the Sierra Nevada snowpack, a key source of the state's water supply, has fallen about one-third below normal levels.
"We need to recognize that we're in a water shortage and begin to act accordingly," state Resources Secretary Mike Chrisman said.
While officials say it's too early to impose rationing, cities and water districts around
In
"We're in a pretty painful water supply picture," said Jeffrey Kightlinger, the district's general manager. "We don't want to institute rationing, but if this continues you will see us take a look at that next year."
Residents of
New housing and retail developments in
In the
"We saw the writing on the wall," Beuhler said. "It is probably the most single effective thing we can do to achieve conservation."
The East Bay Municipal Utility District, which serves 1.3 million customers in Contra Costa and
"Some of the things that could happen are not using fountains, requiring use of a shut-off nozzle in the hose at your house, or restrictions on when people can water their lawns," said district spokesman Jeff Becerra.
Farmers in Central Valley and cities from the San Francisco Bay Area to
Pumping out of the Sacramento San Joaquin Delta — the heart of
The bleak snowpack exacerbates those pumping cuts, water officials and farmers say.
"It's problems stacked on top of other problems," said John Harris, a western
Growers in northern
San Francisco Public Utilities Commission will continue to ask customers to voluntarily cut back on usage — a tactic that worked well last summer, when use fell 13 percent, said spokesman Tony Winnicker.
"As long as our customers continue to use the same good habits they showed last year, we should be able to get through this year without any cutbacks," Winnicker said.
The outlook is brighter for communities along the central coast, which has had plenty of rain to fill their local reservoirs, said Jeanine Jones, the drought coordinator at the Department of Water Resources.
For the most part, the state has little authority to impose mandatory rationing. That can only be done if the governor declares a statewide drought emergency, something no previous governor has done, Jones said. In
Ellen Hanak, a water expert at the Public Policy Institute of California, said communities should be thinking now about adopting conservation and water pricing programs rather than wait until conditions worsen.
"If you're constantly planning to have no cutbacks during dry times, you're probably spending too much on storage," Hanak said. "There's a balance to be struck."#
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/05/02/state/n162557D13.DTL
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