[Water_news] 2. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: SUPPLY - 5/9/08

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment 

 

May 9, 2008

 

2. Supply –

 

 

 

Editorial:

A new water strategy: Without one, the entire California economy is at risk.

The Los Angeles Times – 8/8/08

 

 

Editorial:

The emerging water crisis in the U.S.

The Deming Headlight- 5/8/08

 

Long Beach Year Ahead Of Others In Water Conservation

The Long Beach Gazette – 8/8/08

 

 

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Editorial:

A new water strategy: Without one, the entire California economy is at risk.

The Los Angeles Times – 8/8/08

By George Deukmejian, Pete Wilson and Gray Davis

The Times' recent story, "Water shortage worst in decades," illustrates an often forgotten fact. Southern California is really a semi-arid desert -- brought to life by water supplies from the Colorado River, the Owens Valley and the State Water Project to supplement our local supplies. Our reliance on this imported water to meet the region's future needs puts us at ever greater risk.

 

 Future water supply reliability will increasingly depend on local self-help measures such as conservation, reuse, more below-ground storage of surplus supplies and even desalination.

But more important and far more urgent is the serious threat we face today of real water shortages for much of the state because of the crisis in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. Collapse of its strained ecosystem and its labyrinth of unstable levees from flood or earthquake could gravely reduce, or even suspend, deliveries from the State Water Project serving not only Southern California but users in the San Francisco Bay Area, the San Joaquin Valley and the Central Coast. California's entire economy is at risk.

 

 How do we address these threats to the viability of our quality of life and our economy? First, we offer our support for a statewide solution for the delta, which would address ecosystem concerns and stabilize the water supply. Such a solution must include a new water conveyance infrastructure, funded by those who benefit from the system improvement. Second, we must move forward on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's call for a statewide 20% "across the board" water conservation effort. The business community can demonstrate its leadership in this effort. Third, Southern California's Metropolitan Water District, local water agencies and the private water sector should begin to explore new strategic efforts in addition to their conservation and reuse initiatives. They should maximize local water resources by partnering -- employing transportation and exchange arrangements -- to use the extensive pipeline network and underground storage facilities throughout Southern California. Other regions should consider similar plans.

Finally, our state leaders need to reach agreement on a comprehensive statewide water infrastructure plan, including bond funds for a delta solution and local water reliability projects.

All this will cause our water service to cost more in the future. But going without a critically needed water supply is simply not an option.#

 http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oew-governors8-2008may08,0,2225064.story

 

 

 

Editorial:

The emerging water crisis in the U.S.

The Deming Headlight- 5/8/08

 

I am amazed: since last summer, almost every day we hear about another water crisis in the United States Less access to water is no longer something affecting only poor countries. It is right here in our own back yard.

 

For most of us living in the United States, water is something we take for granted, available when you turn your tap on — to brush your teeth, to take a shower, to wash your car, to water your lawn, and if you have your own swimming pool, to fill that as well. So it was with alarm that many of us read the story of Orme, a small town tucked away in the mountains of southern Tennessee that has become a recent symbol of the drought in the southeast. Orme has had to literally ration its water use, by collecting water for a few hours every day — an everyday experience in most developing countries.

 

The southeast has been under a year-long dry spell that has resulted in the city of Atlanta setting severe water use restrictions and three states, Georgia, Florida and Alabama, going to court over a water allocation dispute. Early this year, it was reported that drought in the region could force nuclear reactor shutdowns. Nuclear reactors need billions of gallons of cooling water daily to operate and in many of the local lakes and rivers, water levels are close to the limit set by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

 

In the Midwest, the emerging biofuel industry is putting pressure on groundwater resources in some places. In 2006, a Granite Falls, Minn., ethanol plant in its first year of operation depleted the groundwater so much that it had to begin pumping water from the Minnesota River.

 

In the southwest, it was reported in February that there is a 50 percent chance Lake Mead (on the Arizona/Nevada border) will be dry by 2021 if climate change continues as expected and future water use is not limited. Along with Lake Powell in Utah, Lake Mead helps provide water for more than 25 million people.

 

On the West Coast, water disputes abound: between farmers who want water for agriculture, environmentalists who want to conserve water for ecosystems and cities who want to meet ever-growing urban water needs. Last summer, a federal judge ordered state and federal water project managers to reduce the amount of water pumped from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to protect the threatened delta smelt from extinction.

 

Many of these water disputes are exacerbated by extreme variations in precipitation patterns linked to climate change. In early February, Nature reported that, "In the western US, where water is perhaps the most precious natural resource, anthropogenic global warming is responsible for more than half of the well-documented changes to the hydrological cycle from 1950 to 1999. . .Over the last half of the twentieth century, the region's mountains received less winter snow and more rain, with snow melting earlier, causing rivers to flow more strongly in the spring and more weakly in the summer."

 

Irrigated agriculture accounts for 80 percent of water consumed in the United States This high percentage is partially because of low water use-efficiency (the portion of water actually used by irrigated agriculture relative to the volume of water withdrawn).

 

For the western United States, agricultural farms are the single largest water user, half of which is used by the largest 10 percent of the farms.

 

We need a new approach that sets appropriate incentives to ensure that: water withdrawals do not exceed the recharge rate; water conservation techniques (such as rain water harvesting) are central to land use planning; improved irrigation efficiency and better nutrient management (to reduce non-point water pollution from farm run-offs) are rewarded; and growing water-intensive crops in water scarce regions is discouraged.

 

Now is the time to rethink our policies regarding urban development, energy production and most importantly our agriculture and food systems, in order to avert an environmental crisis that many countries are already in the grip of.#

http://www.demingheadlight.com/opinion/ci_9185490

 

 

Long Beach Year Ahead Of Others In Water Conservation

The Long Beach Gazette – 8/8/08

By Harry Saltzgaver, Executive Editor

 

It snowed in the Sierras this winter, but not enough.

 

Last Thursday, it was announced that the mountain snowpack had dropped to 67% of normal — down from 116% just two months before — due to a dry March and April. That spells trouble for Southern California this summer, because a large portion of the area’s water comes from those mountains.

 

That news came on top of forecasts that already had water departments worried. Due to a court order, the Metropolitan Water District already has reduced by 30% the amount it is allowed to pump south from the Sacramento River. The State Water Project supplies up to half the water used in the Los Angeles basin and San Diego areas, including Long Beach.

 

But residents here likely won’t face any further restrictions on water use this summer, according to Kevin Wattier, general manager of the Long Beach Water Department. That’s because Long Beach is a year ahead of the rest of the area when it comes to water conservation.

 

Last September, the Long Beach Water Department declared an imminent water shortage, triggering a series of water restrictions, including limiting lawn watering to three days a week, banning use of water to clean off driveways, telling restaurants to require patrons to ask before serving glasses of water and more. The restrictions have worked — Long Beach has cut use by 7% or more every month since September.

 

But the rest of Los Angeles County and the surrounding area delayed action, even after MWD said it would raise the cost of water by 14% due to expected supply shortages. The Long Beach Board of Water Commissioners has called several times for other jurisdictions to follow its lead and require conservation measures.

 

“We’ve been achieving ongoing conservation savings of 7% or more,” Wattier said. “As I understand it, the MWD is going to its board next week. We believe that conservation measures need to be immediate and permanent.”

 

Long Beach produces about 40% of its own water through groundwater wells. Of the 60% that is purchased from MWD, two-thirds comes from the Sacramento Delta through the State Water Project.

 

Because of the reduced flow required to protect the Delta Smelt and the low snowpack, Southern California is expected to receive on 35% of its regular allocation from the State Water Project. Unless other cities cut use as Long Beach has, the result will be water shortages.

 

Still, there will not be any water rationing in Long Beach, Wattier promised.

 

“We never plan to do rationing again,” he said. “We learned in the drought of ’87 to ’91 that that doesn’t work. We could progressively implement additional restrictions, so you could only water two days, or one day.

 

“But this year I don’t think we will have to do much more. We’re essentially a year ahead of everyone else, and I don’t think it would be fair to Long Beach residents to ask them to do more until everyone else in the area is doing more.”

 

One thing that Long Beach and the rest of the region is sure to see is higher water rates. The one negative to conserving water, Wattier said, is that it reduces the revenue the Water Department takes in. Add that to the higher cost paid to MWD, and it translates to a rate hike. But the amount of the hike won’t be known for several weeks.

 

On another front, Long Beach is working to become more self-sufficient in regards to its water supply by studying a new seawater desalination system. Wattier said tests at the full-scale desalination plant are on schedule, as is a separate under-ocean floor intake and outlet test near the Junipero Avenue beach. Construction is done on that facility, with testing to begin soon.

 

But it will be several years — at least until 2015 — before desalination is a viable source for significant amounts of usable water. Until then, Wattier said, conservation is the only way to make a difference#

http://gazettes.com/water05082008.html