Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation for DWR personnel of significant news articles and comment
June 4, 2008
1. Top Items -
Governor to issue drought decree, press for more conservation
Schwarzenegger declares statewide drought in
Associated Press – 6/4/08
Editorial
Water crisis grows while Californians dither
Our inability to overcome ideology may dry up state.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Governor to issue drought decree, press for more conservation
By Michael Gardner
“The governor is ringing the bell. We're heading over a cliff,” Lester Snow, director of the state Department of Water Resources, said in an exclusive interview with The San Diego Union-Tribune.
Schwarzenegger will issue an accompanying executive order to launch an aggressive campaign to transfer water to parched regions, pursue federal aid, quickly funnel more state money to conservation projects and to lay the foundation for a emergency water bank, beginning in 2009, that would be filled by supplies purchased from farmers.
The state is already feeling repercussions of drought conditions, from idled farmland to reduced deliveries to metropolitan areas between
This will be the first statewide drought declaration since 1991, when Gov. Pete Wilson declared an emergency in the fifth year of a punishing dry spell that extended into 1992.
Much of
The picture doesn't improve with the state's reservoirs.
If there's no dramatic improvement next rainy season,
The governor plans to challenge water purveyors, even those with sufficient local supplies, to accelerate savings.
“Not everybody is sending the same message,” Snow said of the different responses to looming shortages. “The governor is saying the entire state has a problem.”
The threat varies by region, depending on water sources. That makes it politically difficult for water agencies to tell their customers to turn off the tap when there is no local shortage. For example, the water district serving
Metropolitan Water District directors on Tuesday plan to issue a regional supply alert that encourages agencies that buy its water to actively enforce conservation ordinances, such as those limiting outdoor use.
If that fails, “the next step is rationing,” said Jeffrey Kightlinger, Metropolitan's general manager.
And that appears to be the governor's message as well, Kightlinger said.
“He is trying to give people a warning . . . trying to not hit people with the Draconian step first,” Kightlinger said.
The San Diego County Water Authority has been relying on voluntary conservation encouraged by an extensive outreach program.
It's unclear just how far the governor's powers extend if he moved toward rationing statewide, his aides said. What is certain is the governor can set priorities for where the state delivers supplies, perhaps using that authority to persuade reluctant agencies to cooperate.
The governor also plans to renew his demand that lawmakers pass a $11.7 billion bond measure that would finance storage facilities, conservation programs and projects to revitalize the troubled
“We're going to living from snowstorm to snowstorm until we do a long-term fix,” Snow said.
In many respects, this water crisis could be more threatening than the 1987-92 drought, water officials say.
A multistate deal to share the
At the same time,
Schwarzenegger had previously issued a call for 20 percent conservation by 2020. Democrats are pushing Assembly Bill 2175 that would gradually enact that target, and the governor is in negotiations with the author.
“We're expecting 10 million more people in
Schwarzenegger's directives to be released today may draw some criticism from environmentalists, many of whom oppose new reservoirs and will question why it is does not include specific actions to safeguard fish and wildlife from water shortages.
Snow, the state water official, said water set aside to protect the smelt will also benefit other fish and the
“We already have the environment covered in other processes,” Snow said.
The governor's executive order will create two posts to coordinate the state's response to the drought and to facilitate transfers.
Crucially, the governor will order his water planners to concentrate on working with the federal Bureau of Reclamation, which delivers supplies to much of the west side of the San Joaquin Valley. The bureau has dramatically reduced deliveries there, raising the specter of plowed-under cotton fields and withered almond trees.
The action comes as the Westlands Water District, coping with the driest spring in eight decades in the
“Yields will fall, quality will decline, fields will be abandoned, trees may die and unemployment will skyrocket,” farmer Mark Borba told the Fresno Bee this week.
Although the state is counting on more water transfers, questions of where the fresh supplies will come from and at what price do not have easy answers.
Rice farmers, the traditional relief well because of ample groundwater and historic rights to supplies in reservoirs, are reaping record profits and may be reluctant to sell.
Snow, however, is confident the state can broker some deals.#
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20080604-9999-1n4drought.html
Schwarzenegger declares statewide drought in
Associated Press – 6/4/08
The governor issued an executive order Wednesday that directs the state Department of Water Resources to speed water transfers to areas with the most severe shortages.
Schwarzenegger has ordered state officials to help local water districts with water conservation efforts and directed them to help farmers suffering losses from the drought.
Dry conditions are damaging crops, harming water quality and causing extreme fire danger across the state. Many communities already are requiring water conservation or rationing.#
Editorial
Water crisis grows while Californians dither
Our inability to overcome ideology may dry up state.
The
Hundreds of farmers in the Westlands Water District will get even less water than they expected. That's the bad news delivered by federal officials on Monday. A Westlands spokesman said many would be forced out of business. That would cause reverberations throughout the Valley's economy.
Westlands accounts for about 20% of
Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, called it "the perfect storm," the combination of very dry weather and court-ordered cutbacks in water pumped from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. Add one more ingredient: The inability of generations of Californians and their political leadership to get their hands on the problem and solve it.
It's not as if people didn't see this coming. Predictions of water shortages due to the effects of climate change, coupled with population growth and the concomitant increase in demand, have left the state short of the supplies we will need in the coming years.
We have long advocated a combination of measures to address the problem: New surface storage (dams), underground water banking and vastly increased efforts to conserve the water we have.
But environmentalists and Democrats in the Legislature won't support any plan that includes dams, and Republicans and their allies in business and agriculture won't back any effort that leaves them out.
The upshot is a standoff that leaves us years behind in addressing a growing crisis.
Even if the ideological logjam is quickly cleared, new dams and new underground facilities will take some time to come on line, giving us all a chance to enjoy things getting even worse. #
http://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/story/645003.html
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