Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation for DWR personnel of significant news articles and comment
June 12, 2008
1. Top Items -
USGS critiques feds' water deals with farmers
Associated Press – 6/11/08
Salty canal plan debated: Environmentalists fight growers' plan to pump ground water into aqueduct.
The
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USGS critiques feds' water deals with farmers
Associated Press – 6/11/08
By Garance Burke
Sen. Dianne Feinstein has been brokering negotiations over the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's proposals, which are intended to fix a botched federal drain project that left fields in
Two weeks ago, Feinstein met behind closed doors in
A copy obtained by The Associated Press Wednesday critiques a proposal previously floated by the bureau. That plan would give a group of wealthy farmers a perpetual contract for irrigation water if they took on the cost of the clean up, which is estimated at more than $2.6 billion.
The bureau is considering using a new technology – a solar evaporation system – to separate harmful selenium concentrations from the runoff.
“However, at this concentration there still may be a potential for selenium risk to wildlife, if performance does not meet specific criteria,” the report said.
Feinstein's staff said on Wednesday the Democratic senator had since written the bureau's
She cited data in the report showing that eggs of two shore birds collected in 2006 at a pilot facility that recycles the runoff contained more than nine times the level of selenium the government says represents a high risk for deformity.
“The USGS presents data that pilot projects ... have caused instances of selenium in bird eggs substantially above the 10 parts per billion threshold for substantive risk,” Feinstein wrote in a letter dated Tuesday. “This is a very serious concern.”
Mike Finnegan, an area manager for the bureau's central
Once managers at the Panoche Drainage District discovered the eggs, they immediately, permanently closed the open drains where avocets and stilts were nesting, state officials said.
Finnegan said the agency was developing a flexible approach to safeguard waterfowl in its official proposal, as well as in a second, competing proposal drawn up by the Westlands Water District, a coalition of giant lettuce, citrus and tomato growers in the fertile valley.
The pilot recycling projects are slated to be expanded in both, and designs are still being finalized.
“We want be responsive to ensure we have an effective, adaptive approach and make sure we're not causing undue damage to the environment,” he said. “We also acknowledge that treatment at this scale has not be totally tested or proven.”
Westlands' general manager and general counsel Tom Birmingham said Wednesday that the agency was prepared to spend the $700 million he estimated it would cost the private sector to fix the vexing problem, and would keep a close watch to ensure wildlife was protected.
“These techniques can work to manage drain water in an environmentally responsible way,”
Farmers and the federal government have been fighting over the drainage mess since the 1980s, when thousands of birds died and were born without limbs after nesting in ponds of contaminated irrigation water.
After the disaster, land managers at the Kesterson Wildlife Refuge, some 80 miles northeast of
Powerful agribusinesses sued, claiming the federal government was responsible for cleaning up the cropland polluted by the runoff.
Decades later, the bureau – which runs a massive irrigation complex that makes farming possible in the arid
Biologists, water districts and growers alike have tried dozens of innovative approaches to get rid of the runoff that collects after farmers irrigate their crops.
In May, Feinstein requested that the USGS comment on the contractors' proposal, but didn't publicly release the results until the AP's story.
Growing crops on fewer acres of land is one option explored in the USGS report.
But growers say fallowing fields would rob them of their livelihoods and cause major job losses throughout the region. Given the huge expense required to fix the drainage problem, farmers say they need a permanent water contract to ensure their financial viability, and to keep growing the fruits and vegetables the nation relies on.
Westlands and other water districts propose to fix the problem by shooting the polluted runoff through a sprinkler system that would allow the salts to solidify and be collected.
The report critiqued that proposal, and another to build the solar evaporation systems, calling them untested options that had not been proven to work at the scale required.
If necessary, Finnegan said the government would complete additional environmental reviews of the reuse projects, the sprinklers and other new techniques.
The study also suggested farmers boost the water they draw from underground aquifers to lower the amount of selenium brought into the environment.
Several retired federal scientists and environmental groups excluded from the
“The science doesn't add up. They government doesn't have the answers,” said Edgar Imhoff, a former top drainage official at the Department of Interior who also served as a hydrologist at the USGS. “If they go ahead with their plan, this report shows there are a lot of uncertainties that it will ever work out.”#
http://www.modbee.com/state_wire/story/325304.html
Salty canal plan debated: Environmentalists fight growers' plan to pump ground water into aqueduct.
The
By E.J. Schultz , Bee Capitol Bureau
Growers in the west Valley are pitching the plan as a way to boost dwindling water supplies. If it were pumped into the California Aqueduct, water could be moved to farmers who don't have access to wells.
Something needs to be done quickly, the drought-stricken farmers say, or they will have to lay off more workers and abandon more crops.
In an emergency declaration last week, the Fresno County Board of Supervisors urged Gov. Schwarzenegger to temporarily "relax the water quality standards" to enable piping of ground water into the aqueduct.
The 444-mile concrete canal sends delta water to
The administration says all that's needed is a finding that the blended ground-delta water meets quality objectives specified in state water contracts. State officials are trying to work out an agreement with water customers. But environmentalists say growers would have to go one step further -- apply for a federal permit under the Clean Water Act that could take months to approve.
Bill Jennings, executive director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, said his group would immediately sue if water were pumped without a permit.
"It's not something the governor can wave his wand and make it happen," said
The proposal is a temporary solution to get growers through the summer, said Sarah Woolf, spokeswoman for the Westlands Water District. The district's supplies have been cut as a result of the dry spring and pumping restrictions in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to protect fish.
In addition to making well water more broadly available, the plan would allow it to be used on crops that currently cannot tolerate it easily.
Blending ground water with aqueduct water would reduce its salinity. Some crops -- notably almonds, the most prevalent permanent crop on the west side -- do not tolerate salty water.
"Every day that we delay this, additional crops will be abandoned," Woolf said.
But some critics say the salinity issue raises important concerns.
"The well water, from our point of view, is going to contain substantial contaminants ... and lots and lots of salt, which are not things you would normally add to your water supply," said Mike Jackson, an environmental lawyer who represents the sportfishing alliance.
State water officials counter that federal permits are not required for most ground water pumping. "The possible exception might be if there is some direct hydrological link between the surface water and the ground water, but that is not the case for the [Valley proposal]," a Department of Water Resources spokesman said in an e-mail.
Westlands would have to get support from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which is the state's largest water customer. Metropolitan uses the aqueduct to supply drinking water to 18 million residents.
"We're willing to cooperate, but we want to make sure we don't in any way jeopardize what we're trying to do," said Roger Patterson, an assistant general manager at Metropolitan.
If too much salty water makes its way southward, it could damage pipes and hinder water recycling efforts, officials said. There are also health and taste considerations. People on low-sodium diets are especially at risk.
The amount of ground water pumped in would not be enough to significantly alter water quality, Woolf said. #
http://www.fresnobee.com/263/story/662573.html
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