Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation for DWR personnel of significant news articles and comment
June 23, 2008
1. Top Items -
Report says
The Associated Press- 6/20/08
Paying more for less: Drought-induced conservation could trigger higher water rates
North County
Editorial
Keeping Western waterways clean: The
The
Mini-subs exploring Sacramento River
CNet News- 6/20/08
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Report says
The Associated Press- 6/20/08
Overhauling how
Meeting the long-term water needs of a growing population — now at nearly 38 million — while balancing protections for water quality and wildlife could cost between $12 billion and $24 billion over the next 10 to 15 years. The cost could be as high as $80 billion, according to a draft plan sent to a task force formed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
At the heart of the state's massive water storage and delivery system is the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the region targeted by Schwarzenegger's task force.
The staff report outlines recommendations for improving the delta's ecosystem, building a canal or pipeline to move drinking and irrigation water around the delta, and strengthening the region's levees.
"A delta fix is going to be very expensive — it's just that simple," said Tim Quinn, executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies.
The report also recommends creating another government entity to oversee the delta, an idea that drew skepticism from Quinn. He said water contractors were concerned they might have less say over how much water they receive, even though they will be paying for most of the delta's improvements.
The new entity would decide how and when water would be exported to farmers and cities in Southern California and the
The idea of taking water-export decisions away from the state Department of Water Resources was supported by the grassroots group Restore the Delta, which includes delta residents, business leaders, farmers, fishermen and environmentalists.
The department is more concerned with moving water to farmers and
The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is the source of irrigation water for thousands of acres of cropland. The tangle of rivers, canals, estuaries and islands that stretches from the foot of the northern and central Sierra Nevada to
Yet the delta is a highly troubled ecosystem, plagued by crashing fish populations, pollution from farms and invading plant and animal species. Its environmental problems have prompted lawsuits that in turn have led to court decisions regarding when and how the state can use water from the delta.
Those factors have led experts to conclude that without major changes the delta no longer will be a reliable resource for Californians or the species that live there.
It was against that backdrop that Schwarzenegger formed the Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force a year ago and charged it with finding solutions.
The staff report released Friday says it is crucial for
"Actions taken to manage the delta must secure the future of both, rather than encouraging one to thrive at the expense of the other," the report said.
Among the recommendations is building a canal or pipeline to route some fresh water around the delta and into aqueducts that would carry it to cities and farms. A so-called peripheral canal was tried a generation ago, but voters soundly rejected the idea.
Water users in
In addition to building a canal or pipeline, the report recommends exporting less water from the delta during dry years when river levels are low.
It also sets a spring 2009 deadline for completing long-awaited environmental studies for three potential dams — Sites Reservoir in a valley north of
The report acknowledges that the state's water problems cannot be met by new canals and dams alone. It recommends farmers and cities invest in water-efficiency and conservation programs and promotes water recycling, storm water capture and groundwater storage.
Developers should be required to install water-efficient devices in new homes and commercial buildings and show that any new development would not deplete
At the same time, the draft plan calls for the creation of new tidal marshes, wetlands and floodplains to help revitalize the delta's native species and improve flood control.
The report says the state's water system must be updated, evolving from the one that supplied the state for half a century but did so at a great cost to the state's ecosystems.
"Just as the state became a world leader in water engineering, it will now have to become a world leader in ecosystem revitalization, water conservation and regional self-sufficiency," the report stated.
The spending proposals included in the report appear to bolster Schwarzenegger's call for a $10.3 billion water bond, which he hopes the Legislature will place on the November ballot.
He wants to provide funding to build dams and give cities grants to boost their own water supplies, but the Republican governor has been unable to strike a deal with the Democrat-controlled Legislature.
Schwarzenegger spokeswoman Lisa Page said the report "highlights the need to fix the delta and the comprehensive approach the governor has been talking about."
The task force's final blueprint is due to the governor in October.#
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/06/20/state/n132421D98.DTL
Paying more for less: Drought-induced conservation could trigger higher water rates
North County
By Dave Downey, Staff Writer
If a whole lot of people do their civic duty and slash their water consumption this summer, they soon could find themselves paying more for using less.
"That's the dichotomy of this thing," said Bill Rucker, general manager of the Vallecitos Water District, which provides water to more than 20,000 homes and businesses in
"If they cut back 30 percent, you've just lost 30 percent of your variable income," Rucker said. "The bottom line is, you're going to pay more for less."
Customers clearly are not happy at the specter of increased prices.
Just the thought of paying more for less makes Martha Westman angry.
"It's a total rip-off," said the 60-year-old film makeup artist who lives in Temecula.
Still, Westman said she wouldn't stop conserving even if it meant paying more later. She said that is because conservation is a lifestyle for her.
"I'm from the old country ---- I'm from
Westman runs her dishwasher only on Thanksgiving and Christmas ---- "when I have a huge amount of guests" ---- and dries her clothes on a line. And more recently, she installed a drip irrigation system to water the sweet-scented jasmine flowers and shrubs that grace her front patio.
The region's water suppliers are scrambling to get people to conserve because a string of dry years has sapped
"We've lost 40 percent of our
Likewise, there is less water available from
"We're under siege in all of our systems," Kightlinger said.
Consequently, officials say they are hoping to avoid cutting deeply into dwindling regional reserves this summer.
20-20 hindsight
Residents of
During the last major drought, Metropolitan Water District pleaded with customers to voluntarily conserve ---- as it is doing now ---- then rationed the imported water it delivers to millions of people in six counties stretching from
As a result, consumption plunged 30 percent in 1991, Kightlinger said, and Metropolitan's revenue from water sales dropped by a similar amount. He said the agency responded almost immediately by raising water rates 18 percent to make up for the lost cash.
A similar rate hike may be lurking around the corner. But this time Kightlinger said Metropolitan probably won't raise rates so quickly, if at all.
If rationing were to be required next year, it likely would be 2011 before rates would be raised to compensate for falling water-sale revenue, Kightlinger said. Unlike in 1991, he said, the giant wholesaler now has a big cash reserve that can absorb a short-term decline in revenue.
Metropolitan also has large water reserves in reservoirs such as
"We're not completely ration-proof. We're not completely rate-shock proof," Kightlinger said. "But we have given ourselves a lot of flexibility so that we can ease into either situation."
The rates Metropolitan sets are charged to cities and water districts who in turn sell to homeowners and farmers. Those smaller agencies typically pass on rate hikes to their customers.
Still, Peter Moote, assistant director of administrative services for one of those local providers, the city of
Already hit by rate hikes
The conservation twist of 1991 came near the end of a six-year dry period that ended with the dramatic "March miracle," a particularly wet month that busted the drought and overnight erased the need for Draconian conservation measures.
Fundamentally, a drought refers to an extended period of below-normal rainfall. But water officials tend to define it in a broader sense, taking into account the amount in reservoirs.
It was the combination of low rain and snow totals this year, and declining reservoir storage, that prompted Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to declare a statewide drought earlier this month.
While conservation-driven rate hikes have yet to occur, this latest drought already is having an impact on consumers' pocketbooks.
Metropolitan plans to hike rates 14.3 percent in January, and another 20 percent over the two following years, to upgrade equipment and buy farm water.
And the San Diego County Water Authority, which distributes Metropolitan water to San Diego-area cities and districts, is going to raise its rates 11.9 percent at the first of the year.
John Liarakos, a spokesman for the county water authority, said a significant chunk of the increase will go for buying 30,000 acre-feet of water from
The water will be stored in the ground just south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, where its use won't be affected by the delta pumping restrictions, he said.
The authority, area cities and Metropolitan have been teaming up on a media blitz to persuade area residents to cut back, particularly when it comes to the lawn and garden sprinkling that accounts for more than half of all consumption around the house.
Water agencies throughout the region are asking for a voluntary 10 percent cutback in water use this summer to ease the pain of the drought.
But Ken Weinberg, water resources director for the authority, said that target won't be easy to hit because a drought means drier and hotter weather, and people tend to want to water plants more in such times, not less.
And Rucker, of the Vallecitos district, said conditions are vastly different from the last drought.
"In those days, we had a lot of soft demand," Rucker said. "When we called for 10 percent conservation, we got 20 percent."
But now, after widespread conversion to low-flow showerheads, toilets and washing machines, and high-tech sprinkler systems, there are fewer ways to conserve, he said, and additional savings will be harder to come by.
Indeed, said Roy Brown of Temecula, who lives in a two-story home on a 6,800-square-foot lot, "there's not many more places I can cut back on my water, other than not use it."
Brown added that his homeowners association is quick to scold members if even a tiny section of one's lawn turns brown.
Acknowledging the easier conservation measures that have been adopted, water officials are now stressing that people sprinkle their lawns fewer times a week and convert lush tropical landscaping into native plants.
In another ironic twist of the times, Brown said, the economy is making a positive contribution to the cause of saving water.
Pointing to the dead lawn a few doors down on a foreclosed property, he said, "That's water conservation at its finest."#
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2008/06/21/news/sandiego/z8eb5c84a523265398825746b00608448.txt
Editorial
Keeping Western waterways clean: The
The
Over the course of almost 40 years, the Clean Water Act -- which compels landowners to secure permits from the Environmental Protection Agency before dredging or discharging pollutants into "waters of the
Here in
Lay the blame on legalese, courtesy of the U.S. Supreme Court. In a 2006 rulingin Rapanos vs.
It was left to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which shares enforcement responsibilities for the act with the EPA, to figure out how to define those and other muddy terms, and it chose to do so, critics say, literally and narrowly. By the corps' definitions, according to a memo released June 4, only two short stretches of the
No one knows, just yet, what the consequences will be for
Still, real threats remain to Clean Water Act protection for the dozens of ephemeral waterways that feed into the
One thing is clear: This is no way to manage one of the most important environmental protections in American law.
Even though their streams and swales are often dry, Western watersheds are integrated systems. Paving over an isolated canyon here and another there can divert waters or create runoff that makes its way to a distant ocean, disrupting wildlife and public health. Making decisions piecemeal -- hoping that the EPA will step in to question permit applications as they surface -- is woefully inefficient at best and insidious at worst. In a desperate effort to get the corps to change its mind about the Los Angeles River's "traditional navigability" and guarantee protection for isolated waters, a few activists have started kayaking down the concrete channels. That this appears to be the most meaningful way citizens can register their concern for the watershed is absurd.
There are better strategies to keep the Clean Water Act strong in the arid West, where waters are more likely to resemble puddles than the mighty Mississippi (the kind of river, incidentally, that lawmakers had in mind when they used terms such as "navigability"):
* The EPA could step up its involvement in making determinations of navigability. While traditionally the agency has deferred to the corps on such matters, lawyers at the Natural Resources Defense Council and other advocacy groups have argued that the EPA has the power to challenge corps decisions. If EPA officials choose not to raise a challenge, they must commit now to carefully reviewing the flood of permit applications that is sure to rise in the coming months. Local governments too must plan to pick up the slack and come up with their own regulations if federal protections are removed.
* Ideally, Congress should rewrite the Clean Water Act in plainer English. Fortunately, the House has already started the process with HR 2421, the Clean Water Restoration Act. Introduced last year by Reps. James L. Oberstar (D-Minn.), John D. Dingell (D-Mich.) and Vernon J. Ehlers (R-Mich.), the bill would replace the term "navigable waters of the United States" with "waters of the United States," restoring the broader, more inclusive pre-Rapanos understanding of the act's jurisdiction. Staff on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which Oberstar chairs, are fielding suggestions for amendments to the bill, which has 174 co-sponsors in the House. We urge the committee to finish its work and get this bill onto the floor as soon as possible, and we call on the
All interested parties must collaborate to ensure that, as the corps promises, the restoration of the
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-river21-2008jun21,0,3580473.story
Mini-subs exploring Sacramento River
CNet News- 6/20/08
If you reel in a small sub instead of a rainbow trout from the
It belongs to a team of researchers from the
The researchers are working with propelled 4-foot-long submarines and floating drifters equipped with GPS-receivers for positioning, GSM-modules for communication, and sensors inside for recording temperature, salinity, and currents.
"We are prototyping an infrastructure and testing it in the delta," said Professor Alexander Bayen, who leads the team at UC Berkeley's Civil Systems Department.
The purpose of all this is to collect data to help the state better understand the river. And researchers have good reason to believe there's urgency to their work. With drought looming for most of
The
"It's totally undersampled if you want a precise, online, real-time measurement of the whole state of the delta," Bayen said.
Heavy rains, levee breaches, or contaminant spills are situations when accurate and up-to-date data is needed. In the river delta in 2004, for example, one of the levees breached and a large agricultural area was flooded. Pumps normally move fresh water from sources in the north down to the south, but silt was confounding in the system. The pumps had to be shut down for a whole month at a cost of around $1 million a day.
"In retrospect, that was too long. But given the information they had, they were forced to act very conservatively. They could not turn the pumps on," said graduate student and researcher Andrew Tinka.
Floaters equipped with sensors deployed on site could have provided real-time information on how the water was flowing and where the silt was heading.
In a recent workshop at UC Berkeley, undergraduate students and university staff worked on floater prototypes that will be tested this summer in the river. Inside the floaters are a GSM-module, a GPS-receiver and a $120 Gumstix computer running on Linux. (A Gumstix is a computer the size of a stick of gum.)
"They are great little computers that are about as powerful as a 1996-era Pentium. All the power you had at your disposal can be yours in a floating sensor for very little money now, and that's really cool as far as I'm concerned," Tinka said.
The self-guided submarines are developed in
That is the hardware involved. The other part of the project are the algorithms calculated for the complex hydrodynamics models. The software is based on two commercial packages, Telemac and Mike 21, with programs for GPS tracking added.
Bayen said that the combination of the hardware and software is the novelty here. He calls it a "cyber physical system," where the cyber part monitors the flow of information and the physics is the hardware--the floaters.
"In five years, cyber physical system is going to be a tech buzz word," Bayen said.
If the research project is successful, the innovations can be put to use in other parts of the world where there is a need for improved river management. The
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-9973448-54.html
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