Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
June 9, 2008
5. Agencies, Programs, People –
The
San Bernardino
KSEE TV – 6/6/08
Water rationing not likely in SCV
Santa Clarita Signal-6/6/08
State urgently needs water bond
+++++++++++++++++++++++
The
By Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Staff Writer
The public agency that distributes water to much of the Southland is urging residents to reduce consumption by 10% to 20% to protect reserves during a worsening drought.
"We're coming to the point in Southern California life where there's no room for water waste," said Anthony Fellow, vice chairman of the board of the Metropolitan Water District, which distributes imported water to 18 million people from
After drawing down their reserves by half during the last two years, Fellow and other board members are preparing to move to Step 2 of their three-step conservation plan: a nonbinding water supply alert. It could come as soon as Tuesday.
The alert recommends that cities enforce water conservation laws already on the books.
The announcement comes days after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proclaimed a statewide drought because of low reserves and court-ordered water restrictions protecting endangered fish.
Though cities cannot be penalized for ignoring the alert, if they tap reserves to dangerous levels, the MWD could move to Step 3 of its plan: allocating cities a set amount of water and fining those that exceed the limit. Cities often pass the fines on to consumers through rate increases and mandatory restrictions on water use.
"If we can't get the right kind of response out of the public, at that point we have to move to more severe measures," Kightlinger said.
The earliest the MWD could start allocating water, if the alert is issued next week, would be spring 2009, Kightlinger said.
The agency already plans to increase the rate it charges cities by 10% for each of the next three calendar years, a spokesman said.
The last time the board issued a similar alert, in 1991, residents reduced consumption by 30%, mostly through indoor measures such as installing water-saving shower heads, Kightlinger said. Now the agency is encouraging residents to conserve in their yards by installing sprinklers, sweeping instead of spraying driveways and planting drought-resistant shrubs.
Even if this year turns out to be wetter than expected, residents still need to conserve, Fellow said.
"The snowpack this year was good, we had some rain, but that's only a dent" in the drought, he said. "It's time for the three-minute shower, time to stop letting the tap run when you brush your teeth. We want these to become permanent changes in
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-mwd7-2008jun07,0,5108182.story
San Bernardino
Jennifer McLain, Staff Writer
It's not like
Not yet anyway.
But the
"We are coming off record low rain amounts, and this will help sustain local water supply," said William Saunders, associate civil engineer with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works.
The county unanimously approved a seeding contract to North American Weather Consultants for $800,000 on Wednesday - the same day that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a statewide drought.
Southern California's water supply has taken several hits in the past few years, including record low rain levels, unpredictable climate change and a decline in sources from Northern California and the
"There are no assurances or guarantees that it will produce anything," said Richard Hansen, general manager of Three Valleys Municipal Water District. "But it doesn't hurt to try."
Cloud seeding was developed in the 1940s. There are several techniques, but the one that will be used in the
Saunders expects that the seeding will increase rain in watersheds by 5 to 15 percent, which is as much as 4,500 acre-feet of water, worth $1.6 million.
"That is enough water for 4,500 families of four for a year," Saunders said.
But some question whether cloud seeding is a waste of taxpayers money.
"We have a hard enough time capturing water when we have our normal rains," said Bob Kuhn, board member on the Three Valleys Municipal Water District. "I would rather see them spending $800,000 in improving ways to capture water."#
http://www2.sbsun.com/news/ci_9517371
KSEE TV – 6/6/08
By
Valley leaders are calling the current drought the worst to hit the
Now Fresno County Supervisors are asking for the governor's help.
If the governor does not act,
Phil Larson, Fresno County Supervisor: "We've had droughts, but I don’t think quite as serious as this. From what I understand, this is the worst drought in the history of record keeping."
Now Fresno County Supervisors are calling on Governor Schwarzenegger to provide assistance to the
Larson: "I want the governor to declare a state of emergency so that we have water that we can continue to irrigate with."
If the governor acts, the plan will be to take new water, which is underneath the valley floor and blend it with the system's surface water for 90 days.
This way there would be enough water to get farmers through the summer months.
Judith Case, Fresno County Supervisor: "This needs to happen now because those plants are in the ground, it’s already in the 80’s; it will soon be in the 90’s and possibly back to the hundreds. If they don’t get irrigated, everything will go down the drain."
Officials estimate that this year's drought has already cost farmers more than $73,000,000 in lost crops, adding if something isn't done now, there will not only be massive amounts of layoffs and bankruptcies, but hundreds of farm workers will leave the area and never return.
Now the effect this killer drought is having on farmers is trickling down to other areas like schools.
Miguel Arias,
Larson: "Firebaugh and Las Deltas with elementary schools and high schools lost 200 students in the last two years because of the situations we already."
Supervisor Larson will meet with the governor's chief of staff in
Click on the video link to view Preston Phillips’ report.#
http://www.ksee24.com/news/local/19621279.html
Water rationing not likely in SCV
Santa Clarita Signal-6/6/08
By Jim Holt, Senior Writer
Mandatory water rationing is not "in the cards" for Santa Clarita Valley residents, local water officials said in response to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proclamation Wednesday of a statewide drought.
"We're in a good position and we don't have to draw on any backup water supplies," said Dan Masnada, general manager of the Castaic Lake Water Agency.
"Mandatory rationing is not in the cards, at least for 2008."
On Wednesday, citing two straight years of below-average rainfall, very low snowmelt runoff and the largest court-ordered water transfer restrictions in state history, Schwarzenegger proclaimed a statewide drought and issued an executive order addressing a "dire situation," with many
Santa Clarita Valley, however, will not be one of those communities, thanks to local water officials banking water as insurance for times of drought.
Masnada and other water officials, who had planned for such a drought, don't plan on 2008 being the year it takes effect.
Despite the governor's executive order, water agency planners believe they won't even have to touch the backup supply.
"My expectations are that we won't even have to take water from the bank," Masnada said when reached by phone Thursday near
"I expect that we'll stay the course and continue to aggressively advocate water conservation."
Masnada is expected to meet with local water retailers about the governor's drought-driven executive order when her returns to Santa Clarita this week.
One of those water retailers is represented by Steve Cole, general manager of the Newhall County Water District.
"I don't see, for this year, the need for mandatory reductions locally," Cole told The Signal Thursday. "Because of banking, we have eliminated the need for mandatory rationing next year, and the year after that."
That said, Santa Clarita residents must start using water wisely, he added. "We live in a desert," he said. "The lush lawns, the lush landscaping that we all have - that's not reality. We're going to have to use water a whole lot more wisely."
Other
"In Santa Clarita Valley, our reliability planning has been very good," Cole explained. "We still have all our banked water, unlike Metropolitan (Water District), which is already drawing on its reserves.
"Our dry-year planning supply is still in place," Cole said. "It's a tough management job to weather these drought cycles, but all that planning is now going to pay off for us."
What if
"Who knows what can happen?" said Masnada. "If they were to approach us it would only be on a contract-to-contract basis."
Masnada said lessons learned from the drought in 1991 convinced water officials to start banking water. During that eight-year drought, state legislators "matched up willing buyers and sellers of water," he said.
Meanwhile, the lack of water has created other problems, such as extreme fire danger due to dry conditions, economic harm to urban and rural communities, loss of crops and the potential to degrade water quality in some regions, according to the governor.
"For the areas in
Schwarzenegger said. "As a result, some local governments are rationing water, developments can't proceed and agricultural fields are sitting idle.
"We must recognize the severity of the crisis we face," he said. " So I am signing an executive order proclaiming a statewide drought and directing my Department of Water Resources and other entities to take immediate action to address the situation."#
http://www.the-signal.com/news/article/2225/
State urgently needs water bond
By Dave Cogdill
The old saying goes “when it rains, it pours,” but in
Leadership rises in times of crisis, that's why I believe this year the governor and lawmakers will seize real solutions that will alleviate our water woes. Water has been a top priority for me long before I served in local government, and I believe the only way to ensure Californians have enough of this vital resource is through a water bond that would pay for desperately needed reservoirs and canals.
Some experts believe this dry spell may be snapshot of what is to come, a worrisome development for a state that relies on Sierra snowpack for a major portion of its water supply. This scenario becomes even more troublesome when we consider that, though policy-makers have been taking steps to fix the state's roads and levees, one critical infrastructure need has continued to be neglected – our water system.
There is little doubt that
The California Water Plan estimates water use may rise by as much as 4 million acre-feet by 2030. Californians today use about 35 to 36 million acre-feet in an average year. To put that in perspective, an acre-foot is enough to supply two families of four for one year or about 13 times the amount of water held in an average-size swimming pool. Based on our current water storage capacity, Department of Water Resources' projections show that California's average annual water supply will be short 2.4 million acre-feet and significantly worse in drought years.
Besides the supply problems, there is the demand side of the equation.
Current projections show that we will need up to an added million acre-feet of water over the next 25 years to meet the increased demand.
After two parched years – punctuated by the driest spring in at least 150 years – districts across
Moreover, if
Water is a crucial part of
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20080606/news_lz1e6state.html
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