[Water_news] 1. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS - Top Item for 7/1/08

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation for DWR personnel of significant news articles and comment

 

July 1, 2008

 

1.  Top Items -

 

 

Department of Water Resources warms up to rice growers' needs

Chico Enterprise Record- 6/28/08

 

Feds' plan to improve Delta water system isn't accurate, agency warns

The Sacramento Bee- 7/1/08

 

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Department of Water Resources warms up to rice growers' needs

Chico Enterprise Record- 6/28/08

By HEATHER HACKING - Staff Writer

 

A handful of irrigation water districts that get water from behind Oroville Dam have won a settlement with the Department of Water Resources to compensate them for lowered rice yields due to cold water.

 

Farmers who receive water from the Thermalito Afterbay have been talking about cold water and its effects on their rice since the 1990s, said attorney Jeff Meith, who represents Western Canal Water District, one of the districts in the settlement.

 

The issue arose again during the relicensing procedures for the Oroville Dam that began around 2002.

 

Now, under an agreement with the state Department of Water Resources, the districts will use a complicated formula to be paid for the difference between rice yields they get now (with colder water) and the amount of rice they could grow if the water was warmer.

 

The districts are Western Canal, Joint Water Districts and Richvale Irrigation District.

 

Sutter Extension Water District and Butte Water District could enter agreements in the future.

 

For the three districts now participating, the estimate is that loss includes 120,000-150,000 hundred-pound bags of rice. That might be anywhere from $1 million to $3 million a year, depending on the price of rice, minus monitoring costs, which DWR and the water districts will split.

 

Before the dam was completed in 1968, landowners received water from the Feather River. They negotiated deals for continued water supply when the dam was built.

 

It's not unusual for rice yields to be lower at the points where water enters a rice field. As the water continues to flow, it warms up.

 

However, growers believed the water was unusually cool due to operations of the Oroville Dam complex.

 

The Thermalito Afterbay was supposed to allow water to warm somewhat before it was released into the canal. However, providing cooler water for migrating fish in the Feather River became a higher priority.

Rice is damaged in the early stages of growth when the water temperatures are below 65 degrees.

 

When it came time for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) relicensing of Oroville Dam, Western Canal and four other water districts decided it was time to bring up the issue, especially since the discussions included whether water should be even colder for the fish.

 

Western Canal manager Ted Trimble said cold water has been on the back burner for many years.

 

"We stayed patient and focused and when we were able to present our issue" through the FERC relicensing, they did so.

 

"We didn't sue in court. We didn't want that. That's why it took so long," Trimble said. Rather, the agencies made their case and slowly worked through it until the agreement was made last May.

 

Trimble said there are 200-250 growers involved.

 

"The growers have put up with cold water for a long time," Meith said. Many didn't bother to harvest close to where the water came into their fields, he said.

 

Beginning several years ago, Cass Mutters, Butte County farm adviser with UC Davis Cooperative Extension, did some research on rice farms close to where water came from the dam, quantifying the damage growers had believed occurred for a long time. These were preliminary studies that became more detailed in the years that followed.

 

This helped focus the discussions with DWR.

 

Options were explored, such as re-engineering water deliveries for warmer water, but those were too costly.

 

The scientific studies helped both sides of the issues better realize the degree to which rice farmers were affected.

 

"To their credit, DWR always said it needs to be resolved," Meith said. The most difficult part was working out a formula that fairly could compensate for the cold water, he said.

 

The formula agreed upon will use temperature monitors, factor in the size of the fields, the amount of time the water is too cold, use field yield samples and be based upon the actual price of rice.

 

The program is not retroactive for years of rice yields before the agreement. Negotiations can also be reopened 10 years in the future.

 

Because rice is marketed slowly, growers won't know exactly how much they will receive until the end of this year's rice marketing, in late 2009 or early 2010.

 

"This thing tracks reality. It is mathematical," the attorney said.

 

The fact that the agreement is in place today is a testament to good work by lawyers back in 1969, when the previous water contracts were signed.

 

Growers knew there might be a problem with cold water, but rather than figure it out then, language in the contracts left it open to negotiate later.

 

"It was a place holder," attorney Meith explained.

 

DWR spokesman Nick Kontos said his agency is pleased with the outcome of the negotiations.

 

"It is a fair and equitable settlement agreement. It is very technical in nature and took a lot of work of all parties to put that agreement together," Kontos said.

 

He said it is an example of how a "collaborative approach" has worked through the Oroville relicensing project.#

http://www.chicoer.com/advertise/ci_9727433?IADID=Search-www.chicoer.com-www.chicoer.com

 

 

 

Feds' plan to improve Delta water system isn't accurate, agency warns

The Sacramento Bee- 7/1/08

By Matt Weiser  

 

A court-ordered fix for the threatened Delta smelt population is running into trouble before it has even seen daylight.

 

Federal water officials have been warned that their work on a draft plan for operating the Delta's water works "contains deficiencies, incomplete analysis, inaccuracies and omissions."

 

The warning came from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which faces the same court deadline of Sept. 15 to submit the plan, called a "biological opinion." The goal is to create a new set of operating rules for the massive state and federal pumping systems that export water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to the Bay Area and Southern California.

 

Federal Judge Oliver Wanger, in Fresno, ordered the new plan in December. His ruling found that the state Department of Water Resources and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation had violated the Endangered Species Act because their prior pumping rules did not adequately protect Delta smelt. The fish are ground up in the pumps and also killed by changes in water flows caused by the powerful pumps.

 

In its letter, the service set a July 7 deadline for the Bureau of Reclamation to fill in the data gaps, or it will be forced to complete the study using available information.

 

The bureau is the lead agency responsible for drafting of the new rules.

 

If that deadline isn't met, the Fish and Wildlife Service could be forced to use incomplete information to prepare the new rules.

 

"We're going to go with the best information we have when we prepare the biological opinion," said service spokesman Al Donner. "Hopefully, we will have all the information we think we need."

 

Doug Obegi, an attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, a plaintiff in the federal case, said this raises a concern that the document and the smelt protections could be compromised.

 

"I would not like to go into court, if I were the federal government, with an opinion based on what the agency has already said is inadequate information," Obegi said. "I don't think the judge will be very pleased."

 

In the 18-page letter, released Friday on its Web site, the Fish and Wildlife Service reminded the bureau that much of the missing or inadequate information pertains to deficiencies specifically identified by the court.

 

The bureau has also ignored repeated pleas to provide the information, according to the letter.

 

For example, there is no analysis of the effects of climate change or large-volume water transfers between agencies.

 

Analysis of effects on the Delta's aquatic environment as a whole are also said to be inadequate.

 

The document depends to a large degree on a concise description of the "project" that is being studied. This is intended to explain how and when the state's vast system of reservoirs, pumps and canals moves water.

 

While admittedly very complex, even that description was found to be lacking.

 

"Many of the changes and issues previously provided by the fishery agencies on the project description have not been included or made," Cay Goude, assistant field supervisor at the Fish and Wildlife Service, wrote in an e-mail to the bureau that was attached to the letter.

 

The bureau on Monday provided a prepared statement in response to an inquiry from The Bee. Donald Glaser, regional director, said his agency is "thoroughly committed to providing necessary additional information."#

http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/1051542.html