Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation for DWR personnel of significant news articles and comment
July 10, 2008
1. Top Items -
With water precious, state faces heat, fires--and drought
Capitol Weekly- 7/10/08
Capitol Weekly- 7/10/08
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With water precious, state faces heat, fires--and drought
Capitol Weekly- 7/10/08
By Lester Snow
Californians just experienced a Fourth of July weekend that graphically demonstrated how weather and climatic conditions can alter holiday activities that many of us traditionally take for granted.
Smoke choked the air as wildfires burned around the state. A number of fireworks shows were cancelled. Many lakes and reservoirs that are popular Independence Day destinations were less than half full.
As
Coping with drought, however, is getting tougher for a variety of reasons, including increased demand. During the 1929-1934 period,
Getting back to the situation at hand, a number of efforts are underway to cope with the problem. On June 4, Governor Schwarzenegger officially declared that the state is suffering drought conditions and called for a 20 percent reduction in water use statewide. He urged local agencies to bolster conservation programs and to work with federal and state authorities to help farmers now suffering huge financial losses.
The Governor’s executive order directed the Department of Water Resources (DWR) to:
• Facilitate water transfers to respond to emergency shortages across the state.
• Work with local water districts and agencies to improve local coordination.
• Help local water districts and agencies improve water efficiency and conservation.
• Coordinate with other state and federal agencies and departments to assist water suppliers, identify risks to water supply and help farmers suffering losses.
• Expedite existing grant programs to help local water districts and agencies conserve.
DWR is helping drought-stricken
Additionally, DWR is lending 37,500 acre feet of water to Central Valley Project (CVP) contractors out of the San Luis Reservoir. An additional 25,000 acre feet is being made available by Metropolitan Water District of Southern California for the benefit of both CVP and SWP contractors.
Furthermore, DWR is expediting $12 million in grants to water agencies and non-profit organizations and working with locals on an aggressive water conservation and outreach campaign.
Conservation is a very important piece of the water supply puzzle and it’s a prominent part of the Governor’s $11.9 billion water bond for water management investments that will address population growth, climate change, water supply reliability and environmental needs.
But here’s the plain truth: conservation will not help much in the sixth or seventh year of a statewide drought. To mitigate dry periods,
The last major state-built surface storage projects were completed 34 years ago and are not adequate to serve today’s population. What’s more, as previously indicated,
Incidentally, to help local agencies and communities prepare for the possibility of another dry year and possible water supply interruptions, DWR has published an updated version of the Urban Drought Guidebook. The guidebook reflects a wide array of water supply and demand approaches. As water suppliers review and update their Water Shortage Contingency Plans, we hope the new information and examples of exceptional efforts by water suppliers throughout California and the United States will be useful.#
Capitol Weekly- 7/10/08
The summer of 2008 may be remembered as the summer of drought, fire and water rationing, or it may be remembered as the bellwether sign that
We’ve invested billions of dollars in water systems that rely on what we consider our “normal weather pattern”- capturing water in periods of wet and average years to get us through our periodic dry spells.
Yet, scientists are telling us that what we consider “normal” weather in
According to recent reports, the two large reservoirs on the Colorado River, a major source of water for areas in
Yet, while many policy makers have accepted that we need to reduce our production of greenhouse gases in order to combat climate change, fewer are willing to acknowledge that our conventional wisdom on water management must also change.
Much of the water conversation in the Legislature focuses on a water bond to support old water strategies. The proposed water bonds would allocate billions of dollars for new dams to capture water in “wet” years. Yet, state and federal agencies have spent over $100 million studying those dams and, even based on past hydrology, the dams fail to provide benefits that are worthy of their price tags. No one has even considered how these dams would work under a drier future.
More of the same old water policies will not help
Fortunately,
These new water resources can be implemented quickly, and they cost just a fraction of the cost of new dams. In addition, these resources have the advantage of being “climate-resilient,” which means that they will be as effective or more effective even as
Despite the debate on dams, some leaders are already looking to shift the focus from old strategies to new policies that work under our changing climate. This session Assembly Member Krekorian introduced AB 2153 and Assembly Members Laird and Feuer introduced AB 2175. Both measures would significantly increased water efficiency in the state. AB 2175 is now in the Senate, and hopefully will move to the Governor’s desk. AB 2153, unfortunately, did not move passed the Assembly this year.
By taking advantage of untapped resources,
The delta smelt, a tiny but important fish in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, could officially become "endangered" under a proposal announced Wednesday by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Smelt are an indicator of the delta's health, and nearly 750,000 acres of farmland and 25 million people from the Bay Area to Central and
The smelt population has plummeted with the decline of the delta's health, and in 1993 it was listed as threatened.
"There's a lot of fighting going on over this species," acknowledged Al Donner, a spokesman for the service. "It's often viewed as the signature species with regard to the condition of the delta."
The wildlife service is asking scientists to submit information about the smelt during the next 60 days. A decision to upgrade the status to "endangered" could come early next year.
The smelt, once ubiquitous in delta waters, is now close to extinction and could disappear entirely within two years. The debate over its status follows a federal court order last year to reduce delta pumping and to study the inadvertent killing of smelt at two giant pumping stations near
The wildlife service maintains that changing the official status of the fish will make "very little difference" on regulations, as the fish is officially protected whether it is threatened or endangered. But environmental groups hailed the decision to consider action as an important step in the water battle.
"The condition of this species is really, really dire," said Tina Swanson, executive director of the Bay Institute, the
Swanson was one of the authors of a federal petition that prompted the wildlife service to consider changing the status of the fish.
"Diverting water is not without consequences," she said. "The delta smelt is one of the indicators telling us we have overdone it. Perhaps the change in status will underscore the urgency of the crisis."
But the Coalition for a Sustainable Delta, a group that supports continued diversion of delta water, maintains that restricting the pumping to protect the smelt could cost nearly $500 million a year in agricultural losses along with water shortages for the public.
Coalition spokesman Michael Boccadoro said it was "erroneous" to blame delta water diversion as the sole cause of the smelt's decline and that pollution, sewage and storm runoff also were responsible.
In addition to considering the smelt's status change, the wildlife service is also crafting a new "biological opinion" about the operation of the water pumps after a judge in
The condition of the delta, once a rich, biologically diverse refuge of fish and wildlife, is regarded by many environmentalists as dire. Some say it is no longer a true delta but a maze of man-made islands bordered by stagnant sloughs and buttressed by fragile levees that will disappear in the next big earthquake.
"Endangered" is the official term for a species in danger of extinction. "Threatened" means a species is likely to become endangered. The delta smelt - a 2-inch-long fish that smells like cucumbers - was once the most plentiful fish in the delta.
Other delta species have been classified as endangered, including the coho salmon and the winter-run chinook salmon. The steelhead, the green sturgeon and the spring-run chinook salmon are classified as threatened.#
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/09/MN3B11MB2U.DTL
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