Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation for DWR personnel of significant news articles and comment
July 16, 2008
1. Top Items -
Sacramento
The Sacramento
Editorial
New water bond? First, spend existing billions: Proposition 84 funds should be the first choice for improving state water supplies
The Sacramento
5 Bodies Found; 2 More Feared Dead In Canal Crash: Family Members Of Victims Question Response Time
KCR 3 Sacramento- 7/15/08
Five bodies found after canal crash
The
Seven feared dead: Four farm workers from
The
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Sacramento
The Sacramento
By Matt Weiser
Scott Johnston spends his days looking for
Sometimes a meter isn't where he expects. The access hatch may be smothered by vegetation, tucked in an obscure corner, or deep in a weed-filled backyard.
"It may be buried. We will still find it,"
Johnston works for
The Sacramento Utilities Department does not know where the meters are. They were labeled "unaccounted for" in a recent city investigation.
Since 1997,
The city auditor estimates the missing meters are worth about $1.3 million. They could be lost or in a city building where no one thought to look.
Best case: The city failed to record their location and they're plumbed into the city water system in front of 4,492 homes and businesses.
Worst case: The meters, solid bronze and weighing at least 8 pounds each, were stolen and sold, perhaps as scrap metal. The city Police Department is conducting a criminal investigation and the FBI is probing improper sales of salvage metals from Utilities Department storage yards.
There's only one sure solution to the meter mystery: Go out count them all.
City workers are combing warehouses and storage yards. And the city is paying
Johnston and three other contract employees have been lifting lids on the meter hunt since March. They walk a lot, roaming
They must be on guard for loose dogs in some neighborhoods, and for black widows that have turned the meter boxes into spider condos.
"I got bit by one spider, a harmless one. But it didn't feel very nice,"
In one hand he carries a T-shaped steel rod, made of heavy rebar, with a hook on one end. He inserts the hook into a small hole in the meter cover, then leans back to lift the cover, bracing it with his foot to keep it from smashing his shin.
In the other hand,
He spritzes one end of the dirty meter, scrubs the spot with a small wire brush to reveal the serial number, then sprays again.
He writes the serial number on a preprinted list next to the property address and slides the lid back over the meter box. Then it's off to the next address.
The serial number tally goes to the city, which is attempting to reconcile numbers with its own inventory. Discrepancies may help locate missing meters, or just deepen the mystery.
The city has no answers yet, said Jessica Hess, spokeswoman for the Utilities Department. It's analyzing data from the project and expects to present a report to the City Council this fall.
A 2004 state law requires
There are about 106,000 city water accounts that await meter installation, funded by rate increases.
The painstaking search is, at least, pushing city utility officials toward a better accounting practice.
"We're not entirely sure we do actually have missing meters," said Hess. "This is going to help us better our record keeping, and gives us a good place to start from, going forward."
He starts at 7 a.m. each day to beat the heat.
"When it gets to be 112 degrees, people start to feel sorry for you and they bring you water bottles in the street," he said. "That says a lot about your city."
But it does little for another job hazard: homesickness.
"I'm just here to work," he said, loping along to the next address, steel hook resting on one shoulder. "I miss my family a lot."#
http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/1085842.html
Editorial
New water bond? First, spend existing billions: Proposition 84 funds should be the first choice for improving state water supplies
The Sacramento
Following the driest spring in recorded history,
Reservoirs are low. Hundreds of fires have ravaged dozens of watersheds. Salmon, smelt and other fish are in trouble, adding to the complexity of moving water through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Under pressure from worried farmers and business leaders, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein last week unveiled their latest multibillion-dollar bond proposal to finance water projects and river restoration efforts. This latest plan is an improvement over previous versions, reducing the total debt down to $9.7 billion and creating a more level playing field for water investments of all types.
But before state leaders restart discussion on new water bonds, they should take full advantage of bonds that voters already have approved. In 2006, voters passed Proposition 84, a $5.4 billion bond initiative that included billions of dollars for water projects and watershed protection. To date, lawmakers have appropriated only $2.8 billion of those funds, leaving billions that could be spent immediately.
What is holding up that investment?
Schwarzenegger bears much of the responsibility. Last year, he vetoed a bill by Senate leader Don Perata that would have appropriated unspent funds from Proposition 84 and other water bonds, including Proposition 50 in 2002 and Proposition 13 in 2000. At the time, the governor wanted Perata's help in advancing a water bond to build reservoirs, so he vetoed the appropriations bill in a naked attempt to apply pressure on the Senate leader.
That gambit didn't work, and one year later, the state's water problems have worsened. So this week, Perata and Assembly Speaker Karen Bass came back with a new bill that would allocate $812 million in past bond funds for water supply, conservation and flood control projects.
Of this money, $50 million would go to cleaning up groundwater basins, an essential source of supply in
While critics say they are tired of spending state money on studies of reservoirs, there's no getting around these reviews. No reservoir project will get permits, or approval from taxpayers, if the state can't say how much water will result, what it will cost, who will benefit and what the environmental impacts will be.
Indeed, if Schwarzenegger had signed last year's legislation, he and the state would be one step closer toward getting those answers.
The governor and Feinstein deserve credit for noting the urgency of a shrinking Sierra snowpack and working to secure a long-term response.
But in twisting arms to get a water bond passed, they shouldn't be taking hostages. Water bond monies approved by voters deserve to be spent now, before a calamity turns into a crisis.#
http://www.sacbee.com/110/story/1085494.html
5 Bodies Found; 2 More Feared Dead In Canal Crash: Family Members Of Victims Question Response Time
KCR 3 Sacramento- 7/15/08
WESTLEY,
As many as seven people may be dead after a red sport utility vehicle carrying six people crashed with a septic tank truck and plunged into the Delta-Mendota Canal outside the town of Westley, about 80 miles south of Sacramento, officials said.
Divers pulled out the red sport utility vehicle from the canal that contained four bodies and discovered another male body in the water, which is Officials called off the search for the remaining two bodies late Tuesday evening, and said divers will not be called back Wednesday.
"It is possible that two bodies made it out of the vehicle and floated down the canal," said Tom Letras of the Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department.
The families of the victims will have to wait until the other two bodies float up, authorities said.
Family members of the possible victims, however, said law enforcement officials didn't act fast enough.
Alejandro Garcia, who lost his wife in the crash, said a dog would have been rescued faster than his family because they are immigrants.
"I feel like it is their (police) fault," said Marco Martinez, a relative of one of those involved in the crash. "Our family could have been saved. It could have been a possibility."
Letras said the accusations are not true.
"We are here to preserve life," he said. "It doesn't matter who you are or what you are."
The Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department said it did not want to endanger its divers by immediately sending them into the canal, which is known for its depth and swift flow.
"Any mistake could end in the death of one of our dive team members," dive expert Pat Kelly said.
Letras said the dive team had a 45-minute drive to get to the scene, and by the time they arrived, rescuers had no chance of saving anyone.
According to witnesses, the two vehicles collided just east of Interstate 5 near the intersection of Needham and Stark roads.
The SUV, which was carrying farm workers, failed to stop, witnesses said, and the septic tank truck was speeding.
Mayolo Banuelos from the CHP said agricultural workers often use the frontage road.
An average of one wreck has happened at the Delta-Mendota canal during the past few years, according to Francis Mizuno of the San Luis Delta-Mendota Water Authority.
The canal is about 20 feet deep where the vehicles went into the water, police said.
Family members said the victims in the SUV, all of them
Their names have not been released.
The septic tank truck is owned by United Site Services of Sacramento, which has an office at 360 N. 10th Street.
Jose Silva, an employee of United Site Services, said the driver of the septic tank truck was a father from
"We've lost a great man and long-term United Site Services team member today. We are saddened for his loss and our hearts are especially heavy for his family," United Site Services of Sacramento said in a written statement Tuesday.
The driver's name has not been released.
A guardrail by the canal was smashed and broken and skid marks were seen on the roadway.
Rescue vehicles, sheriff's deputies and dive team vehicles swarmed the scene of the crash.
The 117-mile canal runs parallel to the California Aqueduct and ends at Mendota Pool on the
http://www.kcra.com/news/16890867/detail.html
Five bodies found after canal crash
The
By Merrill Balassone
WESTLEY — A dive team found five bodies in the
One man’s body was found with a septic truck he drove for Sacramento-based United Site Services, a company that rents portable restrooms. The California Highway Patrol did not release his name, age or hometown when they recovered the truck at 6 p.m.
Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department dive team members saw at least four bodies in the second vehicle, a red Ford sport utility vehicle, as they worked to pull it from the water after 10 p.m. They spent four hours trying to pull it with a tow truck from the strong current that kept it lodged under the canal bridge.
Witnesses report the SUV was carrying six farmworkers traveling north on a frontage road along the eastern edge of the canal when it struck the truck driving westbound on
Authorities did not identify those riding in the SUV, and said two more bodies could be found in the canal or in the vehicle.
Family and friends said they were returning home to
Witnesses reported the accident to the CHP at 12:15 p.m. When members of the dive team arrived at 1:50 p.m., they didn’t expect to pull any victims out of the canal alive and focused their efforts on recovering bodies.
About a dozen family members and friends stood weeping and wailing, their faces pressed along the canal’s chain-link fence, pleading with authorities and calling relatives from their cell phones in the midst of a media crush of about two dozen reporters and cameramen. Two priests from a Patterson Catholic Church did their best to console those grieving in the shade of a nearby almond orchard.
Natalidad Garcia, 22, of
Some relatives criticized the dive team’s response. Divers entered the water about three hours after the accident was reported.
"They could have gone in sooner," said 16-year-old Marcos Martinez, who believed his cousin and uncle were victims. "If it was their family members, they would have jumped in quick. We’ve been here for a couple of hours."
Deputy Tom Letras said the eight divers had to take safety precautions before entering the swift-moving water, which runs nearly 20 feet deep in that area. By the time the dive team was assembled and picked up their equipment from the
The divers then used the rope to pull themselves down to the wreckage. The San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority, which operates and maintains the canal system, was lowering the water level to assist the divers, Assistant Executive Director Frances Mizuno said.#
http://www.fresnobee.com/263/story/733146.html
Seven feared dead: Four farm workers from
The
By also by Staff Writers
WESTLEY - Four
Family members identified cousins Adan and Lucas Martinez and sisters Adriana and Eulalia Garcia, all from
They were returning from a day of picking peaches when the sport utility vehicle in which they were traveling north along the canal was struck by a truck traveling west on Needham Road, according to the California Highway Patrol.
The impact knocked the SUV into the canal, and the truck, which had been pulling a septic tank, followed, the CHP said.
By Tuesday night, the Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department dive team had recovered the body of the truck driver and was continuing to search for other victims.
Officials have not released any identities.
Family members and other workers who rushed to the canal after the news of the crash said that there had been six people in the SUV, but they did not identify the other two.
CHP Officer Mayolo Banuelos said it is not yet clear which vehicle had the right of way, nor how fast either was traveling. The crash is still under investigation.
There is a stop sign on the frontage road at
Araceli Martinez, 24, Adan Martinez's niece, said that just Monday he was playing with her sons at the home in
"Every day, he would laugh at them. But now, I can't believe what has happened," she said as she stood on the bank of the canal.
No one was at Eulalia Garcia's
On a front porch about a block away, family friend Veronica Sanchez was holding Garcia's 6-month-old granddaughter, waiting with other women for more information about the wreck.
"We don't know very much," said Garcia's sister-in-law, Emilia Martinez. "We're waiting for the others to return to tell us something."
Emilia Martinez said Eulalia Garcia had moved to the
Emilia Martinez said Garcia drove to work on Tuesday with her sister and three other passengers in the red Ford Explorer.
"She was a very hard worker," Sanchez said. "Every day, she was out working in the fields."
Marcos Martinez, a 16-year-old cousin of Lucas Martinez and a nephew of Adan Martinez, described them as very hard workers. Lucas Martinez handled the tractors and brought water for his colleagues, and Adan was one of the fastest workers in the field, Marcos Martinez said.
"Everybody inside that car was a strong worker," he said.
The
Araceli Martinez said she was frustrated with the pace of the rescue and recovery operations.
By 9 p.m. Tuesday, the truck had been pulled from the canal, but the SUV had not.#
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080716/A_NEWS/807160328
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