Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation for DWR personnel of significant news articles and comment
July 24, 2008
1. Top Items -
Judge orders interim plan for salmon drawn up
Delta reports detail fish safety: Environmentalists will review information about government projects.
The
Auburn Dam is best solution for water needs
Carbon dioxide project could help the Delta
The Sacramento
$12.3M Project Aims To Curb Delta Sinking: New Kind Of Farming Will Preserve Levees and Restore Elevation
State grants will boost Valley water projects
Pasadena
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Judge orders interim plan for salmon drawn up
A federal judge in
U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger set a deadline of Aug. 29 for the agencies to spell out how they intend to protect winter- and spring-run chinook and steelhead trout until March, when a more comprehensive plan, known as a biological opinion, is scheduled to be released.
Wanger scheduled a court hearing Sept. 4 to discuss the interim plan.
The order followed Wanger's ruling Friday that blamed pumping and diversion policies by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the California Department of Water Resources for contributing to the demise of the three salmonid species.
The hearings are a response to a lawsuit filed by the Natural Resources Defense Council, Earthjustice and several other environmental and fishing organizations accusing the government of endangering salmon and steelhead.
Mike Sherwood, an attorney for Earthjustice, said it is extremely important to have such a plan in place because juvenile salmon pass through the delta on their way back to the ocean in December, January, February and March and are particularly vulnerable to being sucked into the pumps.
"We're hopeful that they will do the right thing, and that what they submit to the court on Aug. 29 will be adequate," Sherwood said. "We will be monitoring that closely, and if it isn't adequate I guess there will be more hearings."
Delta water supplies 25 million Californians with drinking water and irrigates 750,000 acres of cropland. It is also an integral part of the migration pattern of the vast majority of spawning salmon along the West Coast, where there was a near catastrophic decline in ocean salmon this year.#
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/23/BAU711TSLM.DTL&tsp=1
Delta reports detail fish safety: Environmentalists will review information about government projects.
The
By John Ellis / The
Attorneys representing state and federal water projects said Wednesday that they could prove the massive system of pumps, dams and canals isn't harming three threatened fish species.
U.S. District Judge Oliver W. Wanger gave them until Aug. 29 to submit reports showing that's true.
Wednesday's action was the latest in a long-running fight between environmental groups and the state and federal governments over the projects' effect on winter-run Chinook salmon, spring-run Chinook salmon and
On Friday, Wanger issued a written opinion that three fish species are at risk of extinction, and the state and federal water project operations are further jeopardizing them.
Attorneys for the environmental groups who sued to protect the three species will review the reports and, if they are dissatisfied, could press Wanger to take action to protect the fish.
"It's their job to figure out how to fix that," Natural Resources Defense Council attorney Kate Poole said of the coming reports. "It makes sense the first go-around to propose what is sufficient."
Among things they could request are restricting water exports out of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta when juveniles of the three species are migrating, and lowering water temperatures in the
During the hearing Wednesday, the parties participated by telephone. Wanger ordered both sides back in his
"We'll have to see what it looks like,"
Attorneys for the state and federal governments and their water-contractor allies could not be reached to comment.
The report would cover Central Valley Project operations through early March, when federal biologists are scheduled to finish a new plan on the operation's effects on the three species.#
http://www.fresnobee.com/263/story/749575.html
Auburn Dam is best solution for water needs
By Dennis Wyatt, Managing Editor
The
The state's population is expected to boom to 48 million by the year 2025.
The 806-page California Water Plan report released in 1998 noted the state already had an annual shortfall of 1.6 million acre feet of water.
By 2025, the shortfall will expand to 2.9 million acre feet. This is not good news. Southern California is already using
As water demands grow in
The California Department of Resources offers three potential solutions - the political snake pit known as the
The
Everyone in urban water planning looks at the amount of fresh water flowing into the Bay as a waste. Many farming interests share that position while environmentalists view any attempt to further stem the flow of fresh water as having the same impact on the Bay-Delta environment as dropping the atomic bomb had on
The 44-mile canal would skirt the Delta to deliver fresh water from the Sacramento River to the pumps at the start of the California Aqueduct near
Save the water from flowing into the Bay. It is a dangerously, simplistic solution. There are court mandates regarding salinity levels not to mention the protection order for the Delta Smelt. Salt intrusion has to be kept below a certain level or else the federal government hijacks fresh water to add to the flows flushing the Delta.
If the Peripheral Canal takes Sacramento River water headed for Southern California and bypasses the Delta that leaves only the San Joaquin River system to make up for any shortfalls of fresh water. The most likely target for cleansing the Delta is the New Melones Reservoir on the
It is closest to the Delta and it has the least political baggage accompanying large releases. Water storage behind the New Melones is seriously over committed just as it is elsewhere such as behind Friant Dam. There is a difference, though. Some agencies haven't been able to tap New Melones water due to environmental delays. The agencies aren't as powerful with federal and state lobbying muscle as that elsewhere on the
Backers of the canal think this is the best option to manage Bay-Delta salinity issues while maintaining the quality of water being exported from Northern California to quench Los Angeles' ever growing thirst.
Raising the height of Shasta Dam is fraught with environmental concerns as is building the Auburn Dam.
The Auburn Dam, though, can add the most storage and effectively handle one of the heaviest precipitation watersheds on the western slopes of the Sierra. The reservoir could hold 2.1 million-acre feet - almost enough to meet statewide water shortfalls projected for 2020.
The dam site already has had trees and vegetation removed and other improvements such as a foundation and bridges in place. After hippies were unable to stop the dam from flooding a nude beach, the earth rumbled in 1972 to effectively stop Congress from authorizing the money for actual construction until seismic safety issues were studied further.
The Auburn Dam - operated in tandem with Hell Hole, French Meadows and Folsom Dam reservoirs - offers a powerful one-two punch of expanding water storage for growing south state urban needs as well as enhancing flood protection.
The Shasta Dam proposal only increases storage and only by half the amount of Auburn Dam. The
The Auburn Dam is a case of getting more bang for the buck.
Environmentalists argue more conservation will squeeze out more water. Experts believe
We need more water for our growing cities, industries and agriculture. If steps aren't taken now, it will come down to a health and safety issue. Water will be taken from agricultural users. It wouldn't, though, be a once in a while "borrowing." It would be permanent. This would prompt farmers to put even more pressure on underground water sources already showing signs of serious over drafting or else may force land to go fallow.
When other states take their rightful claim to Colorado River water,
The winner in a north versus south battle with health and safety issues at stake isn't likely to be anyone north of the
That's why it is prudent for
http://www.mantecabulletin.com/main.asp?SectionID=24&SubSectionID=54&ArticleID=58629
Carbon dioxide project could help the Delta
The Sacramento
By Matt Weiser
Government scientists and researchers at UC Davis will test a novel way to capture a gas associated with global warming before it gets into the air, and possibly help shore up levees in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
The California Department of Water Resources on Wednesday said it has awarded $12.3 million to a project that aims to discover whether carbon dioxide can be stored in marsh plants and soils while also restoring Delta islands and, in the process, protecting levees.
Delta islands consist mostly of organic peat soils, which evaporate when exposed to the atmosphere via farming and development. As a result, many islands have become bowls, with interiors more than 20 feet below sea level.
This can weaken surrounding levees, creating what scientists said is at least a 20 percent chance that multiple islands will flood in an earthquake within the next 25 years.
The U.S. Geological Survey proved in a 14-acre pilot project on Twitchell Island that growing native tules in carefully controlled conditions increased soil depth as much as 10 inches from 1997 to 2005.
The new project will expand the USGS test to 400 acres on
Carbon could be stored in the new peat soil that results from allowing tules to live and die naturally.
If successful, the sale of carbon credits to grow tules could fund a new kind of farming in the Delta while improving habitat and flood control. Those conditions could help officials avoid having to spend billions of dollars on taller and wider levees.
"It could provide sustainable farming opportunities for Delta farmers and an economic incentive to sustain the existing Delta levee system," said Dave Mraz, chief of Water Resources' Delta-Suisun Marsh Office.
Construction of the new project is scheduled for next spring.
Carbon capture is among the maneuvers being examined by researchers as one way of cutting the amount of global warming gases in the atmosphere.
For example, the California Energy Commission is leading a group of state government and private researchers in a test that will pump carbon into the porous sediment deep under the soil near
http://www.sacbee.com/378/story/1105308.html
$12.3M Project Aims To Curb Delta Sinking: New Kind Of Farming Will Preserve Levees and Restore Elevation
KCRA3 Sacramento- 7/23/08
The state Department of Water Resources awarded
The project, scheduled to start in the spring of 2009, will involve a process called carbon farming, which studies the best ways to capture carbon dioxide in order to reverse land-surface subsidence -- or a steady loss of elevation.
Carbon capture farming works as carbon dioxide is taken out of the air by plants such as tules and cattails. As the plants die and decompose, they create new peat soil, building the land surface over time, the USGS said.
Scientists said farming practices in the Delta expose fragile soils to wind, rain and cultivation and emit carbon dioxide, causing soil to sink. In turn, falling land surfaces threaten the stability of the region's levees, agricultural lands and the waterways that carry much of
"This project is an investment in
The USGS and Department of Water Resources have already collaborated on a pilot project on
"UC Davis scientists will play a major role in this project," said Dr. William Horwath, a professor in the UC Davis Department of Land, Air and Water Resources. "We'll be providing the scientific expertise necessary to gain a better understanding of the factors controlling carbon capture in these re-established wetlands."
Backers of the project said it may result in sustainable land use and farming opportunities for workers in the Central Valley and help reconstruct wetlands.#
http://www.kcra.com/news/16967792/detail.html
State grants will boost Valley water projects
Pasadena
By Jennifer McLain, Staff Writer
Nearly half of the funding will go toward five
"These projects are very specific to our area, and will have an immediate affect on habit restoration, water quality and conservation and public education," said Assemblyman Mike Eng, D-El Monte. "I am thrilled to see the money from Proposition 50 beginning to be awarded."
The grant money used comes from Proposition 50, which was passed by voters in November 2002 and authorizes $3.4 billion for a variety of water and wetlands projects.
Morris Dam, located in the San Gabriel Mountains above
On Wednesday, Lester Snow, director of the State Department of Water Resources, presented the check to Los Angeles County Board of Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke on behalf of the county's flood control district, which oversees the Greater Los Angeles County Regional Water Management Plan.
"This represents the epitome of integrated water management," Snow said. "Instead of everyone working separately to meet their needs, they are working together."
The projects are part of the Great Los Angeles County Integrated Regional Water Management Plan, which relies on a variety of agencies to develop solutions for regional water issues.
The funding comes at a time when local water agencies and cities are pushing for conservation and going as far as even placing a moratorium on water hook-ups, such as Lincoln Avenue Water Co. in
Of the $25 million, nearly $11.5 million will go to five projects spanning the
The Morris Dam Water Supply Enhancement Project, which totals $16.4 million, will receive $5.1 million from the state.
Carol Williams, director of the Main San Gabriel Basin Watermaster, which oversees water rights, said that the project will increase the reservoir storage capacity.
"This not only helps with flood-control protection, but contributing to our water supply," Williams said.
The Whittier Narrows Water Reclamation plant in
The project will use an ultraviolet disinfection as a way to treat the water.
This project will provide recycled water for irrigation purposes, and involves the installation of an 11-mile pipeline that will extend from
The project is expected to conserve more than 6.5 billion gallons of water each year.
"This will increase water conservation throughout the district, and it is coming at a time with all of the water shortages," said Central Basin General Manager Art Aguilar.
An invasive weed control project, which was awarded $178,000, more than half of the total project, will restore natural habitat along the
In all, the 14 projects, which span from the San Gabriel Mountains to the
"This funding is just scratching the surface of our overall needs," Efstathiou said.#
http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/ci_9978555
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