[Water_news] 2. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: SUPPLY - 7/28/08

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment 

 

July 28, 2008

 

2. Supply –

 

 

City enacts strong water restrictions

San Bernardino Sun- 7/26/08

 

Water officials eye old quarries to solve North County's supply problems

Santa Cruz Sentinel- 7/26/08

 

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City enacts strong water restrictions

San Bernardino Sun- 7/26/08

By Neil Nisperos, Staff Writer

 

CHINO HILLS - Because of a state drought and a reduction in water supplies, the city has enacted the strongest water-conservation measures in its history.

 

For the first time, city measures designed to encourage residents to save water are set to go into effect Aug. 8.

Among the restrictions:

 

The use of hoses to wash sidewalks, walkways, driveways, parking areas, patios, porches or verandas will not be allowed.

 

Water will not be allowed to leak on residential property, nor will it be allowed to leak from landscaped areas to nearby streets, sidewalks or other paved areas.

 

Watering of plants and lawns will not be allowed from the hours of 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., except for equestrian and livestock businesses, dairies, nurseries, golf courses, or other water-dependent industries.

 

Restaurants will not serve drinking water to patrons unless requested.

 

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's June 4 drought declaration comes after two straight years of below-average rainfall, low snow melt runoff and court-ordered water transfer restrictions in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta region. The Metropolitan Water District also ramped up calls for conservation by issuing a water supply alert last month.

 

Pat Hagler, director of Chino Hills public facilities and operations, who is in charge of the city water agency, said a 10percent reduction of the city's water supply is anticipated this year. Chino Hills provided customers with 17,000 acre-feet of water last year.

 

The new ordinance to help encourage better water conservation does not have a time frame, Hagler said.

 

"I think it has to become a way of life for us, just like our gasoline," Hagler said. "We'll never go below $4 and we're probably never going to get more water.

 

She added, "We're a very privileged society in America. In other parts of the world, water conservation is a way of life. We have to get in that same frame of mind."

 

The new rules are part of the city's four-stage water-conservation alert plan to deal with increasing shortages.

 

The first stage, which Hagler said began last summer, was a call on residents to voluntarily save water. The Stage 2 alert, calling for the new mandatory requirements, was approved by the City Council on Tuesday.

 

Stages 3 and 4 are not anticipated at this time and are pending further water supply reductions, Hagler said.

 

The restrictions in these more drastic measures include a call on commercial industry in the city to institute night irrigation and a general prohibition on the refilling of swimming pools "beyond what is necessary for maintenance."#

http://www.sbsun.com/sanbernardino/ci_10010330

 

 

 

Water officials eye old quarries to solve North County's supply problems

Santa Cruz Sentinel- 7/26/08

By Kurtis Alexander, Staff Writer

 

A nearly quarter-million dollar study is under way to see if water long drawn hastily from beneath the Santa Cruz Mountains can be put back in.

 

County water officials are looking at abandoned quarries as possible sites to lure surface water underground and wells to push water down instead of pulling it up.

 

The rather elaborate scheme comes as more simple water solutions are exhausted. Drinking water supplies across the state are languishing amid a growing demand for fresh water, and adding life to California's dwindling aquifers has become a viable way of sustaining supplies.

 

"It's really about making better use of what we got," says John Ricker, water resources director for Santa Cruz County.

 

Ricker is leading plans to replenish the local groundwater supplies. His eye is on the Santa Margarita Groundwater Basin, which extends below Scotts Valley to Boulder Creek. The aquifer, which provides drinking water to the city of Scotts Valley and parts of the San Lorenzo Valley, is being drawn down more quickly than it naturally recharges.

 

Though residents in the region aren't likely to see their faucets run dry anytime soon, groundwater levels are already sinking and creeks are running with less water, according to Ricker.

 

Last month, the county signed on with nationwide engineering firm Kennedy/Jenks Consultants to begin addressing the overdraft problem.

 

County officials want to know if the old Hanson Quarry off Mount Hermon Road and perhaps other nonoperational quarries in the Santa Cruz Mountains can be turned into water-collection basins that would allow rainwater and surrounding runoff to percolate into the aquifer below.

 

The quarry conditions may be ideal for recharge, county officials says. Their sandy bottoms provide for the necessary absorption, they're located in a good position to channel water into the Santa Margarita basin, and their depth would provide ample storage.

 

Preliminary estimates suggest up to 2,000 acre feet of water per year could be drawn into the aquifer from the Hanson property alone - more than what local water districts believe is the annual overdraft.

 

Santa Cruz County is not the only area trying to recharge its groundwater supplies. Communities across California are increasingly turning to various artificial methods of recharge, and, of course, conservation. But tapping an abandoned quarry for the effort is less prevalent.

 

The idea, says Randall Hanson, a research hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, is one that could be widely beneficial.

 

"It can be a sweetheart deal for the mining agencies since they can walk away from these quarries without some of the reclamation," said Hanson, who bears no relation to Hanson Quarry. And, the local water districts, he said, stand to gain because "land is becoming such a premium these days."

 

The county and Hanson quarry officials have spoken only informally about a land deal.

 

Short of a major real estate investment, county officials also are looking at injection wells, which would send water directly into the ground and don't require much space.

 

Additionally, the county will have the consultants identify sources of water for recharge, such as wintertime runoff from creeks and even storm water from parking lots and rooftops in local communities.

 

"If storm water collection is actually beneficial, we'll encourage people to retrofit," said William O'Brien, assistant general manager with the Scotts Valley Water District.

 

Beyond Scotts Valley, water districts in the San Lorenzo Valley would benefit from the aquifer's restoration since they tap it for a portion of their supplies. The city of Santa Cruz also would benefit as a recharged aquifer would mean more water flowing in the San Lorenzo River, that city's primary water source.

 

The Kennedy/Jenks $227,500 contract is being paid for with county funds from Proposition 50 water bonds. The work will be performed over the next two years.#

http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/localnews/ci_9999578