Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
July 9, 2008
5. Agencies, Programs, People –
District projects water overrun
Board to consider water hike:
Long Beach
Inland golf courses face challenges of water conservation
Riverside Press-Enterprise- 7/8/08
Suit expected over casino water
The Sacramento
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District projects water overrun
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The Imperial Irrigation District’s projected water usage continues to swell thousands of acre-feet over its allotment for the year.
Water Manager Mike King said Tuesday the district is estimated to overrun its share of the
At this time last year, a projected overrun of 75,000 acre-feet led the IID board to declare a supply-demand imbalance that was later rescinded as the overrun diminished.
One farmer approached the Board of Directors with a whiteboard and asked that the board keep track publicly of the district’s use and projected overrun.
“We have to get control of this over usage,” Craig Elmore of Brawley said.
With the snow pack completely melted and no longer flowing into the
Declaring a supply-demand imbalance would trigger a water-rationing program for agriculture users in the
Whether that will be necessary remains to be seen.
“We’ve got a long way to go before we’re done,” King said of this year’s water demands.
STRATEGIC PLANNING WORKSHOP SET
The IID board has scheduled a public strategic planning workshop as part of its governance process.
The first workshop will be at 2 p.m. Tuesday in the Condit Auditorium on
General Manager Brian Brady said staff has already begun working on preliminary assessments of the district’s strengths and weaknesses as well as evaluating the results of a staff survey.
Workshops will also be held in La Quinta to gather input from ratepayers in the
The goal is to create a comprehensive long-term planning strategy.#
http://www.ivpressonline.com/articles/2008/07/09/local_news/news05.txt
Board to consider water hike:
Long Beach
LONG BEACH
Residential customers with an approximately $42 monthly bill will see an increase of about $7 per month, according to a water department staff proposal.
The water department is forced to raise rates for water and sewer services as construction and water treatment prices increase and water consumption decreases, said Ryan Alsop, director of Government and Public Affairs for the water department.
"Our water conservation efforts and our success will translate into a rate increase of some kind, but we have no choice," Alsop said.
The board will discuss fee increases at its meeting Thursday at 9:15 a.m. at the water department's administration building at
The department must increase rates because prices for electricity, steel production, water treatment and other construction costs have increased, Alsop said.
Imported water, which increased by about 14 percent, also will have a significant effect on water and sewer service prices, he said.
"Just the core services of providing you with water and sewer service are increasing substantially, but along with all of those increased costs is a decrease in revenue due to conservation. But, again, it's either conserve or don't have any," Alsop said.
According to Alsop, the current price for water and sewer for a single family home in
Alsop said that $42 is a lower combined rate than that for most of
The increase would add about $6.69 per month to the combined water and sewer bill.
At the board meeting, two resolutions will be addressed that seek the approval of fee and rate increases for water and sewer services, as well as the water department's budget for the 2008-09 fiscal year.
Resolution WD-1245, for fixing the rates and charges for water and sewer services, and Resolution WD-1246, for the adoption of an annual budget for the Long Beach Water Department for the 2008-09 fiscal year, will be presented by Kevin Wattier, the water department's general manager.
Both resolutions will require City Council approval once adopted by the Long Beach Water Commissioners, and the budget resolution will also need the city manager and mayor's approval.
"I think that it's a sign that the public is doing the right thing, that they're engaged and that we're going to be well prepared going into what we know will be a severe shortage of water," Alsop said.
Those restrictions implemented by the water department in 2007 were in response to the rapidly decreasing water levels in the state's reservoirs, drought conditions, and a federal judge's limit on the amount of water that can be pumped from the
According to the Long Beach Water Department website, www.lbwater.org, 14 water-use prohibitions have been and continue to be in effect.
They include restrictions on serving drinking water at restaurants; washing sidewalks, driveways, patios and similar areas; irrigating landscape between the hours of 9 a.m. and 4 p.m., using an inefficient irrigation system and letting leaks continue without fixing them.
Alsop said in September 2007 that the water department hoped to see a lifestyle change among the public to help battle the water shortage.
"We set out to make wasting water as socially unacceptable in our community as lighting up a cigarette in a public room," Alsop said.
Alsop said that the water department has issued nearly 2,500 letters in the last 10 months to members of the community after receiving numerous tips about water wasting activities.
People can call the water department's Water Waster Hotline at 562-570-2455 to report people violating rules.
"\ are targeted, focused communications with people that may not be aware of what is going on so we are able to provide them with that education and then they can make adjustments," Alsop said.
The water department has not issued a single fine and has not had any confrontations at all, said Alsop.
The water department has focused on outdoor water usage, mainly in the yards of homes.
Alsop said that 50 percent to 60percent of the water used in the city is used outdoors.
Conservation is key Supply dwindles
In September 2007, water department officials said that the state reservoirs were at 40 percent of their capacity, which threatened the water supply.
Alsop said the reservoir situation has not improved and in fact, it has worsened.
"We had virtually no snow pack this year. It's all burned off and evaporated," Alsop said.
Because of this and other factors,
"Most of the water we're using to water our lawns ... is coming from our in-state reserves at this point. So the need to continue saving water couldn't be more important," Alsop said.
Alsop said that conditions will worsen in the next year, and that the public needs to continue the conservation trend in order for us to get through it.
"People can expect to not only continue with the current rules in place but possibly accept additional rules," Alsop said.
Alsop said that if the conservation trend does continue, it is safe to assume a 7 percent reduction in water consumption annually.
Short term vs. long term
The water department has continued to work on reducing water consumption.
In addition to the measures taken, there are long-term solutions in the works.
These include desalination, recycling water, other innovative groundwater use management and initiatives and plans that
"All of those are very important solutions to increasing the reliability of our water supplies. But what's important to remember is those are long-term, in some cases five to 10 years away. What we're dealing with is a water supply shortage next year and the year after," Alsop said.#
http://www.presstelegram.com/news/ci_9823179
Inland golf courses face challenges of water conservation
Riverside Press-Enterprise- 7/8/08
It might not be equivalent to screaming "fire" in a crowded theater, but mention "drought" and you'll surely give nightmares to many golf course operators.
On the heels of the state's driest spring in 88 years, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said the magic word in May, declaring the first drought in
John Martinez, director of golf operations at The SCGA Golf Course in Murrieta, is among those paying attention.
"The water situation is extremely serious,"
Golfers in Northern California's
No cutbacks have been mandated in Southern California, but that doesn't mean golf course operators such as Martinez aren't concerned about the state's decreasing water supply, what it could mean for their facilities and what they can do to make due if the situation deteriorates.
The more conscious, forward-thinking courses are going the reclaimed water route, or have done so already.
Eight years ago the SCGA course spent $1.6 million to implement an irrigation system that uses exclusively recycled water, instead of potable groundwater.
"Not too bad for a system designed to last 25 years,"
A handful of courses in the
They'll soon be joined by a few dozen more, thanks to the Coachella Valley Water District's Mid-Valley Pipeline Project, which is in the first of three phases.
The plan is designed to ease the valley's groundwater-overdraft condition by distributing a combination of reclaimed water and Colorado River canal water to 50 courses in
"We're pumping more groundwater from the aquifer than flows into it, and that's a problem," said Patti Reyes, the Coachella Valley Water District's assistant director of engineering. "And overdraft leads to other problems, like subsidence. So it's necessary that everybody do their part to conserve water."
Golf courses generally are good at doing just that, with computerized irrigation systems hooked up to high-tech, on-site weather stations that measure solar radiation, wind speed, humidity and the evapotranspiration rate.
There's also the fact that with golf courses using as much as 1,000 acre-feet (or 325 million gallons) of water, and spending as much as $500,000 a year on it, no one is taking it for granted.
"We monitor our water constantly, on a daily basis," said Jason Taylor, general manager at
Even with the meticulous efforts now in place to conserve water, there's a range of ways to further reduce usage.
"Today's superintendent is a very effective irrigator," said Kevin Heaney, executive director of the SCGA. "They've been studying irrigation for a number of years and they're very good at what they do, but at the same time, we have to be better."
It helps to have drought-resistant turf, such as the Bermuda grass that's become so popular in
There also are wetting agents, which work to distribute water to soil more uniformly, and growth regulators, which work to reduce the vertical growth of leaves while allowing them to spread horizontally.
In the every-drop-counts world of conservation, even cursory efforts like turning off running water features at
Some courses, including
"These drought-tolerant grasses go dormant in winter and turn brown," said
"It's hurt our business, but we're holding to our guns. Being The SCGA Course, we kind of have a status symbol, so we're trying to show everyone: If it's all right for us, it's all right for you."
California Alliance for Golf, a state-wide association of golf-industry personnel of all walks, formed two years ago to take a proactive approach to the situation. Another boost in the relationship between regulators and the industry could come from an ongoing study into a golf course's potential bio-filter qualities, or its ability to filter out pharmaceutical and personal care products that go through the water supply.
"It would be extremely important from a general PR standpoint," said Mike Huck, an independent consultant with a long history as a course superintendent. "This could make the environmental community look at golf courses a little differently: Instead of the great Satan, we could be the great savior, if we're able to actually purify water." #
http://www.pe.com/sports/breakout/stories/PE_Sports_Local_S_golf_water_09.43fa8cf.html
Suit expected over casino water
The Sacramento
By Cathy Locke
The district board agreed to supply up to 135,000 gallons of water daily for the 270,000-square-foot casino and other facilities on the Shingle Springs Rancheria.
District officials said that unless they hear from the court, they plan to honor the agreement.#
http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/1069771.html
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