Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
July 23, 2008
5. Agencies, Programs, People –
IID using too much water, again
Adjudication annoys both sides: Water fight lasts for a decade
Antelope Valley
USGS,
YubaNet.com- 7/23/08
Another tough year for
Riverside Press Enterprise- 7/22/08
Orland water, sewer rates increased 2.6 percent
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
IID using too much water, again
There is no question whether the Imperial Irrigation District will exceed its water allotment for the year, officials said.
But by how much and at what cost has yet to be seen.
IID Water Manager Mike King said the district is projected to be 108,000 acre-feet more than what is allowed from its rights on the
By this time last year the board had already declared a supply-demand imbalance that would have set into motion a system of water rationing had it not been revoked.
“July is our highest month of water use. We’re hoping to see that (projected overrun) drop,” King said.
King said if the current conditions persist, the district will exceed its allotment by an estimated 60,000 to 70,000 acre-feet by year’s end.
Last year the board declared a supply-demand imbalance in early June. Living within the limitations of the
As the year ended, unexpected rainfall led the district to being less than 10,000 acre-feet over its share.
Director James Hanks said that with the district already exceeding the conditions that caused them to declare a supply-demand imbalance last year, it’s time to act now.
“We need to look at declaring another shortage,” Hanks said. “The next go-round won’t be a pilot (program). It’ll be the real McCoy.”
Implementing a water-rationing program next year would create a number of issues for water staff and for the farming community to plan, King said. A pilot program to test the district’s allocation system received little reception in the voluntary program, with only a couple of dozen farmers willing to participate in the program.
IID officials have said in the past it would take some work to get the kinks worked out of the software used to monitor water use.
Although the board has until November to declare an imbalance in the water supply, some urged the directors to take action sooner.
“This guessing game is not working for us. We have to know what we’re going to have to work with and we’ll work with it,” Orbia Hanks said.
One farmer estimated if IID exceeds its water use by such a large margin, it could take up to $9 million to fallow more ground to make up the difference next year.
Farmer Larry Cox said the board should look at getting each farmer to deal with a percentage less than their typical water use to spread the conservation across the board.
“The more planning, the better off you’re going to be,” Cox said.
“I think we’re premature,” Menvielle said. “The farmers may not be ready for that and neither is the district. Let’s not panic.”
The move to declare a water shortage this early in the year may be too soon, IID board President John Pierre Menvielle said.
Menvielle said last year’s declaration caused a lot of anxiety at the district and in the farming community over how the rationing was going to be implemented.
“We’re aware of the problem and working on the problem. I don’t want it to be an emotional decision,” Menvielle said.
At a recent meeting among the basin states that utilize water from the
King said that some other members of the board stood up for the IID.
Among the potential short-term solutions to be reviewed by the Water Conservation Advisory Board and agencies in the farm community would be to develop better water delivery coordination, enforcing gate movement fees and creating irrigation classes. King said if some farmers were able to irrigate on the weekends, it would help the system balance and prevent spills.
Not all the solutions will be implemented, King said, but some will be some quick steps the district can take to improve the overrun solution.
“We’re taking it seriously,” King said of the potential overrun. “We’re looking at short-term solutions to help.”#
http://www.ivpressonline.com/articles/2008/07/23/local_news/news03.txt
Adjudication annoys both sides: Water fight lasts for a decade
Antelope Valley
By Linda Lee, Staff Writer
After nearly 10 years, millions of dollars and at least 26 studies, the players in a legal battle over water pumping rights are still haggling.
More than $5 million has been spent on the litigation by public agencies, with Los Angeles County Waterworks Districts at the top, spending about $2 million, and Palmdale Water District in second place at $903,799.
"It could buy a hell of a lot of water," attorney Bob Joyce, whose client Diamond Farming Company launched the legal battle in 1999, said about the spending. "It could go a long way toward solving the problem."
"This thing is an unfortunate waste of resources in my view, not only for taxpayers but for private capital. I've seldom seen money put in lawyers' pockets that generates anything positive to the community or anything constructive. It is money that goes down a hole that never benefits anybody," Joyce said. "Litigation is a poor vehicle for addressing and solving political problems."
In a court document, Joyce accused water district officials of trying to wear down the landowner parties by making the groundwater-rights litigation - technically called adjudication - costly and lengthy. "This litigation pits the might and funding resources of the government against the separate individual property rights and limited resources of hundreds of separate landowners," he stated.
A water district attorney denied the charge.
Attorney Tom Bunn, who represents Palmdale and Quartz Hill water districts, said adjudication is expensive, and water officials were surprised when Joyce's client started this one. "We were brought into it against our will," Bunn said. "Palmdale Water District did not favor an adjudication, in part because of the costs, but the direction we've had from our clients is to minimize the costs for all sides."
Bunn added: "We're looking for a quick resolution, by settlement if possible, but otherwise by a judge determination."
City and water officials said they dislike the case's length, as well. "The only people who like adjudication are attorneys. We don't like it," said Jeff Storm, Palmdale Water District director.
"It is a lawyer's retirement act right now, like a fox in charge of the henhouse. When it stops being a cash cow, it will be settled," Palmdale City Councilman Mike Dispenza said.
While the water districts and other public agencies have spent millions, the amount spent by farmers, property owners and others isn't clear. Attorneys for Diamond Farming and Bolthouse Farms, which filed the original lawsuits over groundwater pumping rights in 1999 and 2001, respectively, would not disclose how much their clients have paid.
However, according to court records, Diamond Farming has spent more money on the legal battle than its land is worth "by a sum in the multiples." Joyce said the sum is less than $1 million.
Aside from the carrot growers, other area farmers have spent tens of thousands of dollars on court costs. But they complain that as taxpayers in
"Every entity that we're fighting, whether it's the county or the cities or the water purveyors, all their attorneys are being paid for by the taxpayer. And nobody wants it done faster than we do because we're having to foot the bill ourselves," said onion and carrot farmer John Calandri. "Nobody's helping us. Believe me, when we get a bill, we're scratching our heads wondering how long we can hold on."
Grain and alfalfa farmer John Pierre Maritorena agrees. "We're paying them to fight us."
An association of 15 mutual water companies known as Antelope Valley United Mutual Group has spent nearly $200,000 on the litigation, said John Ukkestad, who heads the group. In addition, members of mutual water companies - which provide water to small groups of property owners who are not hooked up to public water systems - believe they are paying their opponents' attorneys.
"We're helping support the attorneys we are not real happy with," said Vickie Nelson, who represents mutual water companies on the Leadership Committee of the Integrated Regional Water Management Plan. "Both cities have their attorneys, and we all spend money in both cities. The mutuals feel like we're spending an awful lot on attorneys indirectly."
Diamond Farming filed a lawsuit in 1999 over the rights to water under less than 1,000 acres, but expected a resolution by 2003. A mistrial was declared when the judge decided it would make more sense to hear the case with competing claims to water, Joyce said.
"It put us back to square one," Joyce said.
Joyce wrote in a court document in May that if the litigation is unduly prolonged, a significant number of landowners may simply abandon their property rights.
"Very few, if any, single parcel of real property has sufficient economic value to justify and/or support the cost of litigation in a case of this nature," Joyce wrote.
"Diamond Farming is losing interest not because it does not believe in its cause, but simply because after nine years of litigation it is rapidly concluding that it cannot afford to be right. Justice delayed, is truly justice denied," Joyce wrote.
Joyce said he is not optimistic that a settlement will be reached soon. "I think the sheer number of parties makes it difficult," he said. "It is easy to negotiate a dispute with two; when it involves an inordinate amount of people it becomes difficult. There are obstacles."
Joyce said Diamond Farming doesn't have much choice but to continue with the process.
"I suppose they could give up and walk away; they haven't made that decision; the options are limited.
At present, one major dispute is how much water can be pumped from wells without damaging the underground basin, which has been studied many times over the last two decades.
One suggestion for a possible settlement is to let well pumping continue at the present level while an independent hydrologist monitors well levels to measure how they increase or decrease. If the result shows a problem, the users who pump too much could be charged fees that would pay for using
Just as financier J.P. Morgan averted a collapse of the American financial system during the 1907 stock market panic by locking up financial executives in a room until they were able to devise a solution, Lancaster Vice Mayor Ron Smith said those involved in the water-rights legal battle should be locked up until they agree on a settlement.
Palmdale Water District President Dick Wells agrees.
Wells suggested a settlement that would fix the safe annual yield somewhere between 84,000 and 150,000 acre-feet - enough to supply 82,000 to 150,000 typical Valley households a year - while an independent study examines how much water can safely be pumped.
"We can't keep waiting for permission to bank and extract water," he said.
"I'll sleep good when we have a two-year water supply banked for drought," he said.
Smith said he believes the Lancaster City Council during a closed session at a meeting tonight will advocate speeding up the settlement.
"Going to court is never the best way of settling something," he said.
"We're in an economic downturn, we're in a drought situation and we should not cut back any of the current pumping levels from our citizens, from water purveyors or the farmers," he said.
"In fact, in an emergency drought situation, there might be more pumping going on, and I think a settlement might come together that works on keeping pumping at current levels."
He agrees with Wells that an independent hydrologist could monitor the aquifer over the next several years and make adjustments accordingly. "We have to get all the elected leaders down to the same table and make the hard decisions," Smith said.#
http://www.avpress.com/n/22/0722_s1.hts
USGS,
YubaNet.com- 7/23/08
July 23, 2008 - Imagine a new kind of farming in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta - "carbon-capture" farming, which traps atmospheric carbon dioxide and rebuilds lost soils.
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) and the
DWR has awarded USGS and UC Davis a three-year, $12.3 million research grant to take the concept of carbon-capture farming to full-scale in a scientifically and environmentally sound way.
Long-standing farming practices in the Delta expose fragile peat soils to wind, rain and cultivation, emit carbon dioxide (CO2) and cause land subsidence. To capture or contain the carbon, farmers would "grow"
wetlands. In doing so, they would begin to rebuild the Delta's unique peat soils, take CO2 out of the atmosphere, ease pressure on the Delta's aging levees and infuse the region with new economic potential.
Carbon-capture farming works as CO2 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 and DWR have already partnered on a pilot project that shows the promise of carbon-capture farming. On deeply subsided
Construction on the new wetlands, covering up to 400 acres on
"This project is an investment in
"UC Davis scientists will play a major role in this project. We'll be providing the scientific expertise necessary to gain a better understanding of the factors controlling carbon capture in these re-established wetlands," said Dr. William Horwath, a professor in the UC Davis Department of Land, Air and Water Resources and the James G.
Boswell Endowed Chair in Soil Sciences.
Added David Mraz, chief of DWR's Delta-Suisun Marsh Office, "The developing carbon market holds great promise for regaining land elevation in the Delta. It could provide sustainable farming opportunities for Delta farmers and an economic incentive to sustain the existing Delta levee system."
Throughout the Delta, oxidation of the soils from farming practices has resulted in land-surface subsidence - a steady loss of elevation. As a result, most of the farmed Delta islands are more than 20 feet below the surrounding waterways and are permanently protected by levees.
The falling land surface threatens the stability of the region's levees, which in turn protect the Delta's rich agricultural lands and the conveyance of much of
25 million Californians and millions of acres of farmland in the
The research will develop wetland management approaches that maximize carbon sequestration and subsidence reversal. It will also evaluate and seek to minimize other potential environmental consequences, such as how to effectively manage any changes in mosquito populations.#
http://yubanet.com/california/USGS-California-and-UC-Davis-begin-large-scale-Delta-carbon-farm.php
Another tough year for
Riverside Press Enterprise- 7/22/08
By SEAN NEALON
With record-low rainfall, David Zeiders called last year's wheat harvest a disaster. This year's hasn't been much better.
"You can say it's pretty much a disaster," said Zeiders, whose family has farmed the
Zeiders is among about eight dry-land farmers still growing wheat surrounded by red-tile roof homes in
Last year, Riverside County Board of Supervisors declared a state of emergency when dry-land farmers reported $4 million in damage due to extreme drought conditions. Damages this year are estimated at $3.8 million, Oesterlein said.
The
Schwarzenegger proclaimed a statewide drought last month, Oesterlein said.
The Wheat Industry
The wheat crop is a small percentage of
The county's wheat crop is also just a fraction of the state's wheat crop. This year, an estimated 808,000 acres were planted in wheat statewide, up about 200,000 acres from 2007, according to the California Wheat Commission survey. High wheat prices caused the increase, said Robert Falconer, executive director of the commission.
The majority of the state's wheat is grown in the
Wheat grown in
Riverside
In
Last year, the fields received less than 2 inches, he said. This year, it increased to 4 to 5 inches, he said.
Most wheat farmers in
Andy Domenigoni planted 2,500 acres of hard red winter wheat in
He's finishing harvesting about 1,000 acres. About a quarter of it is seed that can be planted next year.
Domenigoni's unsure where the remainder of the grain will go. The mills that usually buy it and make it into flour for bread won't take it because it's not heavy enough, he said. The wheat didn't mature to its full weight because of high temperatures and lack of rain in March, he said.
Domenigoni said it's too early to estimate his losses, some of which would be covered by crop insurance. He doesn't expect any help from an emergency declaration because he's not interested in the low-interest loans that would be offered.
Zeiders planted about 3,000 acres of hard red winter wheat, including some fields he picked up from Mike Bouris.
The drought and conflicts with the growing residential population caused Bouris to get out of the wheat farming last year. His family had been in the business 85 years.
Like Domenigoni, Zeiders' wheat grew to about 1 foot high, about half the ideal height, and was lightweight.
He estimates he will lose $100,000 this year. Last year, he lost $200,000.
Zeiders is harvesting about 2,100 acres for seed he will use next year.
He estimates he will have to cut the amount of seed he plants next season by 40 percent.
"It's not a good thing to do," Zeiders said. "But you do what you got to do."#
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_S_wheat23.3a40abc.html
Orland water, sewer rates increased 2.6 percent
By BARBARA ARRIGONI - Staff Writer
ORLAND — A low ballot response from residents and a unanimous vote from Orland City Council resulted Monday in a 2.6 percent rate increase for water and sewer services.
The council decision established new rates for customers living both inside and outside the city limits.
Although the item was scheduled as a public hearing, only one person went to the lectern to protest, telling the council that with increases in gas, food and other costs citizens face, it's not a good time to raise the rates.
"We've had to tighten our belts, the city should, too ..." said Sharon Nord, who was active in last year's effort to recall the council.
Protest votes were also low. The city mailed 2,292 ballots in May, of which 161 were returned. City Clerk Angela Crook said recipients were instructed to return the ballots to the city only if they protested the increase.
All water and sewer users will pay base amounts for a minimum use of 15,000 gallons of water, and an extra amount per 1,000 gallons over the minimum, according to the resolution. The rates vary for residential, commercial, multi-unit or school use and whether the user is inside or outside the city limits, according to the resolution. The new rates are available through the city and are effective Friday.#
http://www.chicoer.com/news/ci_9965788
DWR's California Water News is distributed to California Department of Water Resources management and staff, for information purposes, by the DWR Public Affairs Office. For reader's services, including new subscriptions, temporary cancellations and address changes, please use the online page: http://listhost2.water.ca.gov/mailman/listinfo/water_news. DWR operates and maintains the State Water Project, provides dam safety and flood control and inspection services, assists local water districts in water management and water conservation planning, and plans for future statewide water needs. Inclusion of materials is not to be construed as an endorsement of any programs, projects, or viewpoints by the Department or the State of
No comments:
Post a Comment