Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation for DWR personnel of significant news articles and comment
August 18, 2008
1. Top Items -
Feds authorize $54M for Lake Tahoe restoration
The Associated Press- 8/16/08
Delta residents fight to be heard on peripheral canal
The
Farmers say they've been left off blueprint for the future
The
Carbon Farming Tested in California
Environmental News Service- 8/18/08
Editorial
Feinstein's right on water: Democrats need to get over their antipathy toward building new dams.
The
Editorial
Delta overhaul can't undercut northern rights
Redding Record Searchlight- 8/16/08
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Feds authorize $54M for Lake Tahoe restoration
The Associated Press- 8/16/08
By JULIET WILLIAMS, Associated Press Writer
U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein said Saturday she will seek an extension of a decade-old program to preserve
Feinstein said she will seek a second phase of the Lake Tahoe Restoration Act, a $1 billion program launched in 1997 that she credited with making the lake clearer, reducing sediment, restoring streams and cutting pollution.
"Yet these gains are threatened by catastrophic wildfires," Feinstein, D-Calif., told more than 100 people gathered at the 12th annual Lake Tahoe Forum.
The Lake Tahoe Restoration Act was funded from sales of public lands in the
The second phase would focus on reducing particulate matter and algae in the lake - two agents that can seriously harm Tahoe's legendary clarity. It also would seek to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires fueled by dense forest areas and a lack of defensible space around homes in fire-prone areas.
"I shudder to think what will happen if we don't move aggressively to build those firebreaks, remove those dead and dying trees and clean out as much underbrush as possible," Feinstein said.
Researchers at the
Feinstein and Kempthorne appeared with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons. The forum was held amid pine trees outside an historic summer home on the shore of the popular tourist destination.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was also scheduled to attend, but pulled out at the last minute to have his injured knee examined at his
Kempthorne signed an order releasing another $140 million from the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act, about $54 million of it for projects around
But despite the progress, researchers said global climate change continues to pose serious threats to the once-pristine wilderness.
Sudeep Chandra, a scientist at the
While
"This is a regional issue," he said. "It's not only a local issue."
An initiative announced by Schwarzenegger's resources secretary, Mike Chrisman, aims to spur such cooperation by bringing together the myriad agencies that tackle environmental issues. The Sierra Nevada Climate Change Initiative will specifically focus on reducing the effects of greenhouse gases in the
Schwarzenegger and Feinstein are also seeking to set aside some of the funding in their proposed $9.3 billion water bond for restoration in the Tahoe area. But the future of the bond is uncertain, as it would require voter approval in November, and legislators have yet to take it up.
The official deadline to get measures on the November ballot was Saturday, but lawmakers are hoping for an extension on other issues.#
http://www.dailynews.com/breakingnews/ci_10223954
Delta residents fight to be heard on peripheral canal
The
By , Staff Writer
WALNUT GROVE - They packed the sweltering church social hall, where a rotating fan in the corner made little difference. Someone joked that if all of the state legislators were locked in this room, there'd be a budget in no time.
But these folks weren't here for the budget.
They were here on behalf of their home: the Delta.
As state officials forge ahead with studies of a peripheral canal, some Delta farmers and residents feel excluded from the decision-making process, which even the highest-ranking officials admit is complex and hard to understand.
"There are too many processes going on, there's no question about that," Lester Snow, director of the Department of Water Resources, told the crowd at Thursday's community meeting. "For a working man or woman to keep up is extremely difficult."
And yet, time is short. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's blue-ribbon task force is expected to deliver recommendations about the Delta's future by October. A proposed $9.3 billion state water bond backed by the governor could free up money to study a canal, among other strategies.
And a flurry of meetings designed to solicit public comment are frustrating some residents, who say the state has failed to coherently explain its plans and, therefore, there is nothing to comment on.
"This is a living, vibrant community, another voice that needs to be heard in this process," said Larry Emery, pastor of the Walnut Grove Community Presbyterian Church. "Sometimes, the Delta has not always been well-represented."
In
"The production of food is not considered to be of social importance" in their analysis, Hildebrand said.
Conversion of farm lands to wetlands as Delta islands flood would actually reduce the state's water supply because the latter would consume more fresh water per acre than farm fields, he argues.
Those farms that remain after mass island flooding may lose viability because there is no longer enough business for companies that process their crops.
And, Hildebrand said, "There is no discussion of the pros and cons of destroying agriculture in the Delta or elsewhere when we have 5 million more people to feed every 10 years" in California.
Delta advocates are mobilizing for another water war. A peripheral canal was first rejected by voters in 1982, and now, some of the same old faces - water attorneys and longtime landowners - say they're ready to fight a canal once more.
Delta landowner Dino Cortopassi this month bought full-page ads in two newspapers, as well as radio and television spots blasting the canal. He started working on the Delta when he was 10 years old, and remembers looking across the morning mist at
"I love the Delta. There is no question," he said.
Others share the same love - and concern. New Delta advocacy groups are forming. The
State officials have said repeatedly that they want Delta residents to be involved.
Two more meetings in the next two weeks in
And as for the public-policy institute's report, Ellen Hanak, the group's associate director, said a "broad and wide" range of experts were consulted for the project, including Delta levee engineers. She dismissed allegations that the report can be questioned because it was funded in part by Stephen D. Bechtel Jr. of the Bechtel Corp., a worldwide engineering and construction firm that might, critics argue, have interest in building a peripheral canal.
There was no conflict, Hanak said.
"Funders aren't involved in determining the conclusions of the work," she said.
Tom Zuckerman, a longtime water attorney and landowner on Rindge Tract west of
"I think people out here are certainly adequate to understand" what's going on, he said. "We're seeing that in the response we're beginning to get at the meetings, ... the Delta is part of the fabric of our lives around here.
"People have a very keen sense of what's about to happen to them - if they allow it to happen."#
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080818/A_NEWS/808180317
Farmers say they've been left off blueprint for the future
The
By Staff Writer
THE DELTA - You've probably never been to
A narrow bridge fords Turner Cut and winds down to farmers' fields, where a potato harvester churns the black soil and swallows up hundreds of taters in a matter of minutes.
The red spuds tumble down conveyor belts and into trucks, spilling over the side. Within hours, they are washed in a giant warehouse, sorted and dumped into boxes or bags for shipment to your neighborhood grocery store - or maybe the East Coast.
The hefty harvest amounts to 800,000 pounds of potatoes per day.
The Zuckerman family has farmed this land for generations. Now comes word from a think tank that McDonald is one of 10 to 20 islands in the Delta that not only is likely to flood within 50 years, but may not be worth fixing once it does.
The islands don't need to be fixed because they would no longer be crucial to the state's water supply.
Not with a canal.
The thrust of the report by the Public Policy Institute of California is that a peripheral canal should be built to carry water around the Delta. The decades-old idea has been argued to death.
But the institute doesn't simply propose a canal. It envisions an entirely new Delta with a broad expanse of open water in the center and agricultural lands only on the fringes, a landscape with tidal marshes, flood plains and special wildlife areas.
The timing of the new report is key. In October, a task force is expected to present recommendations on the Delta's future to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Delta farmers and other locals say a decision has already been made.
"Everyone in the whole process has had an agenda to build a peripheral canal. The conclusion was foregone," said farmer Ed Zuckerman.
"That canal is just a nightmare," said his assistant, Ken Jochimsen.
'Performing poorly'
The public policy group argues there is little choice. The current Delta is "performing poorly from almost everyone's perspective," their report says.
A quick Delta primer: Besides being a paradise for boaters and a haven for fish, the estuary is key for the water supply of much of
But many view the Delta as the weakest link in this system.
Islands such as McDonald have sunk well below sea level. As they sink, water in the Delta channels places more pressure on poorly-constructed levees.
Earthquakes, rising sea levels and more upstream flooding may crumble those levees.
The public-policy institute found that building a canal would secure the state's water delivery system while also helping fish, which are sucked by the thousands into the pumps near
There is a consequence. Once a canal is built, less fresh water may flow into the Delta. And the islands are no longer relevant to the rest of
"We probably want to think about whether it's worth it to taxpayers" to save all those other islands, said Ellen Hanak, associate director of the San Francisco-based institute.
Delta levees have failed 166 times in the past century. Over half of Delta islands have at least a 90 percent chance of flooding by mid-century, the group reported, and a catastrophic failure could cost $8 billion to $15 billion.
"The risks to the levee system are much greater than folks thought even a few years ago," Hanak said. "This is going to be happening more and more. It makes sense to think about where do we really want to be putting these funds."
What about the farmers?
The cost of losing some central Delta islands is estimated at $81 million and 2,400 jobs, said report contributor and
The most valuable crops are around the edges of the Delta and would not be affected by interior flooding, Howitt said.
But back on
Huge amounts of pressure would be placed on the levees protecting Jochimsen's crops. Water would seep through from beneath, spoiling farmland.
It happened in 2004 when the Jones Tract flooded. Within days, a couple of hundred gallons of water per minute were bubbling up on
"If we were surrounded on all sides by water, we wouldn't be able to farm here," Jochimsen said.
Delta advocates argue that preserving freshwater flows will help farmers throughout the area.
"The idea seems to be to rob the Delta of its fresh water for the economic benefit of another region,"
A first look
The institute says its flooded-islands scenario is just a first look at what might happen. Landowners on flooded islands will have to be compensated, they say, and it's best to start planning now.
Scary words for Craig Kirchhoff, who left the family farm in
His earnings put two kids through college. And earlier this spring, he bought a house in an area that he now fears may be allowed to revert to wildlife habitat.
"It was kind of a shock," said Kirchhoff, 53. "I've been sitting through a lot of these meetings, trying to learn as much as I can, and what's starting to irk me is that they say the Delta is broken. It's like a catch phrase now.
"The Delta is not broken."#
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080817/A_NEWS/808170325/-1/A_NEWS05
Carbon Farming Tested in California
Environmental News Service- 8/18/08
Scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey and the
The research team has won a three-year, $12.3 million grant from the California Department of Water Resources to test the concept on 400 acres in the Delta beginning next spring.
Called carbon farming, the project involves building wetlands, which is what nature originally grew in the Delta. Following the Gold Rush, developers "reclaimed" the land for agriculture by constructing levees to drain swamplands and contain the rivers that form the estuary.
Over the past 150 years, conventional farming practices have exposed fragile peat soils to wind, rain and oxygen, liberating carbon from the soil and causing subsidence, or sinking, of Delta lands. According to the USGS, most of the islands farmed in the Delta are more than 20 feet below the surface of the water. They are kept dry and intact only because of the levees.
The carbon farming project aims to rebuild the rich peat soils by re-establishing wetlands. A pilot project by the USGS and state Department of Water Resources has already shown that it can work.
On an island called Twitchell in the western Delta, researchers planted two seven acre test plots with cattails, tule grass and other wetlands vegetation. As the plants grew, died and decomposed, they left roots and other parts that gradually compacted into a material similar to the original peat. From 1997 to 2005, the USGS measured 10 inches of new soil.
The pilot also showed that the process could sequester up to 25 metric tons of carbon dioxide per acre per year and eliminate the CO2 emissions produced by current farming practices, which cause peat to oxidize, virtually evaporating and blowing away, the USGS reported in a briefing paper.
If
The state is under a self-imposed deadline to scale back its greenhouse gas output by 2020 to the level emitted in 1990.
As more governments tackle greenhouse gases, the concept of carbon farming is catching on. Usually, the term refers to paying farmers to plant trees and other vegetation that stores carbon for longer periods than crops; or to less frequently till the land, a practice that delivers carbon in the soil into the atmosphere.
The Delta brand of carbon farming specifically involves rebuilding wetlands. The project is not without potential risks. As the USGS briefing paper notes, "Large scale efforts to manage the environment have a decidedly mixed record of success."
One possibility is that the wetlands will emit methane and nitrous oxide, two greenhouse gases more potent than carbon dioxide, potentially canceling the benefit of sequestering the carbon. The USGS said measurements of methane varied widely in the pilot. The scientists did not attempt to measure nitrous oxide.
Another possible drawback is that certain conditions under which carbon is captured may produce methylmercury, a neurotoxin that accumulates in the food chain, concentrating in fish.
Methylmercury is highly toxic to mammals, including people, says the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Eating fish high in methylmercury can permanently damage the brain, kidneys, and developing fetus. Effects on brain functioning may result in irritability, shyness, tremors, changes in vision or hearing, and memory problems. If the benefits of wetlands restoration outweigh problems, the project could accomplish three big goals: it would sequester carbon, reverse subsidence and provide a means of making a living from land in a sustainable manner, said Roger Fujii, Bay-Delta program chief for the USGS California Water Science Center.
In a statement, Fujii said, "This project is an investment in
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/aug2008/2008-08-18-094.asp
Editorial
Feinstein's right on water: Democrats need to get over their antipathy toward building new dams.
The
Sen. Dianne Feinstein got a little grumpy the other day with the slow pace of work on a state water bond she and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger have proposed. She singled out members of her own Democratic party for their intransigence when it comes to new surface water storage projects. Good for her.
Ideological conflicts threaten to throttle any action on
We must increase our water supply. Demand grows with our growing population, and simultaneously our existing supplies are threatened by the pace of global climate change. When winter snowfall diminishes in the
We have long advocated a three-part approach including new dams, increased use of underground water banking and more aggressive efforts to conserve. In addition, existing supplies that are already contaminated, or at risk of becoming so, must be cleaned up.
No serious observer argues that we have enough water now, at least not the way it is distributed and used. The argument is over the manner in which we can best increase available supplies.
Environmentalists and their Democratic allies in the Legislature oppose new dams, for the most part. They argue that dams are too expensive, take too long to build and do too much damage to the environment. There's no question about the expense and the lead time, but that's not a compelling argument for doing away with the idea of new dams altogether. It's rather an argument for starting right away, to bring new supplies on line as soon as possible. We'll still need those new supplies in 10 or 20 years -- maybe even more than we do now.
There is no question that building dams can seriously affect local and regional environments. But we know a great deal more about engineering, the environment and the hydrology of the state than did the earlier generations that built our existing dams and conveyance systems. We can do a better job of mitigating environmental impacts.
More immediate savings -- which amount to increases in supply -- can be had from conservation. We waste a great deal of water in this state, in cities such as Fresno that have only begun to install water meters for residential use, in fields where state-of-the-art irrigation techniques haven't yet been employed, in industrial processes that are relics of an age when water seemed eternally abundant. We have to do better, and right away.
Underground storage is also promising, to capture supplies in wetter years than can be pumped out later in time of need. Such storage facilities also have the virtue of helping to replenish our seriously overdrafted aquifers.
The $9.3 billion water bond proposed by Feinstein and Schwarzenegger isn't perfect. No measure will ever be. But it is a useful start, and we can't afford to wait for perfect solutions that will never materialize.#
http://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/story/801588.html
Editorial
Delta overhaul can't undercut northern rights
Redding Record Searchlight- 8/16/08
Our view:
Will the governor's push to fix the water disaster in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta cause a new disaster up north?
That's the warning of a letter the
"We understand the critical need to ... save the collapsing ecosystem of the Delta, but we fear that decisions affecting water rights in our region will lead to a Delta-like catastrophe," reads the letter, which the supervisors will discuss Tuesday.
What's the trouble? The Delta Vision strategic plan, released in June, puts too much emphasis on centralized management of water at the expense of local control. And it casts the discussion of water use in terms of "public trust" while playing down historic water rights and the area-of-origin rights of the north state.
"This is a rehash of past Delta discussion, but this time ... they're bolder in dealing with upstream water-rights holders," said county Public Works Director Pat Minturn.
The urgency down south is easy to grasp. Old peat Delta levees are collapsing. A federal judge has cut water pumping to help endangered fish. Water shortages are limiting development in
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sen. Dianne Feinstein have proposed a $9.3 billion water bond. It's badly needed to ensure safe, reliable drinking water -- but not at the north state's expense.
This is a long fight that demands northern officials' attention. It's good to see the county making itself heard.#
http://www.redding.com/news/2008/aug/16/delta-overhaul/
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