[Water_news] 2. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: SUPPLY - 8/18/08

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment 

 

August 18, 2008

 

2. Supply –

 

 

Editorial

It's time for this thirsty state to discover a new pronoun: 'We'

The Sacramento Bee- 8/17/08

 

In water fight, home builders seek solutions

Antelope Valley Press- 8/17/08

 

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Editorial

It's time for this thirsty state to discover a new pronoun: 'We'

The Sacramento Bee- 8/17/08

By David Holwerk, Editorial Page Editor

 

Eight or nine years ago, when I was the editor of the newspaper in Duluth, Minn., I got myself all worked up about a proposal to ship water from Lake Superior to Southern California.

 

That was a terrible idea, I told anyone who would listen. It made much more sense to depopulate Southern California and move the people to northeastern Minnesota. That part of the world had been losing population for more than a half-century. Housing was cheap. It had plenty of water.

 

And an influx of people with a taste for spicy food would surely improve local dining opportunities. (Remind me sometime to tell you the story of the recipe for a "tamale" that once appeared in my newspaper.)

 

No one paid any attention, which is probably just as well, all things considered. The water-shipping idea died a natural political death in Washington. Things went along pretty much as usual on the shores of Lake Superior.

 

And I moved to Sacramento – a city that has one and only one thing in common with Duluth, Minnesota: Both have water supplies that other less-fortunate locales covet.

 

So I really shouldn't have been surprised when in recent weeks, I have found myself hearing ideas similar to those I had when the idea of exporting Lake Superior's water was being discussed.

 

The water in question here originates as snow in the Sierra and flows, via the Sacramento River, into the Delta. But the idea behind the proposed transaction is the same as it was there: Find more water for Southern California.

 

There are variations on the precise mechanism for doing this, but the basic idea is to build a canal that would make a sort of end run around the Delta into Clifton Court Forebay, where giant pumps send enough water south every day to serve millions of households and hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland.

 

California voters have already rejected this idea once, but it's not going away. Its most recent proponent is Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, with a bunch of Southern California water interests working busily in his formidable wake.

 

The politics, ecology and hydrology of this proposal already have been the subject of considerable journalistic energy, and there is sure to be more to come. I'll leave such things to those more knowledgeable about these matters, because that's not what interests me most about the controversy over the Delta and its water. What interests me is how it captures something important about California.

 

In Minnesota, you could reasonably argue that the notion of shipping Lake Superior water to Southern California involved a kind of theft: They wanted to steal our water.

 

Here in Sacramento, you hear the same sentiment (mixed with complex arguments about the health of the Delta).

 

I understand why people who live in the Delta feel that way. Many of them rely on the water that flows through it for their livelihoods.

 

But when I hear somebody who lives in Sacramento voice such a view, I want to say: Hold on a minute. What do you mean they want to steal our water? We're all Californians. But as I've learned since moving here, that notion doesn't mean as much in California as it does in other states.

 

I can't tell you whether the Sacramento Bee's editorial page will support or oppose a new canal plan, but I can tell you this: California will be better off if it could find a way to discuss the idea without making it about what they want to do to us. Somewhere in this state there has to be a space where we can talk.#

http://www.sacbee.com/110/story/1161305.html

 

 

 

In water fight, home builders seek solutions

Antelope Valley Press- 8/17/08

By Linda Lee,  Special to the Valley Press

 

Can the dream of homeownership - at least in the form of a new Antelope Valley tract home - still be a reality despite the Valley's water woes?

 

Home builders say "yes," and insist they are part of the solution by helping build new water supply infrastructure and in bringing in water-saving technology and less-thirsty landscaping for new homes.

 

But developers caution that turning off the spigot to new building also will turn off new jobs, shopping opportunities and other commercial and recreational amenities.

 

"I have great concerns that next year I could go to brush my teeth or turn on the shower and not have any water come out of the tap. And so I understand when a homeowner says, 'Well you know, I need to protect mine right now and I don't think we should allow any new homes to go in,' " said Tom DiPrima, North Division President for KB Home, which has developed subdivisions for thousands of homes in the Antelope Valley over the last 20 years.

 

"Unfortunately those are the same homeowners saying, 'Why are we not getting any more new retail and why are we not getting any new employers?'

 

"If we get to a point where we have a moratorium on growth, that moratorium will be very broad based. It won't just be new homes. It will be on retail, it will be on commercial and valuable jobs we need," he said.

 

Executives of companies considering opening new stores or plants in the Valley examine population growth projections, DiPrima added.

 

"Those companies that look to invest in communities, and open a new store, they look at new rooftops. They don't look at existing rooftops," he said.

 

Los Angeles County Waterworks District 40, which supplies much of Lancaster and west Palmdale, stopped promising water to new developments in November due to court-ordered restrictions on pumping water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta into the California Aqueduct.

 

The restrictions are meant to protect the threatened Delta smelt, a species that indicates the health of the delta and surrounding ecosystems.

"It's had a big impact on us. It's part and parcel of some of the challenges we're facing here locally in terms of trying to get our housing market back on track," said Gretchen Gutierrez, executive director of the Antelope Valley Building Industry Association.

 

Developers have taken hits over the years when water has been short, or the infrastructure to deliver that water has been inadequate.

 

In 1986, development was restricted in east Lancaster because of low water pressure, finally rectified after the construction of new water storage tanks and water supply lines.

 

In August 2004, District 40 told some developers that water might not be available for their projects. The issue was resolved by the end of the year.

 

Some Lancaster city officials have suggested that developers free up water for new projects by reducing water use in existing homes. That could mean paying homeowners to tear out lawn and replace it with drought-tolerant landscaping, or replace old appliances with more efficient ones.

 

Scott Ehrlich, a partner with InSite Development Corp., which owns 10% of the apartment buildings in the Antelope Valley, agrees.

 

"If you are going to use X amount of gallons of water, you need to save it. It's a net zero effect," Ehrlich said.

 

Ehrlich said he has been able to reduce water usage in his projects through replacing lawns and landscaping with artificial turf and artificial plants, for which Los Angeles County Waterworks offers rebates.

 

Ehrlich, who converted the former Essex House hotel in downtown Lancaster into the Arbor Court senior housing complex, said water use there has been reduced by 30% even though 100 units have been added. Senior citizens use substantially less water than hotel guests, even though hotel rooms are empty more often than apartments, he said.

 

"We're the good guys. Not only are we doing that, we are changing all the toilets out and all the sinks and everything we can possibly do to lower the water usage. And it's a selfish reason as well: the cost of water is going up and it's something we can't control," Ehrlich said.

 

"We can't raise rents to cover it, so we have to lower our expenses."

 

At KB Home tracts, some homes have "smart" water controllers. KB Home executives are also looking at a variety of options for future homes, such as dual-flush toilets with a one-gallon flush and a 2½-gallon flush, as well as more efficient dishwashers and washing machines.

 

Some of KB Home's new models feature artificial turf in the rear yard.

 

"Most people, they walk out the door, they look around, they don't even know it's artificial turf, it's so good today," DiPrima said.

 

"It's a way for us to try to reduce water use, and it's giving us a good pilot program to see with our severe climate in the AV with the heat and cold, how does this stuff hold up," he added.

 

"Once we're really comfortable that it's a viable, long term program, it's something that we're going to start introducing to customers to purchase through us and install for them."

 

KB Home also installed drought-tolerant landscaping in its eastside Martha Stewart-inspired Terreno Vista tract adjacent to the Lancaster National Soccer Center. An extra set of irrigation pipes - called "purple pipe" - for recycled sewage water was installed for future use.

 

"Purple pipe would allow us to go to a reclaimed water system in the future," DiPrima said.

 

DiPrima said the upfront cost is minimal, especially when compared to the cost of retrofitting, tearing all the pipe out and putting new pipe in the ground.

 

A consensus among city and water officials, and developers, is that the biggest target for a reduction in water use is the amount of grass and other vegetation that consumes about 70% of the Valley's water use.

 

Said DiPrima: "I think all of us have lived in a little bit of denial for many years in the Antelope Valley that this is not the desert.

 

And it is a very dry, deserty climate. Our rainfall is very minimal, we don't have much in the way of capture and reuse, and subsequently you drive around and you would think it's downtown Oxnard with the amount of lawns and vegetation we have."

Artificial turf has an advantage of staying green even in winter, when many Valley lawns turn brown, Ehrlich said.

 

"So this is a win-win situation. Your property looks great all year round. Landscaping-wise you don't have to pay people to mow the lawns. You rake it or vacuum it off. It looks good and it saves water. I mean it doesn't get better than that," he said.

The overall cost, at $1.50 per square foot, is less expensive than installing sod, he said.

 

"The savings are just so far surpassing putting in real sod, plus it's saving water," Ehrlich said.

 

Ehrlich prefers artificial turf to the typical water-conserving landscaping, called xeriscaping.

 

"The problem with xeriscape landscaping is a lot of it's not great-looking. That's why the artificial turf is something we've come up with: It provides the greenness and the environment people want to live in. Now if they could come up with a really great artificial tree, I'd buy it," Ehrlich said.

 

Building more vertical and dense projects reduces the amount of landscaping in a project, Ehrlich said.

 

"The problem in Lancaster in general, that we don't have in the San Fernando Valley, is the amount of land that properties are built on," Ehrlich said. "In San Fernando Valley, we'll build 40 units on 20,000 feet. In Lancaster, they build it on 3 acres, so a higher percentage of the water is going toward landscaping."

 

DiPrima and Sierra Development Group president Dan Otter, who has built shopping centers in the Antelope Valley, point to Las Vegas as a model for reducing water use. Its per capita, per day water consumption has dropped since the 1990s from 340 to 165 gallons.

"This was a very difficult thing for Las Vegas to get used to when they rolled this in about five years ago, and now it's just commonplace. You go through communities that used to have sod and you just don't see it anymore," DiPrima said.

 

"The cost of water for them has gone drastically up. The amount of water availability is always in scarcity for them so they've just made it a way of life. They understand that they're in a desert and they actually are starting to bring back the beautification of what the desert is," he said.

 

Otter, who now lives in Nevada, said he and his family moved into a new home that featured landscape with rock and low water-use plants, plus a small grass area in the backyard for his kids to play on. His summer water bill dropped 80% from $500 to $100.

 

"The only thing I can attribute it to is all the watering I had at my old house, so it's been a huge, huge difference," he said.

 

Otter said his commercial projects in California and Nevada include water-conserving landscapes.

 

"We've gone to a lot more low-water types of plantings, getting rid of all the turf, and putting in more rock, plants that can be watered on bubblers, very much in that direction," he said.

 

"From a commercial standpoint, I think it's great. It's less maintenance cost, it's less water cost; there's long-term benefits for everybody."

 

Otter's company also recently installed "purple pipe" at a new Riverside County commercial center. The pipe will eventually tie in to a recycled water system to irrigate the landscaping.

 

Home builders in the past resisted installing less-thirsty landscaping, he said.

 

"The psychological view that they had of what prospective buyers wanted to see was the curb appeal of a home, wanting to have this green beltway in the front of these brand-new homes," Otter said.

 

"Initially some of the home builders over in the Las Vegas area had that concern, but after it became a regulation that they had to do xeriscape landscaping and it had to be the natural material in the front of housing, the marketplace accepted it."

 

While they say they are working on reducing water use, builders warn that halting home construction would hurt the Valley's economy.

 

"If you had any type of moratorium, whether it was driven by water, or anything else, you're going to constrict growth and you're going to constrict retailers wanting to be in that marketplace. Because they're not only building for today, they're building for tomorrow and for future growth," said Otter, whose company helped bring Trader Joe's and Circuit City to the Amargosa Commons commercial center in Palmdale.

 

"Anything that's going to slow down residential is definitely going to impact commercial and industrial, because if you don't have affordable, available housing for people to live in, you're not going to have employees that will attract the companies to resettle to the Antelope Valley," he said.

 

A shortage in the housing market also means people have less opportunity to upgrade. And if home values plummet due to a moratorium, it could open the door to more homes being used as rentals, DiPrima said.

 

"I have never seen a case where a moratorium on building has made values go up unless they are in a highly desirable area, beachfront, or areas with a very pleasant climate," DiPrima said. "We are in the desert, and people have come here because they're looking for an opportunity to get into their first home, and the dream of homeownership."

 

In addition to drawing in shopping and recreational amenities, new subdivisions also expand the Valley's water delivery systems, said Gutierrez, the Building Industry Association executive director.

 

"Right now, people who have been in the Valley for a number of years are reaping the benefit of continued new construction, facilities, new water supply and their current (water) payments are simply through their monthly consumptive use. You're reaping the benefit of additional pipe being installed or additional water being brought down," Gutierrez said.

 

In addition to dealing with the present reduction in water supplies through the California Aqueduct, the Valley is dealing with potential changes in water availability due to a nine-year legal battle over Antelope Valley well-pumping rights, as well as the effects of climate change and a growing California population, Gutierrez said.

 

"If it was one issue only, you get a fairly reasonable, timely solution to it, but given the fact that there are some issues beyond local agencies, that's presenting a challenge to know how best to deal with these things," Gutierrez said.

 

"There are a number of options that are out there that have to be looked at in order to go back to the issuance of permit activity, not just for housing, (but) for industrial buildings or commercial buildings or retail shopping. All of those things are necessary for continued economic growth of the Valley floor," she said.

 

Builders have been advised by a number of agencies to go out into the free market on an individual or collective basis and look to acquire water on the open market, she said.

 

"Unfortunately, given the fact that there has been a reduction in water coming from the north state to the south state, everybody is looking for water at this point in time," Gutierrez said. "So it's becoming a 'who has the largest checkbook' situation, where it's available. Of course if a water agency does have water available, they're looking to sell to another water agency.

 

"They're not looking to sell to private industry. And we're talking the rate of dollars that could be involved are enormous. It could become a bidding war."

 

Reliability and delivery are key issues, she said.

 

"You could literally go out and find water. … The question is, how do you purchase it, at what price, and how do you then deliver and provide it to the customer?"

 

If development does not move forward, the cost of future water supplies or any storage projects that are needed may fall on those already using water in the Valley, she said.

 

"Consumers ... are going to continue to see an increase in their water bill," Gutierrez said.

 

"I believe the water situation all over California is severe. The oil and all the resources that people are saying we're running out of, I think the No. 1 concern has got to be water," Ehrlich said.

 

"Obviously we can't survive without water and things are drying, so I think from a statewide level, it's pretty bad right now."

 

The slowdown in home sales means the full impact of the water situation hasn't been felt yet, builders said.

 

"But as the market gets back more equilibrium and back into a kind of normal cycle, you're going to put the pressures again on the water infrastructure - all these problems are going to rise again. And it would behoove us to try to develop long-term solutions now while there is a break in the action of the normal growth patterns in the Antelope Valley and in Southern California," Otter said.

 

"I have to say, wearing both hats, as a homeowner and of someone trying to build a dream of new homeownership, I worry that every time we have a problem, it's always on the back of the new guy coming in and there's no accountability for the balance of the people," DiPrima said.

 

"We all didn't know 15 years ago that we would be in the situation we are where the smelt and some of the rulings have reduced some of our water availability, so I think that it's something that's not caused by the new construction, it's caused by some environmental issues and we all have to work together as a team to try to solve this," he said.

 

Developers, through the Building Industry Association, came up with some additional fees years ago that new home construction has been paying to the Antelope Valley-East Kern Water Agency, the main supplier of California Aqueduct water in the Valley, in order to pay for future treatment plants and other water facilities, DiPrima said.

 

"I think we're just behind on what we've got now from capacity storage and how we've reinvested that water," he said.

 

"We can sit and point fingers; it won't resolve issues. I think what we need to do is start looking at the challenges we have together and how we work together to solve some of these things.

 

"How do we generate funds through some of the new construction in order to get more mainline reclaimed water or this purple pipe in the ground?" he asked.

 

More needs to be done to use recycled sewage on athletic fields and park lawns, DiPrima said.

 

"Some schools and parks, the amount of landscaping there is greater than a couple thousand homes. So we've got to take a look at how we can get some of those things converted over to use treated water or possibly going to artificial turf, which is no water at all," he said.

 

"There is no question that California pays some of the lowest water rates and we have no water. I've talked to some experts that have said that ultimately we could have all the water we want through desalination but the challenge with that is it's costly," DiPrima said.

 

"At some point, it's much like we're facing with fuel: Fuel gets to a high enough standard and all of a sudden you can't order a Prius.

 

"I think we're going to see some of the situations where somebody comes from L.A. and expects to have a lawn, they might have the ability to have that lawn but they might have to pay to have that.

 

"I think we've got to continue to educate the entire Antelope Valley that we have water issues here and if we don't get in front off of this, you can stop housing but it's not going to stop shortage," DiPrima said.

http://www.avpress.com/n/17/0817_s2.hts