Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
August 15, 2008
5. Agencies, Programs, People –
County conference focuses on water’s ties to economy
The Daily Press- 8/14/08
Meeting explores water shortage
The Press-Enterprise- 8/14/08
State eyes area water: County must share, Garamendi tells officials
Redlands
When in drought ...Homeowner turns to exercise in xeriscaping to save water
the Antelope Valley
Time For Northwest To Cash In Its Water?
Newhouse News Service- 8/15/08
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County conference focuses on water’s ties to economy
The Daily Press- 8/14/08
By BROOKE EDWARDS, Staff Writer
ONTARIO — Leaders from across the county and state discussed how water is intertwined with long-term economic visions during the second annual San Bernardino County Water Conference, Thursday.
There’s been a huge effort focused on bringing high-paying, white-collar jobs to the county, according to Paul Biane, chairman for the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors.
“But without water,” Biane said, “all of those efforts will be meaningless.”
Biane joined 25 speakers at the
The goal is for more collaboration to take place among the invested stakeholders and to share plans for improving the storage of local supplies, wastewater reclamation initiatives, financial incentives to promote conservation and landscape ordinances for new development.
With rainfall and snow packs down and the state’s water supply system threatened by a number of factors, Kirby Brill, general manager of the Mojave Water Agency, said, “Obviously we are heading into a very bleak situation in California next year.”
However, the group is looking 20 and 50 years into the future to plan the sustainment of both residential and business growth.
The county has recently experienced tremendous growth, now with roughly 2 million residents, and is expected to increase by an additional 20 percent by 2015. Even if the influx of people moving in from outside the county has slowed, Biane said residential construction has to continue to address the internal growth rate.
New construction is moving in the right direction, officials said, with homes built with “green” standards, using 20,000 gallons less water than standard homes. The attitude has shifted from developers worrying about how the standards will affect them to people expecting green standards in new projects, according to Todd Tatum, president of the Building Industry Association’s Baldy View Chapter.
But new homes only account for 1 percent of water use, according to Carlos Rodriguez with the BIA.
As a result, Biane expressed his goal to expand efforts with residents to reach beyond new homeowners.
The
“We’re definitely blessed with some assets that put us in a better position than some other areas,” Brill said.
But in terms of long-term planning, Brill said the issues are the same in the
http://www.vvdailypress.com/news/ties_8001___article.html/conference_water.html
Meeting explores water shortage
The Press-Enterprise- 8/14/08
Susan Lien Longville says she got a "less than enthusiastic" reaction from developers at the inaugural San Bernardino County Water Conference last year when she proposed using wastewater from homes to irrigate lawns.
Longville, director of the Water Resources Institute at Cal State San Bernardino, said developers' attitudes at this year's conference was much more receptive.
Hundreds of people from local government, the building industry and water agencies gathered at the
Panel speakers agreed that there needed to be a coordinated effort to address the problem: builders installing water-efficient fixtures; municipalities passing ordinances to require permeable paving surfaces to reduce water runoff; homeowners cutting lawn watering by half and using water-controlled shower heads and water-efficient washing machines.
"Everybody's in the water business," said Celeste Cantu, Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority.
Schwarzenegger has set a goal for the state to reduce per capita water consumption by 20 percent by 2020. Several panel speakers Thursday said the goal was achievable.
Last month, Schwarzenegger and U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein proposed a $9.3 billion bond measure to upgrade the state's reservoirs and boost conservation projects.
Randy Van Gelder, general manager of the San Bernardino Municipal Water District, spoke of the need to maximize the local water supply to lessen the area's reliance on state sources.
"I wouldn't bet the ranch on it" that Southern California can get more water from the north, said Richard Atwater, CEO of the Inland Empire Utilities Agency.
Other speakers pushed for creating incentives for water conservation.
Longville and others also advocated for replacing turf with such things as drought-tolerant plants, which use less water, and using more recycled water.
"Every drop we save is new water," she said.
Asked whether economic development and conservation can co-exist, Kirby Brill, general manager of the Mojave Water Agency, said "absolutely. ... without a doubt."
Thursday's conference was sponsored by the Baldy View Chapter of the Building Industry Association of Southern California.
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_S_water15.39a047d.html
State eyes area water: County must share, Garamendi tells officials
Redlands
Lauren McSherry, Staff Writer
As the state wrestles with what could be a years-long water crisis, Lt. Gov. John Garamendi had some grave words for public officials from across
"We're going to have to be a community to solve this problem," Garamendi said at the second annual San Bernardino County Water Conference, held in
About 450 people attended the conference, including business leaders, developers and representatives from cities and water districts in
Garamendi said a "pending disaster" has arrived, involving shrinking reservoirs, periodic droughts and diminishing snowpack in the
The problem has been compounded by a judge's order dramatically cutting the water channeled to
Garamendi called the county's water basins "an extraordinary asset" and said the water districts managing the underground reservoirs will play a central role in deciding how they are used. He also said money could be made available to clean up contaminated basins in the county.
"These basins are so important in overall planning that we cannot ignore them," Garamendi said.
The conference focused on collaboration between land developers, businesses and municipalities to meet growing water demands. State legislation requires that developers prove that adequate water supplies exist before housing projects can be approved.
That requirement along with estimates that the county's population is expected to grow by 20 percent by 2015 have fostered concerns that dwindling water supplies could hurt economic growth in the county.
Kirby Brill, general manager of the Mojave Water Agency, one of the county's major water providers, spoke with optimism of meeting Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's goal to reduce per capita water use by 20 percent by 2020.
In June, the governor declared the state officially in drought. Rebates and incentives to replace lawns with drought-tolerant plants and to install water-conserving fixtures in houses is having an impact in the district, Brill said.
"These numbers to us are not scary," Brill said. "They are doable, and they are essential."
Paul Biane, Board of Supervisors chairman, urged cooperation among all stakeholders.
"We all need to work from the same playbook," Biane said. "By working as a team, we can solve the county's challenges."#
http://www.redlandsdailyfacts.com/sanbernardinocounty/ci_10209771
When in drought ...Homeowner turns to exercise in xeriscaping to save water
By LIANE M. ROTH, Staff Writer
How do you keep your yard the envy of the neighborhood with the
Palmdale resident Robert Albrecht still remembers water rationing in 1991 and 1992 after
Water conservation was mandated by the
"Los Angeles County Water Works gave us basic allotments," Albrecht said. "If you went over the allotment it cost more money."
Albrecht found out the lushly landscaped home he purchased in 1990 required not only plenty of Wwater, but plenty of Albrecht's time and energy as well.
"We bought the model home, so it had a zillion plants," Albrecht said. "The maintenance was intensive and I did it myself."
That August, Albrecht had front and side yard walkways installed, which eliminated some of the 82 sprinklers around his property and reduced water usage to approximately 722 gallons a day, he said.
Although water rationing eventually ceased, Albrecht said he felt the water shortage always would be a problem.
"I had a feeling it would come back again and haunt us," Albrecht said. "And sure enough - it came back."
Albrecht was convinced by 2001 the extensive construction boom in the
Albrecht, a retired
"I had to draw up plans so contractors would know what to do," Albrecht said. "I visualized it. I thought long and hard about how to reduce water usage."
Albrecht removed the trees and bushes that surrounded the patio, replaced the concrete with pavers and installed a concrete perimeter around the yard in October 2001.
By December, the patio was ready for a wooden gazebo, which Albrecht helped build, to provide shade that was lost when the green foliage cover was taken out.
According to Albrecht's records, his total cost to that point was about $20,000.
It took a couple more years for Albrecht to start the next phase, and in November 2005 he removed the trees and shrubs that lined the rear yard's ascending slope as well as several more sprinkler heads, since each head puts out 1.1858 gallons a minute, he said.
He had the slope terraced in December at a cost of $7,430, and in January 2006, Albrecht hired a landscaper to fill the terraces with low-water-use plants, a method known as xeriscaping - landscaping that uses water-efficient plants and requires little or no irrigation and less maintenance than turf-based landscaping.
"I had a book that showed drought-tolerant plants, and I showed it to the landscaper. He put in plants that would be compatible and not use water that much," Albrecht said.
The publication was "Landscape Plants for the
Albrecht installed a drip watering system at a cost of $3,500 to further reduce water usage.
"It just drips where there are plants," Albrecht said. "Any area with no plants isn't watered, so less water is used."
All in all, Albrecht removed 45 of 82 sprinkler heads, replaced thirsty grass with eco-friendly pavers, limited his plants to drought-resistant rose bushes and succulents and reduced his water usage by nearly 50%.
Albrecht submitted photos and an essay about his project in a contest sponsored by the Los Angeles County Waterworks District in 2007 and was chosen as a winner in the summer issue of the district's "Splash" newsletter.
The total cost for Albrecht's project was $30,590, according to his meticulously kept records.
"The cost of the alterations indicate how seriously we take the water conservation effort," Albrecht said. "It's expensive unless you just want to have dirt, but if you are conscientious about water you need to do something about it."
Albrecht and his wife, Margaret, said they are considering replacing the luscious verdant grass in the front with artificial turf to further reduce their water usage, particularly since city codes force them to keep it green.
"They need to change the ordinances so that people can forget lawns and use something else," Albrecht said. "We can't let it go brown, but it's very expensive - over $6,000. We still keep it in mind."
The Albrechts said they would like to see more people follow their example and eliminate as much high-maintenance yard as possible.
"If anyone can take advantage of what we've done, they should. Do what you can. We did it in increments so the costs didn't come suddenly. If we can do it, anyone can," Albrecht said.
"We have to do this because this is a problem that isn't going away."#
http://www.avpress.com/n/14/0814_s9.hts
Time For Northwest To Cash In Its Water?
Newhouse News Service- 8/15/08
By MICHAEL MILSTEIN
That's probably a pipe dream, but it's also a recurring vision the drenched Northwest might not want to laugh off forever.
When desert cities — enduring record drought — reach the breaking point, water will have to come from somewhere. And water in the West is largely a zero-sum game: For someone to get it, someone else will have to give it up.
Although the Northwest appears to be swimming in water, rapid growth and salmon demands mean most of it is spoken for in summer. But if some is up for grabs at other times, what should be done with it?
Is water the new oil, and could
At least one
Because, in a drier future, the choices are few: Either people move to the water, migrating northwest as the Southwest runs dry. Or water moves to the people, through a new generation of long-distance pipelines and canals.
"There will be nothing done with water in the West without there being winners and losers," says Patrick O'Toole, a
So they may have to look elsewhere.
Colorado River states' recent study of ideas for supplementing the dwindling river mentions an undersea aqueduct from the Columbia River, which flows between
But it does hint at just how precious water may become.
"That may be a choice Oregon may be faced with or presented with by some states from the Southwest: 'We'd like to buy your water,'" says Michael E. Campana, director of Oregon State University's Institute for Water and Watersheds. "That seems preposterous now, but in 30 or 40 years, who knows? I'm not willing to say that's not going to happen."
It's not a new idea.
Campana went to graduate school in
In the 1960s, Southern California water leaders quietly discussed routing Columbia River water to Lake Mead, the reservoir that supplies
That provision has expired, but the idea is still roundly dismissed as politically impractical, environmentally troublesome and financially prohibitive.
The
The states — Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming — reached a hard-fought agreement last year on how to spread the pain of water shortages. Their deal promoted water conservation, but also committed to study options for bringing extra water into the
They considered more than 10 possibilities: desalinating ocean and brackish drainage water, capturing and reusing stormwater runoff, seeding clouds to generate more rain — even towing in icebergs wrapped in plastic.
Two involve the Northwest: rerouting water from rivers outside the
The idea builds on studies looking at undersea pipelines from
Pumping stations might be required along the way. The study suggests the cost could top $150 billion — some 20 times
The study adds flatly that "considerable opposition from the states of
Richard Golb, a water consultant who represents irrigation districts in
Southwest leaders emphasize they're not coming after Northwest water. The pipeline and other options are not recommendations, says Bill Rinne, director of surface water resources for the Southern Nevada Water Authority in
"You must keep some of these things on the table," he says. "They may stimulate other ideas."#
http://www.newhouse.com/time-for-northwest-to-cash-in-its-water-.html
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