[Water_news] 5. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: AGENCIES, PROGRAMS, PEOPLE - 8/18/08

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment

 

August 18, 2008

 

5. Agencies, Programs, People –

 

 

Rationing rears its head at district

The Imperial Valley Press- 8/17/08

 

60,000 water customers in Sacramento County urged to cut use by 10 percent

The Sacramento Bee- 8/17/08

 

Issues swirl around proposed dams: If bond terms ironed out, voters could have say

The San Diego Tribune- 8/18/08

 

Legislature takes first real step to save sea

Imperial Valley Press- 8/16/08

 

Water agency faces possible shakeup

The Antelope Valley Press- 8/15/08

 

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Rationing rears its head at district

The Imperial Valley Press- 8/17/08
By MELISSA KRANZLER, Special to this Newspaper

Water rationing will, again, be at the forefront of the Imperial Irrigation District’s meeting Tuesday.

The 3.1 million acre-feet of water allotted to the IID from the Colo-rado River every year is just not enough. Al-though only a projection, the district is estimated to overrun its share by 112,000 acre-feet in 2008, up an additional 12,000 from the 100,000 acre-feet overrun projected last month.

IID spokesman Kevin Kelley said the district has a 65 percent chance of exceeding its allotment this year. This overrun will likely cause the district to declare a supply-demand imbalance.

If declared, a supply-demand imbalance will be cause to implement a water-rationing system within the Imperial Valley. The rationing system, or equitable distribution, would take effect Jan. 1, and the loss, if there is any, would have to be made up to the Colorado River by 2010.

Because a rationing system has never been implemented in the district, Kelley said it would be a “learning experience.”

Equitable distribution would primarily affect agricultural interests within the Imperial Valley, as the municipal and industrial sectors only use 3 percent to 4 percent of the district’s water.

Equitable distribution would allot the same amount of water to each entity and, according to the plan, unused water would be reapportioned to those farmers who need it most.

After the IID meeting Tuesday a third and final strategic planning workshop will be held. This workshop is open to the public and will cover water as well as energy concerns within the district. A plan to make long-term accommodations for the district’s users due to the increasingly shorter supply will take precedence.#

http://www.ivpressonline.com/articles/2008/08/18/local_news/news03.txt

 

 

 

60,000 water customers in Sacramento County urged to cut use by 10 percent

The Sacramento Bee- 8/17/08

By Matt Weiser

 

The Sacramento County Water Agency is urging all customers to immediately cut water consumption 10 percent, due to a reduction in surface water supplies from the American River.

 

If customers don't achieve the 10 percent request, the agency could call for stricter measures, such as limiting landscape watering to designated days.

 

The agency normally gets about 10 percent of its supply from the river via Folsom Lake.

 

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation recently notified the agency, however, that this supply will be reduced 25 percent due to the drought.

 

Because the agency had already consumed much of its allocation due to high customer demand, the result is a total halt in river deliveries.

 

It is now relying entirely on groundwater for the remainder of the year, said Herb Niederberger, water agency division chief.

 

The agency serves about 60,000 customers between Rancho Cordova and Elk Grove.

 

The agency is asking them to voluntarily reduce consumption 10 percent through September, especially during peak-demand hours of 5 a.m. to 8 a.m., and 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

 

Conservation measures include asking customers to:

• Reduce irrigation timers by 10 minutes per cycle.

• Wash only full loads of dishes and clothes.

• Turn off the tap when brushing teeth.

• Use a self-closing nozzle for car washing.

• Use a broom instead of a hose to clean driveways, decks and sidewalks.

 

"More than likely, we'll be able to make it through this year," said Niederberger. "We're hoping voluntary efforts will achieve our desired goals."

 

The water agency has stepped up water-waster patrols, citing customers who abuse their supply.

 

Customers may request a free water audit by calling the agency at (916) 772-2226.#

http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/1163166.html

 

 

 

Issues swirl around proposed dams: If bond terms ironed out, voters could have say

The San Diego Tribune- 8/18/08

By Michael Gardner

 

TEMPERANCE FLAT – Ron Jacobsma shifts his boat into idle, stopping to float right where he wants to see another dam rise across the San Joaquin River.

 

“We'll see it. I just don't know if I will see it in my lifetime,” mused Jacobsma, who oversees delivering water to nearly 1 million acres of farmland in the shadow of the Eastern Sierra.

 

That would suit Sean Lodge, whose family homesteaded near the dam site, just fine.

 

“There is a rich history that is important to preserve,” Lodge said via e-mail from his firefighting post in the Sierra National Forest. “There are not that many places in the state that have this history that is not lost already.”

 

Which course is set for San Joaquin River mile 274, better known as Temperance Flat, depends on whether Californians are ready to accept new dams to keep taps flowing even as growth and drought strain water supplies.

 

Voters may be offered the opportunity to decide the issue in November, but only if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state lawmakers can settle on the terms of a $9.3 billion water bond package in the coming days.

 

The bond proposal is packed with spending for popular clean-water, conservation and Sacramento delta restoration programs. But there also is a handful of unresolved issues, any one of which could draw away enough support to keep the measure from securing the necessary two-thirds vote of lawmakers and the governor's signature before it can be placed on the ballot.

 

Among those: a $700 million annual bill to repay the bond debt, power struggles over who would set spending priorities and suspicions that it lays the groundwork for a redrawn north-to-south aqueduct, an idea defeated when it went to voters as the Peripheral Canal in 1982.

 

And, of course, dams. More specifically, the proposed Sites Reservoir, located 16 miles in an isolated bowl west of the Sacramento River near Colusa, and Temperance Flat, not far from Fresno, where a dam would stretch the length of several football fields across the San Joaquin River.

 

U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, lobbying state Democrats to accept a bond deal favorable to new reservoirs, said California has to own up to reality. Dry spells, increased demand and environmental restrictions on deliveries leave the state little choice, Feinstein said.

“California cannot afford to not do it,” said Feinstein, a Democrat from San Francisco. “If we don't have water, everything goes. We're the largest ag state. Ag goes. We're the largest biotech community. Biotech goes. . . . You can't function if you don't have water.”

 

Assemblyman Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, said Democrats are willing to give ground by allowing dam proposals to compete for a broader $3 billion account set aside in the bond for storage, including filling empty aquifers and raising existing dams.

 

“There are some dynamics moving us closer together, but we still have a long way to go,” Huffman said. “This is the type of crisis that could break us out of our partisan divide.”

 

Deep divisions remain. Last week, Assemblyman Roger Niello, R-Fair Oaks, suggested that Republicans may withhold votes over running up debt when the state is staring at a huge deficit, despite the lure of funding new reservoirs, their top water priority.

 

“It's troubling for us,” Niello said.

 

A dam at Temperance Flat, named after a mostly abandoned nearby mining community, would span an idyllic stretch of the river canyon slicing between golden foothills dotted with blue oak and digger pine.

 

This would not be the first dam on the San Joaquin River, which originates in the Eastern Sierra as far back as Devils Postpile National Monument near Mammoth.

 

“It's not plugging up a wild and scenic river,” said Jacobsma, general manager of the Friant Water Authority.

 

Salmon disappeared long ago, although some populations survive in tributaries.

 

To the east, about a half-dozen smaller dams built to generate hydropower block the river's natural course. Seven miles to the west rises the 319-feet tall Friant Dam, completed by the Bureau of Reclamation in 1944, which forms Millerton Lake.

 

Millerton is the major supply source for farmers in the region, nourishing a variety of crops valued at $4 billion annually.

 

But Friant Water Authority customers have outgrown the relatively small Millerton Lake, which can hold 520,500 acre-feet of water. Of that, about 385,000 acre-feet is available for use; the rest is flood-control space.

 

During wet years, Millerton Lake quickly fills and is unable to store all of the melting Sierra snowpack. In 2006, 1.2 million acre-feet of flood water – enough to meet the needs of 2.4 million average households for a year – could not be captured because there was simply no more room behind Friant Dam.

 

But that's not a seasonal occurrence, supporters concede. At best, in-flows would exceed the existing capacity at Millerton Lake about every fourth year on average, Jacobsma said.

 

That's where a new dam comes in: to capture floodwaters. Supporters say the Temperance Flat dam would create on average 100,000 acre-feet of new water annually for Friant farmers. It also would replace another 100,000 acre-feet that the Friant Water Authority has committed every year to help restore the San Joaquin and reintroduce salmon runs to the river.

 

The San Joaquin dries up about 40 miles downriver from Millerton Lake.

 

“Below there, it looks like the Sahara Desert,” said Randy McFarland, a Friant consultant.

 

But is the dam worth $2 billion or more, half of which could come out of the pockets of taxpayers?

 

As currently drafted, the water bond would require beneficiaries, such as farms and cities, to pay half of the cost. If they don't commit to a 50 percent match, the project cannot move forward.

 

Feasibility studies are expected to answer some of the questions over financing, environmental damage and benefits, but those reviews won't come in until long after the November election.

 

“It's poor planning to pick out one of those options and put money aside and let voters approve it before the studies are complete,” said Chris Acree of the group Revive the San Joaquin.

 

There are public benefits that warrant taxpayer investment, Jacobsma said. Temperance Flat would be a vital part of the interwoven web of federal, state and local water projects, he said. Through exchanges of water and other operational maneuvers, supplies from the north could be stored in Temperance Flat during wet years and as long as environmental conditions permit the juggling.

 

Thus, Temperance Flat could act as a cushion to reduce groundwater overdraft, improve water quality for cities, help restore the Sacramento delta estuary and provide cold-water releases from Friant Dam to aid migratory fish, such as reintroducing salmon as part of the deal to restore the San Joaquin River, Jacobsma said.

 

Importantly, water stored in Temperance Flat could be moved into the California Aqueduct, south of state and federal pumps in the delta, Jacobsma said. As a result, that water could offset pumping restrictions imposed by a federal judge to protect the rare delta smelt and potentially other fish. Those restrictions have cost Southern California about 500,000 acre-feet, or enough for 1 million households a year.

 

Jacobsma said farm and urban water districts are weighing investments in the project but are waiting for the feasibility studies.

 

There are other barriers beyond cost. The plan could drown two power-generating plants, potentially harm wildlife and flood out a relatively new American Indian facility, the Chawanakee Learning Center. It also would destroy about 5,000 acres of recreation land and river rapids enjoyed by white-water enthusiasts.

 

Outside its hardcore backers, the Temperance Flat proposal has yet to rally widespread support. Urban agencies, such as the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which provides water to the San Diego region, are primarily focused on funding Sacramento delta restoration and a new conveyance system to avoid pumping restrictions.

 

But the bite on taxpayers for what some view as an agriculture subsidy remains a central issue.

 

“If they think it's so essential for their future, you'd think they would spend the money,” said Steve Evans, conservation director of the statewide Friends of the River. #

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20080818-9999-1n18dam.html

 

 

 

Legislature takes first real step to save sea

Imperial Valley Press- 8/16/08
By BRIANNA LUSK, Special to this Newspaper

It was expected to take another decade, but on a windy day a white dusty cloud can be seen around the Salton Sea.

The restoration of the Salton Sea is expected to take billions of dollars and decades.

A bill passed by the assembly this week that will begin the initial phase of restoration is being called the first real step taken by the Legislature to save the sea.

State Sen. Denise Moreno Ducheny, D-San Diego, authored SB 187 and said it represents the state taking action on its responsibility of the sea.

“The state is saying we’re a partner in this. It’s the opportunity to start using the resources,” Ducheny said. “It’s getting a clear commitment from the Legislature.”

Introduced more than a year ago and co-authored by Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia, R-Cathedral City, the bill cleared the Assembly Appropriations Committee last week.

It will move to the Senate for approval and Ducheny said there should be no further holdups before it reaches the governor’s desk.

The bill calls for the first phase of the restoration plan, a five-year plan with $47 million worth of projects of early habitat creation and air, sediment and water quality studies. The funds were part of Proposition 84 that was approved by voters in 2006.

A more long-term restoration plan has not been decided on and the Assembly made an amendment to SB 187 that states it does not endorse the preferred alternative restoration plan.

Gary Wyatt said though the bill’s progress is good news there’s still a tremendous amount of work to be done.

“It is a beginning,” Wyatt, chairman of the Imperial County Board of Supervisors and member of the Salton Sea Authority, said. “This can be so important to give a signal to the federal side for them to be involved and fund some of the efforts.”

As part of the 2003 Quantification Settlement Agreement that established water transfers from Imperial County to the San Diego area, the state became primarily responsible for the environmental impacts caused by the Salton Sea’s receding shoreline.

Recent estimates by an Imperial Irrigation District lawyer overseeing the implementation of the QSA revealed the environmental impacts will happen much sooner than initially thought.

Earlier this year, Ducheny’s bill that proposed the governance structure called the Salton Sea Restoration Council did not make it out of the Senate. Ducheny said she hopes to bring that bill back next year.

“I want to try within the next two years to get on course with a long-term plan,” she said.

But the Legislature needs to approach the Salton Sea with a sense of urgency, Imperial Irrigation District board President John Pierre Menvielle said.

“They have definitely been dragging their feet,” Menvielle said, citing the state’s current budget crisis. “I think this shows they have to follow through on what they promised to do.”

Wyatt said the state should start looking at the overall picture and coming up with a long-term solution for funding the billions of dollars needed to save the Salton Sea. The Salton Sea Authority is already starting to create public and private partnerships, he said.

The legislation is still far from what is needed, Wyatt said.

“The sea doesn’t have a long time. We can’t afford to wait forever,” Wyatt said. “I’m pleased the legislation is moving. I’m still cautiously reserved on what kind of impact it will have. There’s some hope with this. We hope this is the beginning and not another false start.”#

http://www.ivpressonline.com/articles/2008/08/17/local_news/news02.txt

 

 

 

Water agency faces possible shakeup

The Antelope Valley Press- 8/15/08

By Alisha Semchuck

 

For the first time since Neal Weisenberger gained a seat on the Antelope Valley-East Kern Water Agency board of directors, he faces an election challenge.

 

Lancaster resident Marlon Barnes, a 47-year-old Northrop Grumman Corp. firefighter and Air Force veteran, has put in his bid for AVEK's Division 6 seat, a post Weisenberger has occupied for 11 years.

 

Water agency board members in 1997 appointed Weisenberger to fill the vacated seat of Duard Jackson, a retired California State University, Los Angeles professor who moved out of the area. Since being appointed to the board, Weisenberger, a 52-year-old Antelope Valley College agriculture and landscape professor from Lancaster, has run unopposed.

 

In fact, director Dave Rizzo, also up for re-election, considered Weisenberger to be lucky in the 1998, 2000 and 2004 elections for not having to campaign.

 

"Now he has to earn his position like everyone else," Rizzo said with a smile, adding that he was kidding.

 

But neither Rizzo nor Weisenberger is laughing too hard. They believe a politically motivated strategy is behind an effort to unseat them and longtime board member George Lane, who has served as a board director since 1977.

 

"I heard rumors that there were certain people looking for someone to run against me," Weisenberger said. Therefore, when Barnes filed his papers, he added, "I wasn't surprised … because of the rumors."

 

This time around, local developer Lane, 62, must compete against Dr. James Powell, 52, a dentist and director of the Quartz Hill Water District, an AVEK customer.

 

If Powell were to win the Division 4 seat in the Nov. 4 election, he would be required to step down from the Quartz Hill board because decisions he makes as an AVEK director could benefit the Quartz Hill agency.

 

Carl Hunter, the longest-seated AVEK director, found himself in that situation in 1972. Russ Fuller, the water board's general manager, said Hunter had been on the Boron Community Services District board and had to step down when he joined AVEK because such a dual role could be deemed a conflict of interest since Boron buys aqueduct water from AVEK to blend with groundwater, just as Quartz Hill does.

 

In Division 7, farm manager Rizzo, 48, must vie with R. Todd Lemen, 56, a Lockheed Martin systems manager and the president of the Evergreen Mutual Water Company board, which provides well water to 48 homes between 42nd and 47th streets east from Lancaster Boulevard north to Avenue I.

 

Evergreen does not purchase aqueduct water from AVEK, so Fuller did not know whether Lemen would face a conflict of interest.

 

"I think the issues that will come out (in November) are taxes, water quality and the adjudication," said Weisenberger, who has taught landscape and agriculture courses at Antelope Valley College for nearly 28 years and has been writing a gardening column for the Antelope Valley Press since December 1990.

 

He saw the Valleywide groundwater adjudication case, which began in 1999, as a particular concern. That issue started when Diamond Farming Co. filed suit against Lancaster, the Palmdale Water District and a couple of other water purveyors about groundwater rights.

 

Since then, hundreds of entities - government agencies, water purveyors, farmers and landowners - have joined the court battle.

 

"I really think somebody new stepping into the adjudication process will slow it down," Weisenberger said. "I don't think it's a good time for board members to change because we've been negotiating this for so long.

 

"Every time someone new comes into the process, we seem to take four or five steps backwards. There have been several compromises along the way.

 

"When someone new comes in, they're not aware of what compromises have been made."

 

Barnes, a firefighter for 28 years, the last 20 at Northrop, said he also is interested in the groundwater adjudication, but did not elaborate on the issue.

 

"I just read that some of the people in the public tried to make comments," Barnes said.

 

"They had the idea the board was just blowing them off. They felt pretty much overlooked."

 

However, Barnes said he didn't have firsthand knowledge of the situation.

 

"Until last night," Barnes said Wednesday, "I haven't attended the (AVEK) meetings. I know from a couple of people who do attend. They felt they were disregarded."

 

As for water quality, Barnes said he worried about the decision by water board directors to switch chemicals from chlorine to chloramines - a compound of chlorine and ammonia - for disinfecting the drinking water. "It sounded like it was not going to be beneficial to the residents," he said. "I want to have a part in the decision-making of what's in our water."

 

Barnes worried that chloramines are not "healthy for the human body." He said he has heard of a connection between chlorine and cancer and he thinks "chloramines are worse."

 

"It's not just a matter of drinking it. Let's say you're taking a shower. The steam and vapor - now you're breathing it. I think we have some better options of how to treat water than going that route."

 

Chloramines were not Weisenberger's first choice, either, when the Environmental Protection Agency mandated that all water purveyors using straight chlorine must switch their disinfection method in order to reduce the level of potentially cancer-causing byproducts in the treated drinking water, particles called trihalomethanes.

 

As board members, Weisenberger said, they are duty-bound "to look at the risk (vs.) benefits of any type of treatment process."

 

"I was not originally in favor of the chloramines. I went to several conferences to find out more about alternatives. We saw a risk study the other day that said chloramines are equivalent to riding a bicycle 30 miles in one year regarding any hazard factor. And chlorine has exactly the same risk."

 

Weisenberger said he wasn't implying that riding a bicycle is unhealthy. But, he pointed out, bike riders risk injury from falls and getting hit by cars.

 

Board members also must weigh the cost factor when comparing various options, Weisenberger said. He said that if AVEK went with granular-activated carbon to disinfect the drinking water rather than chloramines, that would cost consumers between $200 and $300 more per household per year.

 

"And the carbon footprint for GAC is greater," Weisenberger said. "We're talking about activated carbon. It has to be put into furnaces at 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit to reactivate it. Aside from the higher cost, it's not ecologically friendly. Part of that carbon is burned off and released into the atmosphere. So people inhale it, which is actually more toxic than any other method."

 

Weisenberger also pointed out that the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California has been treating drinking water with chloramines since 1984.

 

"So every community south of the San Gabriel (Mountains) that gets water from Met" would have reported health problems if any existed, he said.

 

Weisenberger's issue with taxes comes from a comment made by Powell at a recent water board meeting. Powell had asked the board to consider raising their property tax allotment in the Valley rather than increasing water rates. That would keep the water cost down for people who get their supply from AVEK, but it would cost more for all property owners regardless of who supplies their drinking water.

 

Powell "wants the nonusers to pay for the users," Weisenberger said. "Everybody in the Antelope Valley basically pays taxes to AVEK.

 

 That's for the bond issue - what they call the DAWN Project - to bring water from Northern California through the (Sacramento-San Joaquin River) Delta to here. Part of the taxes pay for the maintenance of the facilities that bring water to the Antelope Valley. That was a vote back in the '70s."

 

If the water board implemented Powell's idea, property owners in the Sundale Mutual Water Co., who don't receive any AVEK water, would pay more taxes to keep water rates down for AVEK customers, Weisenberger said. The same is true for people who have private wells on their property, just to keep the "rates down for Quartz Hill Water District and others using AVEK water."

 

Barnes, a Gary, Ind., native who moved to California in 1983, said if he wins the election, he wants "to accomplish for my particular division that (the board) researches everything before we vote on it."

 

Weisenberger, a San Joaquin Valley native whose grandfather settled there in the 1890s, said he will continue to "support water conservation" if re-elected.

 

If not, he said, "I will continue to help the community with water conservation issues."#

http://www.avpress.com/n/15/0815_s6.hts

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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