[Water_news] 5. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: AGENCIES, PROGRAMS, PEOPLE - 9/11/08

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment

 

September 11, 2008

 

5. Agencies, Programs, People -

 

 

 

Editorial

Reservoirs needed

Contra Costa Times

 

Bay Area leaders see good in green

3 MAYORS, 5 POTENTIAL CANDIDATES FOR GOVERNOR ATTEND

San Jose Mercury News

 

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Editorial

Reservoirs needed

Contra Costa Times – 9/7/08

AS CALIFORNIA continues to endure another dry year, complicated by ecological damage to the Delta, the threat of scarce water supplies increases.

Population growth, reduced water pumping from the Delta and the loss of excess Colorado River supplies in Southern California places an ever-increasing stress on a water system that needs substantial updating.

 

To temporarily help ease the situation, state water officials plan to create the first drought water bank in California since the dry spell of the early 1990s.

The bank would allow water users, mostly farmers in the Sacramento Valley, to sell water to dry areas of California from the Bay Area to San Diego.

Water levels at major reservoirs are low and getting worse. Some are at half their normal levels for late summer. Even if we have an average rainfall during the winter, the reservoirs are not likely to be refilled.

 

Making matters worse, restrictions on water pumping could make it difficult to replenish reservoirs even if rainfall is above average during the wet season.

In fact, there is only about a 50 percent chance the drought water bank purchases could be delivered through the Delta next year because of pumping limits.

The banked water that will be sold is sure to be expensive. Water rates are already high and could be a lot higher as growth in demand outpaces the availability of new supplies.

 

In addition to higher costs, water districts are putting both voluntary and mandatory rationing plans into effect to reduce water usage.

 

It is not just the dry weather that is causing water shortages, rationing and higher prices. After all, the current dry period is hardly a major drought.

What should be becoming increasingly clear is that California simply does not have an adequate water storage capacity. That should come as no surprise because the state has not built any large reservoirs in decades.

 

Greater conservation, water banks and rationing may be enough to get us by for a few years. But eventually, California is going to need large new reservoirs or significantly increased capacity at current ones.

 

Despite the need to act now, there does not seem to be enough support in Sacramento for increasing our water storage capacity.

Unfortunately it is likely to take a severe drought and the ensuing water crisis to create the political will to build the reservoirs that should be under construction now.#

http://www.contracostatimes.com/opinion/ci_10407952?nclick_check=1

 

Bay Area leaders see good in green

3 MAYORS, 5 POTENTIAL CANDIDATES FOR GOVERNOR ATTEND

San Jose Mercury News – 9/10/08

By Matt Nauman, staff writer

Climate change could be devastating for California. But an aggressive response to it could mean cleaner air and water, reduced oil use and lots of green jobs, panelists at a Silicon Valley Leadership Group event said Wednesday.

 

The 10th annual SVLG event, held on the Santa Clara University campus and coinciding with the release of the group's "2009 Silicon Valley Projections: Clean & Green" report, attracted heavyweight politicians, including five possible candidates to be California's next governor, and some top Bay Area CEOs.

 

In a variety of panels, with topics ranging from the coming green economy and transportation to housing, building and land use, the various speakers talked about opportunities and challenges.

 

The mayors of the Bay Area's three biggest cities — San Jose's Chuck Reed, San Francisco's Gavin Newsom and Oakland's Ron Dellums — pledged their support for a regional climate-change compact.

 

The compact, not yet fully completed, will include pledges by the cities to use more renewable energy, generate more green jobs, decrease water usage and divert more waste from landfills.

 

"It gives us the ability to share best practices in real time," Newsom said.

 

"We want to be the world center of clean tech, but we can't do it without San Francisco and Oakland," Reed said.

 

Dellums, while acknowledging the potential of cities and other government entities working together, sounded a somber note.

"At the end of the day," he said, "we're at the margins of an enormous problem that dwarfs us all."

 

Besides the three mayors, five potential candidates to become governor in California in 2010 attended the event.

 

They included two Republicans — Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner and ex- Congressman Tom Campbell — and three Democrats — Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, Attorney General Jerry Brown and Newsom. That lineup speaks to the importance of Silicon Valley and how important clean-tech has become in solving global warming.

 

"Having so many candidates here, it's great," said former San Jose Mayor Tom McEnery, at the event to give a SVLG award to developer and Oakland A's and San Jose Earthquakes owner Lew Wolff. "It's important that they come here and see real people trying to work on real problems."

Poizner agreed.

 

"The program here today at Santa Clara University is an excellent group of people who have the knowledge, the leadership and the technology to help move this state forward and this country forward to get us off of our dependence on foreign oil," he said.#

http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_10430428?nclick_check=1

 

 

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