Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
September 22, 2008
5. Agencies, Programs, People
S.J. man, his fellow farmers standing on opposite sides of peripheral canal debate
The
California, the anti-water works, Second Thoughts: The state's water system is a real mess, and things are likely to get worse before they get better.
The Tracy Press- 9/19/08
Water Board Sued Over Desalination Approval Groups Charge Agency With Failing to Do Analysis
KPBS News-NPR-San Diego State University- 9/19/08
Go native with waterwise California
The Daily Breeze- 9/19/08
++++++++++++++++++++
S.J. man, his fellow farmers standing on opposite sides of peripheral canal debate
The
By Alex Breitler, Staff Writer
Latimer, 73, is firm in his ways - and his words. And it might cost him in November as he tries to keep his seat on the Stockton East Water District board of directors, which will see its first contested election since 2002. Stockton East both manages the east county's groundwater, a precious resource, and delivers river water to the city of
Latimer's seat is threatened because of his strict stance on one issue: the peripheral canal.
He supports it, which places him in the obvious minority in
Expect no apologies.
"I'm my own person," said Latimer, elected in 2000. "I'm not everybody else. I'm my own person, and I make up my own mind."
Even if it means he loses.
"It very well might," he admitted.
Latimer's position is simple: The government agreed to supply farms and cities south of the Delta with water, just as it has agreed to provide Stockton East with water from the
And it has failed.
A peripheral canal would help officials honor their contracts, Latimer says.
"There's plenty of water in
He feels for fellow farmers to the south, where croplands have been fallowed and farm workers laid off because of restrictions on how much water can be pumped from the Delta to protect fish.
"They're not asking for any water that they're not entitled to," he said.
Latimer was the lone vote opposing a Stockton East resolution condemning the canal. That's when Richard Atkins got involved; Atkins, also a walnut grower, wants to knock Latimer off the board.
"I heard someone was for the peripheral canal," Atkins said. "Everyone needs water. I'm a farmer, too, and it's very important. There has to be a solution, but this isn't it."
Critics fear a canal would redirect so much fresh water around the Delta that it would kill the estuary, drawing in salt water and ultimately flooding many of the low-lying agricultural islands.
Landowners in the Stockton East district get their water largely from the
Latimer stands by his opinions, and he isn't shy to state them. The retired
"One thing about Ray is he is set in his ways," said fellow board member Paul Sanguinetti, a rancher. "You're not going to change that. We'll just see what the people say.
"I like Ray, but I mean, let's be realistic," he added. "We've got to have people on that board that are thinking about the district and not themselves. You've got to represent the people that elected you to that spot."
The district dispute has so far been civil. Latimer says no one has harassed him for his pro-canal position.
And if he loses, he says he won't be terribly upset. He's busy with the walnut harvest, and if he's ousted, he'll have more time to spend with his wife.
The election will likely cost Stockton East more than $200,000 since the far-flung district includes many precincts, said Kevin Kauffman, the district's general manager.
Kauffman doesn't expect a particularly contentious campaign, even though the canal is such a hot topic.
"(Latimer) has got an opinion that we should be kind to all farmers," Kauffman said. "You could defend both sides" of the debate.#
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080921/A_NEWS/809210322/-1/rss01
California, the anti-water works, Second Thoughts: The state's water system is a real mess, and things are likely to get worse before they get better.
The Tracy Press- 9/19/08
By Jon Mendelson
When Jim McLeod introduces himself, he doesn’t say he’s a farmer. He tells you he grows your food.
It’s his small effort to overcome what he says is a dangerous disconnect among those who come no closer to a farm than walking through the Safeway produce aisle.
Everyday consumers understand that something’s wrong when the price of groceries goes up, he told me Thursday, but they rarely connect the dots from supermarket shelf to Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
It’s all about water. Without a steady supply, farmers like him are up a dry creek. And so are those who eat their products.
"You can’t turn the water off and on and maintain your food supply," he said. "And that’s what we’re doing."
It’s been a tough season for
That means water’s been an even more precious commodity than usual, and hundreds of thousands of acres of arable land lay fallow, because there simply isn’t enough water to irrigate.
It could get worse if Mother Nature doesn’t bail out the state with a wet spring, or if a pending environmental lawsuit temporarily strips 42 irrigation districts of their water rights.
These conspiring factors worry McLeod, a grizzled veteran of the state water wars. For decades he’s grown apricots — now walnuts — in the valley, and for the past 47 years he’s sat on the board of the Banta-Carbona Irrigation District.
He’s 79, and he’s seen it all when it comes to
There’s no question that the state’s water system is in disarray. There’s not enough water in the Delta for farmers, fish and faucets, not enough storage to hold over water from wet years to dry ones, and not enough leadership in
Well, there’s the governor’s blue ribbon task force and peripheral canal, but let’s not mistake a bad idea with progress.
It’s a sign of how messed up things are that Timothy Brick, chairman of the giant Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, publicly admitted, "In past planning, the worst-case scenario we looked at wasn’t bad enough — we are at the worst-case scenario."
Actually, it could be worse. A few levees could break (knock on wood) and really screw things up, inviting salt water upstream and shutting down the on-again off-again pumps for months.
Let’s forget that for a moment, though. Things are bad enough as they are.
Especially when you consider that the fix for all this requires farmers, environmentalists, urban leaders and lawmakers to find a solution with a little something for everyone. Something that mixes more conservation, more storage, smarter farming and better urban planning.
That’s not new advice. But it’s worth repeating, given our lack of progress, even as the ingredients for change should be primed to come together.
Every player — farmers, environmentalists, city dwellers — has a stake in making sure the Delta survives while providing enough water for drink and food. Everyone has something to give and to gain.
Which brings us back to McLeod’s introduction.
If more people drew the line between the wet stuff it takes to grow alfalfa and the milk that washes down a chocolate-chip cookie, priorities when it comes to water — and working with one another — might change.#
http://tracypress.com/content/view/15850/2244/
Water Board Sued Over Desalination Approval Groups Charge Agency With Failing to Do Analysis
KPBS News-NPR-San Diego State University- 9/19/08
By Ed Joyce
Two environmental groups have filed a lawsuit against the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board. The suit charges the board didn't properly study how a
San Diego Coastkeeper and the Surfrider Foundation filed the civil lawsuit in San Diego Superior Court.
The lawsuit says the regional water board should have done a detailed analysis of how the desalination plant would affect marine life before conditionally approving a plan by Poseidon Resources to deal with those affects.
Gabriel Solmer with San Diego Coastkeeper says the lawsuit doesn't seek to derail the project.
But she says granting the approval sets a bad precedent.
Solmer: What we're trying to do is make sure that we do this analysis. Especially because we know that other plants like this are coming down the line, and just other coastal projects - and if we don't do what the state law requires now then we're not going to have that meaningful analysis.
She says state law requires the regional board to analyze plans to determine the best site, design, and technology before a project moves forward.#
http://www.kpbs.org/news/local;id=12780
Go native with waterwise California
The Daily Breeze- 9/19/08
By Meredith Grenier
Last week, I promised to describe more of the
The plants mentioned will be featured along with dozens of other rare plants at the
As the SCBG newsletter says, the plant sale is, "a treasure hunt, an extreme sport and a tradition for plant enthusiasts."
There will be hundreds of selections from the SCBG's plant propagation workshop and from outside vendors. In addition to the California Native Plant Society, vendors will come from Peter Sharp's Succulents and Mona Lisa Brugmansias Bring carts to protect your back and remember, they only take cash and checks - no credit cards.
Traditionally, the real savvy plant collectors make a point of joining the SCBG Foundation so they will be invited to the Members Only Preview Party from 5 to 7 p.m. the night before the sale. The party is a fundraiser for the SCBG and tickets are $15 in advance, $20 at the door.
Probably the best deal is Memberships are $50 the family membership for $50 for a family ($40 senior family, $40); , but there are individual memberships for$30 for individuals $30 ($25 seniors). This includes a subscription to the SCBG's quarterly newsletter, the annual meeting and free admission to the garden throughout the year, plus a discount at the gift/plant shop.
Note, however, the South Coast Chapter of the California Native Plant Society's sale, within the SCBG sale, will be only open on Saturday.
According to society president Barbara Sattler, the rarest plants go very early, so plan to be at the Fall Plant Sale at the opening, for the best choice of natives.
Following are waterwise plants suggested by Dykzeul and Baker and subsequent selections from Edith Dees:
Ceanothus: Known as the
Lemonade berry (Rhus integrifolia): This evergreen shrub is native to
Bush anemone (Carpenteria californica): This plant, native to the southern
Coffeeberry (Rhamnus californica: A shrub with a low-spreading habit on the coast, it has berries that birds love, that turn from green to red to black as they ripen.
Mahonia "Golden Abundance": This bush grows to 6 feet tall and has glossy leaves with clusters of yellow blossoms in summer. Later, it produces an abundance of berries with gray bloom.
Bush poppy A (Dendromecon rigida): This shrub grows to 4 to 6 feet with sage gray green foliage and 2-inch-wide yellow poppy-like flowers.
Other plants Dykzeul and Baker recommended for waterwise landscapes include abutilon, cassia didymobotry (often called the popcorn cassia because its yellow flowers smell like popcorn), coyote bush, and coast salt bush (good for difficult slopes and it attracts the pygmy blue butterfly).
Also look for snowberry (symphoricarpos), dusty miller, California bush sunflower, coastal sage brush - ground cover with pungent fragrance, mugwart (grows like Mexican sage), buckwheats, salvia "clevlandii" (royal blue), salvia "apiana" (California white sage), and salvia "Bee's Bliss."
Dykzeul and Baker also recommend monkey flowers (many hybrids in pinks, yellows and white), bush island snapdragon (hummingbirds love them),
They also suggest grasses such as canyon prince rye and deer grass, among others.
Volunteers will be on hand to elaborate. Finally, SCBG volunteer Edith Dees suggested that gardeners look for the following unique plants that will be available at the plant sale. They are drought-tolerant unless noted, and not necessarily natives:
Echium wildpretii, Echium "David Verity" (reaches 4 feet with purple, pink and white flowers and is rarely found in nurseries); Eriogonum parvifolium (a buckwheat that is native to the Palos Verdes Peninsula and provides food for the Palos Verdes blue butterfly); Erysimum franciscanum (a rare native wallflower that reaches 2 feet).
Also look for Combretum fruticosm, a striking vine, a sample of which is growing behind the SCBG office as SCBG which many visitors ogle over. (It is not drought-tolerant.)
Other plants to seek out at the sale include convolvulus cneorum (white morning glory), chorizema ilicifolium (holly flame pea), lavatera assurgentiflora (grows to 12 feet with large maroon flowers), lonicera nitida, honeysuckle "Beggessen's Gold" (a large shrub with gold foliage), and solanum muricatum.
When: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 4.
Where:
Admission: Free, with gate admission of $7, $5 seniors and students, $2.50 children 5-12.
Information: (310) 544-1948, www.southcoastbotanicgarden.org#
http://www.dailybreeze.com/ci_10510812
DWR's California Water News is distributed to California Department of Water Resources management and staff, for information purposes, by the DWR Public Affairs Office. For reader's services, including new subscriptions, temporary cancellations and address changes, please use the online page: http://listhost2.water.ca.gov/mailman/listinfo/water_news. DWR operates and maintains the State Water Project, provides dam safety and flood control and inspection services, assists local water districts in water management and water conservation planning, and plans for future statewide water needs. Inclusion of materials is not to be construed as an endorsement of any programs, projects, or viewpoints by the Department or the State of
No comments:
Post a Comment