[Water_news] 2. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: SUPPLY -10/7/08

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment 

 

October 7, 2008

 

2. Supply –

 

California By the Numbers

Sacramento Bee/Capitol Alert

 

IID hears from public on water allocation

Imperial Valley Press

 

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California By the Numbers

Sacramento Bee/Capitol Alert – 10/7/08

Low reservoirs show drought effects

By Dan Walters, columnist

 

Northern California got a little rain the other day, but whether it was just a tease or a signal that the state's drought could end this winter is still unknown.

 

Anyone interested in the state's water situation should point his computer mouse-arrow to a site maintained by the state Department of Water Resources that lists all of the state's reservoirs - federal, state and local - and is updated each day with how much water they could hold if full and how much they really have as the rainy season begins.

 

It's a pretty scary picture. The big reservoirs such as Shasta, Oroville and Folsom are not only way down in hard numbers but, even more alarming, are way down in historic terms.

 

Shasta, the biggest with a capacity of 4.6 million acre-feet, contains only 30 percent of that much water and half of its average storage at this stage of the annual water cycle. Virtually the same numbers apply to Oroville, which has a 3.5 million acre-foot capacity, and the situation is somewhat worse at Folsom, with just 267,000 acre-feet of water in a lake that could hold nearly a million.

 

Perhaps the scariest numbers, however, are those at San Luis, the immense off-stream reservoir near Los Banos that feeds the California Aqueduct. It could hold two million acre-feet and usually has more than a million at this point, but is down to 224,000.

The reservoir numbers are available here.

 

Posted by Dan Walters on October 7, 2008 6:00 AM#

http://www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/bythenumbers/

 

 

IID hears from public on water allocation

Imperial Valley Press – 10/6/08
By MEGAN BAKKER, Staff Writer

The Imperial Irrigation District prepares to launch its first equitable distribution program, taking comments from the public on possible changes to the program Monday night.

One point of debate was whether the water allotted for farmers, 5.3 acre-feet per acre, would work for every grower.

“It’s going to be awful tough to make it work on 5.3,” said farmer Mark McBroom. McBroom said he works mainly with permanent crops — crops in the ground for the whole year — and that 5.3 acre-feet would not be enough for those crops.

However, others were relieved to hear the figure.

“That was a positive number for everyone to hear tonight,” said Matt Dessert, an air pollution control analyst for Imperial County. Dessert said the IID had discussed allotments for farmers as low as 4 acre-feet per acre in the past.

The IID turned to equitable distribution as a way to recover when the amount of water used in the Imperial Valley exceeds the 3.1 million acre-feet allotted to it from the Colorado River. It’s essentially a water-rationing system that allots water to users based on varying criteria.

Farmers will face what’s called straight line apportionment, meaning their available water will be divided up by the acres of farmable land, and each farmer will get the same amount of water — in this case, 5.3 acre-feet of water per acre.

Businesses and cities will get water allotted based on a combination of past use and projected future growth.

Last year the IID faced a similar situation and in the end did not implement an equitable distribution program, as late rains erased the imbalance.

The IID is going forward with equitable distribution despite the reduction of the supply-demand imbalance for 2008. The imbalance is estimated at a 43,000 acre-feet overrun of the Imperial Valley’s allotted 3.1 million acres, down from an initial 100,000 acre-feet.

John R. Eckhardt, the executive program manager for the water transfer agreement, explained that even if the 2008 overrun were completely eliminated, he’s calculated a 64 percent chance that the IID will face a future imbalance of at least 12,000 acre-feet in 2009.

“The SDI is about projecting what’s going to happen next year,” Eckhardt said at the meeting.

However, many at the meeting still had comments and questions about the program.

One of the issues was whether farmers would have access to water if they use all of their allotment. The changes would eliminate what was called a “supply of last resort” that farmers could get water from if they miscalculated their need.

Larry Cox, a farmer and member of the Imperial Group, commented that he was unsure whether it would be better to run out of water, or to pay the fine IID would impose on farmers who kept water they didn’t use.

Board President John Pierre Menvielle said the IID was not going to cut farmers off, if they need water.#

http://www.ivpressonline.com/articles/2008/10/07/local_news/news04.txt

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