Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
October 24 2008
5. Agencies, Programs, People –
Flood fair set Saturday in YC
Marysville appeal Democrat
Task Force report: Build peripheral canal
Project could threaten delta agriculture
Capital Press
Rush to read 200,000 comments on Species Act
Associated Press
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Flood fair set Saturday in YC
Marysville appeal Democrat – 10/23/08
Information on preparing for a flood, along with images of past floods in the Yuba-Sutter area, will be featured in the Flood Aware/Flood Prepare Fair on Saturday in
One-third of
Set from noon to 4 p.m. at the Sutter County Health auditorium,
The fair's location was changed from its original site.
The event also has information on how to prepare an emergency kit for the family, the Yuba-Sutter Domestic Animal Disaster Assistance and preparing a pet for threats of disaster, insurance experts, emergency tips and a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers feasibility study on future flood control projects.
In addition, local residents are invited to share their own photos and stories about local floods to be videotaped.
Photos at the fair will show floods from 1903 through 1997.
The fair is part of Flood Awareness Month in
An informational workshop for insurance agents and real estate professionals, also part of the month's activities, is at 9 a.m. Monday at the Veterans Hall,
Earlier this month, the organizations also sponsored informational workshops for homeowners on mandatory federal flood insurance; a traveling exhibit on flood awareness throughout the community; and a workshop for engineers and developers.
Know and Go
• WHAT: Flood Aware/Flood Prepare Fair
• WHEN: Noon to 4 p.m. Saturday
• WHERE:
• CALL: 788-6492
• SPONSORS: Sutter Butte Flood Control Agency,
http://www.appeal-democrat.com/news/flood_70229___article.html/sutter_county.html
Task Force report: Build peripheral canal
Project could threaten delta agriculture
Capital Press – 10/24/08
By
Momentum is growing to construct a peripheral canal around the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, but doing so could jeopardize the century-old farming traditional in the estuary.
A task force appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger voted 6-0 last week to recommend that the state build the canal in conjunction with the existing method of moving fresh water through the delta toward the giant pumps near
On Friday, Oct. 17, the Delta Blue Ribbon Task Force issued its findings, codified in a report that required five drafts to complete. Its chief recommendation is to hold the environmental health of the estuary as a co-equal to the needs of the farmers and citizens who rely on water from the pumps.
Most experts agree something needs to be done to save the West's largest estuary.
Thousands of farmers and millions of urban residents drink water moved from
But the hub is rusty and broken. Levees that hold water back from the sunken islands are old and leaky. Water quality has deteriorated enough to put the area's ecosystem on the verge of collapse. The entire region is just an earthquake away from disaster and even without a quake, sea levels are rising enough to flood several islands within the next generation.
The estuary has been home to some of
The prospects of the delta remaining so bountiful look dim.
The report released Friday does say that "Delta agriculture is the heart of the regional economy and central to the delta's culture and sense of place."
Preserving agriculture in the delta will be a priority, even with the canal. But not everywhere in the estuary.
Farmers with land outside proposed floodplains and who aren't in the center of the delta would fare the best. The report specifically says farming should be promoted on Twitchell, Sherman and
What farming might look like under the new regime is unclear. The report talks about farming for carbon sequestration or for wildlife - which in practical terms means letting the land return to the tules that once covered the estuary's network of islands.
Under the proposal, farmers who plant tules or other crops that lock in greenhouse gases would get credit under the cap-and-trade program the state is developing to fight global climate change. The farmers could then sell that credit for cash.
Farmers in the center of the delta may be out of luck. UC-Davis scientist Jay Lund, who helped develop a Public Policy Institute of California study that influenced the task force's decisions, likened those farmers to miners who have played out a mine.
"For some of those farmers, (who are) farming on islands that will be flooded, they will be in a different business,"
Tim Quinn, who leads the California Association of Water Agencies, said he predicted that the state would have to buy out many central delta farmers.
"One thing that will happen to some of the landowners is that they'll have a lot more money after this is all over and done with," Quinn said at the forum.
Building the canal is by no means assured.
There is little the task force recommends that can be done without approval by the Legislature and a canal would likely need additional approval by voters in a ballot measure.
Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders are expected to renew discussions over both a canal and several new dams as part of a larger water bond this winter; talks bogged down last year because of the budget crisis.#
http://www.capitalpress.info/main.asp?SectionID=67&SubSectionID=616&ArticleID=45569&TM=40419.79
Rush to read 200,000 comments on Species Act
Associated Press – 10/22/08
(10-22) 04:00 PDT
Rushing to ease endangered species rules before President Bush leaves office, Interior Department officials are attempting to review 200,000 comments from the public in just 32 hours, according to an e-mail obtained by the Associated Press.
The Fish and Wildlife Service has called a team of 15 people to
In an e-mail last week to Fish and Wildlife managers across the country, Bryan Arroyo, the head of the agency's endangered species program, said the team would work eight hours a day starting Tuesday to the close of business on Friday to sort through the comments.
Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne's office, according to the e-mail, will be responsible for analyzing and responding to them.
The public comment period ended last week, which initiated the review.
House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., whose own letter opposing the changes is among the thousands that will be processed, called the 32-hour deadline a "last-ditch attempt to undermine the long-standing integrity of the Endangered Species program."
At that rate, according to a committee aide's calculation, 6,250 comments would have to be reviewed every hour. That means that each member of the team would be reviewing at least seven comments each minute.
It usually takes months to review public comments on a proposed rule, and by law the government must respond before a rule becomes final.
"It would seem very difficult for them in four days to respond to so many thoughtful comments in an effective way," said Eric Biber, an assistant professor at the UC Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law.
Along with other law professors across the country, Biber sent in 70 pages of comment.
Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dale Hall told the AP on Tuesday that the short time frame for processing the comments was requested by Kempthorne and would set a record.
"There is an effort here to see if this can be completed" before the administration is out, Hall said. He said the goal was to have the rule to the White House by early November. In May, the administration set a Nov. 1 deadline for all final regulations.
How fast the rule is finished could determine how hard it is to undo.
A new administration could freeze any pending rules. But if the regulation is final before the next president takes office, reversing it would require going through the entire review and public comment period again - a process that could take months and that sometimes has taken years.
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama already has said he would reverse the proposal. Congress also could overturn the rules through legislation, but that could take even longer.
Sen. John McCain's campaign has not taken a position on the Bush administration's proposed change in endangered species regulations.
Environmentalists said the move is the latest attempt by the Bush administration to overrule Congress, which for years has resisted efforts by conservative Republicans to make similar changes by amending the law.
Criticism from environmental groups and Democratic leaders prompted the Interior Department to extend the public comment period from 30 days to 60 days.
"Somebody has lit a fire under these guys to get this done in due haste," said Jamie Rappaport Clark, executive director of Defenders of Wildlife and the head of the Fish and Wildlife Service under President Bill Clinton.
The Interior Department received approximately 300,000 comments over the 60-day comment period, many critical of the changes.#
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/22/MN8C13LRU4.DTL
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