Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation for DWR personnel of significant news articles and comment
November 20, 2008
2. Supply –
DWR warns of drought, water rationing in 2009
Capitol Weekly
Economic turmoil derails water plan – for now
Capitol Weekly
Are we running out of water?
Editorial: Questions bubble to surface over use of water at
The Inyo Register
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DWR warns of drought, water rationing in 2009
Capitol Weekly – 11/20/2008
By Sarah Hannon, Staff Writer
Nine counties have already requested emergency drought assistance, including
Wendy Martin, statewide drought coordinator for the state Department of Water Resources (DWR), said the state has informed contractors they will only receive 15 percent of their normal allocation.
As of Sept. 1, the drought has cost farmers of the
Many nut crops, especially almonds and walnuts, are being abandoned. These crops are being hit worse than crops toward the north of the state because they are down-stream from the Delta.
"The North is okay," Martin said. "The South is more dependent on imported water… It has a cascading effect."
Some farmers are also selling off livestock they can no longer afford to take care of. The Department of Food and Agriculture says the number of
While farmers are getting used to the idea that they will not be able to have all the water usage that they prefer, many consumers are still blind to the problem.
"When gas prices hit $4 a gallon, people were more careful with their usage," Zetland said. "Let's avoid rationing."
Zetland said the next step after raising prices of water usage would be increasing a block-rate by around 40 percent in utilities.
How water is managed is also becoming a local issue. For instance, the largest water district in the
Global warming might be partially to blame for the dry conditions.
A study released last week by a pair of researchers at the University of California Berkeley Department of Agricultural and Resources Economics predicted that climate change could end up costing
But
"We are experiencing more dramatic storms instead of consistent rain," said Martin. "But no, I do not think that global warming itself is the cause."
Zetland and others have argued that farmers are contributing to the drought by the unregulated use of well water. Farmers are allowed to take as much ground water as they want.
"There is no monitoring of ground water," Zetland said "More monitoring is what we need."
Zetland went on to say that water managers are "creating" the next shortage.
"What are water managers doing? They're telling people that they'd better use less -- or face rationing," he said. "So, business as usual. Too bad, because that won't work… It is the engineers and the DWR that screwed up."
"I wish we were that clever," Martin said. #
Economic turmoil derails water plan – for now
Capitol Weekly – 11/20/2008
By John Howard
A long-simmering effort to craft an omnibus state water package in the Legislature is being put on hold because of the faltering economy and deep-seated disagreements between rival interests.
But players in the on-again, off-again negotiations remain hopeful, in part because an agreement nearly was reached earlier in the year before it got snared in budget politics, in part because new Senate Leader Darrell Steinberg of
And pushing the discussions is the drought outlook.
"The economy and the severity of the drought, the wildfires and everything else: It's frustrating for many of us that we haven't done anything in the way of infrastructure before now, and those things just heighten the criticality," said Senate GOP Leader David Cogdill of Fresno. "The infrastructure will take a couple of decades, and we want to get started."
Rarely in the state's history is a need for a comprehensive, workable water plan greater than it is now.
The state intends to cut water deliveries to cities and farms by 85 percent for the upcoming water year – the lowest since the drought of 1976-77, and less than half of the current deliveries. Delivery projections can change – three weeks of rain would make a dramatic difference – but water agencies are bracing for potential rationing. Reservoirs are at their lowest level in more than 30 years.
"The only thing that will solve our problem is a comprehensive package, with all the pieces working simultaneously," said Timothy Quinn, executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies. Recycling, desalination, flood control, storage – all belong in the mix, and the public believes they are worth the cost, he added.
"The big projects were approved during the Great Depression. ACWA did polling, and even though the voters recognized that the economy was weakening, they recognized that the water system was in crisis and needed to be improved," Quinn said.
Water districts, local officials, lobbyists and others are closely watching the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the huge water wholesaler that serves two dozen counties and half the state's population. The MWD is considering what it describes as an "allocation plan" – rationing – to its member counties and rate increases, which in turn likely will be passed on to local customers.
If that happens, the pressure on the Legislature to act will increase. Environmentalists sense that pressure, too, but whether it will push legislators in the direction of dam construction.
"We need to change some fundamental things about water policy before we throw money at large infrastructure projects," said Jim Metropulos, a water specialist for the Sierra Club, which opposes new dam construction. He noted that the governor, in his public appearances, "is not missing an opportunity to talk about his water bond," referring to the unsuccessful $9.3 billion proposal that Schwarzenegger unveiled in July but was rejected just weeks later.
In the Capitol, the fundamental division is over the construction of reservoirs. For environmentalists, dams are anathema. "In its California Water Plan, the state says the most possible amount of water at the cheapest cost is conservation. That's not me saying it; that's the state," Metropulos noted.
Generally, reservoirs are sought by Republicans as a necessary means to capture water, but opposed by Democrats as costly and inefficient. But there other differences, too, including the best way to restore and protect the delta east of San Francisco, through which most of California's drinking water flows. Somehow, those opposing views have to be reconciled.
"The only thing that will solve our problem is a comprehensive package, with all the pieces working simultaneously," said Timothy Quinn, executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies. Recycling, desalination, flood control, storage – all belong in the mix, and the public believes they are worth the cost, he added.
"The big projects were approved during the Great Depression. ACWA did polling, and even though the voters recognized that the economy was weakening, they recognized that the water system was in crisis and needed to be improved," Quinn said.
The sprawling Central Valley Project and the Colorado River Aqueduct, for example, were both approved and financed during the Depression, while the jewel of the state's water system, the State Water Project, was approved in November 1960 in the midst of a recession.
The Republican governor, backed by U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a conservative Democrat, proposed a $9.3 billion package that included conservation and watershed protections, flood control projects, two reservoirs, groundwater protections, species protections, and coastal and inland water-quality programs. The package died – for environmentalists and many Democrats the breaking point was the pair of reservoirs, and for some Republicans, it was the price tag.
There also was – and still is - uncertainty over whether the general obligation bond issue could go before voters in 2009. But the state Elections Code does appear to allow such a bond issue on the ballot – in June, for example - and officials note that a general obligation bond went before voters in a 1993 special election.
Feinstein, a popular
The governor's proposal remains a starting point for new discussions, say supporters and critics alike.
But Feinstein's influence on the Legislature is marginal, at best. The real drivers of legislative policy come from the leadership.
"Senator Steinberg and I have talked about this, and we will try to do something next year. Right now, we are embroiled in the budget," Cogdill said.
"The issue," he added, "certainly hasn't gone away." #
Are we running out of water?
Locally and statewide, we can't agree on how to respond to dwindling supplies
By Robert Speer, Staff Writer
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Have you seen
It's against that backdrop that the Butte Environmental Council filed a lawsuit Oct. 27 challenging
The lawsuit is a reminder—as if we needed one—that water, whether for drinking, irrigation or fish, remains a huge and controversial issue in
It's never long out of the news, either. Just last month Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger unveiled his $9.3 billion water storage and Delta protection plan, called Delta Vision. And last week PacifiCorps, the Warren Buffett-owned utility company, agreed to tear down four dams on the
BEC's suit challenges the county's approval of a mitigated negative declaration—that full environment review is not required—for its plan to use monitoring wells and production-well drawdowns to study the Tuscan Aquifer, the groundwater reservoir below Butte and three other Sacramento Valley counties.
To the county, the project is simply research to find out what impacts pumping out the water would have on nearby stream flows and how quickly the aquifer recharges. The goal, said Vickie Newlin, assistant director of the county's Water and Resource Conservation department, is to be able to protect local water, if necessary. "If someone wants to come and take our water, we want to have facts. If we don't have that information, we're just shooting in the dark."
The project calls for a number of monitoring wells to be drilled in the vicinity of existing agricultural production wells that are proximate to streams. Monitors will be installed in the waterways to measure their flows. In the spring, before irrigation begins and when the aquifer is at its highest level, the production wells will be run continuously for 10 days to measure aquifer drawdown and impacts on the nearby streams. Afterwards, the monitoring wells will show how quickly the aquifer recharges.
All of the pumped water will remain on the land served by the wells, Chris Thomas, an associate planner with the county, stated. How the project's data will be used remains to be seen, he added. If a decision is someday made to send water out of the county, full environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act will be required.
As the old saying goes, however, "water runs uphill toward money." BEC is convinced that the project is part of a scheme being propagated right now to sell groundwater to water districts farther south.
"While Butte County seeks to pass off this 'research' project as a tool to simply understand local hydrology, a paper trail illustrates the county's continuing participation with the state and federal governments to provide area water to users south of the Delta," states a press release announcing the lawsuit.
The Chico-based environmental group points out that funding for the project came only after the county approved the Sacramento Valley Integrated Regional Water Management Plan. By doing so, the county directly aligned itself "with the goal to use massive quantities of local groundwater to augment the state water supply."
Several counties are undertaking aquifer study projects. Earlier this year, BEC filed a similar suit against the Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District, charging that its plan to sink seven deep production wells to test drawdown was part of a scheme to ship water south. A
Newlin said the county intended to go ahead with the project, which is just getting under way, despite BEC's lawsuit. "If we need to do more environmental review, we'll do it," she said. "It's unfortunate we have to fight on the side." BEC did not return a call seeking comment.
Meanwhile, in October the Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force released a controversial strategic plan recommending the construction of two more dams with reservoirs—one of them the proposed Sites Reservoir west of Maxwell—and an updated version of the peripheral canal California voters rejected in 1982.
The idea behind Delta Vision, its proponents say, is to increase the water supply while furthering ecosystem restoration in the estuary, the largest on the
Currently water in the
The task force's idea is to create a "dual conveyance" system that will send some of the water through the Delta in the usual way and some via a new canal that will skirt the Delta on its eastern side. The additional storage at Sites is meant to save wet-year water for use during dry years.
Delta Vision has the backing of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, which gives it some political oomph, but the cost is high, especially when the state is in fiscal crisis. Schwarzenegger hopes to rally agribusiness and its supporters to get a $9.3 billion bond measure on the June ballot. His argument—and the task force's—is that California simply cannot meet its future water needs without increased storage facilities and a better conveyance system.
There are a lot of people—environmentalists, Indian tribes, fishing groups—who oppose any new canal, seeing it as having the potential to reduce inflows to the Delta to harmful levels. And many
The solution to the state's water problems isn't more dams and reservoirs or a peripheral canal. The solution, in a word, is: conservation.
That was the message Conner Everts, of the Southern California Watershed Alliance, delivered Oct. 23 when he spoke about water sustainability at the Chico Grange Hall.
With supplies dwindling, Southern Californians are being forced to do better at saving water than people in the
Everts is part of a movement that believes the first response to decreasing water supplies is proper stewardship. If Californians simply stopped wasting water, they wouldn't need more dams and reservoirs.
He cited a recent report from the Pacific Institute, an Oakland-based environmental research group, which found after a three-year study that "California can cut its urban water use by a third through efficient technology, simple changes in policy, and improved education," in the words of its president, Dr. Peter H. Gliek.
More important, since three-fourths of the state's water is used for irrigation, agriculture can reduce its use by exercising good water stewardship, Everts said. Indeed, with dwindling supplies caused by natural conditions as well as court actions such as the 2004 decision requiring restoration of water flow to the
Another Pacific Institute study, funded by the Hewlett and Packard foundations and released in September, found that "agricultural water-use efficiency can be improved through careful planning, adopting existing, cost-effective technologies and management practices, and implementing feasible policy changes."
"Water savings achieved through conservation and efficiency improvements are just as effective as new, centralized water storage, and are often less expensive," said Dr. Juliet Christian-Smith, co-author of the report. They could save "between three and 20 sizable new dams with fewer social and environmental impacts," she added.
Many small-scale farmers are already implementing water-saving tools with great success, but the political clout remains with the huge agribusiness outfits that prefer what for them is the easy fix—new dams and a peripheral canal. Whether voters will support them by authorizing funding remains to be seen.#
Editorial: Questions bubble to surface over use of water at
The Inyo Register – 11/18/2008
By Darcy Ellis, Editor
Is water being wasted out on the
Or, at the very least, is there a more efficient way to suppress the toxic dust that whips off the notorious
Those are but two of the questions ostensibly being asked today as Great Basin Air Pollution Control Officer Ted Schade makes a presentation to the Inyo County Board of Supervisors detailing the water amounts used on each of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power's dust mitigation measures at the dry lake bed.
The presentation is being made at the behest of the local Agriculture Resource Advisory Board, a citizens commission comprised of ranchers, LADWP lessees, business owners and representatives of local chambers of commerce.
The board had Inyo County Agriculture Commissioner George Milovich approach the supervisors on Nov. 4 with widely viewed as one of its request after coming to the conclusion that water – the most precious resources in the West – might be overused at the dry lake on shallow flooding and managed vegetation mitigation efforts.
The concern, Milovich explained Monday, is that with so much of LADWP's Owens Valley water going to dry lake mitigation measures – approximately 19,200 acre-feet alone (or 6,256,339,200 gallons) for shallow flooding of 26 square miles (16,640 acres) – the utility will be forced to cut back on the amount of water it sets aside for in-valley uses. (LADWP estimated upon the release of its 2007-08 Operations Plan that its water use on the lake, for both shallow flooding and the maintenance of managed vegetation, would increase to about 54,000 a.f. a year. In 2007-08, the amount of water used for in-valley uses – 103,650 a.f. – almost matched the total being sent down the aqueduct, without counting the large volumes targeted for
According to Schade, LADWP implemented all three currently accepted mitigation measures on those 30 square miles: 26 square miles (16,640 acres) were treated with shallow flooding; about four square miles (2,200 acres) were planted with managed vegetation (salt grass); and less than one-tenth of a square mile (about 50 acres) was treated with gravel.
In surveying the progress of the dust mitigation in late 2005,
Schade said Monday that LADWP contractor Barnard Construction (awarded the bid this past summer) began construction two weeks ago on what will become another 9.2 square miles of shallow flooding, which, according to lake bed engineers, will require an additional 7,066 a.f of water (or 2,302,463,166 gallons).
According to Schade,
"They have one chance to fix moat and row and make moat and row work," Schade said. "I call it 'the two strikes and you're out rule.' After that, they have to go back to one of the three approved methods."
If, however, moat and row "works famously," then LADWP can petition
That's one reason why the Agriculture Resource Advisory Board is questioning the need for so much water usage at the dry lake, particularly if no one is telling LADWP how or that it even needs to implement shallow flooding much it can and cannot use – at all.
"We give them the menu and they decide how to fix the dust," confirmed Schade.
The questions began bubbling to the surface, according to Milovich in his Nov. 4 memo to the Inyo supervisors, when members of the ag board took a recent field trip to the dry lake as part of its "intention to ensure that the least of amount of water is used by LADWP for purposes other than agriculture."
It was in talking with engineers at the lake bed that the representatives learned about the potential overuse of water, and moat and row option.
Milovich's memo reports that current data from
That news brought hope to the Agriculture Resource Advisory Board, which noted that water not sent down the aqueduct must be purchased elsewhere to meet the needs of the
And less irrigation hurts not just Inyo's growers and ranchers who depend on the practice for their livelihoods, economically and Milovich said, but the valley as a whole – aesthetically.
Agriculture is the county's second largest industry behind tourism, bringing in just shy of $20 million in 2007, according to the 2007 Annual Crop and Livestock Report.
"The Ag Board is concerned about lessees being squeezed as far as their irrigation water," Milovich explained, "which would mean no more green lands. They're the ones who irrigate the valley (and are responsible for the scenery we all enjoy). If it wasn't for the ranchers irrigating, there wouldn't be any greenery."
Milovich said the Agriculture Resource Advisory Board's interest in the use of water at the dry lake "is about protecting the valley as a whole," and is meant to inspire leaders and concerned citizens to take "a big-picture view of the valley."
Some concerned citizens already taking an interest are local wildlife advocates, who contend that any reduction in water at the
"No one argues on the need to use water responsibly at
Prather explained that the "enormous wildlife population" at
Milovich was quick to point out that no one on the Agriculture Resource Advisory Board is "opposed to wildlife," or dust mitigation, for that matter.
He noted that "it's always good to bring out more dialogue and more truth."
That's exactly what Schade hopes to do with his presentation today, as he provides more specific numbers related to water use and each dust mitigation measure.
His presentation is set to begin at 10:30 a.m. in the Board of Supervisors room in the
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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
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