Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
November 3, 2008
5. Agencies, Programs, People –
Opinion:
The delta's wake-up call
San Francisco Chronicle
Lurie keeps a watch on water
Watershed issues are at the forefront
FALLBROOK: One ag water discount will remain as other is phased out
Water authority decision key for region's growers, officials say
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Opinion:
The delta's wake-up call
Wake up,
It's been clear for decades that the San Francisco Bay-Delta estuary is in peril. The largest estuary on the West Coast is suffering - from ever-increasing water diversions, pollution and invasive species - to the point where scientists talk openly about the extinction of entire fish species. It is clear that potential failure of the delta's fragile levee system threatens delta communities and could disrupt the water system that supplies part of the drinking water to 23 million Californians and much of
Last Friday, the governor's Delta Vision Task Force released its strategic plan addressing the bay-delta's ecosystem and water-supply problems. The plan represents a clear-eyed break with the past. The task force recognizes that protecting the environment of the delta is just as important as providing reliable water supplies to cities and farms. The task force urges
The Delta Vision report offered by the task force emphasizes the urgent need for expanded habitat and freshwater flows to restore salmon and other decimated fisheries. Its recommendations for improving water-use efficiency, eliminating disincentives for sustainable groundwater management and encouraging sales of water between willing buyers and sellers, so long as local communities are not harmed, are long overdue.
The task force's recommendations for a peripheral canal raise questions from both an environmental and a financial perspective. We understand that a canal would enable continued delivery of water from the
We are also concerned by the plan's recommendations to pursue additional dams, in part because recent proposals would build them at taxpayer expense without any clear understanding as to how the additional water supply would be distributed. Recent history has shown that when water agencies pay for their own supply projects, they usually find alternative investments such as conservation, groundwater management and cleanup, and purchases from willing sellers to be more cost-effective investments than new dams and reservoirs.
Ultimately, success or failure will depend on whether agencies, the California Legislature and communities can work together effectively. We are intrigued by the task force's recommendations for agency reform - including a new council to govern the Delta Vision's coequal goals of water supply and environmental restoration - though simply adding one more agency could be counterproductive if not done right.
The Delta Vision plan now moves to the governor and the Legislature. To avoid the mistakes of the past, they must build on the foundation of balance between the ecosystem and water supply. We urge lawmakers to spend taxpayer dollars only to achieve tangible public benefits. Further subsidies are likely to continue the inefficient distribution of water that has led
The Delta Vision report is far from perfect, but ignoring it would put both the delta and
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/11/02/EDJF13S5TP.DTL
Lurie keeps a watch on water
Watershed issues are at the forefront
·
Explaining she wanted to somehow be involved in balancing human and economic needs with environmental protection, Lisa Lurie attended
Upon her graduation last year, Lurie became the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary's agriculture water quality coordinator.
"I was intrigued by this job because it is housed within a marine resource protection organization, but the position is in close collaboration with and funded by agriculture," she said.
Lurie acts as the coordinator of the Agriculture Water Quality Alliance (AWQA), which is a collaborative effort to adopt conservation practices that improve land management in watersheds that drain to the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.
A lot of material that comes across her desk she has to share with AWQA members as well as individuals in the ag community.
"We recognize now that growers are caught between a rock and a hard place," Lurie said. "On one hand, they are being asked or required to take actions or implement processes that protect water quality.
"On the other hand, they are facing pressures from their auditors and buyers to implement processes for food-safety programs. At times these two things can be in conflict."
As an example she cited the use of vegetative buffers, which can help filter runoff water but are viewed by some in the produce industry as creating a possible food-safety issue. One group might encourage a grower to create a buffer whereas another will suggest he remove it.
The use of recycled water is another situation where food safety and water quality concerns may be in conflict.
Although recycling cuts down on agricultural runoff that may ultimately flow into the Marine Sanctuary, others feel it may not be safe enough to use on row crops.
Lurie has become involved with the Farm Food Safety and Conservation Network to address some of these issues and help sort out the conflicts.
The diversity and complexity of the issues involving agricultural water quality management and conservation are greater than Lurie realized when she was a graduate student, she said. Her present position has opened her eyes to the extent of this complexity and how much work and collaboration are needed to resolve the problems.
Covers wide area
Lurie said a definite plus of her job has been that the fact that the people she works with are all committed to doing "the right thing."
"We all share the same priorities when it comes to protecting a thriving agricultural area as well as the marine environment and water quality," she said.
Besides the Marine Sanctuary, other partners in AWQA are the National Resources Conservation Service, the six
Lurie said it's important to think about what flows into the ocean. In the mid 1990s the Marine Sanctuary created a water quality protection program to address possible runoff pollution from various sources.
"My particular role is focused just on agriculture, but we have another program on storm drain runoff," Lurie said. "The program I coordinate covers the 11 major watersheds that drain into the sanctuary. That covers six counties from
"The idea is to develop voluntary strategies to reduce agricultural runoff."
'Voluntary collaboration'
She stressed that all of AWQA's work is non-regulatory. The approach is one of "voluntary collaboration" between landowners, land managers and AWQA.
An Agriculture and Rural Lands Plan lays out the strategies that land managers can use and the services that AWQA can provide to deal with water quality and runoff.
"This is accomplished through education and outreach programs, technical assistance, some funding and cost-share and monitoring," Lurie said.#
http://thecalifornian.com/article/20081103/BUSINESS/811030320/1046
FALLBROOK: One ag water discount will remain as other is phased out
Water authority decision key for region's growers, officials say
North County
By TOM PFINGSTEN - Staff Writer
FALLBROOK ---- Farmers who get water through the San Diego County Water Authority will continue to receive a 15 percent discount after the regional water board voted unanimously to extend the program, officials said last week.
As with current discounts, one of which is being phased out, the catch is that growers who want the rate reduction will have to agree to be the first ones to cut back when drought conditions or something more catastrophic, such as an earthquake, occurs.
Keith Lewinger, general manager of the Fallbrook Public Utility District, said the Oct. 23 decision to keep the discount program in place could save Fallbrook growers an estimated $800,000 per year.
But the program is voluntary, and growers may choose to pay full price and have the level of service as a residential customer during water shortages, Lewinger said.
For years,
After asking local farmers to cut back by 30 percent on Jan. 1 of this year, Metropolitan recently decided to phase out its discount of about $115 per acre-foot, Lewinger said.
An acre-foot is about 326,000 gallons, or about the amount of water used by two families of four in a year.
"It's all gone on Jan. 1, 2013," Lewinger said of the Metropolitan district's agricultural discount program. "Basically, the board made the decision that they could not support continuing to sell water at a discount."
In
Lewinger and Valley Center Municipal Water District Manager Gary Arant spearheaded the effort to retain the discount program, making numerous trips to
"Both discount programs have been instrumental in sustaining agriculture here in
Arant said 1,700 of the
"Some of the smaller growers may take the opportunity to opt out ---- they may just choose to become full-price customers," he said. "It'll be interesting to see how it all sorts out, but any agricultural user trying to grow crops at a profit in this region, it's difficult, and these discounts are important to them."
In all, the water authority board has 36 directors, and the vote to continue the program was unanimous.
Lewinger said growers who decide to stay in the program should know that having to cut back is a strong possibility, although the cuts won't be as deep as the 30 percent required by the Metropolitan district earlier this year.
"For 2009, it's almost a sure thing," he said. "I fully expect ... mandatory cutbacks in 2009. Somebody who stays in the program, their cutback will probably be in the 10 to 15 percent range."
But it's not just the growers who will have to conserve, he added.
"If 2009 shapes up to be as bad a water year as everybody is projecting, there will be mandatory cutbacks for everybody."#
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