Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
November 6, 2008
5. Agencies, Programs, People –
Eastern Municipal Water District's tiered rates punish biggest users, reward frugal
Riverside Press
After 2 centuries of shrinking, Alaska
Beavers build a burrow and the town gives a dam
Eight of the rodents who took up residence in a downtown creek in Martinez, Calif., are staying put despite a noisy construction project near their lodge, supporters say.
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Eastern Municipal Water District's tiered rates punish biggest users, reward frugal
Riverside Press
By JANET ZIMMERMAN
The heaviest residential water users from
But low and moderate users would likely see no increase, and possibly a decrease, under the plan, said Chuck Rathbone, the district's chief financial officer.
Tiered rates were proposed in July. The numbers revealed Wednesday at a district board meeting are the first definitive indication of what prices would be.
The board will meet again Wednesday to hear more details and is expected to vote Nov. 19 whether to go ahead with the plan. Final approval is scheduled for Jan. 7 at the board's headquarters in Perris.
Two proposed rate changes are in the works for Eastern's 130,000 households.
The first is a rate increase, which could come in February, partly in response to a 14 percent increase passed on by Eastern's primary supplier, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. It likely will amount to a 10 percent jump, about $4.50 per month, for most customers, Rathbone said.
The second change would be the tiered rates, designed to penalize excessive water use and promote conservation after several years of drought and court-ordered restrictions on supplies from
The system could significantly cost residents who maintain more than 10,000 square feet of landscaping at their homes. Customers with 3,000 to 6,000 square feet of landscape would likely see no change if they don't overwater; those with less than 3,000 square feet of landscape could pay less.
Consumers will find out how much they will pay beginning with notices in their February and March bills, information that could shock them into conserving, Rathbone said. The increase would take effect in April.
"It's a fair approach," he said. "Higher users will end up paying more."
Customers now pay the same per-unit rate no matter how much water they use -- $1.91 per unit for most customers in the district, depending on which city they live in and how much water has to be imported.
The new system would create four water-consumption levels and prices designed to bring in the same revenue for the district, but in a different configuration.
The first tier, or block, is the cheapest. It covers indoor use and is calculated at 180 gallons per day for a single-family dwelling with three people; allowances would be made for larger households and medical needs, Rathbone said.
The second tier is for outdoor use, such as watering the lawn, and would be calculated for lot size and weather conditions.
Rates increase significantly for the top two tiers. The third tier, "excessive," would kick in when a customer has used all the water in the first two tiers plus 50 percent of that total.
The fourth tier is "wasteful."
More than 70 percent of customers will be within their budgets, said Sanjay Gaur, the consultant helping determine the rates for the district. Twenty-eight percent of users will be penalized for high use, unless they cut back or apply for an adjustment, he said.
Such systems are in use elsewhere in Southern California, including
Gaur said the tiered rates could produce a 20 percent drop in water use. #
http://www.pe.com/localnews/environment/stories/PE_News_Local_S_rates06.38f1f80.html
After 2 centuries of shrinking, Alaska
By CRAIG MEDRED, McClatchy Newspapers
Unusually large amounts of winter snow were followed by unusually chill temperatures in June, July and August.
"In mid-June, I was surprised to see snow still at sea level in
"In general, the weather this summer was the worst I have seen in at least 20 years."
Never before in the history of a research project dating back to 1946 had the Juneau Icefield witnessed the kind of snow buildup that came this year. It was similar on a lot of other glaciers too.
"It's been a long time on most glaciers where they've actually had positive mass balance," Molnia said.
That's the way a scientist says the glaciers got thicker in the middle.
Mass balance is the difference between how much snow falls every winter and how much snow fades away each summer. For most
The result has put the state's glaciers on a long-term diet. Every year they lose the snow of the previous winter plus some of the snow from years before. And so they steadily shrink.
Since
What might be the most notable long-term shrinkage has occurred at Glacier Bay, now the site of a national park in
That ice retreated to form a bay and what is now known as the Muir Glacier. And from the 1800s until now, the Muir Glacier just kept retreating and retreating and retreating. It is now back 57 miles from the entrance to the bay, said Tom Vandenberg, chief interpretative ranger at
That's farther than the distance from glacier-free
Overall, Molnia figures
Molnia has just completed a major study of
Climate change has led to speculation they might all disappear. Molnia isn't sure what to expect. As far as glaciers go, he said,
"What we're talking about to (change) most of
"All it takes is a warm summer to have a really dramatic effect on the melting."
Or a cool summer to shift that mass balance the other way.
One cool summer that leaves 20 feet of new snow still sitting atop glaciers come the start of the next winter is no big deal, Molnia said.
Ten summers like that?
Well, that might mark the start of something like the Little Ice Age.
During the Little Ice Age - roughly the 16th century to the 19th - Muir Glacier filled Glacier Bay and the people of
The Pilgrims established the Plymouth Colony in December 1620. By spring, a bitterly cold winter had played a key role in helping kill half of them. Hindered by a chilly climate, the white colonization of
As the climate warmed from 1800 to 1900, the
The difference in temperature between the Little Ice Age and these heady days of American expansion?
About three or four degrees, Molnia said.
The difference in temperature between this summer in
About three degrees, according to the National Weather Service.
Does it mean anything?
Nobody knows. Climate is constantly shifting. And even if the past year was a signal of a changing future, Molnia said, it would still take decades to make itself noticeable in
Rivers of ice flow slowly. Hundreds of feet of snow would have to accumulate at higher elevations to create enough pressure to stall the current glacial retreat and start a new advance. Even if the glaciers started growing today, Molnia said, it might take up to 100 years for them to start steadily rolling back down into the valleys they've abandoned.
"It's different time scales," he said. "We're just starting to understand."
As strange it might seem,
http://www.sacbee.com/702/story/1375558.html
Beavers build a burrow and the town gives a dam
Eight of the rodents who took up residence in a downtown creek in Martinez, Calif., are staying put despite a noisy construction project near their lodge, supporters say.
By Richard C. Paddock
Reporting from
The eight beavers that live in Alhambra Creek near the city center have been spotted entering and leaving their lodge at dusk, even though workers drove 25-foot-long metal sheet piles into the ground a few feet from their burrow.
"The beavers are fine," said Linda Meza, a spokeswoman for the beaver support group Worth a Dam.
But a new controversy over the project has emerged since Worth a Dam uncovered a photograph in the Martinez Museum showing that damage attributed to the beavers dates to at least 1999 -- seven years before the animals arrived.
Meza said the photo proved what the group had been saying all along: The $400,000 construction project was unnecessary.
Worth a Dam has criticized the City Council for improperly meeting in private on the issue and for bypassing an environmental review by declaring the situation an emergency.
"The city was aware that the beavers were not burrowing under the retaining wall," Meza said. "The premise for this emergency work was based on lies."
The city of 37,000 boasts that it was the home of conservationist John Muir, but it has also been the site of a huge oil refinery for nearly a century.
The first two beavers arrived in 2006, and since then they have been busy. They produced two kits, or baby beavers, last year and four more this year while building two lodges and four dams in the creek.
After word of the beavers' presence spread, tourists began visiting
But the property owner nearest the beaver habitat complained that the rodents were causing damage by burrowing into the bank and under the retaining wall. He threatened to sue the city if it didn't take action.
City officials at first planned to kill the beavers but backed off after many residents protested.
The City Council then voted to shore up the bank along a one-block stretch by driving sheet piles between the creek and the retaining wall.
Beaver supporters opposed the project for fear the animals might be killed or driven off, but the large rodents have proved adaptable.
With the last of the sheet piles in place, workers poured concrete between the piles and the retaining wall last week and finished filling in with dirt this week.
Even so, the dispute continues.
Last week, Worth a Dam uncovered the 1999 photograph of the creek taken when the water level was unusually low. The group says the photo clearly shows that a crack in the retaining wall was already evident.
Worth a Dam accuses the City Council of going ahead with the project to pacify an influential property owner even though it knew the beavers had not caused the problem.
"They met in secret, voted in secret, omitted in secret and lied in public," wrote Worth a Dam President Heidi Perryman in a post on the group's website.
"They spent nearly half a million of your taxpayer dollars on a Faustian contract that had nothing to do with public safety."
In an interview, City Manager Phil Vince defended the decision but declined to say whether the council was aware that damage to the retaining wall predated the beavers' arrival.
"I don't think it was a misguided project whatsoever," he said.
"We have invested a ton of time and effort to make this happen, and I am not interested in revisiting history."
Vince said that although some residents see protecting the beavers as a waste of money, he believes it is good for
"I'm glad the beavers have stayed," he said. "Beavers on the whole are pretty resilient. They took it in stride."#
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-beavers6-2008nov06,0,5690120.story?track=rss
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