[Water_news] 2. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: SUPPLY -1/27/09

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment 

 

January 27, 2009

 

2. Supply –

 

 

El Dorado water rates would reward conservation

Sacramento Bee

 

Mandatory water cutbacks expected

Santa Rosa Press Democrat

 

Editorial:

Dry deadlock

 

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El Dorado water rates would reward conservation

Sacramento Bee – 1/27/09

By Cathy Locke

Conservation-minded El Dorado Irrigation District customers would be rewarded with lower bills under a rate plan aimed at reducing water consumption.

"Large users will pay more, and small users will pay less," director Harry Norris said, summing up the rate restructuring proposal board members endorsed Monday.

The plan is not intended to boost revenue, but to distribute charges more equitably among customers, based on consumption.

 

Also proposed is a "blended" rate schedule, eliminating the higher pumped-water rate charged in areas such as El Dorado Hills.

 

Customers will receive written notice of the proposed rate changes and have the opportunity to submit written protests. A hearing is scheduled for 6 p.m. March 23 in district headquarters, 2890 Mosquito Road, Placerville.

 

Adam Lynch, a consultant with Bartle Wells Associates, illustrated the proposed changes using sample bills.

 

A customer using 3,000 cubic feet of water in a two-month period – the median use for a single-family – would see a decrease of 5.6 percent in their bimonthly bill, or 10.7 percent in areas that pay pumped-water charges.

 

A customer in the high-use category – 12,500 cubic feet or more – would see increases of 36.4 percent, or 23.6 percent in pumped-water zones.

The examples do not include surcharges.

 

Agricultural water customers would be required to sign up for the district's irrigation management service by May 2010, or pay a higher rate.

The service, offered without charge, uses sensors to monitor soil moisture to help growers determine when to irrigate crops.

 

Kirk Taylor, program coordinator, said about half the district's 212 agricultural water customers, representing 75 percent of the irrigated acres, use the service.

District officials said the irrigation management program saves 2,500 to 3,000 acre-feet of water a year. An acre-foot is the amount of water needed to cover an acre to the depth of 1 foot.

 

The rate restructuring is required to continue receiving water through the federal Central Valley Project and to qualify for certain grants and loans.

The district expects $16.9 million in water revenue in 2009. Under the new standards, 70 percent of that amount must come from consumption-based charges. Currently, 53 percent of water revenue comes from consumption-based charges. #

http://www.sacbee.com/ourregion/story/1575736.html?mi_rss=Our%2520Region

 

Mandatory water cutbacks expected

Santa Rosa Press Democrat – 1/26/09

By Bob Norberg & Glenda Anderson

 

A lack of rainfall has left lakes Sonoma and Mendocino at some of the lowest levels in the past two decades and raises the probability of mandatory water rationing.

 

 “Unless the weather changes substantially and we get a lot of rain, we are looking at potentially mandatory conservation this summer,” said Pam Jeane, Sonoma County Water Agency’s deputy director of water operations.

 

So far this year, 7.28 inches of rain has fallen in Santa Rosa, compared to an average of 16.21.

 

With no rain in the forecast, the Water Agency on Feb. 1 expects to declare it a dry water year, allowing it to cut back on the amount of water it is releasing from Coyote and Warm Springs dams into Dry Creek and the Russian River to conserve what water is left.

 

Jeane said at that time the Water Agency will also be telling its customers, which are the major cities and districts from Windsor to San Rafael, to expect mandatory rationing of from 30 to 50 percent.

 

“At that point, it will be hard to keep the lawn alive,” said Dan Muelrath, Santa Rosa’s conservation coordinator.

 

Sean White, general manager of the Russian River Flood Control and Water Conservation Improvement District, said it’s too early to panic, but warns Lake Mendocino is lower than it was at this time in 1977, the worst drought year on record.

 

“If we supercede 1977, we’ll be setting a new benchmark,” said White, whose district holds Mendocino County’s right to Lake Mendocino water.

Water rationing is also facing the 200,000 residents and agriculture users from Ukiah to Healdsburg who rely on Lake Mendocino.

 

The lake on Monday was at 32,180 acre-feet, the lowest level for the end of January since the reservoir was completed in 1959.

 

If the lake level drops below 30,000 acre-feet, which now looks likely, it will trigger a ban on all agricultural uses of water in Redwood Valley.

 

Residential customers would also be required to decrease water to 100 gallons per day per household, about 50 percent of normal water usage, said Redwood Valley Water District Manager Bill Koehler.

 

Since last year, when the lake level was also at historically low levels, Redwood Valley’s 3,500 customers already cut back 20 percent, Koehler said.

“It’s very scary,” said Mendocino County Supervisor Carre Brown, who is a Potter Valley rancher.

 

Lake Sonoma, the North Bay’s largest reservoir, has 182,128 acre-feet of water, also a record low for this time of the year.

More worrisome is that both lake levels are falling as if it’s summer.

 

“The folks between Ukiah and Healdsburg will have to be careful. We have projections that Lake Mendocino will get to the level that we may not be able to release water from it at all,” Jeane said.

 

Sonoma County Water Agency’s contractors serve 600,000 from Windsor to parts of Marin County.

 

The Water Agency will meet Monday with a committee which represents its customers.

 

In the past two years, the Water Agency has asked for voluntary conservation so it could stockpile water in Lake Mendocino for the fall run of chinook salmon.

It was largely because of changes in the Potter Valley project, which was shunting more water into the Eel River and reducing the amount into the Russian River and Lake Mendocino.

 

The water savings from the voluntary call was 15 to 20 percent.

 

“That was a regulatory drought. This is a two-fold drought, not a regulatory drought, but a combination of changes in the Potter Valley project operations and a we-have-not-had-enough-rainfall drought,” Jeane said.

 

Santa Rosa, the largest water purchaser, is already formulating its plans, Muelrath said.

 

With conservation of 30 percent, Santa Rosa homes would get 57 gallons per person per day, landscaping would only get 2,000 gallons per month and commercial irrigation would be 50 percent of what is necessary to keep lawns green.

 

At 50 percent, Santa Rosa homes are allowed 50 gallons per person, and there is no water for irrigation except for trees and shrubs.

 

“We are really looking for the Water Agency to make the call,” Muelrath said. “Once they make the call and determine how much we have to cut back, that is when we’ll put the plans into place. We are preparing, but we don’t know where it will land yet.”#

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20090126/articles/901260265

 

Editorial:

Dry deadlock

Riverside Press Enterprise – 1/26/09

 

California politicians cannot prevent drought, but they can prepare the state to handle the inevitable dry spells. But legislative stalemate has left the state facing a drought with only limited access to a crucial water source -- and that failure may soon cost Californians extra at grocery stores.

 

The Legislature needs to ensure that water exports from Northern California continue to flow to cities and farms in the rest of the state. That task requires preventing the environmental threats in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta from shutting off a necessary water supply. And the state needs to prepare for a future where winter snowpack will no longer be a reliable source of water.

 

Current conditions offer a grim glimpse of what the state faces if it does not address water needs. Across the Central Valley, farmers are leaving fields empty because of a lack of sufficient water for irrigation. The loss of lettuce, tomatoes and other crops could drive up prices on store shelves, as California grows much of the nation's vegetable crops.

 

Two years of drought have strained water supplies, but politicians have also fed the shortage by failing to protect the state's primary water source. The delta provides water to two-thirds of Californians and irrigates a third of its cropland. Yet the estuary faces environmental collapse, and a federal judge in 2007 slashed exports from the delta to protect an endangered fish.

 

Drought and pumping cutbacks caused nearly $309 million in crop losses statewide last year. And reduced exports from the delta have many water agencies considering rationing.

 

The most reasonable delta solution involves channeling the water from Northern California around the estuary to farms and cities elsewhere in the state. That step would separate a crucial water source from the delta's environmental troubles. And much of that water now comes from mountain snow melt. With long-term forecasts predicting more rain in place of snow, the state needs more capacity to collect and store winter rains.

 

But the Legislature has made scant progress on those issues, thanks to an ideological stalemate which obscures the larger point: A large, arid state needs a comprehensive strategy to meet its water demands, not limited partisan approaches. California will need to boost water conservation, but that effort alone will not be enough. The state cannot thrive without continued water exports from the north.

 

California requires rational water policy, but instead gets partisan inflexibility -- a paltry and irresponsible substitute. #

http://www.pe.com/localnews/opinion/editorials/stories/PE_OpEd_Opinion_S_op_27_ed_deltafarms1.3ee2b7e.html

 

 

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