A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
February 232009
2. Supply –
Storm fills reservoirs - drought fears persist
San Francisco Chronicle
Voluntary water conservation declared
Sloshy days not much of a drought-buster
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Storm fills reservoirs - drought fears persist
San Francisco Chronicle – 2/23/09
By Jill Tucker, staff writer
(02-22) 21:02 PST
Still, officials cautioned, it's too early to tell whether the state will have a drought.
The state's rainfall total for the year late Sunday was at 90 percent of normal, said National Weather Service forecaster Bob Benjamin. Only two weeks ago, rainfall levels were at about 60 percent of normal.
But, Benjamin added: "Rainfall is only one part of the drought equation. There are a lot more factors."
One is the fact that
Another factor is water management and conservation, Benjamin said.
Still another factor is that a sudden drenching may produce a lot of runoff - but that runoff may not always go into the watersheds and reservoirs. It sometimes floods channels or ends up in storm drains.
"A lot of rain at once doesn't always mean you're going to fill in the appropriate containers," he said.
"The normal should be 16.12 inches - we have gotten 13.72 inches," Benjamin said.
"There's definitely been a fair amount of rain out of this little system," Benjamin said.
Light rain is expected today - and showers are expected throughout the week, Benjamin said. Next weekend, there may be even more rain, he added.
The weekend drenching caused problems on Bay Area highways and also in the air, delaying flights for up to two hours at
Several local roadways had minor flooding, and numerous fender benders tied up weekend traffic. Flights in and out of
A falling tree killed a
The storm may have contributed to the capsizing of a boat in rough waters off the
In the higher elevations, the warm storm dropped rain on some lower ski slopes, with the snow level pushed up to 7,500 to 8,000 feet. #
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/22/BASV162M0T.DTL&feed=rss.bayarea
Rain: Saving it for a sunny day includes easy conservation measures
By Debbie Arrington
It never fails, lamented David Roberts.
"Tuesday, I was driving around in that pouring rain," related the
That's literally water down the drain. Friday, state water leaders urged all Californians to voluntarily cut their water consumption by 20 percent as we head into a third consecutive drought year.
That has homeowners and professional landscapers alike looking for ways to make the most of the water we have. That includes designing conservation-minded gardens and eliminating runoff as well as "harvesting" the rain itself.
"It's not exactly breakthrough technology," said Bethallyn Black, a UC master gardener who has been harvesting rainwater since the 1980s. "People started collecting water when they first started building homes (in ancient times). Even our grandparents had catch basins. But we got out of touch with it the last couple of generations. We got used to just turning on a tap and expecting water to come out."
Harvesting rainwater is again growing in popularity.
"In
Flannery, who serves as senior horticulturist for Easy Bloom PlantSense, suggested setting up a simple capture system to redirect rainwater off the roof to a barrel.
"That's a quick and easy way to do it," he said. "You can use a wine barrel; coming from
Besides banking your own water, there are many simple ways to just use less of it.
Said Roberts: "It's easy to get started. There's lots of low-hanging fruit. You don't have to rip up your yard and plant all drought-tolerant plants, although I wouldn't mind if you did."
Roberts is particularly sensitive to water waste. He is president of EcoLandscape
Interest in this topic is booming. About 250 people – mostly professional landscapers and horticulturists – attended EcoLandscape's fourth conference, held recently in
Saving water was a popular theme, presented in such discussions as "Turning Drains into Sponges and Water Scarcity into Water Abundance" by
Black, who manages the UC master gardener urban horticulture program in
"We get about 17 inches of rain a year," she said. "I could fill my tank three or four times. Storing water is the biggest hurdle. A tank this size is very difficult to fit into the urban landscape. I'd recommend to anyone tearing up a driveway to consider putting in an underground tank."
That level of water conservation takes major commitment. But there are several simple things people can do right now to start saving.
"No. 1, turn off the sprinklers," said Julie Saare- Edmonds, landscape specialist with the California Department of Water Resources' Office of Water Use Efficiency. "You just don't need them on this time of year. If it's real dry and windy, you may run them once. But otherwise, don't."
Many homeowners treat their sprinkler systems as a mystery that they never think about, she added.
"People buy their home and never set (the sprinkler controls) again," Saare- Edmonds said. "If it's a new home, that system was set for maximum irrigation to establish new lawns. Two years later, they're still running it full blast. #
http://www.sacbee.com/livinghere/story/1640532.html
Voluntary water conservation declared
By Janine Zuniga, staff writer
While
“We hope to get the word out of a very likely drought condition come summer and what we're asking residents to do,” Brown said.
Brown said the San Diego Regional Water Authority reports it would take six years of regular rainfall to bring the region's reservoirs up to normal-season levels. Combine low dam levels, a drought and recent court orders prohibiting water delivery from the north, and that makes the situation worse, he said.
A 1990 city ordinance, which allows the city manager to declare a water emergency, outlines the various conservation levels. The Stage 1 “Water Watch” applies when the city's water supplier, California-American Water Co., may not be able to meet the water demands of its customers.
The city may call four different water emergency stages, the highest calling for mandatory compliance in a Stage 4 “Water Emergency.” Stage 1 asks residents to voluntarily reduce water use by up to 10 percent. It is likely, despite recent heavy storms, that the city will call a Stage 2 or 3 by July.
Brian Bruce, with California-American, attended Wednesday's meeting. He said to encourage responsible residential water use, the company is increasing the cost per unit of water as consumption increases. The company will use a three-tiered rate system.
“They're going to get a rude awakening if they're in the third tier,” Bruce told council members, who were concerned that people might not conserve even with the higher rates.
Bruce said the new rates were effective Feb. 1, and that customers'bimonthly bills started going out Wednesday.
Customers received a letter in November about the new rates. Bruce said it took the company longer than anticipated to test its billing system. The letter showed a projected increase of 15 percent from Tier 1 to Tier 2, and a 25 percent increase from Tier 2 to Tier 3.
He would not release the actual water rates, because he said it would be unfair to customers who had not yet received a bill. But, he said, customers will see a 50 percent drop in fixed meter charges, approved by the California Public Utilities Commission. He said conservation tips and rebate information can be found at amwater.com.
During Stage 1 of the city's conservation program, residents are asked to voluntarily cut back on irrigation and vehicle washing, and for restaurants to serve water only when requested. Customers also are asked to voluntarily stop using water to wash sidewalks, driveways and other paved areas. #
Sloshy days not much of a drought-buster
By
With all that rain and snow Sunday, and lots more forecast throughout this week, are the prognosticators of severe drought all wet? No, the weather experts say.
State climatologists counted on such generous precipitation coming at this tail end of winter when they forecast on Friday only a 10 percent chance of the
Sunday's storm raised the amount of total rainfall in
Still, Powell said, "we are so far behind the curve" for the rainy season, November through April – 75 percent of normal for Sacramento in this third consecutive year of drought – and so little of winter left to make up for dry ground.
"The river levels are going up, and we're happy to see it," Powell said. "But there's plenty of room in the reservoirs and at the river banks."
The rain is good for the reservoirs but not necessarily for the Sierra snowpack because the rain is melting snow at lower elevations, weather service meteorologist Robert Baruffaldi said.
The weather service predicts a 100 percent chance of rain today in the southern
The storm that moved in overnight Saturday brought gusts of 30 to 35 mph in the Valley on Sunday.
As of 8 p.m. Sunday, 0.79 of an inch of rain had fallen in the
http://www.sacbee.com/ourregion/story/1645154.html?mi_rss=Our+Region
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