A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
February 24, 2009
2. Supply –
Rain helps, but it's just a drop in the bucket
San Francisco Chronicle
Report: Enlarging Los Vaqueros Reservoir could solve water woes
Contra Costa Times
Reservoirs need more rains
Weekend soaking brings state precipitation total to 90 percent of normal
Marysville Appeal Democrat
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Rain helps, but it's just a drop in the bucket
San Francisco Chronicle – 2/24/09
By Kelly Zito, staff writer
(02-23) 20:43 PST -- To get a sense of how little the rainstorms over the past week have added to California's water supply, consider this: Volume in the state's largest reservoir, Shasta Lake, edged up by just 1 percent of the lake's capacity.
It's the proverbial drop in the bucket.
Despite heavy showers that delayed flights, felled trees and caused some flooding around
"When you look at the totality of the inflow, it's pretty insignificant when you see where we are in three years of drought," said Pete Lucero, spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which operates pumps and canals that water much of the Central Valley's agricultural land and some urban areas, including parts of the East Bay.
The Contra Costa Water District, which serves 550,000 residents in central and eastern
"Our customers have been very responsive, with 7 to 8 percent conservation in peak months," said Jennifer Allen, spokeswoman for the district. "But it's likely we're going to have to ask for more."
Water districts across Central and
Parched soil has soaked up much of the precipitation so far, and snowpack in the Sierra Nevada - the source of most of
That doesn't sound bad - but considering that the last two years were well below average, it would take a massive snowpack well above 100 percent of normal to alleviate the drought.
"It's like a big ship: It takes a lot of time to swing it around," said Elissa Lynn, chief meteorologist with the state Department of Water Resources. "Even if the next 10 days are good, I doubt we could declare the drought over because the reservoirs are so, so low."
Officials at the Bureau Reclamation, which made the staggering announcement Friday that many state farmers would receive no water at all from its system this year unless conditions improve substantially, hope the recent storms point to a trend. That might allow them to turn the spigot on - slightly - for those
"We'd be able to create a much better forecast - something higher than zero," Lucero said. "But those farmers won't see 75 percent (allotment) unless we have some epic, Noah-type storms."
Spring deluges have occurred. In March 1993, more than 33 inches of rain fell, helping to end the prolonged drought of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Such instances are so rare, however, that water planners call it the "March miracle."
The status of each water district is different. Southern California's rainfall total, for example, is closer to normal for the year than the rainfall totals in Central and
The recent inundation has put the probability of enacting mandatory rationing this summer at 21 percent, down from 53 percent probability two weeks ago, said Michael Carlin, assistant general manager of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission.
"These past couple of storms have been good news," he said. "Things are looking better than we originally thought."
Not so for other Bay Area districts. At the East Bay Municipal Utility District, which serves 1.3 million in
In total, the agency has about 400,000 acre-feet in storage - two-thirds of the ideal of 600,000 acre-feet.
"With all this (recent) rain, people are thinking, 'We don't have to worry about conservation anymore,' " said agency spokesman Charles Hardy. "But that's just not true. Things could get worse, and we could possibly have half of our system storage. At that level, the red lights go on."#
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/24/MNVC16337V.DTL
Report: Enlarging Los Vaqueros Reservoir could solve water woes
Contra Costa Times – 2/23/09
By Mike Taugher, staff writer
Enlarging an eastern Contra Costa reservoir to nearly three times its current size could alleviate some of the Delta's environmental problems and stabilize water supplies in the Bay Area, according to an environmental report released Monday.
The report, by the Contra Costa Water District and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, says if other Bay Area water agencies hook into Los Vaqueros Reservoir, fewer fish will be killed at massive pumping stations near Tracy that are run by the state and federal governments.
The protective intake screens at the reservoir near
And beyond that, a larger reservoir could also stabilize water supplies in the Bay Area during droughts, the report said.
Despite recent rains,
Adding to the concern of water managers from the Bay Area to
"It looks like the right project at the right time, given the problems in the Delta," said Contra Costa Water District assistant general manager Greg Gartrell.
The report lays out four options, three of which would expand the reservoir from 100,000 to 275,000 acre-feet. It also details a smaller expansion to 160,000 acre-feet that would boost drought supplies for Contra Costa and other Bay Area districts that participate.
The project would inundate from 400 acres to 1,000 acres of the watershed, including grassland along the western bank of the reservoir that is a potential corridor for the endangered
The fate of the project will likely depend on whether Bay Area water agencies, state and federal water agencies, or environmental regulators want to invest in the project.
The two most likely Bay Area participants are the Alameda County Flood Control and Water Conservation District, Zone 7, which serves
The districts would only say they are still analyzing their water supply options. Their discretion is not surprising: How the project's costs are allocated would be subject to intense negotiations and local water agencies have little incentive to immediately jump on board.
"Nobody is saying no," Gartrell said.
The original $450 million reservoir was approved by Contra Costa voters in 1988 and is one of the newest surface water reservoirs in
Increasing Los Vaqueros from 100,000 acre-feet to 275,000 acre-feet and building pipelines to connect it to other Bay Area water agencies would cost about $900 million and take about three years to build, Gartrell said.
The smaller version would cost less than $100 million and take a year to complete, Gartrell said.
The district's board has committed to no increase in rates for the district's customers, meaning expansion depends on the willingness of other agencies to invest in it.
The environmental report scrapped plans for an even larger expansion to 500,000 acre-feet that had been under consideration when voters in 2004 said the project was worth a look.
That expansion would have required rebuilding the dam, while all the alternatives now under consideration would raise the existing dam.
The environmental impact report now goes into a 60-day public comment period. The Contra Costa Water District's board of directors could decide whether to proceed with expansion plans this summer.
Public hearings are scheduled from March 23 to April 2 in
http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_11769517?source=rss
Reservoirs need more rains
Weekend soaking brings state precipitation total to 90 percent of normal
Marysville Appeal Democrat – 2/24/09
By Howard Yune
The National Weather Service says after the past weekend's drenching — which brought precipitation to as many as 6 inches for the past two weeks — the state's rainfall total through Sunday night stands at 90 percent of normal. Locally, 1.95 inches fell over Yuba-Sutter from Friday to Monday, according to George Cline, an NWS forecaster in
Federal and state officials reported modest gains in water levels at
"We're running out of time; we have a 10-15 percent chance of achieving that," said Amy Norris, spokeswoman for the DWR, which manages Oroville Dam.
On Monday, the DWR reported
This month's rain has pulled reservoir levels up from their historically low levels from the start of February: 43 percent of the average in
Though most of the danger to farm fields has been to communities in the southern valley,
"The entire almond district from Orland down to Dunnigan, tens of thousands of trees could be at risk," he said Monday. "It's probably the worst conditions there in my 30 years as a farm adviser."
February's rains are a somewhat mixed blessing for the almond crop, since they disrupt bee pollination and raise the risk for fungal diseases on the nuts. But Edstrom declared the region's — and state's — need for more moisture overrides everything else.
"We're above normal (rainfall) for the month but still below normal for the year," he said. "A wet February and March hopefully can make up for that."
Rain in the Forecast
National Weather Service's Yuba-Sutter forecast this week:
• Today: Partly sunny; high temperature of 64 degrees.
• Tonight: Mostly cloudy with a 20 percent chance of showers; low of 44.
• Wednesday: A 40 percent chance of rain during the day, increasing to 60 percent after dark. High of 61, low of 42.
• Thursday: A 50 percent chance of showers by day, tapering down in the evening to 30 percent. High of 59, low of 42.
• Friday: A slight chance of showers throughout the day. High of 61, low of 42.
• Saturday: Mostly cloudy with a chance of rain throughout. High of 61, low of 42.
• Sunday: Rain possible over the day. High of 62, low of 41.#
http://www.appeal-democrat.com/news/weeks_74655___article.html/northern_weather.html
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