Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
March 27, 2009
5. Agencies, Programs, People –
Battle
The
Program wets students' appetite for climate wisdom
The
Opinion:
The
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Battle
The
By Jeff Quackenbush
Farm Groups concerned Mendocino case could expand water regulation
State water regulators allege that reservoirs in a 162-acre mountaintop vineyard property on the Mendocino coast need permits from the agency, but a statewide farming trade group asserts this is a test case to expand agency authority beyond defined waterways.
The California Farm Bureau Federation plans to testify at an April 20 public hearing in
“I think this is an attempt by staff of the board to clarify or expand their jurisdiction,” he said.
A public hearing before the State Water Resources Control Board is set for April 20 on a draft cease-and-desist order and administrative civil liability complaint involving Manchester Ridge Coast Mountain Vineyards located on flat-topped Adams Ridge east of Point Arena on the Mendocino coast.
Board staff recommended a fine of $23,870, according to the complaint, filed last July. The maximum penalty allowed is $500 a day, or $547,500 for the three years water board staff allege problems.
Named in the complaint are Manchester Ridge property owners Harriet Jean Piper, William Piper, Matthew Piper, Carole Canaveri and Kathleen Stornetta as well as vineyard operator Manchester Ridge LLC.
They and their attorneys at Ellison Schneider & Harris in
“Sheet flow” is rain water that flows over the ground across a wide area, rather than in a defined waterway. The state farm bureau is worried that this action could expand state regulation to sheet-flow reservoirs created from damming swales, low spots in fields or depressions in hillsides, according to Mr. Rice.
“No one really knows the number of ponds this would affect,” said Mendocino County Farm Bureau Executive Director Devon Jones. “There are a number out there.”
Water board staff disagree that this is an expansion of jurisdiction. Rather, this is part of agency regulation of surface water, according to a spokesman.
“We believe two of those reservoirs have a streambed and bank,” said spokesman David Clegern. “The irony is that part of the evidence came off their own Web site.”
Mentioned in the complaint is an aerial photograph of the vineyard, dated August 2006 that shows water in reservoir No. 1, which holds 30 acre-feet of water, and in the area to be occupied by planned reservoir No. 3.
The water board filing alleges that these ponds “have reduced the amount of water available for downstream diverters,” referring to other growers and property owners that would be tapping water from the Alder Creek system. Also, the complaint said that unauthorized diversions of water from that watershed contribute to a cumulative impact on habitat of federally protected steelhead trout and Coho salmon.
The farming groups are making it clear they are involved with the Manchester Ridge case strictly for the sheet-flow reservoir issue and not about whether the previous vineyard manager followed proper permitting procedure. State forestry officials inspecting the second phase of the vineyard project alerted water board staff to four ponds on the property, two of which the staff claims are part of waterways. The 30-acre third phase of the vineyard project along with reservoir No. 3 were never started.
Manchester Ridge in November 2003 submitted a wetland-delineation study that noted that stream channels leading to the Alder Creek watershed begin where groundwater comes to the surface downhill from the reservoirs in question, according to the complaint. Vineyard manager at the time Chris Stone, who left in 2004, asserted in that letter that the wetland survey showed the reservoirs weren’t under the board’s jurisdiction.
Water board staff in early 2004 reiterated their original opinion after reviewing the wetland study, according to the complaint.#
Program wets students' appetite for climate wisdom
The
By Dana M. Nichols
If you want to understand
"It seems like it is raining, but it is still a drought," said Kelly Baird, 10, a fifth-grade student at
Baird, like all fifth-graders in
Drought in schools
Although students learn some concepts related to rain and weather in first grade, it is in fifth grade that they study ideas necessary to understanding drought -- things like the water vapor/precipitation cycle, weather patterns, and what those patterns mean for rivers and the water supply used by fish and humans. To see the science standards set for various grade levels for
"We saw a chart of how it was really good in 2000, and then it dropped," Baird said of
Baird and her classmates may have a particularly keen water awareness.
Sarah Johnston, the teacher in their combined fourth- and fifth-grade classroom, was formerly a stream biologist, so science lessons sometimes include dissecting water-dwelling creatures such as a salmon that died after it spawned in the
And the students know their school is smack in the middle of the Upper Mokelumne River Watershed, which supplies water to farms and towns from San Andreas, to
"If we don't take care of it, they're all going to get gross water," said fourth-grade student Mark Welsh, 10.
Not all students will learn as much about rainfall and drought as those in
"We're kind of doing it on the sly. But nothing like the kids really need. We are trying to fit it in," said Karin Compise, a fifth-grade teacher at
Compise said this month she is beginning a unit on the water evaporation and rainfall cycle, but she doubts students at her school will get a solid understanding of the drought from the limited amount she of time she can spend on weather patterns.
Later in the school year,
"I think it's hugely important for kids to realize their (geographic) place,"
That same philosophy at
"We are right across from the Calaveras now, and we do things on water and water cycles," West said.
Students this spring are hatching salmon eggs and raising fingerlings to release in the
The D-word also comes up often during science lessons at Kohl, West said.
"We talk with the kids about that all the time. They say 'Bud, how come it is raining and we still have a drought?' "#
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090330/A_NEWS/903300315/-1/A_NEWS04
Opinion:
The
By Dennis Wyatt
Even so, the summit that towers 3,849 feet provides one of the most awe-inspiring views you’ll ever see.
Sunday’s strong breezes cleared the skies to allow you to see one of
The view from the grand peak of the
The first European to ascend the summit were those in the exploration party led by Juan Bautista de Anza and Father Pedro Font of
Standing on the summit you can see exactly how man has molded what Mother Nature created. Many of the 1,000 plus miles of the levees in the Delta are visible. The California Aqueduct is seen snaking its way to
It should qualify as the 8th wonder of the world as what you see transformed California into the equivalent of the world’s seventh largest economy and made its Central Valley – the world’s largest ranging from 40 to 60 miles wide and more than 450 miles long stretching from Redding to the base of the Tehachapi Mountains – one of the richest agricultural regions on the planet.
As you stand looking out from the wind-swept summit of
Over a century ago, the
Water management changed all of that.
The Delta, where numerous fish spawn, often would retreat much farther than it is today as many rivers – including the
We thrive and survive today because of California’s water system that is so vast that even on a summit like Mt., Diablo with panoramic views as much as 200 miles in some directions you can’t take in even half of the area transformed by redirecting water or even see the bulk of the enhanced natural conveyance system of rivers kept within their banks by levees or manmade canals.
Yet below there are countless people wasting that resource as we enter the third year of drought by hosing down concrete and letting water flood into gutters and down storm drains.
That wanton waste will cost Us dearly in the coming months perhaps even more so than the fallout from the foreclosure mess. It will mean tens of thousands of lost jobs for poor families in the Southern San Joaquin Valley where farms are now being allowed to go fallow. That, in turn, will mean higher food prices for all of us.
We are spoiled and we are the biggest threat when it comes to our future prosperity.
Ignorance of the value of water and how it gets to our spigots isn’t bliss. It can easily become catastrophic if we – as a collective state – don’t start treating water as the valuable resource that it is especially in a continuing drought.#
http://www.mantecabulletin.com/news/article/2654/
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DWR’s California Water News is distributed to California Department of Water Resources management and staff, for information purposes, by the DWR Public Affairs Office. For reader’s services, including new subscriptions, temporary cancellations and address changes, please use the online page: http://listhost2.water.ca.gov/mailman/listinfo/water_news . DWR operates and maintains the State Water Project, provides dam safety and flood control and inspection services, assists local water districts in water management and water conservation planning, and plans for future statewide water needs. Inclusion of materials is not to be construed as an endorsement of any programs, projects, or viewpoints by the Department or the State of
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