[Water_news] 2. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: SUPPLY - 3/30/09

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment 

 

March 27, 2009

 

2. Supply –

 

Not everyone's well has gone dry

The Hanford Sentinel

 

Sacramento asked to cut back on water use

The Sacramento Bee

 

Nunes addresses water grievances

The Visalia Times-Delta

 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

Not everyone's well has gone dry

The Hanford Sentinel – 3/28/09

By Seth Nidever

The recession has produced plenty of sad Hanford business stories, but Myers Brothers Well Drilling isn’t one of them.

The local company could hardly be busier.

How busy is it? Try 40 employees and seven rigs going 24 hours a day, with barely enough time in between to take a breather before it’s onto the next assignment.

In doesn’t take a genius to figure out one of the main reasons for the gush of work, especially on the Westside.

Farmers in the Westlands Water District are getting no surface water deliveries from the Sacramento Delta this year, the result of three years of below-average snowpack and pumping cutbacks to protect endangered species.

 

Growers are digging deep to find the right quality and amounts of ground water to keep their permanent crops alive.

Orchard and vine crops, which many producers have switched to because of their year-round profitability, require constant watering and years of growth before they reach a productive stage.

So they represent a huge investment that farmers are willing to spend big money to protect.

That means new wells that Myers Brothers can sink as far as 1,400 feet below ground level in search of aquifers that have enough volume and low enough salt levels.

“We can’t get to [farmers] fast enough. If the crop is failing, we try our best to work them in,” said Glenn Myers, who at age 76 is one of four brothers who started drilling wells in the Laton area more than half a century ago.

Now Glenn and Roy, who is 80, are the only ones left.

And they aren’t living in a Florida retirement home.

At the company’s office off East Lacey Boulevard, Glenn shows up to work in a cowboy hat and boots. There are a couple of autographed George W. Bush pictures on the wall.

And there are plenty of photographs of well-drilling rigs.

The technology has evolved over the years, but it still requires the kind of hard work and elbow grease that has toughened Glenn Myers.

The kind of ethic that has given the business a Redding-to-Bakersfield notoriety.

“They’re good people. They’re hard-working folks,” said Tim Larson, a client on the Westside.

Business has never been bad, Glenn Myers said, but the phones started ringing off the hook in December 2007, when farmers received the announcement of a federal court decision to curtail pumping from the Delta to protect the endangered Delta Smelt fish.

“It’s been pretty fast and furious,” said Sarah Woolf, spokeswoman for Westlands, which covers 600,000 acres and serves 60 farmers mostly in Kings and Fresno counties.

Some farmers are going even deeper than Myers Brothers can drill.

They’re shelling out $1 million or more for wells in the 2,000 foot-range, a depth sometimes necessary to reach the often hard-to-find good water on the Westside.

“It’s kind of like saving your child. You do anything and everything you can to save it. At this moment, there’s not an alternative,” Woolf said.

Glenn Myers doesn’t see much letup in the demand.

He predicted that even when the drought ends, farmers worried about it happening again will keep his rigs going.

“We drill the best wells that are to be drilled,” he said.#

 

http://www.hanfordsentinel.com/articles/2009/03/28/news/doc49cdc10d683fa211131743.txt

 

 

Sacramento asked to cut back on water use

The Sacramento Bee – 3/28/09

By Bill Lindelof

About 60,000 Sacramento households and businesses are being urged to cut back their water use to help ease the pressure caused by California's ongoing drought.

 

California American Water Co. on Friday announced a voluntary water conservation program, asking customers to water plants every other day only, and immediately halt all gutter flooding.

 

For now, it's a call for voluntary action, said Evan Jacobs, spokesman for the water utility.

 

Utility officials hope their customers take the alert seriously enough to avoid mandatory water rationing later on.

 

The utility sells groundwater and river water to customers in 10 water service areas, including Foothill Farms, Antelope, Arden, Isleton, Walnut Grove and western Placer County.

 

California American customers are one step short of joining more than 400,000 people in the Sacramento region who are already under severe water rationing rules.

Despite a recent parade of storms over Northern California – and a few feet of new snow in the Sierra Nevada – state water officials say California is in the third year of a drought. The rain season is almost over, and farmers are already looking at drastic cuts in federal irrigation water this season. State officials have also said they will deliver only 20 percent of the farming water they normally release in spring and summer.

 

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last month declared a water emergency and urged Californians to cut use by 20 percent. So far, water agencies up and down the state have responded with a mix of mandatory and voluntary conservation efforts.

 

Both the San Juan Water District and the city of Folsom ordered all their water customers to reduce consumption 20 percent. Water cops are on patrol and fines for repeat offenders will back up the rationing orders.

 

Roseville has imposed a similar requirement.

 

California American Water Co., however, hopes voluntary action will be enough.

 

"If we all work together, we can potentially avoid mandatory conservation measures or rationing and help ensure there is enough water for everyone, including families, schools and businesses," said California American Water's general manager, Steve Seidl.

 

California American Water urged its customers to voluntarily end "nonessential or unauthorized water uses" including:

 

• Wasting water due to broken plumbing or sprinklers.

• Washing vehicles without a shut-off on the hose nozzle.

• Washing sidewalks, driveways, parking lots and tennis courts in a manner that results in excessive runoff.

• Watering landscaping more often than every other day. Even-numbered addresses water on even-numbered days; odd-numbered addresses on odd-numbered days.

• Serving water to diners except upon request of restaurant patron. #

 

http://www.sacbee.com/city/story/1735754.html

 

Nunes addresses water grievances

The Visalia Times-Delta – 3/29/09

By Luis Hernandez

 

Congressman, others blast management of water resources at rally

 

Water shortages hurting California aren't caused by drought alone, but also by environmentalist programs that cut supplies to farmers, Congressman Devin Nunes said during a water seminar Friday.

 

"There's plenty of water," he said. "The problem is taking it to where it needs to go."

 

Nunes made his comments Friday at a two-hour seminar called "Water Supply Reality Check" at the Tulare County Agriculture Commissioner's Office in Tulare.

And while saying he didn't want his message to appear politically charged, Nunes, R-Visalia, said Democrats are the ones to blame.

 

"The radical environmentalists control the Democrats," Nunes said, referring to wildlife-preservation programs, such as one involving salmon in the San Joaquin River.

 

Panelist Thomas Birmingham, Westlands Water District general manager, agreed with Nunes.

 

"We're not in a dry period, not a drought," he said. "The situation is a failure of political leadership."

 

Westlands Water District stretches from Firebaugh to Kettleman City but not into Tulare County.

 

Birmingham said he also feared farmers, sooner than they think, could be out of business because of a lack of water. Some farmers already are out, he said.

And that will translate to high unemployment rates in across the San Joaquin Valley.

 

"The real story is what is happening to people," Birmingham said, while showing newspaper photos of a recent food giveaway in Mendota. "They waited for hours only to learn food had run out."

 

During the two-hour seminar, those in attendance suggested putting together regional organizations to tackle water issues.

 

"That's what it'll take," said Tulare City Councilman Richard Ortega, one of those in attendance.

 

There was mention of future rallies, demanding water for farmers and growers who will then employ farm workers.

 

Such demonstrations will tell elected officials people want change, Nunes said.

 

Nunes continues to boil over water issues. Earlier this week he blasted a bill that would allow water that now flows through the Friant-Kern canal through eastern Tulare County to be redirected down the San Joaquin River. Supporters, however, say the bill would provide millions of dollars for Valley water systems.#

 

http://www.visaliatimesdelta.com/article/20090328/NEWS01/903280314/1002/NEWS01

 

 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

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 California.