Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
March 12, 2009
3. Watersheds –
Inyo planners OK pumping of aquifer
A geothermal plant that provides much-needed tax revenue to the county gains approval to start pumping 3,000 acre-feet from an aquifer that feeds a beloved lake in a frontier-like setting.
Editorial: Something's fishy
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Inyo planners OK pumping of aquifer
A geothermal plant that provides much-needed tax revenue to the county gains approval to start pumping 3,000 acre-feet from an aquifer that feeds a beloved lake in a frontier-like setting.
By Louis Sahagun
Reporting from Independence, Calif. -- It puts out enough electricity to light 250,000 homes and generates a large portion of the tax revenue that funds school districts, a hospital and emergency response in rural Inyo County, east of the cresting Sierra Nevada.
With its own wells in decline, Coso Operating Co.'s geothermal plant was granted a county permit Wednesday to pump water from an aquifer that nourishes a 50-year-old private hunting club, Little Lake Ranch, and its spring-fed wetlands adjacent to U.S. Highway 395.
Coso, which has produced $135 million in property and sales taxes over the last 20 years, had warned that its financial benefits for the county would wane if the permit was denied.
County planners voted unanimously to grant the conditional use permit over the objections of the hunting club, environmentalists and local water commissioners, who argued that the project could cause irreparable damage to a place that still has a frontier quality.
For some, the debate evokes images of the bitter political struggle that ensued when nearby Owens Lake was pumped dry in 1913 to provide water for a burgeoning Los Angeles, 160 miles away.
The current controversy has taken on a sharply adversarial tone, one that underlines what Bruce Pavlik, professor of biology at
"The corporate discussion in proposals to develop these clean, renewable energy industries carefully emphasizes their benefits and ignores their ultimate environmental costs," he said. "But risking the sacrifice of an intact ecosystem for energy development is often a false choice. There are almost always alternatives to explore."
Coso, a privately held company, said the project will boost its electricity output enough to power 50,000 more homes, help address climate change by curtailing the need for carbon-based fossil fuels and reduce dependence on foreign sources of energy.
"We're environmental stewards, and we would not do this at any cost to the environment," said Joe Greco, senior vice president of Terra-Gen Power, one of Coso's parent companies. "What is good for the state and the country is to ensure a renewable source of energy is enhanced."
During an eight-hour planning commission hearing Wednesday, Coso reminded the panel that a final environmental impact report determined that its proposal to extract water from the aquifer and construct a nine-mile pipeline, with mitigation and monitoring, would have no significant effects. The "early warning system" would include 20 wells that would be continually measured by Coso.
If things go awry in the 100-square-mile
The firm originally wanted to pump 4,800 acre-feet of water per year. Instead, the commission approved extraction of 3,000 acre-feet in the first year. Barring unforeseen problems, the amount could be increased to 4,800 within one year.
The water is used to create steam to drive turbines, as well as to cool the system.
Opponents expressed concern about the viability of the safeguards. "It's the fox guarding the chickens," said
Rex Allen, chairman of the Inyo County Water Commission, would not go that far.
"This is a high-stakes poker game and, in this case, the guys on the other side of the table want to enhance the efficiency of their operation as cheaply as possible," Allen said. "The really crucial point, however, is that
Coso's proposal is supported by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the county's water department and
In a letter to county supervisors,
The firm's unfolding plans have prompted creation of an unlikely alliance -- hunters, Audubon Society members, botanists and cattle ranchers -- to try to defeat the proposal, or at least persuade Coso to invest instead in new air-cooled systems that would reduce its need for additional water.
Coso Chief Executive Jim Pagano told the commission that conversion to an air-cooling system, which would cost between $96 million and $216 million, was not an economically or environmentally efficient option.
Opponents' concerns are based, in part, on a hydrology model included in the environmental impact report showing that the Coso project could siphon off as much as 10% of Little Lake's water in less than 18 months without significant effects. Yet, there has been no scientific analysis showing that the wetlands and wildlife could survive such a drawdown, particularly in unusually dry years,
"We're disappointed with the commission's decision,"
Editorial: Something's fishy
A silly little bill has been introduced by a
Republican Jean Fuller says she wants to "strike a balance" in the Delta by allowing more stripers to be taken so more endangered smelt can live.
How thoughtful.
That there is little, if any, scientific basis for Fuller's bill apparently is irrelevant.
Delta populations of smelt, salmon, steelhead, sturgeon and, apparently unknown to Fuller, striped bass have declined significantly in recent years. That makes it difficult to argue that striped bass are satisfying their voracious appetite at the expense of smelt.
Stripers have been part of the Delta ecosystem since they were introduced in 1878, making them native to this area longer than the majority of
Delta smelt are kind of a canary in the mine, an indicator of the health of the vast estuary. The signal they're giving off is that the Delta is sick. The fight now is - as it has been for years - over how to cure it and still use its precious water.
The water supply for about two-thirds of Californians flows through the Delta, but too often by too many, it has been thought of as just a watering hole for vast tracts of agriculture in the south
It is, but it is much more. It is a living, breathing natural wonder that is home to many species of fish, birds, animals and plants. It helps stop the intrusion of salt water from the
Representing as she does an area of the Valley that would drain the Delta tomorrow to get water for agriculture, Fuller's concern for a small, endangered fish she's probably never even seen seems, well, disingenuous.
Here's an idea: If Fuller really is concerned about the plight of the smelt, maybe she could sponsor legislation to turn off the huge pumps that suck water from the Delta and put it in concrete rivers going south. There is considerable scientific evidence that the power of those pumps kills fish by the thousands.#
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090311/A_OPINION01/903110307/-1/A_OPINION
Pact to provide species refuge would be largest of kind in state
By
PARDEE RESERVOIR - Rare beetles, frogs and salamanders might find refuge if a deal between a major water district and federal wildlife officials can be finalized.
The East Bay Municipal Utility District would agree to harbor the threatened species on lands surrounding Pardee and Camanche reservoirs, with the caveat that the district won't be punished if critters occasionally are harmed by its operations.
The tentative 28,000-acre deal is the largest of about a half-dozen "Safe Harbor Agreements" in
The water district would be given permission to incidentally harm or kill species when, for example, it builds a fence or a road, or raises the dam at Pardee Reservoir.
But the district must do its part: Habitat for those species must increase overall for the duration of the 30-year agreement.
"The basic notion is that the landowner agrees to increase habitat above what it was when the agreement was signed," said Michael Bean, an attorney with the conservation group Environmental Defense Fund. "The landowner then has the right to carry out activities that might cause some negative impact," as long as the amount of habitat never drops below its original level.
"Everybody comes out ahead," Bean said.
Throughout the country, roughly 4 million acres of land are covered by Safe Harbor Agreements, according Bean's group, which worked with Fish and Wildlife to begin the program in the mid-1990s.
A similar agreement involving multiple landowners already is in place on the
Safe harbor appeals to property owners who want sensitive species to live on their land but are scared off by the threat of added land-use restrictions. These plans are also more flexible than, say, conservation easements, in which land is protected forever, Bean said.
EBMUD was "urged" by environmentalists to consider a safe harbor plan, district spokesman Charles Hardy said. The agreement does not release the district from getting proper permits to raise Pardee Dam by 33 feet, a controversial proposal to increase the water supply.
"Nothing changes," Hardy said. "There's no protections in here that allows us to raise Pardee that didn't exist before."
Jeff Miller, a spokesman for environmental group Center for Biological Diversity, hadn't seen the draft agreement earlier this week.
"If you're going to give this kind of agreement there better be some really meaty habitat protection or enhancement measures," Miller said. "The bar would have to be pretty high."
Here's some of what EBMUD would be required to do:
» Restore or enhance 220 acres of habitat, including thickets of bushes that host the Valley elderberry longhorn beetle;
» Limit pesticide use and remove invasive species such as bullfrogs, which prey on
» Remove sediment from stock ponds, home to the California tiger salamander and potentially home for the frog, which has been found on neighboring property.
A safe harbor agreement would also streamline the amount of work the district and wildlife officials must do, because the district won'thave to ask permission for every project that could harm wildlife, according to Fish and Wildlife.#
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090312/A_NEWS/903120338/-1/rss14
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