A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
April 3, 2009
2. Supply –
Snow not at record lows, but west-side farmers get zilch
The
Drastic water cuts expected for the Bay Area
The San Francisco Chronicle
Officials worried that
The
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Snow not at record lows, but west-side farmers get zilch
The Fresno
By Mark Grossi
Snow surveys this week confirm
At 85% of average on April 1, the snowpack is bigger today than in any season during the 1987-1992 drought -- when west San Joaquin Valley farmers each year got at least some irrigation water.
Yet many west-siders this summer are not supposed to get any federal water, and a few key reservoirs are expected to remain half empty. Why? Laws require more water to flow from rivers to the ocean these days in an attempt to save dying fish species. "You're in an entirely different water management world now," said state climatologist Mike Anderson in
The California Department of Water Resources says 2007-09 is the eighth-driest three-year period on record.
This week, early April snowpack measurements all over the Sierra indicated water supply from snow runoff will be below average, but not at record-low levels. Though more snow may fall in the next eight weeks, April 1 is considered the end of the precipitation season.
The National Weather Service predicts a chance of snow showers Monday and Tuesday from
At this time of year, snowpack measurements are watched closely by cities, industries, farmers and hydroelectric-project operators -- all of whom depend on snowmelt in summer. More than 60% of the state's summertime water is frozen in the snowpack each year.
The snowpack in mountains above the
A similar measurement ritual took place this week in the mountains above the
High-priority federal customers who get San Joaquin water from
But west-siders, such as Westlands Water District, still are told not to expect any deliveries. The west-side water comes from
Giant water pumps at the southern end of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta have been slowed and sometimes stopped so the fish won't be sucked in and killed.
In 1991 and 1992, the state faced a drier time. But Westlands still got 25% of its allotment both years, mainly because many of the wildlife restrictions were not yet in place.
This year, when rivers were running high during a series of February storms, pumping restrictions prevented officials from storing as much water as they would have in the early 1990s.
"If we had this exact same year in the early 1990s before we had the regulatory restrictions, we could have moved 300,000 more acre-feet [into reservoirs]," said Tom Boardman, water resources engineer with the San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority. An acre-foot of water is about 326,000 gallons, which is a 12- to 18-month supply for an average family.
Things could get worse, said Maurice Roos, chief hydrologist for the state Department of Water Resources. He said
"Are we going to get another three years of drought?" Roos asked. "I think we have to bear that as a possibility." #
http://www.fresnobee.com/local/story/1306434.html
Drastic water cuts expected for the Bay Area
Get ready for singed lawns, dusty cars and pricier produce.
"Right now, we're looking at the water we're going to have to work with for the year, and it's all below normal," said Elissa Lynn, chief meteorologist with the state Department of Water Resources. "Conservation is going to be critical."
The
Officials said snowpack would have to be at 120 percent of normal or more to replenish many of the state's reservoirs, some of which hover at just 50 percent of capacity.
The measurements are the fourth of the season and the most important benchmark for water managers across
Although a snowpack 20 percent below average doesn't sound catastrophic, it follows the driest spring in a century in 2008 and recent predictions that
Urgency in the numbers
For many water districts, Thursday's numbers lend even more urgency to water-saving efforts. Some have moved from voluntary to mandatory water cutbacks, while others are beginning to ban certain uses.
In the East Bay, the Contra Costa Water District, which serves more than a half million customers in eastern and central Contra Costa County, voted Wednesday to prohibit hosing down driveways.
The five-member board had discussed a mandatory 15 percent cutback but opted to charge a rate three times higher than average on customers who use more than 1,000 gallons a day and fail to trim consumption by 15 percent.
Supplies below normal
The Santa Clara Valley Water District, which sells water to a dozen cities and towns in
Last week, the agency instituted a 15 percent reduction, prompting local water officials to revisit their own conservation plans.
In
Runoff not allowed
Already, property owners in the
Susan Siravo, spokeswoman for the Santa Clara Valley Water District, expects such measures to become the norm, just as higher-efficiency appliances and plumbing came onto the scene following the last severe drought from 1987 to 1992.
"We're trying to prepare for the worst-case scenarios," Siravo said. "Right now we're not in dire straits, but if our allocations from imported sources are the same next year and the year after that ... that means we'd have to dip further into our reserves."
In the fertile
Part of the decreases stem from environmental orders reducing delta pumping to help boost endangered fish populations.
Almond growers are chopping down trees to sell for firewood, and annual crops such as lettuce and tomatoes are going unplanted, Wade said. Many smaller farms will go out of business, Wade added, with owners selling the land sold to larger farmers who can scrape together enough to weather the dry spell.
Consumers probably will pay higher prices at the grocery store as some farmers shift planting to
"Farmers by nature are resilient," Wade said. "They do everything they can to survive until the next year - but right now what they're doing to survive is pretty drastic."
San Francisco
Although the drought is hammering rural and urban areas alike,
Snowpack in the
Just this week, the agency said it would not impose mandatory rationing this summer and instead would ask for 10 percent voluntary conservation.
Still, officials are attempting to shrink
"The thought of running out of water is scary," Gautier said. "There's nothing like a drought scenario and the anniversary of an earthquake (April 18 for the 1906 quake and fire) to remind us how vulnerable we really are."
Bay Area turns down the tap
Bay Area agencies have imposed a variety of measures to stretch dwindling water supplies. Here is a partial list:
Contra Costa Water District: Hosing down driveways banned in summer. Rates three times higher if customers using more than 1,000 gallons a day fail to cut use by 15 percent.
Marin Municipal Water District: Considering desalination plant. Urging voluntary conservation to avoid mandatory rationing. Offering rebates up to $350 on irrigation equipment and other devices.
East Bay Municipal Water District: Mandatory rationing of 15 percent. Drought surcharges, rate increases enacted.
Santa Clara Valley Water District: Mandatory rationing of 15 percent. Reservoirs are about 64 percent of capacity.#
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/04/03/MNJ916RJ4B.DTL
Officials worried that
The
By Kimberly Ross
Some Shasta County officials are worried that a Fresno-area water district may ask to annex almost 3,000 acres it owns along the McCloud River — a possible move to shift the water rights hundreds of miles south.
The issue will be discussed this morning at the Shasta Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) meeting.
So far, no annexation proposal has been filed by the Westlands Water District, Shasta LAFCO Executive Officer Amy Mickelson said. Westlands, the largest water district in the nation, includes farmland in western
But both she and LAFCO Commissioner Irwin Fust said they and others wonder if annexation would enable Westlands to claim area-of-origin water rights for its farmers hundreds of miles away.
"That is what some folks around here have put forth as a possible scenario," Fust said. "Why else would you spend $35 million for 3,000 acres of land if you didn't want to get something substantial in return?"
Westlands spokeswoman Sarah Woolf said the district bought the Bollibokka Land Co. property bordering 13 miles of the
By purchasing it, the district can ensure the land won't be developed, Woolf said. If houses were built on it, they would drastically hinder a proposal to raise Shasta Dam and increase
"So we've kept it in its natural state and intend to do so until there's a decision on the dam," she said.
Woolf sidestepped a question about why Westlands might also be interested in annexing that land into its water district, hundreds of miles to the south, however. She stressed that no decision had been made.
"I honestly don't know if we would be pursuing that or not. It hasn't been done at this point in time," she said of annexation.
Shasta LAFCO's Mickelson said she took a brief call in January from a Westlands representative about possible annexation of the land, but like hundreds of calls her office takes each year, nothing has come of it since, nor does she think anything ever will develop.
"I truly think this was just a stab in the dark, (to ask) how easy would it be?" she said of
Mickelson mentioned the call in a staff report to Shasta's commissioners to keep them informed, and she's watching
After its call to Shasta LAFCO, the water district called Fresno LAFCO to see if it could decide an annexation request of the
Woolf said Westlands' board hasn't discussed which LAFCO agency should handle the annexation request, if it is ever brought, and said she wasn't aware of calls made to either Shasta or Fresno LAFCOs.
Although the issue isn't settled, the law appears to indicate that if Westlands sought annexation, the LAFCO board in which the district is based would handle its request, Shasta LAFCO legal counsel Liz Johnson said. In this case, that would be Fresno LAFCO.
"I think it's a long shot" for Shasta LAFCO to have jurisdiction, she said.
However, the
Regardless of which agency would handle the land's potential annexation, LAFCO agencies try to avoid creating "islands" of annexed land, Johnson said. Granting such non-contiguous requests are rare, but not unheard of, Johnson said. The Metropolitan Water District of Los Angeles has annexed land in
Meanwhile, with no real action taken by Westlands, there's little else to do unless an annexation proposal is filed, Mickelson said.
"The first question we (would) ask is what is the purpose of this annexation, and because there isn't anything filed, I don't have an answer to that," she said.
Fust disagrees, and requested the item be placed on today's Shasta LAFCO agenda. He thinks the commission might decide to send a letter to Westlands and Fresno LAFCO stating its position.
"Even though nothing has happened yet ... it would probably behoove us to get a little proactive on this and decide whether we in Shasta County feel that this is an ethical way to go, and what we can do at this stage to telegraph our feelings to Westlands Water District and Fresno LAFCO," he said.#
http://www.redding.com/news/2009/apr/02/officials-worried-that-fresno-water-district-may/
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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
No comments:
Post a Comment