[Water_news] 5. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: AGENCIES, PROGRAMS, PEOPLE - 4/01/09

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment

 

April 1, 2009

 

5. Agencies, Programs, People –

 

At hearing, Calaveras residents blast Pardee plans

The Stockton Record

 

Placer Flood Control District earns honors for Miners Ravine Project

Rocklin & Roseville Today

 

ACID profiting from drought, water sales

The Anderson Valley Press

 

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At hearing, Calaveras residents blast Pardee plans

Raising reservoir would inundate bridges, rec spots

The Stockton Record – 4/01/09

By Dana M. Nichols

 

SAN ANDREAS - In June, in a meeting room about 100 miles west of San Andreas, the seven directors of East Bay Municipal Utility District will vote on long-term plans that could doom one of the few remaining stretches of publicly accessible whitewater on the Mokelumne River.

 

The plan that will come to a vote then - the district's Water Supply Management Plan through 2040 - calls for possibly raising the level of Pardee Reservoir 33 feet, drowning Middle Bar Bridge, the current Highway 49 bridge over the Mokelumne, and another mile of the Electra whitewater run above the Highway 49 bridge.

 

What folks in Calaveras County wonder is whether their objections to the project will carry any weight, given that there are fewer than 50,000 people in Calaveras County. In contrast, EBMUD has more than 1 million customers, and those people elect EBMUD's directors.

 

But if Calaveras residents don't influence the decision, it won't be for lack of trying. EBMUD Board of Directors Chairman Doug Linney told the 186 people who turned out Monday night at San Andreas Town Hall that they were twice as many as the combined total who attended the previous four public hearings since March 16 on the 2040 plan.

 

"Your comments tonight are just as important as every other meeting we've had," said Linney, who was joined by fellow EBMUD directors Katie Foulkes and Andy Katz.

 

Many speakers were skeptical that the hearing would make a difference and said they are preparing for a prolonged struggle to prevent destruction of a stretch of river they say is important for recreation, its history, the plants growing on its shores and the health of the Mother Lode economy.

 

"You will meet tremendous resistance for this," said San Andreas resident Tillman Sherman, who serves on the boards of a number of organizations, including San Andreas Sanitary District. "We are fed up with people coming up here and pillaging our environment."

 

Marge Grow, a California Valley Miwok, said raising Pardee would inundate a place where she gathers black willow for traditional Miwok weaving.

 

"This is one of the cradle boards from that willow patch," Grow said, showing the board to the EBMUD directors.

David Blau, a consultant with the firm hired by EBMUD to study the agency's 2040 water needs, said EDAW analyzed more than 100 ways that EBMUD could reduce water consumption and increase supply to cope with growing demand over the next 31 years.

 

Blau said that around 2025 - in 16 years - EBMUD must decide between building a de-salination plant or raising dams including Pardee in the Sierra.

 

"It's an either-or decision at this point," he said.

 

Calaveras County officials and business leaders made sure EBMUD directors knew the degree of interest. Steve Wilensky, the supervisor who represents the area on the Calaveras County side of the affected stretch of the Mokelumne, helped organize Monday's hearing and was its first speaker.

 

Wilensky noted the hard economic times and that tourism is one of the few parts of the local economy that has potential to grow.

 

George Wendt, founder and president of OARS, a Calaveras County-based action adventure firm that offers whitewater rafting trips, told EBMUD officials that the stretch of the Mokelumne above Pardee could be a prime commercial rafting area.

 

Currently, only one commercial raft trip a year, a fundraiser for the nonprofit Calaveras Youth Mentoring Program, is allowed on the stretch from Electra Powerhouse to Middle Bar.

 

Many who spoke at the hearing said the issue is one that should force humans to confront limits and stop the pattern of demanding to consume ever more natural resources such as the waters of the Mokelumne.

 

That's the way Christine Coleman sees the Mokelumne. "It is a very sacred place for us," Coleman said.#

 

http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090401/A_NEWS/904010313

 

Placer Flood Control District earns honors for Miners Ravine Project

Rocklin & Roseville Today – 3/31/09

 

The Placer County Flood Control and Water Conservation District has recently received two awards for an innovative flood control project in Western Placer County on the border between Roseville and the unincorporated area of the county. The project is called the Miners Ravine Off-Channel Detention Basin and is located on a 26-acre parcel just west of Sierra College Boulevard near the intersection of Olympus Drive.

 

The $4.8 million project, finished in 2007, was granted the prestigious Sustainable Project of the Year Award by the Sacramento Chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers. In addition, the project, which includes recreational and environmental restoration improvements, earned an engineering excellence award of merit from the American Council of Engineering Companies.

 

The project mitigates increased flows within the Dry Creek Watershed caused by development in the past few decades. The project uses an off-channel detention basin to temporarily store a portion of peak flood flows for up to six hours in order to slow the release of the waters back into Miners Ravine. The gravity-draining design did not change the surrounding floodplain elevation, does not trap fish and prevents over-topping of Sierra College Boulevard. Miners Ravine continues to flow through the area unimpeded when high water flows are not present.

 

In addition to enhancing flood control, the project includes a multi-use trail, interpretive signing and trailhead parking. The stream channel and nearby wetlands are protected and have been improved, with non-native vegetation removed. A levee that was previously present was set back, reconstructed to state jurisdictional dam requirements and serves to reduce the confinement of the creek channel. This feature enhances floodplain function and habitat value.

 

“Through extensive coordination and involvement of local stakeholders, regulatory agencies and the interested public during the planning and design, we developed a win-win type of project with multi-objective and complementary components of flood control, recreation and restoration.  We hope to find similar solutions to flood control needs in the future,” explains Brian Keating, District Engineer with the Placer County Flood Control and Water Conservation District.  

 

The project benefits the District, the City of Roseville and both Placer and Sacramento counties with reduced flooding impacts. The final design of the project was selected by the District and a stakeholder committee formed to solicit public involvement and was chosen due to its superior technical, financial, environmental and permitting aspects. Once the design was chosen, the District conducted its environmental analysis. In addition to reducing the flood threat, the project has opened recreational activities and improved habitat for salmon and steelhead.

 

The project sits on District land west of, and adjacent to, Sierra College Boulevard, one half mile north of Douglas Boulevard.

 

The Placer County Flood Control and Water Conservation District was created by an act of the state Legislature in 1984 and includes elected officials from Placer County and the cities and towns of Loomis, Roseville, Rocklin, Lincoln and Auburn. The District goal is to protect lives and property from the effects of flooding through comprehensive and coordinated flood prevention planning, use of consistent standards to evaluate flood risk, implementing regional flood control measures and the operation and management of a regional flood warning system.#

 

http://www.rocklintoday.com/news/templates/community_news.asp?articleid=7397&zoneid=4

 

ACID profiting from drought, water sales

The Anderson Valley Press – 3/31/09

By Michael Woodward

 

While California's drought is leaving many farmers and irrigation districts dry, the Anderson-Cottonwood Irrigation District (ACID) stands to profit over $220,000 through the sales of water rights to such dry districts, according to ACID Director Stan Wangberg.

 

ACID has contracted sales to districts in Shasta Lake City, Bella Vista, and Shasta Community Services District according to Wangberg. ACID was on the verge of completing a deal Friday with Kanawha Water District, near Willows. Sales to the district would net about $139,000 of the $220,000 listed above. The amount of water sold to Kanawha amounts to less than three days supply to the ACID district.

 

Although the ACID was curtailed by 25 percent by the Bureau of Reclamation earlier this year, Wangberg said Monday that the district was upgraded to receive 100 percent allotment. The ACID owns a settlement contract containing pre-1914 water rights, which predate the Central Valley Project.

 

Although the irrigation district has extra water to sell, it does not come out of ACID customer's share.

 

Wangberg explained that water the customers use comes out of a base supply for which the district pays no extra fees.

The allotment of water that the ACID is selling to other districts is earmarked as Central Valley Project comes with additional price to the district, approximately $9.03 per acre foot.

 

"That water is prohibitively expensive," ACID board member Ron Jones said.

 

Revenue from the water sales is to be used partly to implemement $60,000 of capital improvement projects, Wangberg said. Repairs would include canal lining for the Churn Creek lateral and repairs to Cottonwood Creek siphon.

 

A wet year in which no water would be needed by other districts could cost ACID $100,000, Wangberg added.

 

In other business, the ACID received a settlement contract from Traveler's Insurance regarding a claim against the driver of a semi-truck trailer who struck the ACID canal over Bruce Street in Anderson.

 

The insurance agency offered to pay $74,000 of the $168,000 the ACID payed for engineering and construction costs to fixt the canal, Wangberg said, adding that he was in contact with legal counsel to get a larger share from the insurance agency.#

 

http://www.andersonvalleypost.com/news/2009/mar/31/acid-profiting-from-drought-water-sales/

 

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