Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
April 9, 2009
5. Agencies, Programs, People –
Garden attendance grows
The
City may buy time to certify levees
The
The
Our Opinion: Cities practicing theater of absurd
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Garden attendance grows
Visitors interested in drought-tolerant landscaping ideas
The
By Anne Kreuger
DETAILS
Hours: Spring, fall and winter: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily, some holidays excepted; June 10-Aug. 31: Closed Mondays; open daily from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., except Wednesdays, when garden is open until 7 p.m.
Where:
Admission: Free; Suggested donation: $4 adults, $1 children.
Phone: (619) 660-0614, ext. 10
On the Web: thegarden.org
RANCHO SAN DIEGO — Splotches of colorful flowers at the Water Conservation Garden, from the bright pink orchid rockrose to the dark red blooms on a New Zealand tea tree, show that saving water doesn't have to result in a drab landscape.
The garden at Cuyamaca College in Rancho San Diego has been seeing a 69 percent increase in visitors since July as more San Diego County residents seek ways to make their backyards more drought-tolerant, said Executive Director Marty Eberhardt.
“
It's the only water conservation garden in
Almost 50,000 visitors are expected at the garden this fiscal year. Eberhardt, who's headed the garden for more than four years, said the majority of visitors used to be gardeners and people with a high degree of environmental awareness.
“Now we're getting people who hadn't thought much about landscaping and weren't worried about water,” she said.
Officials say Southern California's water problems will be worsening as a result of the statewide drought and a reduced supply from
The garden displays plants that require little watering, offers tips on maintenance and irrigation, and suggests attractive alternatives to a yard full of water-sucking grass.
It's a living example of Xeriscaping, or landscaping using drought-resistant plants. But Eberhardt said that term isn't used – it sounds too much like “zero-scaping,” just the opposite of the image the garden wants to convey. Instead, volunteers and staff refer to “water-smart” landscaping.
The Spring Garden Festival being held April 25 will be a special celebration this year in honor of the garden's 10th anniversary. The event features a plant sale, children's activities and talks by water agency officials on financial incentive programs to encourage water conservation.
Paz Herrera, a 72-year-old retired medical scientist, toured the garden recently to find some drought-resistant plants for her home in the Rancho Penas~quitos neighborhood of
“I'm trying to save water for
The garden was created a decade ago by the Otay and Helix water districts as a public demonstration of water-saving landscaping measures.
It's now run by a joint powers authority made up of the San Diego County Water Authority, the Sweetwater Authority and the Helix and Otay water districts as well as the city of
The county water authority contributes $105,000 a year to the garden; Helix and Otay each contribute $78,750 a year; and Sweetwater and
The Padre Dam Municipal Water District, which contributed $63,000 a year to the garden, dropped out in June 2008 as an authority member, but Padre Dam officials say they might rejoin later.
Otay Water District General Manager Mark Watton came to the garden last week to get ideas on improving landscape irrigation at his
“It's pretty clear I need to do more,” he said.
The garden also offers tours with a horticulturist or landscape designer and classes such as “Bye Bye Grass” and “Toss the Turf: Less Water, Less Grass, More Fun!”
Eberhardt said the garden offers practical ways to deal with the enormity of
“People are getting hit with, 'We've got a problem, we've got a problem.' ” she said. “We're a place with solutions. We can help you.” #
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/apr/09/1cz9garden191217-garden-attendance-grows/
City may buy time to certify levees
The
By Jenn Klein
City leaders are looking into signing what's known as a "Provisionally Accredited Levee Designation and Agreement," which states that the city is going to sign an official document that the levees protecting the Mud Creek and Sycamore Creek drainage are built and maintained to be safe. Under the PAL agreement, the city has until January 2011 to complete the documents needed to certify the levees.
"It stops the clock," Fritz McKinley, building and development services director, said Tuesday afternoon.
A decision on whether or not to sign the PAL agreement will go before the Chico City Council, which heard an update on the situation Tuesday night, at its April 21 meeting.
The council also asked City Manager Dave Burkland to request that Congressman Wally Herger, R-Chico, introduce legislation to stop the process or look into tagging onto other legislation that would provide an extension of introductory lower insurance rates for a three-year period, instead of the one year currently proposed.
"This machine needs a big bolt in its gear," City Councilor Larry Wahl said.
The agreement would delay the issuance of new flood maps that would have put much of eastern
In January, the state Department of Water Resources — which owns the levees — and the Butte County Board of Supervisors — which maintains the levees — stated they would not certify the levees.
McKinley said if the city did not sign a PAL, revised flood maps would come out in May, with FEMA creating the new maps as if the levees do not exist. Property owners at that time could buy base flood insurance for a year for $348 to insure the building and its contents, which would increase after a year to $848 to insure the building and an unknown amount to insure its contents. For homeowners who did not purchase the base insurance, the rate would increase after May 2010 to $1,555 for the building and an unknown amount for the contents.
McKinley said the number of federally insured mortgages within the city is about 25,000.
Burkland said Tuesday night the city believed it was "incredible" that FEMA would not recognize the levees, constructed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which the federal government built to their standards.
"The bottom line is they do believe that even if we have levees, even if they are accredited, that everyone needs to buy flood insurance," Burkland said.
City Councilor Scott Gruendl called the situation a "prime example of government gone amok."
"It's a wholesale transference of government responsibility to the private property owner," Gruendl said.
Butte County Supervisor Maureen Kirk, who referred to the remapping as the "FEMA anti-stimulus package," told the council the county wanted to work with the city and do whatever it could to help.
McKinley said if the city is not able to accredit the levees, the same process starts over again. The revised flood plain maps could be released as early as January 2011 and would take effect about a year later, he said. #
http://www.chicoer.com/news/ci_12095205?source=rss
The Times reported last week that a student worker replaced the original labels with ones bearing the county seal at a time when other agencies are being asked to cut back on water purchases.
The
By Garrett Therolf
The move came a week after The Times reported that a student worker peeled the labels off individual water bottles, used a computer to print out custom labels and slapped them on. County officials said it took the worker, who earns $9.92 an hour for a range of duties, only a minute to complete the task.
The relabeling of the bottles for the supervisors' weekly board meetings had been going on for years.
Aides to the supervisors said the special water was needed to avoid giving free advertising to the original bottler on public-access television broadcasts.
But that struck many people as fiscally wasteful, environmentally unfriendly and politically tone deaf.
Workers in some county buildings complained that they did not even have a working drinking fountain.
And others pointed out that supervisors have ordered cuts in recent months that ended bottled water perks for other county workers.
The revelation that supervisors were drinking from customized water bottles at taxpayer expense particularly irritated workers at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, who were told last month that deteriorating finances countywide meant an end to their purified water supply -- which had been delivered to the hospital in 3- and 5-gallon containers.
In a memo, the hospital's chief executive, Miguel Ortiz-Marroquin, expressed regret about the cutback but appealed for understanding from his staff. He pointed out that stopping delivery of the water was a way to cut costs without affecting patient care.#
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-water-bottle9-2009apr09,0,3879389.story?track=rss
Our Opinion: Cities practicing theater of absurd
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Protests are a very American activity. From civil disobedience to picket lines to petitions, we have never shied away from letting the powers that be know exactly how we feel.
That is a good thing, because having our voice heard is a right.
Take the recent water rate protest, for example. Farmers and other rural water users have signed petitions to stop a proposed $3 per acre-foot increase in their rates. It is their right to do so, and they have apparently been successful in garnering those signatures.
But we are less supportive of cities jumping onto the protest bandwagon. Specifically, Holtville, Westmorland and Imperial all voted to seek to have water rates lowered from the current $68 per acre-foot cities currently pay to the $17 per acre-foot paid by farmers. This is, at best, a very strange request to make in the face of a proposed rate increase.
We see this as nothing but a cheap political stunt meant to make local taxpayers think the cities are looking out for them. In this case, they aren’t, because the Imperial Irrigation District won’t be lowering water rates for municipalities. The cities know that, so why would they hold votes like this? The only real answer is political theater.
We say it is theater of the absurd. It is absurd because it is unreasonable and, frankly, ridiculous. Cutting water rates that much would cost the district millions of dollars, so why would the IID ever agree to that? And would cities ever agree to lowering tax rates by more than half if citizens asked for it? Of course not.
We agree with those who say the IID should look to cuts first, but some rate increases over time are necessary — just like the price for other goods and services increase. That’s just reality. But to ask the district to not only suspend a proposed rate increase but also deeply cut the current water rate is either a political stunt or the action of a very misinformed elected body.
Protest all you want; but please, keep this kind of theater on the stage and out of city hall. #
http://www.ivpressonline.com/articles/2009/04/09/our_opinion/ed02_04-09-09.txt
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