[Water_news] 5. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: AGENCIES, PROGRAMS, PEOPLE - 5/29/09

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment

 

May 29, 2009

 

5. Agencies, Programs, People –

 

Time for the water district to answer a few questions

The Morgan Hill Times

 

Historic Mt. Whitney Fish Hatchery to re-open to public

The Inyo Register

 

Carping About Water Rates

The Santa Barbara Independent

 

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Time for the water district to answer a few questions

The Morgan Hill Times – 5/28/09
 By Morgan Hill Editorial Board

Santa Clara Valley Water District Director Sig Sanchez - who represents Morgan Hill - recently penned a bristling and lengthy letter to the editor defending the bloated agency which has been raked over the coals by the Santa Clara County Grand Jury, embarrassed by its own internal hiring monkey business and now beaten badly in a court decision by a small, privately owned water company in a lawsuit that could - and should - cost the district millions.

For Mr. Sanchez, we request that he take up his pen again and answer a few questions for the folks that are paying the water bills:

- Please explain the following: The Santa Clara Valley Water District has about 825 budgeted employees for 1.7 million customers. In comparison, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California serves more than 19 million customers with about 2,000 employees. That's one employee for every 2,000 customers for SCVWD and one employee for every 9,500 customers for the MWD. If the MWD had the same employee-to-customer ratio, it would have nearly 10,000 employees. That would be one incredible hiring splurge.

- Mr. Sanchez, has it been the practice of the Santa Clara Valley Water District to budget for positions, then leave those positions unfilled, yet still include those unfilled positions in its calculations for ground water extraction charges to retailers - like the cities of Morgan Hill and Gilroy - in other words, baking the budget fraudulently? If that's not the case, explain why the court found that to be the case in the suit recently won against the district by the Great Oaks Water Company?

- Explain why the Santa Clara Valley Water District Board repeatedly ignored the Proposition 218 requirement passed by voters in 1996 which specifies that voters must approve property-related fees - specifically groundwater extraction fees in this case - when it was very clear from multiple court rulings that Proposition 218 was applicable?

- Lastly, for now, please detail exactly how much you and your fellow board members have approved spending for the law firm of Duane Morris to defend the water district in the multiple lawsuits involving charges of invalid fees for groundwater extraction and violations of Prop 218 that Great Oaks Water Company has filed against the district. The ratepayers would like to know the total amount paid, all attorneys involved and each of their hourly charges and a list of all legal expenses related to the lawsuits.

We won't even bother asking why the water district hired an out-of-the-area, out-of-its-delivery-scope San Francisco law firm. Great call to support the ailing Silicon Valley economy … but we digress.

Those aren't all the questions we have, but it's a start. For now, the questions about adding two new board members (and the expense, of course), redrawing representation boundaries and clandestinely rewriting the District Act, will wait. We thank you for your time and attention in advance.

P.S. - Please don't engage any high-priced attorneys to respond to this. It's written in straightforward, plain English, and responses in a like manner from our representative would be most appreciated.#

 

http://www.morganhilltimes.com/opinion/256480-time-for-the-water-district-to-answer-a-few-questions

 

Historic Mt. Whitney Fish Hatchery to re-open to public

The Inyo Register – 5/28/09

By Mike Bodine

After fires and floods, the Mount Whitney Fish Hatchery is ready to accept visitors – but, for now, just the human type.

 

The hatchery is not yet ready, physically or financially, to return to the world-class egg producing hatchery it once was.

On July 5-6, 2007, the Inyo Complex Fire burned 55,000 acres west of the hatchery, then a year later, almost to the day, on July 12, 2008, a fierce thunderstorm in the area caused massive flooding damage to the hatchery. Two employee residences and two spawning buildings were lost and the water and pipe infrastructure of the hatchery was destroyed.

 
Thousands of volunteer man hours have gone into cleaning up the ponds and grounds at the hatchery site that were damaged or destroyed by the flood, according to Bruce Ivey, president of the Friends of the Mount Whitney Hatchery.

 
“It’s the most beautiful it’s looked in years,” Ivey said of the outside grounds. And to commemorate the reopening of the hatchery as a setting for small gatherings or weddings, the Friends are inviting the public to a reopening party and dinner at 5 p.m., Saturday, May 30, at the hatchery north of Independence. Tickets are $10.

 

Ivey explained that while the grounds are gorgeous, the main building was left as is. He said the building was not severely damaged. “The rooms were flooded from the water pipes, the flood water never made it under the door or through the windows.”

According to Ivey, the main building had not been cleaned, but was left to serve as an example for visitors of the extent of the flood damage.

Ivey said that while the state cannot afford to clean or maintain the hatchery, the Friends have taken it over as a meeting place and, in the future, an interpretive center. He said the Friends are working on display signs describing the history of the hatchery and the fire and flood damage.

In order for the state to grant the Department of Fish and Game funds to rebuild, an extensive engineering study must be performed at the site to ensure its stability. Ivey said testing would also have to be conducted on water chemistry and temperatures, once ideal for raising eggs, but now may be compromised because of the fire and flood damage. He explained that the floods destroyed much of the flora and fauna surrounding the waters feeding the hatchery, changing the water temperature. The flood also deposited foreign matter into the water that may be considered a contaminate and prevent the hatchery from being the egg producing hatchery it is, or was famous for being.

Ivey explained DFG has given no indication that the state has the money, or is willing to conduct the study, much less rebuild the hatchery.

For more information about the hatchery or dinner, call 878-2127. Tickets for the dinner may be purchased from any Friend of the Mount Whitney Fish Hatchery.#

 

http://www.inyoregister.com/content/view/120922/1/

 

Carping About Water Rates

The Santa Barbara Independent – 5/29/09

By Ben Preston

 

Upset over the prospect of water bills that are even higher than the ones they already pay, almost 100 people packed the Carpinteria City Hall Wednesday night for the Carpinteria Valley Water District’s meeting. The streets were lined with numerous parked cars, but not by the battered farm trucks and pedestrian vehicles one might expect from people tired of paying expensive water bills. Rather, the lots and lanes were in large part filled with the Mercedes, BMWs, and expensive SUVs owned by Carpinteria’s more cosmopolitan residents.

 

“No more new projects we can’t afford and don’t need,” said Ocean Oaks resident Annie Bardach, to applause from the audience. Bardach, one of the community leaders of Carpinteria H2O — a grassroots group fighting for lower water bills — listed a number of ways the district could cut costs, including cutting employee health benefits.

 

After presenting potential rate increases in the wake of what they said were improvements to meet federally mandated water quality standards, the district’s Board of Directors fielded irate comments from members of the public. Most honed in on the district’s 1991 purchase of an allotment of 2,000 acre-feet from the State Water Project — which has since been determined is twice what the small district needs — as the primary cause for concern, but others called for the expulsion of general counsel Chip Wullbrandt, a possible merger with the Montecito Water District, and installation of a desalinization plant as other possible fixes to the district’s spiraling budget. Carpinteria resident Tom Mayer called for the board’s immediate resignation, suggesting that a state agency should step in and take control of the district.

 

“Who’s looking out for the rank-and-file rate payer?” said Bruce Taylor, who owns a commercial building on Linden Avenue.

 

As has been customary at Carp Water meetings in recent memory, the subject of Rancho Monte Allegre was broached.

 

Many customers voiced their comcerns that the 3 million-gallon tank which was installed on ranch property — which is slated for development — was intended to provide water service at district expense for a developer who was unable to secure a permit from the state to divert local creeks for water. Board members said the tank was built to meet federal water quality standards while covers were being constructed for the Ortega and Carpinteria collection reservoirs. Director June van Wingerden pointed out in response to suggestions that the district be merged with Montecito that the Montecito Water District collects property taxes as part of its revenue stream, a method of charging the Carpinteria Valley Water District does not use. “It’s hard to compare Montecito and Goleta with Carp unless you consider property taxes,” said director Bob Lieberknecht.

 

Many people have turned their faucet on for 50 years and water always comes out, so it’s difficult to fathom that water could cost more”

 

Having sat silent for most of the meeting’s controversial rate increase agenda item, director Matthew Roberts explained that the $3 million annual cost of state water — which he noted was approved by 63 percent of Carpinteria’s electorate in 1991 — plus ever higher standards from the federal government, have made providing water service very expensive.

 

“Many people have turned their faucet on for 50 years and water always comes out, so it’s difficult to fathom that water could cost more,” he said, adding that water rates across the country are soaring due to aging infrastructure, federal water quality regulations, and, in this area, Southern California’s dwindling supply. “We are not making uninformed decisions.”

 

As the board finished the first agenda item, firector Frederick Lemere invited audience members to stay for the next two agenda items, which explained in detail how a big chunk of the district’s money was being spent. However, save nine people, all of the concerned customers — including the most vehement protesters of water rate increases — had departed.

 

South Coast water agencies share some infrastructure, so Rebecca Bjork, the City of Santa Barbara’s Water Resources Manager, and Kate Reese, General Manager of the Cachuma Operations and Maintenance Board (COMB), were on hand to present upcoming capital improvement projects that will affect Carpinteria water customers. Bjork said that significant costs were incurred by 2007’s Zaca Fire, which burned the upper reaches of the Santa Ynez River watershed and deposited tons of silt in Lake Cachuma, the main drinking water supply for the South Coast. The organic carbon from the fire bonds with chlorine molecules, creating potentially carcinogenic chemicals, she said, increasing the annual treatment and solids handling costs at Cachuma by $2.2 million. Future plans include ozone treatment at Cater Treatment Plant to remove organic carbon, as well as to improve the taste and clarity of drinking water. Bjork said that the treatment will also reduce costs a bit. Currently, the City of Santa Barbara pays 60 percent of the plant’s operating costs, while Montecito and Carpinteria split the other 40 percent.

 

Because her agency is seeking a number of grants to fund improvement projects, Reese said that the much needed updates to Cachuma and the South Coast Conduit — the pipe that supplies South Coast communities with 80 percent of their drinking water — will add significant cost to the districts it serves. COMB is seeking a $16 million bond measure and Proposition 50 money to fund $20 million worth of projects, including a second pipeline to augment the aging South Coast Conduit, and a new office building for COMB staff. “We operate on a shoestring budget,” said Reese, pointing out that her staff works in dilapidated trailers with leaky roofs, and that they are not able to create a reserve fund for projects.#

 

http://www.independent.com/news/2009/may/29/carping-about-water-rates/

 

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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.

 

 

[Water_news] 4. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS -WATER QUALITY-5/29/09

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment

 

May 29, 2009

 

4. Water Quality –

 

Ocean, interrupted

The Chico News & Review

 

A toxic wonderland

The Ventura County Star

 

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Ocean, interrupted

The Chico News & Review – 5/29/09

By Ryan Laine

Imagine a clogged toilet of colorful plastic confetti. As the water turns, the scraps wash against the porcelain rim and back again. The mechanical churning erodes the plastics, forming a swirling mass of debris.

Now imagine fishing here for dinner.

That’s the North Pacific gyre: 10 million square miles of open ocean currents, circulating in a continental bowl formed by North America and Asia—littered like the morning after bar mitzvah.

Popular myth describes the gyre as a vortex of garbage twice the size of Texas—an island of waste suspended off the shipping lanes between California and Hawaii. But the Pacific “garbage patch” is more ocean than anything. What exists is a stewing flotsam of convenience, fully enmeshed with the marine ecosystem, drifting to and fro among nations.

“This is what you get when you skim the ocean surface,” said Marcus Eriksen, while holding up a syrup bottle of murky brown water to a group of Chico State students last week. “Two-thirds of the Earth’s ocean is now a plastic soup.”

Swirling the bottle, pale speckles of plastic no larger than a pearl clustered at the bottleneck. Eriksen said the worn and polished beads could have been anything, from water bottles to straws to picnic utensils from the Fourth of July of 1997. In a steady march toward the sea, the runoff of single-use plastics parade through watersheds to the Bay Delta, and then out to sea to float off to the great “away.”

Eriksen knows all about the gyre and describes finding plastics there in a similar way to noticing cigarette butts on the street: “You can look across the sea and say, ‘There’s one, there’s one, there’s another,’ but then in some places, it looks like Walmart washed up on a beach.”

This grim reality has propelled Eriksen over land and sea to make one point abundantly clear: Our relationship with single-use plastics must change.

“We’re not anti-plastic; we’re against the throw-away design,” explained Eriksen in stern sincerity. “If you can live without that moment of convenience, you can find another way to live.”

Eriksen, who has a doctorate in science education, is director of education for the California-based nonprofit Algalita Marine Research Foundation, and has gone beyond conventional research journals and seminars to expose the gyre to the world.

Last year, he and fellow researcher Joel Paschal set adrift from Long Beach through 2,600 miles of open ocean on a raft of recycled garbage for an Algalita research voyage titled “JUNK.” Using a salvaged Cessna cabin, sailing masts and more than 15,000 plastic bottles held within fishing nets, Eriksen crafted a sea-worthy vessel to cross the gyre “Kon-Tiki style,” and reach Hawaii. The effort took 87 days.

Now on a campaign aptly titled “Message in a Bottle,” Eriksen and his fiancée, Anna Cummins, are traveling by bicycle from Vancouver to Tijuana. Along their 2,000-mile route, the couple are putting sample bottles of plastic debris collected from the gyre in the hands of legislators, educators and students.

The intention is to reveal the research of the expedition. During the voyage, Paschal and Eriksen collected plastic debris from the bellies of marine life, and skimmed the surface of the Pacific Ocean like a swimming pool. The findings left the crew appalled.

“We compared our research from 10 years ago,” explained Cummins, alarm in her voice. “Where there was once six times the amount of plastic to plankton in the gyre, we are now finding that amount has doubled.”

Drifting with the current, the plastic and its toxic properties are passed higher and higher up the food chain. From the lantern fish to the rainbow runner to the tuna; and then on to anyone fishing with a popper lure from the rocks beneath the Golden Gate or purchasing bycatch sold at market. This marine life becomes fish tacos, sushi, and your favorite honeyed eggplant dish.

Plastic has returned from “away” and ended up on our dinner plates.

Another frightening thing about plastic: persistent organic pollutants (POP). These chemicals are resilient to deterioration and attach to plastics. During a straw’s lifecycle in a gutter, for example, it will collect a variety of pollutants. POPs bioaccumulate in the fatty tissue of animals as they move up the food chain. They are known to affect the brain as well as the reproductive and immune systems, and are linked to breast cancer.

Tracing the build-up of chemicals and plastic’s devastating harm to the human body, Cummins founded a campaign called Synthetic Me. In an effort to prove the correlation between toxicity in fish and humans, she is researching what she has coined the “body burden” of plastic by having her blood analyzed for PCBs, flame retardants and other POP materials.

“Coming from a maternal place, and considering [having] a family one day, I want to know what is being passed within me to my child,” said Cummins. “What sort of legacy are we leaving our next generations?”

Eriksen echoed her and is calling on the public to change behavior. Surprisingly, none of his suggestions include recycling.

“Post-consumer tactics are not enough,” Eriksen said. “First we must eliminate the throw-away design; there is no excuse to using something that lasts forever, once. Secondly, we need to extended producer responsibility. The return value that works for Coke bottles can work for cell phones; this will encourage more durable products.

“And third, we need a global recovery effort with an economic poor-man’s incentive. If the industries that make plastics are required to take the plastic back and reuse it, this will help make the difference.”

Eriksen and Cummins encourage communities to ban the plastic bag and perform creek cleanups. They suggest participating in the local-food movement, reducing the “fork print” by creating a personal utensil kit, and taking the time to explain the gyre to others.

“Once you see all this you are faced with a moral decision,” Eriksen said. “You see it and you must say, ‘Am I going to do something about it, or will I walk away?’ And if you walk away, you are part of the problem.”#

http://www.newsreview.com/chico/content?oid=998423

A toxic wonderland

The Ventura County Star – 5/28/09

By Marie Lakin

 

It is an unimaginably incongruous juxtaposition.

 

Face north and the sorry spectacle of the former Halaco metal recycling facility at Ormond Beach in South Oxnard makes you wince. Crumbling, toxic, graffiti covered and forlorn, it has to be the biggest eyesore in Southern California.

 

Face south and you find the restful solace of one of the few remaining coastal wetlands in the state. "We have just 4 1/2 percent of our coastal wetlands left, " said Jean Rountree of the Beacon Foundation. "This is out of thousands and thousands of acres lost to industry and development." She'd like to see the area become a haven for birders and environmental tourists one day.

 

Yet next to this environmentally sensitive site is a man-made blunder. Highly toxic and abandoned in 2004, the Halaco site will cost between $20-50 million to clean up, Allen Sanders of the Ormond Beach Observers told me. As I talked to Sanders and Paul Felix of Oxnard at the site, a charming little bird flew overhead.

 

"He probably has three eyes," Felix joked.

 

But Ormond Beach is no laughing matter. I've read plenty about the Halaco site. But until you've seen it for yourself, it doesn't really hit home. Now listed as a Superfund hazardous cleanup area, it could be eligible for federal stimulus funds.

 

NEXT TO THE DECAYING building sits a mountainous slag heap filled with toxic material. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, a poisonous alphabet soup of elevated levels of aluminum, barium, beryllium, cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, magnesium, manganese, nickel, thorium, and zinc is leeching into both underlying groundwater and sediments in the Oxnard Industrial Drain.

 

Removing it will be an arduous task, Sanders acknowledged. And just where do you move a mountain of toxic sludge to? Sanders shook his head.

 

In 2007 a warning was issued to residents that elevated levels of radiation were coming from the fenced-off property.

 

Halaco, which declared bankruptcy in 2002, also lost a civil complaint alleging that it had illegally disposed of used oil by burning it in its smelting furnace or pouring it over scrap metal which made its way into on-site settling ponds.

 

You have to wonder what the City of Oxnard was thinking about in 1965 when they allowed this to be built.

 

A little further down the road is the former Edison, now Reliant, facility, which has its own toxic issues. Nearby, a developer has plans to build even more houses.

 

Despite all this, the National Audubon Society lists Ormond Beach as one of the most important bird areas in California. For a bird lover, it's a treat to look out at the lagoon. The area is home to Least Terns and Snowy Plover. The sand is covered in native vegetation, some in spring flower.

 

A delight and a disgust, Ormond Beach is testament to the stupidity of mankind and the resiliency of the natural world.#

 

http://blogs.venturacountystar.com/mlakin/archives/2009/05/a-toxic-wonderland.html

 

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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.

 

[Water_news] 3. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: WATERSHEDS - 5/29/09

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment

 

May 29, 2009

 

3. Watersheds –

 

Environmentalists sue to protect sea turtles off US coasts

The Associated Press

 

Environmentalists sue to protect sea turtles off US coasts

The Associated Press – 5/29/09

By Jason Dearen

SAN FRANCISCO — Environmentalists want a federal judge to force fisheries managers to take action on lawsuits seeking stronger protections for sea turtles.

 

Three groups — Oceana, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Sea Turtle Restoration Project — filed a complaint today in San Francisco federal court, saying the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service have violated the Endangered Species Act by not responding within 12 months to lawsuits asking for the protections.

 

Lawyers for the groups said the initial three petitions were filed in 2007, and that the delay is hurting the waning populations of leatherback and loggerhead sea turtles off the U.S. coasts.

 

"At the same time, the fisheries service is dawdling in its legal response," said Santi Roberts, the California project manager of Oceana. "They are pushing to open up fisheries off the West Coast that they know will catch and kill sea turtles."

 

Two of the petitions ask that populations of loggerheads in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans be upgraded from a threatened species to the more legally protected endangered classification.

 

Jim Milbury, a spokesman with the National Marine Fisheries Service, said the reason for the slow response was the complexity of studying turtles that migrate thousands of miles. He said the agency has a team devoted to figuring out where exactly the critical habitats are for the turtles, an area that goes far beyond U.S. waters.

 

"One of the reasons it takes so long is it's extremely complicated to try to determine the critical habitat of a species that swims over 6,000 miles underwater," Milbury said.

 

Leatherbacks are already listed as endangered, but a third petition proposes the establishment of a critical habitat off the Oregon and California coasts where these turtles feed.

 

Sea turtles swim thousands of miles from their nesting grounds in Japan, Indonesia, Australia and Mexico to feed on the West Coast.

 

The hulking leatherbacks can weigh up to 2,000 pounds and stretch 8 feet long. They can swim up to 3,000 feet beneath the sea while journeying thousands of miles to feed on jellyfish after nesting. Because of their enormous size, the turtles also get tangled in long fishing lines and nets during their migration.

 

In 1982, there were about 115,000 adult female leatherbacks in the world, and 14 years after that, studies found only about 34,500 remained total.

 

"In the Pacific Ocean, leatherback populations are dwindling at all major nesting beaches, culminating in a 95-percent decline over the last two decades. If current trends continue, Pacific leatherbacks are predicted to go extinct within the next few decades," the groups' lawsuit states.

 

The smaller, reddish brown loggerhead turtles are listed as threatened because of fishing and the destruction of their nesting grounds throughout the world. The loggerheads travel to the West Coast to feed on crustaceans and mollusks after breeding in Japan, and also nest in Florida. #

 

http://www.contracostatimes.com/bay-area-living/ci_12471694

 

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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.

 

[Water_news] 2. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: SUPPLY - 5/29/09

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment 

 

May 29, 2009

 

2. Supply –

 

Glendora residents first asked, now told to cut back on water use

The San Gabriel Valley Tribune

 

Camp Pendleton desalination water plant considered feasible

The Fallbrook Village News

 

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Glendora residents first asked, now told to cut back on water use

The San Gabriel Valley Tribune – 5/27/09

By Daniel Tedford

 

After a voluntary conservation effort failed, Glendora City Council members voted to enact mandatory conservation measures Tuesday.

 

The city had hoped voluntary guidelines and education would lead to a 10-percent decrease in water usage, but conservation peaked at 7 percent in October.

By March 2009, conservation had dropped to 1 percent and staff decided to recommend moving to Stage One Drought Condition. The highest stage is Stage Two.

"We feel the demand is threatened as we approach the summer months," said Public Works Director David Davies. "The reason for the timing now is because we are entering our peak demand season."

 

The new rules are: no cleaning of surfaces with running water, restaurants and hotels must only serve water upon request, uses that cause runoff are prohibited, and special hours and circumstances for irrigation are included.

 

Following a verbal and written warning, violators face fines as little as $150 and as much as $1,000, Davies said.

 

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which sells water to providers all over Southern California, has put allocation caps on its members, and those who go over the amount face penalties.

 

By current estimates, Glendora foresees going over their allocation and could be assessed as much as $1.5 million, according to city staff reports.

 

If residents reduce water use by 10 percent, the city would probably pay only $212,000 in penalties, according to staff reports.

 

"It is a prudent measure the City Council is undertaking," said Metropolitan Water District spokesman Bob Muir.

 

Full enforcement of the measure isn't expected to be done for another two to three months, Davies said.

 

"In the long run, we absolutely hope," these become normal measures constantly enforced, said Davies. "We need to rethink the way we use water in California."

The biggest water-wasting culprit is the easiest to correct, said Jennifer Riley-Chetwynd, a spokeswoman for Glendora-based Rain Bird Corp., one of the country's largest irrigation companies.

 

"More often than not if a plant is struggling health wise, over watering can be a problem," she said. "Most people can afford to cut back water 10 percent or more and have it benefit plants."

 

Drip irrigation for plants and trees are one of the best methods to conserve while maintaining a yard, she said. Also, low-precipitation sprinklers use less water per minute than normal sprinklers and hoses, Riley-Chetwynd said.

 

If the city doesn't make its 10-percent goal, stage 2 measures would go into affect, Davies said. That would increase the conservation goal to 15 percent and water use for irrigation would be restricted to certain days and hours, he said.#

 

http://www.sgvtribune.com/news/ci_12463325

 

Camp Pendleton desalination water plant considered feasible

The Fallbrook Village News – 5/28/09

By Joe Naiman

 

The feasibility study for the proposed seawater desalination plant on Camp Pendleton indicates that such a facility would be feasible in the absence of any unexpected environmental or other legal obstacles.

 

A report on the feasibility study was provided to the San Diego County Water Authority’s Water Planning Committee during a May 14 special meeting.

 

A draft feasibility study was completed in March.

 

In addition to the environmental and permitting issues, additional prerequisites include an agreement with the United States Marine Corps to locate the facility and conveyance pipelines on Camp Pendleton.

 

“We have a long way to go,” said County Water Authority water resources manager Bob Yamada.

 

Less daunting future issues include defining roles and responsibilities for the various parties and amending the CWA’s capital improvement program to add the desalination plant.

 

The seawater desalination plant would provide desalinated water to the San Diego County Water Authority, the Municipal Water District of Orange County, and Camp Pendleton.

 

It would produce between 50 and 150 million gallons per day (mgd) of desalinated water.

 

In November 2005 the County Water Authority, in conjunction with the Municipal Water District of Orange County, approved a consultant contract with RBF Consulting to conduct a detailed feasibility study for a potential seawater desalination plant on Camp Pendleton.

 

The study included detailed feasibility evaluations of conveyance, intake, and discharge facilities as well as environmental and permitting requirements, cost estimates, and project implementation issues.

 

At one time the project was proposed to be located near the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, allowing for the use of the ocean intake and discharge tunnels for the abandoned Unit 1 power plant.

 

After the feasibility study was initiated, Southern California Edison expressed concern that the presence and operation of a desalination facility could complicate the operation of the nuclear power plant and hinder future regulatory compliance.

 

The proposed location was moved to the southwest corner of Camp Pendleton adjacent to the mouth of the Santa Margarita River.

 

A total of eight potential locations were evaluated, and two sites were considered viable for a facility producing between 50 and 150 mgd.

 

The CWA’s Urban Water Management Plan calls for 89,600 acre feet of desalinated water by 2030. A capacity of 50 mgd equates to 56,000 acre feet while 150 mgd would translate to 168,000 acre feet.

 

The buried infrastructure will be built to accommodate the 150 mgd ultimate capacity while the initial development would likely build a plant to handle 50 to 100 mgd with subsequent modular 50 mgd expansions.

 

The switch from San Onofre to the southwest portion of the base also had a positive effect for conveyance pipeline to the existing CWA infrastructure, although moving the facility south could carry adverse conveyance consequences for the Municipal Water District of Orange County.

 

Since the facility would provide water to the base as well as to the County Water Authority, it is still possible that conveyance pipelines to the northwest portion of the base could also serve Orange County.

 

In addition to increasing the reliability and quality of water on the base, including the creation of the possibility of blending desalinated water with Camp Pendleton’s well water, the new ocean outfall which would serve the desalination plant could also provide a wastewater disposal option for Camp Pendleton.

 

The plant’s energy requirements may lead to the building of an energy cogeneration plant which could be used to provide emergency power to the base.

 

The power demand for the desalination facility is estimated at 40 megawatts for 50 mgd and 100-110 megawatts for 150 mgd.

 

If the desalination plant were to purchase power from the grid, two miles of 16,000-volt transmission lines would be required.

 

Cogeneration through natural gas turbine generators would require approximately five acres for that supplemental facility.

 

The use of some solar, wind, or wave-generated hydroelectric energy could also contribute to the plant’s power needs and help meet greenhouse gas offset requirements.

 

The feasibility study included worst-case scenario costing estimates and added a 30 to 40 percent contingency for capital costs.

 

“We’re very early in this project so there are very high contingencies,” Yamada said.

 

The capital costs also assume a 25 percent contingency for engineering, administration, legal, and other implementation matters.

 

The capital cost for a 50 mgd plant, including the conveyance infrastructure designed for the eventual 150 mgd production, is estimated to be between $1.2 billion and $1.3 billion while the capital costs for a 100 mgd plant are estimated at $1.7 billion to $1.9 billion.

 

The facility cost breaks down to 57 percent for treatment facilities, 28 percent for conveyance, and 15 percent for intake and discharge facilities.

 

The operation and maintenance costs are estimated at $42-50 million for 50 mgd and $79-96 million for 100 mgd.

 

Although the estimated cost per acre foot of $2000-2200 for a 50 mgd plant and $1700 for a 100 mgd facility significantly exceeds the Calendar Year 2009 treated water supply rate of $631 per acre foot, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California has imposed a 19.7 percent increase effective September 1 which has led to a proposed CWA rate of $747 per acre foot for next year.

 

The Camp Pendleton desalination plant is not expected to go into service until 2018.

 

The Metropolitan Water District’s contract for hydroelectric power from Hoover Dam is up for renewal in 2017, a year before the scheduled operation of the Camp Pendleton desalination plant.

 

“If they lose the cheap power at Hoover, then the cost of Met water will go up significantly,” said Fallbrook Public Utility District general manager Keith Lewinger, who is FPUD’s representative on the CWA board and who is also an MWD director. “If you spend money to fix the Delta the price of water’s going to go up.”

 

MWD’s 19.7 percent increase included a Delta surcharge to address State Water Project transport issues.

 

“I’m not sure what the increase would be, but there would be some,” Lewinger said.

 

The CWA’s 2020 supply portfolio without the desalination project provides 12 percent of its water from MWD’s Colorado River Aqueduct allocation and 17 percent of its supply from MWD’s State Water Project allocation.

 

The 2020 supply portfolio with a 100 mgd Camp Pendleton desalination project increases desalination from 10 percent to 19 percent of the CWA’s supply while reducing Colorado River Aqueduct imports to 8 percent and the State Water Project take to 12 percent.

 

“You really need to look at this as a 50 year out type of work,” said CWA director of water resources Ken Weinberg.

 

“The long-term benefit is something we’ve been exploring.”

 

Yamada also noted that worst-case planning led to the energy cost estimate of ten cents per kilowatt hour. “We would be hopeful that we could get a lower price than ten cents, but we were conservative,” he said.

 

The offshore outfall, which would be constructed with both seabed pipelines and outfall tunnel sections, would include a diffuser system to achieve salinity dilution requirements.

 

In addition to the possibility of use by Camp Pendleton for wastewater effluent from the South Region Tertiary Treatment Plant, the outfall could also be used for the Santa Margarita River Conjunctive Use Project being developed by Camp Pendleton and FPUD.

 

Ironically, the Santa Margarita River Conjunctive Use Project combined with the desalination plant could create a surplus of treated water in North County.

 

That creates the possibility that excess treated water would be stored with raw water and then re-treated, adding to the cost of that twice-treated water.

 

“We need to take a really careful look on that,” Lewinger said.

 

Even if the double treatment adds to the cost of that water, it would replace water purchases which involve MWD wheeling rates for transport and still could be less expensive than the purchased water it would replace.

 

City of San Diego representative Tom Wornham suggested the possibility of a reservoir on Camp Pendleton to store any surplus desalinated water.

 

“That might not be such a bad idea for the region,” he said.

 

Camp Pendleton water resources director Jeremy Jungreis, who is Camp Pendleton’s representative on the CWA board, isn’t optimistic about the prospects of a reservoir on Camp Pendleton.

 

“I won’t say it’s impossible,” he said, “[just] don’t count on it.”

 

Jungreis warned that CWA would need to ensure that any part of the desalination facility, including the construction process, would not have a negative impact on the military base’s training mission or the quality of life.

 

“For this to succeed it has to be done in a way that doesn’t adversely impact the training mission,” he said.

 

An agreement with Camp Pendleton will be necessary before the CWA can initiate the preparation of the technical and environmental studies.

 

Assuming that the CWA’s June 25 meeting sees the board approve the capital project budget request to continue studies, the technical studies would begin in mid-2009 and preparation of the environmental document would begin around mid-2010.

 

The environmental documentation process is expected to take approximately two years. #

 

http://www.thevillagenews.com/story/38107/

 

A glimpse of the new reservoir

The Glendale News Press – 5/28/09

By Melanie Hicken

 

NORTHEAST GLENDALE — The $21.5-million replacement of the Chevy Chase Reservoir is expected to be partially operational in time for fire season, despite construction delays last spring caused by unexpected groundwater, officials said Thursday.

Surrounded by ongoing construction, officials were briefed Thursday on how the project had progressed since the February demolition of the original reservoir.

“Our goal was to have storage back available to us before the hot days of summer,” Peter Kavounas, assistant general manager for water services at Glendale Water & Power, told a group of city officials during the tour of the almost-completed reservoir and pump station, which lie under a 2.34-acre area of the 45-acre Chevy Chase Country Club golf course.

Water officials determined that a replacement of the original 1920s reservoir was necessary because cracks in the concrete, caused by the 1994 Northridge Earthquake, had compromised its structural integrity.

The first of two inner-cells for the reservoir is almost complete and will be filled in a few weeks once testing is completed, Kavounas said. The 14.5-million-gallon reservoir is set to be fully operational in August before it’s landscaped over by January, when the city committed to refurbishing the golf course.

“In January, you’ll walk out there and you won’t even know it’s there,” said Jerry Gatney, a senior engineer for the project, one of the largest in the water utility’s history.

Owners of the golf course initially opposed the project, but reached a $2.5-million settlement with the city last year to allow access to the land and pay for the green’s reconfiguration.

Kavounas and other utility officials praised the reservoir’s builder, SEMA Construction, for keeping the project on track after unexpected groundwater caused construction delays in March.

In September, the City Council approved a revised work schedule, allowing for Saturday construction to make up for lost time. On Tuesday, the council will be asked to authorize hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of contract amendments for construction management and consulting services for the reservoir.

During the tour, engineers explained various features of the reservoir, such as extra reinforcement for earthquakes and a design to prevent any leaking.

“If there’s ever an earthquake, run for that pump station. It’s not coming down,” said Gary Roepke, the project’s supervising engineer.

One of the biggest challenges of the project was staying within the confines of the site and trying to keep noise and other disturbances to a minimum for both the golf course and surrounding neighborhoods, project managers said. All dirt was kept on site to use as filler to minimize truck trips to and from the site, but this left crews “trying to fit everything in this tiny space,” Roepke said.

City Building Official Stuart Tom, who went on the tour, said that he was initially skeptical of the immensity of the project, but was impressed with how it stayed on track.

“When we build a 14-million-gallon reservoir, we only want to do it once,” he said.#

 

http://www.glendalenewspress.com/articles/2009/05/29/politics/gnp-reservoir29.txt

 

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