[Water_news] 1. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS - Top Items for 5/29/09

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation for DWR personnel of significant news articles and comment

 

May 29, 2009

 

1.   Top Items–

 

Riverside County symposium focuses on water law, strategies

The Riverside Press-Enterprise – 5/28/09

By Janet Zimmerman

 

The answers to California's ongoing drought lie in stepped-up conservation at home and a new system for transferring water around the ecologically troubled Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, water experts said Thursday.

 

"We clearly are at a critical juncture in California. It is important to develop aggressive water policy strategies," said Michael Chrisman, California's secretary for natural resources, who oversees the state water system.

 

He was the keynote speaker at the Riverside County Water Symposium in Palm Springs, an event that drew hundreds of water agency officials, lawyers and business owners.

 

This year, the focus was on water law, new technologies, strategies for dealing with the water crisis and pending bond legislation that would fund projects to make the most of California's water.

 

Much of the discussion emphasized the need for a canal to route water around the Delta to protect threatened and endangered fish, including the Delta smelt. Under court order, pumping Northern California water to send to Southern California is restricted when certain species are present, which is most of the year.

 

"It's bad, it's gonna get worse and we need to fix it," said Brian Thomas, assistant general manager at Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.

 

The state traditionally has engineered its way out of water shortages with high-dollar fixes, but given the current fiscal crisis, California needs to change the way it does business, said Celeste Cantu, general manager of the Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority.

 

Rather than supplying unlimited water, retailers need to become resource managers, she said. The new consumer water ethic is to know where water comes from and where it goes after use, she said, rather than just turning on the tap without thinking about it.

 

Even with a water crisis, California can continue to grow, but it will have to do it differently, Cantu said. That means more densely populated neighborhoods close to schools and jobs, and mass transit.

 

Much of the cost of treating water is to remove pollutants caused by automobiles, she said. Taking cars off the road makes for cleaner water and lower costs, she added.

 

While much progress has been made toward conservation, more can be done, Cantu said. Switching to low-water landscaping could save 35 percent of water and correctly irrigating landscapes could save 20 percent.

 

"Water has been taken for granted here," Cantu said. #

 

http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_S_water29.3d9221b.html

 

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