[Water_news] 3. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: WATERSHEDS - 5/21/09

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment

 

May 21, 2009

 

3. Watersheds –

 

Sonoma Coast ocean sanctuary clears Senate hurdle

The Santa Rosa Press Democrat

 

County prepares for big one at Tahoe

The Auburn Journal

 

Three more Inland lakes begin inspections for destructive quagga mussels

The Riverside Press Enterprise

 

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Sonoma Coast ocean sanctuary clears Senate hurdle

The Santa Rosa Press Democrat – 5/20/09

By Paul Payne

 

A national marine sanctuary bill from California’s two Democratic senators that would permanently ban off-shore oil drilling along the 76-mile Sonoma County coast and part of the Mendocino coast cleared a key committee Wednesday.

 

The bill from Sens. Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein would expand existing sanctuaries near the Gulf of the Farallones and the Cordell Bank by taking in an additional 2,100 square miles from Bodega Bay north to Point Arena.

 

It passed the Senate Commerce Committee despite Republican opposition and will go to the full Senate, where last year it was blocked by critics who said it would increase the country’s dependence on foreign oil. A companion bill from Rep. Lynn Woolsey was approved in the House last year and is now back in a House subcommittee for reconsideration.

 

“We stand a much better chance of passing a sanctuaries bill this year because the Senate is more Democratic and we have an administration that cares about preserving the health of our oceans,” said Michael Gravitz, a lobbyist for Environment America, who has been urging the legislation for more than two years.

 

California has two other marine sanctuaries — near the Channel Islands and at Monterey Bay. The Boxer-Feinstein measure would bring in a new area the size of Delaware, protecting the Russian and Gualala river estuaries and the nutrient-rich Bodega Canyon.

 

It comes after President George Bush — in one of his last acts before leaving office — lifted a 1990 ban on offshore oil drilling and proposed a series of lease sales, including one in an area off Mendocino County and others in Southern California.

 

Obama administration officials delayed action on the proposals and are developing their own energy strategy that could involve drilling for gas and oil and harnessing wind and waves.

 

In April, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar traveled to the Bay Area gauging public sentiment, which is heavily against offshore drilling. He said the administration will announce later this year if any coastal areas will be opened to oil development. He also cautioned that some drilling was necessary.

 

The sanctuary measure would prevent oil rigs from appearing within 50 miles of the Sonoma coast and the southern tip of the Mendocino coast.

 

Gravitz said the region is one of the world’s most productive ecosystems, critical to sea life up to 300 miles away. Whales, turtles and nesting birds as far south as Monterey depend on its continued good health, which would be preserved under the legislation, Gravitz said.

 

“In a way, it’s like protecting the headwaters of a stream,” Gravitz said.

 

In addition to scientists, the bill is supported by the fishing industry because it poses no additional limits on commercial or recreational fishing. It is seen as a way to protect fish stocks and those who rely on them for their livelihood.

 

The measure also has had support from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the State Lands Commission, the Coastal Commission and the counties of Marin, Sonoma, Mendocino, and San Francisco, according to news accounts.

 

“It’s my hope that we will be able to secure passage of this legislation by the full Senate in the coming weeks and months,” Feinstein said in a joint news release.#

 

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20090520/articles/905209875

 

County prepares for big one at Tahoe

The Auburn Journal – 5/21/09

By Gus Thomson

 

Scientists say the Lake Tahoe area is overdue for a major earthquake.

 

But a quake won’t catch Placer County flat-footed. It’s something the county’s emergency services division has very recently been rehearsing for.

 

Scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego reported this week that earthquakes with a magnitude-7 occur every 2,000 to 3,000 years in the Tahoe basin but the largest fault there last ruptured more than 4,100 years ago.

 

The fault runs along the west shore of the lake before passing west of South Lake Tahoe. Waves from the shaking would run the length of the lake onto the north shore, which is part of Placer County.

 

Placer County’s Office of Emergency Services conducted a training exercise in November, using a major earthquake and the subsequent tsunami-like seiche as the starting point for a dress rehearsal for disaster.

 

Rui Cunha, Placer emergency services program manager, said Wednesday that while there has been nothing in recent memory that has produced significant damage, the threat is serious enough to have it identified as one of several hazards included in safety plans for the Tahoe area.

 

The November exercise included El Dorado County and state emergency personnel in a scenario that started with a quake and then saw a freshwater wave – technically defined as a Seiche (pronounced “saysh”) slosh back and forth from shore to shore four times.

 

Wave height was calculated and estimates were extrapolated using assessor’s parcel map data to determine how far onshore they would go. With damage to the shoreline, boats and homes, the exercise added unexpected emergencies for the team to work with. They included a landslide on Highway 89 and damage to Fanny Bridge, at the intersection of highways 28 and 89.

 

Cunha said the idea was to overwhelm local resources and gauge the time it would take to bring in help from the outside. With ground transportation links cut off, exercise participants found a way to evacuate victims using boats from the shoreline, he said.

 

The November exercise provided emergency personnel with valuable training for an emergency Cunha said he hopes the area will never see.

 

But there was a series of tremors in 2003 and 2004. And in 2005, a magnitude-5 temblor was felt widely in the Reno and Lake Tahoe region.

 

Residents can prepare for an earthquake or other emergency by keeping a battery-, solar- or crank-powered radio on hand, as well as other staples to used during a 72-hour power outage and disruption to the drinking water supply. The list includes bottled water, canned food and blankets. #

 

http://auburnjournal.com/detail/114991.html?content_source=&category_id=&search_filter=&user_id=&event_mode=&event_ts_from=&event_ts_to=&list_type=&order_by=&order_sort=&content_class=1&sub_type=&town_id=

 

Three more Inland lakes begin inspections for destructive quagga mussels

The Riverside Press Enterprise – 5/21/09

By Melissa Eiselein and Gail Wesson

 

Operators of at least three more Inland lakes have started inspecting boats and other watercraft this spring to make sure there is no evidence of invasive quagga mussels before allowing them on the water.

 

Officials at Lake Perris State Recreation Area, Lake Hemet and Silverwood Lake State Recreation Area are making sure vessels and equipment are cleaned, drained and dry, or else visitors will be turned away.

 

The inspections are designed to prevent the spread of the rapidly reproducing quagga and zebra mussels, which can destroy native wildlife, damage boat motors and clog the pipes and pumps that keep water flowing to Southern California homes and businesses.

 

"We're trying to protect our resource for today and future generations," said Lake Perris Superintendent Norb Ruhmke.

Inspections had already been required at other Inland lakes including Lake Skinner, Big Bear Lake and Lake Arrowhead.

The microscopic mussel larvae can survive in a tiny amount of water and then be transported from one body of water to another.

 

"It doesn't take much. Just a little bit of water can contain hundreds of these guys," said Lake Perris quagga inspector Daniel Jones.

 

RAMPANT INFESTATION

 

Quagga mussels have been found in 19 Southern California bodies of water, and zebra mussels have been found in one central California lake, according to the state Department of Fish and Game Web site.

 

Quaggas were first detected in the western U.S. at Lake Mead in 2007. Since then, they spread to the Colorado River Aqueduct, one of Southern California's main supply routes for imported water.

 

The mussels have reached two Inland lakes so far: Lake Mathews south of Riverside and Lake Skinner near Temecula.

Lake Mathews does not allow boating. But at quagga-infested Lake Skinner, watercraft are inspected before they enter and leave.

 

"They can't leave until they are as dry as possible. Our goal is to keep the critters from leaving and to keep from introducing more into the lake," said Park Ranger Jack Altevers.

 

The Inland region's other imported water supply comes from Northern California via the California Aqueduct to the Silverwood and Perris lakes.

 

That water supply is not contaminated. State officials want to keep it that way.

 

THOROUGH INSPECTIONS

 

Lake Hemet in the San Jacinto Mountains is fed by rain and snowmelt, and water is released down the San Jacinto River.

"If you've got quagga mussels in the lake here, they will eventually end up going downstream," said Mark Perinsky, lake campground manager for the Lake Hemet Municipal Water District.

 

Employees inspect to ensure no water is present in the bilge, bait tanks or boat motor before allowing a boat on the lake, he said. Before a boater departs, an inspection band is attached to the boat and its trailer so the user may return without inspection if that band has not been tampered with.

 

Lake Hemet honors similar bands affixed by Perris, Silverwood and Big Bear lakes, he said.

 

Inspectors at Lake Perris and Silverwood state recreation areas check vessels visually and by touch. They inspect the trailer, equipment locker, motor compartment and fittings. If there is any moisture on the vessel or equipment, it does not get in the park.

 

"We check lifejackets, wakeboard boots and ski rope. If any of that stuff is moist, the quagga can survive," Ruhmke said.

Ralph Wynn Sr., of Hemet, said he didn't mind having his boat inspected last week at Lake Perris.

 

"It's time-consuming, but as long as people realize they have to take that extra time, there's no problem," Wynn said.

David Areyan, 42, of Wilmington, thought he knew the routine. His jet skis had recently been inspected at a lake in Arizona, he said.

 

But when Lake Perris quagga inspectors took a look inside the engine compartments, they found traces of water in both vessels and tagged them with a red quarantine notice.

 

"It's just tap water," Areyan said. "You mean I drove all the here to get turned away?"

 

Vessels that don't pass inspection at Lake Perris and Silverwood Lake state recreation areas are quarantined for seven days. After the quarantine period, boaters can have their vessels rechecked, Ruhmke said.

 

REGIONAL EFFORTS

 

Metropolitan Water District, the Los Angeles-based water wholesaler that oversees the 242-mile Colorado River Aqueduct, has appropriated $10 million for capital improvements and spends about $5 million a year in maintenance costs to combat the mussels, according to Ric De Leon, Metropolitan's microbiology unit manager and quagga mussel control program manager.

 

"Since we started this program, we haven't seen any mussel colonies of significance," he said.

 

Water is chlorinated at Copper Basin, about five miles from the river, and at the outflow of Lake Mathews and Lake Skinner.

 

A new state law requires recreation lake operators to develop a prevention plan that may range from education to inspections.

 

At Lake Elsinore, which does not get Colorado River water, private launches and a city-contracted concessionaire distribute educational material to boaters, according to Pat Kilroy, director of lake and aquatic resources for the city. A regional watershed authority has hired UC Riverside to assess potential risks.#

 

http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_S_quagga21.3ad442a.html

 

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