A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
June 12, 2009
2. Supply –
Opinion allows diversion dam until 2012
Capital Press
New water-use restrictions approved for Rancho California Water District customers
Riverside Press-Enterprise
Weekend rain possible in Valley
The
North state storms intense, but isolated
Redding Record Searchlight
Farm water outlook picks up
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Opinion allows diversion dam until 2012
Capital Press-6/11/09
By Tim Hearden
While it cuts water for people and farms throughout the state, a recent National Marine Fisheries Service's biological opinion does assure that 150,000 agricultural acres in the northern
The opinion, issued June 4, confirmed what a local water agency already expected - the Red Bluff Diversion Dam will be around for three more summers.
The Tehama Colusa Canal Authority will lower the dam's gates Monday, June 15, after having adopted a shorter-than-normal season for taking water from the
The gates will stay down until Aug. 30. As a backup plan for irrigators, the canal authority built an $8.1 million temporary fish screen and pumping station near the dam, which helps provide water to customers when the seasonal dam is not in place.
The dam and fish screens are expected to be in place until a new, $165 million pumping station is built in time for the 2013 irrigation season, if not earlier.
"As related to the Red Bluff Diversion Dam, nothing in the document came as a surprise," said Jeff Sutton, the canal authority's general manager. "The finalization of the document does provide some certainty of what operations are going to be in the near term, and bring with it certain challenges until we get our permanent solution in place."
The 800-page opinion examined how the state and federal water systems in
To restore fish populations, the NMFS recommends increasing the amount of cold water stored at Shasta Dam, closing "cross-channel" gates within the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta for longer periods and cutting Delta water exports by 5 to 7 percent, according to published reports.
The fixes also involve reintroducing salmon to spawning beds above the Shasta Dam for the first time since the 1930s. Fish would be trucked beyond the dam initially, and a more permanent solution must be implemented by 2020.
Sutton said the biological opinion "evidences the need for comprehensive investment in statewide water infrastructure that must include conveyance and storage."
The opinion mandates that the Red Bluff Diversion Dam's gates will be closed only from June 15 to Aug. 30 each year through the 2011 irrigation season. If the new pumping station is on track but is still a year away from completion, the federal government will allow a one-year grace period for the dam in 2012, Sutton said.
The canal authority provides water to 17 different water districts in Tehama, Glenn, Colusa and Yolo counties, whose customers produce some $250 million in crops each year and contribute about $1 billion to the regional economy.
More than half the farmland served by the dam grows permanent crops, including 58,000 acres of almonds, Sutton has said. The area also produces its share of pistachios, olives, walnuts and grapes.
But the 1960s-era diversion dam has long been blamed for contributing to declines in salmon and steelhead trout populations. In April, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced that $109.8 million in drought relief funding would be put toward the fish passage project that will replace the dam.#
http://www.capitalpress.info/main.asp?SectionID=67&SubSectionID=616&ArticleID=51965&TM=45489.74
New water-use restrictions approved for Rancho California Water District customers
Riverside Press-Enterprise-6/11/09
By Jeff Horseman
Nighttime irrigation will become a way of life for many Rancho California Water District customers after the district's Board of Directors on Thursday unanimously approved mandatory water-use restrictions to cope with a major supplier's cutback.
The restrictions, which take effect July 1, require homeowners and businesses to water their landscapes between 8 p.m. and 7 a.m. Those who repeatedly and flagrantly break the rules face stiff financial penalties.
The district serves more than 130,000 people in a 150-square-mile region consisting of Temecula, parts of Murrieta and nearby unincorporated areas.
The restrictions are part of Stage 3 of the Temecula-based district's five-stage water contingency plan.
The district has been in Stage 2, which calls for voluntary cutbacks, since 2008. The fifth stage is for extreme shortages and involves severe cuts to farmers and strict limits on all nonessential outdoor water use.
The new restrictions are a ripple effect from a 10 percent supply cutback announced earlier this year by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the district's main water provider. Metropolitan is grappling with less water delivered via
While there are no limits on what days of the week landscapes can be watered, the district is asking residents to water every other day at most, and to run pop-up sprinklers 10 minutes at a time and rotor sprinklers 20 minutes at a time. Businesses are asked to irrigate only twice a week.
Exemptions are made for landscapes watered by "smart" irrigation controllers that make adjustments based on weather.
The restrictions also require new landscaping to meet Metropolitan's "California Friendly" standards. Decorative fountains are discouraged.
In addition, the restrictions require brooms, not hoses, to be used to clean driveways and other hard surfaces. And the rules forbid charity car washes on commercial property unless a recycled water system is in place.
District officials say they will work in the coming weeks to educate the public about the restrictions.#
http://www.pe.com/localnews/murrieta/stories/PE_News_Local_S_swater12.4b5ddfa.html
By Shannon Dininny
Washington state officials have approved a water rights transfer for a proposed feedlot that would be the first new one the Northwest in years, but the project still faces questions of whether it can draw drinking water from wells.
Easterday Ranches Inc., already one of the largest feedlot operators in the Northwest with 30,000 cattle near Pasco, has proposed building another lot on dry land near the small town of Eltopia, about 75 miles east of Yakima. At peak operation, the feedlot could be home to as many as 30,000 cattle.
On Thursday, the state Department of Ecology approved a water right transfer for the project from a neighboring farm, where 316 acre-feet of water were used each year to irrigate potatoes, blue grass and winter wheat. One acre-foot is enough to cover one acre of land one foot deep, or 325,851 gallons of water.
But the decision failed to address the thorny question of whether large feedlots may continue to draw drinking water from wells that are exempt from a state permit under laws dating back 60 years.
The area is comprised of rural homesteads, where farmers plant dryland wheat and draw drinking water for their homes from deep, underground wells.
State law allows some wells to be drilled without a permit, under a law passed in 1945, as long as water usage is limited to 5,000 gallons per day. They include wells for livestock watering, small industrial uses, domestic use or noncommercial watering of a small lawn or garden.
The Ecology Department estimates the average feedlot cow consumes about 18-20 gallons of water per day. At 30,000 cows, that's more than 500,000 gallons of water, or enough to nearly fill an Olympic-size swimming pool each day.
Conservation groups have complained the law opens the state's limited water resources to unlimited use. But a 2005 opinion by state Attorney General Rob McKenna barred the state from limiting the amount of water that ranchers draw daily for their livestock.
Easterday also had proposed drawing water for dust control and stock cooling in the hot summer months. Ecology officials intervened, urging its operators to buy a water right for those uses instead.
"We encouraged them to apply for and get a water right to cover their legal risk, because we didn't think their other uses would be covered under the stock watering exemption," said Evan Sheffels, special assistant for water policy to Ecology Director Jay Manning. "By doing this, they're doing just what we asked them to do, so that's a good thing."
Cody Easterday said Thursday he was pleased with the decision. He estimated the new water right cost about $300,000.
"We're obviously very excited about it," he said. "It proves that it's a solid project and it should be a victory for the residents and the economy of
Easterday intends to start construction later this summer with a goal of completing it by Jan. 1 and moving the cattle in shortly thereafter. The feedlot still requires a state air quality permit.
Area farmers who have complained that increasing water use for the feedlot could dry up their own wells immediately criticized the decision.
"Our domestic wells and our families depend on groundwater. The state is risking our lives in its rush to continue mining aquifers to benefit corporate interests," Randy Jones of the group Five Corners Family Farmers said in a statement.
The Ecology Department asked the Legislature to weigh in last session, but lawmakers failed to address it amid the state's budget crisis. Instead, they ordered a group of lawmakers, livestock industry representatives, environmental groups and tribes to discuss the issue this year.
"We need to determine if that is the best water policy moving forward or if there should be some limit on operations moving forward and using the exemption," Sheffels said. "Our position moving forward is that there should be some limit, and that's what we will be advocating."#
Weekend rain possible in Valley
The
By Eddie Jimenez
A slight chance of rain is possible for the northern part of the central
A 20% chance of rain is forecast for
“We’re not expecting much,” Sanger said. “We might see a few sprinklers or a light shower or two.”
Whether the
Lower-than-normal temperatures in the Valley are expected to continue through the weekend. Today’s forecast high in
The normal high this time of the year is 90, Sanger said.
Overnight lows will be in the mid-50s through the weekend.#
http://www.fresnobee.com/406/story/1467829.html
North state storms intense, but isolated
Redding Record Searchlight-6/12/09
By Dylan Darling
Intense thunderstorms pounded parts of western
Another intense, insolated cloudburst dropped on western Shasta from Igo to
"It rained pretty hard and hailed," said Tom Schlenker, owner of the Igo Store on
The storm lasted about an hour, he said, causing water to overflow gutters, dusting the ground with pea-size hail and blazing lightning flashes across the hillsides.
A weather spotter reported thunder and lightning over
By 5:30 p.m., almost half an inch of rain had been recorded at the fire station at
A low-pressure system sitting off the coast at the California-Oregon border pushed the storms over the mountains and into the far northern
"It keeps on bringing storms across the mountains," she said.
Over the next few days, Ramirez said the low should move south, with temperatures expected to slowly warm up as it does.
Today should be mostly cloudy with a high near 77 degrees, according to the weather service. Tonight should be cloudy, and temperatures should cool to about 58.
http://www.redding.com/news/2009/jun/12/north-state-storms-intense-but-isolated/
Farm water outlook picks up
By Charles Doud
So far, water not delivered due to the so-called delta smelt decisions, in which water is not pumped into the canal system that serves West side farmers and others, amounts to some 480,000 acre feet (charted above), according to Madera Irrigation District General Manager Lance Johnson. (T. Boardman, SLDMWA)
Madera Irrigation District farmers were saved by the weather this year -- but not by the weather in
They were saved, rather, by weather in
While recent local rain has been welcome, says Madera Irrigation District General Manager Lance Johnson, it has been incidental so far as providing farmers with the irrigation water they will need throughout the irrigation year, which began last month and will end in late summer.
The precipitation that really counted was the snow and rain that fell on the Northern Sierras, Johnson said, as far north as the area around
That precipitation filled the rivers that wash into the big Bay Area delta system, which feeds the canals that serve west valley farmers.#
http://www.maderatribune.com/news/newsview.asp?c=250626
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