Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
June 19, 2009
5. Agencies, Programs, People –
Conserve or pay: The Sacramento
promises to get tough on water-ordinance enforcement
New images show evidence of ancient Martian lake
San Francisco Chronicle
Owners of flood-damaged ND homes left wondering
San Francisco Chronicle
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Conserve or pay: The Sacramento
promises to get tough on water-ordinance enforcement
By Cosmo Garvin
The city of
A suite of new outdoor-watering rules kicked in on Friday, June 12. The new water ordinance is a lot like the old water ordinance, but city officials say that now they are going to be enforced.
The new rules include:
• Odd/even watering days. If your address ends in an odd number, you can water on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. If your address ends in an even number, watering is allowed Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Nobody gets to water on Monday. This rule has actually been on the books for 10 years, but wasn’t enforced before.
• No watering at all between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. during your watering day. The old rule was noon to 6 p.m.
• No washing your car without a shut-off nozzle on your hose.
• Winter watering will be sharply curtailed. Between November and March, you may only water one day a week. Odd addresses get Saturdays, even addresses get Sundays.
The rules say nothing about Slip ’n Slides, kiddie pools and filling up water balloons with the garden hose. “We don’t have specific measures to address those activities,” said Mike Malone, field supervisor with the Sacramento Utilities Department. “We’d probably discourage them.”
There will be no water police cruising the neighborhoods looking for water scofflaws. At least, not yet. “That may be something we look at in the future, if necessary,” said Malone. But city spokesman Maurice Chaney said city personnel are being asked to keep a lookout for abuses. Citizens are also being encouraged to snitch on their neighbors.
“We’re imploring customers to keep their eyes and their ears open, and to call 311 if they see any water waste,” Chaney explained. You can also call 311 to have someone from the city come to your home and assess your water usage and give you some tips for conserving.
If you get busted, your first offense will earn you just a warning. But it will cost you $25 for the second offense, $100 for the third and $500 for each violation after that. You can have that first $25 fine waived if you agree to go to a water-conservation workshop similar to traffic school. The new rules also give the Sacramento City Council power to declare a “water shortage” and impose additional restrictions in the case of drought or other special circumstances. Fines would be doubled during a declared water shortage.
The new water ordinance has been described as “baby steps” toward water conservation in a region that has been historically carefree in its water use. According to the State Water Resources Control Board, residential water consumption in the
“It’s a small step forward, but it’s not the most significant thing they could do,” said Chris Brown, executive director of the California Urban Water Conservation Council.
It is progress, said Brown, because the city is at least talking about enforcement, something it hasn’t done so far. “The approach they’ve taken has some potential for success. It remains to be seen whether they will be serious about enforcing it. The first few people that actually get fined, that will start waking people up.”
Brown said the city might have to get tougher to make a dent in water consumption. “If this doesn’t get people’s attention,” he said, “the city may have to consider higher fines.”
Brown also thinks fewer watering days, going to watering twice a week instead of three days a week, would be reasonable. But perhaps the biggest thing the city could do to curb residential water use is to push up its water-metering program. Right now, the city is planning to have all homes metered by 2025. That means many households won’t be metered for a decade or more.
“So few of their customers are getting any sort of clear price signal right now,” said Brown, adding that just introducing a water meter can cut consumption by as much as 20 percent.
City officials agree that metering is crucial to water-conservation efforts. “We’re exploring opportunities to get those in a lot faster,” said Malone.
Brown also lamented that the city lacks a clear goal for curbing residential water use. For example, the State Water Resources Control Board recently unveiled its “20 x 2020 Water Conservation Plan,” to reduce the state’s overall water consumption by 20 percent within the next decade. But nothing like that is being articulated to
“We aren’t being told what the overarching goal is, and I think that would really help,” said Brown. “People want to do the right thing. If you give them a goal, they will change their behavior to meet it.”#
http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/content?oid=1015889
New images show evidence of ancient Martian lake
San Francisco Chronicle – 6/18/09
From the Associated Press
New images suggest Mars had a sizable lake on its surface billions of years ago, further evidence that the planet had a watery past.
Images snapped by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter reveal a 30-mile-long canyon where researchers believe water once flowed and apparent beach remnants surrounding a basin.
Dubbed the Shalbatana lake for the valley it was located in, scientists believe it was about the size of Lake Champlain that borders the states of
The findings were published in this week's Geophysical Research Letters.
Lead researcher Gaetano Di Achille of the
Cornell University Mars expert Jim Bell called it a neat find, but he said he would like to see other data besides images to support there was a lake.#
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/06/18/national/a125011D44.DTL
Owners of flood-damaged ND homes left wondering
San Francisco Chronicle – 06/18/09
By Dave Kolpack, Associated Press
Craig and Marcia Strehlow's 4,400-square-foot dream home had been their sanctuary for 23 years, a wooded paradise in
The floods left the Strehlows' home in shambles — torn out carpets, drawers and appliances — near the confluence of the Red River and
The couple, now living in an apartment, are among more than a hundred local homeowners waiting to find out if the federal government will buy them out of their home. Months after the flood, they still don't have a clear answer about what will become of their dream home.
"You know something? It's hard to come back," 57-year-old Craig Strehlow said, walking through his half-demolished house this week. "Until you go through these types of emotional situations, it's hard to understand."
The floods caused millions of dollars in damage in March and April after snow, ice and heavy rain pushed rivers and streams over their banks, forcing evacuations. It caused an estimated $100 million in economic damage.
The total cost of damaged homes hasn't been assessed, but nearly 800 claims have been paid out totaling $8.6 million — the bulk of it to repair damaged homes — by a Federal Emergency Management Agency program. More than 4,600 home inspections have been completed.
But government officials haven't finished assessing candidates for full buyouts. No county in
"It's almost like FEMA has this sum of money to give us, but we first have to do the New York Times crossword puzzle correctly," said Fargo attorney Ron McLean, among 15 homeowners in the Strehlows' neighborhood.
"We're making an offer on a house away from the river because we just can't take it anymore," he said of his decision not to come back to the home he lived in for 31 years.
In deciding who's eligible for a buyout, FEMA officials use a formula to show whether it's more cost effective to move a home out of harm's way or to pay for fixing it up and leave it with the possibility it could be damaged by a future flood.
Homeowners who qualify for buyouts are offered the pre-flood value of their house, based on the average of two appraisals.
The Strehlows were told they're likely low on FEMA's priority list, mainly because their French country-style, two-story home wasn't built below the average 10-year flood level.
Now the Strehlows aren't sure whether their home is worth fixing.
It's a dilemma facing dozens of homeowners along the Red River near
But other communities are still assessing damage, and some are likely to add damage from this week's heavy rain.
"Buyouts are not going to happen overnight. They take time," said Mike Hillenburg, a flood mitigation expert for FEMA. "We have to make sure it makes sense when it comes to spending taxpayer money."#
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/06/18/financial/f155043D77.DTL
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