Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
June 11, 2009
5. Agencies, Programs, People –
EBMUD boosting rates to cover revenue shortfall
Grim news about drought reported
Tense times for Baker, district
The Desert Sun
Discounts for water savers
Water slides going up inside new aquatic center building
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| EBMUD boosting rates to cover revenue shortfall
The biggest water agency in the The East Bay Municipal Utility District, which serves 1.3 million customers in Contra Costa and Beginning July 1, water-delivery rates will rise 7.5 percent (next July 1, they will go up by 7.5 percent again); wastewater rates will edge up by 5 percent. An average monthly water bill for a single-family home will go up $2.88, to $35.95, in fiscal year 2010 (which starts in July), and $2.71, to $38.66, in fiscal year 2011, officials said during a Tuesday vote on the rates. In recent years, the district has raised rates by a smaller margin - closer to between 3 and 4 percent. But the slowdown in new-home construction paired with stepped-up water conservation and higher chemical costs for treating water led to a $30 million revenue shortfall this year, said district spokesman Charles Hardy. Water hookups in far-flung areas of Contra Costa and Hardy said the district originally discussed a 21 percent rate increase but was able to trim expenses, such as a well-known customer service window at its "In an ideal world, you wouldn't want to raise rates at all, particularly at a time like this when people are going through hardship," Hardy said. "But we have scraped the bone a lot." Like many other water agencies, EBMUD is also in a catch-22: When customers use less water, agency revenue tumbles. That's because water districts usually have a very high level of fixed costs, while the bulk of their revenue is considered variable. In other words, when customers use a normal amount of water, the system can break even. When usage drops, revenue slides and districts often raise rates to stay in the black. Rate increases The East Bay Municipal Utility District voted this week to raise water-delivery rates over the next two years to help make up for a $30 million revenue shortfall. The increases go into effect July 1. The average monthly single-family residential water bill will: -- Increase $2.88, to $35.95, in fiscal year 2010 -- Increase $2.71, to $38.66, in fiscal year 2011 Wastewater rates will go up 5 percent in the same period, resulting in: -- $0.62 increase in fiscal year 2010 -- $0.72 increase in fiscal year 2011 Source: EBMUD |
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/06/11/BAKC184FR7.DTL
Michael Hiltzik
People who say that nothing's harder to get rid of than a bad penny must never have met Keith Brackpool.
The British-born promoter, who has spent the last dozen years pushing a scheme to pump water to Southern California from beneath 35,000 acres his Cadiz Inc. owns in the
On the contrary, he continues to attract political sycophants happy to attest to his wisdom in the ways of water policy -- while they accept campaign contributions and consulting fees from him and his company.
In the past his posse has included ex-Gov. Gray Davis and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Now he has added Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who last week publicly endorsed the scheme as "a path-breaking, new, sustainable groundwater conservation and storage project."
The endorsement was embedded in an announcement
Curiously, the release didn't identify the four public agencies. Schwarzenegger's office and a
So we're left with a company headed by a man with political juice making a deal with four unidentified public water agencies to revive a $200-million project that was already shelved once.
As taxpayers, do you smell something? Me too.
One might feel better about such maneuvering if Cadiz Inc. were a strong company, but it hasn't had a profitable year since at least 1999. Last year's loss was nearly $16 million. The Los Angeles-based company has been kept on life support by its lenders, who have repeatedly extended their loans, presumably on a bet that Brackpool's project will someday take flight.
At the end of March the company disclosed that its working capital was down to $4.3 million, enough to last another year.
Failure to get the water project moving or to line up new investments by then could force it to cut back in a way that might affect its "viability as a company."
As for Brackpool, 51,
The release featuring Schwarzenegger's name helped send
It's worth detouring a moment here for another look at that "path-breaking" water project.
As it was presented to the Metropolitan Water District in 2002, the idea was to pump surplus Colorado River water into the aquifer underlying the firm's desert acreage. During droughts, the stored water (along with some indigenous groundwater) would be pumped out for delivery via the aqueduct to a parched
If you don't look too closely, the plan has a sort of shimmering authenticity, like a desert mirage. Yes, the state faces a long-term water shortage. And yes, in the midst of drought, sometimes the rain comes down in torrents.
Yet as the MWD realized, reality isn't so simple.
First, there isn't any surplus water in the
Second, there's considerable disagreement over how much groundwater really underlies the
Then there's the 35 miles of desert separating the
When I met this week with
The general counsel, an experienced water lawyer named Scott Slater who joined the company late last year, says he's reworking the project to scale down its reliance on stored water and orient it more toward conservation -- preferably by capturing rainfall that runs off the desert ranges and evaporates from dry lake beds in the Cadiz area.
The new plan would run the pipeline along an existing railroad right of way, reducing its environmental footprint.
Slater acknowledges that numerous environmental approvals still would be needed, though he contends that the process could be completed in a year after the project is formally proposed. Considering the opposition the last version generated from local activists and environmentalists, that sounds a teensy bit ambitious.
Arguably, the best thing the project has going for it is Brackpool's ability to attract political friends, as a flame attracts moths. Some say the secret is his British charm, but the record points more to money.
From 1999 through 2005, Brackpool and others associated with
San Bernardino County Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt, who is quoted in the
Neither Brackpool nor
But the governor's chief of staff, Susan Kennedy, used to work for
When I asked the governor's office if Kennedy helped secure Schwarzenegger's testimonial for
There may be a lesson in all this about how to mix politics and water: For a catalyst, try liberal amounts of cash.#
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hiltzik11-2009jun11,0,5533715.column?page=1&track=rss
Grim news about drought reported
By Heather Hacking
Grim news about the ongoing drought and financial trouble for the Department of Water and Resource Conservation was shared at last week's meeting of the Water Commission.
Paul Gosselin, director of the county Department of Water and Resource Conservation, gave an update on the Drought Task Force, which has been watching and preparing for drought issues, now with the state in the third year of drought.
Irrigation and domestic wells are a concern, particularly on the ridge and other foothill areas.
Gosselin said there is a need for education in those areas, and that some useful information is available on the state Department of Water Resources drought page: http://www.water.ca.gov/drought.
He said Lynne Pillus, administrative assistant, has also updated the water department Web site for links to more drought information for farmers and residents.
A fact sheet is also being prepared to help homeowners be aware of possible problems with wells.
Gosselin said during recent meetings he has heard from people who are having problems with wells. A large percentage of those are due to maintenance problems that are being exacerbated by the dry weather.
The water department has been working with the Environmental Health Department, which has also noted this trend.
Gosselin said the county is trying to identify areas where people are at greater risk of problems, particularly with wells, if the drought continues.
"We want to find target areas and also give people tools," Gosselin continued.
With groundwater, wells vary, and even with a broad indication of where problems may occur, it won't be exact. Yet "everyone needs to be prepared," the water department director said.
People with wells built over fractured rock, such as in
Ideally, there would be programs with low-interest loans to help people who have well problems, he said.
Gosselin has been talking to well drillers and has heard that as of now, they are not backed up on jobs.
In the meantime, as drought problems continue, the department is having serious financial problems, as are all departments in the county.
In May the Board of Supervisors tentatively approved a General Fund cut of 29 percent, which would include cutting the water department program manager job from full to half-time status, reducing the department to 3 1/2 people, as well as other cuts such as travel and extra help.
Yet, the biggest uncertainty with the water department's budget is state bond funds, which are frozen.
These include previously approved money for the Lower Tuscan Monitoring, Recharge and Data Management, as well as watershed modeling and water education.
State funding for the two projects was cut off in January.
There is hope some or all of the funds will be restored, Gosselin said, but in the meantime, the department needs to plan staffing.
Also, payment for work already completed on these projects has been withheld, he explained.
Without these projects, there will only be enough money to pay for 2 1/2 staff members, he said.
There has been discussion that if funding is cut, the county may decide to absorb the water department into other county departments. However, the Board of Supervisors has put off making these decisions, waiting to see what happens with the state budget.
In other Water Commission news:
Senior planner Dan Breedon gave a report on the county's General Plan update process.
He said the county is finishing up meetings on the housing element of the General Plan, with final adoption scheduled for Aug. 25.
The county has also been working on water protection zones, particularly for the watersheds around
However, some concerns have come up along the way, such as people who have property where the slope of the land sends water away from the lakes, which are used for ridge drinking water.
Some adjustments to those maps are likely merited, Breedon told the Water Commission.#
http://www.chicoer.com/news/ci_12567172?source=rss
Tense times for Baker, district
The Desert Sun-6/11/09
By Marcel Honore
Recent tensions between Desert Hot Springs Mayor Pro Tem Karl Baker and the Mission Springs Water District that serves the city are gaining steam.
Baker, who came under fire for a March 13 outburst at a MSWD employee that some deemed racially insensitive, filed a public records request to examine district travel, salaries, legal and consultant fees, and communications.
Several of the items on the May 6 request focus on water district Engineering Manager Dan Patneaud, who formerly served as Public Works director for the city of
Baker said he's worried the water district might be paying excess consulting fees to review and approve engineering projects since Patneaud does not have a Principal Engineer Certificate, an engineering license.
"There's nothing in the job that says you will have to have this," District General Manager Arden Wallum said Wednesday of the Principal Engineer Certificate. Other staff would handle such approvals regardless of whether Patneaud had the certificate, Wallum said.
Wallum is the district's only employee with such certification, according to a May 28 response to Baker's requests from D. Craig Fox of Richards Watson & Gershon, which provides legal counsel to the water district.
Fox objected to half of Baker's 14 requests but estimated the remaining requests "subject to disclosure" would require nearly 6,000 pages — at a cost of $591.
The district agreed to disclose legal and consulting invoices, travel expenses and vouchers for employees and board members, and salary information.
Baker and the water district share a tense history.
A March 17 letter from the district's law firm, copied to Baker's peers on the City Council and police Chief Patrick Williams, alleged Baker shoved papers at an employee and "made several sarcastic remarks, in an affected Latino accent."
Baker said he was frustrated at what he felt were unreasonable requirements to change his account to a new address, and he told the employee sarcastically he knew it was "not your 'yob,'" instead of "job."
The letter, from Richards Watson & Gershon attorney Susan E. Rusnak, demanded Baker cease and desist from further "racial harassment and abuse of employees."
"I was mad. I admit that," Baker said Tuesday of the public fallout over the incident. "That left a real bitter taste in my mouth."
But his May record request, Baker said, stems from months of frustration and concerns of potential financial mismanagement at the water district.
He said he was especially frustrated at the district's handling early last summer of an unusually intense fly and odor problem from the 16 open-air sludge beds formerly used at its Horton Wastewater Treatment Plant.
Wallum and the district's head of Operations, Brent Gray, said district staff began addressing the odor and fly problem before Baker expressed concerns — ordering a temporary belt-press to replace the sludge beds.
"Within months we turned around an entire process," Wallum said Wednesday.
The water district raised rates earlier this year in part to help buy a permanent press.
"It was a machine they should have had all along," Baker said Tuesday.#
http://www.mydesert.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009906110306
Discounts for water savers
Landscape architect William R. Snowden is offering a 20 percent reduction in his design fee for conversion to water-wise landscapes.
Qualifying projects may either be a conversion of an existing spray-irrigated landscape to a water-wise drip irrigation system, or a reduction in the size of existing front lawns by at least half.
Residents can also view Snowden's work and many ideas for saving water in the landscape by visiting the Water-wise Demonstration Garden at Fire Station No. 3, at the corner of Trower and Solano avenues in
For more information, call 259-1133 or e-mail bill.snowden@comcast.net.#
http://www.napavalleyregister.com/articles/2009/06/11/business/doc4a30931a179e9887599740.txt
Water slides going up inside new aquatic center building
Although it's not the last thing to be constructed in the new aquatic center in Fort Bragg, installation of the water slides seems to mark the end of a project that
started over three decades ago.
Project manager Gerard Morris said the slides are being installed by Kansas-based "Splashtacular," as required by state law. He said since they qualify as an amusement ride, the slides have to be assembled and certified by the manufacturer to
Inside the competition pool, leisure pool and lazy river, rows of raised tiles have been installed, leaving bare concrete between. Morris explained that the concrete area will be covered in Marlite plaster, a compound that cures in water. The plaster will fill the gaps between the tiles and level the surface. The pool will be filled the same day. However, he said the heating and air conditioning system must be operational first.
Once filled, boilers will heat the pools' water, bringing it up to swimming temperature in a couple weeks. Once the temperature is ready, Morris estimated that a couple more weeks of work will still be necessary.
On the community center side of the building, tile is being installed in the bathrooms and showers, and most rooms have been painted. The mechanical systems of the building will be ready to start up by the weekend, he noted.
"It's pretty colorful over there," he said, noting that some ceiling work is still taking place.
As part of the conditions for the project's use permit, the parking lot, sidewalks and some dog park amenities need to be installed before the Sigrid and
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