Department of Water Resources
California Water News
A daily compilation for DWR personnel of significant news articles and comment
July 15, 2009
1. Top Items–
Valley lawmakers clash over water
Fresno Bee
Another group files suit over Delta smelt order
The Business Journal
Geysers drilling project halted due to quake fears
Santa Rosa Press Democrat
Water wholesaler to fund in-the-red rebate program into coming fiscal year
Riverside Press-Enterprise
Ideas showcased to prevent SF Bay flooding from global warming
San Jose Mercury News
El Niño is on
Eureka Times-Standard
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Valley lawmakers clash over water
Fresno Bee-7/14/09
By Michael Doyle
Sharp partisan conflict now divides San Joaquin Valley lawmakers who had been united as they sought solutions to the region's water shortage.
On Tuesday, two Valley Democrats blasted Republican Rep. Devin Nunes of Visalia for "grandstanding" in zealously pursuing amendments designed to boost water supplies by rolling back environmental protections.
And Nunes asserted that his colleagues -- Rep. Dennis Cardoza of Merced and Rep. Jim Costa of Fresno -- were "mesmerized" by liberal environmentalists.
It was an unusual display of contention among Valley lawmakers who have prided themselves on working across party lines to help growers get the water they need.
Low precipitation along with judicial and regulatory decisions designed to protect endangered species and the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta have combined to slash irrigation-water deliveries.
Nunes has attacked the problem by writing amendments that would cut off funding for some of the environmental decisions. One amendment would have effectively blocked a National Marine Fisheries Service decision that cuts Delta water deliveries by up to 7% to protect endangered Chinook salmon and steelhead.
The House rejected Nunes' original water-delivery amendment last month by a 208-218 margin. He has since tried several times to offer similar amendments. He has either been defeated outright or has been denied the chance to bring the amendment to the House floor.
On Tuesday, Cardoza and other Democrats on the House Rules Committee rejected Nunes' latest bid to offer three water-related amendments to a Fiscal 2010 energy and water funding bill.
"This is baloney, to be doing this sort of thing," Cardoza said of Nunes' approach. "I have had a number of my colleagues tell me they are fed up with it."
Costa added that Nunes has been "not helpful" with repeated water-related amendments that Costa characterized as grandstanding.
On Tuesday, the rules panel permitted Costa and Cardoza to offer their own amendments when the House takes up the energy and water bill.
One amendment would provide $10 million for the so-called "Intertie" and "Two-Gates" projects. The former would connect state and federal canals, and the latter would permit greater water deliveries by keeping fish out of pumps.
The other amendment will ease water transfers.
"It's a good step," Costa said of the amendments, which do not face any known opposition.
Nunes called the Democrats' proposals mere "window dressing" that won't do much to solve the region's water shortage.
Nunes insisted he remains friends with Cardoza and Costa, even as he dismissed their water-related efforts as inadequate.#
http://www.fresnobee.com/local/story/1535861.html
Another group files suit over Delta smelt order
The Business Journal-7/14/09
By Gabriel Dillard
Another farm advocate group has entered the legal fray over federal restrictions on water pumping for San Joaquin Valley growers.
The Klamath, Ore.-based Family Farm Alliance filed its lawsuit last week against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The alliance is challenging the service's December 2008 order slashing exports from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta by about 30 percent to protect the Delta smelt. The alliance contends the order doesn't meet scientific standards.
The alliance advocates on water issues on behalf of family farmers, ranchers, irrigation districts and allied industries in 17 Western states. According to its website, the group counts among its board of directors local agribusiness leaders including citrus grower Harvey Bailey with Bailey Brothers in Reedley and Chris Hurd with Circle G Farms in Firebaugh.
According to the alliance, numerous scientific studies have identified multiple causes for the Delta smelt's decline, including ammonia discharges from Sacramento and other industrial pollution, temperature changes, and invasive non-native species that are devouring the smelt's food supply as well as the smelt themselves.
"(The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) has refused to analyze these other factors and their importance, sticking instead to their assumption that pumping must be the problem," said Dan Keppen, the alliance's executive director, in a statement. "But if anything, their failure to produce any benefits for the smelt over the last fifteen years should demonstrate that the pumps are not the problem."
The California water crisis has become a hotbed for litigation against the federal government. In May, the Sacramento-based Pacific Legal Foundation also sued the service over water pumping cutbacks.#
Geysers drilling project halted due to quake fears
Santa Rosa Press Democrat-7/14/09
By Michael Coit
Federal regulators have stopped a North Bay energy firm from conducting an experimental type of drilling at The Geysers until more study is done on risks it could trigger stronger earthquakes in the seismically active area.
AltaRock Energy plans to drill down more than two miles and fracture the underlying bedrock, creating cracks deep underground to unleash the heat below.
The company would then pump water into the cracks, converting the heat into steam the Sausalito company would sell to a municipal agency operating four geothermal power plants at The Geysers.
Citing the need for additional study, the Department of Energy is withholding funding for the project. The agency last fall approved a $6.2 million grant for AltaRock because of the potential to expand development of renewable energy, a spokeswoman said.
The Bureau of Land Management has suspended review of AltaRock's application for a permit to fracture bedrock until further seismic studies are completed, a spokesman said.
A central question is whether creating new cracks deep underground at The Geysers might trigger a powerful earthquake as similar drilling did at a project in Switzerland in 2006 and 2007, officials said.
"They're going to look at the affects of what happened in Europe and what kind of affect that might have here. We're going to await the outcome of that before proceeding with the application," said John Dearing, a BLM spokesman.
AltaRock continues preliminary work on the project, which it predicts could produce steam sometime in 2010, said Jim Turner, the company's operations vice president.
"We're currently working toward the completion of our project. At this time we don't expect any delay," Turner said. "The DOE has requested information which we have provided, and are confident we will work with the DOE so we can move forward safely and deliberately."
AltaRock has BLM approval to extend an existing Northern California Power Agency well deeper into the ground. That work started in June and should be complete in August, Turner said.
The company still needs BLM approval to fracture the bedrock by injecting water at high pressure into holes drilled into ground. It also needs BLM permission to develop a second well to produce the steam.
Companies have been pushing to develop geothermal energy sources across the West with the nation's renewed push for renewable energy.
The Geysers is the world's largest geothermal operation, straddling Sonoma and Lake counties. Steam has been tapped to power electricity plants at The Geysers for nearly 50 years, with 22 in operation today generating enough electricity for 750,000 homes.
Federal regulators had given AltaRock's project an initial green light.
The BLM approved an environmental study this spring that included a look into the potential for large earthquakes caused by fracturing bedrock, Dearing said.
"It concluded that it wouldn't have a significant impact on creating any different seismic activity than already exists there," he said.
But the depth of that review was criticized by residents concerned about the project's potential for causing stronger earthquakes.
The Geysers geothermal field experiences 90 micro-quakes a month, mostly in the 1.5-magnitude range, according to the U.S. Geological Service. The numbers have been steadily increasing for the last half-decade as power companies inject wastewater into the shallow steam beds to generate electricity.
Federal energy officials last week required AltaRock to provide more data as part of its environmental review. The concern centers on earthquakes linked to geothermal drilling into an earthquake fault below Basel, Switzerland.
"The Department is conducting additional analysis of the question of induced seismicity, and specifically comparing induced seismicity at The Geysers to induced seismicity at Basel, Switzerland to determine whether there should be additional safeguards beyond what is already planned for The Geysers site. We plan to have it completed soon," said Stephanie Mueller, an energy department spokeswoman.
AltaRock officials contend The Geysers site is safer than Basel. They said it is not on a major fault, that the company relied on extensive mapping, and has designed controls to monitor seismicity and suspend activities if needed.
"AltaRock has been focused on the safety and success of our project from the beginning, and will continue to work with the community and regulators to ensure geothermal energy can provide our state with clean, abundant, and affordable energy," according to a statement on the company's Web site.#
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20090714/ARTICLES/907149985
Water wholesaler to fund in-the-red rebate program into coming fiscal year
Riverside Press-Enterprise-7/14/09
By Janet Zimmerman
Southern California water managers agreed Tuesday to fund millions of dollars in pending rebate applications for low-flow toilets and other conservation devices and approved another $19 million to pay for the program for the coming fiscal year.
The vote by Metropolitan Water District's board of directors in Los Angeles was good news for several vendors who said they have laid off employees after waiting more than six months for payment.
MWD's "SoCal Water$mart" program ran out of money in June because rebate demand had tripled in the past year, exceeding the original $20 million budget by about $34 million. The rebates were available to customers of Southern California water agencies that buy supplies from MWD, including parts of western Riverside and San Bernardino counties.
"We're making changes in the program so that we don't have this situation happen again," said Randy Record, a board member representing Eastern Municipal Water District in Perris.
Those changes include lowering incentive amounts by half and maintaining an online rebate-reservation system that would alert customers to how much money is left in the program.
Rebate funding was in question last month for commercial vendors and for 20,000 residential customers who bought high-efficiency toilets, clothes washers, artificial turf, climate-sensitive irrigation controllers and special sprinkler heads. At the time, the program was thought to be $24 million in the red. But a board-ordered internal audit showed that valid pending claims for 2008-09 total $14.2 million.
Vendors who have installed water-saving devices for customers expecting rebates can expect payment within a month, said Debra Mann, MWD's assistant general manager and chief operating officer.
"We learned our lessons on how to move forward with this," she said.
The three-year, $75 million program will save 300,000 acre-feet of new supplies over the next 20 years, she said. One acre-foot equals almost 326,000 gallons, enough to supply two typical families for a year.
The board's action allows continued conservation rebates for customers of Western Municipal Water District, serving Corona, Norco, Moreno Valley, Murrieta, Lake Elsinore, Canyon Lake, Temecula and part of Riverside. Customers of Eastern, which serves Moreno Valley south to Temecula, and Inland Empire Utilities Agency in San Bernardino County, also are eligible.
"It's so important to say to the customers through incentives that they've got to change behavior in the way they use water. We're very grateful they continued the program," said John Rossi, Western's general manager.
MWD is aiming to save 1.1 million acre-feet per year of water -- equivalent to the demands of the cities of San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco -- by 2025. Before the rebate program, the agency failed to reach its annual goal; with the rebates it exceeded the annual goal by 80 percent, according to a staff report.#
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_S_rebates15.3cffdc8.html#
Ideas showcased to prevent SF Bay flooding from global warming
San Jose Mercury News-7/15/09
By Paul Rogers
A giant submerged curtain anchored under the Golden Gate Bridge that rises in storms to hold back big waves. Huge levees with pumps run by tidal power. Vast networks of new wetlands from Silicon Valley to San Francisco, some created on old parking lots and bay front warehouse sites.
Science fiction? Maybe. Or perhaps San Francisco Bay in 100 years.
On Tuesday, the ideas were among six winners in the "Rising Tides" contest, a design competition to engineer possible solutions for San Francisco Bay in the next century as its waters are predicted to rise as much as 41/2 feet due to global warming.
The winners included some of the Bay Area's most prestigious architectural firms, chosen from 130 entries from 18 countries.
"We are going to have to deal with the issue of protecting the airports, Silicon Valley, and downtown San Francisco much sooner than we thought," said Will Travis, executive director of the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission.
Since 1965, the commission, a state agency, has regulated development around the bay shoreline. It sponsored the contest, along with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, which put up $25,000 in federal funding for prize money that was split six ways.
San Francisco Bay already is rising.
Since 1900, its waters have risen 8 inches, according to a gauge at Fort Point, beneath the Golden Gate Bridge, the longest continually monitored
tidal gauge in the United States.
According to a study last year by the U.S. Geological Survey, based on current warming trends, it will rise 16 more inches by 2050, and as much as 55 inches by 2100, as ice caps around the world continue to melt.
That much rise would put major sections of the bay's shoreline under water in future storms when tides are high, according to scientists at USGS and NOAA who have studied the data with computerized maps.
Among the places most at risk: the runways at San Francisco and Oakland airports; Alviso, which already sits 7 feet below sea level due to land subsidence; major portions of the Dumbarton Bridge; Foster City, and much of San Francisco's waterfront, including the Embarcadero, Mission Bay near the Giants AT&T ballpark and parts of Treasure Island.
Almost any comprehensive solution could cost billions, from restoring huge amounts of wetlands to buffer the flooding to building higher levees and sea walls.
Travis said his agency held the contest to get the public to start thinking about the issue.
While 2100 is a long way off, 2050 is just "one refi of your current mortgage away," he said.
"We are going to have to be thinking about this and preparing for it much sooner than we thought. We don't want to be in the Hurricane Katrina situation where you deal with fixing the levees after the city has flooded."
Chosen by a jury of architects and scholars that was chaired by Marcel Stive, scientific director for the Water Research Centre in Delft, Holland, the winning entries can be viewed at www.risingtidescompetition.com.
Among the winners is "BAYArc," designed by a team led by Craig Hartman, a partner at Skidmore, Owings and Merrill in San Francisco, along with engineers at Moffatt & Nichol Engineers in Oakland.
Their idea is to stretch a carbon fiber membrane under the Golden Gate Bridge. It would be anchored to concrete pylons and would rise via an inflatable top in storms, limiting the amount of water and tidal energy that could come into the bay.
The goal would be to negate the need for billions of dollars in permanent sea walls, since the main flood risk would only occur a few hours a year during big storms, said Hartman, who also designed the international terminal at San Francisco International Airport.
"This is the biggest challenge of the 21st century," said Hartman. "For the Bay Area, it occurred to us that there must be some way to deal with the problem at its most minimal point, and obviously that's where the water passes through the Golden Gate."
Other winners included Elizabeth Ranieri and Byron Kuth of San Francisco, who designed a series of massive ventilated levees that would allow water to flow at times while protecting shorelines at other times; and Thom Faulders of Berkeley, who proposed a series of 30-foot high towers shining laser beams to show the public how high water could rise.
Another winning entry, by Lee Stickles and Huaiche Yang of San Francisco, calls for restoring massive amounts of wetlands, similar to other entries, to buffer floodwaters. Their entry, however, proposed reconfiguring waterfront areas, including parking lots and warehouses, while building more densely on higher ground, even constructing floating parks.
David Lewis, executive director of Save the Bay, in Oakland, said the solution will involve higher sea walls around key areas like airports, restoring wetlands, and discouraging development in risky areas.
"In some places the region will have to decide which developed areas are worth the cost of protection," Lewis said. "SFO, yes. Google server farms, yes. But a strip mall somewhere, probably not."#
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_12837984?IADID=Search-www.mercurynews.com-www.mercurynews.com
El Niño is on
Eureka Times-Standard-7/15/09
John Driscoll
Scientists are watching to see whether a pool of warm water in the equatorial Pacific Ocean known as El Niño will become a major winter weather disrupter or just a minor disturbance.
The last major El Niño in the winter of 1997-1998 stirred things up on the North Coast. Heavy rainfall wiped out the tracks of the North Coast Railroad through the Eel River Canyon, brought albacore tuna amazingly close to shore and may have brought a disease that wiped out many of the razor clams on Clam Beach.
Then there was 1982-1983, in which storms caused coastal damage of more than $100 million.
So far, federal scientists say they can't predict how intense the recently identified El Niño will be.
"It's still a little early to say," said National Weather Service meteorologist-in-charge Nancy Dean.
Dean said that the standard for an El Niño is equatorial Pacific water temperatures being .5 degrees Celsius over normal for three months in a row. Current predictions are that the water could be as much as 2 degrees above normal in the fall. The El Niño of 1997-1998 registered water 2.5 degrees above normal, Dean said.
El Niño typically means more rain in the Southwest, and gentler winters in the Pacific Northwest. But El Niño's effects on the North Coast are less certain. Among the effects can be a severe disruption of the ocean food chain.
Steven Bograd, a research oceanographer with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Southwest Science Center, said that El Niño affects water temperatures along the California coast, but also can affect the circulation of air over the Pacific.
That can disrupt upwelling, in which cold nutrient-rich waters are stirred to the surface by northwest winds, critical for marine life.
It's even possible for El Niño to form a warm water cap that stifles cold water from reaching the surface, Bograd said.
"It's really the process that drives the ecosystem out there," Bograd said of upwelling.
The anomaly can do weird things along the coast.
Humboldt Bay fisherman Ken Bates said that in 1982-1983 he saw herring show up and spawn in the bay in November, months early, and saw most of them leave before the fishing season opened. The following summer, pelagic red crabs more commonly seen in Baja California were observed in large numbers locally. Pacific bonita came in as close as 5 to 10 miles to the North Coast, Bates said.
"I would see them on the way out to catch albacore at 20 miles," Bates said.
Of course, it doesn't take an El Niño event to disrupt the ocean. In 2005, the timing of the upwelling was so far off that biologists believed adult salmon that swam out to sea that year had very poor survival rates, and returned to the Sacramento River in 2008 in such small numbers that fishing season was canceled.
And in 1955 and 1964, years that saw the North Coast's greatest floods, there was no El Niño, Dean said.
Bograd said that the presence of an El Niño only makes it a bit more certain that there will be a disruption in the weather and the ocean, which makes scientists watch closer for changes. By September, he said, NOAA will have a good idea just how intense this year's El Niño is likely to get.#
http://www.times-standard.com/localnews/ci_12840748
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
DWR's California Water News is distributed to California Department of Water Resources management and staff, for information purposes, by the DWR Public Affairs Office. For reader's services, including new subscriptions, temporary cancellations and address changes, please use the online page: http://listhost2.water.ca.gov/mailman/listinfo/water_news . DWR operates and maintains the State Water Project, provides dam safety and flood control and inspection services, assists local water districts in water management and water conservation planning, and plans for future statewide water needs. Inclusion of materials is not to be construed as an endorsement of any programs, projects, or viewpoints by the Department or the State of California.
No comments:
Post a Comment