Department of Water Resources
California Water News
A daily compilation for DWR personnel of significant news articles and comment
July 16, 2009
1. Top Items–
House to OK $33b energy, water bill with help for Valley
Fresno Bee
Delta drilling planned for canal
Stockton Record
Delta is the concern of all
Stockton Record
Ease up on endangered species rules says Poizner
Central Valley Business Times
Wash the car, fill up the pool
Oakland Tribune
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House to OK $33b energy, water bill with help for Valley
Fresno Bee-7/15/09
By Michael Doyle
The House today (Wednesday) is scheduled to approve a $33 billion energy and water bill that includes some modest help for San Joaquin Valley farms.
Urged by two Valley Democrats, the House on Wednesday amended the massive bill to include $10 million for several Valley-related water projects designed to boost irrigation deliveries. The revised bill also is supposed to make it easier to transfer California water from one district to another.
Reps. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, and Dennis Cardoza, D-Merced, wrote the two California water amendments adopted by the House on voice votes as part of the fiscal 2010 energy and water appropriations package. The bill funds Army Corps of Engineers projects like Pine Flat Dam, Bureau of Reclamation projects like Friant Dam and energy-related work at places like Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
One amendment steers $10 million toward California’s Intertie and Two Gates water projects. The Intertie would connect the federal Delta-Mendota Canal with state canals, making it easier to shift water. Two Gates would prevent fish from being sucked into Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta pumps. Protecting threatened delta smelt has curtailed some irrigation deliveries south of the delta.
Additional approvals are still needed before either project proceeds.
The second amendment is supposed to streamline water transfers across county lines among irrigation and water districts. Westlands Water District General Manager Thomas Birmingham called the water transfers a “critical tool” for the district’s farmers on the west side of the Valley.
The amendments authored by the two Democrats did not go as far as several sought by Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Visalia. Nunes wanted to shut off funding for several federal water decisions designed to protect the delta and endangered species such as the Chinook salmon.
Denied a chance to offer his latest water-delivery amendments on the House floor, Nunes dismissed Costa’s and Cardoza’s efforts as well-meaning but ineffectual.
“There are a lot of people in public office searching for a public relations victory and they hope this will buy them time,” Nunes said in a statement, adding that “the truth is that this action will not ease our region’s suffering.”
Cardoza, in turn, says Nunes’ proposals are unrealistic.
The energy and water bill is one of a dozen appropriations measures needed to fund the federal government each year. This year’s 348-page committee report is packed with earmarks steering funds to favored local projects.
Cardoza, for instance, secured $460,000 to continue an ongoing study of flood control along Orestimba Creek in western Stanislaus County. Some Republicans including Nunes and Rep. George Radanovich, R-Mariposa, though, have sworn off requesting congressional earmarks this year.
Many of the bill’s projects were requested by President Barack Obama’s proposed budget and are not controversial, including $10 million provided for safety improvements at Success Dam near Porterville. The bill likewise includes the $31 million that Obama sought for restoration of San Francisco Bay and the delta.#
http://www.fresnobee.com/local/story/1538639.html
Delta drilling planned for canal
State officials to search for possible intake sites
Stockton Record-7/16/09
By Alex Breitler
State water officials plan to drill into Delta river bottoms starting next month as they explore possible intake sites for a peripheral canal.
The drilling is further evidence that the canal is no longer just a concept on paper as officials move toward on-the-ground analyses and surveys.
The California Department of Water Resources said it needs data about channel soils to help plan where a canal should begin, as well as identify locations for tunnels, siphons and barriers.
Comments accepted
To comment on the state's drilling plan, e-mail mbeachle@water.ca.gov or call (916)
376-9826. The deadline is July 26. To read the report, visit http://tiny.cc/yUwvq.
The drilling also explores infrastructure for "through-Delta conveyance," that is, the concept that some water will continue to flow through the estuary toward the export pumps near Tracy.
The plan is to use anchored barges or ships to drill at 16 locations throughout the Delta, including three major rivers: the Sacramento, San Joaquin and Mokelumne. Much of the drilling will take place on the Sacramento River between Walnut Grove and Freeport, roughly the area in which a proposed canal would begin.
"We're trying to hit so many different options," said Mark Pagenkopp, a senior engineering geologist with Water Resources.
The state has been surveying private lands for some time, a Water Resources spokesman said Wednesday, but this stage of the project requires a public comment period, which ends July 26.
The work is part of a massive environmental review for the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, an effort to improve the state's water supply while also restoring Delta habitat. The canal is a key part of that plan, though foes say it will destroy, not restore, the estuary by robbing it of fresh Sacramento River water to boost water exports to other parts of California.
Dante Nomellini, a Stockton attorney representing farmers who have sued over the conservation plan process, said private landowners continue to resist state efforts to access their land.
He was not surprised that the state intends to drill.
"The fact that they've gone out into the field and contacted owners for entry, I don't know how much more of an awakening we need," he said.
State officials also said this week that they expect to release details soon about how a canal could be operated while still allowing some fresh water to flow into and through the Delta. Canal opponents have long insisted that the state should not be pushing forward with a canal when questions about how it would operate have not been answered.#
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090716/A_NEWS14/907160324
Delta is the concern of all
Stockton Record-7/16/09
Opinion
We've all seen the signs on the curb near storm drains warning against allowing toxins into the drain. Those signs probably should be larger and in bright red letters.
A new study led by a UC Berkeley toxicologist found that pyrethroid pesticides - common in household pesticides - in the American River are strong enough to kill tiny shrimp called Hyalella azteca. And those shrimp are a vital first link in the food chain of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta ecosystem.
Researchers have hunted the cause of the collapse of the Delta's ecosystem for five years. That collapse is thought to be behind the decline in nine fish species, including the tiny Delta smelt.
Researcher Donald Weston said studies support the theory that there is no one cause of the problem, but pesticides reaching the American River through storm drains is putting huge amounts of pesticides in the system. The American River twists through a 30 mile, highly urbanized region that is home to some 1.4 million people. From there the pesticides enter the Sacramento River, thence to the Delta, the state's largest estuary and the water supply for some 23 million Californians.
The largest single source of pyrethroid pollution is the Sacramento regional wastewater treatment plant, which discharges treated sewage into the Sacramento River at Freeport.
Researchers found almost no pyrethroids in Stockton's treated wastewater, probably because rather than being discharged directly into the river, the city holds it in giant ponds up to 30 days before it is discharged into the Delta. In that time, the pesticides may settle or degrade, researchers said.
But Stocktonians should not look on this as Sacramento's problem, a reason not to exercise extreme care in the use and disposal of pesticides and other toxic substances. Runoff from treated lawns, liquids dripping from cars, toxin-carrying paints and chlorine-treated swimming pool water all can get into the storm drain system and into the Delta.
Weston's study is just another warning that we all must exercise care, that we all share a responsibility, to guard the precious natural resource that is the Delta.#
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090716/A_OPINION01/907160313/-1/A_OPINION
Ease up on endangered species rules says Poizner
Central Valley Business Times-7/15/09
More reservoirs, some sort of peripheral canal to shunt fresh water around or through the San Joaquin-Sacramento Delta, looser enforcement of the endangered species law and more power to the governor to act on water shortage problems are part of a package of reforms urged Wednesday by Steve Poizner, the state insurance commissioner who is seeking the Republican nomination for governor.
“We cannot continue to ignore the substantial economic toll that the reduced water supply has taken on the livelihoods of so many Californians," says Mr. Poizner. "Our state must protect its citizens in this emergency.”
His suggestions include:
• Encourage more flexible application of the Endangered Species Act during times of drought emergency
• Utilize the Governor's executive power to get water to where it is needed
• Build the "Two Gates" Project
• Invest in other short-term infrastructure projects that increase the reliability of California's water supply
• Increase reservoir and groundwater storage to provide stability during sustained dry periods
• Build a “conveyance system,” which some are calling a peripheral canal, a concept rejected by voters in the 1980s.
• Manage Delta ecology for a reliable water supply and a sustainable environment
• Promote conservation and efficiency to reduce waste and increase water savings
• Promote water recycling and desalination by local agencies
• Empower local water agencies to implement diverse water management strategies#
http://www.centralvalleybusinesstimes.com/stories/001/?ID=12540
Wash the car, fill up the pool
Oakland Tribune-7/15/09
By Tom Barnidge
Opinion
Few issues confronting California are as worrisome as water management, especially inasmuch as we are relying on politicians to come up with solutions. What they have determined so far, after spending millions of dollars on studies, is that (1) we have a big problem and (2) we don't know how to fix it.
Sort of sounds like the state budget.
But even as we wade through the complexities of a peripheral canal, fish vs. farmers and North vs. South, you'd think we at least could agree on whether we currently are dealing with a water shortage in the East Bay.
We can't.
The East Bay Municipal Utility District, which serves 1.3 million people in Alameda County and parts of Contra Costa County, ended its mandatory water rationing July 1, explaining that it had enough water to meet expected usage this summer.
So wash the car, hose off the driveway and fill up the family pool.
It's a different story for the Contra Costa Water District, which serves 550,000 in East and Central Contra Costa County. It began a drought management program May 1 that requires moderate users (1,000 gallons a day or less) to stay within their historical usage figures and thirstier customers to reduce their needs by 15 percent — or incur excess usage fees.
How to explain the disparity?
"We have two different water supplies," said Chris Dundon, water conservation supervisor at CCWD.
In a nutshell: The Mokelumne River watershed, which EBMUD accesses, benefited from a better rain year than did the river system feeding the Delta, from which CCWD contracts for water through the Bureau of Reclamation. The bureau cut allocations by 35 percent. Presto, a drought program.
That's the simple story. But nothing is simple where water is concerned.
To wit: EBMUD, with water to spill, raised its rates 7.5 percent this month. CCWD, pleading drought, hasn't touched its rate card since January. Confused economists scratch their heads: Whatever happened to supply and demand?
To appreciate this delicious irony, we need to back up a year, when the situations were reversed and EBMUD enacted mandatory rationing.
"We pushed a conservation theme really hard," said EBMUD spokesman Charles Hardy. So successful was the campaign that by the end of 2008, water sales were 9 million gallons below EBMUD's projections.
Then the plot thickened. EBMUD customers, having learned to do more with less, continued to conserve — so much so that sales projections for 2009 showed EBMUD generating too little revenue to meet its fixed costs.
The answer? A rate increase.
Dear customer: Nice job of conserving water last year. As our way of saying thanks, we plan to charge you more.
That's an oversimplification, of course. Hardy points out that temporary rate increases imposed during last summer's drought program were eliminated, as were surcharges for excessive users.
The net rate increase for 2009 is more like 2 percent than 7.5 (although another 7.5 percent jump is scheduled for 2010). But he's heard from enough unhappy callers to know how the news has been received.
That brings us back to CCWD, busily promoting high-efficiency toilets ($175 rebate available), low-flow shower heads, shorter showers and smart-sprinkler timers. If CCWD reduces customer demand, will the decline in sales result in it jacking up rates, too?
Spokesman Jeff Weir says no, because CCWD's revenue stream — it also operates as a wholesaler for Martinez, Pittsburg, Antioch and Oakley — differs from EBMUD's. He says CCWD will keep rate increases in line with the cost of living.
Conservation, says Dundon, is a wise investment for all concerned because "it buys water for the future" and helps prepare for droughts that are almost certain to come.
Otherwise, we could wind up a creek without a paddle. If we can find a creek.#
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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.
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