California Water News
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
July 1, 2009
2. Supply –
Forecasters unsure how much rain El Nino will bring
Riverside Press-Enterprise
Water main leak dumps 3,000 gallons onto road
Marin Independent Journal
Fresno wraps up rain year at 69% normal
The Fresno Bee
It was the wettest June in a quarter century
Redding Record Searchlight
Pico Rivera to use recycled water on plants
Whittier Daily News
Water supply subject of Wash. Meeting
The Sacramento Bee
Washington state farmers sue to stop feedlot plan
S.F. Chronicle
More rain, floods forecast for Erie, northwest Pa.
San Jose Mercury News
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Forecasters unsure how much rain El Nino will bring
Riverside Press-Enterprise-7/1/09
By Darrell R. Santschi
Warming surface temperatures off the coast of Peru in the eastern Pacific Ocean are sending signals to weather forecasters that we are headed for another El Niño this fall.
But don't run out and buy a new umbrella just yet.
The suggestion of an El Niño conjures memories of the 1997-98 winter, which led to the Inland area's fourth wettest rainy season on record. Riverside got a total of 21.35 inches that year and Riverside and San Bernardino counties suffered $65 million in flood damage.
"That was the El Niño of El Niños," said Steven Vanderburg, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in San Diego. "It was the gold standard. Most El Niño's are not nearly that severe."
Such is the case with this one.
It will take at least three months of sustained water temperatures of at least half a degree Celsius (about 2 degrees Fahrenheit) above normal for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to declare that an El Niño is in effect.
"It looks like an El Niño is developing, but we can't say for sure yet," said David Pierce, a climate researcher for UC San Diego's Scripps Institute of Oceanography.
Even if it does, he said by phone, the pockets of warm water off the coast of Peru are only 2 to 4 degrees higher than normal. Temperatures were 7 degrees above normal during the summer of 1997.
Vanderburg said that among climate watchers, "there is no thinking that this is going to be a strong one. At least not right now."
El Niños form when the trade winds that normally blow east to west along the equator, pushing warm water toward Indonesia, either die down or reverse direction.
That pushes warm water toward the eastern Pacific, keeping cooler, nutrient-rich water from rising to the surface -- bad news for fishermen -- and packing the air around South America with moisture.
"Let's say we wind up in a weak El Niño," said Vanderburg. "We don't see the same kind of correlation here in California that we have with strong El Niños. When we have strong El Niños, we are almost guaranteed to have a really wet winter. But when you have a weak El Niño, it doesn't necessarily mean you are going to have a wet winter. We could still wind up with a dry winter."
For the Inland region and the rest of Southern California to get more rain, the atmosphere will have to cooperate with the surface of the ocean, Pierce said.
"When the ocean temperatures get warmer, it changes where storms on the equator form," he said. "When you move the storms a few thousand miles, that rearranges how the jet stream moves."
Atmospheric changes can redirect large storms, hitting Southern California with moisture normally bound for San Francisco and points north.
"Here in Southern California, what we particularly care about is whether it's going to affect the rainfall we get in winter," Pierce said. "If the atmosphere doesn't do its part, it can't convey that weather to us."
Another factor figures to tone down the intensity of our winter weather.
Vanderburg said we still are in the midst of something climate experts call the Pacific Decadal Oscillation.
Overall sea temperatures have been below normal since the early part of the decade and could continue that way for another 20 years. Relatively warmer water temperatures within that oscillation can still be below normal along the equator.
Even a mild El Niño, however, could reverse the recent trend of La Niñas -- the opposite of an El Niño, in which surface water temperatures are cooler in the eastern Pacific. Back-to-back La Niñas likely contributed to California's drought, forecasters said.
Riverside had 6.61 inches of rain in the 12-month period that ended Tuesday, half an inch less than the previous year and nearly 4 inches below normal.
Temecula had 10.99 inches, 4 inches drier than the previous year and about an inch below normal.
In the San Bernardino Mountains, Lake Arrowhead recorded 28.9 inches, more than 3 inches better than a year ago, but still nearly 11 inches below normal.
San Bernardino had 14.8 inches, 5 inches more than fell in the previous year and less than 2 inches below normal.
As it looks now, Vanderburg said, we are likely to have a wetter year ahead.
"We know it's coming," said Stephen Thomas, assistant chief engineer of the Riverside County Flood Control District, who has read reports of the gathering El Niño. "We're likely to be as prepared, or better prepared, than we have" been in the past.
"I expect that we'll dot our I's and cross our T's a little earlier this year to make sure that all of our facilities have been inspected," he said.
That includes 30 dams and debris basins, including some that are being cleaned of sediment and debris to prepare for a wet winter.
"Everything, very honestly, is in really great shape right now," Thomas said. "Our dams are all functioning as designed. Our channels are all in good shape."
What, if any, difference a rainy season would have on California's drought remains to be seen, forecasters said.
"It can't hurt," said Vanderburg, the weather service meteorologist.
"We've had all these dry winters," says Pierce, of Scripps Institute, "so even going back to normal would be nice."#
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_S_nino01.429a25d.html
Water main leak dumps 3,000 gallons onto road
Marin Independent Journal-6/30/09
A Marin Municipal Water District crew worked into early Tuesday morning to repair a water main leak that occurred Monday night and dumped about 3,000 gallons of water onto a San Anselmo roadway.
The leak of a 4-inch-wide cast iron pipe near 21 Canyon Road was reported to San Anselmo police at about 9:20 p.m. Monday.
Ten homes and one fire hydrant in the area were without water until service was restored about 3 a.m., according to district spokeswoman Libby Pischel.
She said the cause of the leak was yet to be determined, though age could be a culprit for the old pipe "and temperature fluctuations could've caused soil to shift."#
http://www.marinij.com/marinnews/ci_12728572?IADID=Search-www.marinij.com-www.marinij.com
Fresno wraps up rain year at 69% normal
The Fresno Bee-6/30/09
By Paula Lloyd
On Sunday, you needed an umbrella to ward off the scorching heat. Tuesday morning, as Fresno awoke to overcast skies, it looked like you might need one to fend off raindrops.
But the clouds were only for show.
A weather spotter for the National Weather Service reported a few sprinkles in Clovis overnight, but no measurable rainfall.
"There was not even enough to splash the rain gauge at the airport," said Gary Sanger, meteorologist at the weather service office in Hanford.
Fresno ended the official rain year at 87% of normal rainfall for the month of June. Normal rainfall for June is 0.23 of an inch.
Three thunderstorms rumbled over Fresno in June. The first one on June 3 slid past Fresno leaving a trace of rain. Storms on June 4 and June 5 made a lot of racket but dropped only 0.20 of an inch of rain, measured at the Fresno Yosemite International Airport. The rain season ended Tuesday with Fresno standing at 69% of normal rainfall for the year, some 3.46 inches below normal. Fresno had 7.77 inches of rain from July 1, 2008, to June 30, 2009. Normal annual rainfall is 11.23 inches.
Like Fresno's rainfall, the state's water supply also is below normal. Statewide, water levels in reservoirs are about 16% below normal, said Elissa Lynn, senior meteorologist with the State Department of Water Resources.
Water storage in the state's reservoirs was at 72% of normal on March 1, but had risen to about 83% of normal by Tuesday.
"We've seen some improvement over the spring," she said. "We were looking at a dire situation."
Still, the improvement is not enough to end the state's drought conditions, Lynn said. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has declared a statewide drought emergency.
The state's water system still is getting water from mountain runoff, Lynn said. While the snowmelt has ended, she said, there still is high runoff during the summer due to the lag time it takes for water to travel through the mountains to watersheds.
But for the third straight year, runoff from the mountains is below normal, Lynn said. This year, runoff is projected to be 70% of average by Sept. 30, when the state's water year ends.
"After three dry years, it would certainly be bad to have a fourth," Lynn said.
If Fresno's recent cloud layer didn't deliver any rain, it did bring relief from the "bone-searing" high temperatures that baked Fresno over the weekend. Sunday's 108-degree high tied a record for the date. Tuesday's high was 101.
Today's high should be 99, with 97 on Thursday, 101 on Friday and back to 97 degrees for the Fourth of July. Skies will be clear.
The overnight lows are forecast in the high 60s for the rest of the week.#
http://www.fresnobee.com/local/story/1508167.html
It was the wettest June in a quarter century
Redding Record Searchlight-7/1/09
By Scott Mobley
The wettest June in nearly a quarter-century ended with a Saharan blast of heat.
It was a veritable cafeteria of north state weather extremes.
A big bubble of hot air in the atmosphere brought five straight days of triple-digit heat to the far northern Sacramento Valley as June wrapped up. Peak afternoon temperatures will continue to top 100 degrees through Friday, according to the National Weather Service.
Though intense, the recent heat has not seared any new marks into the north state weather annals.
Red Bluff hit 109 degrees as the heat wave peaked Sunday. That's well above the 94-degree normal for the date but short of the 112-degree record set in 1977.
And while Sunday's 108-degree max at Redding Municipal Airport was the hottest June 28 in at least 30 years, that reading barely singed the all-time record for the date of 111 degrees, set near downtown in 1918.
Even if the heat did not break any records, it may have buckled a west Redding sidewalk.
Tom Roberts, a California Department of Transportation engineer, noticed Tuesday two concrete sidewalk panels pushed up at least half a foot along the west side of Court Street between Riverside Drive and Eleventh Street.
The concrete, baking in the heat, apparently expanded and, having no place else to go, thrust up along the joints between the panels, Roberts said.
"I've heard about this phenomenon before, but never saw it," Roberts said.
Redding officials did not immediately return phone calls Tuesday seeking comment.
Before the heat hit June 24, much of the month was abnormally mild. An Alaskan front early in the month even brought high country snow.
All told, Redding saw its wettest June since 1982, according to Western Regional Climate Center data. Monthly totals include 3.12 inches at Fire Station 2 in west Redding, 2.73 inches in the Summit City area of Shasta Lake and 2.28 inches at Redding airport. The airport soaks up 0.60 inches of rain during a normal June.
A turbulent weather pattern delivered almost daily thunderstorms to the mountains from May 22 through June 20. Steve Leach, a fire weather forecaster with the Bureau of Land Management in Redding, called the extended thunderstorm spate rare, but could not say it was unprecedented.
Leach estimates between 18,000 and 20,000 lightning strikes strafed the north state during that time. Lightning sparked 234 fires. But heavy rain accompanying the storms and quick firefighting action kept the flames to 67 acres, Marva Willey, intelligence coordinator at the Northern California Geographic Area Coordination Center in Redding, has said.
The storms stayed in the mountains in May. But in June, chilly Alaskan air mixing it up with juicy subtropical air flows allowed thunderheads to bloom over the valley.
Intense thunderstorms fried transformers in Redding on June 12 and sent Shasta District Fair goers scampering for cover on June 20.#
http://www.redding.com/news/2009/jul/01/it-was-the-wettest-june-in-a-quarter-century/
Pico Rivera to use recycled water on plants
Whittier Daily News-6/30/09
By Bethania Palma Markus
In an effort to conserve, the city is moving toward recycled water for irrigating lawns and other landscaping on municipal properties.
The Central Basin Water District in conjunction with L.A. County and the city will begin construction later this year on a recycled water project that will save about 84 million gallons every year.
"It's a major step in water resource management," said Pico Rivera Public Works Director Al Cablay. "We don't have any choice any longer. We have to take these proactive steps."
California has been in the midst of a drought for about three years, and officials are scrambling for ways to conserve.
Further complicating the shortage, a judge ruled in 2007 to cut water pumping from the San Joaquin-Sacramento River delta - a major source for Southern California - to protect the endangered Delta smelt.
In general the majority of water use goes toward watering landscape, and Art Aguilar, Central Basin general manager, said an effective way to cut water use is to use treated water to keep plants and grass green.
"With recycled water (Pico Rivera) will be able to keep the parks in good shape and not use potable water," he said. "They will be saving water in a drought and at the same time saving potable water. It's a win-win conservation technique."
Construction on the project along Mines Avenue is expected to begin in September, officials said.
The city and Central Basin will be taking advantage of an L.A. County project to lay pipes between the Rio Hondo and San Gabriel river spreading grounds, officials said.
A county spokesman said the project is expected to take about 11 months to complete. Most of the digging will be in a flood channel adjacent to the road but there will be some on the street as well.
"They're kind of piggy-backing on some of the work we're doing," said Gary Boze, county public information officer.
The county's pipeline will allow transfer of water from rainfall from one site to another.
"This will save the city money," Aguilar said. "More so than that, we'll be saving water."
http://www.whittierdailynews.com/news/ci_12725775
Water supply subject of Wash. Meeting
The Sacramento Bee-6/30/09
By Shannon Dininny (Associated Press)
In the first of likely many meetings, state and federal officials met Tuesday with tribal and local elected officials, conservation groups and irrigation districts on how best to improve the water supply in central Washington's arid Yakima Valley.
The meeting is hardly the first of its kind in Eastern Washington, where drought years mean low stream flows, dwindling fish runs and an interrupted supply of water for some irrigators and municipalities.
Similar groups have been brought together to hammer out water agreements in the Walla Walla River basin and the larger Columbia River basin.
But in the past 30 years, millions of dollars have been spent on dozens of studies in the Yakima River basin, with no consensus on how to improve water supplies for fish, irrigators and growing communities.
"Having a plan that is doable, that is broad-based, that meets all of the interests in this room - it wouldn't be nice, it wouldn't be good. It is the essence between success and failure," Jay Manning, director of the state Department of Ecology, said to members of the new work group brought together to discuss the issue.
"There's going to be value in it for everybody, or it won't work," Manning said.
The Yakima River basin stretches from Snoqualmie Pass to Richland, south of the Hanford nuclear reservation. The heavily irrigated region is home to thousands of acres of tree fruit, wine grapes, hops and other crops, but it has been susceptible to drought. In those lean years, fish suffer in low rivers and farmers and towns with newer water rights have their water supply rationed.
The federal Bureau of Reclamation for years has studied the potential for building new reservoirs, both in the Yakima and Columbia basins. One of the more recent studies ended with nothing resolved in April, when the bureau concluded that all three proposals for the Yakima basin would be too expensive and would fail to meet all of the criteria necessary for major federal water resource projects. The study lasted five years.
At least $18 million has been spent studying new water storage for the Yakima basin.
The price tag is high on water projects, and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has said the federal government cannot afford to invest in more than five big water projects across the country, said Bill McDonald, Pacific Northwest director for the Bureau of Reclamation.
That means competition for federal dollars will be great, particularly in areas where suffering from drought is greater, such as California, he said. Agreement on a plan going forward is essential.
"Nothing going to happen in this valley solely at the instigation of the federal government. It's your economy. It's your environment. It's the tribe's treaty trust resources," he said.
Manning and McDonald said they hoped a multi-pronged, long-term plan that includes new water storage, conservation and habitat improvements can be agreed upon in six to nine months.
Members of the new group seemed fairly open to considering all options.
Kittitas County Commissioner Mark McClain said he would like to see more storage at the river's headwaters, while Michael Garrity of American Rivers said he wants to make sure the group has a good grasp of demand so that supply needs aren't overstated.
"We will probably be more skeptical of new storage options, but we're willing to look at it," he said.
Scott Revell of the Kennewick Irrigation District, which serves hundreds of acres of irrigated crops as well as a majority urban customers, noted that he drove along the Yakima River en route to the meeting. That included an 11-mile stretch that gets perilously low above his group's diversion point on the river.
"Here it is, June, and you can already see the bottom of the Yakima River," he said.#
http://www.sacbee.com/state_wire/story/1990721.html
Washington state farmers sue to stop feedlot plan
S.F. Chronicle-7/1/0-9
By Shannon Dininny (Associated Press)
A group of Washington state farmers have joined two environmental groups in filing a lawsuit to block a proposed feedlot from using a well that is exempt from requiring state permits to water up to 30,000 cattle.
Easterday Ranches Inc., a longtime cattle company and one of the largest feedlot operators in the Northwest, wants to build the region's first new feedlot in years on dry land near the small town of Eltopia, about 25 miles northeast of Pasco.
As proposed, the feedlot would be home to up to 30,000 additional cattle. The company already operates a 30,000-head feedlot in the area near Pasco in central Washington.
Easterday bought a water right for dust control and cooling cattle at the new feedlot, and the state Department of Ecology approved that water right transfer on June 11.
However, Easterday would use a well that is exempt from a state water permit to draw drinking water for the cattle.
Under a state law passed in 1945, some wells may be drilled without a permit, 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.
Conservation groups have long 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.
Neighboring farmers contend the additional water drawn from underground by Easterday could dry up their own wells. The area is made up of rural homesteads, where farmers plant dryland wheat and draw drinking water for their homes from deep, underground wells.
"After over 100 years of conservative farming on some of the driest land in Washington, our lives and livelihoods are in jeopardy from this huge industrial feedlot," said Scott Collin, a fourth-generation dryland wheat farmer and member of the group Five Corners Family Farmers.
Five Corners Family Farmers and the environmental groups Center for Environmental Law and Policy and Sierra Club filed the lawsuit Tuesday in Thurston County Superior Court in Olympia. The lawsuit seeks a declaration that livestock operators may not draw an unlimited amount of water from exempt wells, or that an exempt well is not available to Easterday Ranches.
The lawsuit names the state of Washington, the state Ecology Department, and Easterday Ranches as defendants.
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.
The Ecology Department asked the state Legislature to weigh in and resolve the exempt-well question 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.
Dan Partridge, spokesman for the Ecology Department, said the agency couldn't immediately comment on the lawsuit. Cody Easterday of Easterday Ranches declined to comment.#
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/07/01/national/a040023D34.DTL
More rain, floods forecast for Erie, northwest Pa.
San Jose Mercury News-7/1/09
A flood warning remains in effect for Erie and other areas of northwestern Pennsylvania, where more rain is forecast after flooding left some areas under four feet of water.
Officials in the Erie suburb of Millcreek Township declared a state of emergency on Tuesday. The declaration will allow residents and businesses to seek reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for flood damage and lets the township seek aid for overtime pay and materials.
The National Weather Service says the flood warning for Erie County will expire at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday.
Several roads in the area remain flooded and there's a chance of more thunderstorms.#
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_12730347?IADID=Search-www.mercurynews.com-www.mercurynews.com
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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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