California Water News
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
July 8, 2009
2. Supply –
Livingston passes water rate increase
Merced Sun-Star
Water rates could leap next year
Santa Clarita Valley Signal
Redway running dry as river shifts
Eureka Times-Standard
San Francisco Public Utilities Commission pursues underground water-storage plan
San Mateo County Times
Tule River tribe takes step toward reservoir
Fresno Bee
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Livingston passes water rate increase
Bills will go up an average of 40 percent in August
Merced Sun-Star-7/8/09
By Danielle Gaines
Most city residents can expect to see a higher water bill next month, after the City Council voted to pass a resolution increasing water rates by an average of 40 percent.
Residents who use less water will have less severe increases under the plan, which passed the council by a 3-2 vote.
Martha Nateras, who voted for the plan -- which is a less harsh compromise than the initial plan the council was set to vote on -- said the council had to step up to its leadership roles and vote on the item, which has been on the council agenda since January.
Four previous votes on the rate increases at hand were pushed off until Tuesday night.
The rate increases, the first since 1995, are needed, said City Manager Richard Warne, because the city cannot continue paying roughly $30,000 a month from the general fund for a water and sewer system that are not paying for themselves.
In mid-June, City Attorney Malathy Subramanian was let go because her legal opinion -- that the only way to pass an increase was by a four-to-one or unanimous vote -- was blocking a majority on the council from passing the controversial rate increase.
Council members Margarita Aguilar and Rodrigo Espinoza voted against the measure Tuesday. Mayor Daniel Varela, Nateras and Frank Vierra voted yes.
The compromise vote decreased to 40 percent a planned 55 percent increase in the first of several years of rate hikes.
In the second year of rate increases, an additional 55 percent rate hike will add to the previous one.
In three subsequent years, the rates will be increased 35 percent, 20 percent, and 6 percent.
Residents who use 6,000 gallons of water or less per month will see only a modest increase. Those who use more will face dramatic increases, which increase by usage and average to 40 percent for the first year.
All users will be charged the base rate for their first 6,000 gallons of water and will pay the differential for higher usage.
As part of his motion, Varela said the council would revisit the issue before Feb. 1, 2010, when the next increase is scheduled.
"I really hate to raise the water rate," Nateras said during a one-hour public hearing. "But we have to. It is a must."
Residents in Livingston use far more water than the state average, said Sudhir Pardiwala, the consultant hired by the city to come up with several plans to guide the rate increases.
In California, most homes use 13,000 gallons per month. In Livingston, that number is 20,000.
Several community members at the meeting said the action called for water usage and budget cuts that were unreasonable for families living paycheck to paycheck.#
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/167/story/939984.html
Water rates could leap next year
The Castaic Lake Water Agency will propose a rate increase to meet operating expenses
Santa Clarita Valley Signal-7/7/09
By Brian Charles
Customers will inevitably feel the pinch if the local state water contractor decides to raise wholesale water rates.
Castaic Lake Water Agency Finance Committee will begin a two-month study on wholesale water rates on July 14, said Dan Masnada, Castaic Lake Water Agency general manager.
Under the proposed rate increase, water agency wholesale rates could shoot from $295 per acre foot to $400 per acre foot, Masnada said. If approved, the proposed rate increase will begin in January 2010.
Masnada blames rate stabilization and the cost of operations as the culprit in the proposed increase.
“The last three years we weren’t fully funding our operating budget through rates,” he said. Property taxes picked up the portion of operations costs not paid for by the rate structure.
Continuing to use property taxes to offset the operation and maintenance costs could stall the water agency’s capital improvement plans, Masnada said.
If Castaic Water adopts the new rates, the customers will have to swallow an average increase of $54 per year, said Steve Cole, general manager for the Newhall County Water District.
“The increase will most likely pass through to our customers,” he said. “There’s no other way to deal with it.”
Castaic Lake Water Agency doesn’t directly bill consumers, but since it supplies as much as half the water sold by Santa Clarita retailers, the cost increase will inevitably spill over to consumers via the water retailers, Cole said.
“The impact looks like a 10 percent annual increase to customer rates,” he said.
“Industry-wide, everyone is increasing mainly because of the state water crisis.”
However, the water crisis isn’t responsible for the Castaic Lake Water’s proposed rate increase.
“Property taxes pay for out imported water,” Masnada said.
The other cost driving the rate increase is the water use efficiency plan that Castaic Lake is leading along with the four retail operations in the Santa Clarita Valley.
The $750,000 per year conservation program includes increasing the number of low-flush toilet rebate vouchers and high-efficiency appliances that conserve water, Masnada said.
Castaic Lake Water is not the only water utility considering a rate increase this summer.
Castaic Lake Water’s retail arm, Santa Clarita Water Division, is looking at its own retail-rate increase. The Castaic Lake Water board of directors will decide whether to start a rate hearing at tonight’s meeting. If the board adopts the rate hearing resolution, a public hearing will be scheduled for September.
The Water Division proposal would raise rates from $39.92 per month for the average home to more than $50 per month by 2012.
The proposed wholesale rate increase is partially fueling the retail-rate increase, Masnada said.
“The wholesale water rate is an element of the retail rate that the customer pays,” he said.
The Castaic Lake Water Agency wholesale rate case is not subject to a public hearing.#
http://www.the-signal.com/news/article/15316/
Redway running dry as river shifts
Eureka Times-Standard-7/8/09
John Driscoll
The river isn't cooperating so well with the little Southern Humboldt County town of Redway anymore.
Redway gets its water from the South Fork of the Eel River, whose channel has migrated away from where the town's intake pipe has drawn water from the gravel since 1972. Last summer, Redway had a brush with water shortages, and had to cut back on supplying water in bulk to customers in outlying areas.
”We squeaked through last summer without having to apply any emergency measures,” Redway Community Services District board member Virginia Graziani told county supervisors Tuesday.
The district serves about 550 homes and another 100 non-residential customers.
This year, the district sees those shortages coming about a month earlier, Graziani said, and the town has asked for voluntary conservation measures from residents and businesses. It's also applied for state and local funding for an improved water system that includes increased storage capacity, she said. But that system is unlikely to be built this year, she said, so Redway is looking for a temporary fix to stave off an emergency.
The idea is to buy a pump to put in the river channel, running water to the gravel bed over the existing intake pipe, where it can be drawn into the town's water system. That would require emergency permits from state water and wildlife agencies, and from the county, whose support Graziani was seeking Tuesday.
Fifth District Supervisor Jill Duffy said that for the county to consider issuing an emergency declaration, the Redway Community Services District would have to do so first. Duffy suggested that mandatory conservation measures would also likely have to be considered for state agencies to consider issuing emergency permits. She also expressed concern about the district's limited storage. The district has two tanks that total about 350,000 gallons, enough for about one day's supply of water, and which is typically reserved for fire protection and emergency supply.
Graziani said that the district is meeting tonight to discuss a resolution to declare a state of emergency, and to talk about potential mandatory conservation measures.
County Administrative Officer Loretta Nickolaus -- who as former Rio Dell city manager navigated a thorny water supply problem there and oversaw the construction of a new system -- offered Graziani her help.
Second District Supervisor Clif Clendenen said he expects that the Board of Supervisors would be supportive of the district's efforts, and remarked that similar problems face other communities in the future.
”I think you're the canary in the river as far as what we might be looking at in a lot of watersheds in dry years,” Clendenen said.#
http://www.times-standard.com/ci_12775099?IADID=Search-www.times-standard.com-www.times-standard.com
San Francisco Public Utilities Commission pursues underground water-storage plan
San Mateo County Times-7/7/09
By Julia Scott
The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission is pursuing a plan to store water underground that can be pumped out in time to supply customers in a drought, given the uncertainty of California's water future.
Officials say the natural groundwater aquifer that sits under north San Mateo County will someday be full enough to send 7.2 million gallons per day to SFPUC customers in San Francisco, San Mateo and Alameda counties and much of Santa Clara County for a period of seven and a half years, longer than the last historic drought period in California.
Global warming, and the resulting anticipated loss of Sierra snowpack that feeds the Hetch Hetchy reservoir, have played a part in the SFPUC's long-term planning for water security here in the Bay Area, said Ellen Levin, deputy manager of San Francisco's regional water system.
"We may be anticipating longer drought periods, and so having additional water supplies available to us protects our customers," said Levin. "We want to reduce the need to impose rationing on our customers."
At the heart of the proposal are the five San Mateo County cities — Daly City, South San Francisco, Colma, San Bruno and Millbrae — that already plumb the common groundwater basin they overlie for part of their water supply every year. They also use Hetch Hetchy water from the SFPUC. If these cities can promise to limit the water they draw from the groundwater basin in "wet" years, they will receive an equal amount of "surplus" water from Hetch Hetchy reservoir. Thus the groundwater basin will be allowed to naturally refill with rainfall until there is enough to draw on.
The SFPUC will hold a public meeting in South San Francisco on Thursday to explain the plan to the public and answer questions. The agency is accepting comments through July 28, at which point it will begin preparing an environmental impact report for the $54 million project.
The plan has drawn no complaints from the cities themselves, which would agree to host 16 new pumping wells and water-treatment plants on sites as varied as Golden Gate National Cemetery and two elementary schools in Daly City. Part of the reason is that they would get the same amount of water they normally do in a year of heavy rainfall. And in a dry year, they would continue to pump the same amount of groundwater they always have — it's their right under California law, and this plan would not restrict them.
"From a regional perspective, balancing the resource for a common good is what I think the public would expect us to be doing," said Patrick Sweetland, director of Daly City's Department of Water and Wastewater Resources.
Project Manager Greg Bartow explained why the pumping would not overtax the groundwater aquifer in the way that pumping in the late 1800s resulted in the disastrous land subsidence that pushed parts of San Jose below sea level.
The cities pumping from the San Mateo County aquifer have drawn half the groundwater at depths of 700 feet, and their demand for the water has stabilized over the years, said Bartow. The rest is empty space that would be filled with the water being saved during "wet" years. The SFPUC would use that new water without touching the rest of the aquifer, resulting in no net loss.
"What we're looking at is the amount of storage space available above the existing groundwater levels. We would only pump stored water," said Bartow. "It's kind of like a savings account — you can't overdraft it. We would only be taking from the section we would be operating from."
Officials acknowledge, however, that they don't actually know how much water is down there right now. The city of San Bruno has taken the lead in putting together a local water basin management plan that will tell everyone how much water can be safely withdrawn, but it won't be complete until early next summer. Also, existing climate change models don't allow the SFPUC to predict how many "wet" years lie ahead, a cornerstone of the project's success.
"All you can do is look at a record of your historic hydrology to make those projections," said Levin. "If we don't have as many wet years it will take longer to refill, and we will be exposed to a potential for greater rationing."
The concept of water banking is not new — more than a dozen underground water storage facilities have blossomed across California since the 1980s, mostly in the Central Valley, where water purchased from the state's northern reservoirs is stockpiled underground and doled out to farmers and cities in a drought.
The Livermore Valley groundwater basin already supplies parts of Alameda and Contra Costa Counties from a much larger aquifer storage space than the one contemplated by the SFPUC. The Santa Clara Valley Water District stores water underground, and the East Bay Municipal Utility District is developing a groundwater injection project near San Lorenzo.
Water managers are hoping to avoid a serious drought until 2016 or so — the earliest date by which the wells will be installed in San Mateo County with enough water available to collect.
Groundwater banks may only be as useful as the water available to refill them, but they have emerged as a reliable and less expensive alternative to evaporation-prone reservoirs, which are also vulnerable to earthquakes.
Thursday's meeting will begin at 6:15 p.m. at the South San Francisco Municipal Services Building, 33 Arroyo Drive. Submit comments on the Groundwater Storage and Recovery Project to Diana Sokolov at 1650 Mission St., Suite 400, San Francisco, 94103 or by e-mail to diana.sokolov@sfgov.org.#
http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_12771328?source=rss
Tule River tribe takes step toward reservoir
Lawmakers give OK for $3 million study
Fresno Bee-7/8/09
By Michael Doyle
The Tule River Indian Tribe's long quest for a reliable water supply got a boost Tuesday as the House authorized a $3 million study of a potential new Porterville-area reservoir.
The study will examine the prospects for a 5,000-acre reservoir somewhere along the south fork of the Tule River. The proposed reservoir would ease a problem that dates to the 19th century, but its construction is still far from assured.
The House approved the study by voice vote early Tuesday evening.
If built, the new reservoir would serve a small tribe of about 1,500 enrolled members. Many inhabit a rugged and arid reservation spanning 58,000 acres. The original reservation had adequate access to water, which it lost when the reservation boundaries were shifted eastward in 1873.
"It's a small water project, but everyone would like to see this solved and put to bed," said Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Visalia. Nunes wrote the Tule River Tribe Water Development Act, which won House approval by voice vote. A similar bill passed the House in September, but the legislation expired when the 110th Congress ended.
Unlike last year's version, this year's Tule River bill has the explicit support of Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Following further negotiations, Feinstein this year introduced an identical bill in the Senate. This makes it much more likely the legislation will win final congressional approval.
The big difference between last year and this year centers on gambling.
The reservoir study bill approved Tuesday would prohibit any future water supplies from being used for the Tule River tribe's Eagle Mountain Casino, as well as any related gaming expansion or development.
This is a tighter restraint than last year's bill, which would have permitted use of the future water supplies for the tribe's existing casino but not a new casino.
The Tule River Tribal Council was meeting Tuesday, and members could not be reached to comment.
Eagle Mountain Casino features about 1,400 slot machines as well as gaming tables and events like mixed martial arts fighting. Tribal leaders have discussed relocating the casino from the foothills to 40 acres the tribe owns in the Porterville Airport Industrial Park.
The new reservoir would be built somewhere on the reservation. That will take a while.
Even after Congress gives final approval to the study authorization, lawmakers would have to separately approve the $3 million needed to conduct the work. That's likely to take at least a year.
Bureau of Reclamation engineers would then have two years to complete the study. Then, lawmakers would have to approve the tens of millions of dollars that probably would be needed for construction.#
http://www.fresnobee.com/local/story/1521281.html
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