Department of Water Resources
California Water News
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
July 20, 2009
5. Agencies, Programs, People –
Residents finding motivation to cut water use
Riverside Press-Enterprise
Hanford to automate residential water meters
Hanford Sentinel
Elk Grove teen presumed drowned
Sacramento Bee
Fresno teen drowns in San Joaquin River
Fresno Bee
Tulare girl, 13, drowns in Kaweah River
Fresno Bee
Fred Weybret resigns from North San Joaquin water conservation district board
Lodi News-Sentinel
Calistoga company goes public with Orland plans
Chico Enterprise-Record
Jurupa services district challenges legality of water provider to area
Riverside Press-Enterprise
How can we prevent an underwater San Francisco?
Oakland Tribune
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Residents finding motivation to cut water use
Riverside Press-Enterprise-7/18/09
By Michael Perrault
Whether motivated to be better environmental stewards or to save money, more Inland residents are rethinking ways to be water wise.
Sparse rainfall, new water-use restrictions and a string of recent wildfires have bolstered the public's awareness about dwindling supplies and rising costs of water, experts say.
The prospect of $25 to $300 fines and whopping monthly water bills for residents and businesses is also a catalyst for change.
"The era of homes with big lawns -- I think it's over," said Joel Silva, who as owner of West Coast Landscapes in Hemet has installed 4,000- to 5,000-square-foot lawns for more than a decade.
Silva's clients now often have $700 or $800 monthly water bills. One customer with a 5-acre ranch and 50,000 square feet of grass has seen his monthly water bill triple to $2,600, so he is putting in his own well, Silva said.
The Hemet Water Department, which supplies about 10,000 customers in the city, has not implemented mandatory restrictions yet, said Mike Gow, Hemet's Public Works director.
Hemet is relying on its tiered water rates to provide a financial incentive for residents not to be water guzzlers. A recent ordinance put in place by Hemet City Council also sets conservation guidelines for newly established landscaping, Gow said.
Armando Torres, a Hemet water quality and conservation specialist, works to educate residents about water-saving strategies. It can be as simple as reminding customers that fixing a leaky faucet can save 20 gallons per day or fixing lawn sprinkler heads can save some 500 gallons per day.
Residents and business owners who get their water from Eastern Municipal Water District must adhere to new Stage 2 conservation measures. A four-tiered rate structure that gets more expensive as more water is used also provides incentive not to be wasteful.
Peter Odencrans, Eastern Municipal spokesman, said the mandatory measures are really just common sense-ways to limit water use.
"The main thing is for people to improve their water efficiency," Odencrans said. "We want people to be more knowledgeable, to be aware of how much they are using."
That sentiment is being emphasized on the state and national levels as well.
Gov. Schwarzenegger has set a state goal of reducing per-capita water consumption 20 percent by 2020. State officials hope to achieve the goal by building on existing water-use efficiency efforts, including conservation, use of recycled water, desalination and capturing storm water.
Eastern Municipal's water recycling plant in Perris recently received $9.5 million in federal stimulus money, one of eight major projects to receive millions of dollars to expand recycling efforts.
"Our long-term goal is to rely on local water resources, such as this, so we are less reliant on imported water," said Randy Record, a member of Eastern Municipal's board of directors. "Recycled water is an alternative, reliable source that is important to Eastern and the Inland region at a time when imported water is difficult to obtain."
The American Water Works Association, a nonprofit organization with more than 60,000 members, estimates that communities across the United States now use approximately 40 billion gallons of tap water each day for drinking, cooking, cleaning and other everyday uses.
Association officials note that recurring droughts will mean at least 36 states will face water shortages within the next five years.
"The prolonged droughts in recent years have called us to make smarter, more efficient use of our precious water resources," said Mike Leonard, association president.
One water conservation strategy Silva's clients increasingly use for large areas with shrubs and flowers is a drip-irrigation system.
It's much more efficient than sprinkler heads that spray entire areas.
"If done correctly with pressure regulators and filters, it's a self-contained system that requires little repair," Silva said.
In the Eastern Municipal district, where some 675,000 people live and work, simple steps that require far less investment than a drip-irrigation system can be taken by thousands of people and make a big difference.
Homeowners can sweep driveways and sidewalks rather than hose them down, Odencrans said. Each cleaning, about 150 gallons are saved.
Restaurant owners are being encouraged to refrain from placing water glasses on tables unless customers request it.
Conservation specialists with the statewide Save Our Water public education campaign suggest not leaving the sink running while brushing your teeth, fully loading dishwashers and placing rain barrels near downspouts.
They recommend planting drought-resistant plants, installing water-efficient appliances and using pool covers to cut evaporation by as much as 90 percent.
Residents in San Jacinto such as Jose Sanchez have adjusted sprinkler systems and made sure water doesn't run off to adhere to a new water conservation ordinance passed by the San Jacinto City Council last month.
"More than that, I think it's just the right thing to do," Sanchez said.#
http://www.pe.com/localnews/calimesa/stories/PE_News_Local_E_econserve19.44522f4.html
Hanford to automate residential water meters
Hanford Sentinel-7/19/09
By Eiji Yamashita
Hanford water users will be assured an accurate meter reading and quick notifications of leaks and tampering starting next year. The city's Public Works Department is joining a growing list of municipalities switching to automated water meter reading systems.
Officials hope that the change will not only increase efficiency, but also will encourage water users to be conservation conscious.
City workers now read meters manually or drive by the meters with a data receiver to collect stored information in order to bill residents for water. But the move to the new technology will change all that.
"We no longer are going to be driving [across] the city," said John Doyel, deputy director the Hanford Public Works Department. "We'll be installing gateways, and each and every meter this system will either talk to each other or to these gateways. And that information would be downloaded to a server, so when our staff gets in in the morning, they'd have the data from the night before for every meter in the city of Hanford."
In other words, the city can bill people based on actual usage year-round, eliminating the need to deal with issues caused by estimating customer bills.
If everything goes well, all meters will be converted by Dec. 31, Doyel said.
For the last four years, Hanford has slowly been phasing in a technology-assisted meter reading system, replacing old meters with those that transmit data to a receiver. So far about 3,300 of some 13,500 metered city water connections have been converted through the new system.
But this year, the vendor came up with an even more advanced system called MOSAIC that would eliminate even the need for drive-by readings, prompting the officials to change their plans. They want to convert all water meters at one time.
The Hanford City Council took its first step toward the conversion last week by approving a $2.1 million loan for the $3.2 million project. Next week, the council will consider approving the actual purchase of equipment.
The move, as opposed to the piece-meal approach, is projected to save the city at least $500,000 over the next eight years, Doyel said.
There are two full-time and one part-time reader driving across town today. The new system will need only one full-time staff member, saving the cost of salaries and other operational costs, Doyel said.
On the customer's side, the good news is that the system will allow the city to alert a customer through immediate detection of leaks and tampers.
Doyel said undetected leaks in the system are a significant drain in the city water operation. The new system will help the city work toward achieving the governor-imposed goal of a 20 percent reduction per capita water use by 2020.
The bad news to some may be that the city will know exactly how much water a customer used and when.
Doyel would stress, however, that the city's intention is not to punish people.
"The goal here is to try to utilize the system to educate the citizens about our watering policies as well as, if there's some sort of problems in the system, helping them fix it," Doyel said.
"If there's some sort of problems with their bill, we'll be able to have information readily available to solve the problem. Rather than having to go out to the field, get the information and get back to them on it, we can deal with it immediately, providing better customer service."#
http://hanfordsentinel.com/articles/2009/07/19/news/doc4a62b08fce685404257896.txt
Elk Grove teen presumed drowned
Sacramento Bee-7/20/09
By Gina Kim
An 18-year-old Elk Grove man was presumed dead Sunday after he disappeared in the American River near Discovery Park, and a recovery effort was called off after more than three hours of searching.
George Ho was in a group of three people who waded into chest-deep water at the popular swimming spot known as Tiscornia Beach off Richards Boulevard, said Battalion Chief Niko King of the Sacramento Fire Department.
A couple of boats passed Ho, kicking up wakes, and Ho lost his footing and disappeared underwater, King said. He was not wearing a life jacket.
Emergency officials were called at 2:54 p.m., about five minutes after Ho went under, arrived on the scene by 3:01 p.m., and had divers in the water within 10 minutes, King said. The search turned into a recovery effort by 4 p.m., as the family of the recent graduate from Monterey Trail High School sat in silence, staring into the twinkling water from shore.
"Trying to predict where he is is really difficult," King said.
The open water between Tiscornia Beach and Discovery Park is one of the most deadly spots in the region for drownings, a combination of being a popular destination as well as the site of unpredictable currents caused by the confluence of the American and Sacramento rivers.
"The currents are really dynamic here," King said. "The roughest part about it is they're always changing."
Drownings remain a concern as people misjudge the strong undercurrent from the misleading surface. Over the last 37 years, an average of six people drown in Sacramento County's rivers each year, according to a study King conducted. In the past five years, the average climbed to eight and, last year, 11 people drowned, King found.#
http://www.sacbee.com/ourregion/story/2039062.html
Fresno teen drowns in San Joaquin River
Fresno Bee-7/19/09
A 15-year-old Fresno boy who was rushed to the hospital after he was pulled from the San Joaquin River Saturday has died, the Madera County Sheriff's Department reported.
Toua Vang was pronounced dead at 2:03 a.m. Sunday morning.
Vang was snorkeling with his 21-year-old brother when the teen began flailing and went under water, a sheriff's department spokeswoman said. The brother tried to rescue him, but the younger boy began pulling his older brother under water. The older brother swam ashore and had a friend dial 911.
Toua Vang was barely alive when Madera County sheriff’s deputies arrived at the river on the west side of Highway 41 near where it crosses the river, sheriff's spokeswoman Erica Stuart said.
It is the fourth drowning in Madera County this summer.#
http://www.fresnobee.com/263/story/1544878.html
Tulare girl, 13, drowns in Kaweah River
Fresno Bee-7/19/09
A 13-year-old Tulare girl drowned Saturday in the Kaweah River at Sequoia National Park, park officials said.
The girl, whose name was not made public, was swimming in the middle fork of the river when she was swept into rapid waters and trapped under a large rock.
This is the first drowning in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks this year.#
http://www.fresnobee.com/263/story/1544825.html
Fred Weybret resigns from North San Joaquin water conservation district board
Lodi News-Sentinel-7/17/09
By Ross Farrow
Fred Weybret, who has served on the North San Joaquin Water Conservation District board for about 33 years, has resigned from the five-member board.
Weybret, 85, cited his declining ability to hear what people say during board meetings as the reason for resigning.
Weybret, chairman of the News-Sentinel, noted that he had considerable trouble hearing people in the audience without a microphone, and he also had difficulty hearing his fellow board members because they were talking away from him.
Board President Tom Hoffman said Weybret brought a wealth of knowledge to the district.
"He's just acquired a lot of valuable experience," Hoffman said of Weybret. "He understands the water issues, he understands our history, plus his personality provides us with someone with an even disposition on the board."
Hoffman said that Weybret didn't feel that it is the right time for him to resign due to some tough issues the North San Joaquin board faces, but his hearing problems forced the issue.
Hoffman said some of the issues included an election next year that would repeal Measure V, the ballot measure approved by voters last November that is still disputed by the district and its opponents.
The district recently settled with the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, which calls for the tax organization to not challenge North San Joaquin's collection of groundwater charges for the 2007-08 and 2008-09 fiscal years.
Weybret said the North San Joaquin board has accomplished what it could given the constraints regarding water availability by state authorities.
He said he has confidence in his fellow board members and General Manager Ed Steffani to retain its Mokelumne River water rights and make a significant contribution to help resolve the region's declining water table.#
http://www.lodinews.com/articles/2009/07/17/news/4_weybret_090717.txt
Calistoga company goes public with Orland plans
Chico Enterprise-Record-7/18/09
By Barbara Arrigoni
Community uneasiness apparently caused an anonymous bottled water company to reveal its identity in proposed plans to locate to Orland.
Friday afternoon Crystal Geyser Water Co. of Calistoga announced it has applied with the city of Orland to develop a bottling plant to produce its product, Sparkling Mineral Water.
The move is pending test results from monitoring wells at the new site.
The announcement came just two days after company representative Richard Weklych told the Orland technical advisory committee — and about four dozen interested residents — the company didn't want to divulge its identity yet, and wouldn't even reveal his last name.
His answer Wednesday elicited groans from the audience and comments later that the company might be hiding something.
Weklych explained the earlier stance in a phone call to the Enterprise-Record Friday.
"We didn't want to do it until we're sure and testing is done," he said.
The company changed its stance, Weklych said, because "It appeared to be a big issue with people in the community; so we decided it was time to tell who we are."
Crystal Geyser Water Co. was established in 1978 in Calistoga. The company stated it has outgrown its Napa Valley site and considers Orland a good location because it's on a major transportation corridor and preliminary tests indicate there may be good mineral water available there.
If the tests pan out, the company plans to develop a 112,500-square-foot facility at County Roads 200 and N, within the city limits. There would be one bottling line, and 75 percent of the building would be used for storage.
Crystal Geyser expects to draw an estimated 160 acre-feet of water annually, roughly the equivalent of irrigating a 50-acre or 60-acre orchard, according to the company.
Weklych said the mineral water would come from the ground, but carbonation will be added. The company manufactures both flavored and unflavored sparkling mineral water.
City officials were also notified of the company's announcement, which Orland City Manager Paul Poczobut Jr. confirmed via phone Friday afternoon.
Poczobut said he hasn't had a chance yet to do research to see how well Crystal Geyser worked within the community of Calistoga.
A call to Calistoga city officials for comment wasn't returned by deadline.
"My understanding from what I have gathered is it's a community-conscious company ..." Poczobut said.
The city manager declined to say whether knowing the company's name makes a difference.
Poczobut said if the company is as reputable as Weklych said it is, and they follow all the regulations, don't exceed 160 acre-feet of water as they state and conform to the conditions of approval, the city will have no recourse but to approve the project.
At this point, the city has determined that as proposed, a water bottling plant would be an allowed use at the location according to General Plan, Poczobut said. The location is zoned heavy-industrial.
Project manager Jim Strandberg of Malcolm Pirnie, Inc., in Emeryville, told the Orland committee Wednesday the results of the testing will determine whether the proposed location is viable. If not, the company will back out.
Testing will last five days with monitoring wells pumping about 400-gallons-per-minute.
The technical advisory committee plans to meet with Weklych, engineers and other project representatives after testing is complete.#
http://www.chicoer.com/advertise/ci_12864706?IADID=Search-www.chicoer.com-www.chicoer.com
Jurupa services district challenges legality of water provider to area
Riverside Press-Enterprise-7/18/09
By Sandra Stokley
In a complaint to state regulators, the Jurupa Community Services District alleges that a private company providing nondrinking water to a local school district and golf course is operating unlawfully.
As the community services district and Empire Water Company head to a showdown before a Public Utilities Commission administrative law judge, customers and water experts say the company offers a valuable service by helping public agencies save taxpayer money while conserving precious drinking water in a time of drought.
"It's strictly a cost-savings measure," said Elliott Duchon, superintendent of the Jurupa Unified School District, which purchases water from Empire to irrigate fields at Patriot High School.
He estimates a savings of about 50 percent over the cost of water pumped by the community services district, which is the water provider for much of the Jurupa area.
The company also provides irrigation water to the Indian Hills Golf Course and is negotiating with the Jurupa Area Recreation and Park District.
Susan Lien Longville, director of the Water Resources Institute at Cal State San Bernardino, said she would not comment on the complaint to the PUC but said that from a strict conservation perspective, an agency that opts to use nonpotable water to irrigate parks or sports fields is "making a wise choice."
"Sixty to 70 percent of our potable water is used to irrigate landscapes, which is not sustainable," Longville said. "There's no doubt this is a water conservation measure."
The community services district's complaint stems from a state law requiring PUC regulation of companies providing water in most cases.
Peter Jensen, chief executive officer of Empire Water, did not return calls for comment.
Empire Water Company attorneys counter in their response to the complaint that the company is exempt from PUC jurisdiction because the subsidiary that provides the water -- known as the 350 Inch Water Company -- is a mutual water company.
State law exempts these small, shareholder-owned companies from PUC regulation when they provide water to "any city, county, school district, or other public district," according to Empire's response.
Cutting costs and saving drinking water for residential purposes is why the Jurupa Area Recreation and Park District initiated negotiations with Empire Water to provide water for two parks and a trail system.
General manager Dan Rodriguez said a study showed the park district could cut water costs by about half by buying from Empire
The park district board approved a contract late last year with Empire to provide water for Centennial Park and Glen Avon Heritage Park.
But a second contract that would set the rates and charges was put on hold after the community services district announced it was filing a complaint.
"We just don't know the outcome of that complaint," Rodriguez said.
The community services district does not have the pipelines or other facilities to provide recycled water to either the school district or the park district.
Eldon Horst, general manager of the community services district, would not comment on the issue, citing the pending complaint.
Horst said district is in the early stages of seeking either federal or state money to underwrite the cost of providing recycled water to customers for lawns and landscaping.#
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_W_wempire19.44e4322.html
How can we prevent an underwater San Francisco?
Oakland Tribune-7/20/09
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 bayfront 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 4½ feet because of 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 underwater 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 because land subsidence; major portions of the Dumbarton Bridge; Foster City, and much of San Francisco's waterfront, including the Embarcadero, Mission Bay near AT&T Park 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(nancing) 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, 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," Hartman said. "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, both 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, both 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 such as 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."#
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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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