Department of Water Resources
California Water News
A daily compilation for DWR personnel of significant news articles and comment
August 12, 2009
1. Top Items–
Obama urged to see water-starved Valley
Fresno Bee
Stockton council votes to oppose peripheral canal
Stockton Record
Fresno added to a federal water suit
Fresno Bee
City (Sacramento) can do more to use less water
Sacramento Bee
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Obama urged to see water-starved Valley
Fresno Bee-8/11/09
By Robert Rodriguez
Community activists and Valley politicians are stepping up their efforts to bring national attention to the area's water shortage -- pleading Tuesday for President Barack Obama to visit the drought-plagued farmlands.
Members of the California Latino Water Coalition, several local mayors and two Valley congressmen -- Reps. George Radanovich, R-Mariposa, and Jim Costa, D-Fresno -- gathered Tuesday on an outdoor basketball court in Mendota to announce the invitation.
The backdrop: A food line. Nearly 500 people also were in Rojas-Pierce Park to receive donated food. Among them was Mendota resident Maria Zermeno, who had her own request for Obama: "Please help us get back to work."
Members of the coalition have sent a letter signed by 50 Central Valley mayors asking the president to visit the area and help find a solution to its water shortages.
Although White House officials could not be reached for comment Tuesday, Mario Santoyo, a coalition member, was optimistic about the request.
"We have been in contact with Cabinet-level staff who are helping us line up a preliminary meeting," Santoyo said. "There is clearly interest, so now it is just a matter of time to let the process work. We remain very hopeful we can make this happen."
A Cabinet official -- U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar -- was at California State University, Fresno, in June for a hastily organized summit on the San Joaquin Valley's water crisis. But Obama has yet to visit the area.
Actor and comedian Paul Rodriguez, the coalition chairman, said he hopes that Obama will understand the problems facing farmers and workers in rural communities struggling with double-digit unemployment rates, poverty and hunger.
"This is a tragedy, that in the richest agricultural region in the world, you have people waiting in line for food," Rodriguez said. "We feed the world, but come next spring, we will hardly be able to feed ourselves."
Rodriguez appeared via a live remote Tuesday evening on Fox News' Sean Hannity show, along with Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Visalia.
Below-average rainfall, court decisions and environmental protections have led to a significant decrease in irrigation water to farmers. Thousands of acres of farmland have been fallowed, and hundreds of workers are without jobs or are working less.
Coalition members want state and federal officials to ease environmental restrictions that can pinch supplies of irrigation water to the Valley. They also want funding for alternatives that 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 to Valley farmers.
Congressional leaders said they are frustrated with the failure of state and federal officials to provide a balanced approach to water delivery in California.
"If this crisis happened in San Francisco, it would be declared a disaster," said Radanovich. "People in Sacramento and Washington would be waiving environmental laws left and right."
Costa said that unless a torrential rainstorm fills reservoirs, farmers and their workers are living on "borrowed time."
"We are fighting for a way of life," Costa said.
The Obama invitation comes on the heels of other attempts to bring attention to the water shortage. Farmers and their supporters held a four-day march from Mendota to the San Luis Reservoir in April. The event drew thousands, as did a rally at Fresno City Hall in July.
In the food line Tuesday, Zermeno said her husband has worked sporadically this summer. He was laid off from his job as a tractor driver two years ago and has not found steady work since.
"He keeps looking, but he can't find anything right now," Zermeno said. "We are three months behind in our house payment, and I worry about what will happen to us."
Zermeno received a two-week supply of food for her family as part of the food donation organized by the Community Food Bank in Fresno. It was the fourth food give-away the agency has held since July and the second in Mendota.
Agency officials expected to donate about 130,000 pounds of food Tuesday.
"As many people as we can serve, this is still not getting to enough people," said David Schecter, Community Food Bank board member. "This will not fill the tremendous need."#
http://www.fresnobee.com/1100/story/1592064.html
Stockton council votes to oppose peripheral canal
Stockton Record-8/122/09
The Stockton City Council voted Tuesday to oppose a peripheral canal long after many other agencies did so.
The 7-0 vote was to oppose a proposal supported by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration to divert water around the Delta to as far south as San Diego.
The council also voted to form a citizens advisory group on water issues.
The seven-member panel is to advise the council's water committee on water-related issues.
The Concerned Citizens Coalition of Stockton, which sued the city to undo its $600 million waterworks privatization deal - compelling Stockton to return its waterworks to municipal control last year - advocated for the advisory group's formation.
Mayor Ann Johnston and council members are each to appoint one member to the group.#
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090812/A_NEWS/908120325
Fresno added to a federal water suit
Fresno Bee-8/11/09
The city of Fresno has joined a federal lawsuit that says new rules governing the endangered delta smelt will harm Californians who depend on Central Valley Project water.
The suit seeks to have the new rules governing management of the delta smelt rewritten. While that takes place, the suit asks for "relief from the pumping restrictions" in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta that were implemented as a result of the new rules.
Fresno officials say the city joined the lawsuit last week because water allocation reductions have affected the city and the region.
Similar suits were filed by other entities across the state. All those suits have now been combined.#
http://www.fresnobee.com/263/story/1592863.html
City (Sacramento) can do more to use less water
Sacramento Bee-8/12/09
Editorial
If Sacramento's public officials expect the region's residents to conserve water as the state endures its third year of drought, they are going to have to set an example themselves.
An investigation by The Bee's Charles Piller, published in our Aug. 9 editions, showed how some of the region's biggest public institutions are also some of its biggest water users – and have been using more water, not less, since they began imploring their constituents to conserve.
The city of Sacramento is one of the biggest offenders. The city is using 24 percent more water than three years ago to keep Curtis Park green, and about 20 percent more water in William Land Park. The Historic City Cemetery, meanwhile, is using 75 percent more water than it did in 2006 – a fact that anyone who has been showered by its wayward sprinklers on Broadway will not be surprised to learn.
The city is not the only institutional scofflaw. The regional sewage treatment plant is using 56 percent more water these days, and Luther Burbank High School increased its consumption by 31 percent in just two years.
These trends put data behind a general impression that many people have about government: It's great at making rules for other people to follow but not so good at following those rules itself.
Until that changes, a government-run campaign to get people to use less water is going to fall flat. In Sacramento, the city has prohibited residents from watering their yards during the day or on Sundays, and has implemented an every- other-day regime for the watering that is still permitted. But the city itself ignores those rules and does as it pleases.
The numbers in Piller's story show that incentives work. At the city, which pays for its water but apparently holds no employee accountable for the amount used, consumption has increased by more than 20 percent in two years. But many private commercial users, whose water is metered and billed by the gallon, have cut back. Some have done so because they have less business in the down economy. But others are actively conserving to save money.
Incentives also explain why the average Sacramentan uses about twice as much water as the hated Los Angelenos to the south. They may covet our water, but much of the water they get is recycled through our pipes; and when they do get it, they are more careful stewards of this precious resource than are we.
Once all of Sacramento has water meters, prices will send a signal to customers to conserve. But that will take 20 years. In the meantime, if city and regional officials expect us to use less water, they can start by turning down their own tap.#
http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/v-print/story/2101713.html
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