Department of Water Resources
California Water News
A daily compilation for DWR personnel of significant news articles and comment
August 13, 2009
1. Top Items–
Interior Dept.: Calif. water a national priority
Sacramento Bee
Interior official vows attention from feds on Delta
Stockton Record
President's water man promises stronger federal support for Delta
Contra Costa Times
Feds seek solutions in Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta
Sacramento Bee
Study: Valley ag job losses overblown
The Business Journal
Building bust takes toll
It's driving Valley job losses, not water issues, report shows
Stockton Record
Cam Noltemeyer: Of fish and lawsuits
Environmentally Speaking
Santa Clarita Valley Signal
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Interior Dept.: Calif. water a national priority
Sacramento Bee-/8/12/09
By Garance Burke (Associated Press)
California's ongoing water crisis is a major national priority, akin to restoring the Chesapeake Bay or Florida's Everglades, a top Obama administration official said Wednesday.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar will hold a public meeting in Washington next month to discuss plans to restore the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the freshwater estuary that supplies drinking water to two-thirds of Californians and is one of the most vital wildlife habitats on the West Coast, Deputy Interior Secretary David Hayes said.
Hayes was in Sacramento to update farmers, city dwellers and environmentalists about federal efforts to free up water for crops and fisheries, and to preside over the latest round of water fights as the state hobbles through its third year of drought.
"California's delta is as important a national resource as the Everglades, or the Great Lakes in the Midwest, or the Chesapeake Bay," Hayes said. "Not only is it a crucial ecosystem that is in peril, but more than 20 million Americans in the most populated state in the nation rely on it for their drinking water. The status quo is not sustainable."
Water is a precious resource in California. In recent years, legal battles over dwindling supplies have interrupted and reduced irrigation flows to the San Joaquin Valley, which supplies much of the nation's produce, forcing farmers to fallow hundreds of thousands of acres and idle farmworkers.
Low rainfall also has meant there is less water in the delta and rivers to sustain native fish, which has resulted in the cancellation of commercial salmon fishing season for the past two years.
In late June, Salazar traveled to Fresno, the heart of the valley, and assigned Hayes to help find solutions to ease the toll of the state's water shortage on growers.
Since then, the government has directed millions in stimulus funds to the federal Central Valley Project, which manages the dams and canals that move water around the state, and to farmers to build more than 90 new wells to pump more groundwater.
Still, in valley towns where lines for emergency rations of rice, dried beans and canned goods have at times stretched for a block, officials warned that wasn't enough to put jobless families back to work.
Fifty mayors are calling for President Barack Obama to visit the area himself, saying three years of drought coupled with court-ordered protections for threatened fish species have sapped critical irrigation supplies.
Hayes said relaxing protections for endangered species would not solve the state's water woes. Solutions need to restore the delta ecosystem as a whole.
"This ecosystem is one of the jewels of the West Coast," Hayes said. "Some new engineering may be what saves California."
State and federal agencies are evaluating several conservation strategies for the estuary, including a controversial proposal that could cost up to $17 billion to build a canal to move water around the ecosystem.
Speaking before Hayes at Wednesday's meeting, residents of the fragile delta islands said they feared those plans ignored their livelihoods and communities.
Environmentalists and fishermen said any federal solutions should prioritize safeguarding vulnerable native species, expecially the record-low numbers of chinook salmon that once flourished off the coasts of California and Oregon.
Gary Bobker, program director of the Bay Institute, a nonprofit environmental organization, said the delta "has a compromised immune system and any one of the stressors could push it over the edge."#
http://www.sacbee.com/827/story/2103776.html?storylink=pd
Interior official vows attention from feds on Delta
Stockton Record-8/13/09
By Alex Breitler
Restoring the Delta and working through California's water woes will be a high priority under the Obama administration, pledged an Interior Department official who listened Wednesday as Delta fishers and farmers pleaded for his help.
Deputy Interior Secretary David Hayes called for greater federal involvement and more public discussion of the Bay-Delta Conservation Plan, a massive planning effort that could end with construction of a peripheral canal.
He compared fixing the Delta to restoring Florida's Everglades.
"I hope that we will work closely with the state and with all of you," Hayes told a crowd of close to 300 at a four-hour forum. "This ecosystem is incredibly important."
Hayes did not say whether he favors a canal, which would send water around rather than through the heart of the Delta. The canal, likely more than 40 miles long, would cut through farmland west of Stockton; supporters say it would safeguard the water supply of much of California, but opponents say it makes no sense to attempt to save the Delta ecosystem by taking away much of its fresh water.
Cries for federal involvement have come from all sides of the increasingly intense struggle for Delta water. On Tuesday, south San Joaquin Valley farmers - whose water supplies have diminished in part to protect dwindling Delta fish - went on national television and invited President Barack Obama to visit their fallowed fields. Demonstrations and counterdemonstrations were planned for this morning outside the Concord offices of Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez. And angry Delta boaters are planning a "Million Boat Float" on the Sacramento River this weekend.
A U.S. Bureau of Reclamation official made it clear at Wednesday's forum that below-average precipitation for three consecutive years has been a significantly larger factor than restrictions for fish.
The fish restrictions cost the state about 500,000 acre-feet of water, enough to supply roughly the same number of families for one year. The natural drought, on the other hand, has reduced available water south of the Delta by about 1.6 million acre-feet.
However, officials emphasized at Wednesday's forum that the state's water supply is static and that in the face of population growth and climate change, future conflicts are likely if nothing is done.
"The Delta of tomorrow is going to be very different than the Delta of today," said Jeff Mount, a University of California, Davis, geologist who has studied the rate at which Delta islands are sinking, and the likelihood that some will flood and may not be worth reclaiming.
Delta advocates were critical of the state Department of Water Resources, which organized Wednesday's forum, for not including fishermen or farmers in the panel discussions.
Jane Wagner-Tyack, a spokeswoman for Stockton-based Restore the Delta, said she wanted to invite Obama to California to visit the Delta. That tour, she said in closing, would not be organized by the state.#
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090813/A_NEWS/908130331
President's water man promises stronger federal support for Delta
Contra Costa Times-8/13/09
By Mike Taugher
The Obama administration's California water liaison on Thursday pledged more support than the Bush administration offered the state in its struggle to fix the water supply and environmental crisis in the Delta.
"The feds have not been as involved as we intend to be," said David Hayes, deputy secretary of Interior, who compared the Delta to Florida's Everglades. "We are committed to being a full partner."
Speaking at a joint state and federal "California Water Issues" forum, Hayes called the Delta an ecosystem of national significance and said its environmental collapse would have to be addressed along with the water supply cutbacks.
The reunion of federal and state water officials — Hayes was also a water liaison to California during the Clinton administration — was reminiscent of the beginnings of the ill-fated CalFed initiative developed during the 1990s that culminated in a 2000 plan that cost billions but failed to attain goals of improved water supply and environment.
The forum, attended by several hundred people, was meant as an overview of the well-documented crises in the Delta and for California water: an ecosystem collapse in the West Coast's largest estuary, the closure of the state's commercial salmon industry, levees vulnerable to sea-level rise, earthquakes and floods and the resulting threat to water supplies for the 2 million acres of farmland and 23 million people that rely, at least partly, on Delta water.
Hayes did not offer specifics but said the Delta would receive more attention.
"We have to save the Bay-Delta for the ecological value as well as the water supply."
The state's top water official welcomed the administration's support.
We appreciate something today we haven't had for a few years; that's a full federal partner," said Department of Water Resources director Lester Snow.
Next week, state lawmakers are expected to take up a sweeping package of bills meant to reshape how the state manages water and how to protect the Delta.
Meanwhile, a Bay Delta Conservation Plan that would build a peripheral canal around the Delta as part of an environmental protection package backed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger continues to move forward, even though it is falling behind schedule.
The head of a panel appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to come up with solutions for the Delta said the environment and water supply conflicts in the Delta were unavoidably linked.
"Fixing the Delta ecosystem is not just a nice thing to do," said Phil Isenberg, executive director of the Delta Vision Foundation. "It is a legally required condition to any improvement to the water supply system."#
Feds seek solutions in Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta
Sacramento Bee-8/13/09
By Matt Weiser
The federal government is saying it's ready to be a team player again to solve water and environmental problems in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the hub of California's water system. But the ballpark may have become a battlefield.
That was one of the impressions left in the wake of a Sacramento visit Wednesday by Deputy Interior Secretary David J. Hayes, named by the Obama administration to help California solve its water woes.
In a morning meeting with The Bee's editorial board, Hayes acknowledged the federal government "has not been at the table at all" during the Bush administration.
During those years, a state-federal partnership called the CalFed Bay Delta Program became a poorly funded California program, which failed to prevent the ecosystem collapse now under way. Nine fish species are at risk of extinction, including what was recently the West's largest salmon run.
This occurred even though the federal government operates many of the state's largest reservoirs and one of two major Delta diversion systems.
The Obama administration, Hayes said, intends to treat the Delta as an "ecosystem of national significance" – on par with Florida's Everglades or Maryland's Chesapeake Bay.
"We recognize now that we basically have a killing field in the Delta," Hayes said. "We are committed to raising its profile nationally. It must be restored."
But at a five-hour public meeting Wednesday afternoon, hosted by state officials, it was clear that stepping back into the game won't be easy.
Local governments are fighting the state: The Delta's five county governments oppose state plans for a giant canal to divert a portion of the Sacramento River out of the Delta, routing fresh water instead directly to state and federal diversion pumps.
State officials are fighting the federal government: On Monday, the state Department of Water Resources petitioned the National Marine Fisheries Service to reconsider controversial new protections for Central Valley salmon.
About 15 lawsuits are pending in state and federal courts over Delta matters – some filed by environmentalists, others by water users.
"We still do not feel as though we've had our issues heard," said Yolo County Supervisor Mike McGowan, who fears a canal will hurt the region's farm economy. "The Delta is not a blank slate. It is our home."
The Schwarzenegger administration has vowed to start building a Delta canal by 2011, even though a new joint state-federal program called the Bay Delta Conservation Plan is still debating its merits.
The Obama administration hasn't taken a position on the canal.
"In all candor, it is really premature to be getting behind something like that," Hayes said. "We could find out that solution is not any better than the status quo."
A veteran of prior California water battles as a member of the Clinton administration, Hayes said he's been "stunned" by the antagonism over water now. But he thinks a partnership is still possible.
"It's very disturbing to see this rhetoric. We need to be on a new pathway," he said. "The good side to me is, things are so bad there is now attention to a long-term solution."#
http://www.sacbee.com/capitolandcalifornia/v-print/story/2105156.html
Study: Valley ag job losses overblown
The Business Journal-8/11/09
A new economic report from University of the Pacific in Stockton comparing job losses in the agricultural and construction sectors has at least one local farmer angry.
The report, authored by Jeff Michael with the university’s Business Forecasting Center, states that job losses caused by the foreclosure crisis exceed job losses from Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta water pumping restrictions by a ratio of 8 to 1.
While media reports cite lost jobs due to water shortages between 30,000 and 90,000 jobs, the report pegs the number closer to 6,000 jobs and $170 million in lost wages.
By comparison, the report states that job losses from the foreclosure crisis have cost the Valley 47,000 jobs and $1.8 billion in lost wages.
The report challenges a University of California, Davis study estimating farm job losses up to 80,000 and revenue loss up to $1.6 billion. Michael contends the oft-cited study uses flawed multipliers that overestimate the effects of job losses.
Michael was the recent author of a newspaper commentary also challenging the reported impacts on Valley farms from water shortages, garnering him opposition from local farm groups.
Shawn Coburn, a Fresno County almond farmer and a founder of the California Latino Water Coalition, said Michael has compromised his credibility by distorting facts and figures to support environmentalist positions.
Coburn believes the loss of only 6,000 jobs is a gross underestimation on Michael’s part.
“He has self-appointed himself some kind of economist grand juror,” Coburn said.#
Building bust takes toll
It's driving Valley job losses, not water issues, report shows
Stockton Record-8/12/09
By Reed Fujii
Blame San Joaquin Valley job losses mostly on the foreclosure crisis, not so much on efforts to protect fish, University of the Pacific researchers said Tuesday.
According to a recent report, water restrictions, because of the drought and the need to maintain fish populations, cost the region about 6,000 jobs and $170 million in wages and benefits. But the collapse of the Valley's construction industry eliminated 47,000 workers their $1.8 billion in income.
Toss in losses to self-employed contractors and farmers, corporate and other business income and farm losses mount to $500 million. But by the same token, the building crisis cost the region's economy $3.2 billion, or more than six times as much.
Jeffrey Michael, director of the Business Forecasting Center at Pacific, said he began his study because government employment surveys found an increase in San Joaquin Valley farm employment while widely publicized estimates said water shortages would cost the region 30,000 to 35,000 jobs.
"A lot of people are claiming it's water that's driving unemployment through the roof in the Valley, and the data just doesn't support it," he said Tuesday.
Farmers in the eight San Joaquin Valley counties (from San Joaquin in the north to Kern in the south) employed 900 more workers in June than in the same month in 2006, the year before the current drought started, the Forecasting Center reported. The seven counties most dependent on state and federal water projects, those south of San Joaquin County, employed 3,200 more farm workers in June than they did three years earlier.
"Certainly, when you see that the (farm employment) is up, it's hard to believe the water impact has been 30,000 to 35,000 jobs," Michael said.
The University of California, Davis, researcher who provided the higher estimates admitted Tuesday that his earlier projections of water-shortage job losses - first pegged in January at 60,000 to 80,000 and revised in May to 31,000 to 35,000 - are too high.
Still, Richard Howitt, chairman of the Agriculture and Resource Economics department at Davis, said Michael's estimates are too low.
"Even if you take the low side, you're still talking 12,000 to 15,000 jobs," Howitt maintained.
And, he said, the impact of the water supply cuts is heavily concentrated on farmers and communities lowest on the water totem pole, mostly on the west side of the Valley.
"If you happen to be living in a small town or farm on the west side, it's going to be hit," he said.
That certainly is the case in the Fresno County city of Mendota, Mayor Robert Silva said Tuesday by telephone.
"I've been living in this area all my life," he said. "The last two years, last summer and this summer, have been the worst economy I've ever seen."
Unemployment in Mendota is estimated at 38 percent, and it was well more than 40 percent earlier this year, Silva said. And he dismissed the University of the Pacific report.
"It's part of the game that people are playing because they are environmentally tied," he said. "People are just stretching the truth."
Michael does not deny the west side of the Valley is an economic ground zero, but he said the water shortage shouldn't take all the blame.
The report notes two major food processing plants in the area recently closed for reasons not related to the drought, as did a sugar refinery. And, the temporary suspension of a prison construction project and the overall building bust also add to the region's woes.
"Just saying, 'If we turn the water back on, everything is going to be fine in those communities,' isn't true at all," Michael said.
He also said he has no political ax to grind, but he did seek to undercut those who promote a peripheral canal by arguing it is needed to ease huge job losses.
"I've publicly stated there's never been a convincing case made for the people of California financing the peripheral canal," Michael said. "What I have seen is a lot of invalid rhetoric about the number of jobs lost."
Arguing over the exact number is splitting hairs, said Dave Kranz, a spokesman for the California Farm Bureau.
"Whether it's 60,000 jobs or 6,000 or 600,000 jobs, it's too many," he said. "Land is being idled; people are being thrown out of work."
"We should be adding jobs by adding to our water system."#
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090812/A_NEWS/908120333/-1/A_BIZ
Cam Noltemeyer: Of fish and lawsuits
Environmentally Speaking
Santa Clarita Valley Signal-8/12/09
Opinion
This week, Castaic Lake Water Agency announced they have filed litigation to challenge the Federal National Marine Fisheries Agency Opinion for Delta fish species.
Among other things, the opinion found the pumps in the Delta that feed the State Water Project were pumping so much water that migrating fish could not move upstream to the spawning grounds.
Instead the fish are pulled into the pumps and destroyed.
In some cases, so much water is pumped from the Delta that the Old River runs backwards, misleading fish into thinking that the spawning grounds lie in the wrong direction.
Again the fish end up at the pumps.
Those who don’t want to face the reality of a finite water supply have complained that it is really not the pumping that has caused the severe decline in the fish populations.
It is the discharge released into the Sacramento River from a sewage treatment plant or the amount of pesticides that run into the Sacramento River from the adjacent farm fields.
Now I don’t know about you, but when I hear that we really shouldn’t worry about the fish because it’s the sewage and pesticides that are killing them, I have to wonder, “What were they thinking?”
Isn’t this the same water we are drinking ourselves after it travels through another 400 miles of aqueducts next to more farm fields?
Others have argued that we should just let the fish go extinct. We don’t agree.
SCOPE has stated in many previous articles that the fish are our proverbial “canary in the coal mine,” the warning signal to miners of a life-threatening release of toxic killer gas that they could not see or smell.
To us, the crashing fish population is a life-threatening warning that we must not ignore.
Beginning in 2000, at the height of a building spurt and massive water demand from Southern California, it is a clear indication that this precious and finite resource is over-extended.
So here we are, in the midst of a statewide fiscal crisis with many people out of work, and both Castaic and Santa Clarita Water Co. telling the public they will substantially raise water rates next month. And then Castaic decides to spend public money to file an expensive lawsuit?
They are worried because over 50 percent of our water now comes from Northern California through the State Water Project aqueduct.
Every new housing approval must be supplied with state water because we have fully utilized our groundwater sources.
Perhaps they believe that somehow shaking their fists at a scientific biological opinion will force nature to produce more water in the future.
As far as SCOPE is concerned, the important issue is not whether the fish are dying from sewage in the Sacramento River water or because of over pumping. It is undoubtedly a combination of both.
So why spend public money arguing about it? It is obvious that we must work together to fix the problems.
If sewage and pesticides are the cause of the decline in the fish populations, why aren’t the water agencies working with the sanitation plants and farmers to reduce this pollution instead of spending the money on $500 an hour attorneys? How will killing the fish clean up this pollution?
It is also obvious that our state cannot afford a $10 billion peripheral canal right now, (that’s just a little less than half the amount of the entire budget deficit), especially one that would add no new water to the system.
One quick fix is the “no regrets” policies suggested by several environmental groups.
These include conservation and land-use policies that reduce water usage. They also promote enhancement of local supplies in novel ways from watering landscaping with gray water from the kitchen sink to capturing rainfall on roofs and storing it in cisterns under the house.
They believe that enhancing ground water recharge by leaving streams in a natural state or removing concrete will increase our local supplies.
SCOPE’s Integrated Water Resource Plan, approved by the city and water agencies, promoted such ideas.
But it has ground to a halt for lack of state funding in the budget crisis.
We urge the Castaic Lake Water Agency and other water districts to fund answers rather than lawsuits that will not produced any increased water supply.#
Cam Noltemeyer is a Santa Clarita Organization for Planning and the Environment (SCOPE) board member and a Santa Clarita resident. Her column reflects her own views and not necessarily those of The Signal. “Environmentally Speaking” appears Thursdays in The Signal and rotates among local environmentalists.
http://www.the-signal.com/news/article/16701/
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