Department of Water Resources
California Water News
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
August 19, 2009
2. Supply –
Schwarzenegger: New dams critical for water supply
Fresno Bee
Key Marin County hearing on desalination
San Francisco Chronicle
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Schwarzenegger: New dams critical for water supply
Fresno Bee – 8/18/09
By Samantha Young, Associated Press
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday said he will reject any proposal to overhaul state water policy that fails to include funding for new dams.
The governor made his comments Tuesday outside the Capitol as lawmakers were holding a hearing on a package of bills intended to upgrade California's decades-old water-delivery system.
Schwarzenegger and lawmakers from both parties have made water-related issues a top priority now that the state's fiscal mess has been addressed. Yet the legislative package before lawmakers this week was written by Democrats and omits funding to build reservoirs, prompting critical comments Tuesday from GOP lawmakers and the Republican governor.
Schwarzenegger has joined Republican lawmakers and some Democrats who represent districts in the Central Valley in pushing for dams and expanding underground water storage.
"I will not sign anything that does not have above-the-ground and below-the-ground water storage," Schwarzenegger said during a news conference on the steps of the Capitol, surrounded by Central Valley farm workers bused to Sacramento for the day. "We need a whole package to restore our water today and ensure that we have water for tomorrow."
The Central Valley is among the nation's most productive agricultural regions but has seen soaring unemployment over the past year, with jobless rates exceeding 30 percent in some communities. Farmers blame a three-year drought and federal reductions in water pumping that have forced them to fallow thousands of acres of crops and orchards.
State water managers also worry about the long-range effects of global climate change, which is expected to reduce the Sierra snowpack that is crucial to California's summertime water needs.
Democrats say they aren't ruling out money for dams but say the Legislature must first address problems with the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the ecosystem that serves as the main conduit moving water from north to south.
Water quality and conditions for fish have worsened in the delta in recent years, leading to federal limits on the amount of water that can be pumped from the region to farms and cities.
At the same time, scientists have raised concerns about the stability of some 1,115 miles of earthen levees. If they are breached, the delta could be inundated with salty water from San Francisco Bay, tainting the drinking water supply for two-thirds of California's 38 million residents.
Sen. Fran Pavley, D-Agoura Hills, who co-chaired Tuesday's legislative hearing, said rebuilding California's water system while protecting the environment will be a big challenge.
"The status quo is not acceptable," she said.
Republicans complained during the daylong hearing that Democrats did not include money for dams in their plan, which they said should be a key element of any comprehensive water solution.
"This does not appear to me to be moving forward. This is looking backwards," said Senate Minority Leader Dennis Hollingsworth, R-Temecula.
Democrats also have proposed establishing a seven-member governing council to manage the delta, saying one agency needs to be in charge of decisions for a territory that is the size of Rhode Island.
It would be responsible for restoring habitat while ensuring that water exports continue. It also would have the final say about an evolving proposal to build a canal that would divert fresh water out of the Sacramento River and funnel it around the delta directly to the pumping plants.
Assemblyman Tom Berryhill, R-Modesto, questioned whether the Legislature should relinquish its authority to set major state water policy.
"The one thing we're not going to stand for is another Coastal Commission," he said, referring to a body that has been criticized for protecting California's coastline at the expense of recreation and development. #
http://www.fresnobee.com/384/story/1604257.html
Key Marin County hearing on desalination
San Francisco Chronicle – 8/19/09
By Kelly Zito
The largest water agency in Marin County is set to become the first in the region to dip a drinking straw into San Francisco Bay.
If the $105 million project to de-salt about 5 million gallons of bay water each day is approved this evening as expected, about 190,000 residents could begin imbibing water from the sea by 2014.
Though the system has drawn fierce criticism over potentially high costs, energy consumption and impacts on marine life, the Marin Municipal Water District's desalination gambit marks the first of many across the Bay Area and the state.
Up and down the coast, about 20 similar projects are in the works, including a joint test project by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, East Bay Municipal Utility District, Contra Costa Water District and others.
California's water districts are trying to "find a backup water supply that is sustainable, and it makes sense that they're looking out the window at the ocean and saying, 'Well, look at all that water,' " said Bruce Wolfe, executive officer of the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Control Board, the regulatory body that will ultimately decide whether to grant the Marin project key permits to pull water from the bay.
Marin's position at the forefront of the desalination wave owes in part to its small water system. The Marin agency relies heavily on seven reservoirs located in the Mount Tamalpais watershed. When those lakes are full, the district has enough water to supply customers for two years. During dry spells, however, the district has few options.
Amid the notorious 1976-77 drought, water managers built an emergency pipeline over the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge in order to tap into water from the East Bay.
District manager Paul Helliker worries climate change will bring more, protracted dry periods to Northern California.
"If we had a drought like '76-'77 and then another year of drought on top of that, we'd be out of water," Helliker said. "Even if you have a great conservation program, if you don't have enough water to conserve, it doesn't help."
That line of reasoning doesn't wash with opponents like Mark Schlosberg, California director of environmental advocacy group Food and Water Watch. Schlosberg and others accuse the district of overestimating its water deficit and underestimating the costs to taxpayers.
According to Helliker, the plant itself - planned to occupy a 7-acre swath near the Home Depot in San Rafael - will cost $3 million to $4 million each year to operate. Desalination eats up a lot of energy due to the high pressure needed to push seawater through extremely fine membranes that extract the salt.
Funds for the project would come from local bonds as well as a roughly 14 percent increase in users' water bills.
To the fish, mammals and plant life in the bay, there are other costs, environmentalists say. The brine, or salt, leftover from the desalination process would be dumped back into the bay after mixing with treated water.
Desalination "is not a good deal for consumers or the environment," Schlosberg said.
"Conservation may not capture the imagination of the district, but it's much more effective and much less expensive."
The funding question is likely to loom large over this evening's district board meeting. The board is poised to approve the desalination facility, thereby ending the formal environmental review process.
Under California law, opponents have 30 days to challenge the environmental impact report.
Schlosberg's group hasn't committed to a formal challenge. But he anticipates a boisterous debate tonight.
"This project has gained a momentum of its own," he said. "But there are a broad range of people who have come out against it."
Meeting tonight
The Marin Municipal Water District board will decide tonight whether to approve the Bay Area's first desalination plant to turn seawater into drinking water.
Where: Showcase Theater at the Marin Center Exhibit Hall, 10 Avenue of the Flags, San Rafael
What time: 7:30 p.m. #
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/08/18/BAEE199RCP.DTL
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