Department of Water Resources
California Water News
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
August 31, 2009
2. Supply –
Once promising El Nino might ‘El Fizzle’
Orange County Register
Saving water could save Sonoma County $1 billion
Santa Rosa Press Democrat
Conservation must be a habit
Glendale News Press
Conserve water, yes; but build, too
The Bakersfield Californian
Water being saved, but not enough
Madera Tribune
Will homeowners pay more, less when Fresno moves to water meters?
Fresno Bee
CSUSM professor helping water officials understand conservation psychology
North County Times
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Once promising El Nino might ‘El Fizzle’
Orange County Register-8/30/09
By Gary Robbins
The U.S. Climate Prediction Center said in early July that an El Nino had developed in the eastern equatorial Pacific, and forecasters later added that the periodic, natural climate change — which can greatly enhance rainfall in Orange County — had the potential to become “moderate to strong.”
The CPC issued an updated forecast on Aug. 24, saying “El Niño is expected to strengthen and last through the Northern Hemisphere winter 2009-10.”
But is the agency wrong? Maybe.
Bill Patzert, a climatologist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory who studies El Nino and advises CPC, says in an email, “There is considerable uncertainty among scientists as to whether this event will have the staying power to deliver the dramatic impacts that were seen during the last intense El Niño episode, which happened in 1997-1998.”
Recent satellite images show that the distinct signature of El Nino that appears directly along the equator has faded, and that the system may have slipped into neutral status.
“At this time, it is a long shot for this El Nino to expand and intensify into the fall and elevate the present weak to moderate El Niño episode to a stronger event,” Patzert says. “For comparison, the August 21, 1997, TOPEX/Poseidon image of the macho 1997-1998 El Nino is included here. In size and intensity it dwarfs the present conditions.”
Patzert said that, based on the emerging evidence, it’s possible that Southern California will have a drier-than-normal winter. It must be noted, however, that the region can have heavy rainfall even if an El Nino does not occur. And scientists are not sure to what degree any El Nino influences the size and strength of a storm.
Translation: No one truly knows what’s going to happen this winter.#
http://sciencedude.freedomblogging.com/2009/08/30/once-promising-el-nino-might-el-fizzle/52789/
Saving water could save Sonoma County $1 billion
Santa Rosa Press Democrat-8/29/09
By Bob Norberg
The success of conservation measures undertaken by Sonoma County residents is a major reason the county Water Agency wants to pull the plug on a $1 billion water supply project.
“We have done a great job of conservation and we can get by on a (smaller) supply,” Santa Rosa Mayor Susan Gorin said.
From Windsor’s extensive recycled wastewater use to North Marin’s program to upgrade fixtures at the time of a home sale, everyone seems to be stepping up.
“Conservation and recycled water have allowed us to stretch our supplies,” said Mike Ban, Petaluma’s water resources director.
Use in summer, when irrigation is at its highest level, has declined 28 percent this year compared to 2004, surpassing the conservation goal set by the state for Sonoma County.
With that level of conservation and growth hovering at 1 percent a year, the amount of water the agency was seeking — 101,000 acre-feet, almost twice what was delivered in the past fiscal year — is not needed, said Randy Poole, the Water Agency’s general manager.
“There is a great opportunity for water savings; this is not rocket science,” Poole said. “We can meet the general plans of the cities and the county areas, we just want people to be smart about it. You don’t need a lot of water.”
The Water Agency decision, which still needs to be approved by the Board of Supervisors, caught the major customers by surprise.
“The dust is still settling on this decision,” Ban said.
“It just raises a lot of questions about what this means for our planning future,” Gorin said. “We are not even talking about five or 10 or 15 years, but from here on out.”
The Marin Municipal Water District is afraid the Water Agency will not meet Marin’s projected needs.
“All we are asking for is before the agency makes its decision that we go through an analytical process and see what is achievable,” said General Manager Paul Helliker. “The agency is changing its approach, and we have not seen any data to support it.”
The Water Agency wants to withdraw an application to the state Water Resources Control Board to increase the amount of water it takes from the Russian River to 101,000 acre-feet.
It is almost twice the 55,000 acre-feet of water delivered in the year ending June 30. The annual peak Water Agency delivery in the past has been 62,000 acre-feet.
The agency has spent $6 million on the study and environmental impact report for the application over the past decade.
Officially called the Water Project, it would have required spending almost $500 million on a pipeline to augment the capacity of Dry Creek, now the sole conduit for the water stored in Lake Sonoma. Another $500 million would have been spent on rebuilding transmission facilities to serve southern Sonoma County and Marin County.
The cost of those projects to homeowners and businesses would have been about $100 million a year, or a 200 percent rate increase, Poole said.
The Water Agency customers are the 600,000 residents in Windsor, Santa Rosa, Rohnert Park, Cotati, Petaluma and Sonoma and the Valley of the Moon, North Marin and Marin Municipal water districts.
The general plans for Sonoma County cities are based on the Water Agency providing 75,000 acre-feet of water, the amount that is in the present agreement between the cities and the Water Agency.
“If the water rights are kept at 75,000 acre-feet, we will get close to if not get all” of what Santa Rosa needs, said Glen Wright, the city’s deputy director of water resources. “It is still not enough to take us to 2035, but we are in the process of developing recycled water, looking at ground water and we include additional conservation in the future as a water source.”
That is also enough for the growth that Rohnert Park has projected in its 2004 water plan, which updated its 2000 general plan.
“The way our water consumption is at the moment and the way we are dealing with new development, we can implement our general plan,” said Jake Mackenzie, a Rohnert Park councilman and chairman of a Water Agency advisory committee.
Poole said, however, said he doesn’t believe even that much water will be needed to meet future growth.
“It is not about water supply, it is about water management,” Poole said. “There is not a lack of water, it is how we use it effectively.”
Helliker said the Water Agency has a separate contract with Marin Municipal to deliver 14,300 acre-feet by 2030, which Marin projects as its need, but that requires the improvement of the southern transmission system.
“The agency has contractual obligations and we want to make sure we are all moving in the same direction on those contractual obligations,” Helliker said.
The Board of Supervisors has set a Sept. 15 public hearing on the Water Agency’s request to abandon the Water Project.
It will also be discussed Monday by advisory committees that represent the Water Agency’s customers.#
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20090829/articles/908299981
Conservation must be a habit
Glendale News Press-8/28/09
Editorial
Cities throughout the Southland this week reported that their residents had either met or exceeded water saving goals so far this summer, a political victory amid all those annoying conservation commercials.
Perhaps there’s nothing like multiple dry brush fires and blackened skies to hammer those drought warnings home, or maybe residents are starting to finally come around to the idea that lush is no longer sustainable.
Either way, news this week that residents in Burbank, Glendale and La Crescenta had reduced their water consumption by between 10% and 22% was heartening, especially given the previous hard sell with the voluntary conservation messages.
Yes, the fact that Glendale and the Crescenta Valley Water District have imposed, along with most cities, strict irrigation restrictions no doubt had a hand in the steep drop, but it still required a certain amount of buy in from the public.
Burbank has yet to adopt mandatory controls, but even there, utility officials reported “a marked” decrease in water use — there have been brown lawns to prove it.
On the back end, local nurseries have also reported an increased customer interest in drought tolerant and California native plants, while some homeowners have been pushing harder for artificial turf as a frontyard alternative.
The confluence of trends leads us to believe that property owners really are waking up to a different landscape, one where potable water is becoming more of a luxury. We only hope that the routines being put in place now carry through the winter, and on to next summer and beyond.
Only when these restrictions become a fact of life, and then habit, will we truly see an impact to our region’s persistent water woes.#
http://www.glendalenewspress.com/articles/2009/08/29/opinion/editorials/gnp-2editorial082909.txt
Conserve water, yes; but build, too
The Bakersfield Californian-8/29/09
Editorial
In parched California, nothing riles folks up more than a good water war. And that includes folks in Sacramento, where a whole slew of special interests -- farmers, farmworkers, environmentalists, developers, Northern California cities and Southern California cities -- are pressuring legislators over plans to improve the state's fragile water system.
Before they adjourned for their mid-summer break, lawmakers were locked in a months-long battle to close a $26 billion state budget gap. With state coffers running on fumes, California was doling out IOUs to its vendors, while Republicans and Democrats bickered. Very little else was accomplished.
Legislators returned to Sacramento a while back hoping to make progress on other pressing problems. At the top of the list must be fixing the collapsing San Joaquin-Sacramento Delta and increasing water supplies. No longer can this task be ignored or stalled.
The delta is where water from the Sierra Nevada mountains and Northern California meets saltwater from the San Francisco Bay, flows south to irrigate California's agricultural heartland and supplies Central and Southern California with drinking water.
The delta is a spaghetti bowl of rivers, canals and sloughs, some dug by hand at the turn of the century. Its islands support fertile farms and small towns. Its waterways provide recreation to boaters and fishermen.
Delta waterways are near collapse. Many fear an earthquake will wipe it away and cut off critical supplies to millions of Californians. But it doesn't take a big, bad earthquake to do damage. A beaver digging into a dirt bank is believed to have caused the multi-million dollar failure of the Upper Jones Tract, west of Stockton, just five years ago.
Environmental concerns, including the impact of water pumping on endangered fish species, has reduced the flow of water through the delta. San Joaquin Valley farmers and the workers left jobless as fields have dried up, simplistically characterized these concerns as "fish versus people."
While the debate between competing interests isn't new, California's water dilemma can no longer be ignored, or talked to death.
Republican and Democratic governors stretching back decades have studied proposals for fixing the delta and increasing California's water supply. They have all concluded some canal or bypass of the delta is needed to reduce pressure on the sensitive estuary; water storage must be increased; and Californians must conserve water.
Delta interests have long viewed a canal as a threat -- a rip-off of Northern California's water by the South that endangers water quality, fish habitat and recreation. Some environmentalists foolishly believe they can stop California's growth by cutting off its water.
Legislators are beginning to hold hearings on a Democratic-sponsored package of bills that would create an oversight body for the delta, boost statewide conservation, improve monitoring of water use and establish a commission to protect the delta community.
While these bills reflect the findings of an independent panel that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger established last year, the governor vows he will not sign legislation that does not include bonding to pay for the construction of water storage facilities, including new dams and reservoirs.
The governor is correct. Before the Legislature adjourns in mid-September, a package of bills must be passed that includes construction of dams, reservoirs and a water conveyance around the delta, as well as establishing oversight to protect the delta's water quality and supplies.
Protecting the delta is not a frivolous fish-versus-people environmental cause.
The entire state depends on the delta's continuing good health. But it also depends on having an adequate water supply.#
http://www.bakersfield.com/opinion/editorials/x616724967/Conserve-water-yes-but-build-too
Water being saved, but not enough
Madera Tribune-8/28/09
By Charles Doud
Maderans have been saving water since Stage 2 of the city's water-conservation plan was adopted April 1, but they have more to do.
In the next few weeks, further measures for conserving water will be proposed to the Madera City Council for adoption.
"The weekly goal has been met nine out of 21 weeks in the summer season," said city Public Works Director Mathew Bullis, in a report Aug. 19 before the City Council. That weekly goal was a 10 percent reduction in water use year over year.
But the new regulations will be stricter.#
http://www.maderatribune.com/news/newsview.asp?c=251336
Will homeowners pay more, less when Fresno moves to water meters?
Fresno Bee-8/30/09
By Russell Clemings
No one knows for sure what will happen when Fresno starts using water meters early next year -- but some people could be in for a shock.
After six months, data from a study of 70 volunteer households has produced a few surprises:
Water use varies widely even among similarly sized lots. The thriftiest small lot used one-seventh as much as the most wasteful.
Many homes -- from 25% to almost half, depending on the month -- had water-use patterns that suggested leaks in their plumbing or irrigation systems.
A Bee analysis of the data suggests that homeowners on small lots could pay more with meters and those with large lots could pay less, even though the average isn't expected to change much.
The reason: What counts under metered rates isn't your lot size. It's how much water you use.
"If you're a heavy water user, your bill will go up. If you're a light water user, your bill is going to go down," said John Watkins, a management analyst in the city's Department of Public Utilities.
City contractors are installing meter boxes at the 70,000 homes that did not already have them. Most of the rest are newer homes where meter boxes were installed when they were built.
Some homes could start getting metered bills as early as next January. The city's federal water contract calls for the job to be finished by January 2013. By then, all Fresno homes will be paying metered rates.
Under the current flat-rate system, homes on lots of 6,000 square feet or less pay $22.87 per month, no matter how much water they use. Larger lots pay that basic rate plus 22.8 cents for each 100 square feet over 6,000.
The proposed new metered-rate system has a standard charge based on the size of the home's water line. For about 90% of the city's homes, that will be $13.51 per month. On top of that, homes would pay 61 cents for each 748 gallons used.
City officials say the new rate structure is designed to be "revenue neutral." The amount the city would collect from its 110,000 home customers would stay about the same. So would the average bill.
But individual bills could vary widely, depending on each home's water use. And to the extent that the volunteer households resemble the city as a whole, the Bee's analysis suggests that small lots are more likely to see higher bills. (The volunteers continue to pay current flat rates.)
Of 23 homes on lots of 6,000 square feet or less, 17 would have paid more under metered rates for the water they used between February and July, the first six months of the year-long study. At the extremes, one home would have paid $11.70 less than the flat rate. Another would have paid $274.02 more.
Larger lots were a different story. For 24 lots between 6,000 and 10,000 square feet, half of the bills would have gone up and the other half down. The 19 lots measuring 10,000 to 20,000 square feet would have seen 16 bills drop and only three rise. All four of the lots that were more than 20,000 square feet would have seen lower bills with the metered rate.
"If you are on a smaller lot, you're going to save a lot of money. This is what people are assuming. Well, no -- because people on the bigger lots currently pay more," said department spokeswoman Ann Kloose.
That may come as a rude surprise to some of the study's volunteers, who have not been given estimates of what their bills would be under metered rates.
"I expect my water bill to be less because I will be more conscious of my water usage," said one of them, Milton Quan.
Quan said he cut his water use by using the city's free leak detection service. Inspectors found malfunctioning sprinkler heads and other water wasters at his home. He will have to wait until the metered rates start to find out what happens to his bill.
Another participant, Jerry Kennedy, said he lives on a lot measuring 30 by 90 feet -- a mere 2,700 square feet. He said he fully expects to see lower bills once meters go into use.
"I say bring them on," he said. "I want to pay for what I use, not what you use."
Data released by the city did not link individual homeowners to their water use records. But of the 70 households in the study, slightly more than half -- 38 -- would have seen lower bills, according to the Bee's analysis. Total revenue collected by the city under metered rates would have been $13,505, about $136 less than the flat rate.
Citywide, department officials say the average home water bill for the fiscal year that ended June 30 was $28.32. Under a metered rate, they estimate it would have been $28.76 -- a difference of 44 cents.
"It still comes back to consumption," Kloose said. "The good news is that everybody is going to be charged the same price for the water they use under the new system."#
http://www.fresnobee.com/263/story/1620984.html
CSUSM professor helping water officials understand conservation psychology
North County Times-8/30/09
By Andrea Moss
Faced with a growing need for water conservation, officials from a North County water agency have turned to a Cal State San Marcos professor to help figure out what motivates people to scale back their consumption.
Dr. P. Wesley Schultz, a social psychologist at CSUSM since 1997, has teamed with the Olivenhain Water District for a pilot program that kicked off earlier this month.
Seventy-five families are participating in the monthlong study designed to find out whether receiving real-time feedback about their water use causes people to cut back.
The program uses a new type of water-use tracking device, the Internet and a special computer application to tell participants how much water they're using throughout the day.
Schultz said last week that a third of the participating households have the devices; the other 50 families are the control group.
He and two of his students are collecting and analyzing data throughout the study.
The results will be shared with Olivenhain water officials after the pilot ends Sept. 10, the professor said.
Joe Randall, management analyst supervisor at Olivenhain Water District, said his agency jumped at the chance to work with Schultz after seeing him make a presentation to county water officials.
The Olivenhain district provides water to customers in a 45-square-mile area that runs from the coast through 4S Ranch to Interstate 15.
"We're just trying to give folks some examples of what they can do, and this one is based on real-time usage," he said. "That's a lot better than once a month, which is what they normally get through the billing cycle. And we're trying to gauge how that feedback affects them in terms of their usage."
Officials with the Vallecitos Water District in San Marcos said they are eager to work with Schultz as well.
The need to reduce water use has been a growing concern for water agencies throughout the region because of an ongoing drought and a court ruling last year that restricted the pumping of water from the state water delta.
The situation has the potential for significant impact in San Diego County because it relies heavily on imported water.
Most area water agencies dealt with the problem by declaring Level 2 drought alerts before summer started. The alerts came with mandatory conservation measures designed to reduce the region's water use by at least 10 percent.
Those measures, including restrictions on landscape watering and a ban on hosing down outdoor pavements, have enabled the water agencies to meet and, in some cases, exceed the reduction goal so far.
Water officials have warned, however, that continued drought could bring higher-level alerts, higher conservation requirements and more-stringent conservation mandates.
Schultz is part of an emerging group of experts trying to find out whether psychology can be used to get people to conserve.
The professor, who has already conducted similar studies on energy consumption, said the field is becoming increasingly prominent as natural resource supplies are depleted.
Schultz said he got the idea for a pilot program on water conservation after learning about a new device that tracks people's water use at their water meters, analyzes the data and reformulates it to a user-friendly format.
Developed by Los Gatos-based Aquacue, the device uses wireless technology, the Internet and special software to relay the information to a constant display on users' computer screens.
Study participants can check the display to see how much water they used during 14 periods throughout the day.
That gives them a better idea of how individual showers, laundry loads and other activities affect their water-use totals, Randall and Schultz said.
The display also shows families how their water use compares to that of the average home in their neighborhood, as well as the amount they themselves used in previous weeks.
Aquacue CEO Shahram Javey said he was pleasantly surprised to learn that study participants were happy to try his company's devices.
The response suggests people are eager to know exactly how and where they can cut back their water use, he said.
"That's one thing that was extremely rewarding for us," Javey said. "There is a demand, and people want to have access to the information."
Study participants whose water use is below average are rewarded with smiley faces on their computer displays; higher-than-average use gets a frowning face.
Schultz declined to make study participants available for interviews or disclose the results he has seen so far, saying that doing so could alter people's responses.
But he said more efficient water use is the goal.
"It's not that people are going to stop using water entirely," Schultz said. "But what you want is a communication channel that will allow people to adjust their consumption, depending on the availability of the resource."
Bill Rucker, Vallecitos Water District general manager, said he was intrigued by Schultz's approach because it shifts the focus from punitive water rates for people whose usage goes over a certain amount.
Although rate hikes tend to work, they typically do so for a short time only, Rucker said.
"You're better off if you can provide ongoing and immediate information about water use so that they know the impact of what they're doing," he said. "Hopefully, you'll gain long-term change that way."
Randall said the growing water problem has officials at water agencies everywhere embracing all kinds of new conservation ideas.
"We're just looking for anything that will work," he said. "What was out of the box a few years ago is now in the box, just because of the water situation we're now in."#
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/san-marcos/article_35f6a160-fd8b-5648-b70b-a64760d058c7.html
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