Department of Water Resources
California Water News
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
August 25, 2009
5. Agencies, Programs, People –
Governor on hand for levee groundbreaking
Marysville Appeal-Democrat
Lake Perris's recreational future on shaky footing
Riverside Press-Enterprise
Atwater City Council rejects hikes to water rates
Merced Sun-Star
Sacramento company investigated for pipeline death
Fairfield Daily Republic
8 drownings this year in Sacramento waterways -- none wore life jackets
Sacramento Bee
Water agency seeks corporate partner to sell energy
Auburn Journal
Stone wins seat on state Coastal Commission
Santa Cruz Sentinel
San Antonio sues over shelved water project
Oakland Tribune
Tour boat will get new moniker
Fairfield Daily Republic
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Governor on hand for levee groundbreaking
Marysville Appeal-Democrat-8/24/09
By Howard Yune
As the formal groundbreaking officially launched the rebuilding of an aging Sutter County levee, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger sounded a hopeful note the project could mark a new beginning for flood control up and down the Sacramento Valley.
"We're happy that finally people have started paying attention to the levees," the governor said this morning at a ceremony marking the rebuilding of the Star Bend setback levee in the south county. "Because I tell you, for years no one paid attention to them — and then Katrina happened."
The $21.6 million project, where construction began in early July, will replace a notoriously weak flood wall along the Feather River, which nearly buckled in the 1997 Mid-Valley flood before a sandbagging effort saved it. Work to erect a new, straight levee and remove the current sharp-angled wall is scheduled for completion by the end of October.
Schwarzenegger hoped Sutter County's success after a decades-long search for funding would bolster support for other repair jobs on an earthen levee network nearly a century old and considered ill-equipped to protect the Sacramento Valley from a major natural disaster.
"When we talk about the groundbreaking ceremony here, we are not only talking about building a levee," he told an audience of county officials. "We're talking about public safety, talking about creating jobs, we're talking about protecting farming, we're talking about feeding the world, about our revenues."
Flood protection and county officials shared their experiences fleeing, or fighting, inundations that swept Yuba-Sutter in 1955, 1986 and 1997. Among them was Francis Silva, who as chairman of Levee District No. 1 has spent more than 40 years advocating the bolstering of the local flood-control system — and described stacking sandbags as a 15-year-old to help avert a levee burst in 1938.
"Have you ever seen a more beautiful sight than those scrapers?" the 87-year-old Silva said to applause, pointing to the earthmovers clawing at the dirt behind him.#
http://www.appeal-democrat.com/common/printer/view.php?db=marysville&id=85850
Lake Perris's recreational future on shaky footing
Riverside Press-Enterprise-8/23/09
By Jim Miller
On warm weekends, Lake Perris State Recreation Area is filled with people swimming, boating, fishing and otherwise enjoying themselves.
Yet the fun in the sun at the Riverside County lake underlies a years-long dispute over allotting money to pay for recreation along the state's water-supply backbone.
Lake Perris is the poster child for the multi-layered disagreement involving the state Department of Water Resources, the Legislature's nonpartisan fiscal analyst and water project contractors such as the Metropolitan Water District, which supplies water to much of the Inland area.
How the dispute plays out could determine how -- and whether -- the cash-strapped state completes a costly project to strengthen the seismically weakened two-mile-long dam at Lake Perris.
The outcome could mean that the days of swimming and boating at the lake, which draws some 1.5 million visitors a year, are numbered.
"We know it's a very important resource to that part of the state," said Mark Andersen, chief of water project management at the Department of Water Resources. At some point, though, the state either has to finish the dam-strengthening project or drain the lake, he said.
Swimming and boating draw 1.5 million visitors a year to the Inland recreation area, which needs major work to make it earthquake safe.
The water resources department contends that the Legislature, encouraged by the legislative analyst's office, is starving it of money to pay recreation's share of expensive construction at Lake Perris and other parts of the 50-year-old State Water Project.
But in a report earlier this year, the legislative analyst's office concluded that the water resources department was overstating the recreational benefit of water-project construction.
Water contractors that pay for the system's upkeep, meanwhile, contend that they're contributing far too much to projects that benefit swimmers and boaters more than their customers.
"We don't think the state is doing what it should be doing to step up to its obligation," said Jeffrey Kightlinger, general manager of the Metropolitan Water District.
Lake Perris is at the southernmost end of the State Water Project. Approved by voters in 1960, the project is California's main means to move water from Northern California to parts of the San Francisco Bay Area, the Central Valley and heavily populated Southern California.
Today, the system supplies two-thirds of Californians with water. Fees from water-project customers pay for its upkeep and operational costs.
A 1961 law said decision-makers also should take into account recreation and fish-and-wildlife habitat when planning water-project construction.
That law, the Davis-Dolwig Act, said a share of the expense should be allotted to the recreational benefit. Water contractors wouldn't pay for that. Instead, the law declared that it was the intent of the Legislature that state taxpayers would cover the cost, which has totaled almost a half-billion dollars since 1961.
In March, though, the analyst's office reported that the Department of Water Resources had run up $155 million in unpaid recreation benefit charges through 2006-07. Water contractors fronted that money and have not been paid back.
In addition, the analyst office's report concluded that the department was overstating recreation's share of State Water Project costs. Little of that money actually pays for new recreational amenities, such as picnic tables, boat ramps and the like, the report said.
In the case of Lake Perris, the water resources department has estimated the recreational benefit to be 7 percent. The dam project has a 2008 cost estimate of $360 million, meaning recreation's share would be about $25.2 million.
That is almost twice as much as last month's $14 million budget cut in parks funding, which has parks officials planning to close about 100 parks.
"The DWR is continuing to incur new recreation costs at SWP facilities without identifying a state funding source to pay for them or considering legislative priorities for spending or recreation programs," the office wrote.
Water department officials criticize the report. They said the department has used the Davis-Dolwig law fairly.
"We haven't fronted any contractor money. We haven't incurred any debt to contractors," Andersen said. "There is no debt that DWR is illegally assigning to the general fund."
The state has to account for the recreational benefit of Lake Perris, Andersen added.
"If the LAO had its way, the capital fix at Perris would have no recreation component and yet 1.5 million people are still visiting there," he said.
For years, Lake Perris was about 110 feet deep and held 42 billion gallons of water.
But in 2005, engineers at the California Department of Water Resources discovered that Lake Perris's earthen dam could collapse during an earthquake in the magnitude-7.5 range.
In a worst-case scenario, a break would unleash 26 billion gallons of water across 30,000 acres of western Riverside County, from rural Lakeview to the Prado Dam near Corona.
As a temporary fix, officials lowered the lake 25 feet, reducing the lake's volume by about 40 percent. That has reduced the number of boats allowed on the lake, from 450 to 250 at a time.
Under the department's proposal, the Perris dam's weakened foundation would be fortified and strengthened by a new berm. Workers also would add an emergency channel to divert flood waters. The first phase of the dam project is scheduled to begin in January 2011.
But water contractors have raised concerns about the project's huge cost. A contractor-commissioned study estimated that the project's recreational benefit was 50 to 75 percent -- far above the water resources department's 7 percent estimate.
Water suppliers like MWD have weighed finding other sources. Building a new facility to store the same amount of water as Lake Perris would cost only $65 million, according to one contractor's estimate quoted in the legislative analyst's report, and without the human activity that makes Lake Perris water more difficult to treat.
Kightlinger said a final decision has not been made. "It's a thorny issue for all," he said.#
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_S_perris24.4417c35.html
Atwater City Council rejects hikes to water rates
Merced Sun-Star-8/25/09
By Jonah Owen Lamb
Several proposed water and sanitation rate hikes died Monday night after Atwater's City Council shot them down but failed to come up with any workable alternatives.
While the council may not have voted to raise water and sanitation rates for Atwater residents by more than $18 over the next several years, it may end up costing the city around $500,000 a year.
"This is very damaging to a city borrowing money," said Atwater's financial adviser Albert Peche.
By taking this action, he said, the city is going to lose money, because its credit rating -- or the rate of interest it receives when issuing bonds for large projects -- is tied into the income it brings in from water and sanitation rates.
If the city had passed the hikes it would have included the first water hike since 1993.
If the hikes had been passed, property owners would have had to go through a proposition 218 process. If 50 percent-plus one of property owners voted against the hikes, the city would be unable to raise rates.
While the council's inaction was partly due to concerns for residents, no council member came up with an alternate plan.
While Mayor Joan Faul made a motion to vote on city staff's recommended rate hikes, no one supported her.
Councilman Joe Rivero was against the proposed hikes because he didn't see how people would pay for such increases right now.
"People are losing their jobs, people are feeling it," he said. "I don't agree with taking an increase now."
Councilman Gary Frago also voiced his disapproval of the city's options.
"It's really evident that the council is not happy with the options," he said. He added that he didn't believe the city's landowners would vote in the 218 process for these rate hikes.
"I don't think you're going to get your votes when that goes out," he said.
While the council asked for other options from assistant city manager Stan Feathers, he said when it came to this issue, the city had few options.
"The numbers are the numbers," he said. "The price of having clean water is well worth it."
Feathers explained that the hikes were a necessity for a number of reasons.
Not only does the city have to pay for upkeep and maintenance of the system, but the city is also required to build a new state-mandated $50 million wastewater treatment plant.
To build that plant the city will have to borrow money, he said. By not raising the water and sanitation rates, Feathers said, the city will increase the interest it pays on any money borrowed.
Peche said that over the last several years the city has increasingly been given higher and higher ratings.
That meant rating agencies charged with essentially assessing the credit worthiness of cities and companies had given the city a high credit marking. That translated into lower interest when the city issues bonds to build roads or, in this case, a wastewater treatment plant.
Without a certain debt to income ratio the city will lose its high credit score, said Peche, and that could cost the city a lot of money.#
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/167/story/1020082.html
Sacramento company investigated for pipeline death
Fairfield Daily Republic-8/22/09
A Sacramento-based construction company is being investigated after the death of an employee working on a pipeline in San Luis Obispo County.
Federal safety officials are examining if crews at Teichert Construction were following safety practices.
Authorities say Timothy Nelson of Ojai died Thursday after being run over by a dump truck.
The 29-year-old was working on a 45-mile pipeline that will deliver water from Lake Nacimiento to communities in San Luis Obispo.
Teichert was fined $140,000 in February for the deaths of two other workers last year. A spokeswoman at the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration's says the company is contesting the fine.#
http://search.dailyrepublic.com/display.php?id=4425
8 drownings this year in Sacramento waterways -- none wore life jackets
Sacramento Bee-8/25/09
By Julie Johnson
As it hovered around 90 degrees at the Upper Sunrise Boat Launch on the American River, the park's visitors had the right idea: inner tubes, straw hats and lots of sunblock.
But none of them had life jackets.
Sarah Peach, 18, and eight of her friends blew up their rafts for an afternoon float. Peach said the biggest threat on the river was the "creepy kayakers who want to talk with you."
Rescue personnel say there are far greater dangers along the waterways, and with a heat surge predicted this week and with the Labor Day weekend approaching, they are actively trying to warn people.
"You are in one of the most dangerous waterways in Sacramento County here," said Niko King, a battalion chief with the Sacramento Fire Department.
Eight people have drowned in Sacramento and Yolo counties' rivers and lakes so far in 2009 – four in the past two weeks – and each drowning shared several common factors.
All but one of the drowning victims were male. More than half had been drinking alcohol.
None of them was wearing a life vest.
King has launched an outreach program this summer to educate people about water safety.
A team of about a dozen regular volunteers, called the River Guardians, pass out fliers about the city ordinance that requires children 12 and under to wear life vests. They tell people where to find free life vests provided by the department at many of the city's popular beaches.
"We let people know some of the statistics they may not know," King said.
King said they train volunteers to look for people involved in risky behavior, including adults supervising many children, people drinking alcohol and "young adult males doing riskier things, like ... challenging each other to cross the river."
Pat Burritt, a volunteer manager for the Sacramento Fire Department, joins volunteers passing out life jackets on city beaches on holidays.
Burritt said the biggest danger comes when people think they are stronger than river currents, and that adults don't need to wear life jackets.
"People didn't have any problems putting them on the little kids, but adults wouldn't put them on themselves," Burritt said.
At the Sunrise Boulevard boat launch, Lynne Scroggins, 26, and her friends settled into colorful plastic inner tubes.
Scroggins' mother, Wanda Jones, passed them the dogs. Mia and Puba, two tiny black Chihuahuas in matching pink and green life vests, would join their four-hour float down the American River.
Jones, 44, waved as the group floated past swimming geese and under a pedestrian bridge.
"They don't have life vests, but the dogs do," Jones said.
This is common along the river, and fire officials say they still have trouble getting the message across. Authorities have banned alcohol consumption during holiday weekends, including Labor Day, when people come to the river from as far away as the Bay Area.
But even with the ban and the promise of free life jackets, they still cannot convince some people of the dangers the water poses.
Each year, on average, eight people drown in the region's waterways. Last year, 11 died.
"Bottom line with drowning is that life jackets will definitely save you," said Jim Doucette, spokesman for the Sacramento Fire Department.#
http://www.sacbee.com/topstories/v-print/story/2136242.html
Water agency seeks corporate partner to sell energy
Auburn Journal-8/25/09
By Gus Thomson Journal Staff Writer
The Placer County Water Agency is looking for a corporate partner to help bring its electricity to market.
With a contract with Pacific Gas & Electric up in 2013, the water agency will gain control of marketing the hydroelectricity generated from its five powerhouses on the Middle Fork of the American River.
The five plants have a combined capacity of 244 megawatts and the ability to supply about 100,000 homes.
Einar Maisch said the district has contacted several potential power-marketing partners in preparation for a call for proposals later this year or in early 2010.
The current contract with PG&E, which went into effect in 1963, expires four years from now – two months after the agency is planning to have its federal energy license renewed.
PG&E was among 11 businesses that responded.
“We have laid out what we assumed the market is like and asked them to comment on our assumptions,” Maisch said. The agency is looking at two possibilities once it has control over power sales in 2013.
One would be for a contract with a single buyer to purchase all the Middle Fork Project’s generated power and pay an agreed-upon price in a long-term contract. The other would be for the company to serve as an agent for Placer County power and sell it on the open market, Maisch said.
Maisch said that the Middle Fork finance authority – a partnership between the agency and Placer County – has no preferred model yet.#
Stone wins seat on state Coastal Commission
Santa Cruz Sentinel-8/22/09
By Kurtis Alexander
Santa Cruz County Supervisor Mark Stone was appointed to the California Coastal Commission on Friday.
His selection marks the first time in nearly two decades a county resident will have a seat on the powerful regulatory board. The appointment is widely viewed as win for the environmental community, which fought to block a pro-development voice on the panel.
"I very much want to be a part of California's future and the decisions that are made," said Stone, a longtime environmentalist and avid open-water swimmer. This summer, Stone completed a sports milestone, swimming across the English Channel.
"I'm honored to be appointed," he said.
As a member of the 12-person commission, Stone will weigh in on the fate of virtually all development along the California coastline, from new hotels on the Monterey Peninsula to water treatment projects in Santa Cruz. He'll keep his job on the Board of Supervisors, but spend up to three days each month addressing state matters.
The appointment was announced by Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles. In making her decision, the Southern California Democrat skipped over 12-year incumbent Dave Potter, a Monterey County supervisor. Bass has declined to say why Potter, who had been reappointed as a matter of routine for many years, was not chosen.
In a statement Friday, Bass made only a generic comment about her selection, citing Stone's "deep appreciation" for the "health, safety and beauty" of the
coast. Her office could not be reached for further comment.
But environmentalists say Stone's pro-conservation record was what pushed him to the top.
"There was a strong coalition of environmental groups that supported a change from Potter. Bass heard these groups," said Lennie Roberts, a Coastal Commission watchdog and legislative advocate for the Palo Alto-based Committee for Green Foothills.
Roberts said the Coastal Commission is still not as protective of the coast as she might like but said the group would be better.
Stone, a resident of Scotts Valley, has served on the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors since 2003. Previously, he was a trustee for the Scotts Valley Unified School District and maintained a private law practice. He is married with two children.
As a supervisor, Stone has always been cautious of new development and supportive of environmental programs. He was one of the leading proponents of the county's new Commission on the Environment, a panel that has begun to address such issues as climate change and water conservation.
Stone says he sees these global issues becoming an increasing priority for the state, citing a demand for energy projects and desalination plants along the coastline.
"California is taking some different directions in respect to planning, and the Coastal Commission needs to be a part of that," he said.
He pledged to be an objective voice on the panel, able to balance "economic pressure" with "protecting the legacy of the coast."
Potter said Friday he wished Stone well. He said he was disappointed not to be reappointed to the commission, and faulted Bass not for her pick but for her lack of transparency over the selection process.
"I'm a little surprised I never heard form the speaker's office," he said, noting that Bass never spoke with him about the job. "I would have thought after 12 years I'd at least get a courtesy call."
Gary Patton, a former Santa Cruz County supervisor and longtime conservationist, praised the speaker's choice.
"I think it's good news that we have a change in our representation," Patton said. "Dave Potter's record is not good."
Potter's 2007 commission vote in support of the Pebble Beach Co.'s expansion plans are held up by environmentalists as evidence of his pro-development agenda. Potter has also received low marks in the Sierra Club's annual scorecard.
Potter, though, says he leaves behind a legacy of fair and balanced judgment on coastal issues.
"I pride myself on having done my homework for every meeting and looked at the issues objectively," he said.#
San Antonio sues over shelved water project
Oakland Tribune-8/24/09
A water fight between the San Antonio Water System and a neighboring river authority spilled into court Monday when the system sued the river authority for more than $1.2 billion.
The water system filed a lawsuit in Travis County accusing the Lower Colorado River Authority of breach of contract after the authority's board passed a resolution that effectively killed a project to recapture wasted water for use around San Antonio and Austin.
The agencies had been working under a March 2002 agreement to study large-scale conservation projects that would have supplied enough extra water to raise the levels in Lakes Travis and Buchanan while supplying fast-growing San Antonio with more drinking water. The conserved water would have come from the Lower Colorado River Basin and the excess would have been sold to San Antonio.
The plans included projects that would reduce the water needed for rice production through the laser leveling of fields to prevent run-off. The plans also called for a reservoir to catch storm run-off.
The water system spent $43.2 million on the studies, which SAWS spokesman Greg Flores said showed that such measures could be taken effectively and without harming downstream users. However, that changed when the river authority's board changed the requirements, subjecting the plans to more rigorous requirements on downstream user effects, Flores said.
The agency sued for $1.2 billion to cover the cost of the studies and the cost of building an alternative source of water, like a desalination plant, said Flores.
A call to a river authority spokesman was not immediately returned Monday.
The water was not planned for immediate use. SAWS had not anticipated being able to buy it from LCRA until 2034, but it will now have to look for other ways to ensure the regional water supply.
"This was a big part of our long-term plan," Flores said. "We've lost seven years."#
Tour boat will get new moniker
Fairfield Daily Republic-8/24/09
So long Spirit of Sacramento.
The triple-decker entertainment vessel that tied up to Suisun City's Public Dock a week ago is getting a new name today that is more in line with the town it now will call home.
The list is down to three possible names, and maybe one or two yet-to-be-made last-minute additions, according to Capt. Dan Thiemann, who is fixing up the vessel.
The three names being considered are the Suisun City Queen, The City of Suisun City or Old Suisun.#
http://www.dailyrepublic.com/story.php?id=701.0
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