Sacramento River
From: Nick Croce, Santa Ynez
Valley News
Solvang means "sunny
fields" in Danish, and that's an apt description for our community.
But Solvang needs more than
abundant sunshine and caravans of visitors to thrive. We also need water. And
that's the rub. Our water supplies always have been dicey. That means we have
to husband our water resources carefully. And for the most part, we do that.
Unfortunately, our city officials
have allowed themselves to be snookered by a boondoggle known as the Twin
Tunnels. This scheme, pushed by the state Department of Water Resources, would
shunt water from the Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta south via a pair of gigantic
tunnels.
Coalition response...Nick DiCroce should be ashamed of his misleading descriptions of the Bay
Delta Conservation Plan and California water rights.
The BDCP is in response to a 2009
mandate by the State Legislature to restore the ecosystem of the Sacramento-San
Joaquin Bay Delta and to create a reliable water supply for 25 million
Californians and 3 million acres of productive farmland. In recent years the
supply of water that flows through the Delta for delivery to users has been
reduced by as much as 90 percent.
His comment that "No
cost-benefit analysis has been conducted." doesn't square with readily
available, published economic data. And he mixes construction costs with total
costs, which includes financing, in an attempt to illustrate out-of-control
spending. An analysis headed by economist David Sunding of UC Berkeley reveals
that the State's economy will receive an $84 billion benefit from the overall
project. Read Dr. Sunding's economic impacts report here.
In fact, the total cost for
construction, operation and maintenance is only about $5 per month for Southern
California residents. That's a small price to pay to protect the safety and
reliability of our water supply. Why didn't Nick mention that?
Claiming that California's water
resources are oversubscribed by a factor of five ignores the fact that water
rights are issued for specific uses at specific places and time. That means
water can be used at one place and time to generate power, and then a second
time to irrigate a field of tomatoes and once again for washing clothes in a
city or town. Water is used over and over in California and rights for each of
those uses are unique.
Plenty of factual information
exists on how California can protect its water supply at an affordable cost at www.baydeltaconservationplan.com.
Water Plan
From: Draft Report, NRA
CDFA,CAL/EPA
The California Natural Resources
Agency, the California Environmental Protection Agency and the California
Department of Food and Agriculture today released a detailed draft action plan
to help guide state efforts and resources on one of California's most important
resources, water. The California Water Action Plan will focus on the
reliability of our water supply, the needed ecosystem restoration to bring our
water system back into balance, and the resilience of our infrastructure.
Water Bond
From: Ian James, Desert Sun
State lawmakers held a hearing in
Indio on Wednesday to tout a proposed $6.5 billion bond that would go before
voters and would be aimed at alleviating California's serious water problems.
Those who voiced support for the
bond during the meeting included representatives of the Imperial Irrigation
District, Coachella Valley Water District, Riverside County, Imperial County
and the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indian Tribe. They also urged lawmakers
to earmark a significant amount of money for the Salton Sea to remedy problems
such as dust storms along its shores as the lake shrinks.
Groundwater
From: Ken Carlson, Modesto Bee
Stanislaus County supervisors
unanimously approved a long-awaited groundwater ordinance Tuesday and said they
need to move faster on regulations to address overdrafting in the eastern
portion of the county.
Reservoirs
From: Ari Phillips, Climate
Progress
California is known for its
massive water infrastructure in which northern reservoirs, which fill up from
the Sierra Nevada snowpack, supply the populous southern and coastal regions of
the state. However going into a third year of dry winter conditions, many of
these northern man-made oases are at precariously low levels, hovering between
one-third and one-half capacity, far less than the average for October.
Water Supply
From: Staff, westsideconnect.com
As the fall harvest winds down
under what have been generally sunny, dry conditions on the West Side, the
focus of the ag community is turning toward winter months - with hopes that
Mother Nature will deliver an abundance of rain and snow.
From: Patrick Cavanaugh,
California Ag Today
Water-the only thing that farmers
care about right now. Without water, nothing else matters.
And nowhere is the worry greater
than in the Federal Water Districts, such as Westlands, San Luis, and Panoche;
all Westside water allocations throughout Fresno County and other counties of
the Central Valley will be severely cut.
People
From: Press Release, USBR
The Bureau of Reclamation's
Mid-Pacific Region announced today that Jason Phillips has been selected as the
Deputy Regional Director. This position was formerly the Assistant Regional
Director for Technical Services.
