Bay Delta
Conservation Plan
From: Ben van der Meer,
Sacramento Business Journal
A state analysis of the economic
benefit of a plan to build tunnels for water conveyance falls short of what's
necessary and relies on faulty assumptions to make flawed conclusions, a group
opposed to the plan said Monday.
Coalition response...Biologists, engineers, water policy experts and water industry officials
at all levels have worked for seven years in the development of the Bay Delta
Conservation Plan (BDCP). Multiple aspects of the plan, including the two
tunnels that are proposed to send water under the Delta, have analyzed and in
some cases changed. The proposed tunnels have been reduced from three to two
and their size has also been changed from a capacity of 15,000 cubic feet per
second to 9,000 cfs. To state that the work that has gone into the BDCP has not
looked at alternatives is weak.
The BDCP provides the best
opportunity to secure a reliable water supply for California's future and at
the same time restore the Delta's ecosystem. The economic analysis of the
benefits resulting from BDCP presents an $84 billion contribution to the
state's economy over the 50-year life of the Plan. It not only provides new
jobs but it protects existing jobs. These are real benefits that the people of
California need.
Water Use
From: John Tarjan, Bakersfield
Californian
Beth Brookhart Pandol's Aug. 6
Community Voices article "Perception that farmers waste precious water an
absurd myth," is less than compelling. While she cites the commendable
efforts of a relatively small number of Central Valley growers to conserve, she
fails to cite general water usage statistics regarding agriculture.
Coalition response...Many agricultural water suppliers already employ tiered pricing, which
increases the cost of water for amounts used above a base amount at a base
price. Kern County farmers do not receive any subsidies for water they receive
from the State Water Project which is used to irrigate over half-a-million
acres of productive farmland. Kern County's fresh fruits, nuts, vegetables and
dairy products can be found around the corner and around the world. Kern County
farmers that receive their water from the State Water Project pay the full cost
for water every year and in years when they receive less than their contracted
amount, they still pay as if they receive 100 percent. This year their supply
was cut by 65 percent but they are still paying as if they received their full
amount, which more than doubles the unit cost of water. This kind of
unreliability has driven farmers to more efficient irrigation systems to make
the most of what they receive.
Farmers have been increasing
water use efficiency for decades. Farmers in the San Joaquin Valley invested
more than $1.6 billion in high efficiency irrigation systems on almost 1.2
million acres. Other efficiency practices include soil moisture monitoring,
high efficiency pumps, micro irrigation and GPS. As a result, crop
production has almost doubled in the last 40 years while applied water has
remained flat.
Bay Delta
Conservation Plan
From: Evan Halper, LA Times
Gov. Jerry Brown has shown
mastery of Sacramento, but his hope for a legacy of enduring public works
hinges on a different skill - the ability to work Washington.
From: Maven, Capitol Weekly
Fixing the Delta is necessary,
say officials, but it won't be cheap. The costs to build and operate Gov.
Brown's twin-tunnels plan are estimated to cost $24.54 billion over the 50 year
term of the project.
Where will the money come from?
From: Jerry Cadagan,
Sacramento Bee
Re "Delta tunnels' study
draws fire" (Our Region, Aug. 6): The article about Gov. Jerry Brown's
study of his tunnels project includes reasons to question the economic work,
including unfounded assumptions about the amount of water to be delivered, and
uncertainty regarding needed voter approved bond funding for portions of the
project.
From: Jeffrey Kightlinger,
Herald
It is clear that a Delta solution
that stabilizes water supplies for California and restores the estuary's
ecosystem would be a wise investment for California. This new and exhaustive
analysis is more compelling evidence of how important it is for California to
reverse the decline in the Delta with the kind of historic and decisive action
envisioned by BDCP.
Water Supply
From: Staff, Holtville Tribune
Last week a judge approved the
complex water deal between the farmers of the Imperial Valley and the cities of
San Diego County - hailed as the largest sale of water from farms to cities in
the nation. Sacramento Superior Court Judge Lloyd Connelly on Wednesday affirmed
his tentative ruling from June, which upheld the 2003 deal between the Imperial
Irrigation District and the San Diego County Water Authority.
This deal comes at a time when
there is growing concern over the state's water supply.
From: Staff, Fresno Business
Journal
State Assemblymember Rudy Salas
(D-Bakersfield) will lead a group discussing California's water crisis during a
hearing in Hanford on Aug. 9.
Salas, chairman of the Select
Committee on Regional Approaches to Addressing the State's Water Crisis, will
be joined by local and regional water experts to share real-time data and facts
about the water crisis and how it affects the Central Valley.
From: Staff, Chico
Enterprise-Record
The county Water Commission will
today consider whether to form a subcommittee to track the development of a
proposal to build Sites Reservoir near Maxwell.
A Joint Power Authority has been
meeting in Glenn County to work on the proposal, and recently the Butte County
Water Commission talked about whether the progress should be watched.
Conservation
From: Antoine Abou-Diwan,
Imperial Valley Press
Imperial Valley farmers who
invested in water conservation measures last year in anticipation of the
Imperial Irrigation District's on-farm efficiency water conservation program
can breathe a sigh of relief: the Board of Directors approved the program
Tuesday.
Water Quality
From: Alex Breitler, Stockton
Record
Some of the most significant
water-quality regulations that Central Valley farmers have ever seen will be
drafted within weeks and could become official by next spring, growers were
told Tuesday.
As a result, the per-acre fees
that farmers pay to improve water quality under an existing program are
expected to double or triple - perhaps worse.
Groundwater
From: David Sneed, SLO Tribune
County supervisors will consider
adopting an emergency ordinance that would prohibit new uses of the Paso Robles
groundwater basin unless it is offset 2 to 1 with water savings elsewhere in
the basin.
Water Management
From: Alex Cantatore, Turlock
City News
The Turlock Irrigation District
may spend $2 million to prepare an Integrated Water Resources Plan, which would
examine all aspects of TID irrigation water delivery in order to draft a new
set of policies governing district operations.
From: Dennis Wyatt, Escalon
Times
The South San Joaquin Irrigation
District is considering replacing canals serving 72,000 acres of farmland in
Manteca, Ripon, and Escalon with a pressurized delivery system controlled by
computers that would arm ditch tenders with tablets and growers with
smartphones.
Salton Sea
From: Michael Gardner, San
Diego Union-Tribune
San Diego regional water
officials may be forced to abandon their long-stalled proposal to revive a
rapidly deteriorating Salton Sea.
The San Diego County Water
Authority has been pushing a new strategy that calls for sending more money,
but no more fresh water, to speed up projects designed to help the shrinking
sea, the state's largest inland lake straddling Imperial and Riverside
Counties.
Flood Management
From: Kate Campbell, Ag Alert
In the past 75 years, the Danna
family, which farms in Yuba and Sutter counties, has seen its share of floods
and flood protection plans. The family has lost property to high water and land
through eminent domain to improve flood management in the Sacramento Valley.
Farmer Steve Danna said he
recognizes the need for flood control and supports the regional flood planning
efforts now underway. But, like a lot of landowners who stand to lose their
property through government taking, he has serious concerns.
People
From: Elizabeth Varin,
Imperial Valley Press
Rob Skordas has been selected as
the area manager of the Lower Colorado Dams Office for the Bureau of
Reclamation's Lower Colorado Region, according to a press release from the
bureau.
