Water Supply
From: Craig Miller, KQED
In California, it's as dependable
as the rainy season. Okay, more so. Whenever there's too much water or not
enough, people start talking about Auburn Dam. It's California's biggest dam
that has never been built - and probably never will be.
The latest revival occurred at a
recent show-and-tell for the new spillway under construction at Folsom Dam.
Congressman Tom McClintock, R-Auburn, seized the occasion - not so much for
congratulations - but to decry recent releases of water from dams on the
American River.
From: Matt Weiser, Sacramento
Bee
California water officials are on
the verge of making an unusually drastic pronouncement in response to the
ongoing drought: Ordering hundreds of water agencies, farmers and other
property owners to stop diverting water from rivers in which they have
longstanding water rights.
Within a matter of days, the
State Water Resources Control Board is expected to issue curtailment orders to
"junior" water rights holders, meaning they would be required to stop
diverting water from streams and rivers, or reduce those diversions. The intent
is to heed state law, which requires that available water, during times of
scarcity, be reserved for those with "senior" water rights and for
the environment.
From: Jason Dearen, Associated
Press
State water managers were
expecting more bad news Thursday as they take the season's last measurement of
the Sierra Nevada snowpack, a key source of water in drought-stricken
California.
The Department of Water Resources
survey is meant to gauge the amount of water that has begun melting from the
mountain snowpack into streams and reservoirs. The Sierra snowpack is an
essential element of California's water supply - it accounts for about
one-third of the state's water.
Drought
From: Jonathan Kauffman, San
Francisco Chronicle
Kate Creps, operations manager
for the Heart of the City Farmers' Market in Civic Center, can track the effect
of the drought on her market by the empty spaces in the line of stalls. Pheng
Keng is missing. No one has seen Gloria Aguilar, who's been a regular since the
1980s, in months.
It could be worse: Only five or
six stalls out of 55-almost exclusively small family farmers, who govern the
independent market as well as display their wares at it-are absent so far, she
estimates, including a few Vietnamese American and Hmong farmers from the
Central Valley. The usual Wednesday-afternoon crowd, a mix of Tenderloin
residents and office workers, doesn't appear any smaller than usual.
Sacramento River
From: Denis Cuff, San Jose
Mercury News
An emergency supply of Sacramento
River water arrived at the East Bay's largest water district Wednesday,
culminating a mission sidetracked for decades by a regional water war. East Bay
Municipal Utility District leaders welcomed the water gushing into San Pablo
Reservoir as drought insurance for 1.3 million people in Contra Costa and
Alameda counties.
The 32-day supply of water --
enough to fill the Oakland Coliseum 24 times -- will allow the district to stick
with voluntary rationing this year instead of requiring mandatory rationing and
raising rates.
Groundwater
From: J.N. Sbranti, Modesto
Bee
A 20-point proposal for managing
Stanislaus County groundwater - including possible financial help for families
whose wells go dry and requirements that farmers report how much they're
pumping - was unveiled Wednesday.
The county's recently formed
Water Advisory Committee reviewed the draft framework, which currently includes
only broadly written concepts rather than specific details.
The committee plans to fine-tune
that framework next month, and then present it in June to the county Board of
Supervisors.
No comments:
Post a Comment