News articles and links from July 25, 2014

Bay Delta Conservation Plan

OPINION: New engineering project last thing the Delta needs

From: Paul Rockwell, Contra Costa Times

Like the Florida Everglades, the Bay Delta watershed is a national treasure. Every Californian has a stake in the outcome of the fierce controversy over the re-engineering of our unique and precious estuary.

The Bay Delta Conservation Plan is 40,000 pages long. To keep it simple, the $25 billion water-transfer project is based on a single assumption: that California's water-ecosystem crisis is caused by a lack -- a lack -- of engineering projects in the Delta watershed. As if the Delta needs more steel, more pumps, more cement (and more farmers dispossessed through eminent domain). The peripheral tunnels, the industrial heart of the project, do not replace, they actually augment hundreds of dams, aqueducts and pumps that already send water to corporate farms and cities south of the Delta.

Coalition response... The situation in the Delta isn't working for anyone - not farmers, not urban water users and certainly not for fish. The legislature recognized this and passed the Delta Reform Act in 2009. A comprehensive solution that addresses water supply reliability and ecosystem benefits is the goal of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan and is the result of the legislature's action four years ago. It's time to take a realistic approach to fixing the degraded ecosystem that makes the Delta useless for two-thirds of California's population and millions of acres of farmland.

Water Bond 

OPINION: Offering voters new water bond is essential

From: Jerry Meral, Fresno Bee

In the ongoing debate over water bonds for California, San Joaquin Valley legislators have a lot of leverage. But if they and their colleagues fail to reach agreement when the Legislature goes back to work in August, the Valley won't benefit and the entire state could suffer the consequences. Voters expect a positive legislative response to the drought, and a good water bond would be the best response.

California has many critical water needs - some related to immediate drought relief but others that will continue producing benefits for the state for many years to come. The governor has proposed a $6 billion bond issue for the November ballot that would help finance a full spectrum of much-needed projects for water quality, water supply reliability, increased water storage, conservation and recycling, storm-water capture and environmental enhancement.

BLOG: The Clock is Ticking to Craft a Good, BDCP-Neutral Water Bond for California

From: Doug Obegi, NRDC Blogs

This November, California voters will almost certainly vote on whether to authorize billions of dollars of taxpayer spending for a water bond. But crucially, the next few weeks will determine what water bond will be on the ballot in November - how much borrowing it authorizes, what it spends that money on - and whether it is a good investment in California's water future.

Bay Delta Conservation Plan

Water wholesaler rallying local support for Bay Delta project

From: Anna Bitong, Camarillo Acorn

Local lawmakers, agencies and cities have backed a $25-billion plan to build two 35-mile tunnels to move water more efficiently from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to water purveyors serving 25 million people in the state, including more than 600,000 Ventura County residents.

OPINION: Bay Delta Conservation Plan a boondoggle

From: Bill Wells, Tracy Press

Mark Cowin, in his recent piece in the Tracy Press, was correct about one thing: "There has been considerable misinformation promulgated about the BDCP (Bay Delta Conservation Plan), which has confused the public." Much of the misinformation has come from Cowin's Department of Water Resources and the Natural Resource Agency.

Groundwater

Groundwater levels drop in Southwestern U.S. in ongoing drought

From: S. Bernstein; J. Chaussee, Reuters 

Underground stores of water in the southwestern United States have receded dramatically amid ongoing drought that has parched states from Oklahoma to the Pacific Coast and is costing California billions in lost crops and jobs, a new study shows.

The study released Thursday by the University of California, Irvine, shows that groundwater in the Colorado River basin has dropped by 40 million acre-feet over the past five years, the equivalent of two of the nation's largest reservoirs.

Drought

Drought starting to kill salmon in Klamath Basin

From: Staff, Associated Press 

Low warm water conditions from the drought are starting to kill salmon in Northern California's Klamath Basin - the site of a massive fish kill in 2002.

A recent survey of 90 miles of the Salmon River on found 55 dead adult salmon and more dead juveniles than would be expected this time of year, Sara Borok, an environmental scientist for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, said Thursday. About 700 live fish were counted in cool pools fed by springs.

LETTERS: Problem is real; so are solutions

From: S. Garcia; P. Tice, Modesto Bee 

I recently returned from a family camping spot at New Melones Lake, which we have visited in the past and is one of our area's largest water reserves. I was speechless when I saw the water level of this once majestic lake. I have heard much about the current drought, but have not felt affected by it at a personal level. When I turn on a faucet in my house, water comes out as normal.

News articles and links from July 14, 2014

Drought

EDITORIAL: Water limits should apply to all users

From: Staff, San Jose Mercury News

The California State Water Resources Control Board will decide next week whether to impose mandatory limits on urban water use and slap violators with fines of up to $500 a day. This begs two questions:

1) What took it so long?

2) Why aren't agricultural water users, who gulp 80 percent of California's usable supply, getting the same attention?

Coalition response...According to the State's Department of Water Resources, only 41% of the state's water supply goes to growing food and fiber. 49% goes to environmental uses, while the rest goes to our state's cities and industry. While the food and fiber we enjoy is definitely thirsty this year - it certainly doesn't gulp 80% of the water in the state.

Not only are farmers already implementing conservation measures, they were the first to bear the brunt of surface water shortages. The consequences of these shortages cascade through the rural communities that have grown up to work some of the rarest, most valuable soils in the world, and into the cities that enjoy their produce. While the hardships of the shortages will be felt most severely in the rural communities as surging unemployment, strained civic services, and business downturns - our urban centers will also be reminded at the checkout stand when buying locally grown produce.

It's worth repeating that farmers were encouraged to plant a lot of high value permanent crops prior to the destabilization of surface water supplies. Farmers remember well the criticisms leveled against them only a few short decades ago for raising annual crops on the same land they are now being criticized for growing trees and vines on...

Water Supply

OPINION: Busting water conservation myths

From: P. Gleick, K. Poole, R. Wilkinson, Sacramento Bee

As a solution for California's complex water challenges, conserving water to get more from every drop stands out for its great potential and the misconceptions around it.

A recent op-ed column, "Putting two myths about the state's drought to rest" (Viewpoints, July 6), repeated three misstatements about conservation that are often used to delay implementing strategies for more efficient water use. Until these misunderstandings are corrected, common-sense improvements will continue to be underfunded and inadequately pursued. The failure to use proven and cost-effective efficiency programs can be seen in the limited attention to conservation in the state water bond proposals and only modest efforts of some water agencies.

Your Almond Habit Is Sucking California Dry

From: Tom Philpott, Mother Jones

California farmers will reap a record 2.1 billion pounds of almonds this year, the USDA estimates-about three times as much as they did in 2000. That's great news for the world's growing horde of almond eaters, because the state's groves supply 80 percent of the global harvest.

San Joaquin River

OPINION: San Joaquin River's hard-won restoration is under threat

From: Tim Palmer, Sacramento Bee

Since 2009, the San Joaquin River has been celebrated as a path-breaking example of restoration. But this year, Central California's largest river has the dubious distinction of being on the conservation group American Rivers' "most endangered" list because it's so overtapped.

A panicked response to the drought could worsen the situation.

Transfers

Recycled water issue returns to Turlock

From: Staff, Modesto Bee

The board of the Turlock Irrigation District will talk Tuesday evening about supplying some of its Tuolumne River water to a treatment plant proposed for three cities.

The board will consider "certain proposed terms and conditions" that would be attached to any agreement to provide the water to Turlock, Ceres and south Modesto, according to the agenda. The project, which has been discussed off and on since the 1980s, could reduce their reliance on wells.

Fresno judge denies move to stop water transfers

From: Mark Grossi, Fresno Bee

A federal judge in Fresno on Friday rejected a motion for a preliminary injunction against irrigation water transfers from Northern California to the San Joaquin Valley.

A fishing group and a Northern California environmental advocacy group in June asked the court to stop water transfers, saying federal leaders are jeopardizing the protected delta smelt. The plaintiffs are AquAlliance and the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, both nonprofit groups.

Bay Delta Conservation Plan

Unusual water deals struck in drought-stricken Central Valley ag country

From: M. Grossi, R. Rodriguez, Fresno Bee  

In drought-scarred farm country, coffee shop talk turns obsessively to water and its cost - which several months ago hit a shocking $1,000 per acre-foot and then climbed to more than $2,000.

But it's far too simple to say drought-buster deals in the San Joaquin Valley are all about making a pile of money. A sale in the last week featured a compassionate offer of San Joaquin River water at only $250 per acre-foot.

News articles and links from July 11, 2014

Water Supply 

EDITORIAL: Saving Water in California

From: Staff, New York Times

California is in the third year of its worst drought in decades. But you wouldn't know it by looking at how much water the state's residents and businesses are using. According to a recent state survey, Californians cut the amount of water they used in the first five months of the year by just 5 percent, far short of the 20 percent reduction Gov. Jerry Brown called for in January. In some parts of the state, like the San Diego area, water use has actually increased from 2013.

Coalition response... A persistent myth repeated in this opinion is that 80% of California's water is used to grow food and fiber. This is wrong. California's Department of Water Resources reports that water use is quite different from this claim. The State reports that, in fact only about 41% of water is used to grow food and fiber, approximately 10% goes to drive commerce and be used in homes, while 49% goes to the environment.

Despite the repeated claims of the environmental interest groups Pacific Institute and NRDC, who have sought for years to sell the public a false message of vast agricultural water waste, their estimates of water that can be conserved were soundly dismissed by leading university researchers in 2009 and 2011 as grossly overstated.

While the installation of precision irrigation methods gives better control over when water is applied, research shows that the volume of water used often increases with the use of technologies such as drip. This increased use translates to greater productivity per plant, better plant health, and higher quality food for us to enjoy. Flood irrigation, often maligned, often proves a very efficient method of irrigating, particularly when coupled with laser leveling of fields, and usually require less energy to operate than drip systems.

Water Supply

OPINION: California's Low On Water? Time to Fine the Water Resources Board Not Its Citizens

From: Thomas Del Beccaro, Forbes

California is in the midst of one of its many droughts.  To combat the current drought, the otherwise do-nothings of the California Water Resources Board are proposing to fine citizens they call "water hogs" $500 per day.  Instead of fining helpless consumers, California's government should do its job for once and seriously increase water supplies.

It is well known that California is the most populated state in the Union, with more than 38 million people.  Its population was just under 20 million in 1970, when the bulk of its current water storage and delivery systems were already built.  In other words, the California governments have done very little to significantly increase water supplies in over 40 years, even though its population has doubled during that period of time.

Talk of enhanced ag water conservation is all wet

From: Vicky Boyd, The Packer

Every now and then - and particularly during a drought - some group issues a report that says if only California agriculture would conserve a little more, all of the state's water woes would be solved.

But Mike Wade, executive director of the Sacramento-based California Farm Water Coalition, takes exception to that. "Conservation and recycling are important, but we can't conserve our way out of the existing situation with the current demands," he said.

Drought

EDITORIAL: Water limits should apply to all users

From: Staff, San Jose Mercury News

The California State Water Resources Control Board will decide next week whether to impose mandatory limits on urban water use and slap violators with fines of up to $500 a day. This begs two questions:

1) What took it so long?

2) Why aren't agricultural water users, who gulp 80 percent of California's usable supply, getting the same attention?

EDITORIAL: Water rules and fines will help, but attitudes must change

From: Staff, Modesto Bee

We hope the State Water Resources Control Board affirms all the staff recommendations for emergency urban water cutbacks outlined Wednesday - restrictions and fines on excessive landscape watering, running hoses and rinsing off sidewalks. Such rules are reasonable and doable.

Delta

Stockton fights costly wastewater mandate

From: Alex Breitler, Stockton Record  

Stockton is fighting a new wastewater permit that the city says could cost its ratepayers anywhere from $195 million to $252 million and increase rates by perhaps 80 percent.

A formal appeal was filed this week with the State Water Resources Control Board. A lower board approved the permit last month, pushing aside the city's argument that in this case, the benefits of stricter pollution standards did not justify the cost.

San Joaquin River

My trip down the most endangered river in America

From: John Sutter, CNN

After three weeks and about 400 miles, I finished my kayaking (and walking) journey down the "most endangered" river in America: California's San Joaquin. This page collects the tweets from my adventure. The journey started way up in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and ended beneath the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco on July 4.

News articles and links from June 30, 2014

Water Bond 

EDITORIAL: Drought focuses need to negotiate improved water bond

From: Staff, Sacramento Bee

Californians must seize the opportunity provided by the worst drought in 30 years to improve the system for delivering water to the state's 38 million residents. With rainfall and snowpack half of normal, lawns are going brown, farmers are getting a fraction of their allocations and food prices are rising.

We're told to cut water use by 20 percent, while people in the foothills town of Outingdale are rationed to 68 gallons of water per person per day. That's a third of what the average Californian uses. It also could be a harbinger, especially if forecasts prove true that this will be a hotter-than-normal summer.

Bay Delta Conservation Plan

California water project heads to state high court

From: Staff, Associated Press

The California Supreme Court is set to decide if the state must buy thousands of acres of private property to perform preliminary tests for two massive water tunnels in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

The dispute stems from Gov. Jerry Brown's proposal, which would send river water around the delta system to farms and communities in Central and Southern California.

State Supreme Court to rule in Delta property-rights case

From: Denny Walsh, Sacramento Bee

The California Supreme Court has agreed to decide an epic battle over whether the state must condemn and acquire parcels on tens of thousands of acres of private property to conduct preliminary testing for Gov. Jerry Brown's proposal to construct two large water-conveyance tunnels in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

Water Supply

OPINION: The Water Crisis in the West

From: Staff, New York Times

With water increasingly scarce in the drought-ravaged American West, many states could face drastic rationing without rain. Even with more sustainable practices, the future of water in the West is not secure. Population growth, conflicting demands for resources, and the unpredictable nature of a changing climate will all exacerbate the crisis of an already parched landscape.

What are the best ways to share the water? And how can we ensure it lasts for the foreseeable future?

Courts will play larger role in who gets water

From: Dennis Taylor, Salinas Californian

If the Salinas Valley moves into a fourth year of drought, issues surrounding water are likely to get very, very complicated, an attorney explained to growers and students Thursday at an agricultural technology "clinic" in Greenfield.

Much to the likely chagrin of growers in the valley, limited water supplies will need to be shared with cities and, based on a new court ruling, the environment, said Aaron Johnson, an attorney with the law firm of L+G LLP in Salinas.

Groundwater

Drought Has Drillers Running After Shrinking California Water Supply

From: Sasha Khokha, NPR

Steve Arthur practically lives out of his truck these days. He runs one of Fresno's busiest well-drilling companies, and hustles up and down the highway to check on drilling rigs that run 24 hours a day. "It's officially getting crazy," Arthur says. "We go and we go but it just seems like we can't go fast enough."

Drilling in California isn't just for oil and gas - it's for water. And during this severe drought, farmers and ranchers are relying heavily on pumping groundwater. Counties in the farm-rich Central Valley are issuing record numbers of permits for new wells. But the drilling frenzy could threaten the state's shrinking underground aquifers.

Homeowners go dry as farmers get permits to drill hundreds of new wells

From: J.N. Sbranti, Modesto Bee

Stanislaus County farmers have been granted permission to drill hundreds of new agricultural wells this year, while an increasing number of domestic water wells go dry, a review of permit records shows.

A record-breaking 299 new water well drilling permits were issued in the first six months of 2014. That's nearly as many as were issued during all of 2013, which itself was a banner year for drilling.

Farming News 

Irrigation farmland decreasing in state

From: Staff, Porterville Recorder

Irrigated farmland decreased in California by about 263 square miles from 2008-2010, according to the latest land-use change data from the Department of Conservation (DOC). Although more than 102,000 acres of the highest-quality agricultural soil, known as prime farmland, were included in that decrease, the California Farmland Conversion Report also noted that the amount of urbanization in the state was a record low.

"Urban land increased by 44,504 acres. This was the lowest urbanization rate recorded since our first such report and likely reflected the impact of the recent economic recession," DOC Director Mark Nechodom said. "More than urbanization, long-term land idling was the biggest factor in the decrease of irrigated farmland."

News articles and links from April 22, 2014

Delta

EDITORIAL: Feinstein bill risks further damage to Delta

From: Staff, San Jose Mercury News

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein's willingness to do Big Ag's bidding at the expense of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is increasingly alarming. Last week she released a revised drought bill that has environmentalists up and down the state fuming -- with good reason.

Feinstein stripped out the best part of her original legislation: $300 million for conservation and efficiency measures and aid to low-income farmworkers hurt by the drought. She admits she did it to attract Republican support. It raises the question of how far she is willing to go to maximize the amount of water sent from the Delta to Central Valley farmers, even if it causes catastrophic harm to the estuary.

Coalition response... One thing should be clear, this bill is intended to help real people who struggle to make their home payments, worry about their children's futures and try to make ends meet through agriculture in California.

It is about the almost 4,000 family farms that receive water that flows through the Delta to sustain one of California's most important food-growing regions. It is also about trucking, processing, wholesale, retail and port jobs that all depend on the food produced by hardworking California farmers. It is about the millions of consumers who benefit from the low food costs that investments in efficient agricultural production brings.  

California's almond production supports many thousands of jobs in transportation, processing, retail, wholesale and high-paying port jobs. Years ago people complained that crops like cotton and alfalfa used too much water and that farmers should grow higher value crops. The value of California farm production has risen enormously while applied water on our farms has declined by 14 percent, according to the Department of Water Resources. It is mystifying how anyone can refer to that as a "dirty little secret." The fact is, farmers grow crops that they can sell. It makes little sense to plant a crop to supply a market that doesn't exist. And we still provide roughly half of the nation's fresh fruits and vegetables, much of it from high-producing farms in the San Joaquin Valley.

The Santa Clara Valley's efforts to restore groundwater are to be commended. But the recovery wouldn't have been, or continue to be, possible without  imported water supplies from the Delta to fill the gap in local supplies versus demands.   Like Silicon Valley, much of California relies on imported water to provide a quality of life and vibrant economy that is the envy of the Nation, but when it's not serving those in its backyard, the Mercury calls it a water grab.

Let's stick to the facts, and not promote baseless regional conflict.  This is too important to have a "Beat L.A." bumper sticker mentality. The Mercury needs to recognize that the state is facing many challenges in having to repurpose a system that reallocated water for environmental uses that were simply not part of its original design.  Senator Feinstein should be applauded for her leadership on behalf of the entire state and its environment, rather than being falsely and cynically accused of "pandering".

Drought

Fields And Farm Jobs Dry Up With California's Worsening Drought

From: Kirk Siegler, NPR

On a recent afternoon on the main drag of Orange Grove, Calif., about a dozen farm workers gathered on the sidewalk in front of a mini-mart.

One man sits on a milk crate sipping a beer. A few others scratch some lotto tickets. Salvador Perez paces back and forth with his hands stuffed in the pockets of his jeans.

If there is no water, there's no work, he says in Spanish.  

Drought declared in Imperial County

From: Antoine Abou-Diwan, Imperial Valley Press

On a recent afternoon on the main drag of Orange Grove, Calif., about a dozen farm workers gathered on the sidewalk in front of a mini-mart.

One man sits on a milk crate sipping a beer. A few others scratch some lotto tickets. Salvador Perez paces back and forth with his hands stuffed in the pockets of his jeans.

If there is no water, there's no work, he says in Spanish.  

Water Supply

OPINION: Ground water: Another big fight

From: Thomas Elias, Salinas Californian

The next front in California's long-running water wars has already opened, and the reasons for it will sometimes be hard to see - but not always.

That next fight is over ground water, source of about 35 percent of the state's fresh water in normal years and a much higher percentage in dry ones like 2014. This battle has the potential to become far more bitter than even the quarrels over how to distribute water from the Delta of the Sacramento and San Joaquin river systems.

Snowpack Rapidly Disappearing as Rainy Season Winds Down

From: Lisa Lien-Mager, ACWA

The Sierra snowpack is now just 18% of average, down from a seasonal high of 35% on April 7. According to snowpack data tracked by the California Data Exchange Center, some areas - including the Northern Sierra - lost half of the snow water content in a single week, largely due to unusually high temperatures in the West. In California, temperatures were 9-12 degrees above normal, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

OPINION: Imperiled Water Resources

From: David Keller, New York Times

"Swim to Sea? These Salmon Are Catching a Lift" (front page, April 19) is one facet of an incredibly sad story.

Over the past 166 years, since California's Gold Rush first destroyed rivers en masse in the quest for gold and silver, we have continued to decimate our rivers and groundwater for our growing population and agriculture, including all the Public Trust resources that had thrived with them.

We have altered our geography, hydrology and geology, frequently depleting our water, soils, air and local economies.

Fisheries

American River flow to rise for salmon

From: Matt Weiser, Sacramento Bee 

Water flows in the American River are scheduled to increase through the Sacramento region starting tonight to help salmon and steelhead.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which operates Folsom and Nimbus dams on the river, will maintain the increased flow for three days to help juvenile steelhead and Chinook salmon migrate downstream, and to help improve in-river conditions for young steelhead.

Groundwater

California Edging Closer to Regulating Groundwater for the First Time

From: Craig Miller, KQED

We hear a great deal about California's reliance on its "frozen reservoir," a reference to the (currently anemic) Sierra snowpack. We hear a lot less about the Golden State's invisible reservoir, the water that resides in underground aquifers beneath our feet.

That's about to change. Today, state Sen. Fran Pavley (D-Agoura Hills) rolls out a trio of water conservation bills, the centerpiece of which (SB 1168) is a frontal assault on the management of California's groundwater, which, compared to other western states, is almost unregulated.