24 Jan 2011
by Trager Water Report
in Use of water
Tags: California, California water, Delta, drought, water conservation
The powerful Westlands Water District recently withdrew its support for the Bay-Delta Conservation Plan, action that might light a fire under other water organizations in the state.
The bold action by Westlands indicates that it is no longer willing to put up with unwanted and unmerited federal interference in the conscientious efforts by water interests in California to make the best use of water.
Westlands’ concerns regarding political interference by the Department of the Interior and its creation of further water restrictions without scientific basis are well-justified. Among other questionable activities, this department has been criticized recently by federal and state legislators for holding secret meetings on its planning process and for manipulating science to support its drilling ban in the Gulf of Mexico, resulting in the loss of 12,000 jobs.
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18 Jan 2011
by Trager Water Report
in Use of water
Tags: California, California water, Delta, farm water, water conservation, water waste
Delta Watermaster Craig Wilson will present a highly anticipated report to the State Water Resources Control Board on January 19 suggesting that a particularly contentious area of California water law, the California Constitution’s “Reasonable and Beneficial Use Doctrine,” be applied more broadly.
In his report, Wilson recommends that the State Board employ this doctrine to promote agricultural water use efficiency. The doctrine states a water right does not include the right to waste water and mandates that “the water resources of the state be put to beneficial use,” according to the Planning and Conservation League Insider (http://www.pcl.org).
A small percentage of increased agricultural water use efficiency adds up to significant water savings in California, according to Wilson. The report recommends that the State Board convene a “Reasonable Use Summit” to develop specific actions to improve efficiency and create a “Reasonable Use Unit” within the Division of Water Rights.
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13 Dec 2010
by Trager Water Report
in Farm water
Tags: California Farm Bureau, California water, farm water, farms, water conservation
SALINAS, Calif. — A new water quality plan by the California Farm Bureau Federation offers an alternative to a state regulatory proposal that some growers have called punitive and costly.
At issue is the expiring conditional waiver of waste discharge requirements, up for a five-year renewal March 17. In California, the waiver shapes policy on the runoff of pesticides, fertilizers and fumigants from irrigated farming.
The federation submitted its plan Dec. 3 to the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board on behalf of the Ag Working Group. More than a dozen growers’ organizations from Santa Barbara to Santa Cruz form the group. Supporters include two grower-shipper associations and Western Growers.
Growers took steps to advance water quality under the prior waiver, the state’s draft order says, but stricter verification is needed. Agriculture, it says, is responsible for 78% of nitrate pollution in groundwater — water that finds its way into hundreds of drinking wells in the region.
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23 Nov 2010
by Trager Water Report
in Shortage of Water
Tags: California, California water, supply, water conservation, water supply
The agency that manages much of the state’s water supply will fill 25 percent of the amount requested by downstream agencies for 2011 — a big improvement over last-year’s lowest-ever allocation of five percent.
The figure, likely to be revised upward through the year ahead, represents the state Department of Water Resources‘ “initial allocation” to the water agencies it serves.
“We’re off to a good start for this year,” the department’s director, Mark Cowin, told reporters in a conference call Monday. “Precipitation stands at 165 percent of average, primarily because of an extremely wet October.”
There is reason for caution, he said.
“We are experiencing strong La Niña conditions in California,” he said. “This could mean drier conditions later in the year.”
Still, it looks like a good year on for the State Water Project, which stores and delivers water and is an important source of supply for much of the state.
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02 Nov 2010
by Trager Water Report
in Policy
Tags: California, California water, election, Marin County, water conservation
In a contest with implications for water agencies up and down California, voters in Marin County on Tuesday will decide between dueling ballot initiatives over a plan to turn seawater into drinking water.
Both measures require a public vote before the Marin Municipal Water District could build a 5-million-gallon-a-day desalination facility on the shoreline in San Rafael. But the measure proffered by a vocal group of desalination opponents bans the water agency from spending any money prior to construction, including funds for permitting, engineering and design work, unless voters approve it.
In effect, Measure T would stop the project in its tracks – a dangerous precedent in the water district’s view, given the potential for drier, hotter years ahead due to climate change. The water district, the county’s largest with 190,000 customers in central and southern Marin, relies on seven local reservoirs for three-quarters of its annual deliveries. Flows from the increasingly regulated Russian River supply the rest.
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18 Oct 2010
by Trager Water Report
in Salton Sea
Tags: California, California water, Salton Sea, water conservation
Reporting from Imperial, Calif. —
Dead these hundred years, Mark Twain would wholly understand the dispute between the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and the Imperial Irrigation District over water flowing into the Salton Sea.
In the West, Twain is famously reported to have quipped, whiskey is for drinking and water is for fighting.
In the world of water, Metropolitan and Imperial are behemoths, for different reasons. When these two clash, as they have done repeatedly in recent decades, other water agencies in the West fret and wait for the fallout. At stake is a lot of water and a lot of money.
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05 Oct 2010
by Trager Water Report
in Shortage of Water
Tags: California, California water, drought, shortage, water, water conservation
The local environmental club keeps urging me to stop “wasting water” – to take shorter showers, for instance, and to water my lawn less often. But how is it possible to waste water when it’s constantly being recycled through evaporation and rain?
It’s true: Thanks to the hydrologic cycle, we drink and bathe in the same H2O that rained on the dinosaurs. And, theoretically at least, the Earth has more than enough for all of us: According to Brian Richter, co-director of the Nature Conservancy’s Global Freshwater Program, human activities – agriculture, manufacturing, bathing, drinking and so on – consume only about 10 percent of the planet’s available freshwater supply.
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06 Aug 2010
by Trager Water Report
in Conservation
Tags: California, California water, Delta, water conservation, water shortage
Elliott Rector, Legal Intern, EDF
On June 29, the California State Assembly Water, Parks, and Wildlife Committee approved SB 565, an encouraging first step towards reforming the illegal use and diversion of water in California. This important bill will next be taken up in the Appropriations Committee, possibly next week.
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TragerWaterReport Comment: The best way to reduce the diversion of water is to privatize all water. That way, people would guard their supplies. In a similar fashion, people who own their own homes take care of them much better than, say, people forced to live in government housing, such as the infamous Cabrini Green in Chicago.
03 Aug 2010
by Trager Water Report
in Privatization of water
Tags: California, California water, privatization, technology, water conservation
Environmentalism has become detached from innovation and that’s killing our waterways unless we use technology to bolster real-time monitoring.
That was the message of John Cronin, CEO of Beacon Institute for Rivers and Estuaries. Speaking at the IBM blogger day in Armonk, Cronin outlined how the Hudson River in New York has become a great big technology project. The idea: IBM and Beacon, which is developing technology, systems and sensors to monitor water in real-time, aim to create the equivalent of a water weather report.
At any time, Beacon will be able to monitor pollution flows, water changes, barometric pressure and other data. Next up is the innovation needed to deploy these systems and replicate elsewhere. “I can tell you the weather and barometric pressure anyplace in the world. Can you tell you what’s in drinking water now (and) where fish are? We don’t have information yet,” said Cronin.
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Comment: Great ideas. The more privatization the better.
19 Jul 2010
by Trager Water Report
in Conservation, Drought
Tags: Bonds, California, California water, conservation, drought, Los Angeles Business Journal, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, water conservation
OPED: Consumers get soaked as state agencies try to balance conservation with revenue generation.
By TIM DeROCHE
Monday, July 19, 2010
What a difference a year makes. One year ago, California faced the third straight year of severe drought. Water rates went up. Cities like Los Angeles implemented draconian watering restrictions. The Schwarzenegger administration released a plan calling for a 20 percent reduction in consumption by 2020.
This year, all’s quiet on the Western front. A wet winter – and ongoing economic troubles – have muted the public outcry over water usage. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has proudly announced that consumption by single-family homes is down almost 30 percent since 2007.
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19 Jul 2010
by Trager Water Report
in Conservation
Tags: California, California water, officials, San Diego, water conservation
Some 69 other officials who oversee the region’s 24 water retailers — the agencies or cities that sell water to individual homes and businesses — either kept their use steady or cut it. (Their water use totals are public records because they have the power to set rates.)
But a few went in the other direction. Lopez was one of eight elected or appointed officials countywide whose home consumption increased by more than 10 percent between 2006 and 2009. Back in 2006, water conservation wasn’t a common refrain. But by 2009, with the first countywide supply cuts in two decades taking effect, the cause was advertised everywhere — from city buses to radio and television.
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19 Jul 2010
by Trager Water Report
in Shortage of Water
Tags: and Texas, Arizona, Arkansas, California, California water, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, water, water conservation, water shortage
Water shortage risks will hit a very large percentage of all U.S. counties by mid-century, according to a major new TetraTech study released today by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).
The county-by-county analysis looks at how water supplies could be jeopardized in the more than 1,000 counties facing water sustainability problems. The analysis shows a 14-times increase in the number of the most severely threatened U.S counties. The extent of U.S. agriculture at risk was outlined during the news event.
Fourteen states — Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas — were identified as facing the greatest overall at water-related risks, including limitations on water availability as demand exceeds supply.
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19 Jul 2010
by Trager Water Report
in Conservation
Tags: Arnold, Bay Area, Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency, conservation, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Schwarzenegger, water, water conservation
July 19, 2010, 03:30 AM
By Bill Silverfarb Daily Journal staff
A new law signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last week strengthens a local water agency’s ability to obtain state grants and implement conversation projects.
The Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency will now be able to compete with other water distributors across the state for bond money related to maintaining infrastructure or conservation efforts.
Assemblyman Ira Ruskin, D-Redwood City, drafted the legislation, in part, because of Proposition 18, an $11 billion water bond measure on the November ballot.
The bond measure provides financing for a variety of projects, such as the construction of new dams, drought relief, habitat restoration, recycling, groundwater improvements, watershed restoration and infrastructure improvements.
Read more…
The powerful Westlands Water District recently withdrew its support for the Bay-Delta Conservation Plan, action that might light a fire under other water organizations in the state.
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