Farm Bureau Estimates Drought Costs

The California Farm Bureau has put a potential price tag on the water shortage: $1.4 billion in five San Joaquin Valley counties. The county-by-county breakdown:

• Fresno: $730,122,184
• Kern: $566,700,000
• Kings: $58,475,195
• Madera: $8,194,728
• Tulare: $3,300,000
  

Survey of Local Water Use Restrictions

The Press-Enterprise reports on new a new conservation measure the Inland Empire's Western Municipal Water District has imposed -- allowing consumers to water lawns only every other day -- and surveys similar measures other water districts have taken.

SF Wants Bay Area Aquifer Reserves

San Fransico wants to build up a water reserves in a San Mateo county acquifer - enough reserves to last much of the Bay Area seven and a half years.

Climate change has reduced the Sierra snowpack that feeds the city's main supply source, Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, and made supplies increasingly uncertain. To prepare for future droughts, SF has turned to the acquifer plan.

But San Mateo cities like Daly City and Millbrae currently rely on the acquifer for their water. San Francisco is negotiating a proposal with the cities under which they would reduce their pumping in exchange for surplus Hetch Hetchy water.

Peripheral Canal Opposition

Capital Weekly on opposition to the Peripheral Canal. Among the arguments critics cite: the Delta planning process hasn't include enough transparency or public input; the canal would cause environmental problems; the canal would provide a supply-side answer to a demand-side problem; and the state can't afford an infrastructure project this large.

Says assemlywoman Joan Buchanan (D-Alamo): “The canal would be [one of] the biggest public constructions ever made in the United States, equivalent to the Panama Canal, and I want to make it clear I will not vote for a Panama Canal.”

WSJ on CA Water

The Wall Street Journal runs two stories about California water.

One focuses on the new Carlsbad desal plant - the largest in the Western Hemisphere. It hits on the problems environmentalists have with desal: too much energy and too much damage to marine life. Surfrider's Joe Geever says the Carlsbad plant, for instance, would end up "killing everything that floats" near it. Camp Pendleton and Huntington Beach have desal plants in the works.

The other reviews current water supply problems and says lawmakers have promised to tackle water once they have sorted out the budget mess. Ideas being considered:

• Build a peripheral canal
• Build more storage facilities to capture the water that, due to climate change, now falls as rain rather than snow
• Improve the current supply by better managing groundwater and fixing leaky pipes and other existing infrastructure problems
• Use more conservation measures. Says an Association of California Water Agencies spokesperson: "This is a forever change, that customers will have to start internalizing."

SB 457 and 458

Restore the Delta, a Stockton-based advocacy group that claims to represent to Delta interests, held a rally and press conference in Sacramento yesterday.

The group is trying to build support for two bills Lois Wolk (D-Davis) has sponsored and that would give Delta communities more control over the hub of the California water supply system.

SB 457 would require the Delta Protection Commission to review general regional plans and ensure they are consistent with the resource management plan. To support the commissions activities, the bill would place a per acre foot tax on Delta water.

SB 458 would create a new conservancy -- the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Conservancy -- charged with supporting "efforts that advance both environmental protection and the economic well-being of Delta residents in a complementary manner."

CA Recieves Most Fed Water Recycling Funds

California projects have received 98 percent of stimulus funds directed to water recycling projects. The project that received the most funds was an Oxnard facility that will recycle wastewater, inject groundwater, and desalinate groundwater.

New California Graywater Rules

In response to the drought, the Department Housing and Community has released proposed new graywater rules. The new rules would allow Californians to use graywater in more ways and for more purposes.

Graywater is untreated wastewater that does not include toilet discharge or other bodily waste. Since the last severe drought in the early 1990s, state law has limited the use of wastewater. Californians have been able to use it only to irrigate and that irrigation has had to be done by systems below the surface.

Last summer, the legislature passed SB 1258, which required the DHC to develop newer and looser graywater rules. The DHC had planned to implement the new rules in 2011 but has released them early becuase of the drought.

The new rules could take effect as early as August 4.

David Hayes Profile

Fresno Bee profiles Deputy Secretary of the Interior David Hayes - now the federal official in charge of addressing California's water problems.

Tucson: Commercial Projects Must Recycle Rainwater

The AP says Tucson is the first city in the country to require new commercial projects to recycle rainwater. Under a new municipal ordinance, commercial projects must supply half their landscaping water needs with recycled rainwater.

Climate Change May Force New Ways of Allocating Water Rights

LA Times reports on the impact the drought. The Central Valley - in particular the part depending on the Westlands Water District - has suffered because Westlands "is often last on the long list of groups receiving water from this federal project."

A Pacific Institute researcher predicts that California might ultimately have to develop a new system of water rights: "'We have a new climate reality, and our old structure for allocating water will not work for the future ... Fish are just one sign of an ecosystem that's collapsing.'"

LA Water Cops

NPR airs a story on water cops - the Los Angeles DWP inspectors who respond to reports that property owners are watering during prohibited hours.

Peripheral Canal Moves Forward

Contra Costa Times reports on the steady progress of plans for a 50-mile aquaduct that would cut through the eastern Delta and divert water south without having to pass through the structurally and environmentally unsound channels California now uses.

The story includes interviews with northern Central Valley farmers who claim the canal could threaten their water rights and allow Bay saltwater to seep into their water supply. Says a sixth-generation farmer from Clarksburg: "This is being framed as a fish-versus-people issue, when in actuality it's a people-versus-people issue."

National Water Act

The U.S. House has passed National Water Research and Development Initiative Act. The act, sponsored by Rep. Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.), would empower NOAA to create a task force that, according to Water World, would "guide federal water research, development, demonstration, data collection and dissemination in order to respond to changes in U.S. water use, supply and demand."

Interview with SD County Water GM

A Q&A with San Diego County Water Authority GM Maureen Stapleton. Among the questions:

• Would California take a hit if the water level at Lake Mead drops below 1,205 and triggers a required water supply renegotiation with Colorado River basin statins?
• Why has San Diego purused desalination rather than, like Orange County, passing on desal and investing in wastewater treatment?
• Should San Diego restrict plant turf like Las Vegas now does?

Drought Politics in CV

GOP launches new Central Valley ads blaming the drought on Democrats. Estimates put the turnout for yesterday's Fresno water march at close to 4,000.

Gleick on Drought Myths

In his SF Chronicle column, Peter Gleick says Interior Secretary Ken Salazar was given some misinformation on his recent trip to Fresno. Gleick says that three water myths have arisen during discussions of the drought:

• "Farmers on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley are receiving "just 10 percent of their allocation this year."
• "Water shortages are causing massive new farm unemployment."
• "Farmers are bearing disproportional impacts of water shortfalls because of court rulings in favor of fish."

Stimulus Funds to Long Beach Desal

The Interior Department has awarded $134 million of economic stimulus grants to water reclamation and reuse projects, including $3 million for the Long Beach Water Department's desalination plant.

The grants are a portion off the $1 billion set aside in the stimulus package for water projects across the west.

Carmel River Diversions, Steelhead Salmon

Environmental groups have sought a court order that would force the California American Water Company to reduce its diversions from the Carmel River by as much as twenty-five percent.

The groups argue that diversions, at existing levels, are contributing to the decline of endangered steelhead salmon populations.

Central Valley Pushes "Two Gate" Solution

Fresno Bee says Central Valley farmers are enthusiastic about the "Two Gate" solution - which would submerge large gate-like structures in the Delta and prevent the endangered smelt from being sucked into pumps. But they admit the plan faces obstacles:

• No details have been released to the public.
• The gates would cost at least $26 million
• The environmental analysis could drag on for years

State Could Raid Water District Revenues

Castaic Lake Water Agency GM Dan Masnada predicts the state could use proposition 1A to take property tax revenues from water districts. Such a move would leave districts with less money for capital improvements and possibly force them to increase rates.

Rainwater Collection Across the West

NY Times highlights the different legal approaches toward rainwater collection in the West. The general takeway: wetter areas (Colorado, Washington) are more likely to prohibit the practice; dryer areas (New Mexico, Arizona) are more likely to allow or even require it.

The best line: a quote from a Colorado Springs columnist saying "the rain barrel is the bong of the Colorado garden. It’s legal to sell one. It’s legal to own one. It’s just not legal to use it for its intended purpose.”

Politics of Disaster Declaration

USA Today picks up AP overview of the drought and in it mentions that governor's recent request for a disaster declaration for Fresno County.

This is how Schwarzenegger framed the drought in his request letter to the Obama administration. But the McClatchy papers have already run a story predicting the administration will reject the request:

"The federal law authorizing presidential declarations specifically include droughts as the kind of disasters that can be recognized. The selection process, though, tilts more toward disasters with outright physical destruction that overwhelm government forces."

As a result, it has been almost thirty years since the feds declared a disaster because of a drought.

One Drought, Many Responses

KPBS reviews the historical reasons San Diego County has so many water agencies and the different approaches those agencies are taking in response to the current drought.

Drought Hurts West CV More than East

Fresno Bee recaps the uneven impact drought and water cutbacks have had on the Central Valley. The west side, farmers have idled packers and thousands of acres. On the east side, agricultural production has hit record levels.

How Cap and Trade is Like Prior Appropriation Rights

An article about the proposed carbon dioxide cap and trade system compares the process for allocating emission permits to prior users to the prior appriopriation water rights scheme that most Western states have adopted:

"Water is a finite quantity, so the cap is often set by nature rather than by a political body, but the effect is the same. In the same way that some people gained the right to withdraw water from a river or lake based on their past use, power companies under the sulfur program gained the right to emit sulfur based on their past emissions. If one views the right to emit gases into the air as a resource such as water, there is little difference between the two cases."

Update: Salazar Appoints Water Czar

At a town hall meeting in Fresno Sunday, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced four measures intended to address the state's water woes:

• Water Czar: Deputy Secretary David Hayes will serve as a water czar and coordinate the federal response.


• BDCP: The federal government is renewing its committment to the Bay Delta Conservation Plan.


• Grant Money: The administration has allocated $220 million in stimulus funds for water and environmental infrastructure projects and later this month will add $40 million in drought relief aid.


• Expedited Reviews: Federal agencies will review water delivery plans - like the Two Gates project - more quickly.

Among those reporting on the meeting: the Mercury-News, the Central Valley Business Times, and Fox affiliate KPMH.

Legislature Considers Revamping Water Bureaucracy

The Union-Tribune reports that, in an effort to cut costs and improve efficiency, state lawmakers have introduced plans to reshape the state's many regulatory agencies - including those that oversee the water supply.

One plan would fold the Department of Water into a newly created Department of Natural Resources. Another would take control of the State Water Project from the DWR and give it to a new public utility.

The article notes the DWR "has come under fire for being too cozy with its contractors by allegedly inflating urban and farm deliveries and shorting fish and wildlife. Critics suggest the agency's directives helped speed the decline of salmon and smelt that are blamed for today's water crisis."

Sen. Fran Pavley, D-Agoura Hills, is leading the reorganization effort. The governor is working on a separate streamlining plan but has yet to introduce it.

Sotomayor and Water

Significance of Water Law

Sonia Sotomayor, during her pre-confirmation talks with individual senators, met with Mark Udall. The Colorado senator asked her about legal issues important to the West.

“Udall said she did not appear to know much about water law but understood the issue ‘may be the most challenging legal question we face over the next 25 to 50 years,” according to the Denver Post.

Environmental Decisions

Interest groups and news outlets have dissected Sotomayor's environmental decisions. Most attention has focused on Riverkeeper v. EPA, a Clean Water Act case, and Didden v. Port Chester, a post-Kelo takings case.

Clean Water Act

In Riverkeeper v. EPA, Sotomayor held that the EPA could consider only the capabilities of different technologies when choosing “the best technology” for preventing power plants from sucking in fish. The EPA could not focus on other factors like the costs or burdens particular technologies might impose on industry.

On appeal, the Supreme Court held 6-3 that the term "best technology" does not refer to technology that will reduce environmental harm the most but rather to technology that will reduce environmental harm the most effectively.

Takings

In Didden v. Village of Port Chester, Sotomayor extended the controverial Kelo rule, which allows local governments to condemn property so businesses can redevelop it, and upheld a condemnation action against property owners who had refused to pay an extra fee to a local redevelopment czar in exchange for permission to develop property in the way they wanted rather than in the way envisioned in the redevelopment zone plan.

Commentators have generally attacked the case. Critiques have appeared in the NY Times, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and Volokh Conspiracy.

Fresno: Salazar in Town to Discuss Water

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is holding a town hall meeting at CSU Fresno today to discuss water issues. The Mercury News says that, in anticipation, environmentalists and farmers have been pushing their positions.

It quotes one farmer as saying agriculture has had to bear the full burden of Bay-Delta cutbacks but isn't fully responsible for the problems that prompted those cutbacks: "If we're 30 percent of the problem, cut us by 30 percent."

San Diego Tries to Ease Toilet to Tap Fears

KPBS reports that the statewide water shortage has prompted San Diego to explore new methods of recycling wastewater. City officials hope these methods will increase water supplies while allaying fears many Southern Californians have of drinking "toilet to tap."

San Diego reclamation plants can clean water so it is safe enough to drink. But some water users didn't like the idea of drinking treated wastewater - even if hard data shows that water poses little risk.

The solution: a technique spun as "reservoir augmentation." Instead of sending treated wastewater directly to consumers, San Diego would empty it into San Vicente Reservoir. The water would then mix with other reservoir water and be treated once more - as reservoir water routinely is - when retrieved for use.

There is no scientific reason to pass the treated wastewater through the reservoir - but there is political reason. After all, San Diego and Los Angeles have both struggled with "toilet to tap" backlashes in the last decade.

The article compares the water that will result from the new technique to downstream river water: "The water San Diego draws from the Colorado River contains lightly treated wastewater Las Vegas dumps into Lake Mead. Some say that the water people in New Orleans drink, that comes from the Mississippi River, has already been through about nine sets of human intestines."