water credit transfers

apparently, transfering water credits from one entity to another is a way to keep the credits from expiring. but not everyone is happy with how these transfer work, sometimes. according to the monterey herald:

Carmel River activists have filed a second lawsuit challenging the Peninsula water district's right to allow the transfer of "paper water" credits into city water banks. The lawsuit alleges that the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District improperly allowed the Seaside Redevelopment Agency to transfer water credits to the city of Seaside, which will in turn issue them back to the redevelopment agency. The transfer, approved in late December, prevented the expiration and loss of the credits.

the background of the case is discussed in the article as well:

A district ordinance allows the creation of water credits when a building is demolished or its use is changed to reduce water consumption. Under the regulation, unused water credits can be transferred to a city for distribution to commercial ventures on that city's waiting list, but credits that remain unused after 10 years expire and essentially move back into the Carmel River.

In Seaside's case, commercial properties at the southwest corner of Fremont Boulevard and Broadway Avenue were transferred to the redevelopment agency in 1994. The buildings, which included the Del Rey Theater, a salon and restaurant, were razed and the properties have remained vacant since.

At some point, the water district assigned more than two acre-feet of water credits -- enough to supply eight Peninsula homes -- to the property. Those credits were set to expire in December but instead were transferred to the city for safekeeping. The move was approved 4-2 by the district on Dec. 13.

Transferring water into a city water bank to avoid expiration, Bernardi said, goes against the intent of the law.

"They're basically doing an end-run around an ordinance," she said. "From my perspective it's just manipulating."

az drought time priorities

during this time of drought, arizona has some tough choices to make. from the republic:

Q: What three to four issues will you fight hardest for this legislative session?

A: The department's budget, because it is absolutely necessary for the future well-being of the state. I realize we didn't get into the revenue hole overnight so I don't expect to be able to get out of it overnight, in one year. It took several years to put us in the position we are in. Second to that, we have some major pieces of legislation dealing with the Arizona Water Settlements Act. And when I say we I am talking about the state as a whole, not the department. We need to implement that act. It was the largest Indian water settlement in United States history. Portions of it took 30 years to negotiate and we need to close it out with the necessary state legislation. We have another major piece - and again I say "we," all of the people who depend on water in Arizona - in the Multi-Species Conservation Plan for the Colorado River. Most people kind of dismiss it as environmental nonsense but my sense is it is the only way we are going to be able to continue to utilize our Colorado River supplies effectively. That one is 13 years in the making, involving three states and all of the stakeholders in those states.

water boards

lubbock city in texas, with a population around 250,000 has voted to create a water board. as reported by kcbd tv, the motivation was potential water shortages:

An appointed committee has been studying the city's current and future water supply. They presented their finding to council on Tuesday, January 18th. They say if we don't do something now, one of our most precious resources will run out. Councilman Gary Boren said, "Time is not on our side."

interesting that a mid-size town should see water supply as a dire need, a threat to the survival of the city, and then take action to create a unified section of government to manage the resource. a few more details:

Councilman Boren spearheaded the effort to ensure the future of Lubbock's water supply. He wants a separate group to oversee all aspects of water, including revenue, wastewater and the Canadian River Municipal Water Authority (or CRMWA), a group which is trying to gather more water acreage for its 11 participating cities.

Wilkerson, and the rest of the appointed committee unanimously agree. "It would appear to me that this hasn't been a high priority up until now, in my opinion, it needs to be," said Wilkerson.

brown water?

its funny, but water that looks a bit weird is often safe to drink, while water that looks perfectly normal can sometimes be dangerous.

in cave creek arizona, the az republic reports, we have an example of the former:

Linda Goodwin had serious concerns about drinking brown water.

On Friday, after three days of brown water coming out of her tap, she called the Cave Creek Water Co. and heard a taped message saying the company was aware of the problem but that the water was safe to drink.

"I couldn't believe brown water was safe to drink," said Goodwin, who lives in Rancho Manana.

apparently the brown color was caused by sediment released from dams:

"The water was fine but had high levels of chlorine," [a city official] said.

Apparently, the problem was caused by heavy volumes of dam water released into Arizona's rivers following weeks of incessant rain.

Some sediment got into the Central Arizona Project system and couldn't be completely filtered out.

...[S]uperchlorination was added as a safety measure.

"You could smell and taste the chlorine," Goodwin said.

water efficient nevada homes

from the las vegas SUN:

The Southern Nevada Water Authority and the Southern Nevada Home Builders Association will roll out a proposed program this week that could dramatically increase the efficiency of water use in new homes.

The program calls for shaving 30 percent or more from the amount of water used in a typical home, a total of about 75,000 gallons per year for each new home.

first time in seven years

i thought this was remarkable:

Arizona rivers are flowing for the first time in seven years after winter storms provided some relief to the drought-stricken U.S. Southwest.

The Salt River Project, which operates dams and power plants in the Phoenix region, was able to release water in the river that runs through Phoenix for the first time since 1998, spokesman Scott Harelson said in a telephone interview.

dealing with drought

according to summit daily news, if states benefiting from colorado river water don't form a drought plan soon, the us bureau of rec will.

Colorado River Water Conservation District member Tom Long is fairly confident that seven states — Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico, California, Nevada and Arizona — will be able to create a drought-management plan by April 1, as demanded last month by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

If they don’t, Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton will. And it’s likely that will involve reducing water delivery to California, Nevada and Arizona as early as 2006, if drought conditions don’t improve.

its repeated like a mantra by critics... western states don't plan for or think about drought... they make plans too optimistically, ignoring the hard realities of building a civilization of many millions in a desert:

“The states of California, Arizona and Nevada have basically placed their heads in the sand for the last three or four years while the drought has greatly affected those of us in the upper basin states,” he said.

“Everyone has been screaming for the lower basin states to get on some kind of drought management plan,” Long said. “I think they’re becoming aware. We will see a drought management plan come out of the lower basin — finally.”

Under the 1922 Colorado River Compact, the upper basin states are required to supply the lower basin states with 7.5 million acre feet of water per year. An acre foot is the amount of water it would take to cover an acre to the depth of one foot, or enough to provide a family of four for a year.

At the time the compact was written, most experts believed the river generated more than 16 million acre feet of water each year. Now, however, experts say the river generates just 13 million to 13.5 million acre-feet on average.

“They have gone and used their 7.5 million acre feet like we can make it,” Long said. “They’ve ignored reality.”

And they’re growing.

For example, Phoenix is home to 1.81 million residents — not including those who live in the 22 cities surrounding it. According to the 2000 census, the surrounding county was the fourth-fastest growing county in the country

cheese factory pollutes water

apparently, hilmar cheese has been dumping tons of polluted water onto fields near fresno.

details, according to the modesto bee:

One director [of the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board] said he and the board chairman were angry to learn from a Sacramento Bee story that Hilmar Cheese has been flooding acres of fields daily with putrid wastewater from its plant.

The Sacramento Bee reported that on nearly every day for the past 16 years, Hilmar Cheese Co. violated state rules designed to keep ground-water safe as its production grew.

Board staff recorded at least 4,000 violations against the company the past four years, making it one of California's most chronic offenders of clean-water laws.

State enforcement inspectors estimated the company saved at least $27 million by delaying installation of proper waste treatment and disposal equipment.

The plant dumps an average of 700,000 gallons of cheese-making waste daily. The whey, salts and chemical cleaners are spread on nearby land that it leases.

The waste is penetrating the sandy soil and polluting a shallow aquifer that feeds a deeper basin from which drinking water is drawn, the state reports.

results include odours and groundwater pollution:

Neighbors complain of sour-milk odors, swarms of flies and polluted tap water.

rain and drought in socal

this article discusses the recent deluge in the context of the long drought in so cal.

some benefits of the rain:

Last week's downpour did impart some dramatic, if short-term, benefits.

A December drenching can spur flowers to bloom and vegetation to green and grow. The vegetation sustains insects, birds, reptiles and mammals over a cold winter.

"In an arid region like San Diego, water is the kiss of life," said Philip Unitt, a biologist at the San Diego Natural History Museum who manages the institution's collection of bird and mammal specimens.

During a trip to Camp Pendleton on Thursday, Unitt said he saw wildflowers blooming that don't ordinarily flower at this time of year. They included the Cleveland's shooting star, or Dodecatheon clevelandiia, a delicate and slender wildflower with white, yellow and purple petals.

In Balboa Park's Florida Canyon, Unitt spotted blooming wart-stem-lilac, or Ceanothus verrucosus, a shrub with flourishes of small white flowers.

still, all this rain doesn't mean that the drought is over:

"All this rain is great, but it doesn't cure the drought," said John Liarakos, a spokesman with the San Diego County Water Authority. "It's going to take several years of seasonal rainfall like this before we get back to what we call a normal situation."

give the article a read... it discusses local reservoir levels, among other things. pray for more rain!