Posted on 06/04/2008 8:29:43 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will formally declare today that the state has plunged into a drought, putting Californians on notice that rationing could be next if conservation efforts are not stepped up.
“The governor is ringing the bell. We're heading over a cliff,” Lester Snow, director of the state Department of Water Resources, said in an exclusive interview with The San Diego Union-Tribune.
Schwarzenegger will issue an accompanying executive order to launch an aggressive campaign to transfer water to parched regions, pursue federal aid, quickly funnel more state money to conservation projects and to lay the foundation for a emergency water bank, beginning in 2009, that would be filled by supplies purchased from farmers.
The state is already feeling repercussions of drought conditions, from idled farmland to reduced deliveries to metropolitan areas between San Diego and the Silicon Valley. Relief is a gamble, given the changing weather patterns blamed on global warming, Schwarzenegger plans to say.
This will be the first statewide drought declaration since 1991, when Gov. Pete Wilson declared an emergency in the fifth year of a punishing dry spell that extended into 1992.
Much of California endured a record dry spring. The numbers are grim: Runoff in the vital Sacramento and San Joaquin River basins is 41 percent below average. Snowfall was a dismal 67 percent of normal.
The picture doesn't improve with the state's reservoirs. Lake Oroville is half full, Lake Shasta is at 61 percent capacity and Folsom Lake is 63 percent of normal. Along the Colorado River, despite a better-than-average snowpack in that basin, lakes Mead and Powell are about half full.
If there's no dramatic improvement next rainy season, California will have less water in storage in 2009 than it had during the worst of the disastrous 1976-77 drought, Snow said.
The governor plans to challenge water purveyors, even those with sufficient local supplies, to accelerate savings.
“Not everybody is sending the same message,” Snow said of the different responses to looming shortages. “The governor is saying the entire state has a problem.”
The threat varies by region, depending on water sources. That makes it politically difficult for water agencies to tell their customers to turn off the tap when there is no local shortage. For example, the water district serving Oakland and Berkeley has imposed rationing, but the district serving San Francisco has not. In Southern California, Long Beach is the only major metropolitan area to order conservation.
Metropolitan Water District directors on Tuesday plan to issue a regional supply alert that encourages agencies that buy its water to actively enforce conservation ordinances, such as those limiting outdoor use.
If that fails, “the next step is rationing,” said Jeffrey Kightlinger, Metropolitan's general manager.
And that appears to be the governor's message as well, Kightlinger said.
“He is trying to give people a warning ... trying to not hit people with the Draconian step first,” Kightlinger said.
The San Diego County Water Authority has been relying on voluntary conservation encouraged by an extensive outreach program.
It's unclear just how far the governor's powers extend if he moved toward rationing statewide, his aides said. What is certain is the governor can set priorities for where the state delivers supplies, perhaps using that authority to persuade reluctant agencies to cooperate.
The governor also plans to renew his demand that lawmakers pass a $11.7 billion bond measure that would finance storage facilities, conservation programs and projects to revitalize the troubled Sacramento delta, the hub of the state's water supply network.
“We're going to living from snowstorm to snowstorm until we do a long-term fix,” Snow said.
In many respects, this water crisis could be more threatening than the 1987-92 drought, water officials say.
California is already losing vast amounts of water – enough for more than 1 million households a year – under a federal court order to protect a rare tiny fish, the delta smelt.
A multistate deal to share the Colorado River resulted in Metropolitan Water District losing the rights to about 700,000 acre-feet, enough for 1.4 million households for a year.
At the same time, California continues to grow. And much of the easiest and cheapest conservation has been implemented.
Schwarzenegger had previously issued a call for 20 percent conservation by 2020. Democrats are pushing Assembly Bill 2175 that would gradually enact that target, and the governor is in negotiations with the author.
“We're expecting 10 million more people in California over the next 25 years,” said Assemblyman John Laird, D-Santa Cruz, who is carrying the bill. “It's time to do everything we can for our water future. This is one piece of what we have to do.”
Schwarzenegger's directives to be released today may draw some criticism from environmentalists, many of whom oppose new reservoirs and will question why it is does not include specific actions to safeguard fish and wildlife from water shortages.
Snow, the state water official, said water set aside to protect the smelt will also benefit other fish and the Sacramento delta estuary. Lake Oroville levels also are being managed for optimum releases to help salmon.
“We already have the environment covered in other processes,” Snow said.
The governor's executive order will create two posts to coordinate the state's response to the drought and to facilitate transfers.
Crucially, the governor will order his water planners to concentrate on working with the federal Bureau of Reclamation, which delivers supplies to much of the west side of the San Joaquin Valley. The bureau has dramatically reduced deliveries there, raising the specter of plowed-under cotton fields and withered almond trees.
The action comes as the Westlands Water District, coping with the driest spring in eight decades in the San Joaquin Valley, sharply cut irrigation supplies leading into the scorching summer.
“Yields will fall, quality will decline, fields will be abandoned, trees may die and unemployment will skyrocket,” farmer Mark Borba told the Fresno Bee this week.
Although the state is counting on more water transfers, questions of where the fresh supplies will come from and at what price do not have easy answers.
Rice farmers, the traditional relief well because of ample groundwater and historic rights to supplies in reservoirs, are reaping record profits and may be reluctant to sell.
Snow, however, is confident the state can broker some deals.
“The governor is ringing the bell. We’re heading over a cliff,”
Hey Norms I wonder how many houses up in Sac-Town among legislver are they conserving HMMMM
Tell Meathead to start promoting the construction of nuclear power plants off the coast that would not only desalinate water but generate electricity...
counting the days that RINOld is history...
Are these the same people who shoot down every plan to bring more water to CA?
Have you made the initial day count.... sounds like a good idea.
Delta Smelt (with apologies to Tanya Tucker)
Delta Smelt
What’s that odor that you’ve dealt?
Could it be the melting snows from Springs gone by?
Or did I hear you say, you’d take all the wet away
And leave us here in Sacto high and dry....
Yep. The problem is not a drought. The problem is the politicians in Sacramento. It is their incompetence that is the cause of any water shortage.
“the state has plunged into a drought”
Lets see now, under his leadership, we have run out of money, run out of oil, run out of water, and, have to pay more for less of each. All three issues managed by the government.
He played Conan the Barbarian, he thinks he is Richard the Lionheart but in reality, he is Arnold the Fool.
Much of California endured a record dry spring. The numbers are grim: Runoff in the vital Sacramento and San Joaquin River basins is 41 percent below average. Snowfall was a dismal 67 percent of normal. (Is this in reference to the 1991 - 1992 time frame??)
The picture doesn't improve with the state's reservoirs. Lake Oroville is half full, Lake Shasta is at 61 percent capacity and Folsom Lake is 63 percent of normal. Along the Colorado River, despite a better-than-average snowpack in that basin, lakes Mead and Powell are about half full. Ok now we're talking about today, yes?
If there's no dramatic improvement next rainy season, California will have less water in storage in 2009 than it had during the worst of the disastrous 1976-77 drought, Snow said. Jeez they're all over the time line! What this discussion needs is a good chart illustrating the three droughts.
The governor plans to challenge water purveyors, even those with sufficient local supplies, to accelerate savings.
Everything is a crisis!
How about less federal money and using CA taxpayer dollars to build desalinization plants instead of using it for entitlements?
“How about less federal money and using CA taxpayer dollars to build desalinization plants instead of using it for entitlements?”
Now wait just a minute! If you cut entitlements hordes of your “citizens” from south of the border might pick up and move to another state. We don’t want em’.
Ve must conservate de wadah to make Kaleeforneah a good plaze for famalees and such and so forth.
counting the days that RINOld is history...
I concur wholeheartedly
There is a great loss of fresh water to the sea through the Sacramento/San Joaquin delta complex but those waters are protected from diversion.
California must do at least 1 of three things to meet its resources shortfall:
1) Manage population (limit new building permits, control immigration)
2) Reduce the scope of agriculture, providing for more people.
3) Develop the Pacific Ocean as a source of fresh water.
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