California taking more than their fare share of water

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

http://news.yahoo.com/courts-put-huge-california-water-pact-limbo-194538235.html

By ELLIOT SPAGAT | AP – Sun, Nov 20, 2011

AN DIEGO (AP) — A landmark accord that ended decades of acrimony over how Southern California gets its water is in jeopardy.

A California appeals court is considering whether to overturn a 2003 pact that created the nation's largest farm-to-city water transfer and set new rules for dividing the state's share of the Colorado River. If a lower court ruling stands, consequences could ripple to six other Western states and Mexico, which also rely on the 1,450-mile river that flows from the Rocky Mountains to the Sea of Cortez.

Farmers and environmentalists involved in the lawsuit argue the pact is deeply flawed, while water agencies say it is critical to keeping an uneasy peace on the river. A three-judge panel of the 3rd Appellate District in Sacramento will hear arguments Monday and is expected to rule within three months.

California long used more of the Colorado River than it was granted under agreements with Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming and Mexico. Its overindulgence was never a big problem until Sunbelt cities like Phoenix witnessed explosive growth and other states clamored for their full share. Drought only exacerbated tensions.

Eight years of negotiations between California's warring water agencies culminated in the 2003 accord that reined the state to its limit established 80 years earlier of 4.4 million acre-feet of water a year — enough to supply about 9 million homes. The centerpiece called for California's Imperial Valley — a farming region that gets nearly 20 percent of the entire river — to sell water to San Diego.

The prospect of the pact unraveling has left some of California's neighbors worried that hostilities could resume and ricochet throughout the West.

"A stable California is good for the river," said John Entsminger, senior deputy general manager for the Southern Nevada Water Authority, which supplies 2 million people in Las Vegas and surrounding areas. "Any sort of destabilization in California and their water picture would potentially be problematic for the other states."

In January 2010, Sacramento Superior Court Judge Roland Candee gutted the pact in a sweeping, 52-page ruling that said the state of California — one of the signatories — violated its constitution by essentially writing a blank check to restore the rapidly shrinking Salton Sea in the Imperial Valley. California's largest lake is more than 200 feet below sea level and relies on water that seeps down from nearby farms. The sale of water to San Diego further threatens the lake's future.

The judge ruled that a state law committing California to save the lake no matter the cost set a dangerous precedent for the government to pledge money to other projects it couldn't afford. The administration of former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger pegged the cost of saving the Salton Sea at a whopping $9 billion.

The state's dire fiscal straits offer little hope for the lake, whose rapidly receding shores are layered with dead fish.

"It's the 800-pound gorilla in the closet," said Malissa McKeith, a lawyer for Imperial Valley landowners who are challenging the pact. "If we don't fix it now, you're just going to have so much of a bigger problem in 10 years."

McKeith, like other critics of the pact, said California failed to adequately consider alternatives to the farm-to-city water transfer — like requiring low-flow toilets — when it recognized in the 1990s that it would have to go on a water diet.

The legal issues are highly complex, but the stakes and passions are high. The pact, which remains in effect while the case is under appeal, has already brought big changes in California.

It remains controversial in the Imperial Valley, a major grower of spinach, lettuce and other winter vegetables that has the nation's highest unemployment rate. Eight years after the Imperial Irrigation District board approved the pact in a 3-2 vote, critics say water sales to San Diego have failed to bring enough benefits to the region of 175,000 people. They worry that the Salton Sea's receding shores will worsen the region's air quality.

"There may not be enough money to take care of the liabilities of the Salton Sea, and Imperial Valley basically gets stuck with the blowing dust," said John Pierre Menvielle, a member of the local water board and a third-generation farmer who opposed the 2003 pact from the start.

The water transfers have made the San Diego area less dependent on the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, a behemoth that serves nearly 19 million people and was virtually San Diego's only source of water in the early 1990s.

Under the pact, two Southern California canals were lined with a combined 60 miles of concrete to prevent seepage. The San Diego County Water Authority and the state of California shared the $448 million cost, with the captured water going to San Diego.

Dennis Cushman, the San Diego County Water Authority's assistant general manager, said the pact has given his agency's 3.1 million customers more reliable water sources.

The agreement "was central to giving people some certainty — maybe not everything they hoped for or they wanted, but they got certainty over a significant portion of their water supply and their economic future," Cushman said.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

http://www.uswaternews.com/archives/arcconserv/3inthe6.html

In the California desert, they use water like there's no tomorrow -- but tomorrow is coming

June 2003

U.S. Water News Online

PALM DESERT, Calif. -- In the middle of the Southern California desert, resort guests can travel by gondola to waterfront bistros, homeowners can water-ski on a manmade lake, and golfers can tee off at more than 100 courses made lush and green from constant watering.

How much longer can this go on?

That is what some are wondering since the federal government in April cut the amount of water California can draw from the Colorado River -- a rollback that has thrown into question the long-term future of the Coachella Valley, a resort and retirement mecca 110 miles east of Los Angeles.

``We've gone from being assured that we lived in this magical place where the rules of water didn't apply to now having, I think, a very appropriate wake-up call about the fact that we do live in the California desert,'' said Buford Crites, a 17-year member of the Palm Desert City Council. ``People have lived in this false water utopia.''

For years, California has been using more than its fair share of water from the Colorado River, which flows to seven Western states. But drought and booming growth around the West finally prompted the government to crack down and demand that the state's water agencies work out a deal to redistribute the water.

When a deal fell through Dec. 31, the government cut back the state's share of river water by 15 percent.

The bulk of that cut landed on the Coachella Valley. The valley's water agency halted deliveries of Colorado River water to about a dozen golf courses, at least one construction company and the lake built for water skiing amid a housing development.

Also, a landscaping ordinance that had been in the works before the cutbacks and went into effect on June 1 requires new developments to use 25 percent less water than existing ones. Water rates also may go up.

``It's an attempt to recognize we do live in a desert and water is not something we can take for granted,'' said Steve Robbins, general manager of the water agency.

Dave Twedt, the land development manager for the new Trilogy Golf Club at La Quinta, is looking for water to ensure his greens are not brown when Tiger Woods and other top golfers arrive this fall for the popular Skins Game. The club is one of several spending more than $200,000 each to drill into the aquifer far beneath the course.

``You don't have a whole lot of choices,'' Twedt said. ``It's not like we'll be put out of business because, thank goodness, we can drill an irrigation well.''

Drilling wells, though, may not be the long-range answer, either.

The many homes, farms, golf courses and other resorts that already use well water are pumping so much from beneath the ground that the valley floor sinks more than an inch a year in spots -- a process that could accelerate if the water agency cannot get more Colorado River water, which is usually used to recharge the aquifer.

If officials cannot line up more water, the water agency may be forced to impose tougher restrictions on wells and usage to protect the aquifer.

It was cheap and abundant water from the aquifer that transformed this desert -- described by 19th-century explorer John Wesley Powell as ``the most desolate region on the continent'' -- into a lush landscape of fairways and luxury neighborhoods decorated with waterfalls and lakes.

The 300-square-mile valley stretches from the former Rat Pack getaway of Palm Springs, which sprang up in the 1950s, south to the briny shores of the Salton Sea. The population boomed 170 percent between 1980 and 2001 to about 330,000.

Golf courses are the selling point for many of the developers building gated communities in the valley. Last year, golf helped attract 3.5 million visitors, who pumped an estimated $1 billion into the economy.

In this self-ordained golf capital of the world, the cut in Colorado water has shocked golf course managers and development companies.

``Because the club has not been properly forewarned and has not been given a reasonable amount of time to transition to a private water supply, there is a real possibility of incurring catastrophic damages,'' John Heckenlively, president of The Plantation golf club wrote in an April 30 letter to the water district.

Meanwhile, fruit and vegetable growers, who use most of the valley's Colorado River water allotment, face a crisis of their own. They are paying $15 million over five years -- nearly 10 times the usual cost -- to buy excess water from farmers in nearby Palo Verde.

Water officials hope the valley and three other Southern California water agencies reach an agreement to share the Colorado River and secure enough water to supply farmers and recharge the aquifer for the next 35 years.

But whether the valley finds more water or not, there will probably be no more projects like Palm Desert's Desert Springs Marriott, where guests ride gondolas to feast on ahi steaks by the edge of a sprawling lake, said Crites, the city councilman.

``That was done in Palm Desert at a different time -- when people really believed we could pretend we were Hawaii,'' he said. ``There was really no organized group saying the emperor had no clothes.''

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

SoCal is a water pig. Los Angeles has been sucking the life out of Kern, Inyo, and Mono counties for decades. However, most of the water being taken from Northern California never reaches Southern California, but rather is used to irrigate the Central Valley. Without that diversion, the US would have to find another source for much of the nation's food and cotton.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

SoCal is a water pig. Los Angeles has been sucking the life out of Kern, Inyo, and Mono counties for decades. However, most of the water being taken from Northern California never reaches Southern California, but rather is used to irrigate the Central Valley. Without that diversion, the US would have to find another source for much of the nation's food and cotton.

Former Alaska governor Wally Hickel wanted to run a 72" water pipeline from Alaska to California to sell them our water. We should have done it when cost for the job was cheaper back then. It's still a feasible idea imo.

http://www.fas.org/ota/reports/9203.pdf <----- there's a link to it. On page... 3 or 4 it shows a map of the fresh water pipe line...that never was but should have been.

Edited December 11, 2011 by Why_Me

[SuperDuper! 230]

Some one also once proposed towing huge icebergs down from Alaska, too.

I agree, a great Alaskan waterline is no fictional solution.

Edited December 11, 2011 by Boing!

[MyLittlePony 340]

Water is not cheap anymore i pay out of my azzhole every month and they raise the bill even more now.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

Water is not cheap anymore i pay out of my azzhole every month and they raise the bill even more now.

It's because those Palm Spring golf courses and resorts need your water!

[luckytxn 2,265]

SoCal is a water pig. Los Angeles has been sucking the life out of Kern, Inyo, and Mono counties for decades. However, most of the water being taken from Northern California never reaches Southern California, but rather is used to irrigate the Central Valley. Without that diversion, the US would have to find another source for much of the nation's food and cotton.

That source would be the rest of the country east of the Rockies.

[luckytxn 2,265]

This is the same Salton sea that was accidentally created in the first place?

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

That source would be the rest of the country east of the Rockies.

They are too busy growing ethanol.

[luckytxn 2,265]

They are too busy growing ethanol.

Subsidies at their finest.

They/we also grow more of anything than California now and can at anytime just grow more to make up for any losses. I have been driving for many years now and the food products I pick up and deliver from one part of the country to any other part is almost all from the Midwest part of the country to wherever. Very rare for me to ever pick up any food products of any type in California and head east.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Subsidies at their finest.

They/we also grow more of anything than California now and can at anytime just grow more to make up for any losses. I have been driving for many years now and the food products I pick up and deliver from one part of the country to any other part is almost all from the Midwest part of the country to wherever. Very rare for me to ever pick up any food products of any type in California and head east.

You are not shipping any wine or Levi's?

[luckytxn 2,265]

You are not shipping any wine or Levi's?

I have never hauled wine but have clothing often but never from California. California is just one cog in the wheel of the food chain. I or anyone that travels in the Midwest of this country to the Atlantic ocean will see where our food chain is strongest. I do haul a lot of cotton from north Texas and take it to Memphis where it is earmarked for our countries consumption and also a lot of it to ports on the Gulf coast for export.

Your post made it sound like California supplies almost all this nations food needs. That is wrong. California is a huge grower but the population needs water too There has to be a balance. The food supply can be enlarged by the Midwest easily to overcome any losses from California.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

I have never hauled wine but have clothing often but never from California. California is just one cog in the wheel of the food chain. I or anyone that travels in the Midwest of this country to the Atlantic ocean will see where our food chain is strongest. I do haul a lot of cotton from north Texas and take it to Memphis where it is earmarked for our countries consumption and also a lot of it to ports on the Gulf coast for export.

Your post made it sound like California supplies almost all this nations food needs. That is wrong. California is a huge grower but the population needs water too There has to be a balance. The food supply can be enlarged by the Midwest easily to overcome any losses from California.

"Much of" does not equal "most", but that is okay. This time of year, we start getting most of our produce from Mexico, Central and South America, especially Chile. But, many of the crops are produced year around, unlike the Midwest. If you take a flight over California, you will notice that this is predominately an agricultural state.

[luckytxn 2,265]

"Much of" does not equal "most", but that is okay. This time of year, we start getting most of our produce from Mexico, Central and South America, especially Chile. But, many of the crops are produced year around, unlike the Midwest. If you take a flight over California, you will notice that this is predominately an agricultural state.

I drive across California often and am now heading across to deliver copper to a company in Santa Maria. California has a big agricultural section and I will be driving through it and it will take me hours to do so. When I return from California and head east and go through the Midwest and to the Atlantic it will take me days to cross it and it is also mostly agricultural. Now this area in the Midwest also encompasses the area from Canada to the gulf coast. This is a pretty big area. Also there are spots in the south that have the same climate of a southern California that is taken together larger than that area. Southern Texas valley is maybe even larger than the Southern California area and also grows a lot of food.