Israel Could Bring Solutions to L.A. Water Shortage

By Lilly Fowler

There was a time when the actions to solve Los Angeles’ water problems read like a dystrophic political novel.

At the beginning of the last century, L.A. Mayor Frederick Eaton and William Mulholland, superintendent of the city’s newly created Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), plotted to gain control of water sources in Owens Valley, which left Owens Lake dry and area farmers with little recourse.

The result was the completion of the first Los Angeles Aqueduct, which supplied the city with much of its water from 1913 until a second aqueduct was completed in 1970. (Los Angeles also draws water from Northern California via the California Aqueduct and competes with other Western states for water from the Colorado River.)

The city of Los Angeles recently began atoning for its sins by returning some of the water to the Owens region, which has forced L.A.’s 3.8 million residents to do more with less. With the city’s population expected to reach 4.2 million to 4.9 million by 2020, according to the Southern California Association of Governments, solutions are needed to address the area’s growing water needs.

A recent conference at UCLA’s School of Law, “Transboundary Environmental Management in the Arava and Beyond,” proposed that Los Angeles might gain some ground regarding its often-contentious water policies if the city turned to Israel’s example.

The Sept. 9 forum, sponsored by the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, a leading teaching and research program in the Middle East, suggested that both Israel and Los Angeles have made many of the same mistakes when trying to develop water in arid, dry lands and could learn a great deal from each other when dealing with issues of water scarcity.

“There are very strong parallels between what’s going on in the Western United States and what’s going on in the Middle East,” said Peter Gleick, the keynote speaker at the conference.

Gleick, a MacArthur Fellow and co-founder of the Pacific Institute, an Oakland-based environmental research organization, said both countries are struggling with the issue of how to best share their water supplies with neighbors. Although Israel, according to Gleick, faces the more complicated problem of sharing water from sources like the Sea of Galilee, natural underground aquifers and the Jordan River with its Jordanian and Palestinian neighbors, the dilemma in both countries is much the same.

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Source: The Jewish Journal

In California, Drought Prompts Closure of Boat Launch

HEMET – Private boat launches in the Inland Empire’s largest reservoir – Diamond Valley Lake – will be indefinitely suspended starting Tuesday because of low lake levels caused by drought, according to the Metropolitan Water District.

In the meantime, the MWD board of directors Tuesday will discuss options for lengthening the boat ramp so private boats can once again access the lake.

Since 2006, levels at the lake have receded 70 feet, according to Bob Muir, spokesman for the MWD, which runs the reservoir. Of that 70 feet, 24 feet of water has disappeared since January, Muir said.

The water level at the storage facility has dropped to the end of the boat ramp, making it dangerous for private boats to launch. Small fishing boats and rental pontoons can still be used, Muir said.

“This action speaks volumes about the seriousness of the water-supply situation Southern California faces next year, particularly should we not rise to meet the water-saving challenge that’s before us,” said Metropolitan General Manager Jeff Kightlinger.

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Source: The Union Tribune

Many Changes Await in Colorado’s Future

By CHRIS WOODKA
THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN

DENVER - Some January day in the future, you might be sitting in your living room, drinking coffee made from bottled water and looking across the sand dunes in the front yard.

You’ll glance at the headlines and notice that the Colorado economy is finally bouncing back from the triple whammy of a poor ski season last year, failed crops in most parts of the state and the loss from forest fires the previous summer.

Oh yeah, and the heat wave that started Christmas Day will be about to end as high temperatures return to the temperate 60s. Still no snow in the mountains, though.

Then, you’ll wonder, “How did this happen?”

A conference last week in Denver looked at ways to avoid that particular picture, or maybe just alert people that sooner or later they may be coping with such a scene. The painting of the future was not pleasant, as a report by the University of Colorado and the Colorado Water Conservation Board depicted it in a theme of gray to black tones. Less white snow, blue water and green trees than you’d like to see. Maybe more red ink for those who need to cope with the economic fallout.

“If you knew 10 years ago that the stock market was going to go into a bear cycle beginning in October 2007, how would you have prepared?” asked Bill DeOreo, an engineer. “You need to be looking at what’s the best way to integrate drought into a long-range water conservation plan.”

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Source: The Pueblo Chieftain

Water conservation starts with you

Del Mar City, CA-New clean water service fees enacted by the Del Mar City Council and approved by residents through a mail ballot, contain an interesting new charge. Besides a flat service charge, for the first time the city is adding a monthly charge based on volume of water usage. At their meeting last week, City Council members also began the process of updating city codes to allow for water rationing.

Welcome to the California drought.

Expect moves like Del Mar’s to become increasingly more common with harsher restrictions to follow in many areas.

Cities have begun considering a drought conservation program that instills levels of severity in regard to water usage. Level One would simply encourage voluntary conservation, Level Two would require a reduction in consumption by as much as 20 percent and Level Three would put a moratorium on new development by not allowing new water meters. Level Four? Start collecting your buckets.

San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders has already declared a water shortage emergency in the city and has threatened mandatory conservation this winter if conditions worsen. In Northern California, the source of the majority of our water, things are getting increasingly more difficult with limits on water pumped from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and the creation of the state’s first water bank in 16 years. The bank would allow for more water to be piped to Southern California areas experiencing extreme water shortages - but at a price besides funds. Buyers would be required to drastically cut normal usage by their residents and businesses.

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Source: Del Mar Times

For more information about water conservation, visit Nuprana.com’s LEARN section

Tucson, AZ slips in ranking of sustainability because of water supply, use issues

Tucson got a little less environmentally sustainable during the past two years compared with other major metro areas, a new national survey has concluded.

In part, that’s because the national SustainLane rankings of the 50 largest cities added a new category this year — water supply — in which this and most other arid Southwestern cities ranked poorly.

The drop in the SustainLane rating of Tucson from 20th to 22nd on the new survey wasn’t a total knock at this city, however, since Tucson still ranks in the top half of the 50 cities in the survey. Tucson scored better than average in 10 of the 16 categories surveyed, including air quality, green building practices, environmental innovations and use of local food and agriculture. Portland, Ore., ranked first overall for sustainability among the 50 cities, according to the report. Phoenix ranked lower than Tucson overall at 32nd.

But on water, Tucson ranked 47th worst out of 50 cities. It ranked low for being too far from its principal long-term water source, for not being as aggressive as many other cities in its water-conservation policies and for its rapid growth in an arid environment.

“Your originating source of much of your water is the Colorado River . . . one of the farthest away of any of the cities ranked from their water supply,” said James Elsen, SustainLane’s CEO. “It’s dependent on snowpack, which is declining. That puts you at great risk. You are like at the end of the pipe.”

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Source: Arizona Daily Star

For more information about water conservation, visit Nuprana.com’s LEARN section

Report says Utah is second-driest state

The past few wet winters have been good to arid Utah, but history has proven that drought conditions will be here again, and the Utah Foundation wants to warn people about wasting water.

A foundation report released Thursday said that over a 29-year period, Utah was the second driest state in the nation. Nevada was the driest from 1971 to 2000, receiving less precipitation than any other state.

In Utah, two thirds of all nonpotable and potable water sources used by residents went toward outdoor use, such as watering lawns. The report urged elected officials to continue to work on water conservation strategies that will help maintain water supply and reduce water usage levels during both drought and sufficient water periods.

The Utah Foundation is a 60-year-old Utah-based nonprofit, nonpartisan group that offers information to policy makers on a variety of issues. Foundation president Stephen Kroes said in an interview that the report was intended to show people where Utah’s water comes from, where it’s used and what the state’s water cycles are like.

“Utah has done an adequate job of providing water supplies for the population we have,” Kroes said. “There’s certainly room for conservation.”

As for future water projects that will be developed by the state, Kroes said planning for the next 50 years will be contentious.

In its 2008 Utah Priorities Survey, the foundation reported that Utahns ranked water supply and water quality seventh among voters’ top 10 issues and concerns for the 2008 election. The same survey in 2004, amid a drought, found that water issues ranked third.

For its research brief this week on water, the group used information and data from agencies that included the Western Regional Climate Center, Utah Division of Water Resources and Natural Resources Conservation Service.

Utah Division of Water Resources assistant director Todd Adams said he agreed with the foundation’s findings.

“We’re in an arid state — we have wet periods and we have dry periods,” Adams said. “That’s what we have reservoirs and storage for, to help us get through the dry periods. We believe that conservation needs to be a long-term ethic, and we need to do our part to conserve.”

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Source: Desert News

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Agencies get aggressive in efforts to curb water waste

Since November, Bill Stephens and his fellow water cops have issued more than 450 warnings and tickets to water wasters in Riverside County. They’ve targeted commercial, industrial and institutional customers in the Eastern Municipal Water District from Moreno Valley to Temecula.

This month, Stephens started to cite residents for excessively using water. After two warnings, homeowners will be fined $100 or more.

“You see a lot of waste. You just see it everywhere,” Stephens said.

He mainly writes citations when water is streaming off landscaped areas or sprinklers are spraying onto pavement.

Water cops are the way Eastern, California’s fifth-largest water district, is emphasizing the statewide drought. There are few equivalent programs in San Diego County, where officials are relying almost entirely on voluntary conservation despite some calls for mandates.

One exception is the Padre Dam Municipal Water District in Santee, whose employees recently were deputized to report water misuse, including irrigating between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. Violators are sent a warning, and repeat problems can result in fines of $75 or more.

“It’s time to get serious,” said Mike Uhrhammer, spokesman for the Padre Dam district.

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Source: The Union Tribune

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California can grow more food AND take less water from the delta

We can do more with less. Nations in drier climates around the world and forward-thinking farmers in California already are using less water to grow more crops - with greater profits. It is time for California to implement economic and environmental policies that encourage farmers to use water more efficiently, both for the good of the environment and to sustain a robust agricultural sector.

The Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is in a state of crisis, both as an ecosystem and as a water supply. Almost half of the water used for California’s agriculture comes from rivers that once flowed to the delta, and more than half of Californians rely on water conveyed through the delta for at least some of their water supply. It is imperative that we recognize what both the recent court decisions and the scientists are saying: We’re taking too much water from the delta.

Given that agriculture accounts for about 80 percent of delta water consumption, reducing withdrawals from the delta will inevitably affect farmers. We have two options, two very different paths to reduced agricultural water use. One is to choose to let events evolve as they will, which may lead to growing disruptions in the agricultural sector, uncertainty about the reliability of food production, and the weakening of a vital component of our traditional economy. The other is to work toward a carefully planned and efficient agricultural sector, long-term protections for land and water resources, and the production of more high-valued crops grown with efficient irrigation systems that are effectively managed to respond to weather and crop conditions.

By changing what crops are grown and how we grow them, the report concludes that we can achieve substantial water savings, ranging from 0.6 million to 3.4 million acre-feet of water annually, and for far less than building new, centralized water storage. In fact, if we look at water savings in “dam equivalents,” the scenarios examined in the study could save as much water as three to 20 dams the size of those being proposed.

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Source: San Francisco Chronicle

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Landscape rules on how much lawn is enough differ by city

KEEPING that thick, verdant blanket of grass watered in these dog days of summer is about as economical and conservation-minded an enterprise as gassing up the family SUV for the weekly commute or a long-distance vacation. It costs a bundle, and pretty soon you have to do it all over again.

But before yanking out the Marathon and replacing it with concrete or AstroTurf, it’s best to check out the myriad landscaping rules, regulations and ordinances individual municipalities enforce. Just because Los Angeles homeowners can put, pour or plant nearly anything in their frontyards doesn’t mean Long Beach residents can too.

Equally confounding is that some cities are promoting water conservation, while still requiring that yards be at least half grass. Officials are scrambling to catch up with a conservation movement that many of its residents already have embraced.

“It’s hard, because changing the zoning ordinances is a long process,” said Jesse Brown, assistant planner for Burbank. “It can take a year and needs City Council approval.”

Add to that the different philosophies among city planning departments, and headaches are born.

“We have almost no regulations whatsoever,” said Michael O’Brien, a planning associate for Los Angeles.

“If you want to plant a drought-tolerant garden, you can,” said Glendale’s Neighborhood Services Administrator Sam Engle. “As long as you follow the guidelines.”

And therein lies the rub, or shrub, if you will: If you’re going Sahara, check in first with local government.

Longtime Burbank homeowners Margie and Louis Dell had Laramee Haynes do the checking for them. The Pasadena landscaper told the couple that they could implement their drought-tolerant design, which included pebbles and recycled concrete, as long as they met the city’s requirement that no more than 45% of their front- and street-facing yards be hard-scaped.

He tore out their tired turf and replaced it with flowering paprika yarrow, lilac verbena, red California fuchsia, deer grass and oak trees, all anchored by redwood mulch. Window planters are filled with succulents.

The driveway, once a solid mass of concrete, now is made of pebbles and broken recycled concrete. A brook filled with recycled water flows through the backyard and spills into a pond stuffed with goldfish that feed on mosquitoes and algae.

The Dells got fired up to make the changes after attending a Burbank water conservation workshop.

A trip to the Theodore Payne Foundation for Wild Flowers and Native Plants in Sun Valley, where a botanist explained drought-tolerant landscaping, sealed the deal. The nonprofit organization promotes native gardens and offers more than 300 varieties of native plants for sale.

“Our neighbors love our garden,” Margie Dell said of her new landscaping, which requires watering only twice a year. “They want to know how to do it.”

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Source: Los Angeles Times

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Fort Bragg, CA bans car washing to save water

The city of Fort Bragg issued an order Thursday asking its residents to conserve water.

Fort Bragg wants to reduce the amount of water used in the city by 10 percent.

The city now prohibits the washing of cars and prohibits restaurants from serving water unless it is on special request of the patron.

Other activities the city asks people to refrain from include filling or refilling swimming pools and watering landscaping between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.

To help people comply with water conservation efforts Fort Bragg offers tips for saving water used indoors and outdoors.

The 31 tips published by the city of Fort Bragg encourage the fixing of leaky faucets and the unnecessary flushing of toilets.

Recommendations for outdoor watering ask that watering devices be adjusted to spray with precision.

Among the tips is a recommendation that hoses be fitted with a nozzle that allows the user to spray only the amount of water needed.

If conservation efforts do not succeed, Fort Bragg will increase its demands for conservation, according to a statement from the city.

Source: The Ukiah Daily Journal

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