[env-trinity] CALFED News Plus Salinity Study by UC Davis

[Tom Stokely]

http://www.sacbee.com/state_wire/story/13775351p-14617314c.html
State urging court to reconsider decision in delta case
The Associated Press
Last Updated 6:45 am PDT Friday, October 28, 2005
SACRAMENTO (AP) - The Schwarzenegger administration is asking a state appeals court to reconsider a decision that found deficiencies in the environmental document guiding management of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. 
"Our petition for rehearing points out the legal and factual mistakes made by the court, and we hope (the justices) will take a second look at these issues," state Resources Secretary Mike Chrisman said. 

 The 3rd District Court of Appeal ruled Oct. 7 that environmental documents prepared by the California Bay-Delta Authority should have considered reducing water exports from the delta to Central and Southern California. The court ordered the authority, commonly known as CalFed, to rewrite the report. 

"If there is not water to support the (population) growth, will it occur as projected?" the justices asked. "As the state reaches the limit of available water and must seek other sources such as desalination, water will become more expensive to obtain and California's appeal will lessen." 

State officials said the state's Environmental Quality Act did not require CalFed to consider export reductions because they would not meet one of the objectives of the project - to ensure the reliability of increased water supplies. 

The state also said the court erred when it said the documents did not adequately identify the sources of water that would be used by the CalFed program or the impact of using water from those sources. 




      Article Launched: 10/27/2005 10:23:30 PM  
http://www.chicoer.com/local_news/ci_3158671
Involved water agencies still believe in CalFed

     
      RED BLUFF - As the CalFed Bay-Delta program undergoes scrutiny and possible cutbacks or changes, leaders in other agencies that work with CalFed on water issues continue to work towards CalFed's vision: to work toward meeting the state's water supply needs, while balancing urban, agricultural and environmental demands. 
      Cal-Fed is a federal/state program set up to push long-term solutions to the Bay-Delta estuary, but it also reaches into water issues throughout the state, including extensive involvement along the Sacramento River. 

      Without the Sacramento River, which delivers the state's snowpack from north the south, California would never have grown the way it has, said one of dozens of speakers at a day-long Sacramento River Watershed Conference in Red Bluff Thursday. 

      The event was organized by the Sacramento River Watershed Program, Sacramento River Preservation Trust and the Sacramento River Conservation Area Forum. 

      Diana Jacobs, of the California Department of Fish and Game, told a group of about 200 that decisions on the future of CalFed are currently being decided and hopefully a more clear picture will be revealed by the end of this year. 

      "CalFed started to stop the lawsuits," Jacobs said. Some in the water world called conditions before CalFed "a smeltdown," based on lawsuits including legal wrangling over the Delta smelt, a small fish that has had dramatic decline in the Delta in recent years. 

      Currently CalFed is under intense scrutiny, including hearings from the Little Hoover Foundation. 

      As the Red Bluff conference took place, the Little Hoover Foundation was also meeting to review the $3 billion that it has spent on CalFed since its creation, and whether the money merits the benefits that have occurred. 

      Jacobs said key issues include whether agencies should be reworked, how to finance continued efforts and how to solve problems with fish populations in the Delta. 

      Even with the weighty discussions, Jacobs said "everyone loves the idea of CalFed." 

      The idea of working together with diverse interests is still a goal championed by agencies, she said. 

      Local watershed programs being developed show a "new experiment with participatory democracy," said Bay Delta Authority watershed program consultant Dennis Bowker. 

      Before CalFed, there were decades of a "command and control" stance with state and federal regulations, Bowker said. 

      Numerous special commissions on water topics are held each month, with participation by agencies involved 


      with flood control, water quality, the environment, agriculture, etc. This includes state, federal and local. 
      While state and federal rules still apply, Bowker said the focus has shifted to how local agencies can find ways to fit within overseeing rules, but do it in a way that fits with that particular local area. 

      The old way caused problems, Bowker said, because management was disconnected from local agencies or simply ignored them. 

      "We have all sorts of programs but it takes the local community to integrate them," he said. 

      When asked how things would change if CalFed is dramatically scaled back, Bowker said he didn't think the current philosophy of agencies working together to solve problems would change. 

      Other speakers during the conference highlighted the work that has been completed. 

      Rebecca Fris, of the Bay Delta Authority, talked about installation of fish screens along the Sacramento River, removing five dams along Battle Creek and the protection of 10,000 acres of riparian habitat, among other achievements. 

      Water leaders have also amassed more information about water quality, explained Kathy Russick, of the Sacramento River Watershed Program. 

      She said the use of diazinon, which harms fish, has dropped dramatically, and regulators are trying to educate certain segments of the public about danger of eating too much fish that contains mercury. 

      But there is still a lot of work to be done. 

      Tom Griggs, of River Partners, which installs and manages wildlife habitat restoration, explained its somewhat of an ongoing battle. The Sacramento River is not a natural system, due to levees and dams. 

      Fighting non-native invasive weeds continues and there is not enough funding to catch introduction of each and every new weed that pops up, Griggs said. 


      Staff writer Heather Hacking can be reached at 896-7758 or hhacking at chicoer.com. 


      On the Internet: 

      Little Hoover Commission: lhc.ca.gov 

      calwater.ca.gov 

      sacramentoriver.org 

      cdfa.ca.gov/weedhome 
     


http://www.news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=7486
Salinity Threatens Sustainability of Irrigated Agriculture in California's Heartland, Study Finds
October 27, 2005


The long-term viability of irrigated agriculture in California's highly productive San Joaquin Valley is threatened by the accumulation of salt in soils and groundwater, reports a team of researchers at the University of California, Davis.

The researchers found that irrigated agriculture on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley is at risk due to the lack of fresh water, inadequate natural drainage and high water tables. The study focused on 1,400 square kilometers (about 540 square miles) in western Fresno County on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley. The findings are published online in the Journal of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

"Few studies have been able to model the complex, three-dimensional hydrology and salt chemistry of an irrigated region as we did in this study," said Jan Hopmans, a UC Davis soil hydrologist and co-investigator on the study. "Our analysis shows the impacts of droughts and changes in water management on water levels and salinity, and provides insight into the long-term behavior of this irrigated agricultural system and its sustainability."

Salt build-up in soils and groundwater is a global problem that affects 20 to 30 percent of the world's 260 million hectares (about 642 million acres) of irrigated land, thus limiting world global food production. Salt is problematic for crop production because it upsets a plant's ability to take in water by its roots. If salt concentration in the soil is very high, the flow of water into the plant is actually reversed and the plant dehydrates and eventually dies.

In order to fully evaluate the effects of salinization in the San Joaquin Valley, the researchers developed a computer model that takes into consideration the hydrology and the salt chemistry of both the soils and the groundwater system. The model enabled them to reconstruct historical changes in soil and groundwater salinization in general, and specifically for the western San Joaquin Valley, starting in 1940.

The model indicated that soil salinity in the area was high in 1940, but decreased until 1975 because low-salinity snowmelt water was brought in by state and federal water projects, flushing salts out of the surface soils and down into deeper water sources or aquifers. This pattern was reversed during the 1970s as increased irrigation in the valley raised the water table, drawing up some of those salts that previously had been leached downward. As the groundwater levels rose toward the surface, farmers applied less irrigation water to prevent water logging -- and consequently increased the soil salinity. This problem was compounded by the use of more saline surface water for irrigation during occasional droughts.

The model also revealed that the dissolved mineral content of the soil and the type of water source -- whether groundwater or snowmelt -- are, in the long term, critically important in the salinization process.

The researchers forecast that, although it may take decades, salt accumulation will continue in this region, decreasing the quality of deeper groundwater sources and jeopardizing water used both for irrigation and drinking.

This research was supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the UC Salinity Drainage Program and the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research.


Media contact(s):
. Jan Hopmans, Dept. of Land Air and Water Resources, (530) 752-3060, jwhopmans at ucdavis.edu
. Pat Bailey, UC Davis News Service, (530) 752-9843, pjbailey at ucdavis.edu

PLEASE NOTE NEW ADDRESS, PHONE AND FAX

Tom Stokely
Principal Planner
Trinity Co. Planning/Natural Resources
PO Box 2819
190 Glen Rd.
Weaverville, CA 96093-2819
530-623-1351, ext. 3407
FAX 623-1353
tstokely at trinityalps.net or tstokely at trinitycounty.org
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