[env-trinity] [SPAM?] Re: Sacramento Bee:Dianne Feinstein: California needs mo re water storage to end conflicts, bolster its economy
Tributary Whitewater Tours
rafting at whitewatertours.com
Sat Jun 15 18:20:33 PDT 2013
Emilia was not saying stop dairy farming in CA,
just have it in places where grass would be more
abundant and need less irrigation. I may be a
little biased about cattle however as I have been
vegetarian for nearly 50 years. Same goes for
many crops like rice. Should grow things in
suitable places and maybe stop subsidizing
marginal practises. Her comments made nothing but
complete sense to me and hopefully to others.
Regardless of if we catch run-off, we all need to
be aware of the finite resource and start getting
really serious about what water shortage is going
to mean to CA and other western states and plan
accordingly, and that does not mean just finding
more storage, but like she said, using more
wisely. Reservoirs that you spend billions on,
will just end up dry eventuallly and depleting
the underground water supplies is not the answer either!!
Great film at the Wild & Scenic Film Festival
about that - wish I had the time to look up the
name, but too crazy busy right now. You can check
the details out the Water/River Issues section of
the films available by genre
<http://www.wildandscenicfilmfestival.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/2003-2013-All-Genres.pdf>www.wildandscenicfilmfestival.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/2003-2013-All-Genres.pdf
and if you find it in your area would not miss
it. Otherwise be sure to come to Nevada City next
January. Thanks Emilia for your insight.
Thanks, Lorraine Hall
rafting at whitewatertours.com
At 01:52 PM 6/15/2013, yen2fish at netzero.net wrote:
>Emilia, if we had more water storage to help
>catch the winter run-off and store it some where
>it could help the overall water supply in the
>summer time when it is needed most. We don't
>have to fill it from the present water supply
>just catch the run-off. As for dairy industry
>it could help if they started recycling some of
>their water like some of the dairy farmers do in
>Turlock, it does help. Of course we could stop
>all dairy farming in CA and import our cheese,
>milk and other dairy products into Calif. but I
>think that would really jack up the cost of food
>for all Californians. Water is the new gold rush
>for this century and we all have to learn how to
>use it wisely, that includes southern CA as well
>as farmers. Farmers are working on how to
>conserve water and get the best use of it for
>ag. but the Westlands water is a good example of waistfllness.
>
>---------- Original Message ----------
>From: Emilia Berol <ema.berol at yahoo.com>
>To: Tom Stokely <tstokely at att.net>
>Cc: "env-trinity at velocipede.dcn.davis.ca.us"
><env-trinity at velocipede.dcn.davis.ca.us>
>Subject: Re: [env-trinity] Sacramento Bee:Dianne
>Feinstein: California needs more water storage
>to end conflicts, bolster its economy
>Date: Fri, 14 Jun 2013 10:42:41 -0700
>
>It's a pity that our Senator, Diane Feinstein,
>has such outdated views on water policy. Our
>state needs a new Senator with the vision to
>lead the state where it needs to go. Building
>more water storage is not going to create more
>water. Does she think the water will magically
>appear from the Heavens? Squeezing the very last
>drop out of the available water supplies only
>prolongs the inevitable shortage for a few more
>years, at great cost, to ecosystems and taxpayers.
>
>We need statewide water budgets. One example of
>poor water management is the dairy industry.
>It uses half the developed Agriculture water
>supply, and given that the Ag industry uses 85%
>of the state's developed water supply, one can
>see that removing dairy farming from the dry
>regions of the state would free up an enormous
>amount of water for the other half of the Ag industry.
>Dairy farming is good where there is plenty of
>rain and green pastures. Wisconsin, Oregon, and
>Northern California counties like Marin, Sonoma
>and Humboldt is where dairy cows belong.
>
>And I do not need to mention the Westlands, as
>we all know what retiring their toxic, salty
>desert lands would do to improve state water supply.
>
>We don't need more reservoirs, we need a more
>sensible allocation of water supplies.
>
>Emelia Berol
>
>Sent from my iPad
>
>On Jun 14, 2013, at 8:10 AM, Tom Stokely
><<mailto:tstokely at att.net>tstokely at att.net> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>><http://www.sacbee.com/2013/06/14/5495782/california-needs-more-water-storage.html>http://www.sacbee.com/2013/06/14/5495782/california-needs-more-water-storage.html
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>Dianne Feinstein: California needs more water
>>storage to end conflicts, bolster its economy<?xml:namespace prefix = "o" />
>>
>>
>>
>>By
>><http://www.sacbee.com/search_results/?sf_pubsys_story_byline=Dianne%20Feinstein&link_location=top>Dianne
>>Feinstein
>>Special to The Bee
>>
>>Published: Friday, Jun. 14, 2013 - 12:00 am | Page 15A
>><image001.gif>
>>
>>Flying over California recently on my way back
>>to Washington, I was dismayed to see how
>>bone-dry the state is so early in the summer season.
>>
>>There was virtually no snowpack. Lakes and
>>reservoirs are circled with rings of barren,
>>dry soil. And plumes of smoke from
>><http://topics.sacbee.com/forest+fires/>forest
>>fires dot the skies, something that will worsen
>>as the <http://topics.sacbee.com/fire+season/>fire season progresses.
>>
>>The message is clear: We must do more to
>>prepare for increasingly harmful dry years by
>>capturing more water in wet years. In short,
>>California needs a lot more water storage – and we need it now.
>>
>>The dire state of affairs was confirmed by
>><http://topics.sacbee.com/David+Hayes/>David
>>Hayes, outgoing deputy secretary for the
>>Department of the Interior, at a recent budget
>>hearing. Despite a promising start to the water
>>year, Hayes testified, "This is the driest
>>January-through-April period in California's history in the last 100 years."
>>
>>Farmers, of course, are acutely aware of the
>>situation. Water allocations for some of the
>>largest South-of-Delta Central Valley Project
>>irrigation districts stand at just 20 percent
>>of their contract amount. Declining reservoir
>>levels suggest that next year will be even worse.
>>
>>Complicating matters are pumping restrictions
>>mandated by the
>><http://topics.sacbee.com/Endangered+Species+Act/>Endangered
>>Species Act. Despite being found scientifically
>>deficient by a federal court and the
>><http://topics.sacbee.com/National+Academy+of+Sciences/>National
>>Academy of Sciences, these restrictions
>>continue to have a negative effect on
>><http://topics.sacbee.com/water+supplies/>water supplies throughout the state.
>>
>>The
>><http://topics.sacbee.com/Bureau+of+Reclamation/>Bureau
>>of Reclamation is putting together a plan to
>>address this year's water shortages based on
>>water transfers that could increase the
>><http://topics.sacbee.com/water+supply/>water
>>supply for South-of-Delta contractors to the
>>equivalent of a 40 percent allocation.
>>
>>These one-time patches, however, are not an
>>adequate solution. Absent state action, it is
>>my view that we may be faced with the
>>possibility of more far-reaching changes, such
>>as modifications to the
>><http://topics.sacbee.com/Endangered+Species+Act/>Endangered Species Act.
>>
>>Expanding and improving California's water
>>storage capacity is long overdue. The last time
>>we saw significant state and federal
>>investments in our water storage and delivery
>>system was in the 1960s, when the state's
>>population stood at 16 million. Today, that
>>same system supports 38 million individuals and
>>will need to support 50 million by 2050.
>>
>>If we don't take significant and rapid action,
>>I fear California is at risk of becoming a desert state.
>>
>>The need for additional storage is hardly a
>>revelation. More than a decade ago, legislation
>>passed that authorized the
>><http://topics.sacbee.com/Bureau+of+Reclamation/>Bureau
>>of Reclamation to do feasibility studies on
>>expanding or building four reservoirs: Shasta,
>>Sites, Los Vaqueros and Temperance Flat.
>>
>>A draft feasibility report on raising
>><http://topics.sacbee.com/Shasta+Dam/>Shasta
>>Dam was completed last year. It found that
>>raising Shasta Dam by 18.5 feet – at a cost
>>of $1.1 billion – would yield up to 133,000 acre-feet of new water.
>>
>>Good news, but the eight years it took to
>>complete the draft study was entirely too long.
>>Even worse, final feasibility studies aren't
>>scheduled to be completed by the
>><http://topics.sacbee.com/Bureau+of+Reclamation/>Bureau
>>of Reclamation until late 2016.
>>
>>Building or expanding these four reservoirs
>>would result in hundreds of thousands of
>>acre-feet of additional water storage, benefit
>>urban and rural communities and increase the
>>pool of water available for releases that
>>benefit fish species. Waiting a decade or more
>>for these studies is unacceptable. The
>><http://topics.sacbee.com/Bureau+of+Reclamation/>Bureau
>>of Reclamation must complete these studies, and they must do so now.
>>
>>California's Legislature also must do its part
>>by updating the long-anticipated water bond and
>>ensuring that it includes adequate funding for water storage.
>>
>>The current water bond, which was approved by
>>the Legislature in 2009 and scheduled for the
>>November 2010 ballot, has been repeatedly postponed.
>>
>>The bond includes $3 billion to improve state,
>>regional and local surface storage; groundwater
>>storage; modernizing reservoir operations; and
>>conveyance to improve interregional system
>>operations. But with an overall cost of $11.14
>>billion, it will be difficult to win voter support.
>>
>>With only three months left in the session, it
>>is important the Legislature work to craft a
>>scaled-back bond that provides robust water storage funding.
>>
>>Because the full benefits of expanded storage
>>capacity can't be realized without the ability
>>to move additional
>><http://topics.sacbee.com/water+supplies/>water
>>supplies, it is also vital to complete the Bay
>>Delta Conservation Plan. This long-term state
>>and federal effort to restore the
>>Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is essential if we
>>are to acquire the regulatory approvals
>>necessary for new water transportation infrastructure.
>>
>>As chairman of the Senate subcommittee that
>>funds the
>><http://topics.sacbee.com/Bureau+of+Reclamation/>Bureau
>>of Reclamation, I have done what I can to
>>address California's water challenges.
>>
>>Over the past few years, the Senate has
>>approved bills that permit additional water
>>transfers, authorize and expedite groundwater
>>banking plans, require drought management plans
>>and set a deadline to complete the Bay Delta Conservation Plan.
>>
>>But there is still a lot of work to be done,
>>particularly in the area of water storage. I
>>will continue to urge the
>><http://topics.sacbee.com/Bureau+of+Reclamation/>Bureau
>>of Reclamation and the state to move as fast as
>>possible to approve plans and funding to allow
>>us to bank more water in wet years for the increasingly dry years.
>>
>>Although California is getting drier, plans are
>>in place to move us in the right direction. But
>>it will take a commitment from federal, state
>>and local stakeholders to get us there. There is no time to waste.
>>
>>U.S. Sen.
>><http://topics.sacbee.com/Dianne+Feinstein/>Dianne
>>Feinstein, D-California, chairs the
>>Appropriations subcommittee on energy and water development.
>>
>><http://www.sacbee.com/copyright>© Copyright
>>The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.
>>
>>Read more here:
>><http://www.sacbee.com/2013/06/14/5495782/california-needs-more-water-storage.html#storylink=cpy>http://www.sacbee.com/2013/06/14/5495782/california-needs-more-water-storage.html#storylink=cpy
>>
>>
>>
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