Posted on Categories Sustainable Living, WaterTags , , , Leave a comment on Things to know about California's new water rules

Things to know about California's new water rules

Fenit Nirrapal, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Brown lawns, dusty cars and idle sprinklers loom this summer under Gov. Jerry Brown’s mandate to reduce urban water use by 25 percent to get through the drought. The State Water Resources Control Board approved new restrictions Tuesday that include a mandatory target for each local water agency to reduce consumption.
Here are some things to know about this plan:
Why is the state doing this?
California is far from running out of water, but it’s not clear when the drought is going to end. Regulators say saving urban water is the cheapest and most efficient way make sure communities have enough water if the drought persists and to avert more drastic cuts later.
Who does it affect?
It’s up to the state’s hundreds of local water agencies to enforce the rules to meet the local targets. Water experts say that letting lawns go brown is the single most important step that can be taken, but state regulators also want water conservation to be top of mind when people are doing laundry or taking showers.
How will California reach 25 percent conservation?
Each community has a water reduction mandate of between 8 percent and 36 percent, depending on past use. The state believes it’s easier for water-guzzling cities and desert resorts to make huge cuts by neglecting big lawns. Water-frugal communities with few lawns such as San Francisco are less able to conserve even more.
Is everyone on board?
Dozens of cities have blasted the water reduction targets as unfair and unrealistic. The plan also has highlighted regional tensions. Diverse regions of the state, from wealthy beach towns to rural Central Valley communities, are jockeying for limited water. Some agencies that have conserved for years complain that they are lumped in with cities that just started metering water use. Others say they are being punished with large cuts even after preparing for the drought by building local storage supplies and water-saving technology.
What if communities don’t meet their targets?
Communities with pitiful savings face hefty fines, although the water board says that’s a last resort. The board says it will focus on helping communities find ways to drive down use. The state does have the power to intervene, including compelling new restrictions and raising local water rates, but has never done so. Gov. Jerry Brown wants to give local agencies the authority to issue fines up to $10,000, but more than half of communities that reported their enforcement efforts have not issued any fines at all.
What’s next?
The board says it expects to see large cuts immediately. The approaching summer season is the peak time for water use and the best opportunity to save by letting lawns go thirsty. Communities will report their water use monthly, and regulators say they’ll investigate agencies that lag in conservation.
Source: Things to know about California’s new water rules | The Press Democrat

Posted on Categories Sustainable Living, WaterTags , , , Leave a comment on California adopts mandatory water cuts as savings by North coast cities slips

California adopts mandatory water cuts as savings by North coast cities slips

Staff and Wire Reports, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
In the weeks since he walked into a snowless Sierra Nevada meadow earlier this year to proclaim California’s drought a growing threat, Gov. Jerry Brown has argued that the Golden State would need a jolt to take water conservation more seriously.
That push may have finally come, as state water regulators late Tuesday took unprecedented action, adopting sweeping restrictions on how people, governments and businesses can use water in what is now the fourth year of drought. The moves include California’s first mandatory urban water conservation targets, meant to fulfill Brown’s call to cut urban water use by 25 percent statewide.
“It is better to prepare now than face much more painful cuts should it not rain in the fall,” State Water Resources Control Board chairwoman Felicia Marcus said Tuesday as the board voted 5-0 to approve the new rules. “This is the moment to rise to the occasion.”
As outlined by the state water board in preliminary moves last month, the new conservation targets call for cuts ranging from 8 to 36 percent for hundreds of cities and water agencies, including those on the North Coast, where the reductions start at 16 percent and top out at 28 percent.
The rules also will trigger other local restrictions — some already in place — to limit outdoor irrigation and other water-squandering practices.
It’s still not clear what punishment the state water board and local agencies can or will impose for those that don’t meet the targets. Board officials said they expect dramatic water savings as soon as June and are willing to add restrictions and penalties for agencies that lag.
Brown also has proposed fines of up to $10,000 for the worst offenders, but that plan requires legislative approval and no bill has been introduced.Tuesday’s action came amid the release of new state figures that showed Californians conserved little water in March and local officials were not aggressive in cracking down on waste.
Read more via: California adopts mandatory water cuts as savings by | The Press Democrat

Posted on Categories Agriculture/Food System, Land UseTags , , Leave a comment on Judge dismisses legal challenge to Paul Hobbs vineyard

Judge dismisses legal challenge to Paul Hobbs vineyard

Bill Swindell, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
A judge has dismissed a challenge to Sonoma County’s approval of the controversial Paul Hobbs Winery vineyard project in Sebastopol, potentially ending a long-running legal dispute between the vintner known for his luxury wines and community activists who contend the 39-acre development poses serious environmental problems.
Sonoma County Superior Court Judge Gary Nadler on April 29 dismissed the claim by the Watertrough Children’s Alliance that the county erred in approving the vineyard conversion project.
The group argued that the county should have conducted a review under the stringent California Environmental Quality Act, given that schoolchildren could be exposed to pesticides from the new vineyard. Instead, the county used its 15-year-old Vineyard Erosion and Soil Control Ordinance for its review.
The case hinged on the difference between two words. The alliance argued that the project was a “discretionary” conversion under CEQA, but Sonoma County and Hobbs argued that the decision to approve the vineyard project was more “ministerial” and should be exempt from state law.
Nadler agreed with Hobbs and the county, ruling that the county’s actions — including ordering reports, choosing a consultant, inspecting the work and ordering changes — did not demonstrate the permit approval was discretionary.
Read more via: Judge dismisses legal challenge to Paul Hobbs vineyard | The Press Democrat

Posted on Categories Land Use, Sonoma Coast, TransportationTags , , Leave a comment on Public input sought on proposed Timber Cove Trail

Public input sought on proposed Timber Cove Trail

Mary Callahan, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Sonoma County park planners on Thursday will unveil the most recent proposal for a coastal bike and pedestrian trail connecting Fort Ross State Historic Park with Stillwater Cove.
A public workshop at Fort Ross School on Thursday night will provide the second opportunity this year for residents to weigh in on plans for the 3-mile trail. The path is expected mostly to follow Highway 1 through the Timber Cove region, using existing public rights of ways. Opportunities exist for some bluff-top trail as well, according to Mark Cleveland, a senior planner with Sonoma County Regional Parks.
The Timber Cove Trail, though still several years away from being funded and built, will help stitch together a patchwork of publicly owned and managed lands including Fort Ross, Stillwater Cove Regional Park and adjacent Salt Point State Park, where other trail systems already exist.
It also will fill in a stretch of California Coastal Trail proposed to run the entire 1,200-mile length of the state’s coastline.Park planners conducted a public meeting in March designed to narrow design and alignment options that will be presented Thursday night. The process, including public feedback, is part of a feasibility study funded by a $200,000 grant from the California Coastal Conservancy.Thursday’s meeting begins at 6 p.m. at Fort Ross School, 30600 Seaview Road.
More information is available at http://parks.sonomacounty.ca.gov/About_Us/Planning_Updates.aspx.
Cleveland also can be contacted at 565-2041 or by email at Mark.Cleveland@sonoma-county.org.
Source: Public input sought on proposed Timber Cove Trail | The Press Democrat

Posted on Categories Sonoma Coast, WildlifeTags , Leave a comment on Gray whales make comeback off Sonoma Coast 

Gray whales make comeback off Sonoma Coast 

Clark Mason, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Bodega Head provides one of the best places on the Sonoma Coast to spot the whales as they come past Doran Beach, and around the mouth of the bay, just outside the surf line.

This year’s parade of gray whales along the California coast is one of the best in decades, continuing a remarkable comeback story for a species that was hunted to the brink of extinction and in more recent years experienced high death rates due to food scarcity.
Marine biologists say that at the moment, a population estimated at more than 20,000 gray whales appears to be healthy and reproducing well, as compared to the hundreds that washed up dead and the emaciated individuals that were observed 15 years ago as changing oceanographic conditions eliminated or modified their food supply.
“Right now, it’s a good story — a population that recovered and is doing well,” said Wayne Perryman, a federal marine biologist who has been studying gray whales for 22 years. “The animals look robust and healthy.”

Whale tour boat operators are reporting a banner year for sightings.

“This was the most impressive gray whale season that I’ve had in all my years,” said Capt. Rick Powers, a Bodega Bay skipper who has been conducting tours for 31 years.

 “We saw gray whales every single trip this season. It’s very unusual to go out every trip and bat a thousand,” he said of the trips he’s led so far this spring.

Despite the rosy picture, scientists are concerned the whales face continued peril from the unfolding effects of climate change. And advocates for the leviathans, such as the California Gray Whale Coalition, worry that a Washington state Indian tribe’s current proposal to resume traditional gray whale hunting could open the door for more widespread killing of grays, as well as humpbacks.

The gray whales, which spotters say make up 95 percent of the whales seen off the Sonoma Coast, face a host of challenges, from both man-made obstacles and natural predators, as they head toward their Arctic feeding grounds, where they gorge during the summer on tons of minuscule, shrimplike bottom-dwelling amphipods.

Read more via: Whales make comeback off Sonoma Coast | The Press Democrat

Posted on Categories Agriculture/Food System, Land UseTags , , , Leave a comment on Planning appointee key in winery debate

Planning appointee key in winery debate

Angela Hart, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Before Willie Lamberson became a Sonoma County planning commissioner this year, the ceramic tile contractor cut a low-key public profile, with little attachment to the workings of local government beyond a penchant for political involvement handed down years ago from his father, also a tile contractor and Army veteran.
In just four months, however, Lamberson, 69, has inserted himself into the center of an escalating debate about winery development in the county, attracting scrutiny due to his strong stands for and against a number of high-profile projects, as well as for blunt public comments he made about neighbors who complain about the wine industry.
Lamberson, a former grape grower who had never before held a public post, was appointed to his seat by newly elected county Supervisor James Gore to represent the north county. In his first meeting on the Board of Zoning Adjustments in January, he took a firm stand against celebrity chef Guy Fieri’s plans for a new Santa Rosa-area winery, steering the panel to a unanimous rejection of the contentious proposal. The decision sent shock waves across Wine Country, surprising especially those who have sought greater curbs on winery projects.
“He was brand-new, and willing to say ‘No,’ so that decision rocked so many people back on their heels,” said Rue Furch, a former longtime planning commissioner who has spoken out against the proliferation of wineries in rural areas. “Willie made statements unlike anything we’ve heard for a long, long time. We started saying, ‘What will he do next?’ ”
Read more via: Sonoma County planning commissioner Willie Lamberson settles into | The Press Democrat

Posted on Categories Sustainable Living, WaterTags , , , , , Leave a comment on Wells running dry as groundwater recedes in Sonoma

Wells running dry as groundwater recedes in Sonoma

Christian Kallen, SONOMA INDEX-TRIBUNE

May 5, 2015: A public hearing on groundwater in the Sonoma Valley, and the formation of a Groundwater Sustainability Agency, will be held at the VOMWD board meeting Room, 19039 Bay St., El Verano. The board meeting begins at 6:30 p.m., and the hearing will start at about 6:45 p.m.

If praying for more rain isn’t working, and conserving usage isn’t sufficient to provide enough water for Sonoma, maybe it’s time to look down – underground. There, however, the picture gets murkier.“
We can see an open storage reservoir, like Lake Sonoma or Lake Mendocino, how much water is in there, and how much the decline is,” said Dan Muelrath. “Groundwater is much trickier. You can’t see it.”

Larbre, (of Larbre Well Drilling) who’s been keeping records since the ‘90s, said that since that time, the water level has declined about 85 feet, most of it in the past two years.

Muelrath is the executive director of the Valley of the Moon Water District, which is holding a public hearing on the groundwater situation in Sonoma Valley next Tuesday, May 5, at the regular VOMWD board meeting in El Verano.
But well-driller Ray Larbre says he and other drillers “know what’s going on underground – but nobody asks us.” Larbre has lived all his life on the same property on Arnold Drive, carrying on his father’s well-drilling business, Larbre Well Drilling and Pump, founded in 1932.“
Everybody’s turning to groundwater to solve their irrigation problems, for landscape and around their houses,” said Larbre. “All they’re doing now by drilling these wells for residential use is creating more draw from the strata and less water for everybody else.”
The 71-year-old well-driller has seen wet years and dry, but nothing like this current drought. Recalling the drought years of 1976-78, he said, “That drought was severe but this one is more severe and long lasting – it’s really changed the landscape as far as I’m concerned.”
Concerns over the increased use of groundwater, and its depletion, prompted the state to pass the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act last year. One of its key components is the creation of Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSA), tasked with assessing conditions in local groundwater basins and adopting locally based sustainability plans.
Next week’s public hearing will discuss the formation of a local GSA to manage the resource. The VOMWD will open the floor to a public hearing on the question of which of the affected agencies should take the lead in forming the local GSA – Valley of the Moon, City of Sonoma, the Sonoma County Water Agency or the County itself.
Read more via: Wells running dry as groundwater recedes | Sonoma Index-Tribune | Sonoma News, Entertainment, Sports, Real Estate, Events, Photos, Sonoma, CA

Posted on Categories Agriculture/Food System, Sustainable Living, WaterTags , , , Leave a comment on Op-Ed: Big Wine fails to dry farm during California’s relentless drought

Op-Ed: Big Wine fails to dry farm during California’s relentless drought

 Shepherd Bliss, DISSIDENT VOICE
California Governor Jerry Brown spent this year’s Earth Day at the elite Iron Horse Winery in the Sebastopol countryside. It was a great photo opportunity and promotion for the winery. Iron Horse is known for donations to President Bill Clinton and other politicians, with whom it has cozy relationships, and from whom it receives favors, such as these visits. I operate a small berry and apple farm nearby and teach sustainable agriculture, mainly to college students.
“Hope Amid Drought” headlined the April 20 pro-wine industry daily Press Democrat’s (PD) report on this winery event of some 200 people. “Brown says innovation, efficiency will get state through water shortage,” the article notes. Iron Horse Vineyards CEO Joy Sterling “said the 300-acre winery…epitomized the environmental stewardship honored on Earth Day.” She spoke about their “love of the land.”
But wait. What about water usage, the theme of Gov. Brown’s talk? The previous day the PD published the commentary “Why We Don’t Dry Farm Grapes.” Its author? Iron Horse’s Laurence Sterling.It’s hypocritical for Gov. Brown to mandate that the rest of us reduce water use by 25%, except for his friends in Big Ag and Big Wine. It’s called “green washing.” Or as we used to say, bluntly, on our Iowa family farms when we went out to clean the cute piglets, “hogwash.”
Five days later the PD published a letter that nailed both Gov. Brown and Mr. Sterling for this contradiction. Under the headline “Time for Sustainable Ag,” it was written by Sebastopol neighbor Donna Diehl. She reports, “Four of our neighbors had to drill new wells since the first of the year.” Nearby wells can go dry when Big Wine drills as deep as 1000 feet into the ground. Excessive pumping from shallow wells can also lead to neighbor’s wells pumping air, reports a Lake County wine maker.“
Let’s not wait until our groundwater is depleted to address the issue of the impact of viticulture on its depletion,” Ms. Diehl concludes.
Read more at: Big Wine Fails to Dry Farm During California’s Relentless Drought | Dissident Voice

Posted on Categories Agriculture/Food System, Water, WildlifeTags , , , , , , , Leave a comment on Op-Ed: Governor abandons pretext of saving fisheries: Ignores co-equal goals requirement for delta

Op-Ed: Governor abandons pretext of saving fisheries: Ignores co-equal goals requirement for delta

Steve Hopcraft and Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, RESTORE THE DELTA

On April 30, Governor Jerry Brown announced he will rename the Bay Delta Conservation Plan tunnels (BDCP) to “California Water Fix.” The separate habitat restoration part will be called “California Eco-Restore.”

Restore the Delta (RTD) and other opponents of Gov. Brown’s rush to build massive underground water tunnels that would drain the Delta and doom sustainable farms, salmon and other Pacific fisheries, today responded to Gov. Brown’s abandonment of habitat restoration in his Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) tunnels project, saying the new plan violates the statutory ‘co-equal goals’, end-runs the EPA and federal scientists who refused to issue permits for the project.
The governor has called the massive change “technical,” but opponents said it results from fatal flaws in the BDCP and the lack of funding for the restoration formerly proposed under the BDCP.
The new maneuver ignores the judgment of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), Delta Independent Science Board (DISB), and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) after scientific reviews that the tunnels project didn’t meet minimum Endangered Species Act (ESA) and Clean Water Act (CWA) standards.
The agencies found in particular that the project would jeopardize, rather than help recover key species, and violate anti-degradation laws to protect the Delta waterways as fishable, swimmable and drinkable.
Read more via: Restore the Delta Blog — News about California’s Most Important Estuary

Posted on Categories Agriculture/Food System, Water, WildlifeTags , , , , , , , , Leave a comment on Delta habitat conservation plan scrapped as Governor prioritizes agribusiness

Delta habitat conservation plan scrapped as Governor prioritizes agribusiness

David Siders and Phillip Reese, THE SACRAMENTO BEE
For years, Gov. Jerry Brown used the promise of habitat restoration to broaden the appeal of his plan to build two tunnels to divert water around the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to the south.
Designating the project as a habitat conservation plan – and securing a 50-year permit for the effort – not only gave water users paying for the project an assurance water deliveries could not easily be changed, but also cast the project as more than a standalone conveyance.
The $25 billion project, Brown said in his State of the State address in 2013, was “designed to improve the ecology of the Delta, with almost 100 square miles of habitat restoration.
”Brown’s announcement Thursday that he was dramatically reducing the habitat portion of the plan is expected to make permitting the project easier. But it also burdens the project with new political difficulties. Ecosystem restoration has long been part of efforts to bridge the fractured interests of farmers, environmentalists, Delta landowners and Southern California’s population centers, and reducing its emphasis has invigorated opponents of the effort.
Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, executive director of Restore the Delta, a group opposed to the project, said in a prepared statement that the project “has now shifted from a proposal to protect 56 species, and over 100,000 acres of habitat, to a straight water grab” from the Delta.
Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Davis, said Brown needs to forget the tunnels and move on. “Today’s announcement confirms what I feared in 2009,” she said in a prepared statement. “The commitment to co-equal goals in the Delta has been broken. The tunnels will move forward, and the commitment to the health of the Delta has been reduced in large part, and relegated to a separate track.”
The new plan reduces to about 30,000 acres of restoration an initial effort to restore 100,000 acres of wetland and wildlife habitat. The projected cost is about $300 million, a tiny fraction of the $8 billion originally planned.
The change comes after federal agencies balked at a 50-year permit, with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency saying last year that the project could violate the federal Clean Water Act and harm endangered fish.Brown said Thursday that the original restoration plan was only an “idea.” He said the state did not have the money to restore 100,000 acres, but that with money from a voter-approved water bond and other sources, restoring 30,000 acres can be done.
Read more via: Jerry Brown’s revised water tunnels plan adds political problems | The Sacramento Bee The Sacramento Bee