Dry California Sucks Up Federal Water Recycling Dollars
Environment News Service
07/06/2009
SACRAMENTO, California, July 6, 2009 (ENS) - Drought-stricken California is receiving 98 percent of the Recovery Act funding announced nationally for water recycling projects, according to federal and state water officials.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar last week announced $134.3 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding for water recycling and reuse projects in the West.
California water agencies received $131.8 million of this funding for 26 of the 27 total projects.
"We are working around the clock with the federal government to pump Recovery Act funding into the California economy quickly and responsibly," said California Recovery Task Force Director Cynthia Bryant.
"As California copes with ongoing drought conditions, this funding is especially welcome to help fund critical water recycling and conservation projects up and down the state," she said.
The funding will be provided through the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's Water Reclamation and Reuse Program. Projects cover a broad range of recycling, reuse and recovery activities which met federal criteria for funding.
The largest single amount, $20 million, will fund the first phase of the City of Oxnard's Groundwater Recovery Enhancement and Treatment program. This long-range water supply strategy aims to combine wastewater recycling, groundwater injection, and groundwater desalination to make more efficient use of existing local water resources to meet projected water supply needs of the city through 2020.
Nearly as much, $17.7 million, will fund three projects in the Irvine Ranch Water District, which serves a population of 330,000 in and around the Orange County city of Irvine, south of Los Angeles. IRWD's philosophy is that "water is too valuable to be used just once."
Recycled water now makes up 20 percent of IRWD's total water supply. Eighty percent of all landscaping for businesses, parks, and schools in the district is irrigated with recycled water. Recycled water also is used for toilet flushing in more than 25 office buildings, for cooling towers and for industrial uses.
Every gallon of recycled water used to irrigate crops or landscaping means a gallon of potable water that can be saved for drinking and cooking, say California water districts, a way of thinking about water that has become increasingly important as the current drought gripping the state continues.
California's San Luis Reservoir stands at just 23 percent of capacity. (Photo courtesy DWR)
Following a dry 2007 and 2008, California is now in its third year of a drought. Water years 2007-09 represent the 12th driest three-year period in the state's measured hydrologic record.
These years also mark a period of unprecedented restrictions in State Water Project and federal Central Valley Project diversions from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to protect listed fish species such as the Delta smelt.
"Together, these factors are having a significant impact on the ability to meet the state's water supply needs," said, Lester Snow, director of the California Department of Water Resources, in a mid-year report released last week.
Drought impacts from this year's water shortages are most severe in the west side of the San Joaquin Valley, said Snow. Central Valley Project deliveries for that area are at 10 percent of contractors' allocations this year, following deliveries of 40 percent in 2008 and 50 percent in 2007.
"The resulting water shortages are causing major economic impacts to agriculture and communities that depend on agriculture for employment," Snow said. "Demands for social services – food banks and unemployment assistance programs – have stretched the ability of local agencies to respond, as described in the Governor's recent request for a presidential declaration of major disaster in Fresno County." President Barack Obama has not yet offered the requested declaration, which would activate federal assistance programs.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced that the DWR will release up to 100,000 acre-feet of water to Central Valley farms. The action comes after the governor visited the farming community of Mendota on June 19 where he met with local elected officials to discuss the three-year drought and its effects throughout the region.
"Nothing is more important to Central Valley farmers than ensuring there is water to fuel jobs and feed families, and with today's announcement, we are taking quick action to deliver water to those who need it most," said Governor Schwarzenegger. "This situation further highlights the seriousness of our state's water crisis and the critical need to upgrade California's water infrastructure for our jobs and our families."
The release represents a "water loan" from State Water Project supplies to the federal Central Valley Project conditioned on "repayment" of the water after this summer's irrigation season. The emergency action will allow Central Valley farmers to continue receiving water supplies promised by the federal CVP. It will not result in a net reduction of supply for users of SWP water, which will be repaid no later than November 30, 2009.
Water year 2009 was notable in that January, normally the single wettest month, was extremely dry. A strong ridge of high pressure prevented storms from entering the state at the usual frequency, influenced by a warm Northern Pacific and cooler than normal conditions over the tropical Pacific and Pacific Northwest, according to the DWR report.
January 2009 was the eighth driest on record for the state, and 11th driest for the Northern Sierra, the source of much of the state's water supply.
Sierra Nevada snowpack makes an important contribution to much of California's developed water supplies. Storms that occur in January are typically colder, and would usually result in snowpack accumulation. Warm spring storms were unable to compensate for the low January snowpack, and as a result, spring refill of snowmelt-fed reservoirs with larger watersheds, such as Lakes Oroville and Shasta, was adversely affected.
On April first — historically considered as the peak of snowpack accumulation and the beginning of the snowmelt season — the water year 2009 Sierran snowpack was at 85 percent of average.
These conditions, coupled with statewide reservoir storage approximately 65 percent of average, led Governor Arnold Swartzenegger to proclaim a statewide water shortage state of emergency in February.
Statewide precipitation conditions improved in February and March, with an unusually wet storm sequence in early May providing a final boost to increasing seasonal totals.
Still, Snow says the state is already beginning to think about preparing for the possibility of a dry 2010.
