Ridenbaugh Press/Water Rights

Bill Ritter

In the never-ending effort to balance water flows between major needy regions – the lightly-populated but dry western slope and the fast-growing and heavily-populated front range – Colorado Governor Bill Ritter said his policy would be simple: Limit inter-basin transfers to use as a last resort.

Water-sharing efforts and conservation should come first, he said.

Ritter was quoted in the September 30 Durango Herald as saying, “Our thought is we should never do that unless we find some win-win-win situation. It’s really pitted two different parts of the state against each other. We know we have to address it, but we’re going to address it in a way that ensures we’re thinking about all parts of the state.”

The paper also noted, “Ritter is likely to face a Western Slope Republican in next year’s election. The leading GOP candidates are former Congressman Scott McInnis and State Sen. Josh Penry.”

The largest share of protests over the large-scale use of water supplies for bottled water have appeared in the eastern states. But activity in the western states rapidly is catching up.

The Sacramento Press reported on September 28 that a quietly-generated proposal from Nestle North America to collect water in the Sacramento area for use as bottled drinking water has drawn a strong negative local reaction:

“One of the group’s biggest worries is that Nestle’s use of the water would not be regulated or limited in any way. While city employee and Nestle’s public relations team estimates are tens of millions of gallons apart, the actual amount of water Nestle may bottle each year would be unchecked, according to city staff and activists.”

Nestle has estimated the draw at 82 million gallons of water per year from the American River and its tributaries.

But some of the residents, organized as Save Our Water Sacramento, point out that this is still a large volume in a time of drought, which has been the condition in most of California this year.

The SOWS group remarks on its web site:

Nestlé and the City of Sacramento worked hard to quietly fast-track this project so Nestlé could open its South Sacramento bottling plant by January 2010. The project was only announced in a brief back page article in the Sacramento Bee at the end of July.

While Sacramento residents are required to abide by city-imposed water restrictions, Nestlé would be able to siphon water from our municipal water supply 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. According to one staff member at the Economic Development Department, the only limit on the amount of water Nestlé can pump is the size of their pipes.

Nestlé claims the Sacramento plant would be a “micro-bottling plant,” bottling only 50 million gallons of water per year. However, according to the Department of Utilities, the estimated water usage is 215 thousand – 320 thousand gallons of water per day (78 – 116 millions per year). This would make Nestlé one of the top ten water users in Sacramento at a time when we are in our third consecutive year of a drought.

According to Nestlé, approximately 30 million gallons of bottled water would come from Sacramento’s municipal water system and 20 million would be trucked to the plant from “private springs.” Nestle originally provided no information about the location of the springs, and only did so after pressure from the public elicited a response. They are now claiming that the private springs “may” come from the following spring sources: Lukens Spring, Placer County, CA; Sopiago Spring, El Dorado County, CA; Sugar Pine Spring, Tuolumne County, CA; Arcadia Spring, Napa County, CA. We do not know what sort of environmental impacts Nestle’s pumping will have on these springs and their surrounding ecosystems.

Protesters were scheduled to meet on September 26 across the street from a new housing development at Martindale, Texas – a development that uses so much water, they said, that it could harm general water supplies in the area.

The development, near the San Marcos River (and roughly in between Austin and San Antonio), which covers about 200 acres, is based around the Emmett Harper Ranch. Substantial water rights, amounting to about 150 acre feet per year, were attached to the ranch, and more were obtained besides. Some of the water rights might have been lost, ordinarily, because of lack of need for beneficial use.

However, developer Gordon Hall said that he planned to built in the gated community not only 100 houses but also extensive parkland and three lakes.

The conversion of use has upset a number of neighbors, who are concerned that the large amount of water use at the San Marcos River Ranch (as the development is called) could impact other neighboring water uses. [see the San Marcs (TX) Daily Record, September 25]

An Australian state government – that of Victoria (in the far southeast, and including Melbourne) – which had blocked further water sales to the Australian federal government appears to have dropped some of the roadblocks to Murray-Darling Basin water that it had set up.

The Victoria government had a policy of limiting to 4 per cent (up until 2014 when the policy was sunsetted) water rights traded away from its irrigation districts. Now, the federal government will get some exemption from the policy.

However, the use of the waters will be limited, and a series of environmental standards were agreed to. [see Sydney Morning Herald, September 24]

From the Pacific Fisheries Resource Conservation Council:

The PFRCC released a report entitled “Freshwater for Fish and People: Moving Towards “Living Water Smart”” that advocates for treating water as a scarce resource and promotesstronger water management practices to protect salmon ecosystems.

“After this long hot summer, the need to maintain adequate flows in streams for salmon is clearer than ever,” said Mark Angelo,Chair of the PFRCC (www.fish.bc.ca). “It is imperative that the Province must update the ‘Water Act’ and take the steps required to protect water resources for salmon and their ecosystems. For too long, salmon needs have taken a back seat to the withdrawal of water from streams for other purposes such as agricultural and industrial use.”

The report examines attempts in other jurisdictions, including Alberta, Washington State and Australia, to resolve water issues through better balance between instream and out-of-stream water use. “This review made it clear that a legal basis such as a more balanced Water Act, is needed to ensure adequate flows are retained and that interested parties work together to improve water efficiency, which will in turn benefit fish,” added Angelo.

The report is accompanied by a plain-language brochure that explains why a new approach toward water use and management is urgently needed. It also identifies a variety of tools than can effectively resolve conflicts between excessive water extraction and ecosystem needs. These includeeducation, conservation, financial incentives, water pricing and regulatory penalties. The Council recommends that they be used not independently, but rather as part of a comprehensive new package on water management, and in ways that increase the flexibility of decision makers to respond to local needs and local information. Continue Reading »

Still no word of a new legislative session in California devoted to water, but worries about California’s water shortages continues to hold attention all over the state.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported on September 24 that “San Francisco and East Bay water managers are warning that a plan to overhaul the state’s water system could result in draconian restrictions and rationing in the Bay Area and possibly undermine water rights that are more than 100 years old.”

And there are ongoing concerns about what the debates and disputes may mean for the long-running battle between north and south over water: “They also believe the plan could jeopardize their legal rights to water that could instead be sent to parched regions of the Central Valley and Southern California.”

Release by the U.S. Geological Survey of a 10th study report on groundwater in the Yakima River Basin signals that the largest study of aquifer resources conducted in the region is nearing completion. The study was funded by the USGS in partnership with the Washington Department of Ecology, Yakama Nation and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

Due in early 2010 , the final report will help water managers estimate the potential impact new groundwater withdrawals would have on surface water supplies and allow managers to analyze ways water users may offset the effects of their groundwater withdrawals on senior water rights and stream flows.

“Understanding how, when and where groundwater pumping affects surface water is essential for water managers to make sound water resource decisions,” said Ken Slattery, Water Resources manager for Ecology. “This report will play a key role as we seek overall solutions to the long-term water supply concerns in the basin.”

Water shortages are a chronic problem in the Yakima River Basin. Demand for water to irrigate crops, to provide drinking water, and to ensure the survival of salmon and steelhead often exceeds supply.

Built over the last 10 years using actual well and water data, the Yakima Basin groundwater study will characterize the hydraulic connection between groundwater and surface water for all aquifers in the Yakima River Basin, including sedimentary aquifers of upper Kittitas County.

Groundwater movement in the higher elevation bedrock areas of upper Kittitas will be the subject of a separate study authorized by the Legislature. That narrower study is expected to commence soon.

The latest report from the USGS indicates groundwater levels in some areas have declined by 10 to 20 feet and in deeper confined aquifers, pumping has reduced water levels by as much as 300 feet. Groundwater levels in sedimentary aquifers have remained fairly steady over the last 50 years, largely due to recharge from surface water and irrigation seepage, but according to the report, that water cannot be considered available for new use because it is relied on to meet existing downstream water rights.

Data from earth-observing Landsat satellites plays a central role in a new, award-winning type of mapping that tracks water use.
Water-use maps help save taxpayer money by increasing the accuracy and effectiveness of public decisions involving water – for instance, in monitoring compliance with legal water rights. The maps are especially important in dry western states where irrigated agriculture accounts for about 85 percent of all water consumption.

Using Landsat imagery supplied by the U.S. Geological Survey in combination with ground-based water data, the Idaho Department of Water Resources and the University of Idaho developed a novel method to create water-use maps that are accurate to the scale of individual fields. The Ash Institute at Harvard University recently cited Idaho’s original design for these maps as an outstanding innovation in American government.

“The USGS Landsat archive, dating back to1972, has proven to be a versatile source of consistent data about land surface conditions,” said Bryant Cramer, USGS Associate Director for Geography. “This advance by the Idaho water monitoring team is both brilliant and practical. Looking forward, it’s indicative of what researchers in many countries can accomplish with the data.”

The value of the USGS Landsat archive was endorsed by Richard Allen of the University of Idaho, one of the honored team members. “Archival support from USGS gave Idaho researchers the means to determine changes in water consumption over time by agricultural, residential and wildland systems,” he said. “These historical records were indispensable in calibrating many aspects of current data.”

As agricultural irrigation needs and swelling city populations amplify demand for scarce water supplies, water management strategy has been forced to shift from increasing water supply to more effectively managing water use at sustainable levels. Thus, accurate water-use mapping is critical. The Landsat-based method can be as much as 80 percent more accurate than traditional measurement methods.

With initial assistance from NASA, the Idaho Department of Water Resources began cooperating with the University of Idaho in 2000 to develop a computer model, METRIC (Mapping EvapoTranspiration at high Resolution with Internalized Calibration), to estimate and map water use in vegetated areas. The mapping method has since been adopted in other states including Montana, California, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming, Texas, Nebraska, Colorado, Nevada and Oregon.

The objective nature of the technique assists these states in negotiating Native American water rights, assessing urban water transfers, managing aquifer depletion, monitoring water right compliance, and protecting endangered species. Internationally, Spain, South Africa and Morocco have already begun to employ Landsat-based water-use maps. (See a U.S. Geological Survey report.)

The Department of Ecology has, in different ways, less and more authority when it comes to permitting groundwater, than many people probably had assumed – to judge from the conclusions of a just-released state attorney general opinion.

The opinion offered answers to seven questions, four from Kittitas County Prosecutor Gregory Zempel and three from Department of Ecology Director Jay Manning. (The opinion is located on line at http://www.atg.wa.gov/opinion.aspx?id=23864.)

The four core conclusions said that “The statutory exemption from the permitting requirement for use in watering lawns and noncommercial gardens is not included within the exemption for domestic use. The Department of Ecology lacks the authority to impose lower or different limits on exempt withdrawals of groundwater than are provided in statute by “partially withdrawing” the waters from additional appropriation. The authority of the Department of Ecology to withdraw waters from new appropriations applies to both permitted and permit-exempt uses of groundwater. The Interlocal Cooperation Act is not an independent source of agency authority.” Continue Reading »

North Carolina Governor Bev Perdue has filed papers in opposition to re-licensed of Yadkin River dams which have been operated for the last half-century by ALCOA Power. The licensure is a key development in water rights arguments on the river.

From a September 21 statement from Stanly County, in support of the governor’s action:

The Stanly County Board of Commissioners (www.co.stanly.nc.us) is commending Gov. Bev Perdue for filing evidence on September 18, 2009 with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in opposition to a 50-year licensing renewal request by Alcoa Power Generating, Inc. (“Alcoa”) for the Yadkin Hydroelectric Project. Gov. Perdue believes the multinational firm is failing to address the economic, recreational, water quality and other environmental needs of North Carolina’s citizens. Her filing is the latest action she has taken demonstrating how Alcoa has failed to show its concern for the health, safety and welfare of the general public as it attempts to maintain a monopoly on water rights and hydroelectric power generated by the Project, which includes dams and powerhouses along a 38-mile stretch of the Yadkin River at High Rock, Tuckertown, Narrows and Falls Reservoirs in Davidson, Rowan, Montgomery and Stanly counties. Continue Reading »