Thread: Weed CA. Protests Firm’s Plans to Turn Off Water

People have been fighting over water in California since the 1860s when the settlers killed the Indians and took their land and water.
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"In 1861, Samuel Bishop and other ranchers started to raise cattle on the luxuriant grasses that grew in the Owens Valley. They came into conflict with the Paiutes over land and water use, and most of the Paiutes were driven away from the valley by the U.S. Army in 1863 during the Owens Valley Indian War."^[4]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Water_Wars

Officials Say San Diego County Has Healthy Water Supply Despite Drought

Friday, September 30, 2016
By City News Service

The San Diego County Water Authority reiterated Friday that the region has sufficient supply to meet expected demand next year and beyond, but efficient water use by customers remains essential.


Special Feature Drought: Running Dry In California


The agency, which distributes water to 24 cities and water districts in the county, previously stated in filings with state water authorities that there would be enough supply for the next three years, even if they were dry. The status was confirmed at a media briefing, one day before the traditional start of the water year.

The Water Authority credited the opening of a desalination plant in Carlsbad and contracts to receive Colorado River water.

"The San Diego region has a track record of smart investments in supply reliability and water-use efficiency that have proven their worth during five years of drought," said Mark Muir, whose term as Water Authority Board chairman begins Saturday.

The Water Authority also announced that regional water savings stayed strong during the summer.

From June through August, urban water use in San Diego County was 18 percent below the same period in 2013 — even though state-mandated emergency water-use reductions were lifted in June and average daily maximum temperatures were 2 degrees above normal. In addition, conditions were cooler at Lindbergh Field during the June-August 2013 period, when average daily maximum temperatures were 0.4 degrees below average.

"The commitment our region's residents and businesses continue to show for saving water is remarkable," Muir said.

Amanda Sheffield, a postdoctoral fellow at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, told reporters that the expected La Nina conditions in the Pacific Ocean — which often bring cooler and drier conditions to Southern California — are weakening. That makes it difficult to forecast the snowpack and runoff levels in major watersheds like as the Sierra Nevada and Rocky Mountains, she said.

While La Nina conditions remain in question, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has predicted warmer than average temperatures across the West through December, according to the Water Authority. Warmer temperatures typically put upward pressure on water use.

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http://www.kpbs.org/news/2016/sep/30...healthy-water/

San Diego Water Authority Makes History at San Vicente Dam

What's the latest?


The new San Vicente Dam more than doubles the water storage capacity of the original San Vicente Reservoir.

The San Diego County Water Authority has raised San Vicente Dam 117 feet, more than doubling the storage capacity of San Vicente Reservoir. The expansion represents the single biggest increase in water storage in San Diego County’s history. It is the largest dam raise in the U.S. and the tallest roller-compacted concrete dam raise in the world. The project was completed in spring 2014.

The Water Authority used roller-compacted concrete to raise the dam because it is just as strong as conventional concrete but can be placed more efficiently. The Olivenhain Dam, constructed by the Water Authority in the early 2000s, is also a roller-compacted concrete dam.

San Vicente Reservoir has a distinguished history. Constructed by the City of San Diego in 1943, it was the first reservoir in the county to receive imported water when the Water Authority’s First Aqueduct was completed in 1947. The original dam stood at 220 feet and stored up to 90,000 acre-feet for use by the City of San Diego.

The dam raise provides storage capacity for an additional 152,000 acre-feet of water. The new capacity is owned by the Water Authority, and will be used to store water for dry years and emergencies such as an earthquake that curtails our imported water supplies.


In April 2012 the original dam was still visible behind new roller-compacted concrete, which produces a stair-stepped appearance on the downstream side of the raised dam.

Workers placed the first layer of concrete for the foundation of the dam raise in September 2011. The new dam rose swiftly, reaching the top of the existing dam in May 2012, and its full height just four months later. Additional work will continue at the reservoir through 2015 to construct a new marina and replace a portion of the reservoir bypass pipeline.

The City of San Diego has continued to operate the San Vicente Reservoir during construction to supply its customers, and owns its original 90,000 acre-feet of storage capacity. The two agencies will share the cost of operating the expanded reservoir. The Water Authority and the City of San Diego are coordinating to set an opening date for San Vicente Reservoir, which is expected in late 2015. More details will follow when the date is announced.



The original control tower, foreground, is dwarfed by the new dam. Construction continues on the new control tower at far right.

The San Vicente Dam Raise is the largest project of the Emergency Storage Project, a system of reservoirs, interconnected pipelines, and pumping stations designed to make water available to the San Diego region in the event of an interruption in imported water deliveries.

Web Cam Shows Progress at San Vicente Dam
A web cam system at San Vicente Dam allows the public to witness progress on the world’s largest roller-compacted concrete dam raise. Two cameras offer different views of construction activities, enabling viewers to see weeks of dam raise work compressed into a brief time-lapse video.

Click on Topside View or Downstream View for two vantage points of construction. These high-resolution photos are updated every 30 minutes, providing a current snapshot of dam raise construction. The time-lapse sequences combine these photos, illustrating the construction process.

- See more at: http://www.sdcwa.org/water-authority....lDCY07Nu.dpuf

Drinking Water Starts Flowing From Carlsbad Desalination Plant

Water official answers five questions about the $1 billion project

Monday, December 14, 2015
By Erik Anderson




Aired 12/14/15 on KPBS News.

The largest ocean desalination plant in the western hemisphere opens for business Monday in Carlsbad. A San Diego County Water Authority official explains what the $1 billion project means to the region.

The $1 billion Carlsbad Desalination Plant officially opens Monday and starts producing 50 million gallons of drinking water a day.

That’s enough water to fill an Olympic-size swimming pool every 18 minutes.

The project was in various phases of planning and construction for two decades.

The facility is built on about 6 acres of land next to the Encina Power Station beside the Agua Hedionda Lagoon.

Bob Yamada is the director of water resources for the San Diego County Water Authority. He answered five questions about the desalination project.

What is desalination?
Yamada: Desalination, as it's being applied to the Carlsbad project, means taking in seawater and cleaning that seawater up and running it through a process called reverse osmosis that essentially separates the fresh water from the salts. And by doing so, we can create drinking water out of ocean water, which, as we all know, is not drinkable.

Why is it important to develop local water supplies?

By Nicholas McVicker

Bob Yamada, water resources director at the San Diego County Water Authority, talks about the Carlsbad Desalination Plant, Dec. 7, 2015.


Yamada: It is very important that we develop not only new supplies of water but also new local supplies that are locally controlled. And a supply that is drought-proof like the Carlsbad desalination project is. Back in the early ’90s when this region was facing 50 percent cutbacks in its water supply — coming out of that, the charge was, we need to diversify our water supply, we need to strengthen that reliability. We did so by many means, including the agriculture urban water transfer (moving water from the Imperial Valley to San Diego) we have, and including developing recycled water supplies and additional groundwater desalination. And now we’re adding a significant new water supply in seawater desalination to that portfolio that replaces unreliable imported water supplies.

Where does San Diego’s water come from?
Yamada: The San Diego region gets about 64 percent of our water from the Colorado River, about 20 percent from the state water project in Northern California, with about 16 percent in local supplies. With the addition of the Carlsbad desalination project, that local supply will grow to 25 (percent) to 26 percent. So it’s a substantial increase in the percentage of our water supply that’s served by local supplies.


Katie Schoolov

Why is this water so expensive?
Yamada: The Carlsbad desalination project is actually a public-private partnership, whereby the water authority as the regional water wholesaler is purchasing the water that’s produced from the Carlsbad project and Poseidon Water.

That is the owner of that project. The water authority has committed over a 30-year period to purchase the output from that project at a set rate, and that rate will escalate over time.

We expect the cost of water to approach the cost of imported water as we go out into the future. Ultimately, we think the water from the Carlsbad project will be less expensive than our current imported water supply. Right now, the cost of imported water is about half of what the cost of water from the Carlsbad plant.

How much will the typical resident pay?
Yamada: Whether you’re going to directly receive water from the Carlsbad plant or you may not get that water directly, you are receiving the reliable benefit of having that water supply as part of our overall water supply portfolio. The average ratepayer in San Diego is going to see an average increase of about $5 (per month) to pay for the Carlsbad project over time.

http://www.kpbs.org/news/2015/dec/14...-desalination/