CA • Eminent domain attempt sets off conflict

JUNE 17, 2006 | The two-year battle over the attempt by the Yolo [California] County Board of Supervisors to seize, through eminent domain powers, the Conaway Ranch in  that county, may be coming to a head.
The property and the plan for seizure are significant less for its large land area, about 17,000 acres, than for its massive water right holdings. The county notes that "In addition to Yolo County’s largest gas fields, there are about 50,000-acre feet of surface water rights that go with the land. The Ranch also plays an important role in flood control and rural recreation."
Key opposition includes the The Conaway Preservation Group, which county official have described as " Sacramento developer Steven Gidaro’s current vehicle to control the Conaway Ranch property. Gidaro has been an officer, partner, or registered agent for more than two dozen real estate business entities in California. The Group includes several land developers and the Sierra Health Foundation. It bought Conaway Ranch from a bankrupt affiliate of PG&E for a reported $60 million." Other property rights groups have expressed concern about the county's unusual use of eminent domain.
The county has won two court decisions. But the domain proceedings are not yet final, and a ballot measure, which would sharply limit local government eminent domain proceedings, appears likely to move to the California general election ballot.

No settlement, no giving up either

APRIL 22 | Settlement efforts in the long-running San Joaquin river litigation in central California won't be ending soon, participants indicated last week. That came as a disappointment to some participants hoping the future of more tha n10,000 farms in the area might be resolved; but it also signalled a willingness to continue the conversation with an eye to a solution that might be in sight.
The participants in the talks include the Natural Resources Defense Council and the local Friant Water Users Authority; the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation almost certainly would have a hand in any final determinations.
The dispute grows out of concern by the Council that enough water be set aside for fish, and a 1983 lawsuit over that subject. It has turned into a battle over water rights, however, and determination of how much can be set aside for fish. [see Capital Press, April 21]

Stage set for pumping ruling

MARCH 30, 2006 | The conclusion of a nine-year battle over groundwater pumping priority rights in a part of southern California could be reached in June, when a judge is expected to make final rulings in the case.
The case concerns groundwater in the area around the city of Santa Maria and southern San Luis Obispo County. Both local governments in that area, and a number of property owners, each claim top priority in local groundwater pumping.
A settlement resolved most of the nearly 1,000 disputed claims last year. But 70 remain unresolved and will be settled at trial.
Trial has been ongoing for months, and on March 24 Superior Court Judge Jack Komar resolved some narrow specifics and set the rest for trial in June. Both sides expressed relief at the initial results. [see also San Luis Obispo Tribune, March 30]

Met raises conservation incentives

JANUARY 21, 2006 | The Metropolitan Water District's Board of Directors on December 13, increased financial incentives by more than 25 percent for local conservation investments and expanded the inventory of devices eligible for rebates to include the latest high-efficiency models.
Under a revised core conservation program, Metropolitan will transition from providing rebates for ultra-low-flush toilets to high-efficiency models that use 20 percent less water, and the agency will increase the agency's annual financial commitment to conservation by as much as $5 million over the next five years. As part of a new five-year conservation strategy developed in coordination with its 26 member public agencies, Metropolitan will increase incentives to local agencies for new high-efficiency programs and devices from $154 for every acre-foot of conserved water to $195 per acre-foot up to 100 percent of the cost of a device.
Metropolitan currently offers rebate packages for a variety of devices, including ultra-low-flush toilets and urinals, high-efficiency clothes washers, weather-sensitive irrigation controllers, waterbrooms, and cooling tower conductivity controllers. Customized incentive programs also are available to homeowners' associations for large landscapes and for industries that use water in processing or manufacturing. During 2005, Metropolitan issued approximately 300,000 rebates for devices that are now saving 9,000 acre-feet a year in Southern California.
Through this action, Metropolitan will expand the rebate list to include high-efficiency toilets that save up to 14,000 gallons of water a year; high-efficiency urinals (20,000 gallons in annual savings); waterless urinals (40,000 gallons annually); cooling tower controllers that conserve up to 844,000 gallons annually; and connectionless food steamers that save more than 80,000 gallons a year.
While maintaining Metropolitan's innovative conservation program, which provides $250,000 in competitive grants every two years for research into new water-saving devices, technologies and systems, the board also created an enhanced conservation program. The enhanced conservation pilot program will award $4 million in competitive grants every other year to pilot and develop programs and improvements that maximize innovative water-saving devices and technologies. Detailed information on Metropolitan's conservation and rebate programs can be found on the district's Web site, www.mwdh2o.com , and under the Rebates section of www.bewaterwise.com.
The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is a cooperative of 26 cities and water agencies serving 18 million people in six counties. The district imports water from the Colorado River and Northern California to supplement local supplies, and helps its members to develop increased water conservation, recycling, storage and other resource-management programs.
Contact: Metropolitan Water District of Southern California Bob Muir, 213-217-6930 213-324-5213

Feinstein intros supply plan bill

JANUARY 5, 2006 | As part of an effort to increase water supplies within Southern California, U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, D-California, introduced a companion bill to House approved HR 177. Senate bill S. 2106, like HR 177, authorizes $174 million to naturally improve water quality in the Santa Ana River watershed and increase the region's water supply by 65.2 billion gallons per year. Specifically S. 2106 includes the following:
· Continue Federal Support for the Orange County Groundwater Replenishment System. S. 2106 authorizes $51.8 million for the GWR System, a wastewater reclamation project that will be the nation's largest indirect potable reuse project. The purification process will use microfiltration membranes, reverse osmosis membranes and ultraviolet disinfection to produce 70 million gallons of highly purified water per day to be put into the local groundwater basin.
· Develop Wetlands in the Prado Basin. S. 2106 authorizes $20 million to develop wetlands along the Santa Ana River in the Prado Basin, expanding natural treatment of the river before it replenishes Orange County's groundwater supplies.
· Expand Groundwater Desalination in the Chino Basin. S. 2106 authorizes $50 million to increase groundwater desalination in the Chino Basin from the current 9,000 acre-feet per year to 40,000 acre-feet per year. The purified water will provide a new fresh drinking water supply for Jurupa Community Services District, Santa Ana Mutual Water Company in Riverside County, and the cities of Norco, Chino, Chino Hills and Ontario in San Bernardino County. (One acre-foot is 326,000 gallons.)
· Construct Regional Brine Lines. S. 2106 authorizes $40 million to safely and efficiently discard byproduct saltwater, also known as brine, from desalination plants by constructing a new pipeline to the Pacific Ocean. This will ensure that the brine does not contaminate fresh groundwater supplies.
· Establish a Center for Technological Advancement of Membrane Technology and Education. S. 2106 authorizes $12 million to build an advanced water filtration technologies research center to find better, more cost-effective approaches to water purification. This center is proposed to be located at OCWD in Fountain Valley, CA.
Orange County Water District Contact: Rebecca Long, OCWD; (714) 378-3362

TAKING ON THE MEXICO CITY FORUM A guest opinion in the Cook County News Herald of Grand Marais, Minnesota, blasted the approach taken at the March Fourth World Water Forum in Mexico City which equated water rights with human rights.
"After the first day of the meeting, however, it became clear that the government and corporate agents were only interested in turning water management into a business opportunity, whereupon the NGOs and activists established an alternative forum intent on identifying access to clean water as a fundamental right . . . If we accept the position that water is a common good, and an inalienable right shared by all people, does that mean that folks in China or France have as much right to Lake Superior’s water as we do?
Perhaps we would be better served if we didn’t use the concept of human rights to justify our control of Lake Superior’s water, but rather, focused on Cibber’s observation that possession is eleven points in the law."