Tag Archive for 'San Francisco Bay Delta'

California council adopts delta management plan

Published on 05/17/2013 in management and policy. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Retrieved from: News10

“A California agency on Thursday unanimously adopted a broad, long-range plan to manage the ailing Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

After several hours of public comments and protests by opponents, the Delta Stewardship Council voted 7-0 to approve the final version of the Delta Plan, a blueprint for restoring the delta’s ecosystem and improving water supply reliability.

The plan does not call for specific construction projects but contains policies and recommendations. The $14 billion twin tunnel project, which is being developed through a separate federal and state initiative, will be incorporated into the plan if the tunnels are approved and permitted.

Critics say the Delta Plan doesn’t do enough when it comes to restoring and protecting the delta or its threatened fish species – and could negatively impact delta communities.

The plan comes after years of concerns over an increase in water demand and the degradation of habitat in the delta, which supplies drinking water for two-thirds of California residents and irrigates about 4 million acres of crops.

The ecosystem’s rapid deterioration has spurred regulations that limit delta pumping. Farmers and water users whose water was curtailed have clamored for a stable water supply. In 2009, the Legislature created the seven-member council to come up with a plan to manage the estuary.”

“The plan tells us how to get through the next 100 years,” said Phil Isenberg, the council’s chairman and a former Sacramento mayor. “Everybody has to conserve water all the time, everyone has to decrease reliance on the delta, and everyone has to help with the environmental needs of the delta. We’re running out of easy solutions, so everybody has to kick in.”

Read more: Fresno Bee
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Protecting Bay Area’s Water Supply in Event of Major Earthquake

Published on 04/18/2012 in levees and management. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Retrieved from: Llnl

“One day before the 106th anniversary of the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906, Mayor Ed Lee was in San Mateo County on Tuesday to mark a major milestone in securing the region’s water supply in the event of a future major earthquake.

“Lee joined San Francisco Public Utilities Commission general manager Ed Harrington and San Mateo County Supervisor Adrienne Tissier on the banks of the Lower Crystal Springs Reservoir, where improvements to the 124-year-old Crystal Springs Dam have just been completed.

“The dam improvements — which doubled the width of the main spillway and raised the height of a parapet on top of the structure by 9 feet — were part of the SFPUC’s $4.6 billion Water System Improvement Program, which consists of 81 seismic improvements to water delivery pipelines, dams and reservoirs from Hetch Hetchy to San Francisco.

“Harrington said the seismic upgrades “virtually guarantee” the reliability of safe drinking water for 2.6 million Bay Area residents within 24 hours of a major earthquake.

“These projects now serve as our reinforced lifeline to deliver Hetch Hetchy water around the Bay,” Harrington said.

“Five years ago we would not have had the same reliability we have today,” he said.

Read more: Bay citizen

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Effort Falters on San Francisco Bay Delta

Published on 12/18/2010 in agriculture, drought, policy, rivers, water diversions and water wars. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Photo retrieved from: www.nytimes.com

“The Bay Delta Conservation Plan, a federal and state initiative, would re-engineer the delta to make it safe for native species and would establish a framework for water distribution for the next 50 years. The delta, where California’s two largest rivers come together, supplies about one-quarter of the freshwater used by about 23 million Californians.

The goals of the plan are to keep vegetables and fruit trees growing in the Central Valley, taps running in Southern California and native fish swimming in the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers and in the briny western reaches of the delta, which the rivers feed and give it its formal name.

But the Westlands Water District, which serves some of the wealthiest and most powerful agricultural interests, has pulled out of the negotiations, saying it doubts it will get the water deliveries it had expected.

“The original purpose was to restore our water supply,” said Tom Birmingham, the general manager of the district, which snakes along the western edge of the Central Valley and serves 600 farms, according to its Web site.

The route the water takes is not without risks. Because of 160 years of farming and the construction of 1,100 miles of levees, delta lands have sunk and are now 3 to 20 feet below sea level. Mindful of how Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005, planners are also focusing on the possibility that a big earthquake or storm could break crucial levees and allow saltwater from the bay to inundate the delta, which could shut off a large source of the freshwater supply for months.

Among the proposed solutions to the environmental and engineering issues is a $13 billion tunnel that would tap into the Sacramento River farther upstream and divert water around the delta. The tunnel, which could be 33 feet in diameter and 33 miles long, would be designed to be more resilient to earthquakes. It could also eliminate the springtime problem of newly hatched young smelt being sucked into giant pumps south of the delta that pull the river water into the distribution system.”

Read more: New York Times

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