Snow Water Content 107% of Normal - But the "Drought" Continues?

Just when will the Department of Water Resources (DWR) declare that the "drought" is over? Will they wait until vast tracks of land on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley are inundated with muddy, swirling flood waters so Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger can stage a photo opportunity in a boat as he declares a flood disaster for the besieged "farmers" - and proclaims that the only way to stop disastrous flooding is to build a peripheral canal and new dams and vote for the water bond?"

Governor Schwarzenegger managed to take a break from his relentless war on Central Valley salmon and Delta fish populations and fishing jobs and his campaign to build a peripheral canal and new dams to engage in yet another shameless photo opportunity to divert people's attention from his abysmal record on fish and the environment.

On February 26, he held a press conference to highlight the signing of AB 510 to raise the requirement on net metering in California, "ensuring home and business owners continue to invest in solar power," according to the Governor's Office. From left to right: Assemblymember Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and SunPower Public Policy and Corporate Communications Vice President Julie Blunden.

Snow Water Content 107% of Normal - But the "Drought" Continues?

by Dan Bacher

The snow survey conducted by the State Department of Water Resources (DWR) on March 3 indicated that water content in California’s mountain snowpack is 107 percent of normal for the date, making the state water supply outlook much better this year than it was last season. By contrast, water content statewide was 80 percent of normal at this time last year.

Amazingly, DWR is still promoting the false concept of a drought this year. "California may face a fourth year of serious drought in 2010," DWR proclaims on its "drought" page: http://www.water.ca.gov/drought.

"Today’s readings boost our hope that we will be able to increase the State Water Project allocation by this spring to deliver more water to our cities and farms,” warned Mark Cowin, the new Department of Water Resources (DWR) Director. “But we must remember that even a wet winter will not fully offset three consecutive dry years or pumping restrictions to protect Delta fish so we must continue to conserve and protect our water resources.”

Just when will DWR declare that the "drought" is over? Will they wait until vast tracks of land on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley are inundated with muddy, swirling flood waters so Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger can stage a photo opportunity in a boat as he declares a flood disaster for the besieged "farmers" - and proclaims that the only way to stop disastrous flooding is to build a peripheral canal and new dams and vote for the water bond?"

Will Schwarzenegger, Senator Dianne Feinstein and corporate agribusiness then go on the peripheral canal/dams campaign trail around the state and blame "radical environmentalists" for causing the flooding by favoring "fish over people?"

After warning that the drought is not over yet, Cowin said Lake Oroville, the State Water Project’s principal storage reservoir, is "recovering slowly" after three "dry" years.

"Despite recent storms, its storage level today is only 55 percent average for this time of year," said Cowin. "It is also expected that dry soil conditions will absorb much of the snowpack’s water content that otherwise would help to replenish streams and reservoirs during the spring and early summer melt."

Cowin failed to note that Oroville has been kept artificially low over the last 2 to 3 months of heavy rain and snow and would have been closer to being filled had it not been for continuous releases from Oroville Dam that were "excessively higher" than the inflow of water, according to Mike Hudson, executive director of SalmonAid (http://www.salmonaid.org).

"There were releases of 4000-5000 cfs on average with maximum flows of 6000 cfs while inflows were around 2000 cfs," said Hudson. "On top of that, the low-flow section of the Feather was de-watered on 4 different occasions, 3 times in January and once in February - not a good thing for the chinook redds in that area," (http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/queryDaily?ORO&d=30-Jan-2010+16:40&sp...).

The state and federal governments drained Oroville, Shasta, Trinity, Folsom and other reservoirs to very low levels over the past three years to supply water to corporate agribusiness and to fill the Kern County Water Bank and Southern California reservoirs. Fishing and environmental groups are very critical of water management that serves agribusiness and corporate water pirates, such as Beverly Hills agribusiness tycoon Stewart Resnick, at the expense of imperiled fish populations.

"An Oroville low water level equals a San Luis Reservoir high water level," said Mike Jackson of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance. "An Oroville low water level also equals high Castaic and Perris water levels. The goal is that Oroville low water levels equal high Diamond Valley Reservoir and Kern Water Bank levels."

Jackson added, "Moving the water in November and December equals low flows in the summer and fall, posing risk to the salmon. There should never be a lower flow than 1000 cfs in the low flow section, even in the winter when temperatures may not control conditions."

On February 26, the State Water Project allocation was increased from 5 to 15 percent of requested amounts, according to DWR. If wet weather continues, the final allocation this spring likely will be in the range of 35-45 percent of requested amounts.

"The figure will partially be determined by how the fishery agency restrictions on pumping are applied, which will determine how much flexibility DWR has to export water from the Delta," said Cowin.

In 2009, the State Water Project delivered 40 percent of customer requests. "The federal Central Valley Project in 2009 was only able to deliver 10 percent of contracted amounts to some agricultural areas in the San Joaquin Valley," said Cowin. "The reduced deliveries were due both to dry weather and fishery agency pumping restrictions to protect fish species; principally Delta smelt, salmon, and longfin smelt."

Cowin failed to mention that in spite of all of the "Dust Bowl" rhetoric by the Valley's water contractors and agribusiness "Astroturf" groups last year, Tom Birmingham, the Westlands Water District general manager, stated in a press release on June 15, "We expect to have 64% of our average water supply in 2009."

That release corrected a chart attached to a letter by Lester Snow to Senator Dianne Feinstein that incorrectly indicated Westlands would have 86 percent of their average water supply last year. The corrected percentage was a combination of water deliveries from the Delta, groundwater pumping, water banked the previous year and purchases.

The average of final State Water Project allocations over the past 10 years has been 68 percent of the amount requested by the 29 public agencies with long-term contracts to purchase SWP water, according to Cowin.

Electronic sensor readings show northern Sierra snow water equivalents at 126 percent of normal for the date, central Sierra at 93 percent, and southern Sierra at 109 percent. The sensor readings are posted at http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgiprogs/
snow/DLYSWEQ.

The snow survey was taken as Central Valley salmon and Delta fish populations are in a state of unprecedented collapse, due to massive water exports from the Delta and declining water quality. The Sacramento River fall Chinook salmon run declined from nearly 800,000 fish in 2002 to only 39,500 fish in 2009. Delta smelt, longfin smelt, green sturgeon, threadfin shad, juvenile striped bass, American shad and Sacramento splittail populations have also plummeted to record low levels in recent years.

However, rather than address the real causes of the salmon collapse and Delta fish population crash, Schwarzenegger continues to ramrod his corrupt, fast-track Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative over recreational anglers, tribal seaweed harvesters and fishermen, commercial fishermen and coastal communities throughout the state.