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A personal letter:
        
Sept 01,2007
 
Dear Friends:
 
      The  message delivered by the three judges of the appellate court are laws written not to protect the public but to profit like Leviathan, a monster of misplaced power. We, the citizens, decided not to submit the summary  on line because of  future  embarrasment  to the  three agencies, trial court, and appellate court.
 
    The message I deliver to you is quite simple.  It is time to get serious about saving our water. The approved project for the reservoir is nothing but a money making machine for the San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District, a wholesale quasi government, to sell water
to other governments.  The interest is to sell water to other government agencies (retail) besides to the  governments (city) currently serving. 
 
Can  we afford to sell water to other city governments?  All evidence is contrary to sell water to others. A few reminders: 
  •  Because of our lack of rainfall  how can we afford to sell water to other city governments and not be reponsible  to the cities currently serving?
  • The most recent indicator of the problem is the fact that the Governor of California declared a state of emergency in Riverside County because agriculture there has been decimated by the lack of rainfall. Riverside received less than 2 inches of precipitation in the rain year that ended June 30 - less than  Death Valley got.
  • The real problem is that the dry conditions are not a local  matter.  The aridness reaches high into the  Sierra Nevada mountain range as well as across the Colorado River Basin, meaning most of the Southwest.
  • The Sierra snowpack this spring was about a  third of its normal size, resulting in a 40 percent cut in deliveries from the State  Water Project.
  •  The Colorado River, in its eight year of drought. Los Angeles had its driest year since the first records were kept in the 1870's.
      The real issue I will leave with you is the need to get serious about our water. Without rain, and without voluntary conservation efforts by all, I forecast that in the next few years we could be in for mandatory cutbacks statewide. California is in serious drought conditions that are affecting areas from Denver to Las Vegas to Phoenix. 
     My messsage is clear; it  is time to get serious about protecting our natural resource, and stop those agencies from taking our resource knowing that water  is a critical issue facing the Inland Empire region.
 
      So, my dear friends the ball is in our court to stop Leviathan.  Just remember, by 2010 the water supply could be short by four million (4) acre feet/year. Today, we  use sixteen million acre feet/year  of groundwater but   imagine  the need for water because of urban growth and being short by four million acre feet/year.  Our natural resource, water, benefits the San Bernardino Valley and it belongs to us.  The only recourse is an initiative to stop the agencies once for all.  Thank you.
 
 
Sincerely,
 
Deanna 
 
 
       WHAT IS MORE VALUABLE WATER OR GOLD?
                            a few facts pertaining to water
 
 
Water shortage feared
Rationing may be in I.E.'s future after judge's ruling
Andrew Edwards, Staff Writer

The Inland Empire may be about to learn how precious water really is.

Although local water officials have yet to learn exactly how the area will be affected by a recent court ruling that will curtail water deliveries to Southern California, the word from water agencies serving east San Bernardino County is that now is the time to start thinking about conservation.

And depending on future events - notably whether the Inland Empire receives a substantial amount of rainfall during the coming winter or experiences another bone-dry season - authorities may even turn to water rationing.

Randy Van Gelder, general manager of the San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District, said there is a very real possibility that inland California could start to look different in the next few years.

The potential for reduced water supplies for Southern Californians could mean less water will be available to keep lawns and parks looking green.

"In the long-term - the long-term meaning two, three, five years - the lifestyle we have will not be able to be sustained," Van Gelder said. "You may end up with things like restricting the amount of lawn you have at a house.

"We would end up looking more

like the semi-arid desert that we are."

The latest shock to California's water system happened on Aug. 31, when U.S. District Court Judge Oliver Wanger ruled that water deliveries from the San Joaquin-Sacramento River delta must be reduced between the months of December and June to protect delta smelt, an endangered fish.

Wanger said pumps used to transport water to Central Valley farms and Southern California cities kill fish populations.

The National Resources Defense Council and other environmental groups filed a lawsuit in 2005 to protect delta smelt.

On Thursday, the NRDC issued a statement praising the judge's order as necessary to protect fish populations and water quality in the delta.

State Water Contractors, an association of California water agencies, has estimated that Wanger's ruling could reduce water flows from the delta by up to one-third of current amounts.

Water deliveries would be reduced for both the State Water Project and federal Central Valley Project, which primarily serves farmers.

In the near term, it won't matter if Wanger's decision is successfully appealed, since the judge's order would not be stayed while any appeal is in process, said Susan Sims, spokeswoman for the California Department of Water Resources.

What Sims called "the new normal" means that come December, water providers can expect to receive smaller amounts of water than they request.

"This is a man-made drought on top of a Mother Nature drought," she said.

The San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District distributes water to more localized agencies that pipe water into homes.

Van Gelder said the district currently uses less than half of the maximum amount of State Water Project supply it is entitled to.

"Maybe a cut back doesn't hurt (us) as much as everyone else," he said.

In July, the Yucaipa Valley Water District started running drinking water through a $44 million filtration system intended to clean State Water Project-provided water.

The district's general manager, Joseph Zoba, said the millions won't go to waste - he still expects to receive state water.

However, the likelihood that reduced amounts of water will be flowing to Yucaipa means that he does not expect to be able to use imported water to replenish local supplies.

"We won't be able to bank as much water into the ground as we wanted to," Zoba said.

Nevertheless, Zoba does not foresee reduced water deliveries as something that will block or significantly slow future development in the Yucaipa and Calimesa areas.

He said the district's requirement that future housing developments pipe in recycled water for watering lawns and other nondrinking purposes will enable future construction to happen.

Zoba and Redlands Water Resources Manager Chris Diggs both acknowledged the possibility of mandatory water rationing and said that for now, it's a must for locals to save water.

"More conservation is necessary - put it that way," Diggs said.

Zoba and Diggs also noted that winter weather will have a big impact on how severely reduced water flows affect the East Valley.

About 20 percent of Redlands' summertime water supply is imported, Diggs said. If enough rain falls to keep the city's local water sources in good shape, Redlands could make it through the new water situation without too much difficulty.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger seized upon the Aug. 31 court decision as a moment to trumpet his water proposal, which would spend $4.5 billion on water storage and another billion to restore the delta.

Locally, Stacey Aldstadt, general manager of the San Bernardino Water Department, also said it's time to invest in new water infrastructure, such as the proposed Bunker Hill Basin Regional Water Supply Project.

The Bunker Hill proposal could cost about $120 million and take seven years to build. The idea is to construct several wells and a treatment facility for local groundwater.

In the meantime, Aldstadt echoed other area officials by calling on residents to save water.

"We really are asking people to conserve as much as possible," she said. "Don't water your lawn in the middle of the day. Don't wash your driveway."

****************
We just can't keep growing
Our view: The threat of water rationing is a wake-up call to Southern California - especially our politicians.

Don't blame the smelt. A district judge cited the danger of wiping out the tiny Sacramento Delta fish when he imposed tough restrictions that threaten Southern California's water supply. But if it hadn't been the smelt, it would have been something else.

Eventually, something was going to arise to make the state face the fact that its water demands can't keep going up indefinitely while the water supply keeps shrinking.

The preciousness of water in this semidesert state is something that has escaped the attention of California's politicians. That's because all they can see is how growth replenishes public treasuries and provides more money to squander every year.

State and local politicians routinely rubber-stamp new developments with little thought to environmental preservation or the strain on water supply.

Something had to give.

The expected result of the ruling last week is the threat of water rationing that would hit many Southern California communities hard. For most of us, it means adopting a perpetual-drought mind-set and conserving at every level. For agriculture, it will mean a hard economic punch. And for politicians, it ought to mean a serious rethinking of land-use policy

Some will dismiss this an overreaction to the possible extinction of a little-known fish. But concentrating on the water rights of smelt vs. humans misses the entire point: We don't have unlimited amounts of water.

If there isn't enough water for smelt or people, how can we continue to allow major construction developments that bring in more people who need more water and force more rationing on current residents?

The answer is we can't.

The largest user of delta water, the Metropolitan Water District, has already made plans for rationing water to its 18 million users. No doubt every agency affected will do the same.

The past of California has been one of opportunity and open horizons and the dream for millions of new and potential residents. This ruling makes it clear the future must be different for the state to continue to prosper.

Water can be used more wisely, stronger conservation measures can be introduced, and future developments need to meet stringent land-use planning rules and pay a hefty premium for that most basic of all necessities, water.

 

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