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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>These articles are compiled (with emphasis added)
by John Mills, from Jeff Cohen's California Water news. They all have some
direct or indirect relation to the Trinity-Klamath
system. </FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>Editorial: Watered-down
hopes</STRONG></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>For new reservoirs, don't expect
subsidies</STRONG></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>Sacramento Bee -
10/26/04</STRONG></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<P><FONT size=4>California's congressional delegation did something rare and
important recently. It managed to agree on legislation to advance water and
Delta/river habitat projects in California. As a political achievement,
particularly for Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Rep. Richard Pombo of Tracy, this is
one to relish.</FONT></P>
<P><U><B><FONT size=4>But the political success had its price - or more
accurately put, its scaled-down price. There's a lesson here - to be wary of
relying so much on Washington - that California's water community is slow to
learn.</FONT></B></U></P>
<P><FONT size=4><U><B>To get this bill through Congress, Feinstein and Pombo had
to shrink this funding bill from an estimated $2.4 billion down to $395
million</B></U> to be stretched over four years. That is a reduction of more
than 80 percent. California's wish list of water and habitat projects, however,
has not decreased by 80 percent. If anything, it has grown.</FONT></P>
<P><B><FONT size=4>Finance - the mismatch between the supply of subsidies and
the demand - is the biggest challenge for Cal-Fed. This is the name given to the
state/federal effort to better manage the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and
simultaneously make progress on the water needs of humans and
fish.</FONT></B></P>
<P><FONT size=4>Cal-Fed has been remarkably successful at getting more than a
dozen state and federal agencies to co-manage the Delta, and at providing better
science. It derived its ambitious list of restoration, reservoir and conveyance
projects - with a cost perhaps as much as $30 billion - during the late 1990s,
when the federal and state governments were running big surpluses. That's no
longer the case.</FONT></P>
<P><U><B><FONT size=4>Cal-Fed is studying whether to build a new generation of
reservoirs, but the new federal legislation contains no funds to actually
construct any of them. The most ardent proponents of reservoirs seem to be
banking on considerable federal help in building them.</FONT></B></U></P>
<P><FONT size=4>That seems more than a little backward in terms of logic.
<U><B>If any given water supply project has merit, whether it is desalination or
conservation or a reservoir, shouldn't the water districts that would benefit be
lining up to make the investments directly?</B></U></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>Consider the State Water Project. This system of dams and
aqueducts was built by the state borrowing the funds and the water districts
paying off the debt. This is a reliable method of financing projects. But with
future projects, the challenge is identifying who benefits from them (and thus
who has to pay off the debt). That may sound simple. But it's not.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4><U><B>Politically, a tempting solution is to find somebody else
to pay (as in state or federal subsidies). Neither, however, seems a likely
source for all the desired funds, or anything close. The future Cal-Fed projects
that will actually be built will be the ones that figure out the
financing.<BR></B></U></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4><U><B><BR></B></U></FONT></P>
<P><B><BIG><FONT face="Times New Roman">Press Release from the Commissioner's
Office</FONT> <BR><FONT face="Times New Roman">Contact: Trudy Harlow, (202)
513-0574 or Avra Morgan, (303) 445-2906</FONT> <BR><FONT
face="Times New Roman">For Release: October 26, 2004 </FONT><BR><FONT
face="Times New Roman">The Request for Proposals for the Water 2025 Challenge
Grant Program for Fiscal Year 2005 is now available online at <A
class=moz-txt-link-abbreviated href="http://www.grants.gov">www.grants.gov</A>
(keyword search: Water 2025). Additional information about the Challenge Grant
program, including frequently asked questions and answers, is available at
</FONT><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=#0000ff><A
class=moz-txt-link-abbreviated
href="http://www.doi.gov/water2025">www.doi.gov/water2025</A> <<A
href="http://www.doi.gov/water2025"
target=_blank>http://www.doi.gov/water2025</A>></FONT><FONT
face="Times New Roman">. </FONT></BIG></B></P>
<P><B><BIG><FONT face="Times New Roman">The Challenge Grant Program is seeking
proposals from irrigation and water districts that want to leverage their money
and resources in partnership with Reclamation, to make more efficient use of
existing water supplies through water conservation, efficiency and water
marketing projects. </FONT></BIG></B></P>
<P><B><BIG><FONT face="Times New Roman">The program is focused on achieving the
outcomes identified in Interior Secretary Gale Norton's Water 2025: Preventing
Crises and Conflict in the West, particularly through water conservation and
efficiency, water markets and collaboration, with an emphasis on projects that
can be completed within 24 months and that reduce future water conflicts.
</FONT></BIG></B></P>
<P><U><B><BIG><FONT face="Times New Roman">"The goal of Water 2025 -- and these
challenge grants -- is to support realistic, cooperative approaches and tools
that have the most likelihood of successfully addressing water challenges in
basins where crisis and conflict are preventable," Secretary Norton said. "Water
2025 is focused on local solutions in partnership with local water users."
</FONT></BIG></B></U></P>
<P><U><B><BIG><FONT face="Times New Roman">The deadline for submitting proposals
is January 21, 2005. Selection and award is anticipated by July 1, with
implementation beginning in early August, 2005. However, depending on the number
and type of proposals received, funding for some proposals selected in Fiscal
Year 2005 may be awarded in the beginning of Fiscal Year 2006, to ensure
efficient administration of all Challenge Grant projects.
</FONT></BIG></B></U></P>
<P><B><BIG><FONT face="Times New Roman">The Water 2025 Challenge Grants
encourage voluntary water banks and other market-based measures, promote the use
of new technology for water conservation and efficiency, and remove
institutional barriers in order to increase cooperation and collaboration among
federal, state, tribal, and private organizations. </FONT></BIG></B></P>
<P><B><BIG><FONT face="Times New Roman">Eligible applicants include irrigation
and water districts, tribal water authorities, and entities created under state
law with water delivery authority, which may include water user associations,
water conservancy districts, canal, ditch and reservoir companies, and municipal
water authorities. Applicants must also be located in the western United States,
as identified in the Reclamation Act of June 17, 1902, as amended and
supplemented -- specifically, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas,
Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South
Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. Those not eligible for funding
under the Challenge Grant Program include other state governmental entities,
Federal governmental entities, universities, individuals, and other entities
without water delivery authority.</FONT></BIG></B></P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT><BR></P>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>Supervisors join forces with Sonoma
to develop regional water plan </STRONG></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>Eureka Times-Standard -
10/27/04</STRONG></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>By James Tressler, staff
writer</STRONG></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<P><FONT size=4>Humboldt County has and probably will continue to fight its
neighbors across the state over the protection of its water resources, but the
county could stand a better chance of getting millions of dollars for
water-related projects using a team approach. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>That was the rationale <U><B><BIG>Humboldt County supervisors
applied Tuesday in voting unanimously to sign an agreement with the Sonoma
County Water Agency to develop a regional water needs plan. Other counties,
including Del Norte, Mendocino, Lake and Siskiyou, are also expected to come on
board in the coming weeks.</BIG></B></U> </FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>Starting next year the state will award hundreds of millions of
dollars in Proposition 50 monies, which will go toward water projects ranging
from coastal protection, sewer and water infrastructure to meet housing needs,
safe drinking water and watershed restoration. Because there's a limited amount
of money and the state will divide the money between Southern and Northern
California -- with the line drawn at Santa Barbara -- the Sonoma agency earlier
this year pitched the idea of the North Coast counties joining
forces.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>Humboldt County has about $27 million in unmet water needs,
ranging from watershed restoration projects to sewer and water infrastructure
developers say is critical to building new housing subdivisions. The county,
working with cities, special districts and fisheries and watershed restoration
groups, will immediately identify projects to pursue the first round of grants,
some $160 million available in the spring. Meanwhile, they'll also work with the
other counties over the next year on a regional list of projects for the next
round in 2006. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>Not everyone is excited about the agreement. Dr. Denver Nelson,
who serves on the county Fish and Game Commission, reminded the board Tuesday
that the county has fought Sonoma County for decades over water diverted from
the Eel River. Nelson also argued that the county could avoid spending millions
of dollars on watershed restoration if rivers such as the Eel, Trinity and
Klamath had adequate flow levels in the first place. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>Chairwoman Jill Geist and 1st District Supervisor Jimmy Smith,
both of whom will serve on a subcommittee that will prioritize projects, said
they don't think the agreement will hamper the county's ability to continue
fighting to restore diverted waters to the Eel River. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>Both also said they see the agreement as a golden opportunity.
</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>"We need to move beyond the single issue of arguments over the
Eel River with Sonoma County," Smith said. "I think this is an opportunity to
look at the greater needs of the greater region and spend that time trying to
prioritize." </FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>Lisa Renton, representing the Sonoma County Water Agency, echoed
the supervisors' hopes that the regional plan will benefit all
parties.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>Second District Supervisor Roger Rodoni voiced concerns that the
regional plan could translate into more laws that could hamper timber companies
and other businesses. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>"I worry about what we're going to give up in this plan," Rodoni
said. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>But Community Development Services Director Kirk Girard, who
will help the county identify and prioritize local projects, said the county has
identified water use as a key element in its general plan, which is being
updated. Girard said the board can have some say on how the regional agreement
will affect local businesses in which Proposition 50-related projects it chooses
to pursue. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>The other counties besides Sonoma and Humboldt are considering
the regional agreement, but haven't yet signed on. In Humboldt County, the
McKinleyville Community Services District has agreed to be a partner in
developing the plan. Other cities and districts are expected to consider the
idea soon. #</FONT></P>
<P><BR><U><B><BIG><FONT face="Times New Roman"></FONT></BIG></B></U></P>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>LOCAL
DISTRICTS</STRONG></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>MWD Chief Gastelum to Step
Down</STRONG></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>Los Angeles Times -
10/27/04</STRONG></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>By Tony Perry and Jason Felch, staff
writers</STRONG></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<P><U><B><FONT size=4>Ronald Gastelum announced Tuesday that he plans to retire
as president and chief executive of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern
California after five years of guiding the agency through controversy, cutbacks
and an ambitious search for water to accommodate the region's growing
needs.</FONT></B></U></P>
<P><U><B><FONT size=4>Gastelum, 58, said he would leave his $297,000 a year post
Dec. 31. He said he had no specific plans for the future.</FONT></B></U></P>
<P><FONT size=4>"It's been a good run, and now it's time to move on," Gastelum
said.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>MWD board Chairman Phillip Pace praised Gastelum for helping the
Los Angeles-based agency face "more factors of uncertainty" than during any time
in its 76-year history.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>Among those factors are a devastating drought in the Western
states and a decision by the federal government to bow to demands from other
states to reduce California's overreliance on the Colorado River.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>Under Gastelum, the MWD was a party to a historic agreement
divvying up Colorado River water. The agency also enhanced conservation and
recycling efforts, launched desalination and storage programs, and tried to make
peace with its largest and unhappiest member agency, the San Diego County Water
Authority.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>Water officials from Washington to El Centro said Gastelum
brought a civility to the bitter arena of California water disputes. As water
wholesaler to local agencies serving 17 million people in six counties, the MWD
is central in nearly any discussion of water in California.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>Bennett Raley, the top official in the Bush administration on
Western water matters, said Gastelum would be remembered for helping prepare
Southern California for a cutback in water from the Colorado River and helping
Nevada and California end their decades of squabbling.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>Steve Hall, executive director of the Assn. of California Water
Agencies, said Gastelum's temperament was different in the high-stakes world of
water where feuds are common and interagency grudges are slow to die.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>"He didn't have any ideology," Hall said. "He just wanted to
find practical solutions."</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>But <B>Tom Graff, regional director of the California branch of
Environmental Defense, said many environmentalists were alarmed that under
Gastelum, the MWD had increased its water purchases from Northern
Califor</B>nia.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>"As a person, he was a competent and cagey leader," Graff said.
"He did tilt to the L.A. view of things instead of the Orange County-San Diego
view of things." Graff defined the latter view as a preference for local water
projects rather than seeking water from Northern California.#</FONT></P></DIV>
<P><FONT size=4><BR></FONT></P>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>Panel supports many parts of
California government overhaul</STRONG></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>Associated Press -
10/21/04</STRONG></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>By Ben Fox, staff
writer</STRONG></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV>
<P><FONT size=4>IRVINE - <U><B>A proposal to reform California's government by
privatizing some functions and eliminating others won a qualified endorsement
from the group charged with collecting public testimony on the massive
overhaul.</B></U></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>The bipartisan California Performance Review Commission ended a
series of public hearings Wednesday at the University of California, Irvine with
a draft report agreeing with many of the changes proposed by a team organized by
the governor to eliminate government waste.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>But <U><B>the 21-member commission also urged Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger to reject some proposals, including elimination of the Air
Resources Board, a requirement that public university students do volunteer
service or moving game wardens and park rangers into a new homeland security
agency.</B></U></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>The commission's report is vague at points to reflect the
consensus of a diverse commission on the 1,200 recommendations for streamlining
California's bureaucracy - including many that have prompted sharp criticism and
could result in the loss of thousands of state and local government
jobs.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>Schwarzenegger has not spelled out which of the recommendations,
some of which require legislative approval, he will pursue. A spokeswoman,
Ashley Snee, said he would most likely seek reforms separately rather than all
at once.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>Chon Gutierrez, the co-chairman of Schwarzenegger's California
Performance Review study, which came up with the proposals, said about 30 of the
recommendations will be altered because of factual errors uncovered during the
public hearings. The rest will be sent to the governor's office for
consideration, he said.</FONT></P>
<P><U><B><FONT size=4>Commission member J.J. Jelincic, the president of the
California State Employees Association, said his union, which represents more
than 100,000 workers, will fight against mass privatization of government
services and other elements that he said reflect the influence of business
lobbyists.</FONT></B></U></P>
<P><FONT size=4>"The draft report is vague enough that it's something I can at
least live with even if I don't agree with all of it," Jelincic said. "The
biggest problem continues to be that there is a real underlying assumption that
public employees can't do the job and they need to contract it out."</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>In its report, the commission said it agrees with the governor
and the California Performance Review team that the state's government needs to
adopt improved technology and reorganize aspects of the bureaucracy.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>It also agreed that the state should evaluate the state's more
than 100 boards and commissions, though the public testimony convinced them to
keep the Air Resources Board and the regional water quality control
boards.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>The commission disagreed with a suggestion from former Gov.
George Deukmejian that the state create a Citizen Oversight Commission over the
troubled prison system. Commissioners also rejected outright a proposal to
require public university students to perform volunteer service.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>Earlier, Jelincic sharply criticized the closed-door process
used by the governor's team to draft the performance review proposals, and he
called for the Fair Political Practices Commission to investigate allegations
that business groups influenced the 2,700-page document.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>"To be blunt, there is no excuse for allowing people or
organizations with a blatant conflict-of-interest to play a dominant role in
shaping public policy for their own advantage," he wrote in a letter to the
commission.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>Schwarzenegger launched the reorganization effort in January,
calling the state bureaucracy a "mastodon frozen in time" that needed to be
reviewed from top to bottom to eliminate waste and duplication. The
administration said the recommendations would save $32 billion over five years,
but the state's Legislative Analyst put the savings at $10 billion to $15
billion.#</FONT></P>
<P><BR></P></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>STATE
AGENCIES<SPAN class=697525617-21102004> / WATER
BOARDS</SPAN></STRONG></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>Spare some
state boards, panel urges the governor</STRONG></FONT></FONT></DIV><FONT
size=4></FONT>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>Sacramento
</STRONG></FONT></FONT><FONT face=Tahoma size=4><STRONG>Bee
</STRONG></FONT><FONT size=4><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>-
10/21/04</STRONG></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>Staff
report</STRONG></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4></FONT>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4>A commission assembled by Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger to gauge public reaction to a 2,500-page plan to overhaul state
government is urging the governor to scrap some of the California Performance
Review's recommendations and spare the California Air Resources Board and
regional water quality control boards from elimination.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4>While the California Performance Review
Commission has yet to formally forward its recommendations to Schwarzenegger,
commissioners discussed their thoughts Wednesday in Irvine at the last of eight
public hearings on the report.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4>In a telephone interview after the
hearing, commission co-chairman Bill Hauck said the boards regulating the
automobile industry and water quality are nationally respected and give the
public access to environmental decision-making.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4>The CPR recommends eliminating 1,153 paid
and unpaid posts on 117 boards and commissions, and transferring functions to a
consolidated system of agencies under the executive branch. Hauck said some
boards may be unnecessary, but that commissioners are concerned that eliminating
all of them could limit the public's ability to know what's going on and to have
input into government.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4>"We don't want to make it more difficult
for people to access the decision-making process in state government," Hauck
said.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4>Reducing boards and commissions would
save an estimated $34 million a year in a state with a $105 billion
budget.</FONT><FONT size=4>#<BR><BR></FONT></P>
<P><B><BIG><FONT face="Courier New" size=2><BIG>EPA Issues Updated Guidelines
for Water Reuse</BIG></FONT> </BIG></B></P>
<P><FONT face="Courier New" size=2>EPA's Office of Water and Office of Research
and Development, in partnership with the U.S. Agency for International
Development (U.S. AID), have approved and are now distributing a 2004 Guidelines
for Water Reuse Manual (EPA625-R-04/018), which recommend water reuse
guidelines, along with supporting information, to help water and wastewater
utilities and regulatory agencies, particularly in the U.S. "This updated
toolkit will help water managers advance water conservation and sustainability
efforts at home and abroad," said Benjamin Grumbles, Acting Assistant
Administrator for Water. The document updates the 1992 Guidelines document
by incorporating information on water reuse that has been developed since the
1992 document was issued, including expanded coverage of water reuse issues and
practices in other countries. It was developed via an EPA Cooperative
Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with Camp Dresser McKee and an
Interagency Agreement with U.S. AID, along with extensive contributions by many
volunteers.</FONT></P>
<P><B><FONT face="Courier New" size=2>The updated Guidelines document is being
distributed (in both printed and CD formats) by EPA's Office of Research and
Development/Technology Transfer Program as one of their Manuals of
Practice. Copies of the updated manual can be ordered via the website <A
class=moz-txt-link-abbreviated
href="http://www.epa.gov/ttbnrmrl">www.epa.gov/ttbnrmrl</A> and has been posted
in pdf form at <A
href="http://www.epa.gov/ORD/NRMRL/pubs/625r04108/625r04108.pdf"
target=_blank>http://www.epa.gov/ORD/NRMRL/pubs/625r04108/625r04108.pdf</A> .
For further information contact Robert Bastian at 202 564
0653.</FONT></B></P><BR>
<P><B><BIG><FONT face="Courier New" size=2><BIG>Stormwater Illicit Discharge
Detection and Elimination Manual Now Available</BIG></FONT> </BIG></B></P>
<P><FONT face="Courier New" size=2>The Center for Watershed Protection and the
University of Alabama, under a grant from EPA, have produced a comprehensive
manual for municipalities that must develop and implement programs to find and
correct illicit discharges to their storm sewer systems. The new manual
includes detailed information on creating and managing a program, and a
comprehensive guide to field and lab protocols. The new manual and
supporting materials can be downloaded free of charge at <B><A
class=moz-txt-link-freetext
href="http://www.cwp.org/idde_verify.html">http://www.cwp.org/idde_verify.html</A><BR></B></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Courier New" size=2><B><BR></B></FONT></P>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>Secretary Norton Praises President's Signing of
Landmark CALFED Legislation </STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>News release, U.S. Department of Interior -
10/26/04</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV>
<P>WASHINGTON -<U><B><BIG> Interior Secretary Gale Norton today praised
President Bush's signing of landmark legislation that authorizes $389 million
for a major environmental initiative to restore California's critical Bay-Delta
estuary while also addressing the needs of urban and agricultural waters
users.</BIG></B></U> </P>
<P><U><B><BIG>The president signed the Water Supply Reliability and
Environmental Improvement Act, popularly known as CALFED, on Oct. 25,
2004.</BIG></B></U> The legislation provides federal authorization for a
long-term collaborative plan for environmental restoration and enhancement of
the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta estuary. The initiative also
calls for making needed improvements in statewide water supplies, flood control
and water quality. </P>
<P>"This landmark legislation represents the culmination of a strong bipartisan
effort by the California Congressional delegation to secure California's water
future," Norton said. "<B>As the largest and most comprehensive water-management
plan in the nation, the CALFED program is a national model of collaborative
resource management. The Department of the Interior affirms its commitment to
working with the State of California and water and environmental interests to
address California's water needs."</B> </P>
<P>"I want to acknowledge the extraordinary efforts of Chairman Richard Pombo,
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Chairman Pete Domenici, and Rep. Ken Calvert in working
to craft this bill," Norton continued, "and for working so hard with the many
stakeholder interests in California that support this program. With the
President's signature, the CALFED family can now take on the most challenging
phase in its decade long history -- implementation." </P>
<P>CALFED is a partnership of 24 California and federal agencies and
representatives of California's environmental, urban and agricultural
communities that is built on the common recognition that their missions and
interests can be accomplished best through collaboration and cooperation. </P>
<P><B>CALFED agencies have spent $1 billion over the last decade</B> to
significantly improve the ecological health of the Bay-Delta watershed by
restoring and protecting habitat and enhancing the environment for fisheries and
wetlands. The CALFED Program includes actions to recover species listed under
the state and federal endangered species acts. The newly signed legislation
ensures that CALFED will continue species and ecosystem restoration using the
best available science. </P>
<P>The legislation also will drive forward state and federal efforts to
modernize California's water-management infrastructure. CALFED is pursuing the
construction of new water storage reservoirs, groundwater storage programs,
water recycling and conservation programs.</P>
<P>The CALFED program contains many elements to assist Southern California in
reducing its use of water from the Colorado River, which will cause water and
environmental benefits to ripple up the Colorado River basin to the other six
states that rely on the river.</P>
<P>"CALFED's great strength is its requirement of balanced progress toward the
primary objectives of ecosystem restoration, water supply and reliability, water
quality, and levee system integrity," Norton said. "This legislation reinforces
this goal by mandating continuous progress across all program elements." #</P>
<P> </P></DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT face=Tahoma>TRANSFERS<SPAN class=676585217-26102004> /
SACRAMENTO VALLEY</SPAN></FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>Water transfers protested </STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>Marysville Appeal-Democrat -
10/26/04</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>By Harold Kruger, staff
writer</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<P><U><B><BIG>Citing the threat of water exports from the Sacramento Valley,
environmental and other groups are protesting the Bureau of Reclamation's plan
to renew Sacramento River settlement contracts for 40 years.</BIG></B></U></P>
<P><U><B><BIG>"As proposed, these contracts will encourage water exports which
in turn will lead to fewer working farms, lower reservoirs, less boating and
fishing recreation, and dry wells," said Michael Jackson, co-chair of the
Sacramento Valley Environmental Water Caucus.</BIG></B></U></P>
<P>A hearing is scheduled Wednesday in Willows.</P>
<P>There are up to 145 contracts for about 1.8 million acre-feet of base supply
per year and approximately 380,000 acre-feet of Central Valley Project water per
year. </P>
<P>CVP water users in Shasta, Tehama, Butte, Glenn, Colusa, Sutter, Yolo and
Sacramento counties are affected.</P>
<P>The Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District is the largest Sacramento Valley CVP
contractor at 825,000 acre-feet.</P>
<P><B>"To ensure that we have the flexibility we'll need to contend with future
land use decisions or droughts here in our valley, we should limit the life and
amount of these contracts," Jackson said.</B></P>
<P><U><B>The contract renewals are governed by the 1992 Central Valley Project
Improvement Act, which allows individual farmers to sell the water that they
don't use to grow crops.</B></U></P>
<P>The Natural Resources Defense Council contended that the Bureau of
Reclamation's own files showed that all but two of the water districts would
receive allocations for more water than they have historically used, totaling
several hundred thousand acre-feet of water annually. </P>
<P><BIG><U><B>"Southern California developers are eager for us to export more
water to promote more sprawl," said John Merz, co-chair of the Sacramento Valley
Environmental Water Caucus. "At the same time, San Joaquin Valley corporate
farms want more Sacramento Valley water because recent court decisions in favor
of the public trust now require that enough water be left in rivers such as the
Trinity and San Joaquin to support their fishery."</B></U></BIG></P>
<P><U><B>Groundwater pumping is not covered in the contracts and there are no
clauses prohibiting a farmer from selling their contract water and replacing it
with well water.</B></U></P>
<P>In the last drought, farmers in the valley used groundwater to replace the
surface water that they exported.</P>
<P><U><B>"It is not fair to other farmers or to anyone with a well to allow
water exports without true groundwater protection laws," said Lynn Barris, a
farmer and member of Valley Water Protection Association. "Water districts
should only be allowed to use the public's water in the amounts that their
farmers need after they have implemented water conservation practices. And they
shouldn't be allowed to sell the water they take from our rivers and replace it
with additional groundwater pumping."</B></U></P>
<P>Fishing clubs, river protection organizations, state and national
conservation groups, local business owners and others will provide details of
their concerns at the Willows hearing.#<BR></P>
<P><BR></P>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>Being a 3rd Party is No
Party<BR>CENTRAL VALLEY PROJECT / WESTLANDS / ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
ISSUE</STRONG></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>Comment: No place to call home on
west side </STRONG></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>Fresno Bee -
10/26/04</STRONG></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT face=Tahoma><STRONG>By Bill McEwen, staff
columnist</STRONG></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<P><U><B><FONT size=4>When growers, lawyers and federal officials negotiated a
complicated $140 million deal that retired thousands of acres of poisoned
farmland in Westlands Water District, everybody walked away with something.
</FONT></B></U></P>
<P><U><B><FONT size=4>Except farmworkers.</FONT></B></U></P>
<P><FONT size=4>Their reward for working land that has fed and clothed millions
of people? </FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>Eviction.</FONT></P>
<P><U><FONT size=4><B><BIG>"As land retirement takes place, you see the result,"
says west Fresno County grower Ed O'Neill, whose 5,700-acre ranch is leaving
production. "People who have lived on farms their whole lives end up jobless and
homeless the same day."</BIG></B> O'Neill isn't talking about migrant pickers
who follow the crops from region to region. The people he's talking about are
foremen, tractor drivers, irrigators and other hands who've lived in
rancher-supplied housing for decades.</FONT></U></P>
<P><U><B><BIG><FONT size=4><BIG>Somehow, during all of the negotiations plotting
the future of Westlands, no one remembered to figure out where farmworkers would
live when land was retired.</BIG></FONT></BIG></B></U></P>
<P><FONT size=4>That has Dora Reyes wondering where her family of nine will
move. Her husband has worked 25 years for a ranch that has a row of 10
mustard-colored stucco houses at San Diego and Adams avenues.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>"If I could find a place today, I'd move," Reyes
says.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>Westlands originally said it would retire 200,000 acres. Now it
envisions 100,000 retired, leaving 470,000 in production. The district predicts
that because of improved water reliability and supply, it will add 3,047 jobs by
2020. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>But housing is scarce in west-side communities such as Firebaugh
and Mendota.</FONT></P>
<P><U><B><FONT size=4>"If you walk down the main streets, you have one view of
town," says Firebaugh City Manager Jose Antonio Ramirez. "But if you walk down
the alleys, you see the other side. People are living wherever they can
</FONT><FONT face=Tahoma size=4>—</FONT><FONT size=4> in garages, in sheds
</FONT><FONT face=Tahoma size=4>—</FONT><FONT size=4> because there's not enough
housing."</FONT></B></U></P>
<P><FONT size=4>Westlands says <B>some evicted families have received $3,000 in
relocation money from ranch owners. The district started working with state Sen.
Dean Florez, D-Shafter, and Fresno County officials this month to see that
farmworkers on retired land don't become homeless. The California Rural Legal
Assistance Foundation also is involved.</B></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>Florez says he hopes to have a relocation plan by the end of
November, and Fresno County Supervisor Phil Larson says housing will be
available.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>"Right now, we know of 20 families on the Murietta Farm who will
have to vacate by August of 2005," Larson says. "If they stay in the area, we
are going to find housing for them, but they will have to pay for
it."</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>With Florez as their watchdog, the displaced families likely
will receive relocation money and find new places to live. Many of them will
find work on nearby farms. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>But a bigger question remains: <U><B><BIG>Why doesn't Fresno
County allow farmworkers to live in subdivisions close to the land they work?
Westlands has a bright economic future in the long term and will need workers
for years to come.</BIG></B></U></FONT></P>
<P><U><B><BIG><FONT size=4><BIG>Yet the county has turned down a proposal by the
nonprofit Westside Housing and Economic Network for a subdivision near Westside
Elementary School in Five Points. The Habitat for Humanity project, which
included land and houses donated by O'Neill, had qualified for two federal
grants and a private grant.</BIG></FONT></BIG></B></U></P>
<P><B><BIG><BIG><FONT size=4><BIG><BIG>The county rejected the offer, saying its
general plan required growth to be directed toward cities. In addition, Larson
says the land where the subdivision would have gone has water
problems.</BIG></BIG></FONT></BIG></BIG></B></P>
<P><FONT size=4>The county needs to focus on the bigger picture.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>Approving rural west-side subdivisions isn't the same as caving
into corporate developers and allowing leapfrog sprawl outside Fresno or Clovis.
A few rural subdivisions won't stretch public services too thin or spur a land
rush in Mendota, Firebaugh and Huron.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>Farmworkers should be able to live close to their work instead
of driving 50 to 100 miles daily on dangerous, two-lane roads. They should have
the opportunity to buy homes.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>"The days of the farm labor camps are over because of the
regulatory cost," O'Neill says. "There's less housing for farmworkers, and they
must drive long distances from town to get to work. They work long, hard hours
and are not in shape to be driving those long distances."</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>You'd think that Fresno County </FONT><FONT face=Tahoma
size=4>—</FONT><FONT size=4> which touts agriculture as its marquee industry
</FONT><FONT face=Tahoma size=4>—</FONT><FONT size=4> would want to set the
standard for treating farmworkers.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>You'd think the county would want to find innovative ways to
help workers and agriculture succeed.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>You'd think the county would listen to Albert Miller, a Westside
Housing and Economic Network board member.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>"The farmworker is a segment of society that no one wants to
recognize," Miller says. "But without them in the fields, there are no
fields."</FONT></P>
<P><U><B><FONT size=4>Right now, the county has the opportunity to address the
problem of the west side's rapidly dwindling housing stock for
farmworkers.</FONT></B></U></P>
<P><U><B><FONT size=4>First, it should team with Westlands to save the homes on
retired land instead of seeing them demolished or destroyed by vandals. Many of
these homes are clean and sturdy. They should remain occupied or be moved to
where they can be lived in again.</FONT></B></U></P>
<P><U><FONT size=4><B>Second, the county should reconsider its position on
rural, self-help subdivisions, such as the one proposed in Five Points.</B>
</FONT></U></P>
<P><FONT size=4>Saying no is easy. It takes leadership and ingenuity to solve
this complicated problem. #<BR></FONT></P>
<P></P>
<P><B><BIG><BIG><FONT face="Courier New"
size=2><BIG><BIG><BR><BIG>Hydropower</BIG></BIG></BIG></FONT>
</BIG></BIG></B></P>
<P><B><FONT face="Courier New" size=2>BUSH ADMINISTRATION PROPOSES RESTRICTING
APPEALS ON DAMS</FONT></B> </P>
<P><U><B><FONT face="Courier New" size=2>The Bush administration has proposed
giving dam owners the exclusive right to appeal Interior Department rulings
about the way dams should be licensed and operated, which would prevent states,
Indian tribes and environmental groups from making their own
appeals.</FONT></B></U></P>
<P><FONT face="Courier New" size=2>The proposal is similar to language in
stalled energy legislation.</FONT> </P>
<P><FONT face="Courier New" size=2>Most privately owned dams were constructed
and granted their 30-to-50-year federal licenses before federal environmental
laws required protection for fish and other river life. Licenses for more than
half of the nation's privately owned dams are to come up for renewal in the next
15 years.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Courier New" size=2>Lynn Scarlett, assistant interior secretary
for policy, management and budget, who approved the proposed rule, said
d<U><BIG><B>am owners "would be facing an extremely high cost and very uncertain
benefits. Giving them some ability to voice their concern and present
alternatives seemed appropriate."</B></BIG></U></FONT></P>
<P><FONT face="Courier New" size=2>The proposal has drawn criticism from
Democrats in Congress, the attorneys general of several states, Indian tribes,
environmental groups and some high-level officials and scientists in the
Interior Department. <U><B>Within the agency, some attorneys have said the
appeals proposal is unconstitutional because it violates due process and equal
protection guarantees.</B></U></FONT> </P>
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