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<H3 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><B><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black
size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><?xml:namespace
prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p> I
question the "wasting of water to the sea" and it's hard to imagine that
additional pumping from the Delta is going to be a good thing for the
Delta.</o:p></SPAN></FONT></B></H3>
<H3 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><B><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black
size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></B> </H3>
<H3 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><B><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black
size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p>TS</o:p></SPAN></FONT></B></H3>
<H3 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><B><FONT face="Times New Roman" color=black
size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></B> </H3>
<H3 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><B><FONT face=Tahoma color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">STATE FUNDING
ISSUES:<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></B></H3>
<H3 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><B><FONT face=Tahoma color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">State vetoes P.V. water agency
grant; Officials hope setback doesn’t affect construction of freshwater
pipeline<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></B></H3>
<H3 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on"><B><FONT face=Tahoma color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">Santa
Cruz</SPAN></FONT></B></st1:place></st1:City><FONT face=Tahoma size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"> Sentinel –
4/22/05<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></H3>
<H3 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><B><FONT face=Tahoma color=black size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">By Tom Ragan, staff
writer</SPAN></FONT></B><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></H3>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><FONT
face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">WATSONVILLE</SPAN></FONT></st1:place></st1:City><FONT
size=4><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"> — The state gave the water management
agency here some bad news this week. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">It’s not getting $4 million in grant money to help build
its $48 million recycling project, which is expected to deliver 4,000 acre feet
of water per year to coastal farmers whose wells have been inundated by
saltwater. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">The reason for the rejection: The Pajaro Valley Water
Management Agency has not yet built its 23-mile freshwater pipeline, a piece of
collateral that the agency was banking on. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">Word came from the California Water Resources Control
Board in <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Sacramento</st1:place></st1:City> on Thursday.
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">Although the recycling project is not in jeopardy, water
management agency officials say, the news was somewhat of a setback. The agency
is trying to add water to the valley’s dwindling aquifers, brought on by a
combination of an ever-growing <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City
w:st="on">Watsonville</st1:City></st1:place> and a thriving agricultural
industry. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">In order to qualify for the state Proposition 50 funds,
water districts across Northern California vying for a piece of the $16.8
million pot had to prove two things: their water projects were conserving water
and they were somehow adding water to the Sacramento River Delta or lessening
their dependence on it. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">Tom Mays, spokesman for the state’s water board, said
the Pajaro Valley Water Management Agency met only one of two requirements in
its bid for the maximum $4 million. While the agency’s recycling project,
scheduled to go on-line in 2007, <STRONG><U>will save water that would have been
lost to sea</U></STRONG>, it would only indirectly impact the Sacramento River
Delta. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">The agency was hoping its proposed $100 million
pipeline, scheduled to be in-use by 2010, would convince the state water board
that water in the Delta would be saved in due time.
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">But the state couldn’t consider it because the pipeline
has not been built, Mays said. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">"The logic is confounding," said McNiesh. "In the long
run, once the pipeline is built, we won’t have to take 4,000 acre feet from the
Delta ... but the state’s not considering the future. It’s only dealing with the
here and now." <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">But even the future of the pipeline is uncertain,
McNiesh admits. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">Farmers who oppose it have filed five lawsuits in Santa
Cruz County Superior Court, saying its financing is unconstitutional — a series
of water fee hikes that the lawsuits are claiming are tax increases and
therefore should have been approved by a special election.
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">But the litigation hasn’t stopped the recycling project,
McNiesh said, adding much of the funding has already been secured and will
depend on a combination of more state and federal funds along with millions of
dollars in revenues produced by the agency’s fee hikes, which will increase to
as much as $220 per acre foot by 2010. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">Right now, the current rate per acre foot is $160.
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">An acre foot of water is generally one foot of water
deep spread out across a football field. Generally, farmers use one acre foot of
water per year for two acres of crops, but some crops take a little more, others
a little less. #<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><A
href="http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2005/April/22/local/stories/06local.htm">http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2005/April/22/local/stories/06local.htm</A><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=4><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></FONT></P></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>