5-21-09

 
5-21-09
Merced Sun-Star
UC Merced professor, Merced College counselor win USDA fellowships targeted at Hispanics...MICHAEL DOYLE, Sun-Star Washington Bureau
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/167/v-print/story/857095.html
WASHINGTON -- Rudy Ortiz will broaden his horizons with the help of Uncle Sam.
The University of California at Merced physiologist is one of three San Joaquin Valley educators to win new Agriculture Department fellowships targeting colleges with sizable Hispanic populations. The money is modest, but the prospects are sweet.
"This fellowship provides me with a great opportunity to meet with Agriculture Department administrators and directors of specific funding programs in which I have a keen interest," Ortiz said, adding that it "also provides a great networking opportunity."
Ortiz, Fresno City College nutrition instructor Ricarda Cerda and Merced College counselor Enrique Renteria are among the 20 new winners of the federal Kika de la Garza Fellowship.
The de la Garza Fellows, termed "highly accomplished" by the Agriculture Department, spend at least a week in Washington convening with federal officials. Some will spend longer in the capital, learning about grants and programs through other agencies like the National Endowment for the Humanities. Others will spend time with Agriculture Department research scientists.
"By gaining better insight and better understanding of the funding processes at the Agriculture Department, I potentially improve my chances of obtaining funding to promote our research and training program ideas," Ortiz said via e-mail.
At UC Merced, Ortiz teaches nutrition and human physiology. His lab researches hypertension and kidney function in seals and manatees.
Named for the former chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, the de la Garza fellowships assist faculty members at designated Hispanic-Serving Institutions. These are colleges and universities with full-time Hispanic student enrollment of 25 percent or more.
There are several hundred such institutions of higher learning nationwide. As of 2007, 26 percent of UC Merced students were Hispanic. At Merced College and Fresno City College, more than 40 percent of students are Hispanic.
Together, Congress and the Agriculture Department have carved out multiple programs aiding the Hispanic-Serving Institutions. Between 1997 and 2007, for instance, Fresno State received $1.5 million and Stanislaus State received $343,000 in grants from another Agriculture Department program serving the same population.
The programs are sufficiently popular that Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Merced, weighed in early with the Education Department to help promote Hispanic-Serving Institution status for UC Merced. The programs are also often designed so the grant-winner turns around to help others.
"There will be greater ability for these students to gain rapid upward mobility within federal service," Cerda said of the federal assistance. "Fresno City College (can) build relationships with (federal) agencies in order to help our students with future grants and internship opportunities and eventually employment."
Ortiz will be spending part of his time with Agricultural Research Service scientists. Cerda, a registered dietitian, and Renteria, the Merced College counselor, will be on a slightly different fellowship track. They will concentrate on meetings with other federal agencies like the departments of education and housing and urban development.
"Students look for guidance, and I would like to promote and funnel students to work in government agencies," Renteria said. "We have a large population of baby boomers who are going to be retiring in the next five years, and government agencies need qualified and skilled people to fill those positions."
Letter: Graduation fallout...DEBORAH SMITH, Merced
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/180/v-print/story/857930.html
Graduation fallout
Editor: While I am happy about Merced's exposure due to Michelle Obama's visit for the UC Merced graduation, I am very concerned about the fallout.
Spending close to $700,000 and not having the funds available is irresponsible of the university. I understand that this shows Merced in a positive light, which is greatly needed for this town, but it also puts Merced County's taxpayers in a position that we did not ask for.
The main questions I have are: Did the students inform the university before asking Mrs. Obama to speak at the graduation, and did the University realize how much this would actually cost?
I am also extremely upset that the university hired a company out of Florida to do the audio/video and they had to subcontract companies in California (according to a California audio bidder for the project) because they did not have the equipment, including three JumboTrons.
Now the university is asking for donations. What's next, raising tuition or even county taxes?
I just wish everyone involved would have thought of the fallout as well as the benefits.
Letter: Point missed on pro-life demonstration...BARBARA OVALLE, Merced
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/180/v-print/story/857941.html
Editor: While Matt Jennings' commentary on Tuesday was a very thoughtful exposition of his sentiments regarding Saturday's pro-life demonstration at Lake Road during the graduation ceremonies, I'm afraid he missed the point.
The aim of the people who stood out in 100-degree weather was to send a message to our most abortion rights president in the history of the United States that many citizens are upset over his many abortion rights actions during these first 100 days of his presidency.
What better way to reach the president than through his wife?
The latest polls now reveal that 51 percent of U.S. citizens are against abortion and consider it the wrong answer to an unwanted pregnancy.
For your information, many of the protesters are doing something positive for the young unwed mother. We now have in Merced a home for pregnant women, Mary's Mantle, to stay free of charge in a loving, supportive atmosphere during their pregnancy and afterwards for a time.
Some of these protesters volunteer at this home giving their time and expertise to assist these young women. Others assist this cause by contributing financially to this home, and some are even contributors to Alpha Pregnancy as well
Those people who protested are merely speaking for the most helpless little ones who cannot speak for themselves.
Letter: Pro-life demonstrators a disappointment...CRAIG HARMELIN, Merced
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/180/v-print/story/857929.html
Editor: I would like to express my profound disappointment in a handful of protesters who stationed themselves along Lake and Bellevue Roads on Saturday morning.
Seemingly in protest of President Obama's stance on abortion and the fact that first lady Michelle Obama was the commencement guest speaker, a collection of pro-life protesters positioned themselves with anti-abortion signs where participants and spectators would see them on their way to the UC Merced campus.
I was first disappointed because, as most of us at UC Merced have been trying to express, commencement is an event to honor the graduation candidates. Politics and abortion should not have distracted anyone's attention from the historic accomplishments of the students and the campus.
After passing the protesters on my way to campus Saturday, I remembered that UC Merced's commencement ceremony was the same day as the Walk for Life to support the Alpha Pregnancy Help Center.
This meant that these protesters intentionally abandoned a more tangible and meaningful way to show God's love for women caught in unexpected pregnancies to make a brief, vain political statement out of context.
What was done for "one of the least of these" was less than nothing.
Letter: No common ground on abortion...CARL GREGORY, Merced
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/180/v-print/story/857946.html
Editor: President Obama, in his address at the Notre Dame graduation, lectured abortion opponents on what our attitude should be and how we ought to conduct ourselves on the abortion question.
With all due regard, Mr. President, we don't need your advice. As far as I know, there has been no violence against "abortuaries" or toward abortionists since the 1990s. But every day the savage slaughter of innocent, defenseless unborn children goes on unabated. And daily prolife activists are arrested and harassed for having the gall to speak out against abortion.
If President Obama wants to make abortion "rare" as he said, he could promote parental notification, waiting periods and other reasonable limitations. But rather than that, he wants free, unfettered access to abortion up to the time of birth.
In every abortion there are two victims; the baby that is savagely torn from the mother's body and the mother. There can be other victims; the father of the baby, its grandparents and even perhaps other interested parties.
The decision to abort is seldom simply "between a woman and her doctor," as the abortion industry would have you see it. In a great many instances, the abortion is brought about because of pressure from a boyfriend, a parent, a husband or some other interested person.
The president said that the two sides of the abortion issue should seek common ground. That provides a dead giveaway to spot an abortion-rights advocate. If common ground includes killing unborn children, there is no common ground for a pro-life person.
Valley Voice
Time to Throw in Towel on Temperance Flat?...John Lindt
http://www.valleyvoicenewspaper.com/vv/stories/2009/vv_
temperanceflat_0060.htm
California - Despite the fact he introduced the legislation in 2003 to build a new storage reservoir above Fresno at Temperance Flat, Congressman Devin Nunes says the San Joaquin River Settlement kills any construction of that dam.
“The dam is over with. It's not going to get built,” Nunes told a water forum in Tulare a few weeks ago.
He says the language in the settlement doesn't allow the use of the reservoir to store water for farm use, only for the fish.
An aide explained that it wouldn't make sense to build a dam since the water would simply head to sea anyway.
Other than Nunes, another long-time cheerleader for the project has been Ron Jacobsma, general manger of the Friant Water Authority that represents the 20 water contractors on the eastside of the Valley who signed the settlement agreement.
“It's not time to give up on this project. Developing the water supply is more critical than ever with all the water shortage problems in the state.”
New Study Pending
In fact, the federal Bureau of Reclamation is reviewing a final cost benefit study right now on the feasibly of the dam, says Jacobsma. The study will look at how much new water could be developed if the reservoir was built.
Jacobsma expects the report to be released this month or next.
Jacobsma says a 1.3 million acre foot dam has been estimated to yield just 100,000 acre feet of new water, but with an eye popping cost of $3 billion.
Critics have pointed to the escalating cost and the relatively low yield as reasons enough to forget about the plan. Some say farmers should foot the bill for the whole thing.
But Jacobsma says there are indications the new study, using the latest climate data, may find substantially more yield than before, in part because more winter storms in recent years have added up to lost water that has been sent out to sea because of the relatively small size of the existing dam.
“With global warming and early snow melt in a wet year, we could save a lot of water with a larger dam and the yield could go up,” perhaps by several hundred thousand acre feet.
The usefulness of the Temperance Flat facility as a key regulator for statewide water infrastructure has been a selling point. “We would count on linking the water storage with the rest of the state – to use it to move and store water from both north and south” of the fragile delta area. That water could move south of the delta when endangered fish species were not impacted for example – a key problem now. The conveyance infrastructure could also help save water sent down the river for fish to be recaptured for farm use, either through a trade or sent south through a canal, he argues.
Public Benefits
In order to accomplish the salmon restoration on the San Joaquin River, the larger dam has some key benefits as well – particularly storage of cold water needed by the salmon. The dam could provide cold water for over-summering fish and a place to store the up to 60,000 acre feet of water needed to send down the river for the salmon's benefit. “Where else can they store that water?” asks Jacobsma.
Jacobsma says there are other public benefits as well, including water quality improvements on the river, flood control and wet-year water management for all water uses, including exchanges both north and south of the delta. “It's uniquely located.”
Jacobsma says the state – realizing the public benefits for all of California – has suggested through water bond proposals that there could be a 50 percent cost sharing.
Cost?
“Construction costs will depend on the construction environment” that was high when the last estimate was figured but is far lower today – perhaps 25 percent lower, says Jacobsma.
One driver of the cost is the temperature control devices that need to be built in for the salmon. Also, costs increase because of the need to reduce any impacts on the hydroelectric power that is already in place on the upper San Joaquin.
Originally, the cost estimates some years ago started at $1.2 billion but went to $ 2 billion – now $3 billion.
Dam Building Era Over?
That's enough money to fuel criticism that this is simply a pork barrel project and fits into the long term argument made by environmental groups that the era of expensive dam building is over anyway.
The Temperance Flat project would flood a federal recreation area and possibly a Pacific Gas & Electric Co. powerhouse while providing relatively little water for downstream use, say these critics.
Criticism has come from the Pacific Institute that last year roiled farmers with its suggestions to cut water use on crops to solve the drought. Back in 2006, the institute commented on state of California support to investigate the Temperance Flat project along with the group Friends of the River.
“It's the least cost-efficient dam project we could look at,” said Steve Evans of Friends of the River. “We've almost fully developed the San Joaquin and take something like 98 percent of its water to the point where it usually does not flow anymore.” Evans said the dam would capture runoff only during rare high-water years and provide relatively little water in return.
The Pacific Institute, an Oakland-based think tank, has argued that an aggressive conservation program could cut the state's water use in 2030 by as much as 20 percent below 2000 levels.
In news accounts, the environmentalists summarized their position.
“We may need new reservoirs sometime in the future, but we don't need them now,” said Peter Gleick, the institute's president and a co-author of the study. “New surface storage is far more expensive – environmentally, economically and politically – than improving conservation and efficiency.”
Tulare Voice
LAFCO Will Hear Sierra Club's Request
http://www.valleyvoicenewspaper.com/tv/stories/2009/tv_sierraclub_
0065.htm
Tulare - The Sierra Club will get a chance June 3 to argue why the Tulare County Local Agency Formation Commission should reconsider a decision allowing the city to annex land needed for the Tulare Motor Sports Complex.
LAFCo commissioners decided in a 3-1 vote at a special meeting May 13 that the Sierra Club could argue for reconsideration of the 965-acre annexation, but it will have to focus solely on its contention the public hearing notice was vague and did not mention the racetrack project..
The vote, taken after a closed door session, reflects the commission's belief that other issues raised in the Sierra Club's March 31 letter — including those related to water, loss of farmland and the uncertainty of the racetrack project — were considered prior to its April 1 vote.
Although the club's letter was faxed, LAFCo staff members said they did not become aware of the correspondence until after the meeting.
Bonnie Simoes, the City of Tulare's principal planner, argued the letter contained no new information and said LAFCo followed “the letter of the law regarding the public notice.”
In a telephone interview, Sierra Club attorney Babak Naficy said even if the public notice regarding the annexation were in keeping with the agency's normal practice, that didn't mean it was adequate.
“I don't think just a geographical location is going to be meaningful to the average member of the public,” he said, adding that the addition of four little words — Tulare Motor Sports Complex — would have “crystallized in everybody's mind what this is about.”
Naficy also was critical of what he said was the LAFCo staff's habit of posting staff reports at the last minute, which he said was part of the reason he had to fax the Sierra Club's March 31 letter.
“We basically had little time to prepare,” he said, adding that “it's no way to conduct business and we're very disappointed.”
He also disagreed with the commission's decision to limit the discussion on reconsideration to just the legal notice.
“LAFCo never considered the Sierra Club's arguments with respect to water, ag land and other issues,” he said, contending they may have discussed in some “general fashion” those topics but not the organization's specific comments.
He further noted a Tulare County Superior Court judge hearing the Sierra Club's case challenging the environmental impact report for the city's general plan has found its analysis of the water situation is “flawed.”
Instead of proceeding with a lawsuit against LAFCo, the club decided “we should give them a chance to reconsider its decision,” Naficy said.
Simoes urged the commission to move ahead and direct its executive officer to record a notice of completion on the annexation.
The timing of the annexation is critical to development of the site, she said, adding the project is of “significant” regional importance.
“In the present economic climate, the creation of jobs is vital,” Simoes said.
Traci Myers, the city's economic development manager, said the last she heard Tulare Motor Sports Complex developers had financing in place and wanted to give the lender a time line.
Several city officials have said they were told work on the infrastructure needed for the project — which includes a speedway, drag strip, hotels, condominiums, retail outlets, offices and other features — could begin as early as 90 days after approvals are in place.
A development agreement between the city and developers is pending Tulare Motor Sports Complex Inc.'s reimbursement to the city of more than $1 million for an environmental impact report.
City officials have said the money is sitting in a Fresno bank and attorneys are working out an agreement as to when it will be released to the city.
Also pending, is an agreement for the developers to purchase land from the International Agri-Center for the project. Talks between the two parties had ceased for awhile, but then resumed.
Agri-Center officials have refused to comment on the status of those talks.
Stockton Record
Trinitas golfers ordered to quit
Neighbors say they still see people on course...Dana M. Nichols
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090521/A_NEWS/905210317/-1/A_NEWS
WALLACE - Calaveras County's government has ordered golfing operations to cease at the Ridge at Trinitas, a controversial golf course south of Wallace built on land zoned for agriculture.
The Calaveras County Board of Supervisors on May 12 rejected requests to legalize the golf course by changing the zoning of the land. Also rejected was construction of a clubhouse, spa, lodge and 13 luxury homes. But it was not immediately clear whether county code enforcers would move to shut down the golf business, something some neighbors have requested.
Brent Harrington, the interim director of the now-dissolved Calaveras County Community Development Agency, stated the county's enforcement stance in a letter dated Friday. The letter, addressed to Trinitas owners Mike and Michelle Nemee, warned that the county's decision means that use of the property for any form of golf - public, private, nonprofit or otherwise - is now illegal.
"If the site is used for golfing, the county will have to assume you are willfully allowing the use of the site contrary to county code and the board's decision of May 12. The county will have no choice but to initiate enforcement action," Harrington wrote.
Friday was Harrington's last day as an interim county employee. The top official charged with zoning enforcement will now be George White, a newly hired Planning Department director who begins work June 1.
Mike Nemee did not return a call asking for comment on Harrington's letter.
Meanwhile, neighbors of Trinitas say they continue to document each time they see groups of golfers on the course.
"On Sunday, there were seven golfers. I think Friday there were 10. Tuesday there were 14. These were just the ones we've seen. Nothing has slowed down. If anything, it seems like he's making up for lost time," said Kathy Mayhew, a Trinitas neighbor and a leader in Keep It Rural Calaveras, a group of residents formed to oppose the golf course.
Mayhew said she is preparing a code complaint that she will submit to the county asking it to halt the golf operation. She said she is generally encouraged by Harrington's letter but disagreed with Harrington's position that the physical components of the golf course could be designated as "landscaping" and allowed to remain in place as long as they were not actually used for golf.
The problem with that, Mayhew said, is that anyone who owned land zoned for agriculture could then build an 18-hole golf course and get away with it as long as they called it landscaping.
Chico Enterprise Record
County water department issues groundwater levels alert...Staff Reports
http://www.chicoer.com/news/ci_12416880#
OROVILLE -- Water is a big problem in California. With the state in its third year of drought, the lack of rain has affected groundwater levels in Northern California.
In a recent report of the Butte County Department of Water and Resource Conservation, nearly half of the wells surveyed failed to reach desirable groundwater levels, according to a press release.
The state Department of Water Resources took the measurements for spring groundwater levels from March 23-27. In Butte County, more than 212 wells are monitored four times a year. Of the 81 used for Basin Management Objective tracking, 37 have reached "Alert Stage," triggering calls for increased awareness and irrigation coordination.
Paul Gosselin, manager of the county department, said the results show the drought's impact on the Sacramento Valley Groundwater Basin.
"People should take practical steps to conserve water and be prepared for potential problems with their wells," he stated. Groundwater levels are down slightly across the basin from 2008, according to the state Department of Water Resources (DWR) information. An April 15 press release shows average levels down two feet in Butte and southern Tehama counties, and three feet in Colusa County. Levels are down four feet in Glenn County.
Despite the decline, there isn't a significant difference between the spring 2008 and spring 2009 levels, according to the county.
There may be difficulty in pumping water during peak irrigation season as groundwater levels experience seasonal decline, according to the county. Officials encourage people to consider conservation, planning and working with neighbors who irrigate.
Kristen McKillop, manager of program development for the department, said it is recommended that people spend some time on Butte County's water Web site at: http://www.buttecounty.net/waterandresource.
There is information about historical data and drought preparedness.
"There is a possibility in some areas we will see folks needing to deepen wells," McKillop said.
"People need to be aware of not only how their well functions and is maintained but if they need improvements," she said. "They can't just do it in one phone call."
When DWR maps water levels, they create contour maps. That's because in some areas, if people start having problems one to five miles away from your property, "you could as well," she cautioned.
People who may be experiencing pumping problems related to lowering groundwater levels may call 538-4343.
Los Angeles Times
State water deliveries up...Bettina Boxall, Greenspace
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2009/05/water-deliveries.html
State water deliveries are going up again.
The Department of Water Resources announced today that it will give State Water Project contractors 40% of what they requested this year. While that figure remains low, it is far more than earlier delivery forecasts, which started at 15% and then rose to 20% and 30%.
“Early May snow and rain improved the water supply situation enough to allow this modest expansion,” said department director Lester A. Snow. But he cautioned that the state's three-year drought was not over. "Gov. Schwarzenegger’s statewide drought declaration remains in effect and all Californians must heed his call to reduce their water use.”
As of May 1, statewide precipitation and reservoir storage were 80% of average for the date. Runoff was 60% of the norm.
Urban Southern California gets about a third of its water from the state system, which pipes supplies south from the Sacramento-San Joaquin delta east of San Francisco.
Agencies rarely get their full contract amounts from the state. But below average precipitation and environmental restrictions on delta pumping have sharply cut this year's deliveries, prompting Southland water agencies to adopt conservation measures and price hikes.
On commencement addresses
Occasionally, amid all the cliches and speechifying, a pearl issues forth, but for the most part the ceremonies are absolutely forgettable...Meghan Daum
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-daum21-2009may21,0,4065694,print.column
Commencement addresses are a bit like wedding toasts. A handful are memorable; the rest tend to trigger such musings as, "Why did I wear such uncomfortable shoes?" "Will anyone notice if I send a text?" and "How drunk am I likely to be by the end of the evening?" But unlike nuptial tributes, which (unless you're in Japan, where they often hire pros) are delivered by unpaid amateurs, graduation speeches are less about the message than the messenger. Every year, a few colleges and universities attract attention because they've managed to book high-profile speakers, and, every year, the media dole out snippets of these speakers' sage remarks.
In the last week, the following nuggets of wisdom have been dispensed:
"You really haven't completed the circle of success unless you can help somebody else move forward." (Oprah Winfrey, Duke University).
"There is no way to stop change; change will come. Go out and give us a future worthy of the world we all wish to create together." (Hillary Clinton, New York University).
"This really is your moment. History is yours to bend." (Joe Biden, Wake Forest University).
I saw you dozing off just now. I saw that!
Not all of last week's speeches trafficked so heavily in motivational sanctimony. President Obama's Notre Dame address on Sunday doubled as a diplomacy effort in the fomenting battles over abortion rights. The president also spoke at Arizona State University on May 12, though his comments there -- "I know starting your careers in troubled times is a challenge. But it is also a privilege" -- were more pep talk than polemic.
Of course, the real "get" of the graduation season was First Lady Michelle Obama's appearance at UC Merced, a new campus in an economically challenged region where many students are the first in their families to attend college. "Remember that you are blessed," she told the class of 2009, the first at Merced to enter as freshmen. "Remember that in exchange for those blessings you must give something back. ... As advocate and activist Marian Wright Edelman says, 'Service is the rent we pay for living ... it is the true measure, the only measure of success.' "
Calls to service have a long, rich tradition in these speeches. I couldn't help noticing that Laura Bush, at Southern Methodist University, hit many of the same notes as the current first lady's speech. "You won't waste your talent and education if you use them in service to others," she told the graduates. (She also delivered a rather hilarious aside about not remembering that her own father-in-law was the speaker when she received her graduate degree from the University of Texas.)
It's hard to argue with exhortations to serve, especially in an economy in which a diploma isn't necessarily a passport to gainful employment. And let's keep in mind that these speeches are in many ways less for grads than for their parents, some of whom (you know who you are) perhaps want a little oratorical gravitas to offset the knowledge that they mortgaged their house so their kid could take classes like "Star Trek: A Semiotic Inquiry."
Of course, it's possible for a commencement address to transcend conventions and cliche and say something truly compelling. The late writer David Foster Wallace's 2005 commencement speech at Kenyon College, which talked about, among other things, how to authentically care about other people, gained something of a cult following after it was widely circulated on the Internet (it's now available as a book). Steve Jobs' address at Stanford University that same year, in which he talked about death, is also considered one of the best in recent memory.
But when you're sitting in the hot sun in your gown and mortarboard, fidgety and freaked out, do you really want to be lectured about the big stuff? Isn't that like trying to maintain a beatific smile at your wedding reception while some wearying relative gives a toast that amounts to "marriage is hard work"? You know he's right; you just don't want to think about it at that particular moment. In fact, as is the case in many major life moments, you can't really manage to think beyond the blisters your shoes are causing.
That may seem crushingly anticlimactic, but it also gets to the heart of one of life's greatest, saddest truths: that our most "memorable" occasions may elicit the fewest memories. It's probably not something most commencement speakers would say, but it's one of the first lessons of growing up. Another word for that is "graduating."
New York Times
Water Needs Electricity Needs Water…Kevin Ferguson, Green Inc.
http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/21/water-needs-electricity-needs-water/?pagemode=print
Poseidon Resources Poseidon Resources won approval to build a giant desalination plant near San Diego. It will use a lot of electricity, but the company is seeking ways to offset that.
It has long been an axiom of infrastructure planning that it takes a lot of water to make electricity, and a lot of electricity to make water.
Each day, for example, the nation’s thermoelectric power plants (90 percent of all power plants in the United States), draw 136 billion gallons of water from lakes, rivers and oceans to cool the steam used to drive turbines, according to the Department of Energy. In recent years, the energy department says, plans for new power plants had to be scrapped because water-use permits could not be obtained.
For their part, water- and wastewater utilities consume at least 13 percent of the electricity drawn nationwide each day, according to River Network, an environmental group based in Portland, Ore. Such plants face increasing public pressure to cut energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions.
So it was of no small significance that Poseidon Resources last week managed to win approval from California state regulators to build the Western Hemisphere’s largest desalination plant, near San Diego.
Water is an increasingly scarce commodity in the West, so ocean desalination projects are attractive to city and regional planners. But desalination is also inherently energy-intensive, and it will take more electricity to desalinate water at the new facility than to import it from elsewhere, as the utility does now.
Indeed, San Diego Gas & Electric will produce 97,165 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually to supply the Carlsbad desalination plant with the 274,400 MWh of electricity it needs to produce 50 million gallons of drinking water each day for a year.
By comparison, pumping the same volume from the north requires 112,005 MWh; and pumping it from the Colorado River Aqueduct, San Diego’s secondary source of water, requires 167,900 MWh each year, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council.
The San Diego County Water Authority’s options are limited. Statewide drought restrictions and a 2007 federal court ruling forced it to look beyond the northern Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta, from which it now draws three-fourths of its fresh water.
By 2012, the water authority expects less than half of its drinking water to come from the Delta and 10 percent to come from desalinated seawater.
Poseidon also says it plans to spend $55 million improving the plant’s energy efficiency, and it has pledged to use renewable energy sources and voluntarily purchase carbon offsets.
On the East Coast, meanwhile, similar efforts to mitigate the tension between water and power are underway. In February, for example, New York’s Astoria Energy asked Denver-based G.E.A. Power Cooling to design, build and erect an air-cooled condenser for a 575-megawatt natural-gas power plant it expects to bring online in 2011.
The condenser will use no water for the cooling.
And New Jersey’s Atlantic County Utilities Authority (ACUA), which taps wind, biodiesel, solar and landfill gas energy to power its wastewater and trash-recycling operations, says it saved more than $893,000 in electricity costs last year by using renewable sources.
On Golf Courses, Sensors Help Save Water...LARRY DORMAN
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/21/sports/golf/21watering.html?_r=1&sq=conservation&st=cse&scp=3&pagewanted=print
In seven years of overseeing every root and blade of grass on the grounds at the Merion Golf Club in Ardmore, Pa., Matt Shaffer has built a reputation on innovation and conservation. An early advocate of course playability over aesthetics, he long lived by the maxim “the drier, the better.”
But when a stifling heat wave threatened the club’s greens before the 2005 United States Amateur Championship — a record 17th U.S.G.A. championship at Merion — Shaffer turned to his old boss, Paul R. Latshaw Sr., for advice. Latshaw told him there was one way he could continue to cut down water use while keeping his turf dry and as fast as a microwave: sensors.
Wireless sensors were little more than a rumor in those days, but Shaffer trusted Latshaw, followed the advice and installed a product called RZ Wireless before the championship. The technology helped him enjoy four years of successful water conservation. Although doubtful he could improve on what he had, Shaffer decided last month to upgrade his system with a promise of even greater savings.
“I am probably known as one of the best waterers,” Shaffer, the club’s director of golf operations, said in a recent interview. “And I thought, man, I don’t know why I’m getting these sensors because I know I’m dry.”
He added: “Well, what I thought was dry isn’t even my baseline. These sensors are just so much more sensitive, so much better, so much more complete. I am now hooked. I’m a sensor addict.”
This is a green addiction with the potential to spread, with more than 20 states affected by some form of drought and water restrictions a daily reality in cities across the nation.
At least three companies are competing in the market for subterranean wireless sensors, which monitor moisture, temperature and salinity in the soil and feed the data to a software network accessed remotely on a laptop, a handheld device or a desktop computer. The system could be used far beyond the golf course — on other athletic fields, in agriculture, in both home and commercial landscaping, and in parks.
The leader in the clubhouse so far is a system called UgMo, a network of wireless sensors that mine subsurface data and link to a software package developed by Advanced Sensor Technology of King of Prussia, Pa., the original manufacturers of the RZ system. The company announced its updated system in February and made it available in early April, installing it at golf meccas like Merion, Desert Mountain outside Scottsdale, Ariz.; and Card Sound Golf Club on Key Largo, Fla.
Early adopters say they will cut an average of 10 percent of their typical water use, amounting to millions of gallons of water each year. At that rate, the system would pay for itself within the first year, depending on the volume of water a course uses.
“We were a very efficient operation to start with,” said Shawn Emerson, the superintendent at Desert Mountain Golf Club, a complex of six courses with 500 acres of turf in the desert Southwest. “With these sensors, we only water when the soil tells us it needs to be watered.”
He said the club would save a total of more than 100 million gallons of effluent water, or an average of between 18 million and 20 million gallons per course for the year. That would mean roughly $130,000 in savings based on current prices.
Advanced Sensor’s competitors include the industry giant Toro, of Bloomington, Minn.; and Environmental Sensors, Inc., based in Victoria, British Columbia. Each has introduced wireless systems designed for golf courses within the past four months.
The competition has, predictably, spawned litigation. Advanced Sensor filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Toro in January 2008. The case, which involves the movement of a former Advanced Sensor wireless system designer to Toro, is scheduled for trial July 30 in federal court in Philadelphia, barring a settlement.
Walter Norley, the founder and chief executive of Advanced Sensor, said his company was well positioned to grow and had begun making inroads in the sports turf market. He pointed to his company’s recent installation of the UgMo system at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif., a complex of athletic fields that is home to the Los Angeles Galaxy and Chivas USA of Major League Soccer. He also mentioned legislation pending in Florida — which last week declared a drought emergency — that would mandate water conservation measures by irrigators that could provide his company with a large number of customers.
“The reality is that that the water situation itself is very significant,” Norley said. “There is usage legislation in a number of states, and when it comes to mandates, the golf world will be the lowest-hanging fruit of all the irrigation applications. If decisions are to be based on who gets water, crops for food or someone’s green, green, green fairways, it’s pretty obvious who will get the water.”
Golf accounts for 0.5 percent of annual water usage in the United States, according to a study released this year by the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America. Golf courses are all but weaned from municipal fresh-water systems, with 86 percent now using some other source, liked recycled effluent water, surface water or water treated by reverse osmosis. Significantly, 70 percent of superintendents surveyed said they were keeping their turf drier.
But fewer than 100 of the estimated 15,700 golf courses in the United States have sensors installed. The introduction of relatively cheap and highly accurate systems could change that.
For slightly more than $11,000, a golf course could install an UgMo subsurface system that would include 18 wireless sensors, 3 routers and gateways, software and help from an agronomy support staff.
Norley said his company would have 48 completed installations by the end of June, with 14,000 sensors back-ordered for installation in sports fields and golf courses by the end of the year. Toro, with the bulk of its 2008 revenue of $1.9 billion generated by turf and landscape maintenance equipment and irrigation systems, is just getting started. Environmental Sensors announced its entry into the wireless sensor and software market for golf earlier this month.
In the Florida Keys, the Card Sound Golf Club installed wireless sensors in April. The club uses recycled water from reverse osmosis to irrigate the grounds. It has a high salt content, meaning that the club superintendent, Sean Anderson, must regularly have his greens flushed with fresh water.
Before the installation, Anderson said, the job required 150,000 gallons, took an hour and had to be done every two weeks.
“We have actually cut in half the amount of water we were using,” he said. “To me, it sort of shows that the sky is the limit with this technology.”
 
5-21-09
Meetings
 5-27-09 General Plan Review Steering Committee meeting...1:30 p.m....canceled
http://www.co.merced.ca.us/CurrentEvents.asp?EID=446
 
5-27-09 Merced County Planning Commission agenda...9:00 a.m.
http://www.co.merced.ca.us/pdfs/commissionarchive/2009/5-27-2009/PC%20Agenda%20052709.pdf
 
5-28-09 LAFCo agenda...10:00 a.m.
http://www.lafcomerced.org/pdfs/Meetings/2009/5-28-2009/052809ka.pdf