7-8-09

 
7-8-09
Badlands Journal
Costoza in flames...Badlands Journal editorial board
http://www.badlandsjournal.com/2009-07-07/007309
In an aggressive new tack, the National Republican Congressional Committee on Wednesday began running a 60-second radio ad attacking Reps. Dennis Cardoza, D-Merced, and Jim Costa, D-Fresno. The ad running throughout the week links the two Democrats to systemic irrigation-water shortages.
"Cardoza and Costa can't persuade Democrat leaders to change radical environmental laws," the ad intones. "So while the congressmen fail ... the Valley goes dry." -- Fresno Bee, July 2, 2009
There are a large number of Americans, as we've seen in recent years, and an even larger percentage of Californians, who will believe any political statement as long as it is a Big Enough Lie.
Let's face it, Valley water has become a plaything of national and international corporate powers. For three years, the international public relations firm, Burson-Marsteller, helped the Friant Water Users Authority try to scuttle the San Joaquin Valley Settlement in Congress. Among others B-M and the Users called upon was Rep. Dennis Cardoza, Fairy Shrimper-Chesapeake Bay. Cardoza's (who maintains an address in Merced County) play was to represent the anxieties of the Merced, Turlock, and Modesto irrigation districts, all of which empty into the San Joaquin River. It was known as the Tributary River Gambit and it was effective for awhile. Costa of Fresno was involved in the last go-round on the Settlement as a member of the House Natural Resources Committee. In 2006, Democrats regained control of Congress, chairman of the former House Resouces Committee, Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, was unseated, the committee was renamed House Natural Resources Committee, Cardoza was not reappointed to it, and the Pomboza, the daring duo of Pombo and Cardoza, the pro-growth, anti-environmental law team that had thrice tried to gut the Endangered Species Act, split up. Last year we saw the development of a new daring duo, the Costoza.
Cardoza, caught in the collapse of the speculative housing bubble, was looking for a new sugar daddy and came up with the old Valley standby, Agribusiness, which owes most of its entire publicly subsidized irrigation system to Democrats. Agribusiness saw its huge gamble on Hillary fail and they got ... Obama, little friend of all agribusiness creditors, in the middle of a drought. Meanwhile, Rep. Devin Nunes, Burson-Marsteller's Visalia mouthpiece, in the heart of Friant-User territory, was screaming about the death of civilization south of the San Joaquin with a fervor unknown since the last serious farmworker strikes 40 years ago. He and B-M even teamed up with or created something called the Latino Water Coalition, led by some guy out of LA showbiz who claims to be the son of illegal alien farmworkers, to have 40 acres of nectarines in Dinuba and to not be taking a dime from anybody, and they've done "grassroots" farmworker marches to protest restrictions on the Delta pumps ordered by federal courts in lawsuits the Costoza couldn't touch because we still have the semblance of separate branches of government.
Meanwhile, in terms of congressional politics, the Costoza positions itself in the Blue Dog camp, which, the Republican flaks are quick to recognize, is an expendable bunch of rural corporatist losers, known by their constituents to be for sale to whatever local plutocracy controls at the moment. Despite their manly threatening of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, almost the equal of the taunts of Republican Valley congressmen, Nunes and Rep. George Radanovich, R-Mariposa, two weeks ago in Fresno, Cardoza and Costa are now held in such political contempt that Merced County Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Deidre Kelsey felt she could get away with a snide remark about "the Portuguese" at this morning's board meeting. (It doesn't help that Southern California Dutch mega-dairies are mopping the floor with their smaller Portuguese competitors in this year's mega-milk-price disaster.)
Nevertheless -- we have covered most of the gruesome steps here on Badlands -- Costa and Cardoza have stood four-square for breaking every environmental law necessary to open the Delta pumps to supply water to agribusiness south of the San Joaquin River. Their reward for betraying the environmental values of their party (hey, at least on a good day in a liberal urban district) -- attacks from the Republican Party.
All things considered, if he had truly wished to be effective within the current Democratic majority in Congress and in the White House, Cardoza should have been on that stage at UC Merced with First Lady Michelle Obama instead of sloshing the juleps at the Preakness with the Blue Dogs' plutocrat donors. But, when you're a Fairy Shrimper from Chesapeake Bay, and your congressional district is nothing but a rotten borough to you, you forget that the Man might just take some offense at the insult to the First Wife. The insult was so blatant as to suggest that Cardoza is thinking of retiring to become a house-husband and weekend-shrimper on the Chesapeake while his wife practices medicine at the University of Maryland. 
Costa should have been wiser. People who team up with Cardoza get hurt. Maybe Honest Graft Tony can find something for him to do if the Reeps find a Bill Thomas clone to replace him. Too bad, because Costa actually understands water politics and would be a better advocate for his district than some numbskull ideologue. But, he keeps bad company.
For us, the citizens? It's beginning to look like a plutocrat-led Great, Valley-Wide Reaction against reality. We are in an economic crisis. We have a significant number of people who cannot find their backsides with both hands that are capable of exercising their vote franchise in any given year to vote against their own interests in favor of some political propaganda confection du jour with unknown consequences.
The depth of the pathos in this situation is that neither Cardoza nor Costa are stupid politicians. Either one of them might once have been able to articulate reasonable positions involving their entire constituencies. Neither have had the character to do it. The Republicans have a real opportunity here to knock out both of them with a pair of numbnut knuckleheads inferior to what they replaced. So, down goes the democracy to the polluting plutocrats and the rest of us will just cough a few more times a day.
Badlands Journal editorial board
7-2-09
Fresno Bee
GOP ads link Dems to Valley water crisis
Radio spots attack Dennis Cardoza and Jim Costa...Michael Doyle
http://www.fresnobee.com/1072/v-print/story/1511134.html
WASHINGTON -- Republican strategists are now roughing up San Joaquin Valley congressional Democrats with radio ads linking them to the region's water woes.
In an aggressive new tack, the National Republican Congressional Committee on Wednesday began running a 60-second radio ad attacking Reps. Dennis Cardoza, D-Merced, and Jim Costa, D-Fresno. The ad running throughout the week links the two Democrats to systemic irrigation-water shortages.
"Cardoza and Costa can't persuade Democrat leaders to change radical environmental laws," the ad intones. "So while the congressmen fail ... the Valley goes dry."
The Republican Congressional Committee did not offer further explanation for this particular ad or the targeting. The campaign committee is, however, running a number of ads against Democrats. For instance, this week, the committee also initiated ads attacking 14 other Democrats on energy issues.
The ad's consequences may be hard to track, as the next election is still 17 months away. Both incumbents represent Democratic-leaning districts and neither has attracted a strong Republican challenger in the past.
Factually, the ad omits some crucial context.
The primary law being referred to is the Endangered Species Act. Federal judges including U.S. District Court Judge Oliver Wanger in Fresno, who was appointed by President George H.W. Bush, have ordered water diversions for species protected by the law.
Representing rural districts, with farmers and developers among their regular campaign contributors, Costa and Cardoza have been consistently critical of the current Endangered Species Act.
The two Valley Democrats have also aligned themselves with Valley Republicans on water-related votes and championed myriad water projects.
"I don't believe anyone has done more to advocate the water issue than I have for the past 25 years," Costa said Wednesday.
Cardoza added that the ad was "unmitigated baloney" and said, "We need cool heads to prevail and a whole lot less partisan rhetoric."
Among political strategists, though, attack ads are sometimes employed not to defeat an incumbent or push a policy but primarily to keep the lawmaker on the defensive.
Two weeks ago, Costa and Cardoza were among 37 House Democrats voting for an unsuccessful amendment that would have blocked a federal decision steering more irrigation water toward animal protection.
The decision issued last month by the National Marine Fisheries Service will cut urban and irrigation water deliveries by between 5% and 7% to protect salmon. Wanger had ordered the agency to prepare its revised "biological opinion" after concluding that a 2004 decision was inadequate.
"When will this stop? When our valley has no more water left for its farmers and its farmworkers?" Costa asked during the June 17 House debate, adding that "this is not a Republican or a Democratic issue."
The author of the California water amendment, Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Visalia, blasted House Democratic leaders for "destroying the economy of the San Joaquin Valley." Nunes, nonetheless, stressed that Costa and Cardoza are "trying their best to deal with their leadership to try to bring some attention to this problem."
Merced Sun-Star
Thousands more in Merced County behind on their home loans...SCOTT JASON
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/167/v-print/story/939968.html
Merced's already bleak housing market may worsen this year, two reports released Tuesday forecast.
Merced's foreclosure rate for May grew by 2.4 percentage points from the previous month. The rate is almost double the state's average and close to triple the nation's level, according to a study by First American CoreLogic.
Further price declines, spurred by excess housing, unemployment and the recession, could hit California and the Valley in the next two years, another report warns. The median price for a home in Merced County is $105,000, already a stunning drop from the 2005 boom high of $382,750.
The number of people falling behind on their payments has increased to 17.4 percent, according to First American CoreLogic. That means about one in six homeowners are more than 90 days late on their mortgage payment and probably headed for foreclosure.
Merced's rate grew from 11.5 percent in February to 17.9 in March before dipping to 15 percent in April. The state's average is 9.2 percent and the nation's average is 6.5 percent.
In the past 12 months -- June 2008 to May 2009 -- there were 14,793 foreclosure filings, which translates to about 40 a day. From June 2007 to May 2008, there were 9,158 foreclosure filings.
May's foreclosure rate increased to 6.50, a 1.10 percentage point increase from the same month last year. The nation's rate is 2.5 percent and California's rate is 3.10 percent.
U.S. Market Risk Index, a report by PMI Group, ranks cities by the risk of housing prices declining. Merced, along with other foreclosure-epicenters such as Miami and Phoenix, rank the highest. According to PMI, there's a 99.9 percent chance home values will fall further.
Houston and Cleveland are among major cities with the lowest risk of declines.
PMI blames high unemployment, excess housing and the recession as factors that would drive prices lower.
But there's some hope
For all the gloom in those reports, University of the Pacific's Business Forecasting Center said the Valley is one of the most promising long-term areas of the state.
"The present may indeed be an economic disaster, but the San Joaquin Valley is also an economic opportunity area with enormous potential for positive growth," the June report reads, citing the location, the young work force and the low cost of living as strong points.
The quarterly forecast cautions about designating the Valley as an economic disaster area because it could discourage investment. Federal aid, it notes, could help to educate people about the Valley's opportunities so it attracts business.
"The San Joaquin Valley is not Appalachia, and it is not post-Katrina New Orleans," the report reads. "The challenges here are different, and the opportunities are greater."
The center, part of the university's Eberhardt School of Business, predicts Merced's employment will return to its pre-recession level at the end of 2013.
Merced Irrigation District general manager quits after a year on the job...JONAH OWEN LAMB
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/167/v-print/story/939967.html
After a year on the job, Merced Irrigation District's general manager abruptly resigned Tuesday.
The announcement was made by MID Board of Directors President Tim Pellessier during Tuesday morning's meeting.
"It is with regret that I am announcing that our General Manager Dan Pope has resigned," said Pellessier at the board meeting, as Pope quietly looked on.
The resignation goes into effect Aug. 3. No new manager was named at the meeting.
The action comes at a busy time for the district. MID is in the midst of relicensing its dams with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and Pope was overseeing that process. Until Pope is replaced or a FERC coordinator is brought in, MID will be without a point-man in the re-licensing process.
Pope, who had worked as MID's hydroelectric project manager since 2005, was hired as general manager on July 1, 2008. He did not make a public comment on his resignation at the board meeting.
Pope will be taking over as general manager at Oakdale Irrigation District and the South San Joaquin Irrigation District's joint Tri-Dam Project on the Stanislaus River.
Pope said he resigned because he realized that hydro facilities were what he really wanted to be working on. "I realized that is where my passions lie."
When he originally came to the district, it was to run and re-license the hydro projects on the Merced River, he said. But that transformed into a position as general manager.
Pope's salary at MID was $140,000, according to district records. He would not divulge his pay at the Tri-Dam Project.
His last day with MID will be July 31, he said.
Jeff Shields, general manager of the South San Joaquin Irrigation District, said he first saw Pope's application roughly two months ago at the beginning of the application process. Pope's contract, he said, will be finalized on July 16. "It's safe to say he has reached a meeting of the minds with the two board presidents," said Shields.
The news of Pope's resignation first surfaced last week, said Ken Robbins, MID's general counsel. "It was a total shock," he said.
MID board member Gino Pedretti said he knew about Pope's possible departure as recently as last week. "I knew that he had applied for this other job for awhile," he said.
In the past Robbins has been offered the position of general manager but, he said, that is not something he would consider now.
Pedretti wouldn't comment on whether Robbins had been offered the job on an interim basis. "I know he knows more about the district than anybody else," he said of Robbins.
On another front, the district tabled a potential 15,000 acre-foot water sale -- an acre-foot is equivalent to 326,000 gallons -- and voted unanimously to extend the irrigation season to Oct. 31.
Livingston passes water rate increase
Bills will go up an average of 40 percent in August...DANIELLE GAINES
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/167/v-print/story/939984.html
LIVINGSTON -- Most city residents can expect to see a higher water bill next month, after the City Council voted to pass a resolution increasing water rates by an average of 40 percent.
Residents who use less water will have less severe increases under the plan, which passed the council by a 3-2 vote.
Martha Nateras, who voted for the plan -- which is a less harsh compromise than the initial plan the council was set to vote on -- said the council had to step up to its leadership roles and vote on the item, which has been on the council agenda since January.
Four previous votes on the rate increases at hand were pushed off until Tuesday night.
The rate increases, the first since 1995, are needed, said City Manager Richard Warne, because the city cannot continue paying roughly $30,000 a month from the general fund for a water and sewer system that are not paying for themselves.
In mid-June, City Attorney Malathy Subramanian was let go because her legal opinion -- that the only way to pass an increase was by a four-to-one or unanimous vote -- was blocking a majority on the council from passing the controversial rate increase.
Council members Margarita Aguilar and Rodrigo Espinoza voted against the measure Tuesday. Mayor Daniel Varela, Nateras and Frank Vierra voted yes.
The compromise vote decreased to 40 percent a planned 55 percent increase in the first of several years of rate hikes.
In the second year of rate increases, an additional 55 percent rate hike will add to the previous one.
In three subsequent years, the rates will be increased 35 percent, 20 percent, and 6 percent.
Residents who use 6,000 gallons of water or less per month will see only a modest increase. Those who use more will face dramatic increases, which increase by usage and average to 40 percent for the first year.
All users will be charged the base rate for their first 6,000 gallons of water and will pay the differential for higher usage.
As part of his motion, Varela said the council would revisit the issue before Feb. 1, 2010, when the next increase is scheduled.
"I really hate to raise the water rate," Nateras said during a one-hour public hearing. "But we have to. It is a must."
Residents in Livingston use far more water than the state average, said Sudhir Pardiwala, the consultant hired by the city to come up with several plans to guide the rate increases.
In California, most homes use 13,000 gallons per month. In Livingston, that number is 20,000.
Several community members at the meeting said the action called for water usage and budget cuts that were unreasonable for families living paycheck to paycheck.
'Peripheral canal' opponents stage their own protest
Foes fear the project is a water grab by Valley and SoCal...E.J. SCHULTZ, The Fresno Bee
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/268/v-print/story/939982.html
SACRAMENTO -- In a counter punch to recent Valley water rallies, environmentalists and fishermen gathered at the Capitol on Tuesday to protest a proposed canal to divert water around the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
The "peripheral canal" is an old idea that's enjoyed new life as state water planners search for ways to stabilize supplies for San Joaquin Valley farmers and Southern California cities. The plan got a boost last year with an endorsement by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Delta Vision Task Force.
The canal would siphon Sacramento River water upstream of the delta and send it to the pumps near Tracy, bypassing the delta.
Residents near the delta -- including farmers who rely on its freshwater supply -- fear the canal is a water grab by the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California. Fishermen and environmentalists say that if more water is diverted north of the delta, a higher percentage of the delta's freshwater supply would come from the more-polluted San Joaquin River, hurting fish.
Canal supporters counter that the canal could protect fish now endangered by delta pumping. With the canal, only fish-free water would be sent to the pumps, state officials say. San Joaquin Valley farmers like the idea because the canal would give them a more stable supply.
At Tuesday's event, delta advocates charged that legislators were shutting out their views as they consider the canal and other water proposals behind closed doors.
"In a time where the budget is spiraling out of control it makes no sense to move forward with a multibillion-dollar boondoggle idea like a peripheral canal and new dams," said Steve Evans, conservation director of Friends of the River, an environmental group.
So-called "working groups" of lawmakers have examined many water proposals in private meetings. Multiple bills have been authored calling for water bonds of up to $15 billion. Proposals also include new government agencies to promote the "coequal goals of restoring the delta" and "creating a more reliable water supply." But so far no consensus has emerged on any of the proposals as most of the attention in Sacramento is on the state's budget woes.
In the Valley, water events have focused on court-enforced environmental rules that farmers blame for dwindling supplies from the delta. In marches and rallies, residents often frame the debate as "people vs. fish" as they call on the government to increase pumping from the delta.
The dozens of delta supporters at Tuesday's event pushed an alternate message: that "fish is food" and the fisherman who rely on the delta are hurting, too. One sign called for "Fewer water exports, not fewer delta fish." The crowd was spirited, but small compared to water rallies in the Valley, which have drawn thousands.
Robert Johnson, a fly fisherman from Contra Costa County, took a shot at the Valley rallies, calling them part of a "highly effective public relations campaign that seeks to make Californians believe that radical environmentalists and fishermen would put a three-inch fish before California jobs, farms and people."
"We are farmers, we are fishermen and we are fighting to save our communities," he said to loud cheers.
None of the plans circulating in the Capitol specifically authorize a peripheral canal, but delta advocates fear such a provision could be added at the last minute. Schwarzenegger's administration believes the canal could be authorized without legislative approval and officials have taken initial planning steps.
Boost for tribe's water quest...MICHAEL DOYLE, SUN-STAR Washington Bureau
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/268/v-print/story/939980.html
WASHINGTON -- The Tule River Indian Tribe's long quest for a reliable water supply got a boost Tuesday as the House authorized a $3 million study of a potential new Porterville-area reservoir.
The study will examine the prospects for a 5,000-acre reservoir somewhere along the south fork of the Tule River. The proposed reservoir would ease a problem that dates back to the 19th century, but its construction is still far from assured.
"The tribe views this study as an important first step to settling its water claims," said Del. Madeleine Bordallo of Guam, who managed the bill on the House floor during a debate that lasted approximately two minutes.
The House approved the study by voice vote early Tuesday evening.
If built, the new reservoir would serve a small tribe of about 1,500 enrolled members. Many inhabit a rugged and arid reservation spanning 58,000 acres. The original reservation had adequate access to water, which it lost when the reservation boundaries were shifted eastward in 1873.
"It's a small water project, but everyone would like to see this solved and put to bed," said Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Visalia.
Nunes authored the Tule River Tribe Water Development Act, which won House approval by voice vote. A similar bill passed the House in September, but the legislation expired when the 110th Congress ended.
Unlike last year's version, this year's Tule River bill has the explicit support of Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Following further negotiations, Feinstein this year introduced an identical bill in the Senate. This makes it much more likely the legislation will win final congressional approval.
The big difference between last year and this year centers around gambling.
The reservoir study bill approved Tuesday would prohibit any future water supplies from being used for the Tule River Tribe's existing Eagle Mountain Casino, as well as any related gaming expansion or development.
This is a tighter restraint than last year's bill, which would have permitted use of the future water supplies for the tribe's existing casino but not a new casino.
The Tule River Tribal Council was meeting Tuesday, and members could not be reached to comment.
At present, Eagle Mountain Casino features about 1,400 slot machines as well as gaming tables and events like mixed martial arts fighting. Tribal leaders have discussed relocating the casino from the foothills to 40 acres the tribe owns in the Porterville Airport Industrial Park.
The new reservoir would be built somewhere on the reservation. That will take a while.
Even after Congress gives final approval to the study authorization, lawmakers would have to separately approve the $3 million needed to conduct the work. That's likely to take at least a year. Bureau of Reclamation engineers would then have two years to complete the study. Then, lawmakers would have to approve the tens of millions of dollars that probably would be needed for construction.
Letter: Cap and trade...BARBARA BOSTROM, Merced
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/180/v-print/story/939969.html
Editor: Rep. Dennis Cardoza, please address, us, your constituents, on the ramifications of the cap and trade bill that you voted for.
President Obama has stated that his model for this bill is California. I'm not kidding, one cannot make up this stuff. He states California uses less energy per capita than the national average.
Let's see why: Because of California's energy-saving policies between 2000 and 2007, we lost nearly 21 percent of our manufacturing jobs. That alone dropped our consumption by 21 percent.
Industrial users pay twice as much as Midwest counterparts. What would keep them here? We residents pay 50 percent higher rates that the other states. From 2005 to 2007, 2.14 million Californians moved to other states, 1.44 million moved in, obviously a negative figure.
Our unemployment rate is 11.5 percent -- if you factor those unable to collect unemployment funds any longer it's probably closer to 16 percent.
There you go, President Obama, keep up with the tax and spend and you will attain our glorious example -- every state will share our success.
Maybe Cardoza could explain just why under the proposed cap and trade bill if we sell our homes we must bring it up to green home standards -- that alone increases our expenses by 30 percent.
Why the rush to pass such an invasive and dangerous piece of legislation? Maybe because in the light of day we would truly know what a scam it is.
Modesto Bee
Modesto voters get a say on 5 annexation areas...Adam Ashton
http://www.modbee.com/local/v-print/story/774086.html
Modesto voters in November will be asked if they think the city should grow outside its current boundary to accommodate projects that could yield business parks and land for industrial development.
The City Council on Tuesday voted to place five areas outside the city limit before residents on advisory votes that could indicate public support for them.
Council members stressed that they wanted to create more opportunities for businesses to open here, although at least two of the potential annexation areas have significant residential components.
"As the economy turns around, we'll be ready," Modesto City Councilwoman Janice Keating said.
A tense point of the nearly four-hour meeting came when City Attorney Susana Alcala Wood advised Councilman Garrad Marsh to step down from the growth votes because of a potential conflict of interest he has as the owner of developable land.
The state Fair Political Practices Commission in April advised Marsh to abstain from a vote on a proposed farmland preservation ordinance because the measure could restrict the city's amount of developable land and theoretically increase the value of his plans for a 14-lot subdivision in northeast Modesto.
Marsh, a slow-growth advocate, views that advice as specific to farmland preservation. The city's development lobby argues that it should apply to all growth decisions.
The FPPC has not indicated to the city whether its April letter should be interpreted more broadly. Wood urged Marsh to abstain "out of an abundance of caution."
"I totally disagree," he said, emphasizing that his vote Tuesday was to send advisory measures to the ballot that would give voters a say on future growth. "I doubt there will be an impact on property I own," he said.
The council voted 6-0 to ask voters whether four areas outside the city should be considered for eventual annexation. One passed with a 4-2 vote. Councilman Will O'Bryant attended most of the meeting but left early and missed the decision on the ballot measures.
The proposals likely would not be brought within the city for at least seven years, with many opportunities for residents to protest the projects before then.
The areas that won unanimous support from the council are:
• The north McHenry Avenue corridor, a 130-acre area that is developed and characterized by a row of car dealerships.
• A 240-acre area west of Highway 99 that is designated to be developed as a business park. This project is coveted because it has visibility on Highway 99. One west Modesto resident spoke against this proposal because of concerns about traffic congestion and building on prime farmland.
• An 1,100-acre area along Kiernan Avenue that is prized because of its proximity to Highway 99. Residential growth could develop, as well.
• Tivoli North, a 480-acre proposal that focuses mostly on residential development east of Oakdale Road but has room for at least two retail sites
The project that advanced by the 4-2 vote is the 960-acre Hetch Hetchy planning area north of the city limit.
Keating and Councilman Dave Lopez voted to wait on putting Hetch Hetchy before voters because they are concerned that residents might balk at any measures that would suggest plans for residential development during a recession. They said they wanted to improve the chances of commercial projects.
Several landowners in the Hetch Hetchy area encouraged the council to advance their property toward annexation, noting that nearby growth has made it difficult for them to farm.
Developers can skirt the advisory Measure M votes, which ask whether sewer lines should be extended outside the city limit. But doing so could give their projects a public relations problem that could jeopardize their success.
Drought conditions turn dire in parts of Texas...BETSY BLANEY, Associated Press Writer
http://www.modbee.com/business/v-print/story/774150.html
LUBBOCK, Texas -- If not for the triple-digit heat, central Texas rancher Debbie Davis could almost think it was a different season entirely.
"The (pasture) grass looks like it's the dead of winter," said Davis, who raises beef cattle and Texas Longhorns northwest of San Antonio. The region is enduring its driest 22-month span going back to 1885. "It's horrible. It's probably the worst I've ever seen."
Usually it's West Texas that's hot and dry. Now, central and southern Texas are alone in the nation in experiencing the two most severe stages of drought. About 11 percent of the state was in "extreme" or "exceptional" drought as of June 30, up from 8 percent the previous week.
That's bad news for farmers and ranchers in the nation's No. 2 agriculture state behind California, who could lose billions in crops and livestock.
Ranchers are sending many more cattle to sale barns, which has driven prices down. There's little pastureland to graze on and the cost to ship hay in from out of state is high - as is the price of supplemental feed.
Three years ago in a drought that spanned more than a year, Texas lost $4.1 billion, a crop and livestock record for a single year.
"It could easily be that" again, said Travis Miller, a drought specialist with the Texas AgriLife Extension Service.
The parched parts of the state are south of a line from Del Rio to Waco to Houston, while according to a U.S. Drought Monitor map released last week, much of West Texas is faring well.
"It's a tale of two states," said Victor Murphy, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Fort Worth. "The only way out of this drought is some sort of tropical disturbance."
Burn bans are in effect in more than half of the state's 254 counties, and water restrictions never before implemented in San Antonio are likely just days away.
Houston residents welcomed some rain Tuesday, with many areas getting at least an inch and some getting as much as 3 inches. That came after the city saw its driest May 1-July 5 period since records began in 1889, receiving just 0.65 of an inch of rain in those 65 days, compared with about 10 inches usually.
The city had its second-warmest June since 1906, including seven consecutive days with temperatures of at least 100.
Folks in the San Antonio area, officials say, could see a return to drought conditions of the 1950s, which lasted about six years and affected every part of the state. From September 2007 through last month the area has gotten 23.9 inches of rain - less than half the normal amount of about 54 inches.
"It's been ridiculously dry for going on two years now and it doesn't help having exceptionally dry conditions this time of year," said John Nielsen-Gammon, the state's climatologist at Texas A&M University.
Texas produces about 16 percent of the nation's 31.7 million head of cattle, and more than 60 percent of the state's beef cows are in counties with extreme and exceptional drought.
The culling of the herds is not expected to affect meat prices at grocery stores. Most of the cows sold at auction are being slaughtered and used for hamburger meat. Demand and the sale of ground beef has remained strong despite the struggling economy.
But that could change, because the effects of the drought on livestock aren't short-term. It leads to reduced conception rates and calf crops the next year, and the lack of feed results in lower cattle sale weights.
"We'll have a lot fewer cows next year nationwide, which means higher prices," said David Anderson, an agriculture marketing economist with the Texas AgriLife Extension Service.
Range and pasture recovery from drought can take several years and can result in lower stocking rates while ranges recover.
Crop production on the High Plains in West Texas is probably the state's only hope to avoid another year of multibillion-dollar losses. In March, agriculture officials estimated cattle producers had lost about $830 million going back to last summer.
"Everybody's pretty desperate," said Davis, the rancher. "We're all hoping for a hurricane."
Fresno Bee
Fresno Co. seeks federal disaster declaration...Cyndee Fontana

http://www.fresnobee.com/local/v-print/story/1521282.html
The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday redoubled efforts to have Fresno County declared a federal disaster area due to water shortages and related unemployment.
The letter approved unanimously by board members adds another political voice to formal requests last month by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and California Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer. Officials say the federal disaster declaration could bring in help such as more food, job training and unemployment assistance.
Problems -- particularly on the county's west side -- stem from several years of below-average snow and rainfall coupled with environmental restrictions on farm water deliveries to protect endangered species.
Earlier this year, the board declared local emergencies because of drought conditions and the related unemployment and food crisis. Supervisors also called for state and federal disaster proclamations.
Tuesday, board members renewed the local emergency status. Supervisors Phil Larson and Henry Perea also urged their colleagues to send the letter lobbying President Barack Obama for the disaster declaration.
Board members quickly agreed, with Supervisor Judy Case saying they need to keep up the pressure.
More than 300,000 acres of farmland have been fallowed and unemployment rates have hit 40% in some west side areas, according to the board's letter. Area food banks are distributing record amounts of food but supplies are limited, it says.
Larson noted that the governor last week said he would release 100,000 acre-feet of water to help farms in the Central Valley. While that doesn't solve the drought, he said, "the biggest thing it does is employ more people."
Also Tuesday, the board considered a county progress report on the San Joaquin Valley Blueprint Planning Process and endorsed a series of "smart growth" principles. Officials are working to develop a vision for growth in the Valley to the year 2050.
Supervisors balked at endorsing a growth scenario based on a Metro Rural Loop -- a far-ranging transportation network. Several board members expressed reservations over the loop, and supervisors opted instead to discuss the concept at a future meeting.
Tenants move in at Fresno State's Campus Pointe...Sanford Nax
http://www.fresnobee.com/business/v-print/story/1521135.html
The first residents are moving into the Campus Pointe project on the Fresno State campus, even as construction continues and a legal challenge awaits a ruling.
Palmilla at Campus Pointe, a luxury apartment complex near the Save Mart Center, opened Monday. Three residents have moved in, six applications are pending and interest is robust, said Chris Duke, property manager.
Among the 144 one- and two-bedroom apartments arrayed throughout six buildings, 48 are finished, and the rest should be ready within two weeks, Duke said.
The apartments are behind gates. Residents have access to a business center, pool, gym and community center.
The units are designed for employees of California State University, Fresno, and others who want to live near the amenities at Campus Pointe and the surrounding neighborhood.
Still to come: 244 student apartments, which could debut by fall semester 2010; 100 to 200 units of senior housing that could open in 2011; shops; a 14-screen movie theater; and a hotel.
The last phase of Campus Pointe -- the hotel -- isn't expected to open until 2012.
The project is on land owned by the university, and it contains a mixture of work force, student and senior housing, although each will be separate and behind its own gates. Each community will have its own key cards and clubhouses, and they won't even share parking lots, Duke said.
"This is a great opportunity," Duke said. "There is nothing else like this at the other 22 schools. You couldn't look for more diverse demographics."
Fresno State officials call it unique.
"Some CSU campuses have done student housing as public/private ventures, but Fresno State will have the first public/private mixed-use project," said Deborah Adishian-Astone, associate vice president for auxiliary operations at Fresno State.
Duke works for RPM Company of Lodi, which is developing the residential components of Campus Pointe with Fresno developer Ed Kashian.
Fresno State officials say the $1 million in annual rent from Campus Pointe would help retire debt on the Save Mart Center and support campus agriculture programs.
The prospect of a commercial enterprise at Fresno State didn't sit well with some businesses. Several controversies, mainly involving fees for road improvements, had to be settled with Fresno, Clovis and the state Department of Transportation.
In 2007, the owner of Sierra Vista Mall filed a lawsuit. The mall already has a multiscreen theater. The litigation involved, in part, the environmental work and approval process. A ruling on that lawsuit could come as early as Friday.
David Doyle, attorney for Sierra Vista Mall owner LandValue 77, couldn't be reached Tuesday, but he has said in the past that if his client prevails, construction could stop and flawed approvals and studies could have to be corrected.
University officials said it was a small risk to start construction while the lawsuit was pending.
Kashian said the litigation and the economy have slowed development, but he expects the apartments to be popular. "The apartments speak for themselves because of their location and proximity of the university," he said, calling the concept a "model" for other universities.

Sacramento Bee
Lawsuit filed over federal energy corridors...SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN, Associated Press Writer  
http://www.sacbee.com/state_wire/story/2007820.html
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- More than a dozen conservation groups filed suit Tuesday alleging that the federal government skirted several laws when designating thousands of miles of energy corridors in New Mexico and other Western states.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, names Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Energy Secretary Steven Chu and the heads of three other federal land management agencies.
The groups behind the complaint said they are challenging the energy corridors because they align existing power plants fueled by coal and other fossil fuels rather than consider future generating stations that could take advantage of solar, wind and other renewable energy sources.
"It doesn't make any sense for the agencies to invest all of this time and energy into a network of corridors that must be obsolete very soon if we're going avoid the worst effects of climate change," said Amy Atwood, a senior attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the 15 plaintiffs.
A spokeswoman with the Bureau of Land Management in Washington, D.C., said she could not comment on the pending litigation. The BLM was a lead agency in the preparation of an environmental impact statement for the energy corridors.
The 6,000 miles of corridors through federal lands in 11 Western states mark future routes for oil and natural gas pipelines and electric transmission lines. The 3,500-foot-wide corridors generally follow major highways.
The lawsuit claims the federal government failed to consider the impacts on wildlife and scenic lands, including New Mexico's Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge and Utah's Arches National Park and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.
Local officials from San Miguel County, Colo., south to the village of Placitas, N.M., also voiced concerns that the federal government ignored comments given during public meetings in 2006 and 2008 and did not consider the impacts to property adjacent to the federal lands that make up the corridors.
"I would say it was kind of a hatchet job to tell you the truth," Atwood said. "They just ran over everybody's concerns, did what they wanted to do, didn't take any input or feedback and this is the result."
The lawsuit asks the court to find the federal government in violation of the 2005 Energy Act, the Endangered Species Act, the National Environmental Policy Act and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act.
It also asks that the court declare unlawful the government's decisions regarding the corridor designation and subsequent changes to federal land use plans.
The BLM and U.S. Department of Energy were directed by the 2005 Energy Act to lay out the corridors in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.
The original proposed routes came under heavy criticism from property rights advocates as well as conservation groups. The BLM made changes in the final version to avoid sensitive areas, including 27 wilderness areas that had been touched by an earlier draft.
Still, the plaintiffs argue that the designated corridors fail to meet one of the fundamental purposes of the Energy Act, which was to establish corridors that would improve reliability and relieve congestion of the national grid.
Katie Renshaw, an attorney with Earthjustice, said the plaintiffs are hopeful the Obama administration will be interested in working on a settlement given its efforts so far to prioritize renewable energy.
"You can have miles and miles of solar fields or wind farms, but without transmission linking them to cities it's kind of pointless," she said. "This is a necessary step for the rhetoric that's out there."
The plaintiffs include Center for Biological Diversity; San Miguel County, Colo.; Bark; Defenders of Wildlife; Great Old Broads for Wilderness; Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center; National Parks Conservation Association; National Trust for Historic Preservation; Natural Resources Defense Council; Oregon Natural Desert Association; Sierra Club; Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance; The Wilderness Society; Western Resource Advocates and Western Watersheds Project.
Editorial: We might need salmon czar, too
http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/v-print/story/2008146.html
Faced with a pitchfork rebellion in the San Joaquin Valley, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar last month appointed a "water czar" to deliver extra water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to farmers in certain districts south of the Delta.
That prompts a question: Will the Obama administration also appoint a "salmon czar" to help bring relief to the North Coast fishing industry, which is dependent on healthy flows in the Delta so salmon can migrate and spawn?
So far, Salazar's water agenda in California has focused almost completely on Fresno-area farmers, whose wealth and clout tend to demand attention.
That's why Deputy Interior Secretary David Hayes has been tasked to bring together federal agencies to expedite certain Delta projects, including a pair of gates that would block imperiled smelt and salmon from being sucked into pumps that deliver water to the south.
It's commendable that Salazar, a former congressman from Colorado, would want to wade into the swamp of Delta politics. For the last four years, the Bush administration barely got its toes wet.
Yet because they are not from this place, Salazar and Obama may not understand the need for a balanced approach to resolving conflicts over water and natural resources. They also should be careful not to fuel certain myths that make resolution more complicated.
Some of these myths:
• The Endangered Species Act and related court rulings are the main causes of the water shortages in the San Joaquin Valley. Not true. As of the end of April, the water content in the state's snowpack was 66 percent of normal, the third dry year in a row. Drought is the main cause of water cutbacks in the San Joaquin Valley.
• All water districts in the Valley are suffering. Again, not true. Some water districts have senior water rights, meaning they get first dibs on available supplies. While holders of junior water rights, such as the Westlands Water District, have been cut back severely, other districts are close to their normal allotments.
• Central Valley salmon are suffering only because of ocean conditions. Another falsehood. Salmon runs have bounced around but have generally declined since the 1960s, even with gyrating ocean conditions. Clearly, their habitat in the Valley has degraded – a habitat that is dependent on clear, cold, abundant water.
Through improved conservation, water banking, groundwater storage and other projects, California can help its farms and cities weather the dry periods while rebuilding a healthy fishery. That will take a cooperative approach.
Yet if certain farm districts and their congressional representatives choose to point fingers and inflame myths, cooperation will be hard to come by. The challenge for the Obama administration will be to bust through those falsehoods and serve as a moderating force for a more efficient and equitable use of water in California.
Lodi Sentinel
State requires Lodi to revisit wastewater permit...Maggie Creamer
http://www.lodinews.com/articles/2009/07/08/news/4_water_
090708.txt
More questions surround Lodi's wastewater permit after the state's water board required a re-evaluation of the city's wastewater practices on Tuesday.
The State Water Resources Control Board reviewed the permit after the California Sportsfishing Alliance brought up concerns about the levels of pollutants in groundwater near the White Slough wastewater plant. The city uses wastewater to irrigate 790 acres of crops and stores some of it in 49 acres of unlined storage ponds.
The board sent the permit back to its regional board for revisions. It is unclear what the exact consequences will be, but the decision could open the city up to lawsuits from third parties or additional requirements on how the city treats the irrigation water. On Aug. 5, the Lodi City Council will discuss with Charlie Swimley, the city's water services manager, whether the city can afford to continue running the plant without any changes.
The city mixes water run through the treatment plant with pre-treated water from industrial companies, like Pacific Coast Producers, and either irrigates crops or adds it to unlined storage ponds. The alliance believes this practice is adding high concentrations of nitrates and salt to the soil.
The city argues there are many reasons there could be salt content in the area, including dairies and the proximity to the Delta, Swimley said.
The regional board had previously approved the city's current permit, with the requirement that the city further investigates whether it is contributing to groundwater contamination in the area.
The state's decision changes the city's status to being in noncompliance with its own permit until the studies are complete, which can open up the city to legal action, said Kathryn Gies, the principal engineer for West Yost Associates, the company the city hired to do the studies.
The state board had previously said the city did contribute to groundwater contamination, but took out that language at Tuesday's meeting after City Attorney Steve Schwabauer threatened to sue.
The decision has possible consequences for other wastewater plants in the Central Valley and elsewhere throughout the state, because other plants operate similarly to Lodi, said Debbie Webster, the executive officer of the Central Valley Clean Water Association. The association often advocates at regulatory proceedings for its members, which are mainly wastewater agencies.
While Webster is not sure what the result of the Lodi decision will be, she is worried it will just add another layer of government.
"This could increase costs to our member agencies and ratepayers without an increase in water quality benefits," she said.
But the sportsfishing alliance said Lodi's situation is unique because it mixes in industrial waste, so it will not set a precedence, said Richard McHenry, a senior engineer for the alliance.
Stockton Record
Delta supporters rally at Capitol's doorstep...Alex Breitler
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090708/A_NEWS/907080314/-1/A_NEWS
SACRAMENTO - It seems all the attention has gone to the south San Joaquin Valley, where marches, public demonstrations and news conferences have highlighted the cry for water there.
Tuesday it was the Delta's turn.
More than 200 farmers, fishers and Delta residents turned out for a rally at the steps of the Capitol, inside of which negotiations on a series of water bills continue even while the budget takes center stage.
While advocates condemned a peripheral canal - the "Panama Canal North," as some now call it - Tuesday's event was more about demanding a voice in the proceedings. Advocates say they're worried behind-the-scenes legislative maneuvering could alter existing water bills, authorizing and funding a canal with little opportunity for the public to comment.
"You can't fix the Delta without the people of the Delta as your partners," said state Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Davis, who argues that water officials in their endless debates have largely forgotten the unique people and features of the largest estuary on the West Coast. Her 5th Senate District includes portions of San Joaquin County.
She described the canal, which would divert Sacramento River flows around the Delta to state and federal pumps near Tracy, as a "100-lane freeway" cutting through Delta farmland; a 2006 report described the canal as anywhere from 500 to more than 700 feet wide at its top. The state has estimated the cost at $4.2 billion to $7.4 billion.
"It will not provide one drop of additional water," Delta fly fisherman Robert Johnson said. "All this while we're firing teachers and furloughing state workers."
A number of politicians weighed in at Tuesday's rally, including Delta resident and Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, who called for public hearings on the water legislation and said in a statement that "any discussion of a peripheral canal must follow a solid guarantee that protects (the Delta)."
At this point, he said, the canal should not be part of any legislation.
Supporters believe a canal will safeguard the state's largest water supply source by shipping flows around the Delta, avoiding its fragile levees and decreasing the number of fish sucked into the giant pumps. Opponents call it a water grab that will allow greater exports from the Delta.
Rumors have circulated for two weeks that the negotiations were moving rapidly, prompting the hastily arranged rally. Water hearings originally scheduled for this week were canceled because of the budget crisis.
Alicia Trost, a spokeswoman for Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said at least five public hearings have been held on this year's water bills, and she said that once the budget is decided, the bills will go before committee, offering yet another opportunity.
"It's a process, and it's not over yet," she said.
Still, Delta interests worry that it will indeed be over all too soon if they don't speak up. Those interests include San Joaquin County supervisors, who did not attend the rally because of their regularly scheduled meeting.
"I feel that we'll be on the outside with our face pressed against the candy store window," Supervisor Larry Ruhstaller said.
San Francisco Chronicle
Hundreds of top UC scientists slam planned cuts...David Perlman
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/08/MN6218KIRQ.DTL&type=printable
More than 300 of the nation's most noted scientists from all 10 University of California campuses have warned Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that proposed cuts in the UC budget would endanger the future of science and technology in California and threaten the state's economy.
"Further cuts in the magnitude being contemplated in the latest round of budget proposals would undermine prospects for economic recovery and damage California's competitiveness for decades," the scientists said in a letter that was also circulated to 25 of the Legislature's most influential leaders.
The letter pointed out that California's productivity growth produced by technological innovation between 2002 and 2o11 - much of it stimulated by the achievements of UC scientists in medical and physical research - has been estimated at $5.2 billion and would create 100,000 new jobs.
"UC trains the highly skilled workforce that drives California's economy," the scientists said in the letter. They stressed that 85 percent of the state's biotech firms and 57 percent of the communications industry depend on holders of advanced degrees from UC for their creative workforces.
For example, the letter noted, founders of Intel, Apple, Sun Microsystems and MySpace all hold undergraduate or advanced UC degrees.
Sandra M. Faber, one of the world's leading astrophysicists and a UC Santa Cruz scientist, said the letter originated two weeks ago when Mark Krumholz, a newly recruited UC Santa Cruz astronomer, began wondering whether to accept a job at a higher salary from another highly competitive university.
Krumholz is one of the world's leading experts in developing computer models of the formation of stars in the universe and wanted to stay at Santa Cruz, Faber said Tuesday. He quickly recruited four other young UC scientists to draft the letter that Faber edited before it was sent on to colleagues on other UC campuses.
Within a week and a half, the letter had been signed by more than 300 leading senior scientists on every campus - all either members of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering or the Institute of Medicine - the nation's super-elite in every field of research and technology, Faber said.
More scientists are continuing to sign it by e-mail every day, she said.
As the state grapples with a $26.3 billion deficit, proposed cuts now circulating in Sacramento would produce an $800 million shortfall to the UC system for the coming fiscal year, Faber and her colleagues estimated.
The impact on young UC faculty members with mortgages "is likely to be particularly devastating," the letter to the governor said. "These future scientific leaders can and will move elsewhere. This will produce a huge brain drain from California."
The governor "sees the real consequences behind these cuts and would not have considered them except in the worst-case scenario. But with a $26 billion deficit, the state's pockets are empty and this is the worst case," said Camille Anderson, a Schwarzenegger spokeswoman.
Incoming UC Davis chancellor's credibility gap...Editorial
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/08/EDQL18KDB7.DTL&type=printable
The most basic qualifications for a UC chancellor are integrity and credibility.
Linda Katehi, the incoming chancellor for UC Davis, brings an extraordinary resume from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus, where she served as provost. She also comes with questions about her possible ties to an admissions scandal.
Katehi had recently said that she was "not involved and not aware" of practices that gave special treatment to underqualified but well-connected students. Now it has been revealed that Katehi did inquire by e-mail about the status of an applicant from a "fairly prominent Greek family in Chicago" after being prompted by the state treasurer's campaign manager. Clearly, Katehi must realize that an inquiry from the provost is, at a minimum, an unspoken signal for special handling. Her response to a reply that the student had been accepted: "Excellent."
It looks as if the UC president's office has some unfinished homework to do.
Inside Bay Area
Future of controversial Northern California power line project in doubt...Jeanine Benca, Valley Times
http://www.insidebayarea.com/trivalleyherald/localnews/ci_
12771262
LIVERMORE — The future of a massive power line project that would cut through the Livermore Valley to deliver renewable energy to Santa Clara and other parts of Northern California is in doubt after the withdrawal of its biggest investor.
The Sacramento Municipal Utility District announced last week that it would no longer support a widely vilified, $1.5 billion proposal to build a 600-mile stretch of high-voltage transmission lines through the state.
The consortium of municipal power providers behind the project has said it's needed to meet statewide targets for renewable energy. But environmentalists and property owners from across Northern California have raised concerns about possible economic, aesthetic and health impacts.
One of the proposed power line routes would cut through 55 agricultural and viticultural tracts in Livermore and Pleasanton, worrying local residents.
SMUD's decision to withdraw was fueled primarily by regulatory and financial uncertainties, as well as doubts over whether northeastern Shasta County — the proposed starting point for the transmission line system — is the best site for renewable energy, SMUD assistant general manager Jim Shetler said Tuesday.
"A lot more studies have been done of renewable energy zones that have raised some concerns about the economics of the project," Shetler said. "Basically, we've had some work done updating our analysis of where renewables are, and with that additional (information) we felt it would be prudent" to withdraw, he added.
Recent studies have centered around Southern California, Nevada and Oregon as areas with high potential for solar and geothermal power, Shetler said.
He also cited ongoing debates at the state and federal level over how new, large-scale transmission systems should be built and funded.
The public works project in question — one of the West's largest in recent history — would extend from yet-to-be-developed wind and solar farms in the northeastern part of the state. It would wind through parts of the Central Valley and Bay Area, including protected agricultural and viticultural tracts in the Livermore Valley, to furnish power-thirsty urban areas with energy.
The project's sponsor, the Transmission Agency of Northern California, is a group of 15 or so municipal power providers that banded in the 1980s to develop green power. Only five of those members — the Sacramento Municipal Utility, Modesto and Turlock irrigation districts, and the cities of Redding and Santa Clara — had agreed to fund the initial environmental work and, if it is ultimately approved, to finance the project.
SMUD, the largest stakeholder by far, had been expected to shoulder 35 percent of the project's costs. The utility's withdrawal leaves a gaping hole in the project budget and raises questions about its future.
"Over the next couple weeks, all the partners are going to have to examine all the various options and really evaluate where best to go next," said Transmission Agency spokesman Brendan Wonnacott. "The bottom line is that new transmission lines are needed for Northern California. We have to reduce the bottlenecks caused by overburdened transmission lines."
The Tri-Valley Conservancy, a nonprofit that works to preserve agriculture and vineyards in the Livermore Valley, has opposed the project.
"That's a big chunk of their funding," Sharon Burnham, the conservancy's executive director, said of SMUD's decision to withdraw. "We hope this will set them back a bit so they'll have to re-look" at the project.
Contra Costa Times
Dry forecast shapes plan for new water storage sites...Julia Scott, San Mateo County Times
http://www.contracostatimes.com/environment/ci_12771328?nclick_check=1
SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission is pursuing a plan to store water underground that can be pumped out in time to supply customers in a drought, given the uncertainty of California's water future.
Officials say the natural groundwater aquifer that sits under north San Mateo County will someday be full enough to send 7.2 million gallons per day to SFPUC customers in San Francisco, San Mateo and Alameda counties and much of Santa Clara County for a period of seven and a half years, longer than the last historic drought period in California.
Global warming, and the resulting anticipated loss of Sierra snowpack that feeds the Hetch Hetchy reservoir, have played a part in the SFPUC's long-term planning for water security here in the Bay Area, said Ellen Levin, deputy manager of San Francisco's regional water system.
"We may be anticipating longer drought periods, and so having additional water supplies available to us protects our customers," said Levin. "We want to reduce the need to impose rationing on our customers."
At the heart of the proposal are the five San Mateo County cities — Daly City, South San Francisco, Colma, San Bruno and Millbrae — that already plumb the common groundwater basin they overlie for part of their water supply every year. They also use Hetch Hetchy water from the SFPUC. If these cities can promise to limit the water they draw from the groundwater basin in "wet" years, they will receive an equal amount of "surplus" water from Hetch Hetchy reservoir. Thus the groundwater basin will be allowed to naturally refill with rainfall until there is enough to draw on.
The SFPUC will hold a public meeting in South San Francisco on Thursday to explain the plan to the public and answer questions. The agency is accepting comments through July 28, at which point it will begin preparing an environmental impact report for the $54 million project.
The plan has drawn no complaints from the cities themselves, which would agree to host 16 new pumping wells and water-treatment plants on sites as varied as Golden Gate National Cemetery and two elementary schools in Daly City. Part of the reason is that they would get the same amount of water they normally do in a year of heavy rainfall. And in a dry year, they would continue to pump the same amount of groundwater they always have — it's their right under California law, and this plan would not restrict them.
"From a regional perspective, balancing the resource for a common good is what I think the public would expect us to be doing," said Patrick Sweetland, director of Daly City's Department of Water and Wastewater Resources.
Project Manager Greg Bartow explained why the pumping would not overtax the groundwater aquifer in the way that pumping in the late 1800s resulted in the disastrous land subsidence that pushed parts of San Jose below sea level.
The cities pumping from the San Mateo County aquifer have drawn half the groundwater at depths of 700 feet, and their demand for the water has stabilized over the years, said Bartow. The rest is empty space that would be filled with the water being saved during "wet" years. The SFPUC would use that new water without touching the rest of the aquifer, resulting in no net loss.
"What we're looking at is the amount of storage space available above the existing groundwater levels. We would only pump stored water," said Bartow. "It's kind of like a savings account — you can't overdraft it. We would only be taking from the section we would be operating from."
Officials acknowledge, however, that they don't actually know how much water is down there right now. The city of San Bruno has taken the lead in putting together a local water basin management plan that will tell everyone how much water can be safely withdrawn, but it won't be complete until early next summer. Also, existing climate change models don't allow the SFPUC to predict how many "wet" years lie ahead, a cornerstone of the project's success.
"All you can do is look at a record of your historic hydrology to make those projections," said Levin. "If we don't have as many wet years it will take longer to refill, and we will be exposed to a potential for greater rationing."
The concept of water banking is not new — more than a dozen underground water storage facilities have blossomed across California since the 1980s, mostly in the Central Valley, where water purchased from the state's northern reservoirs is stockpiled underground and doled out to farmers and cities in a drought. The Livermore Valley groundwater basin already supplies parts of Alameda and Contra Costa Counties from a much larger aquifer storage space than the one contemplated by the SFPUC. The Santa Clara Valley Water District stores water underground, and the East Bay Municipal Utility District is developing a groundwater injection project near San Lorenzo.
Water managers are hoping to avoid a serious drought until 2016 or so — the earliest date by which the wells will be installed in San Mateo County with enough water available to collect.
Groundwater banks may only be as useful as the water available to refill them, but they have emerged as a reliable and less expensive alternative to evaporation-prone reservoirs, which are also vulnerable to earthquakes.
Thursday's meeting will begin at 6:15 p.m. at the South San Francisco Municipal Services Building, 33 Arroyo Drive. Submit comments on the Groundwater Storage and Recovery Project to Diana Sokolov at 1650 Mission St., Suite 400, San Francisco, 94103 or by e-mail to diana.sokolov@sfgov.org.  
Los Angeles Times
Shipping industry in deep water
Worldwide container traffic is expected to drop more than 10% this year...Ronald D. White
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ports8-2009jul08,0,1574156,print.story
Trade at international ports is on track to drop more than 10% this year, one of the steepest declines ever, according to a new maritime industry report.
Cargo ships will carry 27 million fewer containers by year's end than they did in 2008 -- a reduction roughly equivalent to all of the cargo containers handled by the five busiest U.S. seaports in a typical year, according to London-based Drewry Shipping Consultants' Container Forecaster Report.
"There has never been a decline like this before. We have never seen numbers like these," said Neil Dekker, editor of the Drewry report. "The container industry is looking at a $20-billion black hole of losses. We can expect a lot of casualties."
Because the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are so busy -- they handle more than 40% of U.S.-bound cargo container trade -- the wharves here are disproportionately affected by the drop-off in imports and exports, Dekker said.
The ramifications for the Los Angeles and the Long Beach ports will be felt in some of the best-paying blue-collar jobs in the nation, as longshore workers lose hours at the docks, truckers have fewer containers to carry and railroad traffic ebbs. The Inland Empire, which has the nation's second-highest unemployment rate among urban areas because of the collapse of its warehouse and distribution system, will continue to suffer, said Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.
"The forecasts for 2010 call only for a very moderate recovery in trade volume. This is a long-term problem. It will take several years for us to get back to the trade levels we saw in 2006 and 2007," Kyser said.
At the Port of Long Beach, the nation's second-busiest container port behind Los Angeles', trade volumes have been knocked back all the way to 2003 levels, according to spokesman Art Wong, wiping out all of the trade gains recorded during the boom years of 2004 through 2007. Similar results can be found at many of the major U.S. ports.
"It's unprecedented for us to see this kind of slide. Is it going to flatten out? Are we at the bottom? We don't know yet," Wong said.
The continuing global recession has run so deep that it has caused Moody's Investors Service to downgrade its outlook to negative overall for the 53 U.S. ports whose credit ratings it tracks.
But there is a bright spot for Los Angeles and Long Beach, according to a new report by Moody's. Even though the two ports are spending millions on expensive environmental improvements and legal battles over their plans to clean up the air, the ports remain attractive to shippers, the report said.
"Los Angeles-Long Beach are the two most highly rated ports in the U.S. Two of the primary drivers are their strong financial situations and their competitive market positions," said Baye Larsen, an analyst and assistant vice president at Moody's. "Both are a key advantage for those ports. They will be among the first to benefit when the recovery does come."
Lori Kelman, spokeswoman for the Port of Los Angeles, said officials expect business to pick up toward the end of the year.
"Our port is positioned well to embrace that recovery," Kelman said.
There are few indications that the turnaround will begin any time soon. The trade route that had been the most resilient in the face of the global recession -- between Asia and Europe -- has now succumbed to the downturn as well. So far this year, the last three years of growth in trade between Asia and Europe have been erased, Dekker said.
The result, he said, would be consolidation throughout the shipping business.
"We believe that, consequently, the basic makeup of the industry will change as companies either go bust, amalgamate or shrink, shedding assets and personnel in the process," Dekker said.
Many shipping lines are consolidating and sharing cargo routes with competitors to reduce costs.
The world's biggest shipping line, A.P. Moller-Maersk of Denmark, has a worldwide fleet that is bigger than the U.S. Navy. Maersk has been the Port of Los Angeles' biggest tenant in terms of cargo volumes. But this year it has sharply cut back its service in Los Angeles and to other ports to cut costs. Maersk Line, which operates 470 vessels and owns 1.9 million containers, says it lost $559 million in the first quarter of 2009.
Freight rates for transpacific trade, the amount that shipping lines can charge for a typical 40-foot container for cargo moving between Asia and the West Coast of the U.S., have plummeted to $920 from $1,400 at the beginning of the year, according to the Drewry report.
The continued slump has dashed the hopes of many in the industry, who had come to believe that the recession had bottomed out and that a recovery was beginning.
"At this moment we can't see anything particularly positive around the corner," Dekker said. "We don't want to be overly negative. That is just the reality."
Cal State system may raise student fees up to 20% more
The increase would come on top of a 10% hike approved in May. Faculty members bitterly denounce trustees and the chancellor at a special board session called to address fiscal crisis...Gale Holland
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-calstate8-2009jul08,0,4410692,print.story
In a first concrete look at how California's fiscal crisis may dramatically reshape higher education in the state, California State University Chancellor Charles B. Reed said Tuesday that he will ask the university's trustees to approve an additional student fee hike of 15% to 20% for this fall, and enrollment reductions of 32,000 students in the year to follow.
The proposed increase would come on top of a 10% hike approved in May and would bring average yearly undergraduate fees to $4,688 to $4,861. That figure includes additional charges set by each campus, but not the cost of books, transportation or room and board.
The chancellor's announcement, at a special board session called to grapple with a funding shortfall of at least $584 million projected for the Cal State system when the state budget is finally issued, came after Cal State faculty members bitterly denounced the trustees and Reed. The professors said the Cal State leaders had failed to fight hard enough for new taxes or other fiscal measures to forestall precipitous cost-cutting.
"The policy of appeasement has been a failure," California Faculty Assn. President Lillian Taiz told Reed and the board.
Reed said the university system, which starts fall classes in August, was running out of time and options.
"I have been in the public service business for more than 40 years, and never before have I ever seen such a devastating cut," the chancellor said.
Speaking to faculty members who lined up to publicly rail at administrators, Board of Trustees Chairman Jeffrey Bleich said, "If we divide and demonize each other . . . and point fingers and pretend it's someone else's fault, we're not going to advance at all."
Reed said much of the fee hike will be covered by financial aid increases and education tax breaks promised by the Obama administration, but several professors called that assertion "ludicrous."
"What this means is dreams deferred, poverty entrenched and the door to the middle class slammed firmly on poor and working-class people," said Rita Ledesma, a professor at Cal State L.A.
Reed said he would call on presidents of the system's 23 campuses to make further reductions totaling $192 million. He also warned of mass layoffs if the faculty union fails to go along with a separate proposal for a university-wide, two-day-a-month furlough plan designed to eliminate $275 million of the $584-million budget gap.
Two unions representing 21,000 of Cal State's workforce of 47,000 employees have tentatively agreed to either accept or negotiate the furlough proposal. But the faculty association, which represents 23,000 instructors and tenure-track professors, had demanded more information about how the overall deficit would be cut before polling its members.
Enrollment at Cal State, the nation's largest four-year university system, currently stands at about 450,000 students. Administrators plan to slash 2010-11 enrollment by raising admission standards, pushing up application deadlines and limiting admission for some students to their local campuses, officials said.
To spread the reductions throughout the four-year institutions, officials said, the restrictions will apply to transfer students as well as incoming freshmen. The university used similar methods in an attempt to reduce enrollment for the school year just ended by 10,000 students, but managed to bring the number down by only 3,000 to 4,000.
Reed said he will issue final recommendations by July 10, in time for a July 21 vote by the trustees.
"It's going to be a very sad year for California students and their families," said Cal State Fullerton professor Diana Guerin, a member of the university's statewide academic senate.
A road map or a road to ruin?
The House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure has laid out a $500-billion blueprint of highway, bridge, rail and green projects. The problem is, it hasn't found a way to pay for it...Editorial...7-1-09
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-transportation1-2009jul01,0,7766845,print.story
It's remarkable what Congress can do when money is no object, as the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure demonstrated when it put out a blueprint for a reauthorization bill to govern the nation's spending on transportation. It's a cornucopia of goodies that's getting strong reviews from interest groups, mainly because it gives them nearly everything they've been asking for: Environmentalists get a new bureaucracy to encourage green projects, public transit agencies get a big influx of cash, high-speed rail enthusiasts get new trains, and states get billions in additional money to build and improve roads, bridges and highways.
There's just one small detail that has been left out -- so far, the committee hasn't identified a way to pay for any of this. And the price tag is breathtaking: $500 billion over six years, a 53% hike over federal transportation spending in the previous six.
As much as we appreciate getting an advance look at House Democrats' thinking on the transportation bill, they seem to be putting the caboose before the locomotive. The blueprint lays out some forward-thinking ways of reinventing the transportation finance system, whose structure was created in 1956 and is badly in need of an overhaul. But it puts off until later the far more important questions about funding, and without those answers, the blueprint amounts to little more than a utopian fantasy.
Funding is so crucial because it's in such short supply. The federal gasoline tax of 18.3 cents per gallon, which hasn't been raised since 1993, is no longer bringing in enough money to pay even the existing highway bills, let alone allow for the kind of spending hike the House committee is proposing. The situation is so dire, in fact, that the trust fund for highway improvements is on the verge of running dry and is projected to need an emergency infusion of up to $7 billion in September.
The last time Congress passed a transportation reauthorization was 2005, and that bill expires on Sept. 30. To some extent, our current woes are the result of lawmakers' shortsightedness then. It was already clear four years ago that the gas tax was no longer adequate to pay for the country's infrastructure needs, yet Congress made no serious attempt to raise the tax or identify other sources of funding. Among the results are that 37% of lane miles on the National Highway System are in poor or fair condition, one of every four bridges is structurally deficient or functionally obsolete, and the percentage increase in miles traveled on the nation's highways is three times the percentage increase in lane miles since 1995. Translation: gridlock, especially in big cities such as Los Angeles.
The administration is seeking to delay the transportation bill for an additional 18 months, urging Congress to draft a shorter bill that would maintain the status quo in the interim. The Transportation and Infrastructure Committee responded with a letter to President Obama saying it intends to push ahead regardless.
We'll reserve judgment until we see the committee's funding proposal. But it takes a lot of chutzpah to propose such a huge spending increase in the midst of an economic depression, after the country has racked up nearly $800 billion in stimulus spending and is considering a healthcare plan estimated to cost north of $1 trillion over 10 years. For now, this bill may be a bridge too far.