Misinformation Persists During Drought

SACRAMENTO — Preparing for a fourth consecutive summer of severe drought, California residents also face growing concern and confusion over how the shrinking water supply affects their everyday lives. With new restrictions being placed on urban use and questions being raised about the farming industry’s total water consumption, Agricultural Council of California (Ag Council) is stepping up to address inaccuracies and provide vital information on behalf of its members, California’s food producers.

“It shouldn’t be green lawns versus green vegetables,” said Ag Council President Emily Rooney. “We are all in this together, and we want Californians to understand how the drought is affecting small family farms and the food supply by providing reliable, consistent information.”

More than 41 percent of California’s irrigated farmlands have already received deep cuts. With lawmakers debating the curtailment of groundwater rights, some established as far back as 1914, the situation for food producers could become even direr. With 600,000 acres of farmland expected to be fallowed this year, a 30 percent increase over 2014, the existing water restrictions could result in over 23,000 farm-related jobs lost and a potential $5.7 billion economic hit this year. Last year, water restrictions caused over 17,000 farm-related jobs to be lost and cost the California economy $2.2 billion.

To curb additional losses, Rooney says farmers continue to do their part by increasing efficiency as they’ve done for years. “Conservation is nothing new to agriculture,” Rooney stated. “Farmers have been using technology to increase efficiency of water use for nearly 30 years.” Most farms now incorporate water-saving drip irrigation and plant crops that generate more value with less water.

These efficiency gains apply to individual farms and industry subsets alike. For example, despite a recent media focus on how much water they use, almond growers using advanced production practices have helped improve their water efficiency by 33 percent for every pound of almonds grown today. And almond growers aren’t alone. The water-footprint of a glass of milk is 65 percent smaller today than in 1944, and similar improvements may be seen in all sectors of California agriculture. California farmers are extraordinarily efficient with water, as crop production has risen 43 percent between 1967 and 2010 per acre foot. Today, one farmer can feed 155 people every day for a year as a result of new technologies and more efficient farming practices, compared to 19 people in 1940.

“In addition to farmers improving water efficiencies, agricultural water allocations have been cut significantly, and the cuts involve greater repercussions for future generations of producers and our food supply,” said Rooney. On average, the water supply for California farmers from Redding to Bakersfield has been cut by 70 percent, and 44 percent of California’s farmland will receive no surface water allocations at all in 2015. “Quite simply, farmers are already facing devastating cuts in the ongoing drought,” stated Rooney.

According to the California Department of Water Resources, agriculture accounts for 40.9 percent of California’s water source annually, not the previously reported 80 percent cited in the media, which excluded water use preserved for environmental purposes. “We know California residents understand the difference between taking shorter showers and risking our state legacy of fresh fruits and vegetables,” said Rooney. “We just want to make sure they have the facts. On behalf of all the small family farmers and large growers alike, we’re here to set the record straight. Misinformation doesn’t grow anything but frustration and hype.”

Learn more about how the drought has affected our nation’s breadbasket and what California farmers are doing to help conserve, by visiting www.agcouncil.org

—Agricultural Council of California

July Update

Dear Member:

July turned out to be the rainiest July on record with nearly 1/2 inch of rain falling.  Even with that, we still used 80,000 gallons of water per household, far above the state average.  We were better than last year and we beat Fresno's targeted savings. For the year, we are 14% better than last year and only 2% behind the target.

Click here for a larger view.

Bermuda Grass Lawn Watering Rates

From information I obtained in an article written by the Agriculture and Natural Resources Department of the University of California, I calculated the amount of water needed to keep Bermuda grass lawn alive and green in Fresno, California.  I ran tests on the output of my sprinklers at each valve location.  On average, my sprays put out 1.5 inches of water an hour and the gear drives put out .5 inches of water per hour.  Based on the guide published for the San Joaquin Valley, the optimum amount of water can be applied by sprinklers outputting 1.5 inches of water in 19 minutes per day 3 times per week in July and or 57 minutes per day with sprinklers outputting .5 inches.

Month Pop up Sprays - Minutes per day @ 3 times per week Seasonal Factor Gear and Impact Sprinklers - Minutes per day @ 3 times per week

               1.5"                   .5"

Jan                2 11%                    6 

Feb                4 22%                  13 

Mar                8 41%                  23 

Apr              11 59%                  33 

May              15 78%                  44 

Jun              18 96%                  55 

Jul              19 100%                  57 

Aug              16 85%                  48 

Sep              13 67%                  38 

Oct                8 41%                  23 

Nov                4 19%                  11 

Dec                1 7%                    4 

Seasonal adjustments are shown as a percentage above based on July being the month requiring the most water.  

If we reduce watering by 20% the reduced amount of water applied by sprinklers outputting 1.5 inches of water would be 15 minutes per day 3 times per week in July and or 46 minutes per day with sprinklers outputting .5 inches. We can keep our lawns alive at this level and still save a lot of water.

Mainline Water Valve Locations

Several of you found your main water valve locations and reported those locations.  Thank you.  There are still 15 missing locations, mine being one.  We will be hiring a plumber in the next few weeks to locate the missing valves.  The estimate is $75 to $100 for each valve.  Only those members with missing valves will be charged for the location costs which will be invoiced along with the next annual billing.

State says water use fell by 27% in June

SACRAMENTO

California’s unprecedented system of mandatory conservation imposed on cities got off to a strong start with water use plunging 27% in June, regulators said Thursday.

Data released by the State Water Resources Control Board showed 265 of 411 local agencies in California hit or nearly reached savings targets.

The governor ordered cities to reduce water use by 25% to prepare in case California’s four-year drought persists.

The savings came during the hottest June on record, which would normally lead to an up-tick in water use. Prior savings have occurred during unusually wet months.

“The June numbers tell a story of conscious conservation, and that’s what we need and are applauding today,” said Felicia Marcus, chairwoman of the water board. “We need to save as much as possible. That is water essentially in the bank for a future dry year or more.”

The report confirmed figures previously released by California’s largest cities, including Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose and San Francisco, showing strong water conservation.

The agencies that met or came within 1% of their mandatory water conservation target serve 27 million Californians.

In the Valley, Selma did the best at reducing its usage, saving 39.6% in June compared to the same time a year ago and exceeding its 32% mandate. The city is served by the California Water Service Co.

Fresno also topped its 28% target by cutting its water consumption

30% last month.

“We’re on the right track, but we can’t rest on our laurels,” said Tom Esqueda, Fresno’s director of public utilities. “We’re urging everyone to focus on conservation during the hot summer months where we can make the biggest reductions. If we start falling behind in our projections, it’ll be hard to catch up in November when water use diminishes.”

Clovis, however, fell short of its goal. It lowered use 33% year-over-year, just shy of its 36% state mandate.

“If they took into account growth over the last two years, we would have made it,” said Lisa Koehn, assistant public utilities director for Clovis. “We’re one of the fastest-growing cities in the Valley. I think we did really well.”

Hanford missed its goal badly, reducing water use by only 9.9%, a far cry from its 28% requirement.

Hanford City Manager Darrel Pyle said the city’s water conservation plan, first instituted in 1988, has helped keep water use low compared to other communities with no guidelines. The state is measuring this year’s water use against 2013 levels that were low to begin with, he said.

Pyle believes the real comparisons should be on the number of gallons of water used per person a day. The estimated per-capita daily home water use in Hanford was 135.8 gallons compared to 179.9 in Lemoore, 157.4 in Visalia and 202.6 in Corcoran.

“We’ve got dead trees all over town, dead lawns all over town,” Pyle said. “I’m not sure what other measures we’ll actually be able to do. ... We’re doing our part; that’s sure.”

DEADLINE TO CONSERVE

Under water board regulations for mandatory water savings, communities have nine months to hit assigned conservation targets as high as 36%. Water savings are compared to 2013, the year before Brown declared a drought emergency.

Some agencies opposed the targets, saying they were unfair and unrealistic and didn’t give enough credit for prior conservation efforts.

Many that objected managed to reach their targets anyway, including San Diego, which saved 24% in June.

Robyn Bullard, a spokeswoman for the public utilities department, credited widespread messaging that included an e-mail blast to customers and television commercials.

The water board is separately telling thousands of farmers that there is not enough water available to divert from rivers and streams under their rights.

Multiple irrigation districts have been challenging the curtailment in court.

A Sacramento County judge indicated at a Thursday hearing that she would side with the state’s new approach to warning of insufficient supplies after she ruled that earlier notices violated farmers’ rights.

Summer is peak time for water use, and strong residential conservation could continue through July because of record rainfall in Southern California.

The water board says it will contact every agency that didn’t come close to its targets and ask for more information about what it’s doing to conserve.

The worst performers, which include the water districts serving wealthy areas in the desert’s Coachella Valley and Temecula in Riverside County, will be told to ramp up water waste enforcement or limit days that residents can water lawns.

Regulators have the power to impose fines on agencies that consistently miss targets, but they say that’s a last resort.

Water waste enforcement also shot up drastically in June. Agencies issued more than 9,500 penalties compared to about 1,900 in May.

Meteorologists say a wet California winter is increasingly likely as a strong El Niño condition builds in the Pacific Ocean, although it’s unclear if it will be a drought-buster.

A study released by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration says precipitation in California since 2012 was 20 inches short of normal, equivalent to losing a full year of rain.

Bee staff writer BoNhia Lee contributed to this report.

Earth Log

Fresno Bee

In June, 5,560 customers were watering daily — using millions of gallons of water in violation of the city’s rules, which only allow twice-a-week landscape irrigation. This month, the number dropped to 1,231.

Fresno is supposed to show a 28% reduction in water use compared to 2013. City officials say residents are succeeding, by and large. Officials are identifying and talking with those who are not complying with watering rules.

The last time I wrote about this issue, people were asking: How does the city know all this stuff? How do they know when

I’m watering and how much I’m using? How do they know it’s me and not my neighbor?

I’m sticking with my first answer: computers and smart water meters.

Flush a toilet in the middle of the night, and your water meter knows about it. The meter tells the city’s computer system, which records time and water usage. But there’s more to it.

The city has 133,000-plus accounts. How do they know which one is you?

Your property has an assessor parcel number. Everybody gets one. That parcel number is attached to your water account. So officials can find out exactly which properties are watering at the wrong times.

How do they know the bump in water use is for your landscape and not for something like topping off your swimming pool?

City spokesman Mark Standriff says the difference between topping off a pool and watering landscape is pretty distinct. He says topping off a pool requires maybe 100 gallons or so. The landscaping is more like 500 gallons plus.

Standriff also says there is a pattern of water use for many customers. There is a 30- to 50-gallon bump between 6 and 7 a.m., then water use drops dramatically throughout the day.

Typically, landscape use will show up as an isolated burst of hundreds of gallons in the evening or in the early morning hours.

The city says it contacts people to check out these big spikes of water use on the wrong days. If a little education fails to stop the violations, there is a whole process for fining and further educating water customers.

We talked about fines last time. There are more drastic measures. They can restrict the water flow to your house.

City workers can install a device that will slow the amount of water coming into your property from the main line in your neighborhood. It’s an option all over California, but I have not heard of any local city or water company using it yet.

I would not expect to see it in Fresno, but you never know. If we see another dry winter, all kinds of dramatic ideas will be on the table.

DARK AND STORMY IN JULY

The rainfall over the weekend broke a monthly Fresno record that had stood for more than a century. In July 1913, the city had .33 of an inch of rain. Over the weekend, Fresno got .36 of an inch. The city had .07 of an inch from two brief events earlier this month, so the overall total is .43 of an inch for July.

This is the most significant July rain Fresno has seen in 14 years. And it has been more than two decades — 1992 — since the city had this much rain in the hottest month of the year.

Someone asked if this was the start of El Niño. The National Weather Service in Hanford says the rain came from remnants of Tropical Storm Dolores. I haven’t heard any meteorologists connecting this to El Niño.

But plenty of weather experts are talking about El Niño forming in the Pacific Ocean, as our weekend story said.

Clovis issues $125,000 in fines

Fresno Bee

Clovis is sending a message to residents and business owners not managing a 36% cut in water consumption required by the state. For its June billing cycle, the city hit customers with $125,197 in fines, said Luke Serpa, the city’s public utilities director.

Fresno, which is fining customers for watering on wrong days, issued 1,761 citations in June. At $45 apiece, the fines amounted to $79,245, up from 1,204 citations and $54,180 in fines issued in May. The Clovis citations affect only half of the city’s customers, because the other half are on a different two-month billing cycle, Serpa said.

Altogether, 4,975 fines were levied, Serpa said. Of those, 4,441 were for residential customers, a majority for failing to reach the 36% reduction in consumption, he said.

“The goal,” Serpa said, “is to save water, not penalize people.”

In June, Clovis reported a reduction of 33%, short of the state requirement that compares 2015 monthly consumption to 2013, he said.

Fresno’s water consumption dropped 30% in June and is trending at 27.8% lower for July, spokesman Mark Standriff said. The city is mandated by the state to cut consumption by 28%, he said.

In Clovis, first-time fines for residential users were $25. Other residential users were fined $12.50 under a complicated, sliding-scale formula, in which they don’t meet the 36% cut but use less than the average household.

Average household use changes each month.
Second-offense fines for residential users in Clovis are $50 per customer and will be charged for future penalties, too.

Included among the residential fines in Clovis were 33 citations for water wasting or watering on the wrong day. The city also issued 499 water waster warnings, Serpa said.

Overall, 534 fines were issued to commercial and industrial users in Clovis. Those fines could range from $25 to $1,000, depending on meter size, Serpa said.

If the 36% consumption cut for Clovis is difficult to meet now, it will become even more difficult in the winter, Serpa said.

Clovis has a large number of single-family homes and much of the water it uses is for summer landscape irrigation.

When winter comes, customers will have fewer opportunities to cut consumption 36%, he said.

“It will be harder in January than in July when there is a lot of savings to be had,” Serpa said.

The savings could come if rain begins in October and remains steady through the early part of the fall, when water consumption typically remains higher.

Serpa said the city capped 39,000 sprinklers in May and June, and that water savings is not yet fully accounted for.  “We had a very high mandatory cut based on our usage from July through September,” he said. “Our residential per capita use the rest of the year is not far out of line from other cities.”

In the only bit of good news for Clovis water consumers, the city is getting more water allocation through the Fresno Irrigation District because of the unusual spate of spring storms.

The city’s allocation has grown from 5,500 acre-feet in April to 9,293 acre-feet. It allows the city to use less water from its water bank near Kerman at a cost of about $200 per acre-foot, a savings of about $500,000.

The city had planned to use 3,000 acre-feet of water from the water bank and now only has to use 400. The use of Fresno Irrigation District surface water also will save electricity, lowering pumping costs, and reduce overdraft of its wells.

The city’s normal Fresno Irrigation District allocation is 27,000 acre-feet.

Water-saving tips offered at California State Fair

Capital Press

SACRAMENTO — Water-saving tips to weather the drought are key features at this year’s California State Fair, which runs through July 26.

The state Department of Water Resources’ award-winning “Californians Don’t Waste — Save Water in Your Home” exhibit in the Counties Building offers hands-on demonstrations of ways to conserve water in kitchens, laundry rooms and bathrooms.

The agency also has an outdoor booth at the fair’s farm at which experts such as landscape specialist Julie Saare-Edmonds give tips on landscape irrigation efficiency.

“We’re pleased by the turnout at the State Fair and the interest fairgoers show in our exhibits,” DWR spokeswoman Elizabeth Scott said in an email. “We’re also finding that the drought seems to be on everybody’s mind. Not only are folks interested in hearing from us about new ways to conserve, but they want to share with us what they’ve been doing at home to save water. That’s encouraging.”

The 162nd state exposition opened on a cool morning July 10 with the theme, “The Best is Back.” The Golden State’s abundance of crops and farm animals always take center stage at the fair, as its32-year-old farm is one of the most popular destinations for attendees.

The farm’s attractions include a daily farmers’ market, an outdoor kitchen grill, an aquaculture exhibit, an insect pavilion and talks by the University of California’s Master Gardeners. A local supermarket chain also sponsors a “passport” program in which families can learn about crops and healthy eating while they visit the farm and eat a snack at the end.

Nearby, the fair’s livestock building and adjacent shaded stalls feature some 4,500 entries during the course of the festival, as livestock exhibits are shown in shifts. Entrants compete in youth and open divisions.

The DWR’s water-saving tips come as urban areas are under a state mandate to reduce their water use by at least 25 percent from 2013 levels, with some areas facing targets of up to 36 percent. Farms statewide have had their surface water allocations drastically reduced or shut off completely.

The department’s outdoor exhibit includes a low-water garden maintained with a water-efficient irrigation system. The exhibit offers drought-tolerant plant ideas and tips for conserving water with compost and mulch, according to a news release.

Moody Superstar Which Face Will El Niño Show Us This Winter?

A rainfall bonanza could be coming to California Ocean temperature is comparable to strongest El Niño But there is more than one warm-water blob in the ocean


Fresno Bee






California is dreaming again of a cigar-shaped superstar hanging out in the sun for thousands of miles along the equator. El Niño, the moody blob of warm ocean water, is spreading in the Pacific right now.

Last year when El Niño began hinting at an appearance, media mania descended quickly, raising the possibility of a gully-washing winter to break the intense drought. A dud of a winter followed.

This time, the headlines might be right, say seasoned climatologists, such as Kelly Redmond of the Desert Research Institute in Reno. This is beginning to look like the rain festival of 1997-98, when the most powerful El Niño on record helped double average precipitation here.

But Redmond and other scientists always say this phenomenon has many personalities. Nobody really knows which one will show up. Will it suddenly cool down and turn into a wimp, as it did last year?

Maybe not this time.

El Niño prediction has not advanced much in the last 15 years, Redmond says. It is possible for science to learn more and fine-tune prediction, he says, but there








haven’t been many big breakthroughs since the 1990s.

“That said, I’ll be surprised if we don’t see something besides drought this winter,” Redmond says. “It’s darned hard to predict, so you have to be careful not to overstate or understate.”

And that may be the toughest part of following a capricious superstar, scientists say. They are trying to balance the message while explaining the event to folks who often just don’t get it.

Some people think it actually happens in California, scientists say. It does not.

“Some people think it’s a storm system,” says warning coordination meteorologist Jerald Meadows of the National Weather Service in Hanford. “It’s not that.”

WIND, WATER, ANCHOVIES

When you think of El Niño, think coastal Peru in South America, not California. Peruvian fishermen first noticed El Niño changes in the 1800s when their world-class anchovy fishery would sometimes collapse.

The fish need the plankton brought up by rising cold water that mysteriously stops every several years. Since the problem usually happened around Christmas, they called it El Niño — the child, or the Christ child.

Scientists later linked it to the dying trade winds that blow east toward Asia. As the wind dies, the sun heats the ocean down to about 100 yards below the surface. The warm surface water spreads along the equator until it covers an area twice the size of the United States, climatologists say.

The amount of heat energy has been compared to the atomic bomb. In the huge wet season of 1997-98, El Niño had more energy than a million Hiroshima bombs, scientists say. That heat energy causes the high-speed wind known as the jet stream to dip south — a powerful force drawing moisture and storms with it.

“It’s like being on steroids,” said consulting meteorologist Jan Null in the Bay Area.

That kind of power affects weather in many parts of the globe. There is often flooding in arid parts of Peru and Ecuador. Australia and Indonesia often experience drought. And, as the jet stream blasts across the southern states, it can mute the impacts of the Atlantic Ocean hurricane season.

Southern California can be pounded with moist storms for months at a time. Moving north in California, the effect tends to taper off, scientists say.

But unless El Niño is very warm and strong, it is not reliable, meaning anything could happen. That may be why the cooler episode of El Niño last year had little effect in breaking the drought, scientists say. And many other things are going on in the chaos of Earth’s weather.

“El Niño is the biggest player we know in global weather,” Null says. “It’s the superstar. But you have to remember, it’s not the only player out there.”

One of those players is the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, a decade-long swing between warm and cool ocean temperatures.

This longer-term event is influencing California’s drought, helping to create a vast pool of warm water in the Gulf of Alaska, says Fresno meteorologist Steve Johnson.

In the process, a freakish dome of air has risen over the last few years, bouncing storms away from California through the drought. The dome has been nicknamed by forecasters “the ridiculously resilient ridge.”

“I think people should know the warm water is still in the Gulf of Alaska,” Johnson says. “What does that mean for the strong El Niño building at the equator?”

It could be a good thing, because this setup apparently happened during the huge 1997-98 wet season. The Pacific Decadal Oscillation was in a similar warm cycle.

Even more telling, the water temperature right now along the equator is comparable to the ocean temperatures in summer 1997, Johnson says. More meteorologists suspect a very strong event this fall.

Says Johnson: “I think it’s possible we’re in for a hell of a wet season.”

Climatologist Redmond adds that people need to be patient if the downpours don’t start on Nov.

1. The 1997-98 season was not memorable until early February. He says he remembers seeing signs asking where El Niño was in January.

“Then the steady rain started on Feb. 2,” he says. “And it just kept going week after week.”

By the end of February, the community of Earlimart in Tulare County was overwhelmed with floodwater from the nearby White River. The normally small river also spilled onto Highway 99, shutting down the traffic artery.

FACES OF EL NIÑO

Bay Area meteorologist Null knows the splintered personality of El Niño. Null has a big collection of easily understood El Niño analyses, including a breakdown of precipitation in the four types of events.

El Niños are classified as weak, moderate, strong or very strong, depending on how warm the ocean becomes.

There have only been two very strong El Niños dating back 65 years — the 1997-98 and 1982-83 events. Most places in California got more than 150% of average rain and snow. Many got 200%, or twice the normal amount.

But if the event is just one step down in strength

— a strong El Niño — it’s not as certain. Of the four strong events since 1950, two seasons wound up below average in many California locations, including the mountains east of Fresno and east of Sacramento.

“Unless you’re looking at a very strong event, you have to be careful about how you explain it,” Null says.

The next question is a no-brainer: Will California suffer catastrophic flooding during a very strong El Niño? Damage during the 1997-98 monster season ranked 10th among the costliest flood years, according to Null’s statistics.

The other very strong El Niño, 1982-83, is third. The worst year was 1994-95 during a moderate El Niño. The damage was $1.95 billion.

The rest of the 10 worst flooding years included two La Niña years when the water at the equator was cooler than average. It may seem odd, because La Niña often means less rainfall in California. The other four flood years happened when the ocean temperature was average.

“What does that mean? Flooding happens here,” Null says.

Why does El Niño have so many faces? Climatologist Redmond says the variations could have something to do with the locations of the warmest areas, but there could be many other factors as well.

“Does it make a difference if the patterns of warmth are nearer Peru and the Galapagos?” he asks. “We’re talking about a lens of shallow warm water across thousands of miles of the planet. We just don’t know enough about it yet.”