Threats to imported water supplies make clouds welcome sight

By: GIG CONAUGHTON - North County Times | Monday, January 28, 2008 10:06 PM PST ∞

SAN DIEGO COUNTY - Local water officials and farmers looked out their windows Monday and said recent rains here and snow to the north could actually boost San Diego County's water supplies.

That prediction is obvious but more complicated than it appears.

In most years, pouring rains would have little direct effect on local water supplies.

Even in the wettest years, eight out of every 10 glasses of water in San Diego County has to be imported from the Colorado River and Northern California. Rains collected in the region's meager reservoirs provide only a small portion of local supplies.

This year, however, the region could lose up to 30 percent of its supplies from Northern California because of a court ruling to protect an endangered fish.

Because of that, water officials are hoping that rains will keep local residents from watering lawns and gardens for weeks. That will help keep backup stores filled and ready to be tapped when hotter weather arrives.

Local farmers already have suffered mandatory 30 percent cutbacks. They signed deals to buy water at discounted rates in return for taking the first supply cuts in emergencies.

But the recent rains are helping them. If farmers don't use all the water they're allowed now, they'll be allowed to use it later this year - in hot months when there will be little rain.

"For us, this is like pennies from heaven," Escondido avocado grower Mike Hillebrecht said of the rains Monday. He said his farm hadn't had to use any water from the system since Jan. 1.

Gary Arant, general manager of the Valley Center Municipal Water District, which serves hundreds of farmers, said the district had sold a lot less water this year than a year ago because of the rains.

"In December of 2006, we delivered just over 2,000 acre feet," Arant said. "This year it was about 860 acre feet. That's a significant drop, and I'm sure it's connected to farmers taking advantage of the rain."

An acre foot of water is 325,900 gallons, enough to sustain two households for a year.

Officials from the San Diego County Water Authority said the rains also could help local residents by protecting backup stores of water in huge reservoirs like Temecula's Diamond Valley Lake - but only if they heeded calls and turned off sprinklers and watering systems.

Water Authority officials said that, so far this month, 3.26 inches of rain had fallen at Lindbergh Field. That was 60 percent more than the average January total of 2.05 inches.

Even so, the recent rains have brought the county's overall rain totals to roughly their average.

"Don't put any water on your lawn," said Ken Weinberg, the Water Authority's water resource manager. "Because of that federal (court) ruling, we're not going to be able to bring as much water down as we used to (from Northern California). That means being efficient with water supplies and maintaining storage is really important."

Weinberg and others said all of Southern California faces big water supply questions for the foreseeable future.

They revolve around how much water can be shipped through the State Water Project - the 600 mile series of reservoirs, dams, pipelines and pumping stations that deliver Northern California water south to the rest of the state.

That supply comprised two-thirds of Southern California's imported water supplies in 2007.

But in August, a federal court ruled that the pumps in the Sacramento-San Joaquin delta - the heart of the State Water Project - must be cut back in 2008 to protect the endangered delta smelt, a tiny fish.

Because of that, supplies could be cut to Southern California by as much as 30 percent - depending on many factors, including how much water is actually in the State Water Project to start with.

State water officials said Monday that just as rains have been falling in Southern California, snow has been falling in the Sierra mountains. That should boost Northern California supplies in the delta.

Maury Roos, a hydrologist with California's Department of Water Resources, said Monday that electronic sensors estimate the Sierra snowpack as slightly better this year than in 2007, about 110 percent of average for January. The resources agency runs the State Water Project.

"Things look good for the first of the month," Roos said. "We've more than doubled the snowpack."

Roos said resources officials will take new field measurements Thursday, and could increase the paltry supply estimates the agency released in November.

At that time, resources officials predicted that Northern California supplies would cover just 25 percent of demand in 2008 - far less than the 60 percent the region got in 2007.

Roos said the recent snows were good news for the system.

But he and other officials said the court ruling still hangs like a cloud over the water-supply picture.

No one will know until later this spring how much the federal court ruling will cut into the State Water Project's supplies.

"That's a limit we haven't had before," Roos said.

Contact staff writer Gig Conaughton at (760) 739-6696 or gconaughton@nctimes.com.

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