- - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - Albion Nation - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Read Supervisors Proclamation
or First Permit evaluation or
what action to take or Media Response or reference & links or
some of the early communications or the history and
schedule
or Water
Background Information
- - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
***** Anti-Commodification
Water bill in CA state legislature
Bill to provide local
control over water; Albion-Gualala inspired legislation is AB 2924. Bill is in print and can be viewed from the
Assembly bill tracking system on the internet.
Below is a link.
Just enter the bill number.
http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset2text.htm
------------------------------------------
Sean MacNeil, Legislative
Aide 916/319-2007
Assembly Member Patricia
Wiggins
State Capitol, Room 4016 Sacramento,
CA 95814
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Water Company Wants to Barge
Albion Water to San Diego
The California State Water Resources
Board has received two applications from the Alaskan Water Export Company
proposing to extract water from the Gualala River (Permit # 31194) and the
Albion River (Permit # 31195) and barge it to San Diego. (This is not a joke.)
The staff engineer at the Board
(Division of Water Rights) for the Albion permit is Katherine Gaffney at
916-341-5360. The application is now undergoing review and will soon be noticed
to the public for "comment" or, as they call it at the Water Board,
"protest"- a word that has a certain resonance in Albion. If you want
to receive a notice you can call Gaffney and she will put you on her list.
For further information, call Albion
River Watershed Protection Assn., Linda Perkins at 937-0903.
Or check out the website for the
Alaska company, http://www.worldwatersa.com.
I've
pasted in a page from the website below.
Www.worldwatersa.com
Officers
Ric Davidge,
President
Mr. Davidge is the former Director of
Water and Chief of
the State of
Alaska's Hydrologic Survey. Mr. Davidge
pioneered the
development and feasibility of bulk water
sales from Alaska. After his departure from
the state
agency Davidge
started Alaska Water Exports, a
Division of
Arctic Ice and Water Exports Inc. His
visionary report
on trans-Pacific water exports from
Alaska was the
first major report written on the subject
from a business
perspective and has become well known
throughout the
water development community around the
world.
Mr. Davidge has
an extensive background in federal,
state, and local
government affairs and natural resource
development as well as the private sector. He served
former U.S.
President Ronald Reagan as a sub-cabinet
official in the
U.S. Department of Interior. Mr. Davidge
has also served as an advisor to a number
of Alaska
governors,
Mayors, and international commissions.
Zaher S.
AlMunajjed
-Advisor to the
President in ALJ Group
-Master of
Business Administration from Harvard
-Located in
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Mr. Mikitoshi Kai
-Born in 1951 in
Tokyo, Japan
-Graduated from Tokyo University, Law Faculty
in 1976
-Joined NYK in
1976
-Working for
"Team New Frontier" for NYK since
November of 1999
-Previously worked in Car Carrier, Planning, and
Container
Divisions Assigned to the Embassy of Japan
in Denmark from
1983 to 1986
-Stationed as
Owner's Representative in Seoul, Korea
from 1995 to 1998
World Water, SA 3705 Arctic
Blvd., #415, Anchorage, Ak. 99503
(907) 222-6927 phone (907)
222-6933 fax ricdav@gci.net
Water Background Information
...top
JV Aquarius wins a further 2 year
contract to the island of Aigina,
to deliver the quantity of one million cubic meter
of water per year.
Water Incorporated - The commodification of the
world's water
Earth Island Journal
.. by Maude Barlow
http://www.earthisland.org/eijournal/new_articles.cfm?articleID=451&journalID=63
Beyond a Drought, Water Worries Grow - from 2/24/2002 NY Times
By ANDREW C. REVKIN: The current dry spell will end,
but water
managers are
trying to stay ahead of long-term climate shifts.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/24/nyregion/24DROU.html?ex=1015605835&ei=1&en=78ca22b3d8d30d69
What Alaska news thinks of Davidge
Anchorage Daily News 2/17/02 | Alaska Ear | The
Divine Appendage
Hot Waterbags at http://www.adn.com/alaska/story/765953p-818612c.html
Back and forth between Deirdre & Davidge
From: Ric Davidge
Sent: Sunday, January 20, 2002
12:41 PM
Subject: RE: Albion water
Deirdre,
Thank you for your comments. I would
like to point out a few facts you may not be aware of. 1.
All waters in the State of California belong to the state unless
appropriated or reserved by federal withdrawals. 2. Communities that have water are fast becoming the target of
domestic immigration from communities that do not have water. More and more towns are beginning to
understand that their relative isolation over past decades will soon come to an
end due to the demand for water and the ability of more people to work from
their homes. 3. The proposal we have
made to the State of California is in response to a request of the City of San
Diego for 20K AFY starting in 2004. 4.
Southern California (San Francisco to San Diego) is the fifth largest
economy in the world. It faces serious
choices even though it has done a magnificent job in water conservation, get
new water or start to die. When people
loose their jobs they move someplace where they can work and support their
families. The northern migration of
Californians is well established. 5.
Although the water demand problem in Southern California is in part due
to population growth, it is more due to the ongoing reallocation of water to
upstream states and ESA listings. So,
you have growth projected by the state at 30% in less than 10 years due mainly
to immigration (legal and illegal) and the water supply is not only not growing
it isn't even static as water previously used for communities and industry is
now being reallocated to upstream states and fish and wildlife.
6. Our proposal is the most ecologically sound
ever devised for such a water transfer.
Our water harvest system will have NO ecological impact on the river
system or its associated environs. The
water will not leave the river until it enters the Pacific Ocean. We look forward to meeting and discussing
our proposal in your community. We
believe that we can defend the proposal on economic, ecological, and cultural
grounds very well.
Thank you for your
comments.
Ric Davidge President
..
.
From: Deirdre Lamb
Sent: Monday, January 21, 2002
4:52 AM
Subject: Our water
Dear Mr. Davidge, I appreciate your
response regarding the Albion and Garcia river waters. To respond, I am sorry San Diego does not
have enough water. Too bad they didn't think about that when they were putting
up all those condos, townhouses and homes with big lawns. We have thought a lot
about it here, what with L-P, G-P and the Mendocino Redwood Companies
clearcutting right up to the riverbeds. This has affected the fish, birds and
wildlife in a drastic way. Most of the residents here have put up many a
court battle against them in order to
preserve the nature and quality of life we feel is owed to our future
generations as well as the fragile ecosystem around us. True, many have migrated here to work from
their homes, but not just because of the water. Say what you will, I do not see
a huge increase in migration in this area because the price of homes is so
high and the acreage has mostly
already been divided into the smallest increments allowed for our area. Most
parcels in Albion are a five acre minimum, many are ten such as ours, so the
chances of a huge increase in popularity is remote. The migration has become
a much more financially lucrative crowd that has moved here to enjoy a better
lifestyle, and especially in the past five years there have been at least six
multi-millionaires that have moved into the Albion watershed area. I look forward to seeing what you propose
and if in fact it is true that the
water will only be extracted after it hits the ocean. Again, I look forward to seeing the exact plan of your
companies' proposal for our area, as I am sure a lot of other residents are
here as well. I will pass the
information you sent along, and look forward to keeping in communication
regarding this in the future.
Sincerely, Deirdre Lamb
Walsh
.
From: Ric Davidge
Sent: Monday, January 21, 2002
12:51 PM
Subject: RE: Our water
Deirdre,
Thank you so much for your continuing contribution. I spent a few days in Albion and have to say it is a delightful
community. As a former deputy
assistant secretary of the department of Interior for fish, wildlife, and parks
I have a keen understanding of the values of these resources and the cultures
of communities such as Albion and others I visited in 2000. The State of California has yet to send me
a copy of what they published regarding our applications. I am therefore at some disadvantage. Once I receive the notice and know the
schedule I will try and make some time to meet with you and friends that would
like some time for face-to-face discussion.
Public meetings are fine and of course required, but I find it much more
productive to sit down in someone's living room and talk with groups of 10 or
less. I look forward to our
meeting.
May you find peace and
fulfillment?
Ric Davidge President
Proposed selling of Albion River 1/22/02 Turtle Time
Farm
After
reading the letter sent by Alaskan Water Export Co.'s president, Rick Davidge
to Deirdre Lamb, I went back to the spring 2002 issue of Earth Island Journal
(can be read at their website www.earthisland.org) and read Water Incorporated
by Maude Barlow.
Here
are three pertinent paragraphs:
Fortune
magazine notes that "water will be to the 21st century what oil was to the
20th."
Who owns
water and how much they are able to charge for it will become the question of
the century. The privatization of water
is already a $400 billion a year business.
Multinational corporations hope to increase profits from water
commodification even further by using international trade and investment
agreements to control its flow and supply.
One Canadian water company, Global Water Corp., puts it best:
"Water has moved from being an endless commodity that may be taken for
granted to a rationed necessity that may be taken by force."
.........
With the
support of international trade agreements, these companies are setting their
sights on the mass transport of water by pipeline and supertanker. Several companies are developing technology
to pump fresh water into huge sealed bags to be towed across the oceans for
sale.
The U.S.
Global Water Corp., a Canadian company, has signed an agreement with Sitka,
Alaska, to export 18 billion gallons of glacier water per year to China. It
would then be bottled for export in one of China's "free trade" zones
to take advantage of cheap labor. The
company brochure entices investors "to harvest the accelerating
opportunity... as traditional sources of water around the world become
progressively depleted and degraded."
...........
Corporations
already have begun suing governments to gain access to domestic water
sources. The first such NAFTA Chapter
11 case (Sun Belt Water Inc. vs. Canada) was filed in the fall of 1998. Sun
Belt Water Inc. Santa Barbara, Calif., filed suit after losing a contract to
deliver Canadian water to California when British Columbia banned the export of
bulk water in 1991. Sun Belt is seeking
$220 million in damages. However, SunBelt
appears more interested in access to BC's water than the $220 million. As SunBelt's CEO Jack Lindsay explained,
" Because of NAFTA, we are now stakeholders in the national water policy
of Canada.
.........
Read the
article, there is a lot more about this latest corporate takeover of our basic
human needs. If there is to be a
"dialogue" with Alaskan Water Export Co., we need to be informed
about this new industry. What are the
legal rights of a small community protecting their water sources? Also I'm puzzled by Davidge's statement that
the" water will not leave the river until it enters the Pacific
Ocean." Since the Albion is a
tidal river how can they get fresh water anywhere near the mouth of the river?
There is a
lot to be discussed here. San Diego needs water. Albion has water but will it destroy our ecology to
"mine" it? And certainly
corporations should not be the one's to orchestrate the exchange of water at
tremendous profit to themselves.
Let's talk about this.
Carmen Goodyear
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Barged water out of the Albion? While there may be some surplus water during some high flow periods of the year, my focus goes to the marine transport, i.e. the size of the barge, how it would be loaded, its draft, the size of the tug, etc. I honestly doubt that the tug and barge could enter the river, and that any loading would have to be done while moored in the Bay. Please keep me in the information loop. I keep up on my reading from my tug-shipping-maritime and stevedore days and have a pretty good hand on what they can and cannot do. Norman De Vall
Public Notices of Note:
1/29 Publication in
1/29 5 folks on KZYX community
call in show
1/30 Sacramento Bee publication
by Stuart Leavenworth
1/31 David Colfax, supervisor,
on KZYX evening community news going to see attorney + Winona Stockdale from
state water board
2/5 Radio interview with KQED
2/12 Radio interview with R.
Davidge on KZYX Environment show with Hawk
2/13 Public discussion on KZYX
community comment show at 9:00AM
2/13 Public interview with Los Angeles Times staff in Gualala and
Albion
2/14 Public meeting with 30 people at Albion School
2/15 Public meeting at Stanford Inn with supervisors Colfax and
Campbell plus 2 coastal commissioners and 2 planning commissioners.
2/19 Gualala Watershed Council meeting
2/19 Katherine Gaffneyof CSWRB informed Linda Perkins that
applications required further documentation and would not be complete for
review until late March when 60 day comment cycle would begin.
2/20 Albion Salmon Creek Watershed Council meeting in Comptche school
at 6:00 to 8:00
2/21 Informal meeting at Gualala Arts Center @ 7:00PM
2/28 Public meeting at Albion School @ 7:00PM
3/9 NCWAP Gualala Public Workshop 9:30 am - 4:00 pm
3/14 SORE - Save Our Rivers and Estuaries presents
The Ecology and Politics of
Water Export at the Gualala Art Center, Thursday, March 14, 7 pm - 9 pm; invited speakers are:
Nancy Price, Alliance for
Democracy :
Water and Basic Water Rights
in the World Trade Agreements
Frank Arundel, activist :
Expert Witnesses, EIRs and
the Mojave Water Grab
Peter Baye, Ph.D., coastal
plant eologist :
Estuary Ecology and the
Permit Process
The community is invited.
There will be time for questions after
each section. This
meeting is a preparation for the Sea Ranch Forum with Ric Davidge.
For further information
please contact Ursula Jones 785-3431
3/16 Public meeting at Sea Ranch
with R. Davidge 3:00-5:00 PM
Saturday March 16, 2002 3:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Event Location: Del Mar
Center, Highway 1, Mile 56.88
Notes: Ric Davidge will
present and take questions re the water bag proposal.
Mendocino
Beacon 1/31/02
Press
Democrat 1/29/02 1/30/02
Sacramento
Bee 1/30/02
2/18/02
L.A.
Times 3/02/02
Firm's
water wish: Ship it south
by Stuart Leavenworth -- Bee Staff Writer
Published Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2002
In a further sign that water may one day be more valuable than oil, an Alaska company is seeking permission to draw water from two Northern California rivers, pump it onto massive transport bags, and tow it to San Diego with tugboats.
Alaska Water Exports, an Anchorage company headed by the former chief of Alaska's water department, has filed two applications with the State Water Resources Control Board to draw water from the Albion and Gualala rivers and ship it south.
State officials say it is the first time anyone has seriously pursued such a project.
"It is a creative proposal," said Myrlys Stockdale, a spokeswoman for the water control board. "I've talked to folks who have been around here for years, and they can't remember an application like this."
Some North Coast residents are already gearing up to fight the proposal, which they call a "water grab" that could hurt salmon runs and tourism.
"The question everyone here wants to know is: Why Albion?" said Linda Perkins, a longtime resident of the tiny Mendocino County town. "The Albion River is a little podunk river. Why did they pick this one?"
Ric Davidge, president of Alaska Water Exports, said his company studied rivers from Los Angeles to Oregon, before determining that the Albion and Gualala had the best combination of adequate flows, clean water and distance from a wildlife refuge or sensitive natural site.
"Of all the rivers we surveyed, those were the only two we thought we could work in without affecting the environment," said Davidge, a Californian who worked as a deputy assistant secretary of interior in the Reagan administration.
Part of an international consortium called World Water SA, Alaska Water Exports wants to draw water from the mouths of Gualala and Albion during winter months, when their flows are the heaviest. Altogether, the firm is seeking permission to draw up to 10,000 acre-feet of water from the Albion and twice that from the Gualala each year, although Davidge said annual withdrawals from both rivers would never exceed 20,000 acre-feet.
The water would be pumped through a pipeline into massive polyfiber bags, which would be hauled by tugboats down to San Diego. There, the annual withdrawals would be enough to serve about 40,000 households.
Davidge said his associates have successfully marketed water from Turkey to Cyprus the last four years, using the tug-boat-and-bag technology. Water tugging, he said, will grow increasingly economical as Southern California grows and its water supplies dwindle because of environmental regulations and reduced exports from the Colorado River.
"We would not have expended the funds and the effort if we didn't think this would work," said Davidge. "California is the fifth-largest economy in the world, and corporations are already moving away because of water."
In San Diego, water officials said they have talked with Davidge and are intrigued.
"We are always on the lookout for any kind of alternate water supply," said Kurt Kidman, a spokesman for the San Diego Water Department. "Last year in San Diego, it hardly rained at all. We didn't use any local water, so you can imagine how dependent on water we are."
At the same time, entrepreneurs for years have deluged Southern California with water-import proposals -- using oil tankers, pipeline, even icebergs tugged down from Alaska.
"Anything you can imagine comes through our office," said Kidman. "So our attitude is: We don't discourage, we don't encourage. We say, 'Go get your permits, do your studies, and come back with a solid proposal.' "
For his project to pencil out, Davidge would need to sell his water for more than the cost of shipping it.
San Diego currently pays $444 an acre-foot for water, meaning that Davidge must extract and ship his 20,000 acre-feet for less than $8.8 million, or command a higher price from San Diego.
A bigger hurdle, however, is obtaining the right to market public water from the two rivers. The state water control board plans to issue a public notice about the project sometime next month, after which interested parties will have 60 days to comment or file protests, said Stockdale. Then the board's staff will have 60 days to review any protests.
Likely issues will involve effects on beaches, scenery, tourism and Coho salmon, a threatened species on the North Coast.
According to its permit application, the company's proposed 24-inch pipeline "will be buried within the active river channel to eliminate visual and physical impacts to habitat and local river recreational use."
Davidge said the pipeline intake will be screened to minimize any impact on fisheries. In turn, the bags dragged by the tugs will float below the ocean surface.
"You won't even notice it from the beach," he said.
Perkins, however, said Alaska Water Exports is likely to get a chilly reception in her town. She recently sent an e-mail about the project to a river stakeholder group of environmentalists and loggers.
"To a person, they were outraged," said Perkins. "It is definitely something that is going to unite a broad spectrum of people."
Editorial published on January 30, 2002 © 2002 - The Press Democrat
Imagine: Giant yellow bladder bags filled with North Coast water,
floating down the Pacific Coast to San Diego.
No, this isn't a new installation by the artist Christo.
It's the proposal of an Alaska-based company that wants to pump
part of the winter run-off from the Albion and Gualala rivers into offshore
bags capable of holding 35,000 tons of water. Tug boats would then tow the
bags to San Diego where the water would be used to quench the thirsts of
residents.
The proposal raises many practical questions, including: Will it work?
What will happen during storms? Will the pipes be visible from the shore?
And then there's a whole slew of environmental concerns that must
be addressed: What impact will the project have on winter steelhead runs?
How would it affect the marine life in the surrounding areas? What happens
in drought years?
But of broader concern is the symbolism of this proposal. Even if
the project is environmentally sound, it still represents a water grab by
unquenchable Southern California.
It isn't the first time an attempt has been made to send north
Coast water south. Round Valley would be a reservoir now if it wasn't for
the efforts of Mendocino County ranchers.
And, even if this latest idea is shot down by the state Water
Rights Division, more will come.
As California's population expands by 5 million people every
decade, water districts will become more aggressive in their efforts to
secure resources from northern streams and rivers. It's likely that
somewhere in the bowels of the Department of Water Resources, reports
already exist outlining how Russian and Eel river water can be shipped
south.
This newest proposal should be a wake-up call to Mendocino and
Sonoma counties. It's past time for each county to prepare a comprehensive
analysis of the amount of water available (including ground water); the
amount that is being used by residential, commercial and agricultural
users; and predicted future needs.
The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors took an important first step
by agreeing on Tuesday to include a separate water resource element in the
updated county planning document.
The next step will be for the counties to identify where future
water will come from and how it will be stored. This is sure to create
political battles among local citizens. But avoiding these decisions
creates a vacuum -- one that Southern California water districts would love
to fill with their own pipes, pumps and dams.
FIRM WANTS NORTH COAST WATER FOR SAN DIEGO,
by CAROL BENFELL
Published on January 29, 2002 © 2002- The Press Democrat
An Alaska company has asked the state of California for permission to capture winter water from the Gualala and Albion rivers and transport it by sea to arid San Diego.
The company, Alaska Water Exports, wants to remove 20,000 acre-feet
of water a year from the Gualala River and 10,000 acre-feet a year from the
Albion River. That's enough to supply 30,000 families of four for a year.
It's believed to be the first such proposal in California, said Merlys Stockdale, public affairs director of the Division of Water Rights in the state Department of Water Resources.
``It seems to be a creative proposal,'' Stockdale said.
The water would be pumped from the rivers' mouths through a 24-inch pipeline into a giant 35,000-ton capacity water bag. Tugboats would tow the water bags to their destination.
None of the pumping apparatus would be visible from shore, said company president Ric Davidge in a phone interview Monday from Anchorage. ``We feel we can do this in a manner that's environmentally responsible,'' Davidge said.
The company successfully used a similar system in the mid-east, at the request of the Turkish government, so that water could be shipped from Turkey to Cypress, Davidge said.
The project would create some local jobs maintaining the pipeline system and on the tugboats, he said.``We want to get started as soon as we can secure the permits from the state and other agencies,'' Davidge said.
The state Water Rights Division, which has the power to grant rights to unallocated water such as the rivers' winter flows, will be issuing a notice of the application next month, with an invitation for public comment. An environmental review will be required.
Should a permit be granted, the state would charge Alaska Water Exports a water-use fee, which is still to be determined, Stockdale said.
The company hopes to sell the water to San Diego for about $550 an acre-foot, Davidge said. But there is no deal or contract in place.
Some members of the Gualala River Watershed Council, which is seeking to restore and rehabilitate the Gualala River and its adjoining land, are skeptical about the plan.
``I just think it's a bad idea,'' said Doug Simmonds, speaking for himself, and not the council. ``We've just learned about it and we're trying to figure out what to do.''
Supervisor Mike Reilly, whose district includes the Gualala River, said he will be bringing the issue to the attention of the state Coastal Commission, which may have some jurisdiction over the proposal.
``I think we need to take this seriously, even though the tendency is to just laugh,'' Reilly said. ``There is some fascinating case law about unallocated water'' that might allow the company to proceed, he said.
A San Diego city spokesman confirmed that the city was looking at Alaska Water Exports' proposal, along with dozens of others.
San Diego is extremely dependent on outside water, and is always looking for new sources, said Kurt Kidman, a spokesman for the San Diego Water Department.
``If someone pulled in today with a load of water, we don't even have the infrastructure to handle it. It's not imminent, that's for sure,'' Kidman said.
Davidge said the company has to have the Gualala and Albion River permits if San Diego is to take them seriously. If San Diego didn't want the water, there are other places to sell it, Davidge said.
``If San Diego says it's not going to do this, we have other markets in Southern California and Mexico,'' he said.
Alaska Water Exports is one of four partners in an international consortium, World Water SA. The other partners are companies in Japan, Saudi Arabia and Norway.
Davidge is president of both Alaska Water and World Water.
You can reach author Carol Benfell at 521-5259 or cbenfell@pressdemocrat.com.
From the Mendocino Beacon
..
..Media
Alaskan
company wants to Albion,
Gualala Rivers water to San Diego
By Beacon Staff Published January 31, 2002
The California State Water Resources Board has received two applications from the Alaskan Water Exports Co. to draw water from the Albion and Gualala rivers and send it to parched San Diego areas.
The applications are now under review, with a public comment time soon to be noticed.
In a Jan. 18 article in The Independent Coast Observer, Julie Verran reported that Ric Davidge of Arctic Water Exports said San Diego needs 20,000 acre-feet of water by 2004. He said a team of scientists checked all water outflows in the western U.S. and found only two, the Gualala and Albion that could reasonably withstand a take of water that would not interfere with the ecosystem.
Verran said about 20 years ago when a pipeline was proposed to carry Alaska water to southern California, Davidge was then Alaska state water chief and he turned thumbs down on the project.
The proposal would use enormous floating plastic waterbags instead of a pipeline. They would be filled when the rivers could handle the withdrawal, mainly between October and May, then towed to
Southern California.
Carol Benfell of the Press Democrat wrote on Jan. 29 that the state Water Rights Division has the power to grant rights to unallocated water such as the rivers' winter flows. An environmental review will be required.
She said, should the permits be granted, the state would charge Alaska Water Exports a water-use fee, still to be determined.
Alaska Water is one of four partners in an international consortium, World Water SA. The other partners are companies in Japan, Saudi Arabia and Norway. Benfell said Davidge is the president of both Alaska Water and World Water.
From Sacramento Bee 2/18/02
.
..
.Media
http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/story/1647103p-1722768c.html
Plan to Bag Rivers May Not
Float
An entrepreneur's bid to tug giant sacks of fresh North Coast water to San Diego stirs up anger amid the skepticism.
By ERIC BAILEY, TIMES STAFF WRITER
ALBION, Calif. -- It boasts an audacious history, this business of water in the West. From dams the size of mountains to aqueducts across the desert, the landscape has been re-plumbed in ways Mother Nature never pondered. Water percolates through some of the best fiction and most of the best fights.
Even dreamy schemes to capture icebergs or run transcontinental pipelines bubble up from time to time, which is why folks here on the scenic North Coast are keeping a close eye on a plan they brand a classic Southern California water grab--"Chinatown" in a giant Baggie.
The man with the bag is Ric Davidge. A water entrepreneur from Alaska, Davidge is an industrious fellow whose Reagan administration resume seems to eco-warriors clear proof of villainy.
His company wants to suck fresh water from two North Coast rivers, stow it in massive poly-fiber bags the length of a World War II battleship, and tow the floating sacks hundreds of miles south--dodging oil tankers and migrating whales--to slake San Diego's thirst.
But first, Davidge will have to convert regulators, politicians and often-feisty residents--in this case, the denizens of Mendocino County, where locals consider coastal protection a birthright.
Rachel Binah, a coastal innkeeper and ardent environmentalist, said the idea initially seemed "harebrained, goofy, ridiculous, ludicrous, absurd."
But with Davidge plowing forward with a formal proposal to a state water agency, the snickers are subsiding and concern is growing, Binah says. "It could potentially be very, very dangerous."
Davidge wants to use his oceangoing bags to tote 20,000 acre-feet of water each year from the Albion and Gualala (pronounced wa-LA-la) rivers--enough for 40,000 households.
He brings to the brawl some well-heeled backers, among them a large Japanese shipping line and a Saudi Arabian company that boasts a variety of multibillion-dollar international ventures, including the largest independent Toyota distributorship on the globe. As a deputy to former Interior Secretary James Watt, a man environmentalists loved to hate, Davidge knows how to work a room full of angry people.
His scheme has whipped up distrust reminiscent of past north-south water wars. Mendocino County supervisors are on record opposing the project. The California Coastal Commission has begun to grumble. Sen. Wes Chesbro (D-Arcata) is lobbying state water officials in opposition.
The most vocal opponents are the region's axis of latter-day hippies, environmentally minded urban refugees and nature-loving merchants of tourism.
They are a battle-tested bunch. In the 1960s, North Coast activists beat back a nuclear power plant. They defeated offshore oil in the 1980s and fought to save the redwoods in the 1990s.
On the banks of the Albion, a vortex of the back-to-the-land movement, they've coined a whimsical sovereign status: The "Albion Nation," they call themselves.
And they're itching for a tussle.
"We've had a lot of practice," mused Bill Heil, who came to Albion three decades ago to join a commune and has been here ever since. "I don't think the project will fly, but we'll have a good time fighting it."
Big bags are not a new notion in the West Coast water wars. Manhattan Beach inventor Terry Spragg has been trying without success for a decade to pitch his "Spragg Bags" for runs along the coast.
But the bag technology floated by Davidge's Anchorage-based Alaska Water Exports is already at work in the real world, on a run between Turkey and Cyprus operated by Nordic Water Supply, a partner in the Mendocino proposal.
So far, that operation has been a money loser. Nature has caused unexpected complications. In December 2000, Nordic lost a bag in stormy seas off Cyprus before recovering it unscathed. Another bag had torn open and spilled during an earlier trip.
Davidge says tougher fabrics and seamless technology used in the bags, which are stitched by mammoth looms, will prevent such mishaps. Coastal regulators remain skeptical.
"There's the potential for these bags breaking loose, entangling in habitat. How do you get them out?" wondered Peter Douglas, executive director of the Coastal Commission. "There's just a whole range of issues raised by this proposal that are very serious."
Approval of 2 Panels Required
The plan requires approval of the Coastal Commission as well as the State Water Resources Control Board. As long a shot as the scheme seems, Chesbro recently wrote the board's chairman that it threatens to reignite the state's epic water wars and set "a troubling precedent" for rivers on the coast.
Out here, amid the sweeping surf and stately redwoods, every bend in the road offers another breathtaking view, another chance to embrace one of nature's masterpieces. With grassy bluffs and foam-washed coves, the Mendocino coast has a ready-made constituency of stewards and protectors.
"They've come to the wrong place," grumbled Bernie Macdonald, Mendocino's Green Party secretary and a veteran of environmental fights. "We're prepared to go as far as we have to go."
Some inveterate activists are already talking up "monkey wrenching," puncturing water bags as a form of pro-environment sabotage.
Linda Perkins, Albion's Sierra Club liaison, hears people around Albion's tiny center--a grocery store, a post office--pose the telling question, "with a wink, wink" at the end. "Everyone asks: 'So, how thick are those bags anyway?' It may be bravado, but people are thinking about it."
Davidge, 54, who grew up in Mission Hills, seems unfazed. He weathered political battles alongside Watt, whose federal tenure remains a bitter memory for western environmentalists. A self-styled environmentalist, the bearded Davidge says he was considered "the greenie" in Reagan's Interior Department. He later was Alaska's top water official before setting out as a water entrepreneur.
He also has served as an aide to U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska). In the private sector, Davidge has worked on projects ranging from port development to the cleanup of the Exxon Valdez spill. He is also a man of culture, operating an Anchorage professional theater company that produces the work of Alaskan playwrights.
Davidge makes a practice of writing endlessly about water issues. One paper, about the potential for exporting water from Alaska, prompted investors to recruit him to run World Water, the Luxembourg-registered firm that is pushing the bag proposal. Davidge's partners in World Water are the Japanese shipping firm NYK Line; Mizutech, an investment subsidiary of the Saudi-based AJL Group; and Nordic Water Supply, a Norwegian venture company.
The group is working to cobble together deals in other water-starved locales, from the Middle East to North Africa.
"You're talking about a guy who has been doggedly, tenaciously pursuing the bulk water business for years," said Gil Serrano, who himself gave up on it to start a bottled water firm, Alaska Glacier Refreshments. "Ric won't give up easy. You'll have to use a silver bullet to kill him."
Davidge considers San Diego the key to winning acceptance of the big bags.
For several years, the arid border metropolis has been requesting proposals for new ways to ease its heavy reliance on imported water for its 1.25 million residents.
While eyeing Davidge's proposal, "we're strictly on the sidelines right now," said Kurt Kidman, a San Diego Water Department spokesman. Davidge and company will not only have to beat the $444 per acre-foot that San Diego now pays, but also do it without ruffling feathers in Mendocino or elsewhere, Kidman said. "We're not out to steal anyone's water."
Value of Idea Escapes Many
Other water officials won't give Davidge the time of day. At the Metropolitan Water District, the giant umbrella agency that provides Southern California's water, Davidge's proposal prompts groans. Tim Quinn, the district's vice president for state water projects, said "silly ideas like this" only serve to inflame "north-south passions needlessly."
Davidge rues being pulled into old fights. But he suggests that the Southern California economy could falter without new water sources. In the world according to Davidge, North Coast residents need to embrace their symbiotic ties with the Southland.
After surveying 15 coastal tributaries, Davidge said his team narrowed its search to the Albion and Gualala because their water is unpolluted and neither hosts an ecological reserve.
Davidge wants to bury a 24-inch pipeline from an offshore buoy up the spine of each river, hundreds of yards inland to where tidal saltwater isn't a factor. Water would be pumped to the offshore station and into the oceangoing bags. A tugboat would slowly make the trip down the coast with the hulking cargo, more than 850 feet long and 100 feet wide, with a draft of about 24 feet.
With sunny promotional zeal, Davidge has answers for most every perceived pitfall.
Worried about construction messing up the rivers?
It would be performed during low water months without harming the environment, he says.
Frosty over robbed water messing up river hydrology?
Davidge vows to take water only during the huge flows of winter months, when, he says, there is plenty to spare.
Irked over the prospect of views made icky by bags lolling like whales belly-up?
The giant sacks ride out of view, beneath the waves, the promoter insists.
Peppered with hundreds of negative e-mails, Davidge says he answers them all. Naysayers, he insists, will be swayed once they learn about the project's technological promise. He even plans a public meeting on the North Coast in the coming weeks.
Expect the Albion Nation to turn out in force.
Perkins of the Sierra Club says the water project would harm the endangered coho salmon and steelhead trout of the coastal rivers, and trample the eelgrass beds that harbor the juvenile smolts.
"We see this as the foot in the door," said Perkins, who believes her "little Podunk river" was selected because communities of the Mendocino coast are small and lack clout.
Down the coast in Gualala, population 585, the sentiments are just as sharp. Around a big table at a local coffeehouse, foes gathered one recent morning over steaming mugs to share fears.
Business People Raise Concerns
The Gualala was once the fishing playground of Jack London, actor Fred MacMurray and former California Gov. and U.S. Chief Justice Earl Warren. Craig Bell, a fishing guide, knows every deep-water spot: Switchfail, Snag, Miner's Hole. A water pipe, he said, would wreak havoc.
Karen Scott, manager of a real estate office, worries that tourists will be turned off by views of tugboats and jumbo-sized bags. "He's saying his project will bring jobs," Scott said. "But how many will we lose?"
Davidge may contend that the sacks absorb the energy of waves while parked offshore, but "that bag isn't just going to sit there when 20-foot swells start hitting," insists Jim Koogle, a carpenter. "It'll be on the beach."
Others grumble that Davidge is fueling Southern California's "unsustainable addiction" to imported water. They talk of their rivers becoming a poker chip in international trade. They fret that the sacks might impede gray whales rollicking in the river mouth.
Wayne Harris, who runs a kayak rental business, considers this fight part of the California continuum, the state's tangled saga on water. "Bigger areas than ours," he grumbled, "have been wiped out."
With the battle joined, listen to the wisdom of Alan Graham, known in Albion by his nom-de-guerre, Captain Fathom.
"This whole thing is a preposterous joke," Graham said. "They want to get us laughing so hard we'll be too out of breath to fight when they try something serious."
Times staff writer Tony Perry contributed to this report from San Diego.
An Associated Press article submitted to ENN.com.....
about our little village and the Alaska company that wants to suck water
out of the river to transport to thirsty San Diego, and how we ain't
gonna let 'em. (from Rita Crane)
http://www.ENN.com/news/wire-stories/2002/03/03012002/ap_46558.asp
>"Of all the rivers we surveyed, those were the only two we thought we could
>work in without affecting the environment," said Davidge, a Californian who
>worked as a deputy assistant secretary of interior in the Reagan administration.
So, Mr. Davidge once answered to the infamous James Watt.
I don't mean this as a threat, but something tells me that Alaska Water
Exports will be sorry it ever heard of the Albion River...
"Watter
we Albionites going to do
If the Watter
wants watter out of our slough
And blats
about bladders until we all turn blue?
We're gonna form
circles, then- peaceful and true-
Chanting our
mantra to bud and to dew,
And singing
our songs of a Wobbly hue,
We're gonna
give Davidge a large dose of rue."
Albion and
Gualala Rivers
Untouched by
lucre
These rivers will
keep clear from
All
shenanigans.
Here's an extensive
list of links (regional, national
and international) related
to water policy issues,
developed by the Mono Lake
Committee:
From: Jay Kelley
Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2002 16:28:31 -0800
For those of you interested in the Gualala and Albion Rivers, waterbags or
NOT, if you check out the web page below, you'll see that some folks in
Alaska (the tribal government of the Village Tuluksakhave) already contested
some of the work of Ric Davidge through legal action with the Supreme Court
of the state of Alaska. One of their issues also involved permits for the
appropriation of water.
http://www.touchngo.com/sp/html/sp-4232.htm
And more PR from Ric in the article in the Rochester News, Feb. 8. 2000.
Maybe BoD Roy knows this Henry Vaux, professor of resource economics at the
University of California at Berkeley who is also quoted in the article?
http://www.rochesternews.com/extra/lakes/0208thirst.html
Seems that Ric also authored the following, not sure if it's available on web.
Davidge, Ric
Archeology: A Statement from the Department of the Interior 9 (1982) 389--392
And, from another article, the following excerpt:
Early in his activist career, Cushman became well-enough connected in right-wing
circles that in 1980 his lobbyist, Ric Davidge, was asked by conservative
Republicans to craft a hard-line position on property rights.
Davidge did so (with Cushman advising), and the product was folded into the
1980 Republican Party Platform.
In 1981 Ronald Reagan became president, and that same year he appointed
Cushman to a Park Service advisory board under then-Secretary of the
Interior James Watt. Watt also hired Davidge to work with him at the
Interior Department.
Watt was the national figurehead for the Sagebrush Rebellion, an attempt by
a handful of powerful Western ranchers and other businessmen to buy vast
tracts of valuable public lands at bargain basement prices.
Robin Winks, a Yale University professor who served as chair of the Park
Service advisory board from 1982-84, said of Cushman, "he starts with a
grain of truth, then the sky is falling on you head..he's mischievous,
dangerous and often out of line.".
The complete article can be found at:
http://www.ewg.org/pub/home/clear/on_wise/horizons.html
And when Ric and others proposed legislation that would impact the citizens access, future availability and use of water, the citizens said that the proposed legislation would:
"unduly burden future private water users who should continue to be afforded the protection of natural rights to clean water and air. . ."
read the full Resolution at:
http://www.borough.kenai.ak.us/assemblyclerk/Assembly/Resolutions/1992/R92-38.html
And Alaska State Representative John Cowdery said in a March 2000 letter in the Anchorage Daily News:
"The report in question was authored by Mr. Ric Davidge without participation
from anyone else on his four member subcommittee or the larger 25 member committee. My staff gave him a written critique. We told him, "your attempt to use this report as a forum to further Commissioner Sedwick's complaints about International Trade and Tourism is way off base."
After preventing political harangues against the Governor, my staff wasn't
about to let Mr. Davidge harangue me. He changed three or four sentences and
resubmitted the report which was then considered in full by the full subcommittee.
To claim that the report was tossed is out is a gross distortion."
And finally, the University of San Diego Legal Research Center provides this
website on California Water Law.
http://www.acusd.edu/lrc/water.html
Have fun
reading and learning, if nothing else, I think it provides an interesting
vision of
Ric Davidge. From Barb Kelley
One of the really
interesting articles at WaterBank is Ric Davidge's
1994 paper on water exports:
"A
discussion paper of key issues involved in moving bulk quantities of water from
Alaska to the southwestern states, Mexico, and Pacific Rim Nations using marine
transport."
http://www.waterbank.com/Newsletters/nws12.html
State Water Rights &
Water issue postings From Kathy Wylie
http://www.waterrights.ca.gov/notices/
Desalination and Water
issues in general- from novenka:
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~nabil/desalten.htm
Foreign Species Issues - From
Alberta Cottrell
Native
species should not be transported to other seas or very negative impacts are
possible. Who knows what native species exist in our Albion water may take over
Southern California.
The Asian
shore crab (Hemigrapsus sanguineus), native to the coasts of
southern
Russia, Japan, Korea and China south to Hong Kong, has taken over
tide pools
along the Atlantic coast. Like some other alien species that find
their way
to the United States, this bioinvader probably arrived in the
ballast
water of a ship dealing in global trade. In 1988, a biology student
identified
an Asian shore crab on Cape May, New Jersey. Since then the
crustaceans have been scuttling north and south along the eastern seaboard.
http://www.gulfofmaine.org/times/fall2001/gulf_log.html
http://www.fandm.edu/Departments/CollegeRelations/PressReleases/1994-95/PR0008.html
Other
examples of Invasive Species and costs
http://ethomas.web.wesleyan.edu/ees123/invasive_species.htm
USGS on
invasive species
http://www.usgs.gov/invasive_species/
http://www.werc.usgs.gov/invasivespecies/greencrab.html
SF Bay Area
& Zebra mussels
http://sfbay.wr.usgs.gov/access/exotic-species/mussels.html
Great
Poster on California may be next
http://sfbay.wr.usgs.gov/access/exotic-species/index.html
USDA &
Invasive Species - costs US 138 billion a year per Cornell University
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/oa/invasive/invasive.html
USDA has
authority over Interstate transport which is not our issue, but may be useful
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/oa/pubs/invasive.html
This is now
a United Nations issue
http://www.biodiv.org/programmes/cross-cutting/alien/default.asp
There is a
major problem of invasive species occurring because of ships carrying water
ballasts. Lots of info:
Cute
posters about invasive species post them in Southern California and they will
not want our water
http://globallast.imo.org/AwarenessMaterials.htm
More Links to .gov sites
California Department of
Fish & Game site
http://www.dfg.ca.gov/dfghome.html
NMFS Southwest Region Front
Page
and
specifally Fish:
http://swr.ucsd.edu/hcd/efhqaca.htm
Pacific
Salmon and the Endangered Species Act
http://www.nwr.noaa.gov/1salmon/salmesa/index.htm
TMDLs
USEPA Region 9 site and TMDL info
http://www.epa.gov/region09/water/tmdl/index.html
USEPA Watershed Info &
Action Info
Gualala: http://cfpub.epa.gov/surf/huc.cfm?huc_code=18010109
Albion: http://cfpub.epa.gov/surf/huc.cfm?huc_code=18010108
Activities
& Info: http://www.epa.gov/owow/watershed/earthday/earthday.html
EPA Water
Central: http://www.epa.gov/ow/
Watershed
Initiatives: http://www.epa.gov/owow/watershed/initiativefs.html
Legal References:
For groups working on the environmental side of the protest. - all of the US Codes that pertain to conservation. A useful site. From Janet
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/16/
Canadian Perspectives
Blue Planet
These
people are obviously concerned with the same problem. They have
some
publications on their site of interest to us, I think. It is current, also.
Take a look:
http://www.canadians.org/blueplanet/pubs.html
They seem
to be translated into several languages and are sometimes only as PDF files.
Maude
Barlow, the author of the first Blue Planet article I mentioned, is Chairperson
of The Council of Canadians and a director with the International Forum on
Globalization. She is the best-selling author or co-author of 11 books on the
effect of economic globalization on the environment and social security as well
as the recent IFG publication, Blue Gold: The Global Water Crisis and the
Commodification of the World's Water Supply. She has said:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/indepth/water/barlow.html
PLEASE NOTE:
Barlow
maintains that if Newfoundland is allowed to export bulk water,
it becomes,
ipso facto, a "good" under NAFTA, which would allow any
other company in Canada to do the same.
She can be
reached, I believe, at Email: mbarlow@canadians.org
To see more
about her, look at any of these sites returned by Google.
She's called water right's Joan of Arc for Canada... Janet
http://www.google.com/search?q=Maude+Barlow&hl=en&start=20&sa=N
Resolution of the Mendocino
Board of Supervisors
..
..
RESOLUTION OF
THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS OF THE COUNTY OF MENDOCINO, STATE OF CALIFORNIA, EXPRESSING STRONG
OPPOSITION TO EXPORT OF MENDOCINO COUNTY WATER RESOURCES TO SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.
WHEREAS,
the declineof salmon and steelhead populations along the Pacific Coast region
from
California to Alaska over the last decade has led to the listing of salmonid populations as
threatened or endangered, by National Marine Fisheries Service and the
California Department of Fish and Game, pursuant to the Endangered Species Act;
and
WHEREAS,
numerous watersheds that are tributaries to the Pacific Ocean are
Significantly impacted by these listings, including the Gualala and
Albion rivers; and
WHEREAS,
coastal Mendocino County currently experiences chronic water shortages; and
both the Albion and Gualala watersheds
are contained in the Critical Water Resources groundwater designation in the
Mendocino County Coastal Ground Water Study
(California Department of Water Resources, June 1982); and
WHEREAS, winter flows from the coastal rivers are essential for proper ecological
Functioning
of the estuaries and
near shore ocean conditions,
resulting in improved fishery Conditions, and providing
attraction flows for adult fish, and
WHEREAS, coastal
Mendocino has suffered economically from greatly reduced fish stocks and
resulting fishing opportunities; and
WHEREAS,
coastal Mendocino is heavily dependent upon tourism and a non-
Industrialized
coastline; and
WHEREAS,
Mendocino County Board of Supervisors does not support placing people
At
risk by providing unsecured water supplies, such as out of Basin water
transfers that would
Fluctuate
with drought and local resource needs;
NOW,
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Mendocino County Board of
Supervisors
hereby states its strong opposition to the proposal to export water to southern
California
from the Gualala and Albion Rivers.
The
foregoing Resolution introduced by Supervisor Colfax, seconded by
Supervisor
Campbell, and carried this 13th day of February, 2002, by the entire
board
with
Supervisor Delbar absent (4 AYES, 0 NOES, 1 ABSENT)
Resolution of the Sonoma
Board of Supervisors
RESOLUTION
OF THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS OF THE COUNTY OF SONOMA, STATE OF CALIFORNIA, OPPOSING
THE EXPORT OF GUALALA RIVER WATER TO SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AND CALLING FOR
REGULATORY AGENCIES TO REQUIRE FULL ENVIRONMENTAL STUDY OF THIS APPLICATION
WHEREAS,
the Division of Water Rights of the California Department of Water
Resources
has received applications 31194 and 31195 from Alaska Water Exports to
appropriate water from the Gualala and Albion Rivers for export to Southern
California; and
WHEREAS,
the Gualala River is within the jurisdiction of the County of Sonoma; and
WHEREAS,
the decline of salmonid populations along the California Central and North
Coast regions has led to threatened listings under the Endangered Species Act;
and
WHEREAS,
chronic water shortages exist in the community of Gualala as determined by the
California Department of Water Resources and the California Coastal Commission;
and
WHEREAS,
winter flows from the coastal rivers are essential for proper ecological
functioning of estuaries and near shore ocean conditions, resulting in improved
conditions including attraction flows for listed fish species; and
WHEREAS,
coastal Sonoma County is reliant on tourism and maintaining a scenic,
non-industrialized coastline; and
WHEREAS,
the applications from Alaska Water Exports do not address the myriad of
environmental and economic impacts this project would have on the County of
Sonoma;
NOW,
THEREFORE, BE IS RESOLOVED that the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors opposes
the application to export water from the Gualala River to Southern California;
and
BE IT
FURTHER RESOLVED that the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors calls on all
relevant regulatory agencies to insure that any such proposal for water export
undergo the most rigorous of environmental studies including, but not limited
to:
Impacts
of lowering large quantities of fresh water flow in a manner that may effect
the ability of salmonids to determine the time to enter the river system for
spawning.
Impacts
of extraction on salt water intrusion up the river both on river ecology and
domestic wells.
Impacts
on streambed alteration of placing pipelines, cisterns and intake points for
water extraction significantly upstream from the river mouth including
construction impacts.
Impacts
on estuary and near shore ocean ecology.
Impacts
on highly scenic coastal resources and related economic impacts on tourism.
Impacts
of construction and intakes on public access and use of the river.
Impacts
of offshore water bags on fishing boats and recreational craft.
Impacts of
pipeline construction on net and line snagging for fishing boats.
BE IT
FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this resolution be submitted to relevant
regulatory agencies, including the State Department of Water Resources, the
California Department of Fish and Game, the National Marine Fisheries Service,
the Army Corps of Engineers, the California Coastal Commission, the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service and the coastal permitting agencies in Sonoma and
Mendocino Counties.
Navarro
Watershed Protection Assn * P. O. Box 1936 * Mendocino, CA. 95460
Contact: Dr. Hillary Adams, Chairperson
Fact
Sheet
Water
Application Protests for Alaska Water Exports and World Water SA
Application
Nos. 31194 (Gualala) and 31195 (Albion)
(This is a
working draft of the Fact Sheet. For a
final copy, mail name
and
address and request to: NWPA, P.O. Box
1936, Mendocino, CA. 95460).
WHAT TO DO FIRST
1) Write to
your legislators on the state and local level, objecting to
these
projects and asking for legislation against bulk transfers of water
out of
north cost rivers. (Names and addresses
in your local papers).
Senator
Wesley Chesbro and Assemblywoman Pat Wiggins from Napa have already written letters
to State Water Resources Control Board, Division of Water Rights (SWRCB-DWR)
objecting to the projects. Supervisor
Colfax has taken the lead locally, introducing a resolution in opposition to
the projects at
the Board
of Supervisors. The resolution passed
unanimously.
WHAT TO DO NEXT
PROTEST
State Water
Resources Control Board (SWRCB-DWR)
P. O. Box
2000
Sacramento,
CA. 95812-2000
2) Register an official protest on both
projects to SWRCB-DWR.
There are
eight major steps in the permit process: 1)
Public Notice, 2)
Public
Protests; 3) Response to Protests by
Applicant; 5) Field
Investigation
(protestants, applicant and staff of SWRCB;
this step should
include
Determination of Water Availability. The staff has 180 days to try
to resolve
the issues and dismiss the protests in a "good faith effort");
6)
Preparation of Environmental Document to meet California Environmental
Quality Act
(CEQA); 7) Response of Protestants to
Environmental Document;
8) Hearing before the SWRCB (in Sacramento).
Final Step:
If the permits are approved at the hearing,
protestants need to request a
"reconsideration"
by the SWRCB
WHAT TO DO NOW
1) NOTICE: send a letter requesting notification for applications
in
Mendocino and/or Sonoma County, especially 31194 (Gualala) and 31195
(Albion) At the same time, request 6 protest forms
and a copy of the most
recent Statutory Water Rights Laws (this also
contains the Public Resource
codes and
relevant Fish and Game laws:
Address: SWRCB/DWR
P. O. Box 2000
Sacramento CA 95812-2000
Only US
mail is considered official: calls and e-mails indicate public
interest
but could be ignored .
2) PROTEST: When you receive notification of the
projects, look at
the end of
application. The Date of Notice, the time the public has for
response,
and the name of the engineer in charge of the project appears at
the end of
the application form.
You
can print out your own copy of the protest (to petitions) form
for
the SWRCB from their web site at:
http://www.waterrights.ca.gov/forms/protest.pdf
The
following discusses the water right process
http://www.waterrights.ca.gov/html/wr_process.htm
General
information regarding water rights in California
http://www.waterrights.ca.gov/application/forms/infobook.htm
From Janet Hubbard
We anticipate 60 calendar days
(including weekends and holidays)
for the
Albion and Gualala applications (the usual time is 40 calendar
days). The Protest must be postmarked within
the time specified. It is
best to
mail a week early. Send original by certified mail, return
receipt, to
SWRCB-DWR, P. O. Box 2000, Sacramento, CA. 95812-2000, Attn. of the engineer
(Gafney). Send one copy to the
applicant, and keep one copy
for your own files. If your protest is accepted the SWRCB will notify
you. Keep
the Notification of Acceptance in your file along with the
Protest. The applicant has two weeks to respond to
your protest. Keep his
response in
your file also. You should write back
to SWRCB, copy
applicant,
saying you are retaining your protest.
The Yellow protest form may be
copied. It can be made out by hand
as long as
the writing is legible. You do not have
to use the yellow form,
but you
must provide all of the information as stated on the form and in
that
order. You may attach additional sheets
with your written comments.
The information needed for most of the
protest will be found in the
application
notice, including the name of applicant, application number and
point of
withdrawal. Laws are found in the booklet entitled: Statutory
Water
Rights Law Cite these under "Other Issues" You may attach extra
sheets and
include written comments.
YELLOW PROTEST FORM
1) One side
of the form is for persons with water rights which might be affected,
especially
by downstream users.
2) One side
is for public interest, environmental, public trust and "other"
reasons for
protest, including "contrary to law."
Most
protestants will use the "environmental side." Some will use both sides.
Under
Environmental, you may attach written comments of your concerns about the
environment. In this case, saltwater
intrusion and level of estuary water are both important for the survival of
fish and wildlife, as well as for our own survival. Cite San Mateo County, salt
water intrusion into wells. In San
Francisco Bay (which is actually a very large estuary) salt water intrusion
from withdrawal of fresh water is now reaching into the Sacramento Delta. Any wells or water rights on the Albion or
Gualala, along the entire length of the estuary and possibly further upriver,
could be affected by salt water intrusion.
Lowering of fresh water flow into the
ocean in such vast amounts
could
affect the ability of salmonids to determine the time to enter the
system for
spawning. Salt water intrusion could
move much further upriver
than the
lower estuary. Tidal influence reaches
4-5 miles in most of our
North Coast
Rivers. If there is less freshwater
flowing into the ocean, the
reverse
tide will push a higher saltwater mix back into the system.
The proposed cisterns below each river
estuary act as underground
reservoirs,
capturing large amounts of fresh water.
This is not at the
point that
the water enters the ocean, as the applicant claims. It is
about one
mile up into the estuaries, in both cases near the south bank.
The
applications should tell us the size and depth of the cisterns. A
shallow
cistern will pull down the depth of the estuary water. Shallower
water heats
more rapidly and can become lethal for salmonids. As fresh
water is
pumped out of the underflow, salt water will intrude.
Both Coho and Steelhead salmon are
listed under the Endangered
Species Act
as "Threatened" in this area.
The survival of these species is
in the
public interest due to their value for recreational sports fishing,
an
important economy for the North Coast.
They are our best argument for
protecting
the beneficial use of water for fish and game.
However, on the Gualala, and perhaps on the Albion, there are
also
prior water
rights (e.g. Sea Ranch ). These have a
higher beneficial use
under the
water code than the protection of Fish and Game and should be
emphasized.
The applicant claims "gravity
flow" through the 2 foot-diameter,
concrete
pipe reaching from the cistern to the bag in the ocean. However,
there is a
pump at the end of the system, on the vast water bag. That
means the
water is being sucked out of the cistern through the pipe and
into the
bag. What means of monitoring does the applicant propose? The
usual
pumping records required of agriculture will not work, since the
pumps on
the water bladders are not hooked to an on-shore electrical
system. How can the public know when the applicant
is taking water and how
much? An
enormous amount of fresh water would be leaving the system. For
example: 20,000 acre feet is equivalent to one foot of water spread over
20,000
acres of land. One acre-foot is
equivalent to approximately
327,000
gallons of water. Multiply that by
20,000! The largest reservoirs
on the
Navarro system hold 100-200 acre-feet.
The SWRCB does not consider the
difference between drought and rain
years,
(they use an average). Salmonids use
the estuaries year round. In
drought
years, they return to the estuaries for deeper, cooler waters. The
salt/fresh
water ratio and the depth of water in the estuaries is essential
for
salmonid survival.
The SWRCB method of proving water availability
in relation to fish
and
wildlife, a form of the Tennant Method, is considered faulty by their
peer review
team, and has not been field tested.
Their peer review should
be
cited: Moyle and Kondolf, "Fish
By-pass Flows in Northern Coastal
Streams,"
June 12, 2000.
The National Marine Fisheries Service
methodology of Median
February
Flow is also faulty for our rivers, where the heaviest rainfall
usually
occurs in December and January.
Even though the applicant claims he
is not affecting flow and most
of the Fish
and Game laws refer to flow, he should have to prove that he is
not
affecting flow or the change in salt/freshwater ratio in the estuary.
Under Number 2, "Other Issues" the most important laws to cite are:
Calif. Code
of Regulations, Title 23 (water a Public Trust) and Fish and Game
Code, Div.
2,Chap. 1, Art. 1 # 711.7 (Fish and Game a Public Trust);
Water
Code: Part 2, Chap, 1, Article 4,#1243
( Beneficial Use) : Public
interest;
recreation, fish and wildlife a beneficial use of California waters;
Water Code:
Chap. 2, Article 1, #1257.5 (streamflow requirements for fish
and wildlife);
Water Code:
Division 1, 108 (needs of local area) and 386 (transfer of
water) may
also be applicable.
Public
Resources Code: Division 10, 1000-10005 (streamflow protection
standards
for fish and wildlife);
Fish and
Game Code: Division 2, Chap. 6, #1601-1603 (Fish and Wildlife
Protection
and Conservation);
Endangered
Species act, especially Coho and steelhead salmon;
Public
Resources Code Division 13, beginning Sec.21000 et. seq. (California
Environmental
Quality Act (CEQA): especially 21083
subd.(b) and
Guidelines
Sec.15355, subd. (a); 15065,subd. (
c); 15130 subd. (a).
It should
also be noted that under the Water Code, Part 2.10 (Water Supply
Planning) #
10915, San Diego is required to have a regional growth
management
strategy. This includes a water element.
Under
Division 7, Chapter 7, (Water Quality), Article 7 (Water Reuse) the
legislature
found that use of potable domestic water for nonpotable uses,
including
golf courses, highway landscaping, and
industrial and irrigation
uses is a
"waste or an unreasonable Use within the meaning of Section 2,
Article X
of the California Constitution." Has San Diego taken every
step
possible to use reclaimed water?
For No. 3
on the Protest Form: "Under what conditions may this protest be
disregarded
and dismissed?" write "None at this time."
In the
space provided under No. 3, request a field investigation and a full
Environmental
Impact Report. Ask SWRCB to prove water
availability for
applications
with field tested method in relation to protection of threatened Coho and
steelhead in all life phases.
For each of
the following steps in the eight step process:
require a
full environmental Impact Report
require SWRCB methodology with field testing and proof of no drawdown
upstream or salt/water intrusion
retain your protest!!!!!
Evaluations
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First Application
Examinations on 2/16/02 from Linda
Hi All-
Alaska Export's Applications to Extract Water From Albion and Gualala
The
applications:
We got a copy of the applications and
were appalled at how poorly
they were
done. Parts were handwritten and were illegible. All of it looked
as though
it was made up of material gotten from the web: a USGS site was
used to
write up the 'hydrology' report and the NDDB [Natural Diversity
Data Base]
site to get listed species of plants and animals. Nothing was to
scale and,
in the Albion, it was proposed to place the pipe along the bank
until, at
some later date, it was permitted to place it in the river bed.
It was
claimed no environmental impacts would occur from this activity.
The intake
cistern itself, which is to be buried in the river bed 1/4 mile
above
the highest salt water intrusion, was to be "gravity fed" but
contained
pumps to send the water down the pipe to the offshore buoy.
Again,
nothing was to scale. And the claim that the water would not leave
the river
until it reached the mouth is absurd; once the water goes into
the
cistern, the hydrology of the river is changed and that water has left
the natural
system.
His proposed "uses"
are vague. He says the water will be used "by
water
utilities along the south coast of California- contracts are under
negotiation
at this time". In another spot, he mentions "San Diego, San
Francisco,
and San Louis [sic] Obispo"
One subset of information is entitled
"Executive Summary, Civil
Infrastructure
for Water Export Facilities, Albion, Navarro and Mattole
Rivers,
Northern California, USA." [Dated 8-03-00] This document lays out
different
scenarios with pro and con arguments for each. Considered are
three aspects
of the project:
(1)
"uplands raw water intake structures"
-either the
cistern or a 'drilled well'. The well is recommended(!).
(2) "raw
water treatment system including a conveyance system for
transporting
the potable water to a marine offshore loading system".
-three ideas are discussed for treatment: A
portable system (modular
pieces that could be trucked around and set
up on land) or a barge
or other
offshore vessel, or "treatment in transit".
(3)"marine
water loading systems" - buoys and 'isolated dolphin'; the
latter is a
fixed, non-movable system built on the ocean bottom;
two would be
needed; the drawings show what appear to be large
hexagonal
concrete posts. Again, descriptions and drawings are so
poor I can't
make out much.
These may
be part of his discussion of 'alternatives' as will be required
under his
CEQA document.
Bottom Line
Recommendation from the Hydrology report (and, since the
Navarro and
Mattole are no longer part of the picture, this would be for Albion):
"The ideal
facility to export potable water at these locations would be
wells, portable
uplands treatment systems, and buried pipelines to offshore mooring buoys.
Several intangible factors exist that could significantly affect the final form
of this project. Public sentiment, permitting issues, and environmental
concerns are a few."
The last
few pages were entitled Gualala and Albion Rivers Biological
Reconnaissance
Survey [Dated 9-05-00; Survey done August 31, 2000]
There's little
information in the report. It looks as though they did an NDDB
search and
got some plant and animal lists. They mention that the mouth of
the Gualala
was closed at the time of their visit and that a county park is there;
mention the
San Andreas Fault. No analysis of impacts to any of the species
they had
listed.
About
Albion's fish they say, "...the Albion River could potentially support
spawning
populations of Coho salmon and steelhead." They don't even
know these
fish are present?
More
later?
..Linda.
Fini
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