Greetings,
Comments Due Oct. 30 on Water Plan
“Pre-Final” Draft
ACWA Members Urged to Review for
Red Flags
ACWA members are
encouraged to review the “pre-final” California
Water Plan Update 2009 and submit comments on any remaining red
flags.
Many in the water
community have expressed concern that comments previously
submitted have not been adequately addressed. In some cases,
recent changes to the text have raised new red flags that were
not in earlier drafts.
Comments on the
“pre-final” draft are due Oct. 30, 2009. It is the
last opportunity to submit comments on the plan. The Department
of Water Resources is scheduled to transmit the final draft plan
to the Administration in December. A final California Water Plan
2009 Update is expected to be issued in February
2010.
The entire water
plan is available at http://www.waterplan.water.ca.gov/cwpu2009/index.cfm.
Comments may be submitted via links at the same
location.
The plan is
organized into several separate documents. The
“Highlights” document includes a very high-level
summary. Strategic policy commitments are described in
“Volume 1 – Strategic Plan.”
“Volume 2
– Resource Management Strategies” identifies
management strategies and related recommendations. This volume
still contains some chapters that continue to raise red flags
for some water agencies.
ACWA recommends
that members pay particular attention to the following
sections:
- Urban Water Use Efficiency
(significant “red flag” remaining)
- Agricultural Water Use
Efficiency (late changes being considered to increase target
numbers)
- Surface Storage –
Regional / Local (still “under
development”)
- Conjunctive Management &
Groundwater (seems reasonably sound, but confirmation
needed)
- Desalination (still “under
development”)
- Salt and Salinity Management
- Recycled Municipal Water
- Flood Risk Management
(marginally responsive to previous comments, but confirmation
needed)
Volume 3 includes
Regional Reports. Agencies are encouraged to review their
regional chapters for remaining red flag issues.
Related
Issues:
Drought
Contingency Plan
DWR is also
seeking input for a related Drought Contingency Plan it is
drafting for inclusion in the Water Plan to be released in
February 2010. ACWA intends to offer specific ideas and
suggestions and will be providing comments in early
November.
Model
Water Efficient Landscape Ordinance Workshops
Scheduled
DWR and the
California Urban Water Conservation Council are conducting a
series of workshops around the state to explain the new updated
Model Water Efficient Landscape Ordinance that requires
cities and counties, including charter cities and charter
counties, to adopt landscape water conservation ordinances by
Jan. 1, 2010.
The workshop
schedule and registration instructions can be found on the
ordinance Web site at http://www.water.ca.gov/wateruseefficiency/landscapeordinance/.
A webcast is planned for the Nov. 3 session.
If you have
questions or concerns please contact David Bolland, Senior
Regulatory Advocate, at 916-
