Although Central Basin has seen many seasons gone by, the idea to preserve water continues to be at the forefront of our effort.  Central Basin is committed to maintain its service to surrounding communities.  A few of our goals for 2012 include continuing to provide the lowest rates possible for high quality water, continued development of a Groundwater Storage program and expanding job-creating projects. 

Central Basin is proud to share a milestone this year, join us as we celebrate our 60^th Anniversary! Find us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter and join us around the Water Cooler Blog.

The “2012 Water Is Life Calendar” will prominently feature Anna’s winning artwork from the “Water Is Life Poster Contest” during the month of January.  The calendar highlights artwork from selected poster contest winners throughout Southern California.  

Central Basin, in partnership with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California sponsored the poster contest this year for students in grades 4-8. The annual contest challenges students to creatively depict various water-wise uses at home or school. The entire Traveling Art Exhibit, featuring all contest winners throughout Southern California, will be on display at Central Basin Headquarters in May of 2012.

The Water Cooler was blogging about this issue recently when we posted a recent L.A. Times article that explained how energy costs are so important to water costs.

At Central Basin, we get about 65% percent of our water from local sources and the rest comes from either the Colorado River Aqueduct or from the State Water Project in Northern California. To know what power costs are going to be, helps us and others to maintain water rate stability in the coming years. Congratulations to our friends at Metropolitan Water District and our Congressional delegation for their diligent efforts in getting this important legislation passed!

The Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA) held its fall conference and one of the big topics is paying for new water infrastructure in the state.

As we blogged last week, the water infrastructure in much of California is starting to get a bit old and needs to be replaced.  We were hoping that Congress would pass some infrastructure spending as part of a stimulus bill, but so far it hasn’t. The ACWA meeting attracted about 1,700 water officials from around the state. We learned how California voters are feeling right now about public works spending in today’s tough economy when Mark DiCamillo of the Field Research Corporation shared the results of an opinion poll done on the California economy.

As we pointed out last week and in the past, we think that public works spending makes a lot of sense, in fact dollars and sense. Phase 1 of the Southeast Water Reliability Project (SWRP) took a $5.6 million dollar federal grant and turned it into 300 jobs – that means $18 million to the local economy.

On the water front, discussions centered on “The Value of Water” highlighted results of public perceptions and the actual value that people receive for their water.  Additionally, members of the Delta Stewardship Council (DSC) shared a presentation titled “Demystifying the Delta Plan”. Discussions also included viewpoints from members of the Environmental Water Caucus and leaders of the Ag-Urban Coalition sharing input on the critical topic of co-equal goals of the Delta plan.  The comment period of DSCs draft EIR ends on February 2, 2012.

With several interesting discussions on topics centered on key water issues, the conference concluded with a look at California Forward’s proposal to encourage cooperation among local governments to produce improved results on government services. Read more here on the Smart Government Framework.

Folsom Dam

Let’s just say it! California has lots of water right now, even before the rainy season really gets going.

Those of you who read the Water Cooler might be surprised we are telling you this, because we are constantly sharing with you ways to conserve water.

But right now, we have lots of it.

Central Basin’s David Hill reported to a community water roundtable this month that the dams that hold water in Northern California are 120% of normal and that the Colorado River Storage in Lake Powell and Lake Mead is 16% higher than it was last year. Check it out for yourself.

Water managers are always looking to the future, because we can be only one or two dry winters away from having to worry about our water supplies again.

Our General Manager, Art Aguilar, sums it up very well:  ”The uncertainty of the weather and other factors we can’t control keep us thinking about the future.”  He added,  ”It’s also why we believe in investing in water use efficiencies and adapting water management infrastructure to make sure that we can offer a safe and adequate supply of water to the residents we serve in the Central Basin.”

Yes, that’s our job. To make sure we always have enough water. And in Southern California, where we need to bring some of our water in from elsewhere, that makes our job very important for you and everyone we serve.

As you visit our website, remember that we have a lot of programs and ideas on how you can save water at your home or at your business. Take a look:

United States House of Representatives

Like many of you, we have watched with disappointment while Congress is unable to agree on a federal budget deficit program. We continue to recommend that any budget deficit program should include infrastructure spending.

Much of our nation’s urban water infrastructure is getting old and is in need of replacement. And there are many other projects that can developed that would both improve our ability to store and deliver water to you, as well as put people to work.

Take our Southeast Water Reliability Project (SWRP). Phase I of this project used only $5.6 million in federal funds, but at the same time it created 300 jobs and brought $18 million in labor income to the local economy! It also raised over $2 million in local tax revenues.  Now complete, the pipeline will deliver more than 5 million gallons of recycled water each year for irrigation of school grounds, street medians, parks and other commercial and industrial uses.

Although California’s unemployment dropped fractionally last month, it continues to hover around 12%, which is much too high.We can and should do something about that! Smart public works spending is a way to bring that number down.

We urge Congress to keep working on deficit reduction, but that while it does to remember that putting people to work on projects that serve the public, like SWRP, are tax dollars that are well spent.

Students prepare for Solar Cup 2012

Gray skies and chilly temperatures did not stop local high school students from kicking off their participation in the 10th Annual Solar Cup Competition this past weekend. Students from Warren High School in Downey, Paramount High School West, Firebaugh High School in Lynwood, La Mirada High School, Norwalk High School and the Southeast Regional Occupational Program met in Claremont on Saturday to begin assembling their boats. They may have a long ways to go before they’re

Students work together to build solar powered boats

ready for the races in May; but based on the positive attitudes, enthusiasm and dedication the students showed Saturday, this year’s competition is sure to be a year to remember! 

Haven’t heard of Solar Cup before? More information about the annual event is after the jump.

Solar Cup is the nation’s largest solar-powered boat competition. This year 42 teams throughout Southern California will be participating in the completion taking place at Lake Skinner from May18-20, 2012. Students participating in the competition will have the chance to apply and build their skills in math, physics, engineering and communications, while learning about Southern California’s water sources and alternative energy development.

Last year teams from our service area did very well and were recognized for their achievements.

Good luck to all our teams this year!

Julian Hinds Pumping Plant

Water is coming to the forefront in the news and we couldn’t agree more on its importance. This past weekend an article in the Los Angeles Times highlighted the increasing cost of providing imported water to Southern California. Our region imports nearly half of the water we use and although last year California’s reservoirs and aqueducts received robust water supplies, increasing power costs and the impact of climate change will continue to increase the cost of imported water.

The rising cost of imported water requires that we look at alternatives to ensure that our region’s water supply remains affordable and reliable. This creates a need for the development of groundwater storage plans. It is one of the most cost effective ways to ensure the reliability of water to our region.

Central Basin is currently working on the Central Basin Groundwater Storage Plan.  The plan is designed to improve water supply reliability throughout the Central Groundwater Basin in light of the increasing human and environmental demands on existing water supplies, especially in drought years.

We are currently seeking input from stakeholders. Central Basin has released a draft Program Environmental Impact Report that is available for public review. Another opportunity for input will be the Central Basin Groundwater Storage Plan Stakeholder Workshop II on December 12 at the Central Basin headquarters.

We welcome public comment on the draft PEIR and hope to see you at our workshop on December 12^th.

November 9, 2011

Working with a vendor, the Central Basin Municipal Water District has been seeking to communicate information across web-based platforms about our programs and policy initiatives in an effort to combat the Water Replenishment District’s cyber spreading of inaccurate information on fake websites designed to purposefully mislead the public. It is important to stress that the information related to the Central Basin Municipal Water District posted on the News Hawks Review website was true and accurate and reflected positive Central Basin announcements and policy initiatives and did not contain information designed to mislead the public about Central Basin’s substantive policies or the policies of other water districts.

Central Basin was not aware of issues related to the backgrounds of the individuals whose names appeared alongside the stories and had no knowledge of their biographies until it was brought to our attention, at which point the News Hawks website lost its Google Certification and Central Basin’s vendor discontinued using the website.

Central Basin is committed to maintaining a strong education and outreach effort and will continue to disseminate information to inform its customers and the public about important water issues.

Here are links to several various misleading online platforms (known as cybersquatting) sponsored by the Water Replenishment District:

www.centralbasin.net

www.central-basin.com

 www.centralbasinreplenishment.org