Thursday, July 13, 2006

Deslination in California? Water News Weekly: "Having completed a year-long California-focused analysis of desalination, Oakland's Pacific Institute concludes that most of the state's seawater desalination proposals are premature. According to their report, "Desalination, With a Grain of Salt," most if not all of the 21 desalination projects proposed in California fail to adequately address economic realities, environmental concerns, or potential social impacts. Recent gains in desalination efficiency are being offset by rising interest rates and increases in energy and construction costs. Even the cheapest estimates exceed the costs of conservation and efficiency improvements, fixing leaks, and other sources of new supply. As a result, desalination remains an extremely expensive source of fresh water for Californians... "Desalination is energy intensive, making its already high costs vulnerable to rising energy prices. Electricity accounts for 44% of the typical water costs of a reverse-osmosis plant. An energy rate increase of 25% increases the cost of produced water by 11 percent. Energy price uncertainty creates costs that are ultimately paid by water users, but project cost estimates often omit such considerations. Statewide, proposals range in size from a small plant providing water for a private development along Cannery Row, Monterey to much larger plants in Southern California that would be among the largest desalination plants in the United States. The total capacity of the proposed plants could amount to approximately 450 million gallons per day, which would represent a massive 70-fold increase over current seawater desalination capacity." Category: Colorado Water 6:36:18 PM     Managing the flood water Managing river flows during the Southwest Monsoon is no piece of cake. Here's an article about efforts last weekend on the Arkansas River from the Pueblo Chieftain. From the article, "The Arkansas River took a wild ride through Pueblo and to points east in the past week, as water officials tried to pace releases with the whims of Mother Nature. Last week, releases from Pueblo Dam were stepped up to release flood water that came into Lake Pueblo from a brief, heavy storm. The releases were coordinated with heavy flows on Fountain Creek, which cannot be regulated, to avoid flooding at Avondale. Arkansas River flows were tripled last Thursday, to 3,000 cubic feet per second from about 1,000 cfs... "... after a steady rain Saturday evening, more flood water had to be evacuated from Lake Pueblo, and releases were increased to about 4,000 cfs on Sunday... "The state has the responsibility to manage Pueblo Dam releases so that the gauge at Avondale stays below 6,000 cfs, if possible. That would have happened, except the north Pueblo storm was unusually intense. At one point, the Fountain Creek gauge at the Arkansas River confluence peaked briefly at 10,000 cfs, eventually sending the Avondale gauge to more than 8,000 cfs. Meanwhile, sheets of water were entering the river above Avondale through the normally dry Chico Creek basin, according to local reports. There is no stream gauge at Chico Creek to determine how much it contributed, [Water Division 2 Engineer Steve Witte] said... "Flows from Lake Pueblo were cut back Tuesday, and were measured at 720 cfs Wednesday. Fountain Creek was flowing at 320 cfs. The flood water that flowed through Pueblo was captured by junior storage rights downstream, Witte explained. All junior irrigation rights were satisfied during the flooding. In addition, the Fort Lyon Canal was diverting 500 cfs into its storage canal, while the Amity Canal was storing more than 500 cfs through a transfer storage right into John Martin Reservoir. Amity has an 880 cfs right, not totally satisfied by the recent flooding. If flood waters produce more than 1,000 acre-feet of water per day above the Amity right, the water is stored in John Martin and later allocated under terms spelled out in the Arkansas River Compact: 60 percent for Colorado use and 40 percent for Kansas. Colorado's share is further divided among irrigators below John Martin, Witte said. If John Martin were to fill and unclaimed water flowed over the state line, the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District could claim the water and store it in Lake Pueblo, Witte said." Category: Colorado Water 6:15:36 AM

© Copyright 2006 John Orr. Last update: 12/29/06; 11:56:59 AM.