Unsure of Availability, NID Delays Decision on Surplus Water Sales

Published on Mar 17, 2008 - 8:58:02 AM

By: Susan Snider, YubaNet

March 17, 2008 - Early each year, Nevada Irrigation District awaits notification from Pacific Gas & Electric on the status of the giant utility's surplus water reserves. And so do farmers in Sutter County.

Operating under a contract with PG&E that allows the Nevada county-based water district to purchase surplus water, NID sells most of this to the South Sutter Water District for irrigation purposes.

But PG&E has yet to notify NID if surplus water will be available this year.

As a result, directors at the Mar. 12 NID board meeting narrowly voted to postpone a decision to commit surplus water, until confirmation is received from PG&E.

Staff advised board members that notification from PG&E is expected by April 1.

This information didn't please directors George Leipzig and Paul Williams.

"Then South Sutter won't hear anything until the first week of April," Leipzig noted.

Once NID is notified by PG&E of surplus water availability, then a recommendation must come through a separate committee to the board for approval.

"I don't think this is fair to South Sutter," Williams objected. "I don't want to see this going back to committee."

Many Sierra Nevada reservoirs are below capacity. March has proven to be dry and annual precipitation in the area is less than average.

Weed Control, Goat-Style

Drive throughout most areas of Nevada County and one is likely to see this familiar sign: 'Do Not Spray.'

Many residents oppose the Nevada County's vegetation control practice of spraying herbicides along roadsides. In the case of NID, spraying becomes more of an issue along the district's hundreds of miles of water delivery canals.

While NID does use the herbicide Aquamaster (its active ingredient is similar to Roundup) to control some invasive vegetation, the water district also employs less traditional and toxic methods as well.

Goats have become a popular and highly effective tool for controlling unwanted vegetation. At NID's Sugar Loaf and Union Reservoir areas, goats not only clean up vegetation around fences, they also help reduce the wildfire fuel load.

The district also uses vegetation management alternatives such as vinegar and barley straw application, and thermal heat.

The latter method employs a mobile unit that steams unwanted weeds at high temperatures and then burns the wet vegetation.

In addition, according to Asst. Maintenance Supt. Bruce Early, the water district has all but eliminated its use of the chemical pre-emergence Direx.

Proposed Additional State Grab of NID Property Tax Revenues

In past years water districts like NID have seen a sizable percentage of their property tax revenues appropriated through the Educational Revenue Augmentation Fund (ERAF) to aid the state's school funding obligation.

Now, with California facing a budget crisis that includes a looming deficit, the state is calling for an additional property tax shift to help fund California's parole system.

"We are opposing legislation that will take tax dollars from special districts," NID General Manager Ron Nelson informed the board.

A recent state Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) report points to rate increases such as the ones that NID board members recently approved as offsets to lost property tax revenues.

However, reeling from customer protests over a proposed 5-year rate increase schedule, NID directors chose to boost rates for only one year, 2008.

And, as noted in its recently approved water rate study, NID's rates fall far short of what it costs the district to provide water to its customers.

The district depends on its rate augmentation fund to help keep rates far lower than the cost of service. But this fund relies on a steady flow of property tax revenues.

With a decline in property values and the possibility of another ERAF-like property tax shift, districts like NID could face challenging decisions over future rate increases.

"It's Your Water--Or IS It?"

Failing wells, climate change, problems with accessing water, low salmon numbers, a possible resurgent peripheral canal project, and NID's plans to bring water to the city of Lincoln. These and many other subjects will be discussed at a town hall meeting held March 20, 7-9 p.m. at the Miners Foundry in Nevada City, announced Division 1 Director Nancy Weber.

The town hall meeting will provide an opportunity for Nevada County citizens to become informed as well as share concerns about their local water supply, Weber advised the board.

A panel of experts and citizens will discuss various relevant topics including access and water rights, how local water is managed and protected, state demands on Sierra water resources, storage alternatives, watershed protection, what is a special district, and FERC relicensing.

The meeting will be broadcast live by KVMR 89.5 Community Radio in Nevada City and facilitated by Mike Thornton, News Director at KVMR.

Members of the media will field questions to the panel and web users can pose questions from now on via a blog link on YubaNet.com. NCTV Channel 11 plans to videotape the meeting and air it during the week following the event.

The meeting is free of charge and open to the public.

The next regular NID board meeting will be held at 9 a.m. on March 26 at the NID Business Center in Grass Valley. NID board meetings are open to the public.

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