The drought goes on
Despite November’s 1.87 inches of rain—a monthly high for drought-stricken 2014—and even more storms hitting South County through the first week of December, the Santa Clara Valley Water District’s board of directors enacted an extension of a 20 percent water reduction mandate through June 2015.“It’s still very dire,” Director Dennis Kennedy, who represents District 1 on the board, said of the district’s water supply in its reservoirs and aquifers which supply groundwater storage. “I can’t predict how long it will take to restore that. Even if we get an above average wet winter, we’re still not out of this yet.”The SCVWD board voted unanimously at its Nov. 25 meeting to extend the countywide water reduction measure that it first approved back in February. The board recommended measures be taken by retail water agencies, local municipalities and the county to reach that goal.Since February, countywide water use has dropped by about 12 percent compared to 2013, falling short of the 20 percent target, according to water officials. As a result, groundwater storage (at a range of 200,000-250,000 acre-feet) has reached the “severe” level of a five-stage scale, as defined by the district’s Water Shortage Contingency Plan. Anderson is at 37.1 percent capacity, according to the SCVWD website. Chesbro reservoir is empty and Uvas is at 2.1 percent capacity. Total surface water storage at the district’s 10 reservoirs is at 29 percent of capacity.Morgan Hill, one of the first cities in the county to adopt a resolution for a 20 percent water reduction, recorded a 24 percent water use reduction last month for a 16 percent cumulative rate since February, according to Kennedy. Gilroy is between 12-14 percent in overall reduction.“Gilroy is doing especially well in using recycled water,” said Kennedy, touting the impact of the South County Regional WasteWater Authority, which has been widely used at Gilroy and Eagle Ridge golf courses as well as Gilroy Gardens, Obata Farms, Cintas and Calpine Power Plant.“That’s been one of the big successes in South County,” Kennedy added.Also part of the latest resolution, the SCVWD board approved budget adjustments of $3.8 million to extend augmented water conservation programs and outreach campaigns until June 30, 2015.The district has already spent $7 million on reimbursing homeowners who participate in the landscape rebate program, which calls for residents to remove existing grass and replace it with “drought tolerant plants.” In doing so, participants are given $2 per square foot of turf removed. Morgan Hill added another $1 per square foot on top of that for its residents. For example, a resident stands to make $3,000 for every 1,000 square feet.“We want to keep that program alive because it has been very successful, and the good thing about it is it’s permanent and conserves water continuously,” Kennedy said. “Staff is having a hard time keeping up with the requests.”In 2014, the rebate program has seen a 500 percent increase in applications and rebates for the conversion of approximately 675,000 square feet of turf, according to water officials.Local farmer Andy Mariani, of the eponymous Andy’s Orchard in east Morgan Hill, hoped that Tuesday’s storm was a sign of more to come, as his water sources are becoming even more limited. Water officials cut off Mariani and other surface-water users from their main water source, the Half Road Lateral, earlier this year. That pipeline, which pumps water from San Luis Reservoir into the county’s treatment plant and Anderson Dam, was being used freely by several agricultural and landscaping users.Stormy weather has dropped another 1.93 inches of rain in the first two days of December, according to the National Weather Service Forecaster Diana Henderson. Showers continued through Wednesday afternoon (measurements were not available until after presstime) and scattered showers are expected for Dec. 4-5 with the next storm set to hit mid to late next week, Henderson said.Along with the limited rainfall, Mariani said he’s been able to “limp along this year” by using water from a well at nearby Chiala Farms to irrigate his decades-old orchard. But that water source will be cut off when the Chialas begin to plant peppers, according to Mariani.“Our only hope is it rains significantly more, and then maybe the district allows us to get water from them,” said Mariani, who also is looking to install a new water pump into an old well. “It’s going to be a precarious year, regardless.”Despite the continuing drought conditions, Kennedy said the Anderson Dam Seismic Retrofit Project, which is scheduled to start at the end of 2015, is still “proceeding full speed ahead with engineering and environmental work.”Kennedy added that water officials have been in contact with the state’s Division of Dam Safety to see if there is a possibility to delay the project since Anderson is being used as an “emergency reserve” with water pumped in from San Luis. Rebuilding or retrofitting the dam will require draining the reservoir.“We are having those discussions, but to my knowledge we do not have an agreement or approval to delay it,” Kennedy said.
Authorities double charge for owl protection?
For the last decade, the city of Morgan Hill has collected more than $380,000 from developers to protect burrowing owl habitat in the city limits, but only one such bird has been found during that time.While at least one developer worries that the city’s continued imposition of the burrowing owl fee is redundant with the newer Santa Clara Valley Habitat Conservation Plan’s species preservation program, the city says it is bound by legal obligations to collect the revenues for a few more years.The city’s burrowing owl fee of $191 per housing unit or $1,333 per acre on non-residential projects, has been in place since 2003, according to city staff. The fee applies only on the valley floor, and was mandated as part of an Environmental Impact Report for the renewal of the Morgan Hill Redevelopment Agency in the late 1990s. That followed a legal settlement with the Audubon Society, which required the city to consider adopting an owl protection plan.The burrowing owl, a migratory bird, is listed by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife as a “species of special concern” which could land on the threatened or endangered list if its population continues to decline.From 2004 to 2013, the city collected $384,032 in burrowing owl protection fees from developers, according to Morgan Hill Program Administrator Anthony Eulo. During the same time, expenses under the program totaled $164,055.Costs included the preparation of an annual report by the city’s contracted biologist, and mowing grassland on a 40-acre owl preserve area in the city limits to keep the property suitable for species nesting, Eulo said. The preserve is owned by the city and is located next to the West Edmundson Avenue water tank—a site where burrowing owls were seen nesting when the city built the storage tank in 2002.“That meant there must be something about that spot,” Eulo said. “Our tank did not disturb that nesting spot.”While areas of Morgan Hill might have once hosted thriving burrowing owl nests, only one bird has been documented since the fee was implemented.In February 2007, “an owl hung out for a few days and left” in the area of the San Pedro Avenue percolation ponds—on the opposite side of town from the city’s preserve area—according to the city’s contracted biologist Nathan Hale of Live Oak Associates. An unverified sighting by a private property owner on Railroad Avenue was reported in 2009.The lack of burrowing owl activity in the last 10 years now frees the city from its obligation to maintain a preserve, according to city staff, citing the original EIR agreement. But the city will continue to collect the protection fee until the current General Plan expires in 2020, in accordance with the same EIR.Revenues will go instead to the SCVHCP, which was established in 2013. On Oct. 1, the city council voted to transfer its remaining burrowing owl protection balance of $219,977 to the SCVHCP, which agreed to use the funds to supplement its own preserve efforts.“We decided there doesn’t seem to be any value in continuing to maintain preserve land, look for owls, and pay a biologist to do that,” Eulo said. “If we go with the Habitat Agency, they have other land” on which to preserve owl habitat.The SCVHCP was barely a glimmer in regulators’ eyes when the city implemented its protection fee. But now that the Habitat Plan is implemented, it replaces other burrowing owl (and other species) protection efforts previously in place throughout the county by imposing a “land cover” fee on all developers, and supplemental “specialty fees” when projects disturb certain specific species, according to SCVHCP staff.Dick Oliver, President of Morgan Hill based Dividend Homes, is one local developer who has paid the city’s burrowing owl protection fee for the last decade. His company has built a number of local residential projects, including the Alicante and Mission Ranch developments in north Morgan Hill.Oliver thinks the city’s continued collection of burrowing owl charges, combined with the new SCVHCP fee schedule, amounts to a “double fee.” He said the city should stop collecting the fees now that it has been established that no owls live in Morgan Hill.“We’d appreciate the money being returned to us,” Oliver said of the city’s burrowing owl revenues. Oliver sits on the SCVHCP public advisory committee, a nine-member body that must include developers, environmental advocates, farmers and members of the general public, according to Habitat Plan guidelines.The SCVHCP fees fund the mitigation of impacts by developers on 18 species found in the valley, and replaces a series of fees previously imposed by state, federal and local regulators.Currently, the only verified burrowing owl breeding habitat in the SCVHCP area is in north San Jose, according to SCV Habitat Agency Executive Officer Edmund Sullivan. Developers who propose disturbing that habitat must pay a specialty burrowing owl fee of $51,568 per acre. That’s in addition to the land cover fee, which ranges from about $4,300 to $17,000 per acre depending on what type of land (vacant urban, ranchland or agricultural) they intend to build on.The city is still required to conduct burrowing owl surveys on local projects until 2020 under its own protection program, Eulo added.There is no precedent for the refund of wildlife protection fees to developers, Eulo said. City staff understand Oliver’s concern, but added they are bound by the law to continue protecting burrowing owls—even if that protection takes place outside Morgan Hill under the authority of another agency such as the SCVHCP.“There’s certainly a fair argument that the Habitat Plan is addressing the overall issue (of burrowing owl protection) and Morgan Hill shouldn’t be addressing owls as well,” said Morgan Hill Community Development Director Andrew Crabtree. “But we do have a settlement agreement.”
