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Poseidon Water has assumed the stewardship of the Agua Hedionda Lagoon and will help preserve over 400 acres of coastal habitat. Photo: Poseidon Water

Poseidon Water Assumes Stewardship of Agua Hedionda Lagoon

Poseidon Water, a national leader in the development of water supply and treatment projects using a public-private partnership approach, furthered its commitment to protect and preserve San Diego’s coastal environment by assuming stewardship of the Agua Hedionda Lagoon in Carlsbad.

The Agua Hedionda Lagoon encompasses over 400 acres of marine, estuarine and wetlands habitat teeming with hundreds of fish, invertebrate and bird species. The lagoon has long been home to youth recreation activities, including the YMCA Aquatic Park (affectionately known to its patrons as “Camp H2O”), as well as popular activities for visitors of all ages, such as kayaking, swimming, canoeing and paddle-boarding. As the lagoon’s steward, Poseidon Water is taking responsibility for ensuring the man-made lagoon continues to realize the life-sustaining benefits of an open connection to the Pacific Ocean.

Maintaining healthy marine ecosystem

Poseidon Water is ensuring the ongoing vitality of this magnificent estuary through periodic maintenance dredging. Dredging keeps sand from blocking the flow of ocean water in and out of the lagoon, maintaining its tidal circulation, which is needed to maintain a healthy marine ecosystem, support extensive recreational uses, sustainable aquaculture (Carlsbad Aquafarm) and a white seabass fish hatchery (Hubbs-SeaWorld Fish Hatchery). Dredging also helps replenish the sand on Carlsbad State Beach, which otherwise would revert to historical cobble-stone, with sand that is relocated from the lagoon to nearby shoreline, ensuring the local beaches are attractive for local residents and visitors to enjoy.

“The Agua Hedionda Lagoon Foundation has been dedicated to providing direct access to nature while ensuring the environmental protection of the lagoon,” said Lisa Cannon-Rodman, chief executive officer of the Agua Hedionda Lagoon Foundation. “We are thrilled that Poseidon Water will continue in these efforts and can confidently say that the community will continue to experience the splendor of this unique environment for many years to come.”

Unique lagoon environment

Some of the uses that make up this unique environment include:

1. Man-Made Marine Estuary – Aqua Hedionda Lagoon is a man-made estuary consisting of 400 acres of inter-tidal wetlands and uplands that are home to a wide variety of fish, invertebrates, animals and birds.
2. Claude “Bud” Lewis Carlsbad Desalination Plant – The Carlsbad Desalination Plant produces over 50 million gallons of high-quality and climate-resilient drinking water each day, serving approximately 10 percent of the region’s water demand.
3. YMCA Aquatic Park – The YMCA Aquatic Park, better known as Camp H2O, is a summer camp geared towards children ages seven to twelve that offers affordable day camp activities including swimming, kayaking, boating and fishing. The camp plays an important role in educating youth about the precious marine environment and the need to preserve the lagoon for future generations.
4. Hubbs-SeaWorld Fish Hatchery – Hubbs-SeaWorld Resources Enhancement and Hatchery Program include a 22,000 square-foot fish hatchery on the lagoon. The Program actively contributes to the restoration of the California white seabass population, adding over 350,000 juveniles annually. Hubbs-SeaWorld has begun to expand its marine restoration activities as a result of additional acreage donated by the Desalination Plant.
5. Recreational Boating – Boating remains one of the most popular lagoon activities for residents and visitors alike. California Water Sports offers expert lessons and rents a variety of boats, including kayaks, canoes and paddleboards to the public.
6. Carlsbad Aquafarm – The lagoon is home to the Carlsbad Aquafarm, Southern California’s only shellfish aquafarm, where over 1.5 million pounds of shellfish are sustainably harvested each year. The farm is a growing contributor to the $1.5 billion U.S. aquafarming industry and the San Diego region’s local economy.
7. Agua Hedionda Lagoon Foundation Discovery Center – Opened in 2006, the Discovery Center offers visitors an opportunity to learn about the lagoon’s native plants and marine life through exhibits and educational programs and hosts more than 8,700 local students each year.

Lagoon preservation

“Agua Hedionda Lagoon plays a key role not just in our environment, but also Carlsbad’s quality of life and economy,” said City of Carlsbad Mayor Matt Hall. “By ensuring the lagoon’s long-term preservation, Poseidon Water has once again demonstrated its commitment to Carlsbad and environmental sustainability.”

The Lagoon was previously maintained by NRG, owner of the now decommissioned Encina Power Station. The Carlsbad Desalination Plant is located on the same site as the Encina Power Station and utilizes the power plant’s historic intake and outfall facilities for the desalination process. As part of its co-location, Poseidon Water has long planned to succeed NRG as the lagoon’s steward.

With the decommissioning of Encina Power Station, the Carlsbad Desalination Plant is modernizing the existing intake facilities to provide include additional environmental enhancements to protect and preserve the marine environment.

“Our location along the shore of the Agua Hedionda Lagoon makes it a critical part of the Carlsbad Desalination Plant’s operations, which enables us to provide San Diego County with more than 50 million gallons of high-quality drinking water every day,” said Carlos Riva, Poseidon Water CEO. “We look forward to taking an even more active role in the protection and preservation of the lagoon so that we can all enjoy its recreational and marine resources now and for generations to come.”

Assuming responsibility for the lagoon is just the latest in Poseidon Water’s long history of environmental stewardship in California, by employing 100 percent carbon neutral desalination technology at its Carlsbad Desalination Plant – making it the first major infrastructure project in California to eliminate its carbon footprint – and committing to do the same at its proposed Huntington Beach Seawater Desalination Plant. These efforts continue to assist communities in becoming water independent and less susceptible to dangerous drought conditions, without any carbon emissions.

 

The San Diego County Water Authority has a long history of supporting a portfolio approach to address mounting environmental and water supply challenges in the Bay-Delta, the hub of the State Water Project. Photo: California DWR

Water Authority Invites Gov. Newsom to Tour Facilities, Praises Portfolio Approach to Water Security

The San Diego County Water Authority today praised Gov. Gavin Newsom for taking a proactive, far-sighted approach to water supply planning for California, and pledged to help the governor advance his portfolio strategy for water security in the face of a changing climate.

In a letter to Newsom, Water Authority Board Chair Jim Madaffer thanked the governor for the “wisdom and leadership” shown last week with the issuance of Executive Order N-10-19 and invited the governor to tour San Diego County’s cutting-edge water facilities.

Newsom’s order directed his administration to “identify and assess a suite of complementary actions to ensure safe and resilient water supplies, flood protection and healthy waterways for the state’s communities, economy and environment.” Newsom then directed state agencies to scrap Brown Administration plans for a $18 billion two-tunnel system for moving water through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay-Delta in favor of a one-tunnel system.

“We congratulate you on Executive Order N-10-19 and stand ready to support you and work with other stakeholders to ensure its success,” Madaffer wrote to Newsom. “If state and federal dollars are prioritized to support local, integrated planning solutions, we will realize the State’s 2009 promise to reduce demand on the Bay-Delta.”

Portfolio Planning For Water Security

The Water Authority has a long history of both portfolio planning for the region’s water security and supporting a portfolio approach to address mounting environmental and water supply challenges in the Bay-Delta, the hub of the State Water Project.

“Almost two decades ago, the Water Authority’s Board of Directors chose to take affirmative steps to change what had been an ‘end-of-the-pipeline’ mentality, when our agency relied greatly on water imported from the Bay-Delta,” Madaffer said. “In other words, we embraced then the intent of Executive Order N-10-19, and believe our experience is proof that it can be done.”

In 2013, the Water Authority joined several Southern and Northern California water districts, Natural Resources Defense Council, and other conservation groups in proposing a Portfolio Alternative for the Bay-Delta. That proposal included a single tunnel, increasing water storage south of the Bay-Delta, and significant investments in local and regional water supplies.

That approach didn’t gain enough support in the Brown administration, but it aligns closely with Gov. Newsom’s executive order.

Strategic partnerships

The portfolio approach also aligns with what history has shown to be a highly successful strategy in San Diego County, which relied almost entirely on water supplies controlled by external interests in 1991.

“After suffering the devastating impacts of drought and water shortages that year, our community got to work, determined to gain local control over the cost and reliability of our water,” Madaffer said. “Since then, the Water Authority and its member agencies have invested over $2 billion in local projects.”

Those investments include:

  • The nation’s largest agricultural water conservation and transfer agreement with the Imperial Irrigation District
  • The first new dam in the county in more than 50 years at Olivenhain Reservoir
  • The nation’s largest seawater desalination plant, producing up to 56,000 acre-feet of water annually
  • The raising of San Vicente Dam, more than doubling its capacity
  • Water-use efficiency programs that have helped reduce per capita potable water use by more than 40 percent in San Diego County

“Every dollar of investment the Water Authority has made represents a commensurate reduction of take on the Bay-Delta,” said Madaffer’s letter.

He noted that the Water Authority and its member agencies are still at work, with more local projects on the drawing board, including a Pure Water potable reuse program being developed by the City of San Diego and the East County Advanced Water Purification Project.

“We are also continuing to plan for the future, with an upcoming study that will explore water, conveyance, storage, treatment and energy opportunities with strategic partners in Imperial Valley, Mexico and across the Southwest,” Madaffer said. “This initiative is the next generation of the Water Authority’s evolution, and the ‘poster child’ for your Portfolio Alternative.”

The Water Authority is looking at new integrated solutions such as a storage account in Lake Mead that would help raise water levels in the drought-stressed reservoir and avoid formal shortage conditions that could hamper water deliveries across the Southwest. The Water Authority also is supporting a Salton Sea action plan that will protect both the environment and public health; binational opportunities with Mexico; and clean energy generation.

San Lorenzo Valley Water District Criticized Over Proposed Environmental Budget Cuts

As budget season approaches, a valley water district’s board has come under fire for its proposed cost-cutting measures. Felton resident Larry Ford on Thursday asked San Lorenzo Valley Water District board leaders for some “smart innovation” in cost effective operational budgeting, as an alternative to cutting funding to several of its standing environmental programs in the coming year’s budget. “The challenge to us it to take the cost management goal, which I think is admirable if not heroic, and turn it into one that can support all of these community cot this time.”

Many Large Northern California Reservoirs Nearly Full

We’ve made it through most of the prime water season and have had a few blockbuster winter storms. For many large reservoirs in California the mission for reservoirs switches from flood control to water storage and there isn’t much room left for storage. All major Northern California Reservoirs are more than 90 percent full and many will reach capacity in a month or so.

Hundreds Of California Species At Risk Of Extinction, United Nations Report Says In Addition To Millions Globally

More than a million species are at risk of extinction globally, including hundreds in California. That’s what the United Nations revealed on Monday.“The rate of global change in nature during the past 50 years is unprecedented in human history,” the authors wrote in a summary of the report, which compiled of thousands of scientific papers. In California, there are around 300 species at risk and 346 species in California, Nevada and Southern Oregon combined. A handful of plants and animals have already disappeared from the state, such as the Santa Barbara song sparrow and the the California subspecies of the Grizzly Bear.

Gov. Gavin Newsom Faces A Big Political Test As He Shapes His First California Budget

Even in the best of California’s economic glory days, no governor has entered office with the kind of fiscal tail wind that Gov. Gavin Newsom now enjoys. The government’s coffers are full of taxpayer cash, its reserve accounts are stocked to weather an economic slowdown and there’s general consensus on new help for the state’s youngest and most vulnerable residents. A major political victory would seem all but assured as he prepares to unveil a revised state budget this week. And yet, Newsom’s very real challenge is a quandary of quantity: more tax revenue, yes, but also more Democrats in the Legislature after last year’s election landslide and more demands to raise spending.

OPINION: To Prevent Water Shortages, California Must Embrace Desalination

California has long been at the forefront of worldwide environmental leadership. Under our landmark law, Assembly Bill 32, we are slashing greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. We lead the way in recycling, with some of the strictest requirements on earth. Our solar industry is thriving. Silicon Valley is creating the most innovative zero-emissions vehicles ever imagined. And Gov. Gavin Newsom is committed to taking our environmental leadership to the next level. However, in one key respect, California is lagging behind many other parts of the world. Climate change is causing drought and water shortages everywhere, but California has been slow to adopt a solution that over 120 countries are using: desalination.

New Battery Storage Technology Connected To California Power Grid

The California Independent System Operator  the nonprofit that maintains reliability for the bulk of the state’s power grid has become one of the first wholesale power markets to connect an innovative battery storage technology to its system. Located at the Miguel substation in Bonita, a flow battery system installed by San Diego Gas & Electric has undergone testing and fine-tuning as part of a four-year pilot project to develop storage technologies aimed at integrating more renewable energy sources into California’s grid.

San Diego County Water Authority Praises Gov. Newsom’s Bay Delta Tunnels Decision

The San Diego County Water Authority on Monday praised Gov. Gavin Newsom’s decision to cut one of the two planned Bay-Delta tunnels and invited him to tour San Diego’s facilities. Board Chair Jim Madaffer thanked the governor for “wisdom and leadership” in officially scrapping the Brown administration’s plans for an $18 billion two-tunnel system for moving water through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay-Delta to Southern California in favor of a less-expensive single tunnel.

FPUD To Take Advantage Of Conservation Grants

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California provides grants for water conservation projects which are administered to MWD member agencies, and those member agencies including the San Diego County Water Authority provide the grants to the retail agencies. The Fallbrook Public Utility District will be receiving two MWD grants through the County Water Authority. “We’ve secured the funding and now we’re in the process of fully developing and implementing the programs,” FPUD engineering technician Mick Cothran said.