The Fallbrook Public Utility District will use Jennifer Spaletta as FPUD’s special counsel for matters involving Santa Margarita River water rights.
A 5-0 FPUD board vote, Oct. 28, approved the legal services agreement with Spaletta Law. Spaletta replaces Martha Lennihan, who retired.
“We just retained another water rights attorney with a lot of experience and knowledge in the area,” FPUD general manager Jack Bebee said.
In north San Diego County, a testament to the San Diego County Water Authority’s proactive asset management program as Pipeline 4, one of the San Diego region’s major water pipelines, is back in regular service after a leak was repaired. Pipeline 4 resumed normal operations November 10 after nearly two months of modified operation. The leaky section was near Camino Del Rey in Bonsall, in an area with no adjacent homes or businesses.
On September 10, 2019, at the 34th Annual WateReuse Symposium in San Diego, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a draft National Water Reuse Action Plan for public comment—containing 46 proposed actions, to be accomplished by a mix of federal, state, private, local and private stakeholders, in order to promote 10 strategic objectives. For many in the water sector, this was a welcome recognition—a validation, if you will, of a new movement and set of practices and technologies that will impact drinking water, energy, agriculture and industry throughout the nation.
Solar panels and wind turbines are lifelines to any non-apocalyptic version of the future. They’ll help us keep the lights on, the air breathable, and the planet inhabitable. But while the climate and health benefits of wind and solar are well known, they have another, underappreciated feature that could come in handy in our inevitably warmer, drier future: They don’t rely on water.
Ag Alert: What types of solutions are being built into the plans to bring a basin into sustainability?Ravazzini: As of this date, DWR has not received any plans for review. What DWR is looking for upon submission of the plan is that a GSA (groundwater sustainability agency) has developed a path toward sustainability. How GSAs achieve that goal will differ from basin to basin. One of the state government’s roles is to support these local solutions.
In the heart of Cameron Park sits a neighborhood of homes with some of the widest streets in the county. The homes all have garages with doors wide enough to let a full airplane park inside. That is what the neighborhood is known for: The streets double as runways and the residents all fly. Jim Bray and his wife moved into their house in March. The couple built a single prop plane together — one he uses to commute to the Bay area. “I fly to Palo Alto three days a week and work from home a couple days a week,” Bray said from the driveway of his home. “So, this is perfect for me.”
With roughly two and a half months remaining before a state-mandated deadline, local agencies overseeing critically overdrafted groundwater basins are working to finalize sustainability plans as required by a 2014 state law. The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, or SGMA, requires local groundwater sustainability agencies in critically overdrafted basins to submit their plans by next Jan. 31. The plans must describe how local agencies will achieve groundwater sustainability by 2040, and should include measurable objectives and milestones in five-year increments.
Pipeline 4 – one of the San Diego region’s major water pipelines – is back in regular service after a leak was repaired, a testament to the San Diego County Water Authority’s proactive asset management program.
The pipeline resumed normal operations November 10 after nearly two months of modified operation. The leaky section was near Camino Del Rey in Bonsall, in an area with no adjacent homes or businesses.
“The shutdown and repair work went smoothly, and we could not have done it without the support and coordination from Water Authority staff, our contractors and member agencies, particularly, Fallbrook PUD, Rainbow MWD, Valley Center MWD, and Vallecitos Water District,” said Neena Kuzmich, Water Authority engineering manager.
Water Authority crews detected a leak in the 90-inch diameter Pipeline 4 in the Moosa Canyon area in August.
Crews installed bulkheads in the pipeline to isolate the leak area for repairs. The bulkheads allowed the pipeline to continue treated water deliveries throughout the county in a modified fashion and restored full service to retail water agencies.
The Water Authority installed a carbon fiber liner to give the pipeline several more years of service, while a longer-term solution is developed and implemented.
Once the repairs were completed, a second shutdown was needed to remove the bulkheads and return the pipeline to full, normal operations.
Pipeline 4 is one of five major pipelines operated by the Water Authority.
Crews installed a carbon fiber liner to repair a leak in Pipeline 4. The liner will give the pipeline several more years of service while a longer-term solution is developed. Photo: Water Authority
By relining the pipes and conducting timely repairs with the latest technology, the Water Authority has avoided major pipeline failures for more than decade.
Extending the life and reliability of major pipelines is one facet of the agency’s proactive asset management program. Real-time monitoring and other pipeline assessment tools help the Water Authority avoid pipeline failures by identifying potential problems in advance.
As part of its proactive approach, the Water Authority continually assesses and rehabilitates pipelines serving the San Diego region. The agency operates 310 miles of large-diameter pipelines, along with 1,600 aqueduct-related structures, and approximately 100 metering/flow-control facilities.
Approximately 82 miles of the pipelines are pre-stressed concrete cylinder pipes. These types of pipes were installed between the early 1960s and late 1980s and have experienced premature failures and shown areas of degradation.
In the past few years, the Water Authority has continued to extend the service life of pipelines with relining projects, including Pipeline 3 between Lake Murray and Sweetwater Reservoir, and Pipeline 5, in the Fallbrook area.
Normally between Oct. 1 and mid-November, if historical averages are any guide, the Bay Area has received nearly 2 inches of rain, and Los Angeles and Fresno each have received about an inch.
But so far this year? None.
To be sure, there was one-hundredth of an inch recorded in San Jose and San Francisco — about the thickness of a few sheets of paper — over the past six weeks. But nearly every city from Sacramento to Silicon Valley to San Diego is showing lots of zeros in the rainfall column for the first two months of California’s winter rainy season.
On a cold morning last March, Kenny Angel got a frantic knock on his door. Two workers from a utility company in northern Nebraska had come with a stark warning: Get out of your house.
Just a little over a quarter-mile upstream, the 92-year-old Spencer Dam was straining to contain the swollen, ice-covered Niobrara River after an unusually intense snow and rainstorm. The workers had tried but failed to force open the dam’s frozen wooden spillway gates. So, fearing the worst, they fled in their truck, stopping to warn Angel before driving away without him.
