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San Diego Military Economic Impact Study 2019

Reliable Water Supplies Sustain San Diego’s Military Sector

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The military sector accounts for more than 20% of the San Diego region’s economy, and that would not be possible without a safe, reliable water supply.

The San Diego County Water Authority and its 24 member agencies, including Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, provide the water needed for military operations, military families and military contractors.

A new report shows that an estimated total of $28.1 billion in direct spending related to defense flowed into San Diego County during fiscal year 2019, accounting for one-in-five jobs in the region.

Reliable water supplies support military economy

The 2019 San Diego Military Economic Impact Study was released Thursday by the San Diego Military Advisory Council, or SDMAC. The military sector was responsible for about 354,000 of the region’s total jobs in fiscal year 2019, accounting for all the ripple effects of defense-connected spending, according to the report.

Brought to you by water

“Water is a part of everything the military does in San Diego,” said Mark Balmert, SDMAC executive director. “Everything to water for the troops, to washing aircraft and ships after operations – every aspect of what the military does. The military and water agencies have a history together, with the U.S. Navy partly responsible for bringing water to our region.”

Balmert is referring to the time when San Diego became a hub of naval activity after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and the United States entered World War I in 1941. The Water Authority formed 75 years ago, when it became clear that imported water supplies were necessary to sustain a booming region at the forefront of the war effort.

Ever since, the Water Authority and its 24 member agencies have played a vital – though often unseen – role in supporting the largest concentration of active and retired military personnel in the world, serving several military bases and sustaining the San Diego region’s defense industry in a region with few natural resources.

Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton

Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton encompasses more than 125,000 acres of southern California and approximately 52,000 Marines are based in San Diego. Camp Pendleton has been the largest employer in north San Diego County for more than 60 years. Photo: Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton

Safe, reliable water ‘major resource’

“The outlook for the military economy in the region for the coming year is positive,” said Lynn Reaser, chief economist with Point Loma Nazerene University’s Fermanian Business & Economic Institute.

Reaser, who provided oversight and analysis of the SDMAC report, said water is essential for military dollars to continue flowing into the region.

“Water continues to be a major resource that’s required for operations of our defense contractors, for the Navy, Marines, Coast Guard, Department of Veterans Affairs, everything from support of the bases to water needs of medical facilities,” Reaser said.

The Water Authority is a leader in water conservation, asset management, seawater desalination and water resource planning, delivering more than 400 million gallons a day to serve the region’s 3.3 million residents and sustain its $231 billion economy.

A 2018 study by the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corp. concluded that $482 million a day in regional sales were supported by reliable access to water.

EPA Announces Proposed Changes to Lead and Copper Rule

/in , , /by /WaterWorld

Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a proposed rule that significantly improves the actions that water systems must take to reduce lead in the nation’s drinking water. EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler announced the proposal at an event in Green Bay. This action represents the first major overhaul of the Lead and Copper Rule since 1991 and marks a critical step in advancing the Trump Administration’s Federal Action Plan to Reduce Childhood Lead Exposures.

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Desalination: Poseidon Still Trying to Plant Its Trident Into Huntington Beach

/in , , /by /The Logby Parimal M. Rohit

HUNTINGTON BEACH—Southern California was hit with enough rain in 2019 for many experts and observers to declare an end to the region’s most recent drought – which could be bad news for Poseidon Water’s plans to build a desalination plant near land’s edge in Huntington Beach. It is hard to drum up a lot of noise for water security when we’re not in a drought. The current state of Southern California’s water security – or insecurity – certainly isn’t giving Poseidon any ammunition to make its case for a $1 billion desalination plant in Huntington Beach.

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EVWD Adds Renewable Energy to Sterling Project

/in , , /by /Community News

Working to “Make Every Source a Resource” and striving toward a more sustainable future, East Valley Water District (EVWD) Board of Directors approved the addition of state-of-the-art co-digester technology at the Sterling Natural Resource Center (SNRC) during the Sept. 11 board meeting. This enhancement represents a significant improvement to the project by allowing the SNRC to produce enough renewable electricity to meet the facility’s energy needs, with additional electricity transferred onto the energy grid.

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What it Takes to Deep Clean a Water Reclamation Facility

/in , , /by /California Water Environment Association

If a water reclamation facility goes off-line, it is a major problem. Yet there are certain major maintenance operations that can’t be done while the process is running normally. So, what gives when this particular irresistible force meets this immovable object? You have to get creative. The City of Victorville, CA built an innovative treatment plant for their community in 2010, which takes both sanitary wastewater as well as industrial wastewater from a beverage bottling facility and provides recycled water to a nearby power plant. It handles an average flow of 1.7 million gallons per day.

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Wastewater Project Could Create Drought-Proof Drinking Water for 500,000 Southern California Homes

/in , , /by /The Sunby Martin Wisckol

In its effort to establish a new, drought-proof source of water that could serve a half-million Southern California homes, the Metropolitan Water District on Thursday, Oct. 10 unveiled a $17 million pilot plant that will bring wastewater to drinkable standards. Water from the trial project in Carson will not be piped to customers – it will be put back with regularly treated wastewater and pumped into the ocean. But it’s a key step toward construction of a working plant that would reduce the region’s dependence on imported water.

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Governor’s Water Resilience Portfolio Will Impact Local Water Agencies

/in , , /by /Community News

San Bernardino Valley residents will find out later this month how far Governor Gavin Newsom is willing to go to support projects designed to ensure the long-term reliability of our imported water supplies. The governor’s soon-to-be-released Water Resilience Portfolio will describe current and future water projects that are considered priority projects for the Newsom administration, including improvements to the State Water Project, which provides roughly 25 percent of the San Bernardino Valley’s water supply.

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Wildfire Threat Leads SDG&E to Turn Off Power to 400 Customers in San Diego County

/in , , /by /The San Diego Tribuneby Gary Robbins

San Diego Gas and Electric has temporarily turned off power to about 400 customers across inland San Diego County to minimize chances that its power lines will spark wildfires while the Santa Ana winds are blowing. The largest outage involves 344 customers in Live Oak Springs and Jacumba, where the power is not expected to be fully restored until 5 p.m. on Saturday.

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This is What Adapting to Climate Change Looks Like

/in , , /by /The Atlanticby Robinson Meyer

California has always promised Americans a glimpse of the future. But this week, the Golden State is forecasting a future that nobody wants to live in. Millions of people across California lost their power this week, after the local utility Pacific Gas and Electric intentionally shut off electrical lines to avoid starting wildfires in dangerously dry and windy conditions.

The outage—termed a “public-safety power shutoff”—stretched hundreds of miles across the state’s northern half, dousing the lights in affluent Bay Area suburbs, on Sacramento Valley ranches, and in large coastal cities such as Eureka.

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Recharging Depleted Aquifers No Easy Task, But It’s Key to California’s Water Supply Future

/in , , /by /Water Education Foundationby Gary Pitzer

To survive the next drought and meet the looming demands of the state’s groundwater sustainability law, California is going to have to put more water back in the ground. But as other Western states have found, recharging overpumped aquifers is no easy task.

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