San Diego, Calif. – Business, civic, and water industry officials from across San Diego County have joined forces to oppose a proposed $135 million per year tax on drinking water in California that would harm ratepayers and likely result in a flood of additional taxes on the state’s most precious natural resource.
A coalition of business, civic and water industry officials from across San Diego County has joined forces to oppose a proposed $135 million per year tax on drinking water in California that would harm ratepayers and likely result in a flood of additional taxes on the state’s most precious natural resource.
During a news conference this morning at the County Administration Center, regional leaders offered other funding solutions to improve water quality in poor, rural areas of the state without adding another tax burden to residents in one of the nation’s most expensive states.
Supervisor Kristin Gaspar, chairwoman of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, joined officials from the San Diego County Water Authority and several of its member agencies, the San Diego County Taxpayers Association, the Industrial Environmental Association, and several other groups. In all, more than 30 agencies and organizations across the region have signed a letter to legislative leaders opposing the drinking water tax plan.
Encinitas City Councilmember Mark Muir, chair of the San Diego County Water Authority’s Board of Directors and a member of the San Dieguito Water District Board, warned that the current water tax proposal would set a dangerous precedent. “It would be the camel’s nose under the tent; what begins as a modest increase could quickly grow larger and larger as more projects and programs try to get into the tent,” he said. “We’ve already seen proposals in Sacramento that could add more than $15 a month to residential water bills.”
The tax proposal is being advanced through Senate Bill 623 by state Sen. William Monning (Carmel) and a Brown Administration budget trailer bill related to safe drinking water. The drinking water tax would initially raise about $135 million a year to help provide clean, safe water in disadvantaged communities, mostly in the Central and Salinas valleys, where groundwater has been contaminated by farming operations. In addition, approximately $22 million would be generated by a tax on fertilizer and confined dairy facilities. State legislators are expected to vote on the tax by mid-June, though the issue could extend into late summer.
San Marcos, Calif. – The Vallecitos Water District received the District Transparency Certificate of Excellence by the Special District Leadership Foundation (SDLF) in recognition of its outstanding efforts to promote transparency and good governance. California SDLF Public Affairs Field Coordinator Chris Palmer and California SDLF Board Member Jo MacKenzie were on hand to recognize Vallecitos for completing the essential requirements.
A major water pipeline that runs through rural North County is getting the water industry’s version of a makeover.
The San Diego County Water Authority plans to start relining one of its regional wholesale water pipelines in fall 2018, extending its service life by more than 75 years. Construction is expected to last about one year, and most of the $24 million project will take place underground with few impacts to nearby residents.
Relining projects rehabilitate segments of pipelines based on their age and the need for improvements. Proactive assessments help the Water Authority avoid pipeline failures by identifying potential risks before they cause problems.
The Pipeline 5 Relining Project involves upgrading approximately 2.3 miles of pipeline in eight segments along a 9.5-mile stretch of pipeline that runs through Fallbrook. The Water Authority’s project team hosted an open house for residents and answered their questions at the Fallbrook Library on May 1.
Additional community presentations are set for May 21 at the Bonsall Chamber of Commerce, May 22 at the Rainbow Municipal Water District’s Board of Directors meeting, and the Fallbrook Chamber of Commerce, and June 18 at the Fallbrook Planning Group.
The Water Authority manages 310 miles of large-diameter pipeline to convey water throughout San Diego County. Approximately 82 miles of these pipelines were installed between the early 1960s and late 1980s. These pre-stressed concrete cylinder pipes (PCCP) are made from a combination of steel and concrete.
First used during World War II to help minimize the use of steel, this pipeline type is used extensively around the world. Numerous failures in similar pipes nationwide prompted the Water Authority to take proactive measures to reinforce its PCCP pipelines with steel liners starting in the early 1990s.
Proactive assessments help the Water Authority avoid pipeline failures by identifying potential risks before they cause problems. To date, the Asset Management Program has saved water ratepayers more than $200 million by prioritizing repairs, avoiding unnecessary work and maximizing the service life of the region’s large-diameter water conveyance system, which includes pipelines ranging in diameter from 20 inches to 9 feet.
Water Authority construction crews will conduct most of the work underground, inside the pipe. They will access the pipe by excavating, establishing, and entering the pipeline through nine access sites, or portals. The portals are excavated pits 25-feet wide by 60-feet long and spaced roughly 525 to 2,500 feet apart. At each portal site, 40 feet of existing pipe is removed to permit access inside the pipe.
Work isn’t active at all portals at the same time; crews will shift from one portal to another. Much of the work associated with the project will be within public street rights-of-way.
When the project is finished, the Water Authority will have rehabilitated approximately 47 miles of the 82.5 miles of PCCP in its system.
More information about the Fallbrook project, including details about upcoming meetings is on the Water Authority’s project webpage.
San Diego, Calif. – Water rate increases proposed by the San Diego County Water Authority staff for 2019 are among the smallest in the past 15 years due to financial benefits secured through litigation against the Los Angeles-baed Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and the Water Authority’s planned use of its Rate Stabilization Fund.
San Diego, Calif. – Civic and business leaders statewide are increasingly expressing opposition to the proposed state drinking water tax.
They call on the state’s leaders to find a better way to fund clean water than adding a tax, as proposed by state Senate Bill 623 and the Brown administration’s Budget Trailer Bill. A chief concern is that a precedent-setting tax today would lead to more taxes on water in the future.
Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, Sacramento: “It is unconscionable that California, which has a record-high $130 billion General Fund budget with a $6 billion surplus, can’t provide clean drinking water to a million people using existing resources. Is this not the first role of government, providing a public good essential to life? The statewide tax would represent a diversion of local ratepayer dollars to an out-of-control state bureaucracy that has little accountability.”
John Coleman, past president, Association of California Water Agencies; board member, East Bay Municipal Utility District, Oakland: The process through which this tax has been proposed is also problematic. Proponents have been planning to insert this tax for months, but kept all details under wraps until the last few weeks of session … To impose a statewide tax on Californians’ water bills would turn local water agencies into taxation entities that send money to Sacramento
The San Diego Union-Tribune editorial board: “Californians are told lawmakers can’t commit themselves to devoting a tiny fraction of the state budget to honor the intent of the measure, so a new category of taxation must be created. Baloney. Yes, of course, the water problem must be addressed — but with honesty, not subterfuge.
Haney Hong, president and CEO of the San Diego County Taxpayers Association: “Twenty percent of the funding for this correction for the water source, which is an important thing to do, comes from the polluters, and the rest, the 80 percent, comes from the rest of us in California. That’s not how this should work.”
Mark Muir, chair of the San Diego County Water Authority’s Board of Directors: “Make no mistake: This is a tax, and taxing Californians for something as essential as water does not make sense. It will increase the cost of water, making it less affordable. It also will place undo upward pressure on food prices. Call it a lose-lose for low-income residents – and everyone else.”
The Agoura Hills/Calabasas Acorn Editorial Board: “Water districts are caught in a squeeze between environmentalists who want the cleanest water possible released into the state’s waterways—a demand that comes at a high cost—and consumers who are tired of footing the bill … And all of this doesn’t even take into account the future cost of the twin tunnel megalith that will channel fresh water underneath the Sacramento Bay Delta for supposedly more efficient delivery to farms and urban areas in the South. What’s that going to cost? Customer costs are already too high.”
Assemblyman Philip Chen (Brea): “Supporters of SB623 will argue that this legislation will help those who are poor, disadvantaged, and reside in rural areas. It does not … Adding a tax on drinking water will only make clean and safe water less affordable for all Californians. According to the California Tax Foundation, since the beginning of this year Sacramento lawmakers have introduced more than 90 bills that would cost taxpayers more than $370 billion annually in higher taxes and fees. Now these lawmakers want to add another tax but this time on your drinking water. Will there be anything that is not taxed in California?”
Fallbrook, Calif. – Students at Fallbrook High, Oasis High, or Ivy High schools can now apply online for a paid summer internship program at Fallbrook Public Utility District. The internship is available to any student enrolled in one of those schools as a junior or senior for the upcoming 2018-2019 school year.
When the San Diego County Water Authority installed major sections of 66- to 96-inch diameter pipelines in the 1960s, 70s and early 80s, the regional water wholesale agency used cost-saving pipeline material – a combination of steel wires, thin steel pipe, and concrete widely known as Pre-Stressed Concrete Cylinder Pipe (PCCP). Decades later, agencies around the globe realized that some pre-stressed concrete cylinder pipe didn’t last as long as advertised and could fail catastrophically.
The Water Authority deployed a multi-faceted response, using high-tech asset management tools to identify pipeline sections with the greatest risk of failure and a targeted pipeline relining strategy that minimizes community impacts during construction. The agency’s relining program started in the 1980s and ramped up in the early 2000s. Today, it is on track to complete more than 45 miles of relined pipeline in the next few months.
The current project is taking place deep below the urban streets of La Mesa, California, where the Water Authority and its contractor, L.H. Woods & Sons, Inc., are on schedule to conclude by summer. The delicate, 4.3-mile operation started in September 2017 after years of cross-departmental preparation to ensure the work on the $28.6 million contract could be completed in a cost-efficient fashion without impacting water deliveries. Instead of trenching and removing the old pipe, crews excavate 13 entry portals at strategic points, then insert steel liners into the pipeline using a specially designed cart. When the pipe installation work is done, the portals are backfilled, the streets are repaved, and the pipeline is put back in service for at least another 75 years – at about half the cost of a conventional pipeline replacement project.
To identify sections of its 310-mile large-diameter pipeline system that require relining, the Water Authority relies on a suite of high-tech monitoring tools that are part of its pioneering asset management strategy.
Weak spots are often first detected with a “PING!” indicating a snapped steel wire in the PCCP. That sound is relayed through acoustic fiber optic cables – installed as an early warning system inside pipelines – so that Water Authority staff can be alerted by email and cell phone. Each ping is matched with results from Remote Field Eddy Current assessments and visual inspection data, then mapped using Google Earth.
With that information, pipeline segments are plotted on a risk matrix showing the condition and impact of failure. The sections with high risk and high consequence of failure are prioritized for upgrades. On occasion, emergency repairs are required where failure is imminent and the risks are significant. Other, less risky sections continue to be monitored and managed to maximize their service life. This risk-based approach has allowed the Water Authority to avoid more than $200 million in infrastructure spending.
Planning for the current project started in 2011. The long lead time was necessary, in part, to coordinate with two of the Water Authority’s retail member agencies that would not be able to take water deliveries from the pipeline when it was down for upgrades. Local or stored supplies in surface water reservoirs could be used in case they were needed during the project.
Critical planning elements also included accounting for other utility assets, property lines and easement rights, environmental impacts, traffic flow and construction noise. Coordination with the local power utility, the regional transit agency and local city officials helped align schedules of concurrent projects, timely address unforeseen conditions and establish relationships to endure potential mid-course project revisions.
During the design phase, Water Authority staff also identified environmental resources requiring protection and mitigation measures. For instance, noise impacts need to be addressed during construction with the installation of large wooden sound walls around work sites. In addition, the plan included with silt fences, fiber rolls and street sweeping to protect nearby waterways from storm water runoff. In addition, an environmental monitor routinely assesses the contractor’s compliance with environmental commitments.
Relining is often an elegant solution to pipeline deterioration, but it’s not a simple one. The Water Authority’s solution is to use multiple portals, or entry points, to access sections of the pipeline at strategic spots. The footprint of each of the 13 portals for the current project is approximately 25 feet by 60 feet. Photo: SDCWA
Relining is often an elegant solution to pipeline deterioration, but it’s not a simple one. Crews can’t just insert a single 4.3-mile-long steel liner, partly due to curves and changes in elevation along the route. The Water Authority’s solution is to use multiple portals, or entry points, to access sections of the pipeline at strategic spots. The footprint of each of the 13 portals for the current project is approximately 25 feet by 60 feet. When accounting for laydown, staging and other related work areas, the project encompasses 12.5 acres.
Each portal serves as ground zero for construction, including site excavation and removal of two 20-foot sections of existing pipe to make room for work crews operating the specially designed liner carts. The initial project design identified portals located roughly 2,000 feet apart. However, the contractor adapted its liner carts to better navigate curves and elevation changes. This innovative approach meant the project required fewer portals, saving money and significantly reducing impacts to nearby neighborhoods.
Once the liners are installed, they are welded together, grout is injected to fill the space between the liners and the original pipe, and cement mortar is applied on the inside of the steel liner. To complete the work, new 20-foot sections of the pipe are installed – reconnecting the pipeline through each portal. Then, the portal areas are backfilled, and the portals are returned to like-new condition.
While construction crews carry out that work, the asset management team stays on mission by using removed pipe to perform destructive load testing of pipe sections. On the current project, testing showed steel relining can withstand advanced deterioration of the outside pipe – helping to confirm that steel liners can last at least 75 years.
While the number of portals in the current project was reduced, construction activities remained significant for several months in the highly urbanized area. Four portals were in a four-lane road, temporarily reducing traffic to one lane in each direction. Additionally, two portals were adjacent to major retail parking lots, and six others were less than 100 feet from homes.
From design through construction, the Water Authority conducted significant public outreach, including open house events for neighbors to meet agency staff; distribution of postcards and doorhangers to thousands of neighbors; and the development of “Open During Construction” signs for retail centers. This proactive outreach kept stakeholders engaged with project activities, helping to reduce complaints and resolve issues quickly.
When the current relining project wraps up this summer, the Water Authority will have relined more than half of its pre-stressed concrete cylinder pipelines – a critical part of the agency’s commitment to ensure a safe and reliable water supply that sustains a $220 billion regional economy and the quality of life for 3.3 million residents.
The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California has repeatedly said that the proposed $16.7 billion WaterFix project will cost homeowners $2 to $5 a month.
In reality, MWD’s own data and assumptions show the costs could be $21 a month for San Diego County homeowners when the project’s full debt payments are in effect. The costs would grow to more than $23 a month if MWD ends up paying more for the project – a real possibility given that the MWD board effectively gave the agency’s general manager a blank check for the project.
On April 10, MWD’s board committed $10.8 billion to the twin tunnels project in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay-Delta to stabilize its supplies from the State Water Project. This authorization more than doubled its previous pledge. MWD’s own documents show there will be no increase in water supply compared to spending $5.2 billion for a single-tunnel project.
MWD’s costs will impact customers differently across Southern California, depending on how much water their local agencies purchase from MWD.
San Diego County bills also will be affected by how MWD decides to recover its costs through rates and charges. Traditionally, the state Department of Water Resources has characterized facilities like the WaterFix as supply costs, however, MWD’s planning documents suggest that it plans to recoup WaterFix costs through its transportation rates.
If WaterFix costs are allocated to MWD’s transportation rates, average monthly household bills in San Diego County could rise by $21 in coming years because the Water Authority uses MWD’s aqueduct to transport large volumes of non-MWD water from the Colorado River to San Diego County.
If MWD allocates its WaterFix costs as supplies, average monthly household bills in San Diego County would rise by 55 cents to 80 cents when the project is implemented because the Water Authority’s purchases of MWD supplies are expected to continue dropping significantly in coming decades.
All costs would rise if the overall project bill grows beyond current projections.
The Bay-Delta is the hub of the State Water Project, the nation’s largest state-built water conveyance system. That system has become less reliable in recent decades as the environment has deteriorated. San Diego County’s reliance on Bay-Delta supplies has decreased significantly in recent years due to the Water Authority’s successful strategy to develop locally controlled, drought-proof water supplies, and long-term water-use efficiency measures by homes and businesses across the region.
The Water Authority’s Board of Directors has long supported the development of a cost effective and environmentally sustainable Bay-Delta solution, and it has actively engaged in long-running discussions about how to address region’s complex environmental and water supply challenges. The Water Authority’s Board has not taken a formal position on WaterFix because of key unanswered questions about who would pay project costs.
The current projected cost for WaterFix is $16.7 billion, and MWD’s Board voted April 10 to pay 64.6 percent. However, MWD Board left the agency’s actual WaterFix payment to the “reasonable discretion and judgment” of its general manager, to whom the Board also gave sole authority over determining the project’s final cost.
The Water Authority’s delegates to MWD’s Board voted against the funding proposal because MWD did not provide sufficient cost-benefit analysis of the options or enough time to fully evaluate the recommendations. Delegates from cities of Los Angeles, Santa Monica and San Fernando also voted against the proposal, which passed with 60.83 percent of the vote.
Chula Vista, Calif. – Local high school students will be honored for their winning photos at the Sweetwater Authority Governing Board meeting on May 9. More than 40 students from the Authority’s service area entered the annual water photo contest, which included a short essay about why water is an essential resource.
Sweetwater Authority Logo 2019