Helix Water District Board of Directors approved water rates and service charges for fiscal years 2021-22 and 2022-23 on Wednesday, April 28, 2021. These rates and charges were based on recommendations made by an independent rate consultant.
April 29, 2021 – The San Diego County Water Authority this month completed a series of bond refundings that will save ratepayers $48 million – the latest in a long series of debt refinancing moves that help reduce the cost of critical water infrastructure investments.
The savings from the refinancing of Series 2021S-1 (Green Bonds) and Series 2021B (Green Bonds) were supported by continued strong credit ratings issued in March. Green bonds are designated to encourage sustainability and to support clean water, sustainable water management and other environmental projects.
The Mission Trails Flow Regulatory Structure II Project, or FRS II, will be an underground concrete water tank in Mission Trails Regional Park that will store slightly less than five million gallons of water and be used to balance flows in the aqueduct system. FRS II will be the second underground water tank in the park – both work to efficiently move water through the region. Construction is underway and expected to be completed in 2022.
Improving the region’s water infrastructure ensures that San Diego County residents are getting a clean, safe, and reliable supply. The FRS II project is another example of the successful long-term strategy by the Water Authority and its 24 member agencies to diversify its water resources, make major upgrades in the regional water delivery and storage system, and improve water-use efficiency.
The underground reservoir is being constructed within the park to improve the Water Authority’s untreated water system in the northwest area of the park. The upgrade will increase reliable water delivery to treatment plants that serve the central and south sections of San Diego County.
In 2013, the Water Authority finalized the Regional Water Facilities Optimization and Master Plan Update, the agency’s roadmap for infrastructure investments through 2035. This updated plan focuses on optimizing the Water Authority’s existing infrastructure while maintaining the flexibility to adjust to a range of future water supply needs.
Once complete, the dirt hill will be leveled to its previous contours and revegetated with native plants – many seeded from plants within the park itself. The reservoir will be completely underground – out of sight – but within the control of the San Diego County Water Authority.
“The San Diego County Water Authority is building a massive 5-million-gallon concrete water storage tank, called a flow regulatory structure. You will never see it once it’s completed.” — Joe Little, Reporter, NBC 7, April 9, 2021.
The @SDCWA brought a little of Ancient Rome to #MissionTrails. It’s good for water, but temporarily annoying for hikers. @nbcsandiego at 4:30 and 6:00. pic.twitter.com/s0mud7MGim
— Joe Little🎥🏀 (@LittleJoeTV) April 9, 2021
[Editor’s note: This feature, the Value of Water, focuses on the projects, operations and maintenance by the San Diego County Water Authority and its 24 member agencies that increase the value, reliability, and safety of water for ratepayers in San Diego County.]
Climate change and drought will impact San Diego County’s climate future, but regional water supply planning and adaptation measures will ensure a safe, reliable supply for the region.
Water supply strategy was one of the key points participants learned about during a Monday panel discussion, “San Diego County’s Climate Future,” hosted online by the San Diego County Water Authority, Citizens Water Academy, Leaders 20/20 and San Diego Green Drinks.
Panel moderator Kelley Gage, Water Authority Director of Water Resources, kicked off the climate conversation by describing the investments and steps taken by the Water Authority and its 24 member agencies to secure the region’s water future.
“Since our founding more than 75 years ago, our mission in partnership with our 24 member agencies is to ensure a clean and reliable supply of water for the region,” said Gage. “As part of that mission we’re involved in partnerships like the one that we have today and the research to ensure that we have planned for the impact of climate change in our water supplies.”
Gage said the Water Authority has developed a climate action plan.
“As part of our strategic planning we have developed a climate action plan which is an interdisciplinary effort to promote and coordinate implementation of climate change strategies and related activities across the Water Authority,” said Gage. “We have reached our goals for 2020 and we are on track for our 2030 goals.”
The Water Authority partnered with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Center for Wester Weather and Water Extremes, at UC San Diego in 2020 to better predict atmospheric rivers and improve water management before, during, and after those seasonal storms. The Center and its partners share best practices in forecast-informed reservoir operations, increased research around atmospheric rivers and droughts, and develop strategies for mitigating flood risk and increasing water supply reliability.
Marty Ralph, Researcher in Climate, Atmospheric Science & Physical Oceanography at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and Director of the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes, opened the panel with information on advanced research around atmospheric rivers.
Atmospheric rivers are long narrow bands of airborne water vapor, providing up to half the annual precipitation and mountain snow that is key to California’s water supply. New research allows reservoir operators to use atmospheric river forecasts to better predict storm events and prevent unnecessary stored water releases.
“This stored water has helped to cope with the third driest year on record for the region,” said Ralph.
Another Scripps Institution of Oceanography researcher, Alexander “Sasha” Gershunov, said that California receives most the country’s extreme precipitation events due to atmospheric rivers. Low and medium intensity precipitation events are predicted to decrease, while high intensity precipitation events are predicted to increase, especially in California.
“With warming, atmospheric rivers get stronger, wetter, longer, and more impactful, and they also produce more of our annual precipitation total,” said Gershunov. “There are many implications of these changes from water resources management, to wildfires, to debris flows.”
Darbi Berry, Program Manager at the San Diego Regional Climate Collaborative, described projects moving forward in the region to address equity issues related to water availability and pollution. Advancing the Nexus of Water and Equity looks at how different communities are impacted by a changing climate.
Increased variability in rainfall events and the potential for flooding in the San Diego region is a contributing factor to ongoing water quality issues in disadvantaged neighborhoods. One project carried out to address these equity issues is the National City, Paradise Creek project which re-graded a creek that was continuously overflowing and causing flood damage during atmospheric river events.
The San Diego County Water Authority’s Board of Directors April 22 authorized staff to explore opportunities to help other water districts weather an emerging drought across California.
Three decades of investments in supply reliability, along with a continued emphasis on water-use efficiency, mean the San Diego region has sufficient water supplies for multiple dry years. Those investments include high-priority conserved water from the Imperial Valley, seawater desalination, and access to the Semitropic Original Water Bank in Kern County, where the Water Authority has stored about 16,000 acre-feet of water.
The Board authorization allows Water Authority staff to assess selling, leasing, or swapping its Semitropic water with agencies that need it. Increasingly severe impacts of drought are already being felt in Central and Northern California. Any agreement recommended by staff would be brought to the Board for approval.
“Given the extraordinarily low 5% allocation on the State Water Project and the location of our groundwater in the Central Valley, it’s a perfect time to explore mutually beneficial agreements with agencies that need more water this year,” said Water Authority Board Chair Gary Croucher. “The Water Authority is committed to innovative ideas like this to improve water management across the arid West and at the same time benefit San Diego County ratepayers.”
This water supply and opportunity is available because in 2008 the Water Authority secured extra water for the San Diego region in preparation for future droughts. At the time, the Water Authority worked with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California to swap that water for 16,000 acre-feet of MWD water stored in the Kern County water bank. Due to other water supply investments which have come on-line, the Water Authority has not needed to call on its Semitropic water.
Given its current water supply portfolio, Water Authority staff will look at the potential to use its stored water to help other agencies and generate revenues for the benefit of San Diego County ratepayers.
At the same time, the Water Authority continues to pursue authorization to store water supplies which are qualified for storage in Lake Mead, which is declining due to a two-decade drought in the Colorado River Basin. If the Water Authority could store water there, it would also open up the potential for other water management strategies to improve Lake Mead water levels and water supply reliability for the Basin States.
“It’s in everyone’s best interest to think creatively about long-term water management even though that will mean doing new things in new ways,” said Croucher. “A fresh, collaborative approach is our best hope to act as a multi-state region to meet the needs of people, farms and the environment.”
California is facing a second consecutive dry water year. Snowpack and precipitation are below average in both the Northern Sierra and the Upper Colorado River Basin, and most California reservoirs are below their historical averages for this time of year. On March 23, the California Department of Water Resources reduced the State Water Project allocation from 10% to 5%. The only other year on record with such a low SWP allocation is 2014. Following the state’s April 1 snow survey, DWR Director Karla Nemeth declared the state’s conditions “critically dry.”
Those circumstances highlight the importance of San Diego County’s supply diversification strategy that began after the drought of the early 1990s. Back then, the region was hit with 50% supply reductions because it relied almost entirely on one source. Since then, the region has added a significant new transfer of conserved agriculture water from the Imperial Valley, completed the All-American and Coachella Canal lining projects to receive conserved Colorado River water, invested in the Claude “Bud” Lewis Carlsbad Desalination Plant, and continued to embrace water-use-efficiency measures that have become a way of life in San Diego County.
The Water Authority’s draft 2020 Urban Water Management Plan shows that regional investments in a “water portfolio approach” to supply management and a sustained emphasis on water-use efficiency mean that San Diego County will continue to have sufficient water supplies through the 2045 planning horizon – so the region’s residents and economy remain safe even during multiple dry years.
April 23, 2021 – The San Diego County Water Authority’s Board of Directors yesterday authorized staff to explore opportunities to help other water districts weather an emerging drought across California.
Three decades of investments in supply reliability, along with a continued emphasis on water-use efficiency, mean the San Diego region has sufficient water supplies for multiple dry years. Those investments include high-priority conserved water from the Imperial Valley, seawater desalination, and access to the Semitropic Original Water Bank in Kern County, where the Water Authority has stored about 16,000 acre-feet of water.
April 22, 2021 – The San Diego County Water Authority and the Vallecitos Water District have reached agreement over pipeline repairs and how to measure water deliveries while moving ahead as partners to ensure long-term water supply reliability. The Water Authority’s Board of Directors on Thursday approved terms of a settlement with Vallecitos designed to end litigation filed in 2020. Vallecitos’ Board of Directors previously approved the terms.
April 21, 2021 – “We applaud Governor Newsom for taking a targeted, flexible, and iterative
approach to drought management that provides support for individual regions that are suffering
from drought while also recognizing regions like San Diego County that have sufficient water
supplies due to three decades of investments in supply reliability. The governor’s Water Portfolio
Strategy aligns with our long-term investments in a diversified water portfolio, desalinated
seawater, conserved water from Imperial County, local water-use efficiency measures, and
increased water storage. Because of those actions and others, our residents have enough water for
2021 and future dry years. We also applaud the efforts of our ratepayers, who have cut per capita
water use by nearly half since 1990.
“In addition, the innovative and resilient supply portfolio created by the Water Authority and its
24 member agencies puts our region in a unique position to provide solutions that can help
California weather this drought and future droughts – for instance, by storing water in Lake
Mead. We look forward to working with the governor and his staff to collaborate on projects and
programs where we can use our assets and experience to help areas that are hit hard by drought
in the face of a changing climate.
“Finally, we are proud to be a founding member of the coalition of water agencies mentioned by
the governor that support the important scientific research being done on climate change by our
own Scripps Institution of Oceanography.”
— Gary Croucher, Board Chair, San Diego County Water Authority
A new video explains how the East County Advanced Water Purification Program will create a new, local, reliable and drought proof supply of drinking water for San Diego residents. The four-minute video, The Clear Solution, shows how recycling and reusing the region’s wastewater will create high quality drinking water.
The East County AWP is one of several potable water reuse or recycling projects under development in the San Diego region. The project is a collaborative partnership between the Padre Dam Municipal Water District, County of San Diego, City of El Cajon and the Helix Water District.
Once operational, the East County AWP will provide up to 30% of East San Diego County’s drinking water demands, or almost 13,000 acre-feet of water per year, while eliminating the discharge of 15 million gallons of partially treated wastewater into the Pacific Ocean.
“The Clear Solution video simply explains the highly technical advanced water purification process and shows the many benefits the Program will bring to East County to ensure a sustainable water future,” said Allen Carlisle, East County AWP Joint Powers Authority program administrator and Padre Dam Municipal Water District CEO/general manager. “I encourage everyone to visit the Program website, watch the video, sign-up for our newsletter and review other educational information about the Program.”
The video begins with how water is essential to everyday life from drinking a glass of water to washing our hands and cleaning our food. Viewers learn where their water comes from and how important it is to have a local water supply to guard against drought, protect the environment and economize costs.
The East County AWP works by using four advanced water purification steps to produce water that is near-distilled in quality. After treatment, the purified water will be blended with water in Lake Jennings and treated again at the R.M. Levy Water Treatment Plant before being distributed as safe drinking water.
“Helix is utilizing its water management, treatment and distribution expertise to play a key role in the final step in this process,” said Carlos Lugo, Helix Water District general manager.
The video reminds viewers that the East County AWP will join other cities around the world, in California and as close as Orange County already using similar technology to create purified drinking water. The East County AWP Program will be one of the first, potable reuse projects in California to use the new reservoir augmentation regulations.
The Padre Dam Municipal Water District and the Helix Water District are among the San Diego County Water Authority’s 24 member agencies that work collaboratively to deliver water across the metropolitan San Diego region.
Vista, Calif. — Vista Irrigation District board of directors voted to use $1.57 million received from the San Diego County Water Authority as part of a legal settlement with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California to offset the financial impact of Water Authority rate increases over the next five years.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
