Chula Vista, Calif. – Two of Sweetwater Authority’s Governing Board Members were recently appointed to local advisory committees for watershed restoration and local agency formation.
The East County Advanced Water Purification Project is moving forward after a new funding agreement was approved.
The program’s partner agencies – Padre Dam Municipal Water District, the City of El Cajon, Helix Water District and the County of San Diego – recently approved the Interim Funding Agreement. The final vote from the County of San Diego took place July 10.
The project is expected to begin producing water in 2025.
The agreement requires each agency to commit $2.35 million ($9.4 million total) toward the program, with the aim to create a new, local, sustainable, and drought-proof drinking water supply using state-of-the-art technology to purify East San Diego County’s recycled water.
“This is an important milestone toward the completion of this innovative and much-needed program, said Allen Carlisle, CEO and general manager of Padre Dam Municipal Water District. “Working together with our partners, we are moving one step closer to reducing our dependence on imported water and putting the mechanisms in place to support our economy and quality of life well into the future.”
An artist’s rendering of the new Padre Dam Visitor Center at the East County Water Purification Treatment Center. Graphic: Courtesy Padre Dam Municipal Water District
Once complete, the East County Advanced Water Purification Program will generate up to 11.5 million gallons per day of new drinking water. This represents approximately 30 percent of current drinking water consumption for residents within the Padre Dam service area (Santee, El Cajon, Lakeside, Flinn Springs, Harbison Canyon, Blossom Valley, Alpine, Dehesa and Crest), and the Helix service area (including the cities of Lemon Grove, La Mesa, and El Cajon, and the Spring Valley area). This represents approximately 373,000 residents.
The project will recycle East San Diego County’s wastewater locally, and then purify the recycled water at an advanced water treatment facility using four advanced water purification steps producing water that is near-distilled in quality. The purified water will then be blended with water in Lake Jennings, treated again at the Helix R.M. Levy Water Treatment Plant and then distributed into the drinking water supply.
Next steps for the project include formation of a Joint Powers Authority between Padre Dam Municipal Water District, the City of El Cajon, and the County of San Diego to serve as the governing body for the program.
An industry day is being planned in mid-August to provide notice to prospective designers and contractors on the initiation of a selection process for the progressive design-build packages that will begin posting in Fall 2019.
Partner agencies also continue to pursue grant and loan opportunities to help fund the estimated $528 million project.
The water-recycling project is intended to diversify East County’s drinking water supply and reduce the region’s dependence on imported water. It also helps the region in achieving long-term compliance with the Clean Water Act.
Padre Dam offers tours of the East County Advanced Water Purification Demonstration Project. To schedule a tour or for more information on the East County Advanced Water Purification Program, visit www.EastCountyAWP.com.
Chula Vista, Calif. – The Sweetwater Authority Board of Directors presented checks to the City of Chula Vista and the Gentry Glen Home Owners Association at the Board’s July 10 meeting. The Authority’s robust water efficiency program helps customers save water and money through grants, rebates and resources.
A better understanding and forecasting of atmospheric rivers could improve flood control and water management in California.
The 2019-20 California state budget includes $9.25 million to pay for research into how the state Department of Water Resources can more accurately track the intensity and landfall locations of atmospheric rivers. About half of the state’s annual rainfall and 90 percent of its flooding come from such events.
“Improved forecasting and monitoring of atmospheric river storms would benefit not only California, but the Southwest, in managing our water supply,” said Kelley Gage, director of water resources for the San Diego County Water Authority. “With better forecasting, water managers could also prepare and plan for flooding events caused by the atmospheric rivers.”
The science behind atmospheric rivers. Graphic: NOAA
Atmospheric rivers are relatively long, narrow regions in the atmosphere – like rivers in the sky – that transport most of the water vapor outside of the tropics, according to NOAA. When the atmospheric rivers make landfall, they release the water vapor in the form or rain or snow.
“The rivers can stretch from 250 to 370 miles wide and carry a water amount more than 7 times the volume of the Mississippi River,” said Alexi Schnell, water resources specialist with the Water Authority.
The research funds were allocated to the Department of Water Resources to “improve observations, forecasts and decisions in support of atmospheric river precipitation events” as part of the DWR’s Research, Mitigation, and Climate Forecasting Program.
Atmospheric Rivers in Water Year 2019. Graphic: Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes
A new study led by Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego suggests that a new regime of wet and dry extremes is emerging in California. The study shows that the projected increase of extreme precipitation is likely to be caused by streams of moisture in the sky known as atmospheric rivers.
The study was published July 9 in the journal Nature Scientific Reports.
“California already has the most volatile water resources in the country,” according to a news release from Scripps. “Scripps scientists discovered that the state’s precipitation, as it becomes less frequent but preferentially stronger, will vacillate even more wildly between extremes of drought and flooding as a consequence of climate change.”
The federal Bureau of Reclamation, the Southwest Climate Adaptation Science Center, NOAA, the U.S. Geological Survey, and NASA funded the study, “Precipitation regime change in Western North America: The role of Atmospheric Rivers.”
“As Mediterranean climate regions around the world are becoming more subtropical, the dry season is expanding. California is no exception,” said Alexander Gershunov, a climate scientist at Scripps. “What is exceptional about California is that the heavy precipitation is projected to become more extreme. We knew this from our past work. Now we have identified the mechanism responsible for this bolstering of extremes, and that gives us a more nuanced understanding of what to expect from future hydroclimate and a clearer interpretation of ongoing changes.”
For the year-to-date 2019, the precipitation total was 19.05 inches, 3.74 inches above average, and the wettest such period in the 125-year record. Graphic: NOAA
During the 2018-19 winter, atmospheric river events significantly increased snowpack in the Sierra Nevada and the Rocky Mountains. Both areas are key sources of water supply for the Southwest, including California and San Diego County.
Precipitation in the contiguous U.S. was above average from January to June 2019, according to a NOAA climate report released this week. The report said the 19.05 inches during the six-month period was 3.74 inches above average and the wettest such period in the 125-year record.
The January-to-June 2019 precipitation map showed California’s statewide precipitation was “above average” and “much above average.”
The state Assembly and Senate passed legislation to provide $130 million to provide safe drinking water for Californians lacking access to healthy water.
The state Senate approved the bill 38-1 Monday. The Assembly passed the bill 68-0 on July 5.
The legislation now heads to Gov. Gavin Newsom for his signature.
Newsom and others in the Legislature had proposed a tax on residential water bills to pay for projects to provide safe drinking water for residents that don’t have access to it. Water industry groups, including the San Diego County Water Authority, were among the broad coalition of water, business and civic interests that opposed the tax.
“Thanks to the efforts of Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins and her staff, Californians will not face a drinking water tax,” said Glenn Farrel, government relations manager for the Water Authority. “Her leadership was vital to securing the funding needed to provide safe drinking water for the communities in California where unhealthy water is a problem.”
Funding to clean up contaminated water will instead come from California’s cap-and-trade program.
SB 200, which creates the Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund, is the second part of an historic funding solution for disadvantaged communities in the state that do not have access to safe drinking water.
The first part is in the state’s 2019-’20 budget, which Governor Newsom signed on June 27. The budget allocates $100 million from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) and $30 million from the General Fund for the current fiscal year. SB 200 provides $130 million per year from the GGRF for safe drinking water for future years until 2030.
The funding is intended to assist communities in paying for the costs of obtaining access to safe and affordable drinking water, including treated contaminated water. Many of those residents live in the San Joaquin Valley and rural areas of the state.
Smaller water districts will also be able to tap the funds to help with their operating costs, and possibly merge with other small districts.
The California State Water Resources Control Board has identified 329 water systems statewide that serve contaminated drinking water or cannot provide reliable water service due to unsound infrastructure or lack of resources. Most of the systems are in rural areas and serve fewer than 10,000 people.
A proposed tax on California’s drinking water in 2018 was also scraped by then Gov. Jerry Brown and legislative leaders.
Encinitas, Calif. — Olivenhain Municipal Water District and San Dieguito Water District have partnered to offer free WaterSmart Landscape Design Workshops. The three-hour courses will be held Wednesday, July 17 and Thursday, October 3, from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the San Diego Botanic Garden.
A malfunction at the Twin Oaks Valley Water Treatment Plant resulted in a citation from the state Division of Drinking Water, though the water in regional pipelines continued to be safe for all uses due to additional treatment processes that are in place.
The malfunction lasted for about 15 hours on April 21-22, when ozone dosage levels in the plant fell below state-mandated levels because a valve failed to fully open.
A new study will explore the viability of a regional pipeline to transfer water from the Colorado River to benefit multiple users in San Diego County and across the Southwest.
The San Diego County Water Authority’s Board of Directors approved funds for the two-year study at its June 27 Board meeting. The pipeline system is one of a handful of ideas being discussed by San Diego County water leaders to enhance partnerships and solutions that make sense locally and more broadly as part of Governor Newsom’s Water Portfolio Program to develop resiliency statewide.
The Water Authority’s upcoming study will look at a regional conveyance system that could move Quantification Settlement Agreement (QSA) transfer water directly between the Imperial Valley and San Diego. The Colorado River Aqueduct currently conveys the QSA water through Riverside County before it flows to San Diego.
“It may be an idea whose time has come,” said Erik Ortega, president of the Imperial Irrigation District Board of Directors, referring to a proposed regional conveyance system.
Creating a pipeline to transfer Colorado River water to the San Diego region has been studied periodically over decades.
But the new study is focused on how a regional pipeline could provide multiple benefits as part of a long-term water management strategy for California and the Southwest.
The expanded review will consider a system that could create much-needed storage opportunities for the IID that could support agriculture while addressing critical issues like the Salton Sea and the need for more renewable energy development.
Map shows three potential routes for a proposed regional pipeline system that would move Quantification Settlement Agreement water directly from the Imperial Valley to San Diego. Two of the routes (the light blue and purple lines) follow a southern route. The third proposed route, (shown in both a yellow and darker blue line) follows a northern path. Graphic: Water Authority
The pipeline under study would be designed at a capacity to convey the QSA water, which in 2021 will reach its full amount of 280,000 acre-feet of water annually. The current Water Transfer Agreement between IID and the Water Authority continues to 2047. But both agencies can agree to extend the transfer another 30 years to 2077.
As the study gets under way, there are three routes under consideration. Each of those routes would connect to the tail end of the All-American Canal where it meets the Westside Main Canal in the southwest corner of the Imperial Valley.
Two of the routes would follow a southern corridor between the Imperial Valley and San Diego, with one route over the mountains paralleling the U.S./Mexico border and the other tunneling underneath the mountains. Both routes would lead to the San Vicente Reservoir in San Diego.
The third and northernmost route would follow the Westside Main Canal toward the Salton Sea, then flow past Borrego Springs, and through the mountains. It would eventually connect to the Water Authority’s Twin Oaks Valley Water Treatment Plant in San Marcos.
Helix Water District recently selected the winners of its 2019 Lake Jennings Spring Photo Contest. This year’s first place award in the adult category went to photographer Randy Siegel of Santee for his image titled “Sunrise Over Lake Jennings.”
Now in its eighth year, the contest drew 60 entries from throughout San Diego County. This year’s theme was “Life at the Lake,” and each of the entries highlighted the unique beauty of camping, fishing, hiking, spotting wildlife and enjoying the view at Lake Jennings.
Contestants were required to submit photos taken between March 1 and May 31, 2019, at the reservoir in Lakeside. The following photographers took top honors:
Lake Jennings Photo Contest, Adult Category First Place: Randy Siegel, “Sunrise Over Lake Jennings”
Adult Category:
1st Place – Randy Siegel, ‘Sunrise Over Lake Jennings’
2nd Place – Kurt Scherbaum, ‘Great Horned Owl’
3rd Place – Frances Schnall, ‘Patience’
Honorable Mention – Fred Kropveld, ‘Jennings Scenic 3’
Honorable Mention – Wes Van Fleet, ‘Awe and Creation’
Lake Jennings Photo Contest, Youth Category, First Place: Ryan Cobain, “Rainbow”
Youth Category:
1st Place – Ryan Cobain, ‘Rainbow’
2nd Place – Cricht Ruediger, ‘Lake Jennings View Scape’
3rd Place – Aure Ruediger, ‘Lake Jennings Ducks and Anglers’
Honorable Mention – Luke Macy, ‘Silver Linings’
Honorable Mention – Jaden Cobain, ‘Rocks’
See all the winning photos in the gallery below.
The Helix Water District Board of Directors honored the winning photographers at an awards ceremony during its June 26 board meeting.
First place winner (Adult Category) Randy Siegel, receives congratulations from Dan McMillan, Helix Water District Board President. Photo: Helix Water District
Lake Jennings is among the most scenic inland parks in San Diego County. Located in Lakeside, the recreation destination offers fishing, camping, hiking, and picnicking activities. The lake is a drinking water reservoir owned and operated by Helix Water District. The scenic views of the lake and the wooded surroundings put visitors in the middle of the wilderness, right outside of town.
The entire lake is open to the general public for fishing three days a week on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.
The 97-space Lake Jennings Campground is open year-round for campers. The campground, located on the north side of Lake Jennings, has spaces for RVs, trailers, campers and tents. There is a day use fee for sight-seeing, hiking or picnicking per person.
Visit the Lake Jennings website for more information and to make reservations.
The San Diego County Water Authority’s Board of Directors today adopted a $1.7 billion budget for fiscal years 2020 and 2021. The new budget is up 5 percent from the current two-year budget, due largely to increasing costs for water supply, supply reliability and infrastructure improvements.
Following a public hearing, the Board also approved an increase in wholesale water rates for calendar year 2020. Although the Water Authority’s budget spans two fiscal years, the agency sets rates annually to more effectively manage changing conditions.
Sweetwater Authority Logo 2019