The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (Metropolitan or MWD) has hired Brown and Caldwell to study alternative water conveyance options to provide supply diversity to the region during severe droughts.
MWD’s mission is to ensure a safe and reliable water supply for the 19 million people in Southern California in the face of climate change and extended drought.
With the Colorado River in crisis, there is still no agreement over which states and regions should have their water allocations cut back and how soon those cuts should go into effect.
Seven states in the western United States take water from the Colorado River, and although six of them have agreed on a framework, the lone holdout is the largest user of Colorado River water in the county: California.
As Lake Mead and Lake Powell levels inch closer to dead pool, states in the lower Colorado River basin are proposing more solutions that could lend to the reservoirs’ recoveries.
Required water cuts have already been implemented and increased in severity this year for Arizona and Nevada.
The snowpack in the Sierra Nevada is the deepest it’s been in decades, but those storms that were a boon for Northern California won’t make much of a dent in the long-term water shortage for the Colorado River Basin — an essential source of supplies for Southern California.
In fact, the recent storms haven’t changed a view shared by many Southern California water managers: Don’t expect lakes Mead and Powell, the nation’s largest reservoirs, to fill up again anytime soon.
Recent rains could mean a more flexible water budget for San Diego as state authorities announced increased water deliveries throughout California.
The state will allocate additional water deliveries to some 29 public water agencies, delivering 30 percent of requested water supplies after initially projecting only five percent delivery.
Weeks of historic rainfall in California won’t be enough to end a severe drought, but it will provide public water agencies serving 27 million people with much more water than the suppliers had been told to expect a month ago, state officials announced Thursday.
The Department of Water Resources said public water agencies will now get 30% of what they had asked for, up from the 5% officials had previously announced in December.
January 26, 2023 – The San Diego County Water Authority Board of Directors today welcomed Metropolitan Water District of Southern California Board Chair Adán Ortega, Jr. by hosting a reception for him to meet San Diego County’s community, civic and business leaders.
Ortega took the helm of MWD’s Board on January 10 as the first Latino chair in the district’s 95-year history. In a presentation today during the Water Authority’s formal Board meeting, Ortega focused on shared challenges and opportunities the two water wholesalers face in the era of climate change.
The San Diego County Water Authority Board of Directors on January 26 welcomed Metropolitan Water District of Southern California Board Chair Adán Ortega, Jr. by hosting a reception for him to meet San Diego County’s community, civic and business leaders.
Ortega took the helm of MWD’s Board on January 10 as the first Latino chair in the district’s 95-year history. In a presentation during the Water Authority’s formal Board meeting, Ortega focused on shared challenges and opportunities the two water wholesalers face in the era of climate change.
“Past conflicts aside, I see the San Diego County experience as a model that Metropolitan and other water agencies will need to consider as we confront the changed climate. The San Diego region recognized earlier than many – more than 20 years ago – the need to invest in water supply and infrastructure improvements to ensure reliability,” said Ortega, who made formal comments during the Water Authority’s Board meeting. “The need for these investments has only become more urgent as the impacts of climate change undermine both Bay-Delta and Colorado River water supplies.”
Ortega also noted that “San Diego’s investments have come at a cost in the form of higher water rates, but the result has been protection against drought,” including the drought that has threatened water supplies across California for the past three years.
“We can’t escape the reality of increasing water rates among our member agencies and Metropolitan, just as San Diego had to do,” Ortega said. “With climate change, we need to envision a new class of water infrastructure and management. San Diego’s leaders and ratepayers have reckoned with rate increases to keep water flowing even with critical shortages in traditional sources of water. That’s the definition of resiliency.”
Thank you @sdcwa, Chair Mel Katz, @TheNickSerrano and the San Diego leadership community. We’re unburdened and determined.
— Adan Ortega Jr (@WCPartners) January 27, 2023
Ortega has represented the City of San Fernando on the MWD board since March 2021. He is the principal at Ortega Strategies group, a public and government relations firm based in Fullerton, and he served as Metropolitan’s vice president of external affairs from 1999 to 2005. Before representing San Fernando, he served as the City of Fullerton’s representative on the MWD Board.
As chair, Ortega said he places a strong emphasis on agency ethics and the values of diversity, equity and inclusion for Metropolitan’s board and staff. He has appointed the most diverse leadership slate in MWD’s history, including appointment of leadership positions to three of the Water Authority’s four delegates including a board vice chair and chairmanship of the agency’s finance committee. The Water Authority fourth delegate – Lois Fong-Sakai – was recently elected by her peers to serve as MWD Board secretary and parliamentarian.
Today Adán Ortega was sworn in as chair of Metropolitan's board. Congratulations to Chair Ortega, the first Latino to lead the board, representing @citysanfernando. He is the 20th chair in the district's history. pic.twitter.com/6BO8A2qWfy
— MWD of SoCal (@mwdh2o) January 10, 2023
“With decades of experience in government service, Adán is a proven consensus builder who is ideally suited to lead Metropolitan’s diverse 26 member agencies during a period of historic transitions impacting water supply and the environment both in MWD’s service area and the Southwest,” said Water Authority Board Chair Mel Katz.
“Adán is a proven consensus builder who is ideally suited to lead Metropolitan’s diverse 26 member agencies during a period of historic transitions impacting water supply and the environment both in MWD’s service area and the Southwest."
— Water Authority Board Chair Mel Katz. pic.twitter.com/DS7CvTOaGC— San Diego County Water Authority (@sdcwa) January 27, 2023
The Water Authority relies on MWD for about 13% of its water supplies, along with transporting water through the Colorado River Aqueduct to San Diego County. The Water Authority and MWD are working together on critical issues of drought and water supply planning as well as daily coordination of water deliveries.
“Water challenges in the West will continue to grow,” said Katz, “but I am confident that working together with MWD and its member agencies we can meet the needs of Southern California for generations to come.”
I was proud to be with the leaders of SDCWA today. Thank you so much for the hospitality.
— Adan Ortega Jr (@WCPartners) January 27, 2023
California voters approved a ballyhooed $7.5-billion bond issue eight-plus years ago thinking the state would build dams and other vital water facilities. But it hasn’t built zilch. True or false?
That’s the rap: The voters were taken. The state can’t get its act together.
Fast action by the San Diego County Water Authority and its partners is helping maintain water service in Tijuana after problems with the city’s aqueduct emerged in December.
Emergency water deliveries started last week after a coordinated effort between the Water Authority, Otay Water District, and Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD). The typical multi-month approval process was compressed into a few days to avoid additional water supply shortages in Tijuana.
“We’re extremely proud of how quickly the Water Authority staff worked to meet the emergency water needs of our neighbors to the south,” said Mel Katz, Water Authority Board Chair. “Coordinating with multiple agencies and getting the necessary approvals in just three days was a team effort and is a credit to the Water Resources and Operations & Maintenance departments.”
Cross-border emergency deliveries started more than 50 years ago and are governed by an agreement between the United States and Mexico to provide Tijuana with a portion of Mexico’s Colorado River supply. The Water Authority provides emergency water deliveries to Mexico through a cross-border connection in Otay Mesa. These deliveries use Water Authority, Otay Water District, and MWD facilities to transport the emergency supplies from the Colorado River to Mexico, which pays transportation costs on deliveries to Tijuana and provides funds for meter connection upkeep. Deliveries are typically planned months in advance due to the number of government agencies involved.
On January 2, the Water Authority received a request for emergency water delivery to Tijuana. Water Authority staff immediately expedited the complex approval process during this unplanned Tijuana aqueduct outage. Those steps included working with the U.S. International Boundary & Water Commission, Otay Water District, and MWD to confirm system capacity availability and establish costs associated with the additional emergency deliveries.
The current water deliveries are scheduled to continue until the end of February. Consistent with the previously approved schedule, planned water deliveries will restart in April and continue through September 2023.
(Editor’s note: The Otay Water District is one of the San Diego County Water Authority’s 24 member agencies that deliver water across San Diego County.)
