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Regional Conveyance Study-RCS-Water Supply

Water Authority to Host Public Session on Economics of Regional Conveyance Study

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The San Diego County Water Authority will host an online public information session on Oct. 27 about economic considerations related to the proposed Regional Conveyance System. The virtual event will run from 10 a.m. to noon. To reserve a spot, email .

Meeting participants can:

  • Learn about alternatives the Water Authority Board of Directors is studying to secure San Diego County’s future water supplies
  • Ask the experts about key issues
  • Understand the feasibility and costs of building a conveyance system to deliver San Diego County’s Colorado River supplies
  • Discuss potential next steps

In June of 2019, the Water Authority’s Board of Directors approved a study of the viability of a new regional conveyance system that would deliver water from the Colorado River to San Diego County and could provide multiple benefits across the Southwest.

Regional Conveyance Study

The Phase A report, released in August 2020, found that building a new conveyance system to transport the region’s supplies from the Quantification Settlement Agreement is cost-competitive with other long-term strategies for meeting the region’s water needs.

At its August 2020 meeting, the Water Authority’s Board decided to continue the regional discussion about the study until November 19, at which time the Board is expected to decide whether to move ahead with Phase B of the study.

To learn more about the Regional Conveyance System Study or to read the executive summary and the full report, go to sdcwa.org/colorado-river-supplies-management.

Potential pipeline routes

Regional Conveyance Study-RCS-Economics-Water Supply

A study of a new regional water conveyance system to deliver high-priority Colorado River supplies from the Imperial Valley shows three potential routes to move the water. Graphic: San Diego County Water Authority

Each of the potential conveyance routes would connect to the tail end of the All-American Canal where it meets the Westside Main Canal in the southwest corner of Imperial Valley.

In Correcting Misappropriation of Water State Must Balance Legal Rights with Existing Use

/in , , /by /The Nevada Independent by Daniel Rothberg

The situation playing out along the Muddy River is not unique across the Southwest and in the Colorado River Basin. As climate change and overuse reduce water supplies, the gap between “paper water” (the legal right to use water) and “actual water” (what’s available) is widening.

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Opinion: An Aqueduct to San Diego is Worth Studying

/in , , /by /Imperial Valley Pressby Brian McNeece Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Fresh on the water scene in Imperial County is a proposal from the IID’s neighbor agency San Diego County Water Authority. The SDCWA is an umbrella organization that comprises 24 members including all the cities and water districts in San Diego County.

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Opinion: Using Lake Powell to Keep Lawns Green in Utah Would be a Waste of Resources

/in , , /by /Las Vegas Sun

The recent downgrade in the forecast for the flow of water in the Colorado River should be a death punch to the proposal to build a new pipeline out of Lake Powell. The pipeline was already a major threat to Las Vegas and much of the rest of the Southwest; now the threat risk is heading off the charts.

The proposal would drain 28 billion gallons of water per year from Lake Powell to St. George, Utah, and the surrounding area. That’s a huge amount of water — more than a quarter of what Nevada is allotted annually from Lake Mead (97.8 billion gallons).

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CWA Defers Regional Conveyance System Study Vote Until November

/in , , /by /Fallbrook Village Newsby Joe Naiman Quoted: San Diego County Water Authority

The San Diego County Water Authority board vote on the regional conveyance system study was not expected to be unanimous but, when the motion was to defer action until November, the SDCWA board members voted unanimously for that postponement.

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New Salton Sea Documentary Wades Into the Slow-Moving Environmental Disaster

/in , , /by /Palm Spring Desert Sunby Mark Olalde

It’s been nearly two decades since a controversial deal transferred huge amounts of Colorado River water out of the Imperial Valley and away from the Salton Sea, but still no long-term solution has been found to cover thousands of acres of toxic dust exposed at California’s largest lake.

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IID Files Opposition in California Supreme Court Battle With Farmer Michael Abatti

/in , , /by /Palm Spring Desert Sunby Mark Olalde

The years-long fight between the Imperial Irrigation District and farmer Michael Abatti over control of Colorado River water could be nearing its grand finale in the California Supreme Court. After Abatti requested last month that the state’s highest judicial body take up his case, the water district filed its opposition on Monday.

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IID Due to Respond to Abatti Petition

/in , , /by /Imperial Valley Pressby Tom Bodus

Imperial Irrigation District will file its response today to local farmer Michael Abatti’s petition to the state Supreme Court to review an appellate court decision that overturned the majority of a 2017 ruling in his ongoing legal dispute with the district over water rights.

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Six Western States Blast Utah Plan to Tap Colorado River Water

/in , , /by /ABC Newsby Sam Metz (Associated Press/Report for America)

Six states in the U.S. West that rely on the Colorado River to sustain cities and farms rebuked a plan to build an underground pipeline that would transport billions of gallons of water through the desert to southwest Utah.

In a joint letter Tuesday, water officials from Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Wyoming urged the U.S. government to halt the approval process for the project, which would bring water 140 miles (225 km) from Lake Powell in northern Arizona to the growing area surrounding St. George, Utah.

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California Still Hasn’t Found Analyst to Study Salton Sea Water Import Proposals It Asked For

/in , , /by /Desert Sun (Palm Springs)by Mark Olalde

Long-term fixes for the ever-shrinking Salton Sea remain stalled as California Natural Resources Agency officials on Wednesday revealed they have been unable to find an analyst to study proposed solutions to a nearly two decades-old problem.

Eleven different plans, submitted in 2018, suggested methods of importing water from the Sea of Cortez or the Pacific Ocean to decrease salinity and reverse water losses at the Salton Sea, which have exposed a toxic playa laced with pesticides and other pollutants. Although some researchers who study the lake write off the plans as financial and logistical pipe dreams, CNRA still needs to study them as part of the process to determine a long-term solution.

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