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.
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.
In 2012, the San Diego County Water Authority launched an unusual website to attack Southern California’s largest supplier of water, the Metropolitan Water District. The website, “MWD Facts,” featured information that was often superficially accurate — it usually came from Metropolitan’s own documents — but presented in a slanted or incomplete way. While it made a splash when it was first posted, the campaign never picked up much steam: Only 253 people followed the MWD Facts Twitter account, if that’s any indication of its popularity.
Like a bad penny, a plan to tax water keeps turning up in Sacramento.
That’s right: under two proposals circulating in the Capitol, California would start taxing the most fundamental resource on the planet. Such taxes would needlessly drive up costs for families already struggling to make ends meet and undermine the very goals that proponents profess.
Senate Bill 623 by state Sen. William Monning (Carmel) and a budget trailer bill supported by Governor Brown would add a tax to local residential and business water bills in the name of providing safe, clean drinking water to disadvantaged communities, mostly in the Central Valley.
There’s no question that some Californians in low-income, rural areas don’t enjoy the same level of safe drinking water delivered by the San Diego County Water Authority and its 24 member agencies. That’s why the Water Authority and many other water agencies statewide have made it a priority to promote sensible funding strategies to address this important issue. We are committed to delivering safe and reliable water, and we wholeheartedly support the goal of ensuring the same for all Californians.
But taxing water isn’t the right approach.
Among the many problems with this is strategy is that it sets a bad precedent. California currently does not tax water or essential food products. However, even before the first proposed water tax has been voted on, two additional water tax proposals have already emerged in Sacramento. Both of those taxes would drive up water bills by as much as $15 to $20 each month.
The cost of living in California is already high, and taxing drinking water works against the very people that the funds are intended to help.
Of course, Californians overwhelmingly object to legislation that would create a new tax on drinking water, according to a recent poll of likely 2018 voters. In all, 73 percent said they opposed the Senate legislation. Over half said they “strongly opposed” the measure, while just 8 percent said they “strongly supported” it.
Thankfully, there are better alternatives.
California appropriately uses its general fund to pay for other important programs and social issues identified as state priorities, including public health, education, housing and disability services. The public supports using the general fund to pay for programs that serve and protect residents and communities in need.
Dozens of local water agencies, chambers and other groups have joined together to advance more appropriate funding solutions – a package that includes federal safe drinking water funds, voter-approved general obligation bond dollars, cap-and-trade revenues, agricultural fees related to nitrate in drinking water, and general fund money. With this approach, we can address an important issue for our state without adding a tax on our most precious natural resource.
San Diego, Calif. – Sharing images that highlight the importance of safe and reliable water supplies in San Diego County will win valuable prizes for dozens of participants during a social media contest that spans Water Awareness Month in May.
From California’s earliest days as a state, innovation has been king. We’ve collectively developed world-changing ways of mining gold, telling stories through film, farming, computing and communicating.
That same innovative DNA courses through the San Diego County Water Authority, which over the past year has expanded its efforts to advance pioneering solutions to water industry challenges.
Innovation is not a new concept for the Water Authority, which helped craft the largest water conservation-and-transfer agreement in U.S. history 15 years ago and more recently helped launch the largest seawater desalination plant in the country.
But these days we are taking a particularly aggressive approach across the agency to identify cutting-edge technologies that will help us continue to manage the region’s diverse water supplies and improve long-term stewardship of the region’s most precious natural resource. We have created an internal Innovation Program to promote creative problem-solving by staff, and we have started more broadly publicizing our interest in bright ideas from entrepreneurs and others who can help us stay ahead of water management issues.
If you have a product or concept that you would like to tell us about, go to sdcwa.org/innovation-program and submit the online form. That will help us identify the appropriate team member to evaluate your idea and provide feedback. Our goal is to respond within seven business days and let you know whether we have additional questions; if your product or idea may be a good fit for another agency; or if it is not feasible within the scope of our operations.
At the same time, we are promoting innovation on a national level. We’ve partnered with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to co-sponsor a nationwide contest to advance corrosion and leak-detection technologies for large-diameter pipelines. Corrosion and leaks are a major problem across the country, resulting in billions of gallons of water wasted annually, along with disruptions in water service and costly repairs.
The competition runs through May 9 and includes a $75,000 purse provided by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the nation’s largest water provider and the operator of more than 20,000 miles of buried water pipelines. The Water Authority’s contribution includes helping to design the competition and providing judges to identify new approaches that can work effectively regardless of pipeline diameter or construction material.
There are numerous methods for finding leaks and flaws, and the Water Authority has pioneered some of them. However, none of them can efficiently assess the overall condition of pipelines while in operation. This contest could help us discover the next generation of condition assessment and water-saving tools, and it underscores one of our most important values – innovation. To learn more about the competition, go to www.usbr.gov/research/challenges/leakypipes.html.
San Diego, Calif. – As part of its pioneering approach to pipeline asset management, the San Diego County Water Authority is co-sponsoring a nationwide contest to advance leak- and corrosion-detection technologies for large-diameter pipelines. Leaks and corrosion are major problems across the country, resulting in billions of gallons of water wasted annually – enough to fill more than three million Olympic-sized swimming pools – along with disruptions in water service and costly repairs. The competition runs through May 8 and includes a $75,000 purse provided by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the nation’s largest water provider and the operator of more than 20,000 miles of buried water pipelines.
San Diego, Calif. – The San Diego County Water Authority’s Board of Directors voted to endorse Proposition 68, a state bond measure that would fund projects important to the San Diego region and allocate more than $1 billion for water-related initiatives statewide. If passed by California voters on June 5, the bond would provide $200 million to Salton Sea restoration activities and $12 million for the San Diego River Conservancy as part of a $4 billion package to address natural resource issues across California.
San Diego, Calif. – As part of national ‘Fix a Leak Week’ activities starting March 19, home and business owners across the region can take advantage of free water-use checkups and other water-saving resources offered by the San Diego County Water Authority and its member agencies.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
