The Imperial Irrigation District Board of Directors conducted a formal dedication of its newest water conservation and operational reservoir located just east of here on Wednesday, October 11, named after longtime Division 3 Director Lloyd Allen.
One week away from the city of Escondido voting on a potential double-digit water rate increase, council members received a presentation about the rate increase already decided on by San Diego County Water Authority.
“The board ultimately chose to go with a smoothing approach for the rate increases with an effective rate increase of 9.5% for calendar year 2024,” said Tish Berge, deputy general manager for SDCWA.
Berge explained the smoothing approach meant projected future increases wouldn’t be as steep. The county water authority cites several similar factors as the city for needing to raise the rate like inflation and maintaining infrastructure, but they also say they’ve lost money as a result of more frequent rainfall.
Twenty years ago, in October 2003, water officials from across the Southwest signed the largest water conservation-and-transfer agreement in U.S. history, the QSA, or Quantification Settlement Agreement. The agreement has provided decades of water security for San Diego County and benefits for numerous partners across the Southwest. In total, that pact supplies more than half of the water that sustains San Diego County’s 3.3 million residents and $268 billion economy.
The 2003 QSA, provides more than 30 million acre-feet of high-priority conserved water to the San Diego region over multiple decades. It helped stabilize demands on the Colorado River and reduced California’s overdependence on surplus supplies. The historic set of more than 20 agreements resulted from years of negotiations between the San Diego County Water Authority, Coachella Valley Water District, Imperial Irrigation District, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, State of California, and the U.S. Department of the Interior that culminated in a signing ceremony at Hoover Dam.
“This landmark water deal has stood the test of time, providing numerous benefits both in the San Diego region and more broadly across the Southwest,” said Mel Katz, chair of the Water Authority Board of Directors. “One of its most important accomplishments is that it brought water agencies together as collaborators. We’ve had disagreements along the way, but history has validated the value of our collective efforts to provide water security.”
Key components of the QSA included limiting how much water California would take from the Colorado River and a water transfer based on voluntary conservation. The agreement between the Imperial Irrigation District and the Water Authority, the cornerstone of the QSA, remains the largest agriculture-to-urban water transfer in the nation.
Under the agreement, the Water Authority pays the IID to implement a variety of irrigation system and on-farm conservation measures that collectively save 200,000 acre-feet a year, which is transferred to San Diego County. Conserved water will continue to flow to the San Diego region through 2047, but that agreement can be extended through 2077 if both parties agree. (An acre-foot is about 326,000 gallons, or enough to serve three single-family homes for a year.)
In addition, the Water Authority secured $257 million in state subsidies to help pay for lining portions of the All-American and Coachella canals. As a result of those projects, the Water Authority is receiving 77,700 acre-feet of conserved water annually for 110 years.
The QSA settled long-standing disputes over water inside California, and it provided a means to better manage the river through voluntary conservation programs and a storage program in Lake Mead. Today, the agreements continue to meet the primary goals of ensuring Colorado River water in California and the Lower Basin is put to beneficial use, that agricultural water-use efficiency improvements are adequately funded, water rights are protected, and the environment is addressed, most notably at the Salton Sea.
“The QSA, through its mutually beneficial formula of providing secure water supplies through voluntary conservation, offers a template for other regions of the Southwest as we collectively seek to live within the reduced flows of the Colorado River,” said Dan Denham, Water Authority general manager. “I’m very proud of the work we and our QSA partners have done to get to this point – and I recognize that more collaboration, resilience and vision will be needed to thrive in a hotter and drier future.”
Twenty years ago this week, water officials from across the Southwest signed the largest water conservation-and-transfer agreement in U.S. history, providing decades of water security for San Diego County and benefits for numerous partners across the Southwest. In total, that pact supplies more than half of the water that sustains San Diego County’s 3.3 million residents and $268 billion economy.
The 2003 Quantification Settlement Agreement, better known as the QSA, provides more than 30 million acre-feet of high-priority conserved water to the San Diego region over multiple decades. It helped stabilize demands on the Colorado River and reduced California’s overdependence on surplus supplies. The historic set of more than 20 agreements resulted from years of negotiations between the San Diego County Water Authority, Coachella Valley Water District, Imperial Irrigation District, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, State of California, and the U.S. Department of the Interior that culminated in a signing ceremony at Hoover Dam.
“This landmark water deal has stood the test of time, providing numerous benefits both in the San Diego region and more broadly across the Southwest,” said Mel Katz, chair of the Water Authority Board of Directors. “One of its most important accomplishments is that it brought water agencies together as collaborators. We’ve had disagreements along the way, but history has validated the value of our collective efforts to provide water security.”
The San Diego County Water Authority and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California have traditionally bumped heads on many fronts – particularly over the cost of transporting Colorado River water to San Diego. But their new leaders quite literally bumped fists on our Politifest stage – a universal gesture of respect, approval, maybe even agreement?
Nearly 600,000 ballots are on their way to registered voters in the 4th Supervisorial District, City of Chula Vista, Fallbrook Public Utility District and Rainbow Municipal Water District for the Nov. 7 special election, the county registrar’s office announced today.
San Vicente Dam, completed in 1943, was designed for ‘200-year extreme rainfall’ (the heaviest rain that will fall once every 200 years). However, when the worst drought hit California in 1991, the state government and residents agreed to prepare for climate change and decided to expand.
The U.S. EPA recognized the San Diego County Water Authority with a 2023 WaterSense Excellence Award for advancing water efficiency through its Qualified Water Efficient Landscaper program, better known as QWEL. The Water Authority received one of 25 Excellence Awards on October 5 at the national WaterSmart Innovations Conference in Las Vegas.
This is the fourth EPA WaterSense award won by the Water Authority. The 2023 award is for Excellence in Promotion and Outreach of the QWEL program. Since the early 1990s, the Water Authority has offered an array of programs and incentives to promote water-use efficiency, and the suite of offerings continues to evolve as needs and conditions change.
“Over the past three decades, the Water Authority has been dedicated to helping the San Diego region save water every day, in every way,” said Mel Katz, chair of the Water Authority Board of Directors. “Water-efficient landscaper trainings in English and Spanish are among the most impactful strategies to help our community thrive in a changing climate. We thank EPA WaterSense for its partnership and guidance as we advance water-saving practices that sustain San Diego County’s beautiful landscapes.”
Flo, the EPA WaterSense “spokesgallon” poses with the award received by the San Diego County Water Authority
The Water Authority has offered the QWEL certification program free of charge to people who live and work in the Water Authority’s service area since 2015. In 2022, almost 300 new participants were certified through the program and half of the QWEL-certified individuals attended webinars to renew their certifications. After conducting more than 25 in-person and online exams, there4 were nearly 460 certified participants for the year.
To reach San Diego’s Spanish-speaking residents, the Water Authority recruited and trained bilingual instructors and offered virtual training in Spanish, attended by more than 40 new participants.
San Diego County Water Authority Principal Water Resource Specialist Lisa Prus (L) Water Resources Specialist Debby Dunn (center) and Wenda Alvarez, with WSA Marketing, accepting the 2023 EPA WaterSense Excellence Award October 5, in Las Vegas.
In 2023, the Water Authority transitioned from QWEL to a new program to achieve similar goals, in partnership with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. Through the California Landscape Contractors Association, MWD offers one-of-a-kind certification and education opportunities for landscape professionals in Southern California. The program combines the CLCA Water Management Certification Program with the Qualified Water Efficient Landscaper program to offer the landscape industry an opportunity to obtain two nationally recognized EPA WaterSense Professional Certifications with one course and one written test. New courses will be offered in the San Diego region starting December 2023.
The EPA also recognized two Water Authority member agencies for for their support of WaterSense and water efficiency in 2022, including the San Dieguito Water District and the Vallecitos Water District. Collectively, the Excellence Award winners contributed to annual savings nationwide of 1.1 trillion gallons of water.
WaterSense, a voluntary partnership program sponsored by EPA, is both a label for water-efficient products, programs, and homes and a resource for helping consumers learn ways to save water. More than 2,100 manufacturers, builders, retailers, utilities, government, and nonprofit organizations partner with WaterSense to promote water-efficient products, homes, and programs.
“With extreme weather affecting water supplies and quality, saving this precious resource is more important than ever,” said Veronica Blette, Chief, WaterSense Branch. “The 2023 award winners helped Americans look to WaterSense and save not just water, but the energy required to heat and treat it, as well as reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with energy use.”
Since 2006, over 40,000 certified water-efficient plumbing and irrigation products have helped consumers and businesses nationwide save 7.5 trillion gallons of water; the amount of energy needed to pump, treat, and heat water by 880 billion kilowatt hours; and $171 billion in water and energy bills. These savings also helped prevent 337 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions, which is equivalent to planting 5.6 billion trees.
(Editor’s note: For more information about WaterSense, visit www.epa.gov/watersense. For rebates, classes, and water-saving tips go to: sdcwa.org/your-water/conservation/.)
Josh Kane didn’t know a lot about avocado farming 10 years ago, but he does now.
In 2001, Kane’s mother bought a 60-acre avocado farm, the Rice Canyon Ranch, in Fallbrook, thinking it would be a good investment. But, some not-so-good advice, and the 2014 drought, had the business in a nosedive. Rice Canyon took a long-term investment perspective and invested in innovative measures, including tree stumping and grafting. Those strategies, along with smart irrigation, helped turn the farm around.
As part of California’s seventh annual Water Professionals Appreciation Week, the San Diego County Water Authority is proud to highlight the essential role of water professionals and local public water agencies in providing water and wastewater services.
“We appreciate the dedication of our highly trained operators, technicians and other specialists who ensure the San Diego region has safe and reliable water supplies,” said Dan Denham, Water Authority General Manager. “And we appreciate all of the water industry professionals who keep the water flowing in communities throughout California, including district managers, customer service representatives, treatment plant operators and engineers.”
This year’s theme for Water Professionals Appreciation Week (Oct. 7-15) is “Show water professionals some love.” This week and every week, we encourage you to offer gratitude to the dedicated professionals working every day to deliver our most precious resource to our homes and businesses – professionals like Victor DeJesus, Patty Duran, and Kevin James.
Victor DeJesus is a Senior Electrical/Instrumentation Technician with the San Diego County Water Authority. Photo: San Diego County Water Authority
“As a Senior Electrical Instrumentation Technician my role includes working on a variety of systems that support the ability for the Water Authority’s System Operators to safely and accurately perform remote control water delivery throughout San Diego County,” said Victor DeJesus, Senior Electrical/ Instrumentation Technician at the San Diego County Water Authority. “Our Technical Services group is responsible for maintaining upwards of 75 Flow Control Facilities in the region. Every day here is unique and interesting. On any given day our work can range from calibrating electronic flow meters, upgrading programmable logic controllers, troubleshooting cellular and fiber communication networks, maintaining access control software/hardware or the installation of new LED fixtures. Our work is never static! There is always something interesting to do. I like that what my colleagues and I do is enduring.”
Patty Duran is a Human Resources Analyst with the San Diego County Water Authority. Photo: San Diego County Water Authority
“The work is challenging, yet it is rewarding to work with a team to find solutions to issues that directly impact our community,” said Patty Duran, Human Resources Analyst at the San Diego County Water Authority. “My advice to anyone interested in joining the water industry is to seek out learning and networking opportunities through professional associations and industry certifications.”
(To learn more about career opportunities in the water industry go to: www.sandiegowaterworks.org.)
Kevin James is a Facilities Services Technician with the San Diego County Water Authority. Photo: San Diego County Water Authority
“I was inspired to work in the water industry by my former Supervisor Baldemar Troche also known as BT,” said Kevin James, Facilities Services Technician at the San Diego County Water Authority. “At the time, I wasn’t fully sure if I was ready to make a change in my career path of HVAC. But after being mentored and speaking on the possible issues of this transition, BT reassured me of a brighter future I could have in the water industry. Also after seeing how successful his time was at the Water Authority and the gratification of helping our community to provide water to the San Diego region, it was a no brainer. It was one of the best decisions I have ever made. And I am happy to have made the right choice.”
Follow the Water Authority’s social media accounts to learn more about our amazing team and the essential role they play in our community, and to get more information about jobs in the water industry.
