Valley Center Municipal Water District (“VCMWD” or “District”) has a long history of initiating and participating in various programs to assist and sustain agriculture in its services area.
District efforts have been coordinated with funding from the San Diego County Water Authority under its water use efficiency programs through the 1990s, 2000s, and through to today. VCMWD was also instrumental in helping to secure a $1.5 million Regional Conservation Participation Program Grant to fund water efficiency evaluations and access to on-farm improvement funding for our local growers through the Natural Resources Conservation Service.
https://www.waternewsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/WNN-Horizontal-White-Blue2.png00Kylie Capuanohttps://www.waternewsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/WNN-Horizontal-White-Blue2.pngKylie Capuano2024-07-10 08:42:282024-07-10 08:42:28CropSWAP − Creating a More Sustainable Ag Community
June, 2024 marked the 70th Anniversary of the election held on June 21, 1954 approving the formation of the Valley Center Municipal Water District, which was made official by the California Secretary of State on July 12, 1954.
Since its formation in 1954, much has happened in the District and the community it serves.The record has been one of early growth and change to meet burgeoning agricultural demands, and then adapting to reflect the ever-changing character of its service area to one of mixed agricultural, commercial, and residential water uses.
https://www.waternewsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/WNN-Horizontal-White-Blue2.png00Kylie Capuanohttps://www.waternewsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/WNN-Horizontal-White-Blue2.pngKylie Capuano2024-07-09 08:54:492024-07-09 08:54:49Valley Center Municipal Water District Celebrates 70 Years of Service
Water is a commodity held captive to the laws of supply and demand. High rains mean less water usage, which means fewer sales and higher prices. Also additional fixed fees.
In 1989, when the current Valley Center Municipal Water District (VCMWD) Gen. Mgr., Gary Arant, came to work in VC, 93% of the district’s 55,000 acre feet sales was for agriculture. This year, due to two years of extremely wet winters, the water district is looking at selling about 12,000 AF, with 55% for ag.
https://www.waternewsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/WNN-Horizontal-White-Blue2.png00Kylie Capuanohttps://www.waternewsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/WNN-Horizontal-White-Blue2.pngKylie Capuano2024-06-06 08:30:052024-06-06 08:30:05Declining Water Use May Force Higher Rates, More Fixed Fees
In a move set to transform regional agriculture, the Regional CropSWAP program, originally initiated by the Rancho California Water District, announced its expansion into neighboring counties with the partnership of Fallbrook Public Utility District, Rainbow Municipal Water District, city of Oceanside, Valley Center Municipal Water District and city of Escondido.
https://www.waternewsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/WNN-Horizontal-White-Blue2.png00Chelsea Camposhttps://www.waternewsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/WNN-Horizontal-White-Blue2.pngChelsea Campos2024-05-06 08:38:212024-05-06 08:38:21Regional Agriculture Program Expands to San Diego and Riverside Counties
Monday, April 22, the Valley Center Municipal Water District board voted 4-0 to appoint longtime VC resident Alysha Stehly to fill the vacancy created last month by the resignation of Bob Polito. She is the first woman appointed to the VC water board in its existence. The fact that Polito quit in the second half of his term, required as appointment.
https://www.waternewsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/WNN-Horizontal-White-Blue2.png00Chelsea Camposhttps://www.waternewsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/WNN-Horizontal-White-Blue2.pngChelsea Campos2024-04-23 08:24:302024-04-23 08:24:30Alysha Stehly Appointed to Fill Polito’s Seat
Rage Against the Machine’s “Take the Power Back,” is quickly becoming part of San Diego’s water wars soundtrack.
The power systems at play in that tune have nothing to do with California water politics. Nevertheless, its general message aimed at challenging oppressive systems sprang to mind while I watched Valley Center Municipal Water District board meeting last month.
https://www.waternewsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/WNN-Horizontal-White-Blue2.png00Mike Leehttps://www.waternewsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/WNN-Horizontal-White-Blue2.pngMike Lee2023-08-08 10:00:562023-08-08 11:49:04The Other Real Reason San Diego Water World is Warring
The award-winning Hauck Mesa Storage Reservoir enhances drinking water supply reliability and operational efficiency for the region. Construction was completed June 23 on the San Diego County Water Authority project in North San Diego County.
Work started in March 2021 with the demolition of an out-of-service steel tank.
Project work included construction of an underground isolation vault and flow control facility, in addition to a new 2.1 million-gallon water tank connected to the Valley Center Pipeline.
The project included construction of the water tank, flow control facility, and valve vault; paving of the project site and access road; and installation of new security fencing. Photo: San Diego County Water Authority
Improved operational flexibility
Operational flexibility is increased at Hauck Mesa by balancing the flow of treated water between the agency’s First and Second Aqueducts and by helping to maintain water deliveries if power supplies are interrupted. The new storage reservoir enhances the Water Authority’s ability to provide reliable and efficient deliveries of treated water to member agencies.
The walls of the new tank are about 60 feet tall, stained a forest green color to blend in with the natural landscape, and made of prestressed, or wire wrapped, concrete.
“The prestressed technology will maintain the tank walls in permanent compression, allowing the tank to accommodate seismic events while remaining watertight,” said Water Authority Construction Manager Emma Ward-McNally.
The project reached a major milestone in April 2022 when crews poured the concrete roof of the new prestressed concrete water tank. The entire system, including the new tank and flow control facility, was put into service in May 2023.
In April 2022, crews worked to pour the concrete roof of the new Hauck Mesa Storage Reservoir in North San Diego County. Photo: San Diego County Water Authority
The Hauck Mesa Storage Reservoir project has received two awards: The 2023 Honor Award from the American Public Works Association for Utilities in the $6 – $25 million category and was a joint winner of the 2023 Outstanding Water Project from the American Society of Civil Engineers.
Water Authority Construction Manager Emma Ward-McNally (seated left) receives APWA award for the Hauck Mesa Storage Reservoir Project. Photo: San Diego County Water Authority/APWA
Strategic infrastructure improvements by the Water Authority and its member agencies are part of the regional effort to ensure continued delivery of water to support the region’s $268 billion economy and the quality of life for 3.3 million residents. As part of the asset management program, it is critical to actively replace and repair the Water Authority’s assets, which include pipes, valves, facilities, equipment, and other infrastructure.
Collaboration with Valley Center Municipal Water District
During construction, the Water Authority worked closely with the Valley Center community, Valley Center Municipal Water District, and nearby homeowners to minimize short-term construction impacts during the project.
The Water Authority operates and maintains a regional water delivery system capable of delivering 900 million gallons of water per day. Building and operating the large-scale infrastructure required to meet the region’s water needs now and in the future requires careful planning and technical expertise. The Water Authority uses a sophisticated approach to cost-effectively build, operate, maintain and secure its water facilities as an integrated system.
(Editor’s note: The Valley Center Municipal Water District is one of the San Diego County Water Authority’s 24 member agencies that deliver water across the San Diego County region.)
Making the desert bloom. That’s what our local water district has accomplished in the nearly 70 years of its existence.
Although settlers first came to Valley Center in the 1860s, the town’s population stayed at just a few hundred people throughout the first part of the 20th Century. On the eve of the formation of the district, the population was about 900, according to the Valley Center History Museum. But in 1954 the voters of the community voted overwhelmingly to create the Valley Center Municipal Water District (VCMWD). From then on, the town has grown with the water district, which made it possible to grow to the population it is today, around 22,000 (VCMWD’s total service area population is 29,700.)
What made that all possible was the creation of the San Diego County Water Authority (SDCWA) in 1944 and the completion of the 1st San Diego Aqueduct in the later 1940s’s. The Aqueduct’s purpose was to bring water from the Colorado River to San Diego County, from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (the “Met”) to provide something more than the area’s limited groundwater and streams that flowed during rainy seasons like we have had this year, but otherwise not so much.
https://www.waternewsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/WNN-Horizontal-White-Blue2.png00Mike Leehttps://www.waternewsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/WNN-Horizontal-White-Blue2.pngMike Lee2023-07-20 09:46:462023-07-20 09:47:49Valley Center Has Grown With its Water District
The Valley Center Municipal Water District has been advised by its wholesale supplier, the San Diego County Water Authority, of the following aqueduct shutdown.The shutdown of the San Diego Aqueduct that delivers water to the District will be out of service for rehabilitation repairs and will begin at 1 a.m. on Sunday, February 26, through 8 p.m. on Wednesday, March 8.
https://www.waternewsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/WNN-Horizontal-White-Blue2.png00Mike Leehttps://www.waternewsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/WNN-Horizontal-White-Blue2.pngMike Lee2023-02-15 10:46:352023-02-15 11:04:52Water Customers Will Need to Restrict Use Feb. 26
More than $63 million in proposed federal funding was announced Tuesday to support nearly two dozen projects across the San Diego region.
Sen. Alex Padilla, D-California, said in a statement that the Fiscal Year 2023 appropriations package that will deliver funding for 22 projects slated for the San Diego region will head next to both chambers of Congress for final passage.
Among the projects expected to receive funding in the package are:
— $3.45 million for the City of Oceanside‘s Loma Alta Creek Sewer Relocation, which will move a sewer main from a creek bed to a roadway to minimize environmental damage in the event of a sanitary sewer overflow.
— $3.45 million for the Smuggler’s Gulch Dredging Project, which will clear trash and sediment to protect downstream communities, and protect human and environmental health in the Tijuana River Watershed and coastal waters.
— $3.39 million for Borrego Water District‘s Borrego Spring Transmission Main, which will update the water distribution system and reduce water pipeline breaks.
— $3.06 million for the Valley Center Municipal Water District‘s Lilac Road Pipeline Replacement, which is aimed at reducing water loss and improving water conservation, among other benefits of the 60-year-old pipeline’s replacement.
https://www.waternewsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/WNN-Horizontal-White-Blue2.png00Mike Leehttps://www.waternewsnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/WNN-Horizontal-White-Blue2.pngMike Lee2022-12-22 10:11:482022-12-22 10:15:56Over $63M in Federal Funding Announced for 22 San Diego-Area Projects
