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San Diego Region on Track to Receive $15 Million for Water Projects

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Several regional water supply projects in San Diego County are on track to receive a total of more than $15 million from the California Department of Water Resources, pending a final decision on the grants this summer.

Money for the projects has been recommended by DWR, which will make the awards after a public comment period.

In San Diego County, the grant funds would support local agencies to advance conservation, environmental enhancements, water purification and other initiatives.

Funding for regional water projects

The San Diego County Water Authority submitted the funding request on behalf of the San Diego Integrated Regional Water Management Region, or IRWM. The San Diego IRWM Program began in 2005 as an effort by water retailers, wastewater agencies, stormwater and flood managers, watershed groups, the business community, tribes, agriculture, and nonprofit stakeholders to improve water resources planning in the region.

“The IRWM funding will provide much-needed funding over the next several years to implement a variety of local water supply projects, water use efficiency measures, along with a disadvantaged community project in the City of National City,” said Water Authority General Manager Sandra L. Kerl.

Kerl cited the “extraordinary effort” by the San Diego IRWM Regional Water Management Group and the Regional Advisory Committee for their work over the past year to make the $15,336,000 grant possible.

The statewide IRWM Program is supported by bond funding provided by the DWR to fund competitive grants for projects that improve water resources management.

Regional projects recommended for grant funds

  • San Diego Grant Administration, San Diego County Water Authority – Public Agency $920,180
  • 2020 Regional Water Use Efficiency Programs, San Diego County Water Authority – Public Agency Water Conservation $1,440,000
  • Paradise Valley Creek Water Quality and Community Enhancement, City of National City – Public Agency Flood Damage Reduction $3,681,056
  • North City Pure Water Facility Influent Pump Station and Conveyance Pipeline, City of San Diego, Public Agency Water Supply – Recycled Water $1,477,600
  • San Elijo Stormwater Capture & Reuse San Elijo Joint Powers Authority, Public Agency Water Supply – Recycled Water $1,195,000

Enhancing water stewardship

On November 4, 2014, California voters approved Proposition 1, the Water Quality, Supply, and Infrastructure Improvement Act of 2014.

Proposition 1 authorized $510 million in IRWM funding. Funds are allocated to 12 hydrologic region-based funding areas, including the San Diego Region.

The Proposition 1 IRWM Grant Program, administered by DWR, provides funding for projects that help meet the long-term water needs of the state, including:

  • Assisting water infrastructure systems adapt to climate change;
  • Providing incentives throughout each watershed to collaborate in managing the region’s water resources and setting regional priorities for water infrastructure; and
  • Improving regional water self-reliance, while reducing reliance on Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

OPINION: Our Mojave Water Project Makes Good Sense

/in , , /by /The Wall Street Journal

Cadiz operates a large agricultural property in California’s Mojave Desert at the base of a 1,300 square mile watershed with an aquifer system storing more water than Lake Mead. We currently irrigate the property with groundwater, but it’s a “tipping cup” and what we don’t use migrates to saline playas and evaporates—over 10 billion gallons lost annually. By managing the aquifer and this loss, Cadiz will  sustainably provide new water to 400,000 Californians.

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Harder Unveils Bill Funding Valley Water Projects, Including Reservoir Near Patterson

/in , , /by /The Modesto Beeby Ken Carlson

Rep. Josh Harder, D Turlock, thinks there is a better way to find water solutions for California’s Central Valley and to stop squandering water in wet years that’s needed in dry years. His bipartisan water legislation unveiled Wednesday promises federal support for storage and innovation projects to address shortages that too often plague Valley agriculture and communities. Representatives from water districts, agriculture, local and state government and other groups joined the freshman congressman on the Tuolumne River bank in Modesto to announce the bill.

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OPINION: It’s Time To Push The Pause Button On The Cadiz Water Project

/in , /by /The Press Enterprise (Riverside)by Richard Roth

“Whiskey’s for drinking and water’s for fighting,” a quote frequently if probably erroneously attributed to Mark Twain, is as true a statement today as it was during Twain’s time in the 19th and early 20th centuries. And, for the past 20 years, there certainly has been plenty of fighting going on over the amount of water that can be sustainably withdrawn from a water basin underneath the Mojave Desert. Cadiz, a Mojave land owner, has proposed, and continues to propose, to pump water and lots of it  from the Mojave aquifer and sell it to water districts hundreds of miles away, at a profit, potentially destroying the Mojave Desert in the process.

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Sites Reservoir Is Sacramento Valley’s Water Project. But L.A. Is Taking A Huge Role

/in , /by /The Sacramento Beeby Dale Kasler and Ryan Sabalow

As water projects go, Sites Reservoir has always been the Sacramento Valley’s baby – a multibillion-dollar reservoir conceived by Valley farmers, carved out of a ghost town an hour north of the Capitol. Around the Valley, “Build Sites Reservoir” signs dot the roads along mile after mile of orchards and rice fields. But a funny thing has happened as the Sites project, designed as the largest reservoir built in California since the 1970s, pulls together its financing: It’s becoming much less of a Sacramento Valley venture. Over the past two years, scared off by the anticipated costs of storing water there, Valley agricultural irrigation districts have steadily reduced their ownership shares of Sites, giving way to water agencies from Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley.

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Costs For Pure Water Project Are Rising – By Billions

/in , /by /The Voice of San Diegoby Ry Rivard

It’s hard to pin down how many billions of dollars the city is planning to spend on a new water recycling system, but it’s clear costs are rising – by billions of dollars. Back in 2015, the city of San Diego expected it would get about a third of its drinking water from recycled sewage within 20 years and could do so for about $3 billion in construction costs. Now, the city is looking to spend no less than $4.8 billion and perhaps as much as $9 billion on the project, according to city financial documents, including previously undisclosed internal estimates from the Public Utilities Department.

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Ashley Falls Water Quality Project To Begin This Summer

/in , /by /Del Mar Timesby Karen Billing

At the Carmel Valley Community Planning Board’s Jan. 24 meeting, the board approved a large-scale storm flow storage and multi-pollutant treatment system in the Ashley Falls neighborhood as part of the city’s water quality improvement strategies. The project, located at the corner of Carmel Knolls and Pearlman Way, includes the construction of three reinforced concrete storm drain pipes for low-flow collection and a shallow biofiltration basin.The system will capture pollutants and stormwater runoff to protect the Los Peñasquitos Creek subwatershed.

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California Water Projects Would Get Boost Under Budget Fund

/in , /by /Bloomberg by Emily C. Dooley

Nearly one million Californians use contaminated water to drink, shower, and cook, but the state’s politicians want to change that—including by amending the constitution or taxing certain products. Two state assembly members, Republican Devon Mathis and Democrat Eduardo Garcia, filed language Jan. 16 to amend the state constitution to require that 2 percent of the general fund budget be set aside each year for water quality, supply, and delivery projects in the thirsty state.

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Region Awarded $500K For Water-Related Research Projects

/in , /by /The Daily Transcriptby Mark Armao Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) recently awarded $500,000 in grant funding to three San Diego projects designed to advance the development of a locally controlled, reliable water supply. The San Diego County Water Authority submitted the region’s proposal in partnership with the city of San Diego, Padre Dam Municipal Water District and Olivenhain Municipal Water District. In August, MWD offered $3.5 million in Future Supply Action Program grants, with a $500,000 cap for each of its member agencies. The San Diego region proposal garnered the maximum amount of funding.

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Trump Tempers Talk Of Emergency At Border, But Eyes California Projects For Wall Funds

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Sarah D. Wire

As the federal government’s partial shutdown became tied on Friday for the longest one ever, President Trump tempered his talk of declaring a national emergency on the southern border that could free him to spend money on a wall there. The president insisted on his power to make the declaration, which could allow him to divert federal funds for other purposes to a wall. Yet after days of resistance from some congressional Republicans, he no longer sounded notes of urgency about taking such action.

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