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Regional Conveyance Study-Colorado River Aqueduct-RCS-primary-June 2020

Draft Study Highlights Region’s Water Conveyance Options

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A draft report released today by the San Diego County Water Authority shows that building a new conveyance system to transport regional water supplies from the Colorado River Quantification Settlement Agreement is cost-competitive with other long-term options for meeting the region’s water needs.

The draft Phase A report is under review by water officials across the region. The Water Authority’s Board of Directors is expected to decide whether to move to Phase B at its July 23 meeting.

“By releasing this draft report – along with an independent review of key financial assumptions – we are trying to spark a thoughtful dialogue about our region’s water future,” said Dan Denham, deputy general manager for the Water Authority. “Given the long lead time for major water infrastructure projects, it’s important that San Diego County wrestle with these complex questions today so we can control our own destiny tomorrow.”

The Phase A report is the result of technical and cost analysis by Black & Veatch Corp. and the economic analysis by Water Authority staff. The engineering firm conducted similar studies for the Water Authority dating back to 1996, assessing “single use” water-delivery projects in those studies. The current Phase A analysis looks at conveyance projects with multiple partnership possibilities and potential benefits for the environment, water agencies and others.

Two viable alternatives emerge

Three potential pipeline routes were studied in Phase A, and the draft report says two alternatives (3A and 5A) are cost-competitive with other options, such as relying more on Metropolitan Water District of Southern California or developing additional local supplies.

Phase A takes a conservative approach to cost protections, by not factoring in potential partnerships or other sources of funds. However, partnerships and other agreements could significantly reduce the cost and enhance the value of a regional conveyance system. Phase B would include more detailed analysis of potential partnerships and funding opportunities and more details about projected costs from MWD.

“A decision about the Regional Conveyance System cannot be made in the abstract,” said Kelly Rodgers, director of the Water Authority’s Colorado River Program. “It must be made based on a comparison of the available alternatives, and we look forward to additional analysis and perspectives from our member agencies in the weeks ahead.”

The Water Authority currently pays MWD to transport QSA water through the Colorado River Aqueduct to San Diego. The regional conveyance system would be designed to convey the QSA water, which in 2021 will reach its full amount of 280,000 acre-feet of water annually. The current Water Transfer Agreement between the Imperial Irrigation District and the Water Authority continues to 2047. Both agencies can agree to extend the transfer another 30 years to 2077.

Conveyance routes would connect to All-American Canal

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.

Two of the routes would follow a southern corridor between the Imperial Valley and San Diego, with one route over the mountains paralleling the U.S./Mexico border and the other tunneling through the mountains. Both routes would end at the San Vicente Reservoir in Lakeside.

The third and northernmost route would follow the Westside Main Canal toward the Salton Sea, then flow past Borrego Springs, and through the mountains. It would eventually connect to the Water Authority’s Twin Oaks Valley Water Treatment Plant in San Marcos.

Draft report findings

  • The region will continue to need QSA water through 2112.
  • All three RCS alternatives are viable from a technical and engineering perspective.
  • Alternatives 3A and 5A are economically competitive and provide long-term reliability and low-cost water to the region.
  • Alternative 5C is not economically competitive with Alternatives 3A and 5A and will not be recommended for further study.
  • Alternatives 3A and 5A could be integrated without major changes to current Water Authority operations.
  • Potential multi-agency, multi-use partnerships and other agreements could significantly reduce the cost and enhance the value of each RCS alternative and provide regional benefits to San Diego, California and the Southwest.

To read the report, go to https://www.sdcwa.org/colorado-river-supplies-management.

CWA Ratifies Contracts, Accepts Notice of Completion for Pipeline 5 Repairs

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

Eventually the San Diego County Water Authority will develop and implement a long-term fix for the vulnerability of the three SDCWA pipelines in Moosa Canyon, but the short-term fix for Pipeline 5 is now complete.

A unanimous CWA board vote, Thursday, May 28, ratified four contracts approved administratively by CWA General Manager Sandra Kerl and authorized Kerl to accept the work as complete.

“Earlier this month, in May, we shut down Pipeline 5 to remove the bulkheads and we resumed normal operations on May 8,” Neena Kuzmich, engineering manager of CWA, said.

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LAFCO Approves Detachment Review Committee

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

San Diego’s County’s Local Agency Formation Commission approved a committee to review issues regarding the proposed detachment of the Fallbrook Public Utility District and the Rainbow Municipal Water District from the San Diego County Water Authority.

An 8-0 LAFCO board vote June 1 approved the composition of the committee, although LAFCO executive officer Keene Simonds will appoint the specific members and the list of tasks for the committee.

“We have agreement with the County Water Authority, Rainbow and Fallbrook,” said county supervisor Dianne Jacob, who is the chair of the LAFCO board.

“We have consensus on the tasks. I think we have a working agreement on the composition,” Simonds said.

Opinion: Beyond COVID and Social Unrest, Valley’s Big Problem Remains Declining Groundwater

/in , , /by /The Fresno Beeby Ellen Hanak and Jelena Jezdimirovic

In these extraordinary times, managing groundwater for long-term sustainability may not seem like a top priority. But in the San Joaquin Valley — where groundwater supplies have been declining for decades — excess pumping is a critical problem, with major implications for public health, jobs, the environment and local economies.

The state’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) requires groundwater planning and actions to sustain this vital resource. Agencies from California’s 21 “critically overdrafted” basins — including 11 large basins that span most of the San Joaquin Valley floor — submitted their first groundwater plans in January.

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FPUD Board Tours Conjunctive Use Project Sites

/in , , /by /Fallbrook Village Newsby Joe Naiman

The five Fallbrook Public Utility District board members were given a tour of FPUD’s Santa Margarita Conjunctive Use Project sites May 29.

Because a majority of the FPUD board members were present, it was legally required to be a noticed public hearing and the tour was officially a special meeting of the FPUD board. Although members of the public were welcome to attend they would have been required to remain in their own cars or trucks due to the coronavirus quarantine, but they would have been able to hear the audio communications.

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Arizona Housing Growth Tees Up Opportunity For Water Investors

/in , /by /KUNC Coloradoby Bret Jaspers

Central Arizona has been booming — more people, more houses, more need for water. There’s also a long-term drought, and less water to buy from the Central Arizona Project canal system . It’s leading Phoenix exurbs to cast about, looking for new buckets.

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PFAS Management to Drive $12.1 Billion in Water Utility Spending Over Next Decade

/in , , /by /WaterWorld Magazine

Mounting public concerns and new state regulations in the U.S. are compelling water & wastewater utilities to address health risks associated with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) – a class of pervasive chemicals found in drinking water and wastewater biproducts.

According to a new report from Bluefield Research, PFAS: The Next Challenge for Water Utilities, more than US $3 billion is forecasted to be spent annually on drinking water remediation technologies by 2030. While any significant increase in water treatment solutions hinges on federal policies, 29 states have already implemented a mix of policy directives, including testing requirements, prohibitions on product applications (e.g., food packaging), and the elimination of select fiirefighting foam constituents.

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The Past, Present and Future of California’s Groundwater

/in , , /by /Water in the West (Stanford University)by Michelle Horton

A century after the state began overseeing surface water, the California legislature enacted a set of three laws regulating water below the surface. The passage of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) in 2014, granted the state official oversight authority of groundwater. However, its involvement existed long before SGMA and continues to influence current policies and regulation of the resource. A new paper published in Society and Natural Resources, examines how the state’s ongoing involvement helped shape current policies by looking at the 120-year history of California’s role in groundwater management and policy development.

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Could the Answer to Groundwater Resources Come From High in the Sky?

/in , , /by /Berkeley Labby Christina Procopiou

Groundwater makes up 30 to 50 percent of California’s water supply, but until recently there were few restrictions placed on its retrieval. Then in 2014 California became the last Western state to require regulation of its groundwater. With deadlines starting this year, for the first time water managers in the nation’s premier agricultural region – the state’s Central Valley – are tasked with estimating available groundwater. It’s a daunting technological challenge.

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California Assembly Passes Expedited Dam Safety for Silicon Valley Act

/in , , /by /Engineering News-Recordby Tim Newcomb

In an effort to move forward a $576 million Anderson Dam Seismic Retrofit Project, the California State Assembly passed AB 3005 on June 8, the Expedited Dam Safety for Silicon Valley Act, facilitating the construction of the project.

Assemblyman Robert Rivas (D-Hollister, Calif.), who wrote the bill, says the overwhelming vote of bipartisan support shows the importance in fixing the dam. “The clock is ticking on a catastrophic dam failure in case of a large earthquake,” he says, “and we can’t allow bureaucratic delay to increase risks to public safety, water security and environmental protections.”

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