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    GrokSurf's San Diego by George J. Janczyn is produced under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. Anything on this blog copied and used elsewhere online must include attribution and a link to the original on this blog, or a citation with the URL if reprinted on hard copy.

     

     

Archive for the ‘Water’ Category

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San Diego regional water news roundup May 22-31, 2012

Posted by George J. Janczyn on June 1, 2012

A selected roundup of news related to San Diego regional water issues. Click headlines for the full story at originating website.


Recycled water getting another look / U-T San Diego : “Expanding facilities to recycle about 100 million gallons of wastewater per day could create a major drought-proof water supply for San Diego, according to a new two-year study being reviewed today at City Hall. Options outlined in the latest plan would reduce wastewater outflows from Point Loma by roughly half and slash the cost of “secondary” upgrades by more than 37 percent, according to city figures.”
OCEANSIDE: $116.3 million spending plan tentatively set by council / North County Times : “The council…tentatively agreed to a nearly $54 million water and a $30.4 million sewer budget, which Water Utilities Director Cari Dale said included a tentative 7 percent increase in water rates and a tentative 3.5 percent increase in sewer fees. Dale said water and sewer fees, which were last raised in January, were going up because of rate increases the city is getting from its suppliers, the Metropolitan Water District based in Los Angeles and the San Diego County Water Authority.”

More water to be shipped to California; good news for avocado growers / North County Times : “In a rare piece of good news for water-short California, the state has raised this year’s estimated water shipments from the State Water Project to 65 percent of normal, up from 60 percent announced on April 16. The project is one of two main sources of water for Southern California. Its water is especially sought after by farmers because it is lower in salt than the other main source, the Colorado River. Southern California avocado growers cannot use undiluted Colorado River water because it contains too much salt.”
Carlsbad desal plant needs more public workshops, board told / North County Times : “Two or three months should suffice to wrap up negotiations over a proposed Carlsbad desalination plant, board members of the San Diego County Water Authority were told this week.”

Final draft of San Diego water-reuse scheme published / Desalination & Water Reuse Quarterly : “The fundamental focus of the study was to develop water-reuse alternatives and weigh these against other options – with particular focus on the water-supply benefits and the cost savings through reduced wastewater systems operations and improvements.”
Water rate hike hearing set for June 28 / North County Times : “San Diego County Water Authority will hold a public hearing on June 28 regarding a proposed 9.6 percent rate increase. The Water Authority says about half the increase pays for a rate hike from one of its suppliers, Metropolitan Water District. The rest it attributes to a need for increased payment on its debt, along with increased imports of water from the Imperial Valley.”

Improving the flow to use recycled water / U-T San Diego : “Every year California dumps enough wastewater into the ocean to fill Lake Oroville, one of the state’s largest sources of drinking water. Even thirsty San Diego pours thousands of gallons of wastewater into the Pacific off Point Loma every day. The reasons this supply-starved state wastes so much wastewater are both simple and substantial. And that’s where legislation carried by Assemblyman Ben Hueso, D-San Diego, comes in.”
San Vicente Dam Raise Project – tensile strength testing on existing dam and trial placement / Proceedings of the 2012 United States Society on Dams : “A full scale RCC trial placement was constructed using the same aggregate used to construct the existing concrete dam. Several 6-inch-diameter cores were extracted for direct tensile and unconfined compression strength testing. This paper presents the results of that coring program and how these results were used to confirm the RCC mix design for construction.”

Ocean desal backers exaggerate permit burden / DC Bureau : “In late April, backers of a bill to create a state task force with the goal of streamlining the process claimed desalination plants require up to 30 permits in California to gain approval. However, Sara Kristie, legislative director for the California Coastal Commission, one of the agencies needed for approval, told lawmakers that claim was a gross exaggeration.”
Water-reuse bill to be debated in California assembly / D&WR : “Bill AB 2398, proposed by San Diego’s Democrat assemblyman Ben Hueso, would establish a statewide goal to recycle a total of 1.5 million acre-feet (1,850 million m³) of water per year by the year 2020 and 2.5 million acre-feet (3,085 million m³) per year by the year 2030…Potable reuse through public water supplies via raw water augmentation would be allowed under permits issued by the Department of Health.”

SB&O weighs in on storm water mitigation / Building Industry Association of San Diego : “Storm water mitigation has become one of the biggest costs to land development, and unfortunately, it is not fully understood by all developers…Below are a couple of things that may be useful in considering the realm of storm water mitigation…”
EPA funds training program at Mexican border treatment plants / U-T San Diego : “Wastewater treatment plant operators in Tijuana and Mexicali are slated to receive training in coming weeks through a new program funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.”

County lien puts RMWD solar project in jeopardy / Ramona Sentinal : “What appeared to be a win-win, no-cost energy-savings proposition to the Ramona Municipal Water District board two years ago has left the directors in a no-win situation. The solar project for the San Vicente wastewater treatment plant cannot proceed due to a county lien on the property and, with a California Solar Initiative (CSI) deadline looming, the district could lose its $10,000 rebate reservation refund.”
San Diego Coastkeeper launches smart phone app to help beachgoers find healthy beaches in San Diego County / Scoop San Diego : “San Diego Coastkeeper launched San Diego County’s version of the interactive Swim Guide, an online and smart phone app to help beachgoers, swimmers, surfers and boaters find healthy stretches of sand and coastal waters along the region’s coastline. The new app also includes access to water quality data for more than 400 beaches in California and more than 1,300 beaches in North America.”

ENCINITAS: Grand jury faults storm drain strategy / North County Times : “The San Diego County Grand Jury on Tuesday urged the city of Encinitas to create a comprehensive plan to improve storm drains in flood-prone Leucadia. “Leucadia’s existing storm water infrastructure is inadequate to handle the chronic rainwater flooding along Highway 101,” the jury said in a press release announcing its latest report.”
Water reclamation: managing our water inventory (PDF) / San Diego County Grand Jury : “How can San Diego County reservoirs get refilled without water imports and without rain? Currently over 85 percent of our water is imported from Northern California and the Colorado River. Our demand has grown as our needs have steadily increased. The question of future supply has plagued local water officials for decades. Conservation programs throughout the region have been in place for some time. The City of Carlsbad has been developing a desalinization plant for direct conversion of seawater. But another idea has come forward in recent times.”

High-profile panel starts to rethink city water strategy / U-T San Diego : “A newly minted group of tourism officials, lawyers, scientists and others today will start trying to fashion San Diego’s water future. The 11-member board, approved last week by the City Council, was designed to put into action recommendations outlined in the Comprehensive Water Policy adopted unanimously by the council in October.”
Assembly approves bill on water recycling / Association of California Water Agencies : “A bill that would make sweeping changes to state regulation of recycled water was approved on the Assembly floor on May 29. AB 2398 by Assembly Member Ben Hueso (D-Chula Vista) would enact the Water Recycling Act of 2012 and… [would] simplify and standardize recycled water permitting in California, including criteria for the Department of Public Health to permit potable reuse projects, to reflect current scientific understanding and advances in treatment technology.”

Sewage leak at Sunset Cliffs Natural Park / San Diego Reader : “Over the Memorial Day weekend, park visitors to the hillside section of Sunset Cliffs Natural Park found one of trails closed, with yellow caution tape and signs that indicated a sewage leak had occurred. The trail is located below the Loop Road and above the Multi-Use Trail (“sludge line trail”), east of “the Badlands.”
Sandy Kerl, San Diego County Water Authority (video interview) / KPBS : “Sandy Kerl, Deputy General Manager for the San Diego County Water Authority, talks to KPBS about water rates.”

 

Posted in Regional water news roundups, Water | Leave a Comment »

Report on groundwater contamination at Patrick Henry High School filed by San Diego County Grand Jury

Posted by George J. Janczyn on May 31, 2012

Background and current status of the groundwater contamination detected ten years ago from leaking underground storage tanks (removed long ago) at the former Union 76 gas station across the street from Patrick Henry High School is documented in this report recently filed by the San Diego County Grand Jury.

(email subscribers may need to click to the web post in order to see the embedded Scribd document)

 

Posted in Environment, Water | Tagged: , , | Leave a Comment »

Purified recycled water…it’s perfectly clear

Posted by George J. Janczyn on May 29, 2012

Here’s a nicely done educational/promotional video (just over 5 minutes) from the San Diego County Water Authority with the collaboration of the Escondido Water District, Helix Water District, Padre Dam Municipal Water District, and the City of San Diego.

These agencies are working hard to take advantage of purified recycled water to reduce our dependence on imported water, create the potential to improve the quality of the raw supplies now imported, reduce the amount of wastewater discarded into the ocean, and ultimately reduce the cost of water relative to imported water.

(if you’re a GrokSurf email subscriber, the video may not run in your mail program. In that case, just click on the title of the post to go to the web version)

 

Posted in Environment, Videos, Water | Tagged: , | 2 Comments »

Advances in water recycling approved by San Diego City Council NR&C Committee

Posted by George J. Janczyn on May 24, 2012

The San Diego City Council Natural Resources and Culture Committee (NR&C) approved on Wednesday (May 23) two substantial reports that recommend how recycled water can be used more effectively in the future as San Diego struggles with ways to reduce its extreme dependence on imported water that is becoming an increasingly expensive and less reliable source [link to the agenda].

According to the Recycled Water Master Plan, its purpose “is to evaluate opportunities to maximize non-potable reuse [of recycled water treated to tertiary standards] if IPR (Indirect Potable Reuse) projects are not pursued” [emphasis in italics is mine].

IPR refers to a series of advanced treatment processes applied to the tertiary water that results in purified water that is in essence distilled water and then to store that water in an underground aquifer or to blend it with imported raw water in an above-surface reservoir.

Nonpotable recycled water, of course, is limited to use in specific agricultural, irrigation, and certain industrial settings. A separate pipeline infrastructure must be built to deliver that water (“purple pipe water”), and you definitely can’t drink it.

This blog post, therefore, focuses on the subject of the companion to the Recycled Water Master Plan, the City of San Diego’s Recycled Water Study.

After considering a number of options, the Recycled Water Study mainly examined two possible ways IPR projects can be pursued in San Diego: 1) use IPR water to recharge groundwater resources, or 2) mix it with imported water that is piped into and stored in local reservoirs (sometimes referred to as “reservoir augmentation”). IPR, as you probably know, results in water that is of higher quality than the water we import from the Colorado River and Northern California and it can be used for any purpose, including for drinking, and delivered using our existing potable water infrastructure.

Another option examined in the Recycled Water Study, Direct Potable Reuse (DPR)–which would deliver the purified recycled water directly into the water distribution system instead of mixing it with imported reservoir water—has not been well-studied and would be difficult to implement without the development of new statewide regulations, so the study concludes it is not on the table for the near future in San Diego.

The Recycled Water Study envisions that continuous increases in the price of imported water along with decreased reliability and availability of imported supplies will soon make the relatively expensive IPR process competitive with imported prices (it’s already competitive with, if not cheaper than, the cost of desalinated water)…and will eventually be dramatically less expensive than imported supplies.

The Recycled Water Study was the outgrowth of an agreement between San Diego Coastkeeper, the San Diego Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation, and the City of San Diego, whereby the environmental groups agreed not to oppose the EPA’s Regional Water Board’s, and Coastal Commisssion’s approval of San Diego’s Clean Water Act waiver that allows the Point Loma Wastewater Treatment Plant to continue discharging into the ocean the sewage receiving only Advanced Primary instead of Secondary treatment. The waiver expires in 2015, with an application due a year before expiration, so time is of the essence.

If San Diego chooses not to pursue upgrades to the Point Loma treatment plant to full Secondary treatment standards before the expiration of the current waiver, there is widespread speculation that the governmental agencies are not likely to renew the waiver and the city could face huge financial penalties AND be faced with a full upgrade to the treatment plant.

Upgrading Point Loma to Secondary treatment at its current load would be exceedingly expensive partly because of the large wastewater flow it receives and partly because there’s little room to expand on the limited hillside space it occupies facing the ocean along Point Loma’s western slope.

So…the Recycled Water Study envisions that if enough water is recycled, particularly via the advanced IPR treatment process, a good deal less wastewater would be sent to Point Loma. Point Loma then would be burdened with treating less wastewater and it would be much less expensive to upgrade to Secondary treatment standards. In that scenario, the city could even apply for federal financial assistance to upgrade Point Loma to Secondary treatment. If nothing is done and the waiver expires, the city would face large fines, be forced to upgrade to Secondary treatment at greater ratepayer expense and would not be eligible for federal financial assistance.

The Recycled Water Study concludes that groundwater recharge opportunities are extremely limited given San Diego’s geography. As such, using IPR water for reservoir augmentation is the most realistic option for San Diego to incorporate purified recycled water into its its potable water portfolio.

(the above photos show a portion of the advanced treatment facility being used for the Water Purification Demonstration Project. Click to enlarge)

Therefore, a Water Purification Demonstration Project examining the feasibility of using the IPR process focusing on reservoir augmentation by the City of San Diego is currently underway. A prototype advanced treatment facility at the North City Water Reclamation Plant is producing a limited amount of IPR water while a parallel scientific study is being conducted on the feasibility of blending IPR water with imported water in the San Vicente Reservoir.

When the Demonstration Project is completed, a number of unfinished regulations and guidelines addressing IPR must be approved by federal, state, and local agencies before San Diego can implement IPR reservoir augmentation on a large scale.

One problem with the NR&C vote on Wednesday, though, is that the committee simply “approved” both reports to advance to the City Council. The motion to approve both plans made no recommendation as to which plan to implement; that is, whether to commit to nonpotable recycling in the future, or recommend a combination of nonpotable recycling and IPR projects.

This decision tree from the Recycled Water Master Plan illustrates the issue:

There was, however, some indication of the direction towards which the committee leans on this question.

During discussion before the vote, Councilmember Sherri Lightner appeared to favor developing a balanced plan, incorporating nonpotable and potable recycled water, especially since a significant amount of nonpotable water infrastructure already exists and there are contracts and plans already in place to expand that form of recycled water use.

Another issue is that the Recycled Water Study raises the possibility of a much larger capacity facility to produce the advanced treatment product water (or several new satellite IPR facilities) to achieve a goal of producing as much as 100 million gallons per day (GPD) of IPR water, and it implies that because the San Vicente Dam Raise Project will more than double the capacity of the reservoir, there would be capacity to handle it.

That raised a question in my mind, which I decided to ask during the public comment portion of the NR&C meeting: the fact being that the County Water Authority (CWA) is building the San Vicente Dam raise and it will own the rights to the additional capacity. Would CWA buy IPR water from the city or fill it with imported water? And if all the water in the reservoir will be mixed, would it then be delivered to all the CWA member water agencies…and would they be agreeable? I also suggested that due to the close proximity of El Capitan Reservoir (currently San Diego’s largest), why not consider using both San Vicente and El Capitan as receiving reservoirs for IPR water?

Later, during committee discussion, Councilmember and committee chair David Alvarez asked PUD staff about that. Assistant PUD Director Marsi Steirer allowed that San Diego would only be adding IPR water to the portion of the reservoir capacity that the city owns…and that if the city eventually did produce up to 100 mgd of IPR water, its portion of San Vicente reservoir could consist entirely of IPR water. My question regarding El Capitan was not addressed at that time, but I’ve since learned it was a point of discussion during production of the report.

Ms. Steirer later sent me email addressing that question. With her permission, I’m reprinting a portion of her reply here:

There are two principle reasons El Capitan Reservoir is not as good a choice for reservoir augmentation as San Vicente Reservoir: storage volume and distance.

Storage volume
The greatest value – the best use – of El Capitan Reservoir is to capture local runoff. The El Capitan Catchment [the land area that drains to the reservoir] generates the greatest amount of runoff of any reservoir in the San Diego region. In our region rainfall and runoff are highly variable. Much of El Capitan’s runoff occurs in the occasional high rainfall year; something like two years per decade have abundant runoff and the reservoir fills up. We then store this runoff water for use over several years. For this reason, our operational scheme for El Capitan is to keep storage space available in the reservoir in anticipation of high runoff years. The average runoff to El Capitan is 28,000 AFY.

San Vicente Reservoir, on the other hand, is primarily filled with imported water. The San Vicente Catchment does not generate much runoff. The average runoff to San Vicente is 4,000 AFY.

Basically, we keep San Vicente full with imported water and El Capitan relatively empty to capture local runoff.

[Note that in recent years – starting in 2008 and extending to 2018 – El Capitan has been more full than typical. San Vicente has been drawn down to facilitate construction of the new dam. We have compensated by storing more imported water at El Capitan. When San Vicente is completed and refilled, we will return to the typical operation at El Capitan.]

So, while El Capitan has a large total capacity [113,000 AF] the amount of water typically stored there is relatively small. The average long-term storage in El Capitan is about 40,000 AF. Compare this to the average storage in the future expanded San Vicente of about 180,000 AF.

San Vicente is a better choice for reservoir augmentation simply because it is larger. El Capitan, because it stores a smaller volume, does not offer the same level of retention, blending, and response time.

Distance
Constructing a pipeline to carry IPR water to El Capitan would be a difficult and costly endeavor. Conveying IPR water from North City to El Capitan would require eight to twelve miles of additional pipeline, and it would necessarily route through difficult terrain and environmentally sensitive areas.

But El Capitan isn’t entirely out of the question: Ms. Steirer also pointed out that the San Diego Reservoir Intertie Study although currently on hold due to U.S. funding constraints, includes plans to consider a connection between San Vicente and El Capitan. The conclusion, she says, is “if an intertie were established either directly or indirectly between San Vicente and El Capitan, we assume that it could accommodate a larger capacity IPR/RA project.”

Councilmember Alavarez also commented that he believes that IPR is 100% the only solution he believes will work to solve the issue of increasing local water supply and reliability, as well as dealing with the Point Loma plant upgrade.

It’s not certain when this item will be docketed for the full City Council, but a condition of the Coastal Commisssion’s approval of the last waiver was that the Study be presented in approximately two years, and that deadline is fast approaching. The City is also pressured to act quickly, because even if the Demonstration Project concludes successfully and the city promptly moves to develop a large-scale IPR operation, it certainly won’t be finished, and most likely construction wouldn’t even be started, by 2015. Therefore, the only way for the City to be assured it will qualify for one or more additional waivers would be to get an approval and timeline in place to implement a significant amount of IPR, and thus justify the delay in upgrading the Point Loma treatment plant.

 

Related local news reports:

 

Posted in Environment, Water | Tagged: , , , , | 3 Comments »

San Diego regional water news roundup May 15-21, 2012

Posted by George J. Janczyn on May 22, 2012

A selected roundup of news related to San Diego regional water issues. Click headlines for the full story at originating website.


Landmark water deal comes under scrutiny / U-T San Diego : “An alliance of Imperial Valley residents and former San Diego City Attorney Mike Aguirre on Tuesday released a report that criticized the Imperial Irrigation District and raised questions about the landmark 2003 sale of water to the San Diego County Water Authority. It said the Quantification Settlement Agreement between San Diego and the Imperial Irrigation District was a “give-away of important IID property rights.””
RMWD plans water, sewer rate hikes / Ramona Sentinal : “Ramona Municipal Water District (RMWD) customers should be receiving notices in the mail with the district’s proposed “not-to-exceed” 8.4 percent treated water rate increase and 3.5 percent sewer rate increase for fiscal year 2012-2013.”

Dam raise reaches benchmark [photo gallery] / U-T San Diego : “The San Diego County Water Authority project to raise the height of the San Vicente dam from 220 feet to 337 feet reached a benchmark this week when workers adding on the the existing dam reached the top with a thick layer of roller compacted concrete. Each day from here on out until the projected completion date of early 2013 the increasing height brings it closer to its final status as the largest dam of its type in the world. When completed, the dam will store more than two times the amount of water that it previously held. “
Water Authority announces proposed water rates for calendar year 2013 / San Diego County Water Authority : “Driven by rate increases from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and the Water Authority’s investments in more reliable water supplies and infrastructure projects, San Diego County Water Authority staff on May 16 proposed an “all-in” 9.6 percent increase in the cost of untreated water purchased by its 24 member agencies 2013. The Water Authority Board of Directors is scheduled to hold a public hearing and to vote on the proposal at its June 28, 2012 meeting.”

Donna Frye: the connections between water, city Loans, and Prop A / OB Rag : “[Since 1999] The City has received approximately $160,000,000 in low interest loans under the SRF [State Revolving Fund] Program. Utilizing the SRF 20-year loan program, approved loans of $29 million and $80 million, since July 1, 2007, will result in savings of approximately $78 million when compared to traditional 30-year bond financing. But if Proposition A passes, these low interest loans are just one of many state funds that could be a thing of the past for San Diego because state legislation precludes cities in California that have bans on Project Labor Agreements (PLAs) for public works projects from receiving any state construction funding. This creates a significant financial risk for the public and the city…. State Controller John Chiang…said “If Prop A passes, San Diego would no longer be eligible to receive state grants for local construction projects.””
County OKs road agreement with RMWD / Ramona Sentinal “San Diego County Board of Supervisors approved an agreement with Ramona Municipal Water District for the relocation of waterlines as part of the San Vicente Road improvements. The Ramona district is responsible for the approximate $2.3 million cost to relocate the waterlines, but it will fund the work during the course of the project rather than with a lump sum in advance of the work, according to a county report.”

Candidate scribes water ratepayer ‘Bill of Rights’ / NBC San Diego : “Carl DeMaio said Monday he would use his mayor’s veto power to shoot down certain Council-approved water-rate increases, if elected. As the city’s next mayor, he said, he would veto any rate hike approved by the Council without a six-vote super majority. “Everything that comes out of Carl DeMaio’s mouth between now and election day is going to be disconnected from reality and is going to be sheer demagoguery in order to get votes,” said Alex Roth, Deputy Mayoral Press Secretary. “And I think everybody should sort of consider it as such.”
Sewage plan envisions massive expansion of wastewater recycling / Voice of San Diego : [A Recycled Water Study Final] “report calls for a major, multi-billion-dollar expansion of San Diego’s water-reuse infrastructure, with new purification facilities…A two-year city study, due to be presented to a City Council committee Wednesday, answers that question and other big unknowns, like how much it would cost…”

 

Posted in Regional water news roundups, Water | Leave a Comment »

San Diego gets “B” grades from ASCE on its water and wastewater infrastructure

Posted by George J. Janczyn on May 15, 2012

I recently came across a news release (New Report Shows San Diego’s Infrastructure Needs Attention) from the San Diego Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) announcing an updated 2012 San Diego County Infrastructure Report Card evaluating a wide variety of regional infrastructure topics including valuable perspective where water matters are concerned.

Although San Diego’s County’s overall grade declined slightly from ASCE’s 2005 report card, the water and wastewater grades have shown some improvement with two Bs and a B+.

The chart on the right compares the grades between the 2005 and 2012 reports:

To produce the report, the ASCE Report Card Team assembled 11 working teams of over 100 expert engineers from the public and private sector to spend a year assessing San Diego’s infrastructure in a variety of categories: aviation, bridges, land and sea ports of entry, levees/flood control/urban drainage, parks/recreation/environment, K-12 school facilities, solid waste, surface transportation, wastewater/collection system, wastewater/treatment, and water.

San Diego’s management of water and wastewater (and associated costs) has been a growing topic of public and political discussion lately, especially as the election season progresses. One mayoral candidate in particular has continuously criticized the Public Utilities Department and reportedly would like to see the entire operation privatized. The County Water Authority’s lawsuit against the Metropolitan Water District on water prices, developments in the Quantification Settlement Agreement (QSA) lawsuit, and Councilmember Lightner’s recently adopted new water policy for the city are other examples of topics that have been regularly in the news, although often in a sensational way.

Objective, non-political information has been difficult to find. The ASCE Report Card helps put lots of these issues in sober perspective.

Following the break are report summaries for each grade given, followed by excerpts from the more detailed discussion further in the report.

Read the rest of this entry »

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San Diego regional water news roundup May 8-14, 2012

Posted by George J. Janczyn on May 15, 2012

A selected roundup of news related to San Diego regional water issues. Click headlines for the full story at originating website.


Commission takes look at Tijuana River (USA) / Dredging Today : ““It’s not the fences that matter, it’s the gates,” Dave Gibson told attendees at the U.S. International Border and Water Commission collaborative meeting held here April 19 at the Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve.”
Carlsbad family cuts water use by 40,000 gallons / Carlsbad Patch : “Amy Graham of Carlsbad was awarded top prize among Olivenhain Municipal Water District customers in San Diego County’s ninth-annual California Friendly Landscape Contest. OMWD’s Board of Directors recognized Ms. Graham and her family at its May 2 meeting.”

The San Diego Reader recently published their take on the border sewage issues in Imperial Beach / Tijuana River Action Network : “It took local Surfers and activists from Surfrider and Wildcoast to get Federal and County officials to finally notify the public about a sewage spill from the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant(SBIWTP).”
Be WaterSm”ART” essay contest / San Diego County Water Authority : “Who participated: Students in San Diego County, Grade 2 – Grade 6. Students wrote an essay, poem, or letter (50-250 words) along with one drawing sharing their response to the phrase, “Being watersmart is cool because….” [story shows all the entries plus the winners and their prizes]

Water bills already too high? They’re about to soar / North County Times : “Think your water bills are already too high? Maintenance for aging pipelines, aqueducts, pumps and other infrastructure, along with new construction for an expanding population, will send bills soaring.”
FPUD public hearing set for June 20 on rate increases / Fallbrook Village News : “The board of directors for the Fallbrook Public Utility District (FPUD) will conduct a public hearing on June 20 to consider the adoption of proposed water and wastewater rate changes. According to FPUD general manager Brian Brady, a percentage increase of 12 to 13 percent can be anticipated by customers of the water district, and the changes would take effect on July 1.”

Water Talks: San Diego County’s connection to the Colorado River [video] / San Diego County Water Authority : “Halla Razak, P.E., Colorado River Program Director at the Water Authority provides an overview of the Quantification Settlement Agreement, the associated canal linings and the benefits to the San Diego. ” [See also Slides from the presentation]
Global warming law and Metropolitan Water District rates: A followup / North County Times : “My article about the potential $10 million to $50 million annual cost to Metropolitan Water District from California’s global warming law, AB 32, drew an aptly critical response from Larry Farwell of Santa Barbara. He wanted to know more about just how much the added cost would mean to the average ratepayer, information I did not include. Still, I should have given readers some idea of what magnitude of rate increase was probable.”

Water Conservation Advisory Board talks on saving water continue / Imperial Valley Press : “The Imperial Irrigation District is still looking for farmers who are willing to fallow as it looks to fill at least 170,000 acre-feet of water….subcommittees were tasked with talking over how to improve the fallowing program and come up with contracts for on-farm conservation, both needed to transfer water to San Diego.”
Inland Empire water agency wades into water war / Redlands Daily Facts : “Claremont-based Three Valleys Municipal Water District has joined the legal action on the side of Metropolitan, accusing plaintiff San Diego County Water Authority of bungling a water purchase from Imperial County and trying to make MWD’s 26 water agencies pay for the blunder.”

 

Posted in Regional water news roundups, Water | Leave a Comment »

San Diego’s connection to the Colorado River

Posted by George J. Janczyn on May 12, 2012

Halla Razak, P.E., Colorado River Program Director at the San Diego County Water Authority (SDCWA) provides an overview of the Quantification Settlement Agreement, the associated canal linings and the benefits to the San Diego area.

(Slides shown on the video are unclear; clear slides via Slideshare are shown below, you can just follow along by clicking through the slideshow):

[video and slides were produced by SDCWA. I'm only posting the two products together here so you can watch the slides and video at the same time...and also to help distribute the presentation from the very knowledgeable and well-spoken Halla Razak]

 

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San Diego regional water news roundup May 1-7, 2012

Posted by George J. Janczyn on May 8, 2012

A selected roundup of news related to San Diego regional water issues. Click headlines for the full story at originating website.


Local water agency wades into water war / sgvtribune.com : “One of the San Gabriel Valley’s biggest wholesale water districts has jumped into a water war being waged by San Diego County against the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. Three Valleys Municipal Water District has joined the legal action on the side of Metropolitan, accusing plaintiff San Diego County Water Authority of bungling a side water purchase from Imperial County and trying to make MWD’s 26 water agencies pay for the blunder.”
Report on SD water rates is flashpoint / KPBS : “A report issued this week, “The Cost of Water in San Diego: The IID Transfer And SDCWA Water Rates,” makes for riveting reading for water historians and employees of water districts. It’s pretty interesting for consumers, too. [includes video of an interview with UCSD's Steve Erie, co-author of the report, from the KPBS program Evening Edition]“

In successful test, microsubmarines help clean up oil spills / POPSCI (Popular Science) : “Joseph Wang at the University of California−San Diego and colleagues in Spain note that small tubular micro-machines have already proven useful in biology, with their ability to work as receptors or drug delivery systems. But they’re the first team to test them as environmental helpers. Tiny, self-propelled microsubmarines could pick up and tote droplets of oil away from contaminated waters…. The cone-shaped objects are extremely water-repellent, improving their oil-grabbing capabilities, and could serve as simple helpers in oil spills.”
District considers projects to better handle emergencies / Ramona Sentinal : “Ramona Municipal Water District (RMWD) is researching options to better handle emergencies that would affect its water customers. A call response system and an additional power source for the district’s pump station in Poway were discussed at the board’s April 24 meeting.”

Colorado River activism grows / La Prensa San Diego : ““We need to focus on collaboration and compromise,” said Gary Wockner of the Save the Colorado River campaign. “The U.S. and Mexico have a historic opportunity to meet their own water needs while allotting a small flow back to the river.” Groups signing on to the Colorado River Delta letter included the Sierra Club, Save the Colorado, Sonoran Institute, San Diego Coastkeeper and Defenders of Wildlife, among others.”
San Diego’s water pipeline proposal a pipedream to some Imperial Valley locals / Imperial Valley Press : “The San Diego County Water Authority board has reinvigorated the idea of having a pipeline to transfer water from the Imperial Valley to San Diego. While the idea is not new — it initially was studied between 1996 and 2002 — it is being brought back as the authority looks into its regional water planning.”

Water board backers protest proposal / U-T San Diego : “Efforts to save money and improve efficiency in Sacramento threaten to diminish water pollution enforcement in San Diego, according to environmental groups and others. They are lobbying the state Legislature to preserve the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board, which has pushed for major pollution cleanups in San Diego Bay, the Tijuana River Valley and elsewhere.”
ESCONDIDO: Some blame water fluoridation for March chemical spill / North County Times : “A Palomar College professor and some local residents say Escondido’s tap-water fluoridation program might be to blame for a March 26 chemical spill that could cost the city more than $2 million. But Utilities Director Chris McKinney said this week that the spill and resulting damage would have occurred with or without water fluoridation.”

The Bay’s overlooked pollution problem / Voice of San Diego : “The traces of debris are one of many pollution problems facing the bay, which for decades served as a dumping ground for toxic chemicals and raw sewage.”
San Diego wheels, deals and sues for water / Cal Watchdog : “San Diego’s recent transfer of excess agricultural water from Imperial County has been the only major addition to urban water sources for Southern California for decades. The transfer is the largest agriculture-to-urban water transfer in U.S. history. And it originated in the lining of irrigation canals by the San Diego County Water Authority. This resulted in bringing enough previously wasted farm water to serve 1.2 million people in the San Diego area. But a partially market-driven water system, as recently proposed by economist Art Laffer, might offer a better solution to California’s dysfunctional water system.”

Fears of gene pollution emerge in TJ River / U-T San Diego : “In the sewage-laced sediment of the Tijuana River Valley, Cummings and his students have uncovered an array of genes that help their bacteria hosts survive shots of penicillin, quinolines and other fundamental infection-fighting antibiotics. Over time, he fears the DNA could worm its way into bacteria that infect humans and undermine some of the world’s most widely prescribed medicines.”
Otay Water District appoints Mitch Thompson to Board Of Directors / La Mesa-Mount Helix Patch : “Director Thompson will represent Division 2, which encompasses Otay Mesa, as well as the Sunbow, Rancho Del Rey and Otay communities of the city of Chula Vista, for the remaining eight months of the seat’s term.”

Blocked manhole causes sewage spill / U-T San Diego : “Concrete pieces stuffed in a manhole in a vacant field near Grand Avenue and Linda Vista Drive caused a sewage spill today in San Marcos, the Vallecitos Water District said. An estimated 3,450 gallons of wastewater spilled into a storm channel tributary to San Marcos Creek.”

 

Posted in Regional water news roundups, Water | Leave a Comment »

San Diego regional water news roundup Apr 24-30, 2012

Posted by George J. Janczyn on May 1, 2012

A selected roundup of news related to San Diego regional water issues. Click headlines for the full story at originating website.


Fees and anger rise in California water war / New York Times : “There are accusations of conspiracies, illegal secret meetings and double-dealing. Embarrassing documents and e-mails have been posted on an official Web site emblazoned with the words “Fact vs. Fiction.” Animosities have grown so deep that the players have resorted to exchanging lengthy, caustic letters, packed with charges of lying and distortion.”
Low cost desalination? Call off the hunt, we are there. / Cleantech blog : “It is often reported that somewhere between 20-30% of the energy use in California is associated with moving water. This highlights that fact that collecting, treating and transporting water, not matter what way you go about it, consumes energy. As our cities continue to grow and we transport water every longer distances, that gap between the energy footprint of so called ‘conventional water’ and desalinated water is going to continue to narrow.”

South County sewage spill problems continue /
U-T San Diego : “South County beaches remain closed 20 days after a major sewage spill caused by a software malfunction and operator error at a sewage plant in San Ysidro.”
Water Authority extends temporary agricultural water rate program for two years / San Diego County Water Authority : “Today the San Diego County Water Authority Board of Directors approved extending a temporary agricultural water rate program through January 1, 2015. The action provides the region’s agriculture industry with a measure of economic relief while providing urban water customers increased protection from water shortages.”

Santee Lakes Regional Park / San Diego Reader : “The lakes at Santee Lakes Regional Park were built on 190 acres by the Padre Dam Municipal Water District in the 1960s to handle the wastewater disposal issues of a growing suburban community. The way in which the problem was handled was unique and ahead of its time. What started out as a wastewater treatment facility became a series of seven man-made lakes that are clean enough and attractive enough for a public park and resort-like activities.”
Dried Salton Sea could produce ‘clouds of toxic dust’ under San Diego Water Authority plan / Huffington Post : “It was an accident that turned into an oasis in the southern California desert, but before long the Salton Sea may be gone for good. And its demise might also pose health and environmental risks for residents and wildlife.”

Two million gallons of sewage hit TJ River — again / U-T San Diego : “A second sewage release of 2 million gallons in less than a month has fouled the Tijuana River, one of the most polluted waterways in the country. [...] the leak lasted for about 12 hours until midnight Tuesday and was caused by a broken sewer line near Mexico’s Rio Alamar, which drains to the Tijuana River and eventually the Pacific Ocean.”
Pomerado Road work encounters problems / Pomerado News : “The completion of road work being done by the City of San Diego on Pomerado Road has been delayed until next month by the discovery of unexpected utilities…The construction project, which is the installation of a secondary force main pipe at Sewer Pump Station #75 at Stone Canyon and Pomerado roads, is one of 12 being installed around the City of San Diego.”

Report confirms motivations behind $3 billion cost shift – West Basin participates in report to protect rate payers / EON: Enhanced Online News : “A Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC) report, commissioned by seven Metropolitan Water District (Met) member agencies and released yesterday, confirms that San Diego County Water Authority (SDCWA) is paying more for water purchased from Imperial Irrigation District (IID) than it would have paid for the same amount of water from Met…SDCWA still paid an average of $644 per acre-foot while Met was charging $451 per acre-foot.”
FPUD, RMWD consider merger of district / Fallbrook Village News : “The boards of trustees for both Fallbrook Public Utility District (FPUD) and Rainbow Municipal Water District (RMWD) have discussed the possibility of merging the two water districts as a way to combat ever-increasing water costs at their respective board meetings held earlier this week. [...] an ad hoc committee made up of directors and general managers from both districts has looked at and evaluated all aspects of reorganization and concluded that not only would a merger save money, it would also make the operations of the organization more efficient.”

Boundary commission to discuss sewage problems / U-T San Diego : “U.S. officials will discuss recent sewage-control problems on the Tijuana River at a public meeting at 6 p.m. on May 10. The U.S. Section of the International Boundary and Water Commission will hold the meeting at the Tijuana Estuary Meeting Room, 301 Caspian Way, Imperial Beach.”
Saga of California’s Salton Sea: a tragic chapter ahead? / Christian Science Monitor : “the body of water, created during a huge flood in 1905 in which distant Colorado River water coursed into a desert basin, will shrink much faster in coming years than it has been. As the shallow lake dries out, contaminants from decades of agricultural runoff – such as selenium and arsenic – will be exposed and, whipped by high winds, carried far afield, threatening the health of people and wildlife…. Why are they expecting this accelerated shriveling of the Salton Sea? A big water diversion system is slated to transfer water now used locally for farming to the south, in San Diego County, for use by city-dwellers.”

Bottom paint matters – San Diego waterways get a thumbs-up / Sail World : “In San Diego, California, new studies have found that using non-toxic bottom paint is actually having a marked effect – more than anticipated – on the sealife of the area. the Port of San Diego has been working to minimize the amount of dissolved copper in the waterway by implementing Best Management Practices for hull cleaning companies, focusing on reducing the amount of copper released into the water and grant programs to give boaters incentives to replace their copper-based hull paints with non-biocide hull paints.”
County lifts boil water order for Sutherland recreation area system / Ramona Sentinal : “County of San Diego’s Department of Environmental Health on Friday lifted the Boil Water Order for Sutherland Reservoir Recreation Area Water System at 22850 Sutherland Dam Road [the boil water order was issued on April 19].”

Report says SDCWA’s water wars may raise rates / KPBS : “A controversial report officially released this week suggests efforts by San Diego’s Water Authority to gain water independence will cost the ratepayer dearly. UCSD’s Steve Erie said he co-wrote the report about what is driving up water costs in San Diego for LA’s Economic Development Corporation.”
Water pipeline dreams revived in the desert / U-T San Diego : “Eager to diversify its water supplies, the San Diego County Water Authority has resurrected a long-shot plan that could top $2 billion to build a pipeline for importing water directly from Imperial County. At the same time, it’s trying to cement a long-term deal for desalinating seawater in Carlsbad.”

Professor Steve Erie: Imperial Irrigation District transfer, Not MWD, drives rates in San Diego / The Planning Report : “The San Diego County Water Authority has brought the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California to court, holding that MWD is overcharging the Water Authority by mischaracterizing certain water supply costs as water transportation costs. The battle’s become ugly, but could other factors be driving the soaring cost of water in San Diego County? TPR sat down with Steven Erie, a professor of political science and the Director of the Urban Studies Program at UC San Diego, to discuss the dispute. Erie contends that decades of aggressive mismanagement and failed policies by the SDCWA and the City of San Diego are to blame.”

 

Posted in Regional water news roundups, Water | Leave a Comment »

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