Municipal Water Leader November/December 2016

Volume 2 Issue 10

November/December 2016

Long‑Term Investment: A Conversation With Randy Record, Chairman of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, About California Water Infrastructure and the WaterFix

The Needed California WaterFix

By Kris Polly

W

hile working for Commissioner Robert Johnson of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, I often heard him compare the storage capacities of the Colorado River with California. “The Colorado River’s flow ‘is supposed to be’ 15 million acre-feet,” he would joke. “The good news is, there is 60 million acre-feet of storage in the Colorado River system, so four times the annual flow.” Always a generous man, he would say, “California’s watershed is comparable to the Colorado River; however, there is only enough storage for less than half the annual runoff.” The commissioner’s point was that storage allowed for great resilience and reliability in water supplies on a river with fluctuating flows, while California is far more vulnerable to drought. Mr. Randy Record, chairman of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, uses the same comparison in his interview. While Chairman Record uses the numbers of 32 million acre-feet for California’s watershed with only 6 million acre-feet in storage, both gentlemen accurately explain the need to improve the reliability of California’s water supply system.

The California WaterFix is a proposed project to improve the reliability of the state and federal water systems by moving the water intakes upstream of the delta on the Sacramento River. California Department of Water Resources Director Mark Cowin explains the WaterFix project in detail for our readers. As a system of tunnels approximately 35 miles long, the new

intakes would bypass the ecologically sensitive delta and connect to existing infrastructure. “The new intakes will give us increased resilience, so we can continue to move water even in the event of a catastrophic failure in the delta,” said Director Cowin. Chairman Record further describes the purpose of the WaterFix project by saying, “What we want to do is restore the reliability of supplies. We are not looking for additional water supply over what our average used to be.”

He continues to say, “We need a backbone of reliable, highquality supply from the delta that allows us to recycle and do these other projects that we are going to need to be able to satisfy future demand.”

Reliability is the most important aspect of a water supply. A reliable supply can be multiplied through efficient planning and recycling; however, it is difficult to recycle water that you do not have. Chairman Record summed up his view on California’s water supply situation by saying, “I believe there is adequate water in California for the needs of homeowners, farmers, and the environment, but we need modern infrastructure to make that happen.” The chairman is correct. Water solutions can be engineered, and the California WaterFix project needs to move forward.

Kris Polly is editor-in-chief of Municipal Water Leader and Irrigation Leader magazines. He is also president of Water Strategies LLC, a government relations, marketing, and publishing company he began in February 2009 for the purpose of representing and guiding water, power, and agricultural entities in their dealings with Congress, the Bureau of Reclamation, and other federal government agencies. He may be contacted at Kris.Polly@waterstrategies.com.

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(703) 517-3962 or Kris.Polly@waterstrategies.com 2

Municipal Water Leader

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2016

C O N T E N T S 2 The Needed California WaterFix

By Kris Polly

VOLUME 2 ISSUE 10 Municipal Water Leader is published 10 times a year with combined issues for July/August and November/December by Water Strategies LLC 4 E Street SE, Washington, DC 20003 STAFF: Kris Polly, Editor-in-Chief John Crotty, Senior Writer Valentina Valenta, Writer Matt Dermody, Writer Robin Pursley, Graphic Designer Capital Copyediting LLC, Copyeditor SUBMISSIONS: Municipal Water Leader welcomes manuscript, photography, and art submissions. However, the right to edit or deny publishing submissions is reserved. Submissions are returned only on request. For more information, please contact John Crotty at (202) 698-0690 or john.crotty@waterstrategies. com.

ADVERTISING: Municipal Water Leader accepts one-quarter, half-page, and full-page ads. For more information on rates and placement, please contact Kris Polly at (703) 517-3962 or Municipal.

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Copyright 2016 Water Strategies LLC. Municipal Water Leader relies on the excellent contributions of a variety of natural resources and water industry professionals who provide content for the magazine. However, the views and opinions expressed by these contributors are solely those of the original contributor and do not necessarily represent or reflect the policies or positions of Municipal Water Leader, its editors, or Water Strategies LLC. The acceptance and use of advertisements in Municipal Water Leader do not constitute a representation or warranty by Water Strategies LLC or Municipal Water Leader magazine regarding the products, services, claims, or companies advertised.

Cover photo: Randy Record, Chairman of Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.

Municipal Water Leader

4 Long‑Term Investment:

A Conversation With Randy Record, Chairman of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, About California Water Infrastructure and the WaterFix

12 The Fountain of Quality: Maintaining

a Reliable and Clean Water Supply at the Desert Water Agency

16 Engineering the Future of California’s

Water Supply: A Conversation About the California WaterFix With Mark Cowin of the California Department of Water Resources

20 An All-of-the-Above Approach:

Diversifying Monterey’s Water Supply

26 The Power of Regional Collaboration: The American River Basin Conjunctive Use Program

By John Woodling

30 Staying the Course on the Colorado: A Conversation With U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s Terry Fulp

DISTRICT FOCUS 34 Placer County Water Agency

By Andrew Fecko

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Long‑Term Investment: A Conversation With Randy Record, Chairman of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, About California Water Infrastructure and the WaterFix

R

andy Record has a passion for water. As a farmer, an entrepreneur, and a civic leader, he does not seem to have a choice. As co-owner of Record Family Wines, the success of his family, his community, his region, and ultimately his state rests on California’s water conveyance systems. Mr. Record is the chairman of the board of directors of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and board president of the Eastern Municipal Water District.

Municipal Water Leader’s editor-in-chief, Kris Polly, spoke with Chairman Record about the challenges facing Metropolitan, the diversity of its water portfolio, and efforts to upgrade California’s water infrastructure.

Kris Polly: Please tell us about your background, education, and experience in water.

Randy Record: I was born in San Jacinto, California, in Riverside County. There, I attended elementary school and high school. My parents and grandparents also graduated from the same high school. While I was growing up, my family was in the dairy business. My father and my uncle were partners in the business, and I spent a lot of time with them. When I graduated from high school, I attended California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, and got a bachelor’s degree in agricultural management.

I returned to San Jacinto and started farming, first growing dairy feed, alfalfa, oats, barley, and field corn.

I eventually transitioned to growing vegetables, such as carrots, onions, potatoes, bell peppers, as well as some citrus. Today, I still grow some locally consumed alfalfa in San Jacinto with recycled water. I also have a wine grape vineyard in Paso Robles, California, which my daughter manages.

Water is the most important issue for a farmer. I started farming in 1977 using mostly recycled water—which was unique at that time—and some well water. I like to believe that I know the value and benefits of water. I don’t think anyone can farm in California and not be aware of water.

My father also was involved in water resources leadership for many years.

When he stepped down from the board of the Eastern Municipal Water District, people in the community asked me to run for the position. I ran and was elected 16 years ago. I am glad I got involved. It’s been a wonderful experience. I’ve met and served with a lot of great people.

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Metropolitan Water District of Southern California Chairman Randy Record speaking to the press about 2017 water supply issues.

Part of my experience in water was my involvement with the Association of California Water Agencies, where I served as president and traveled throughout the state, meeting a lot of different people and a lot of farmers.

That experience really broadened my water horizon, and it has been helpful for me as a board member of Eastern Municipal Water District and in my current role as chairman of the board of directors of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.

Kris Polly: Please explain the role of Metropolitan in the water supply of Southern California and the population and service area of the agency.

Municipal Water Leader

Randy Record: Metropolitan is a water wholesaler that was founded in the late 1920s. Its initial effort was to build the Colorado River Aqueduct and import water from the Colorado River to Southern California.

In the 1950s, Metropolitan became a contractor of the State Water Project to import water supplies from Northern California. Today, we provide water to our 26 member agencies, which serve about 19 million people throughout the region.

Kris Polly: What are the biggest challenges to serving as chairman of Metropolitan?

Randy Record: We face a lot of challenges. But our biggest challenge is making sure our water supply is reliable. Our state’s economy is the sixth largest in the world, and Southern California’s population makes up half the population of the whole state. We have a lot of economic activity going on, and we need to have a reliable, high-quality water supply to support continued growth.

The two biggest issues we are facing are how to ensure the reliability of supplies delivered through California’s Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta and how we handle potential shortage on the Colorado River. The state water system lacks the modern infrastructure we need to continue providing a reliable water supply while also protecting the environment. The state and the water industry haven’t made any large-scale investments to that system in 50 years. Now it’s time to do that. We want to make sure we develop an affordable project in collaboration with other water agencies, including irrigation districts in the Bay Area and the Central Valley, so that we can successfully achieve a reliable water supply in the near- and long-term future.

sources. Even though we had a good amount of rainfall in Northern California last year, we have issues with fish species in the delta. Governmental agencies required the state to stop pumping in an attempt to preserve the fish species. Basically, we were unable to pump water due to a lack of infrastructure that would protect fish and allow pumping during times of high flows.

On the Colorado River, we have been in a 16-year drought and have seen Lake Mead reach water levels lower than they have ever been. We have been working proactively with the states of Arizona and Nevada to figure out a shortage plan.

Even though there are guidelines in place, we think it is better to develop a cooperative plan rather than have one imposed by the federal government. We have a draft plan that will be presented to Metropolitan’s board near the end of 2016. It’s been a great process working with our partners to try to get something done.

Kris Polly: Please give our readers an assessment of the future role of the Colorado River in meeting Metropolitan’s

Kris Polly: Can you provide a breakdown of the amount of water you import via the State Water Project and the Colorado River Aqueduct?

Randy Record: The water we import from the Colorado River and the State Water Project make up about half of Southern California’s supplies. The Colorado River Aqueduct was built and is owned by Metropolitan. The State Water Project is owned by the state, but Metropolitan contracts 50 percent of it and we pay our share of the costs for the water supply and the transportation system. Metropolitan’s allocation was originally supposed to be 4 million acre-feet between the state and Colorado systems, but we rarely get that amount. Those two projects are our only means of importing water.

The ongoing drought has affected both those Municipal Water Leader

Chairman Randy Record speaking about Metropolitan’s 75 years of supplying water to Southern California.

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supply needs. What is the current thinking about climate change and extreme weather events? Will the Colorado River continue to reliably provide the same share of water supply to Southern California?

Randy Record: Climate change is a big factor. We are certain there will be more severe weather incidents going forward. We will see more rain and have less snowfall, which will create some additional challenges. The great thing about the Colorado River is its storage capacity—there is 60 million acre-feet of storage available in Lakes Powell and Mead.

This is the opposite of what we have in California. The state produces about 32 million acre-feet of water a year but only has 6 million acre-feet of storage.

One of the interesting things about Metropolitan is that in the 1920s, when the Colorado River Aqueduct was envisioned, we knew that we needed another supply of water. A generation later, we were investing in the State Water Project for additional supplies. A generation after the State Water Project was developed, Metropolitan began its Integrated Water Resources Plan to increase supplies. That long-term water resource plan spurred the region to increase storage 14-fold since the early 1990s, and that has gotten us through this historic drought.

Metropolitan’s Diamond Valley Lake, the largest reservoir in Southern California, also is beneficial. If we get a big earthquake in the area and our water supplies from the Colorado River and State Water Project are cut off, Diamond Valley Lake helps provide us with a six-month supply of emergency water while we make repairs to the imported

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infrastructure system.

As far as the future of the Colorado River for Southern California, I am optimistic about it because we have been proactive in working with agriculture. We have programs with Imperial Irrigation District and a land fallowing and management program with Palo Verde Valley farmers. We can fallow up to 30 percent of that acreage in a particular year and make that water available to Metropolitan for direct use or for storage in Lake Mead.

The storage in Lake Mead is referred to as intentionally created surplus, which means that although you can’t store your allocation, you can store water that you freed up from other sources. We had 500,000 acre-feet of water in storage in Lake Mead at the beginning of the drought, which has been critical to helping us get through it. We continue to work very closely with the farming community in Palo Verde.

We own substantial land there. We have a great relationship with the farmers. We want the valley to thrive agriculturally, and we want to be able to have water supplies when we need them most. So far, that partnership has worked very well.

Kris Polly: About 30 percent of the water supply in Southern California comes from Northern California via the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta. Serious concerns about these supplies are propelling interest in a project called the California WaterFix. Please describe this project in broad terms.

Municipal Water Leader

Randy Record: As I mentioned, even though Metropolitan contracts 50 percent of the State Water Project’s supply, that equates to only 4 percent of the water that flows through the delta to meet the water needs of half the state’s population. The critical missing piece is the infrastructure through the delta. The State Water Project was never finished, and the current water intakes aren’t in a very good place. Unfortunately, we are pulling water from the south delta, which makes rivers run backward sometimes and is detrimental to the estuary. The California WaterFix is a proposed project that would create different diversion points in the north part of the delta that would provide the flexibility to draw water where it is least harmful to the environment.

We have shown by our own storage and conveyance investments in Southern California, specifically at Diamond Valley Lake, that if you have the capacity to take water when it’s plentiful, it becomes readily available and less harmful to the environment. That is good sound water policy. We can take that water when it’s available and put it in storage so we’ll have it in times of drought.

The agriculture industry in the Central Valley faces the same water supply challenges with the delta as does the Bay Area, which also imports water from the delta.

They both need a reliable water supply, so this proposed infrastructure project would modernize the State Water Project system and should benefit the environment and help ensure a reliable water supply.

We are still in the process of determining what that project will be. The environmental review should be done this year. The operating decisions are still a little way off.

The federal permits might not be done until next year, but we are pushing for the end of this year. Once we know what the project is, we’ll take a look at the final costs of it before we’ll decide whether we are going to participate.

From what we can tell and from what we looked at as far as other sources of water supply, the California WaterFix would be the most cost-effective supply available to us, if we have a project going forward that makes sense.

Kris Polly: Will this increase the amount of water that Southern California imports from Northern California?

Please share with our readers the big picture justification for the WaterFix. Does the strategy facilitate increased population in Southern California or merely sustain the existing population?

Randy Record: What we want to do is restore the reliability of supplies. We are not looking for additional water supply over what our average used to be. We want to secure the supply reliability. We know that population growth is going to happen. We are working aggressively on developing local water supply projects like water recycling Municipal Water Leader

and continuing our very strong ethic of conservation. We know that future growth will need to be met with local projects, but we need that backbone of reliable, highquality supply from the delta that allows us to recycle and do these other projects that we are going to need to be able to satisfy future demand.

Kris Polly: It all sounds like a very large investment.

Please tell us about the tunnels that are being discussed for the project.

Randy Record: The tunnels would allow flexibility to pull water from different points in the delta. Instead of having one intake at the south end of the delta, we would have three intakes in the north delta and move water south through the tunnels to the pumps in the south delta. The idea of the tunnels is to be less intrusive to the ecology in the delta. An open canal would be difficult to build and would be disruptive to the ecology.

Kris Polly: How would the WaterFix be funded? What is the potential effect on Metropolitan’s ratepayers?

Randy Record: First, we need to determine what the final project is and confirm the final costs. We need to divide the costs between the Central Valley Project and the State Water Project and then among the state water contractors. We think that, all things considered, it would end up costing households in the Metropolitan service area about $5 a month on average to make the improvements that are needed in the delta to provide a reliable water supply and protect the environment.

Kris Polly: Metropolitan has been the foundation for economic growth in Southern California. In addition to participating in the WaterFix, what else is Metropolitan doing to ensure that water empowers economic growth in the future? What are the biggest challenges?

Randy Record: A big challenge is taking care of the environment. I believe there is adequate water in California for the needs of homeowners, farmers, and the environment, but we need modern infrastructure to make that happen.

Metropolitan has a long history of environmental investments throughout the state, with the number of projects increasing all the time. I was recently in the Yolo Bypass for the dedication of the Wallace Weir fish rescue facility, which is going to provide the salmon with a better means to survive when they are making their way back up the Sacramento River. There are a number of projects like that in the works, and we want to be part of all that.

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THE FOUNTAIN OF QUALITY:

Maintaining a Reliable and Clean Water Supply at the Desert Water Agency

T

oday, water quality is on the minds of people across the country. Many wonder whether their drinking water is safe and where they can turn to find out its source, how it is tested and treated, and whether it meets regulatory standards.

The Desert Water Agency (DWA) has been leading water quality efforts in California for years, and now it is also at the forefront of public outreach. Though utilities have been required to perform water quality testing and reporting for decades, DWA produces a creative and interactive online report of its water quality data that engages the customers and instills in them the confidence that they can turn on their tap at any time and reliably get a clean fresh drinking water supply.

Municipal Water Leader’s editor-in-chief, Kris Polly, spoke with Mark Krause, general manager of DWA, about the agency’s annual water quality report, its efforts to protect its supplies from contaminants, and the value of its education and outreach programs with its customers.

Kris Polly: A prominent feature of your Water Quality Report links potential water contaminants to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and California State Water Control Board regulatory requirements. Can you elaborate on this for our readers?

Kris Polly: Please tell our readers about DWA’s service area.

Mark Krause: Our biggest water source is groundwater, which constitutes 95 percent of our water supply. Our groundwater supply is very high quality. It does have some mineral content because it is in the ground and picks up minerals from everything it comes in contact with. We also have stream sources and provide water directly from that supply to some of our customers. It is also very high quality and is monitored for giardia and cryptosporidium. We disinfect the water but don’t filter it because the source quality is so high. We also recharge some of that water into the ground. As I mentioned earlier, we also have recycled water, but we do not use it for drinking water. Rather, we use our recycled water for irrigation and grass areas on golf courses and schools.

Mark Krause: DWA is one of 29 state water contractors.

Our agency covers a relatively large geographic area—roughly 325 square miles, including the Desert Hot Springs area and the area south toward the Santa Rosa mountains. We provide retail service for the Palm Springs area and a part of Cathedral City. We serve around 23,000 connections, and that equates to a population of about 105,000 people. We also provide sewer collection service to about 3,000 connections in Cathedral City and deliver recycled water to the service area’s golf courses, parks, and schools. Since our service area has a very hot and dry climate, and water is very important to the area’s economy and way of life, we provide a crucial service to our customers.

Kris Polly: We understand you issued your 2015 Water Quality Report in June 2016. Many water agencies publish such reports. Please tell us about the purpose of this report.

Mark Krause: DWA publishes an annual Water Quality Report and provides a hard copy to each customer. We are required to publish the Water Quality Report under federal and state law. We use the annual report to communicate with our customers the sources and quality of their water, including the amount of testing we do to ensure that the water is safe.

We also publish an enhanced online version of the report that includes additional information and a set of videos for our customers to view about our monitoring and testing methods.

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Mark Krause: There is a lot of legal language contained in the report that is required under state law. The reason for including this text is that the state of California wants to ensure that there is uniformity in what each water agency is telling its customers. The overall message to the customers is that we are examining certain potential or emerging contaminants. Again, the report is a vehicle for us to communicate with our community.

Kris Polly: What are your water sources? How do your sources rate on water quality?

Kris Polly: Your Water Quality Report describes your program to manage water leaks efficiently. Can you please explain that program?

Mark Krause: We have had a program in place at DWA for several decades to monitor and manage our water delivery infrastructure and any leaks in the system. Parts of our system are 90 years old and the pipes are beginning to corrode, resulting in a lot of leaks. For example, we have piping that was installed from the 1920s through the 1940s and, since it was unlined, it is starting to fail. The unlined areas of the system are responsible for 90 percent of our current leaks. We started a new program to address these particular system failures and eliminate our water loss along those water transmission pipelines. We are replacing those pipelines with coated steel pipe and cement mortar lining, as well as ductile iron pipe.

Municipal Water Leader

Palm Springs High School student athletes serve up water-saving tips in a public service announcement for Desert Water Agency.

Kris Polly: Please tell our readers about your water conservation program and the results it achieved in 2015.

Mark Krause: Water conservation is a big part of what we do at DWA. We have been engaged in water conservation for a long time. The governor of California mandated water use restrictions throughout the state in 2015. We are proud that we conserved 26 percent of our water supply compared to 2013 numbers, which is a higher conservation rate than the state average.

We have a lot of educational programs and incentives that we offer our customers to help us achieve our conservation numbers. Customer outreach and education are the biggest components of our successful conservation program. We don’t have a tiered rate system, so we have to rely on our customers to cut back on water use.

We recently partnered with Palm Springs High School, which has been using recycled water for nearly 15 years, to conduct a media campaign of its conservation efforts. The high school also participated in our agency’s turf buy-back rebate program, and the students helped remove the turf. A couple years ago, we created a public service announcement with the Palm Springs High School football team to show everyone that conservation is a team sport and that we need to engage in the effort together to be successful. This year, we engaged all the school’s fall sports teams to participate in another commercial about the importance of joining together to conserve our water. The Palm Springs High School students have done a great job of helping us get the message out. Our community’s student athletes have a lot of recognition around town, and the younger students look up to them as role models.

Municipal Water Leader

Kris Polly: Please give us the bottom line. Does DWA’s water meet all regulatory requirements? What are the water quality challenges you face in the years ahead?

Mark Krause: DWA absolutely meets all the regulatory requirements mandated by the state and the federal government. The biggest challenge in the valley is chromium 6. We are the only water agency in the region that does not have to treat water for chromium 6 because of our great recharge program. That saves our customers a lot of money. We import Colorado River water and store it in the aquifer, which helps to dilute our groundwater.

All our testing shows that DWA’s groundwater remains below the state’s maximum contaminant load of 10 parts per billion for chromium 6. Our highest recorded maximum contaminant load was about 5 parts per billion.

As more sophisticated and additional testing for different constituents in the water is performed, we will be challenged to meet even lower thresholds or maximum contaminant loads required by the state. While we face the challenge of escalating costs to treat our water to new standards and provide that water at the same high quality at a reasonable rate to our customers, we are committed to ensuring that our community can continue to rely on a safe clean water supply.

To learn more about the Desert Water Agency’s 2015 Water Quality Report, visit http://www.dwa.org/2015wqr/.

To watch the collaborative public service announcement between Desert Water Agency and Palm Springs High School, visit https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=KRu2CYlyXe8.

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Engineering the Future of California’s Water Supply: A Conversation About the California WaterFix With Mark Cowin of the California Department of Water Resources

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he Sacramento–San Joaquin Bay Delta is the nexus of California water. Millions of water users rely on the Sacramento–San Joaquin Bay Delta as a conduit for irrigation, municipal, and industrial purposes. The delta also is home to numerous fish and other wildlife species. The current water infrastructure responsible for transporting water originating north of the delta to the rest of the state is in need of an upgrade to address sustainability, environmental, and efficiency issues. California Department of Water Resources Director Mark Cowin understands this fact better than most.

Mr. Cowin’s department is currently pursuing the California WaterFix, an ambitious infrastructure project to upgrade the water systems in the delta to meet the growing needs of California’s residents and environment. Mr. Cowin recently sat down with Municipal Water Leader’s senior writer, John Crotty, to discuss the need for the California WaterFix, the current status of the project, and how it would benefit water users throughout California.

John Crotty: What is the current state of California’s water infrastructure? What are the challenges that it poses to municipal water providers in the state?

Mark Cowin: Past droughts have spurred a lot of investment in [California’s] water infrastructure, particularly in the municipal sector, including water conveyance facilities in more populated areas. Without that investment, we would have seen much more severe consequences and effects on water supply. On the negative side, we had some smaller, more isolated, and underserved communities that saw wells going dry or had water quality problems that required emergency response. Clearly there’s more work to be done in those underserved ratepayer communities. We also spend a lot of time thinking about what the effects of climate change are going to be on our water supply systems, and the functionality of our existing water infrastructure in the face of climate change. For California, that means warmer temperatures, reduced snowpack, flashier floods, and rising sea levels.

All those changes in our climate and hydrology will collectively affect the sustainability and reliability of our water supply system. Climate change also adds stress to native species in the state that are covered by the

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California Department of Water Resources Director Mark Cowin.

Endangered Species Act statutes, so we’re seeing tighter regulatory windows for when we can actually extract water from the system; we expect that to get even worse over the coming decades.

John Crotty: What are the key elements of the California WaterFix? How does it address existing infrastructure challenges?

Mark Cowin: There are three new, screened intakes on the Sacramento River with a nominal capacity of 3,000 cubic feet per second each. Pipelines and two tunnels Municipal Water Leader

approximately 35 miles long will connect the intakes to our existing infrastructure on the other side of the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta.

When the intake facilities for the state and federal projects were built in the last century, they were located in the wrong places. When we turn on the pumps in the southern part of the delta to export water, they can reverse the natural flows of rivers and channels and also can adversely affect native fish, resulting in declining populations. To protect those species, we’ve seen more regulatory exertion, which has resulted in a more limited, less reliable water supply for both state and federal projects. The project’s new intakes will relocate much of the intake capacity to reduce effects on flow patterns and fish, extract more water at peak times, and improve the reliability of the state and federal projects.

We have known for some time that the old intakes were built in the wrong locations, but it has taken decades to come up with an approach to restore the full capability of the projects. The other big motivation for the WaterFix is to improve system resilience in the face of climate change in two ways. First, negative effects on native fish are due to climate change, compounding the challenges for the projects. Second, sea-level rise and flashier floods could affect delta levees and prevent us from moving any water through the state or federal system for months or years at a time. The new intakes will give us increased resilience, so we can continue to move water even in the event of a catastrophic failure in the delta.

John Crotty: How will the WaterFix be financed, and how much will be borne by municipal water providers? What kind of increases can ratepayers expect in their water bills?

Mark Cowin: Lots of options and lots of details remain to be negotiated. We’ve spent the last 10 years focusing on a preliminary design for the project as well as securing the permitting necessary under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, the California Endangered Species Act, and the National Environmental Policy Act. We now have a much better idea of what the project will look like, what the capabilities will be, and what the terms will be for operating it under state and federal laws.

We generally have operated under the principle that the cost will follow the benefits, so that municipal water users who depend on the state and federal projects for part of their water supply would bear a proportionate share of the cost. The Department of Water Resources can issue bonds to finance the effort Municipal Water Leader

Waterways and farmland in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

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Map of the planned route for WaterFix tunnels and water intakes.

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Municipal Water Leader

as well, as can local municipalities that participate in the project. We are really just beginning to figure out those details.

John Crotty: What is the current status of the WaterFix? Where do things stand right now?

Mark Cowin: It’s been a long road to get to where we are. We have been working to obtain the permits needed to operate the project in compliance with the federal Endangered Species Act and are working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service on biological opinions, which act as our permits for project operations. We’ve completed our initial applications for those permits, and both agencies are in consultation with us. We expect to complete that process in early 2017. Beyond that, we need to complete (1) our National Environmental Policy Act work; (2) other permits and regulatory processes, particularly with the California Water Resources Control Board, to show that the project would not negatively affect other legal water users or wildlife in the delta; and (3) other allocations to determine how costs and benefits will be shared among the various water users.

John Crotty: If all goes well and things move ahead as planned, when would we see the beginning of construction? What benefits will accrue to municipal users both north and south of the Delta?

Mark Cowin: There are of course a lot of variables, but the regulatory processes are the biggest ones. We also have to account for litigation that we expect from people who do not want to see the project built. Under the best

circumstances, we would break ground in 2018 and construction would likely take approximately 10 years.

One of the aspects of this project that doesn’t get much attention is its ability to increase the benefits of our existing infrastructure. With greater ability to move water from the northern part of the delta to the south, we can extract more value from our existing water systems or from new storage that might be built either north or south of the delta. We’ll be able to manage our groundwater better by moving water as needed for replenishment.

For ratepayers in municipalities that depend on the Central Valley Project or State Water Project, this will give more assurance that they will have a water supply at an affordable cost. Without this investment, there will be a decrease in water supplies to many large regions of the state. We’re not suggesting that the California WaterFix is a silver bullet for California water, but we do need it as a component for the future.

John Crotty: What are some of the key lessons learned from the design, development, and implementation of the WaterFix that water providers and leaders in other states should know about?

Mark Cowin: We have tried to be a model of transparency, which is vital to getting a project done.

But most importantly, the WaterFix requires agreement and buy-in from so many different federal and state agencies to make it happen. There is a need for strong, direct communication with regulators and stakeholders.

Sometimes it’s hard to have that direct conversation, particularly with regulators who have complex jobs and a lot on their dockets, but it is vital.

Water is lifted by the Banks Pumping Plant from the delta into the California Aqueduct.

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An All-of-the-Above Approach:

Diversifying Monterey’s Water Supply

U

(SWRCB) required CalAm and MPWMD to move nlike many large communities in central and away from its existing surface and groundwater rights.

Southern California, Monterey and its neighbors The WRCB issued a cease and desist order in 1995 to on the peninsula do not have access to the reduce surface water diversions from the Carmel River abundant waters of the Sierra Nevada for potable supplies. and another in 2009 to develop replacement supplies by Monterey had to develop its own supplies, specifically December 2016. In addition, a 2006 adjudication of the Carmel River flows and the Seaside Groundwater Seaside Groundwater basin reduced CalAm’s yield by more basin. Over the years, maintaining and sustaining those than 60 percent. supplies has been challenging due to growing demands, According to Ian Crooks, CalAm’s vice president of limited storage capacities, and more stringent regulatory engineering, during the time period between the first and frameworks. Conservation measures have been dramatic second cease and desist orders, there were multiple efforts and effective, but not enough to provide a long-term at the regional level to develop new supplies, including the solution. expansion of San Clemente Dam and the Los Padres Dam. On October 17, 2016, representatives and officials For a variety of reasons, those plans were not adopted. from Monterey, surrounding communities on the “Given those efforts and circumstances,” said Mr. Crooks, peninsula, the Monterey Peninsula Water Management “the most viable option for more supply was desalination.”

District (MPWMD), the Monterey Peninsula Regional Water Pollution Control Agency (MPRWPCA), and California American Water (CalAm) broke ground in front of Monterey’s city hall to mark the beginning of the first component of the Monterey Peninsula Water Supply Project, a comprehensive effort that aims to provide the peninsula with its longterm water needs. This first step is the construction of 7 miles of 36-inch pipeline, which will convey up to 3,500 acre-feet of recycled water along with future desalination water south through Monterey’s city center to connect to rest of the peninsula’s water Project and city leaders at the groundbreaking ceremony in October. infrastructure.

CalAm is the peninsula’s water provider and works in partnership with the MPWMD and the MPRWPCA to deliver water to the region’s 100,000-plus residents.

Monterey’s water system has always involved a private provider. Samuel Morse, owner of the Del Monte Hotel, built the original pipeline and reservoir in the late 1800s to get water to the peninsula. CalAm bought the system in the middle of the last century and has provided water to its residents ever since.

Addressing Sustainability

The goal of the Water Supply Project is to develop replacement supplies for the region’s surface and groundwater supplies. Two determinations by the California State Water Resources Control Board

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Test well built in 2015 to test slant well intake technology.

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With fits and starts, CalAm’s efforts went to the development of a desalination plant. Initially, CalAm was part of a regional collaboration to develop desalination, but the collaboration fell apart. From there, according to Mr. Crooks, CalAm picked up the pieces of that effort and began developing the desalination project on its own. “That is where we are today.”

Assembling a Diverse Portfolio

The Water Supply Project takes an all-of-the-above approach to water development. CalAm will build a 6.4-million-gallon-per-day desalination plant north of Monterey in the town of Marina. In addition, CalAm has agreed to purchase 3,500 acre-feet of recycled water from the MPRWPCA’s proposed Pure Water Monterey Groundwater Replenishment Project (GWR).

The desalination plant will be sited next to the recycling plant to make use of the outfall. CalAm will capture agricultural wastewater from fields and wash water (from cleaning locally grown leafy greens and other vegetables) that normally would go out to the ocean and recycle it. The result of the those two Water Supply Project components will be sufficient to replace Monterey’s prior supply levels. Mr. Crooks explained, “The recycled water alone will replace onethird of what we need to get. The remaining two-thirds will come from the desalination plant.”

The Pure Water Monterey Groundwater Replenishment Project should go online in early 2018.

According to Mr. Crooks, CalAm will have a draft environmental report out on the desalination plant in December 2016. “We anticipate building the desal plant in 2018 and getting it Municipal Water Leader

Overview of the Monterey Peninsula Water Supply Project.

online by 2020.”

Time is of the essence. The 2009 cease and desist order ran through 2016. However, this past year, CalAm, along with local community and agency support including and MPWMD and MRWPCA, worked through modifications of the cease and desist order to extend it to 2021. As part of the modification negotiations, the project proponents

have agreed to achieve project milestones along the way. The penalty for falling short is significant: For each milestone not met, CalAm will lose 1,000 acre-feet of water.

With the completion of the water purchase agreement for GWR water supplies and the construction of the Monterey Pipeline, the first two milestones are met.

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Fostering Connectivity

The Monterey pipeline is an essential part of the grand water supply plan. The pipeline ties the plan together.

Mr. Crooks explained, “This subcomponent is needed to deliver water from GWR project into our [the CalAm] system. It will carry the future desalination water as well. It is the transmission main to get water to our main storage facilities. Historically, the system’s infrastructure was set up to deliver water mainly from the south from the Carmel River to the north. We are essentially reversing that to bring replacement water supplies down from the north, through the city, and into to our existing storage tanks.”

Bill Williams, director of Northern California operations for Garney Pacific, which is constructing much of pipeline project, highlighted the storage potential built into the project. “Water in the pipeline will be able to flow in two directions, allowing CalAm to replenish the groundwater basin and, once the full project is built, deliver new water supplies to consumers in Monterey County.”

To move the water in both directions, CalAm will have to construct a pump station.

Aquifer storage and recovery is a critical component of the Water Supply Project. During the winter, when there is heavy rain and excess flow on the Carmel River that normally flows out to the Pacific Ocean, CalAm holds the rights to pump the excess for aquifer storage.

As Mr. Crooks explained, “We can then withdraw in the summer when we need it. We will be able to use that pump station in the wintertime to move the water through the pipeline to inject it into the ground.”

Another avenue for public buy-in was stakeholder involvement. In the infancy of the project, CalAm’s executive team identified and gathered 16 parties together to set forth key principles to govern the project. That helped project proponents build good will up front and set the stage for how the project would proceed.

The Big Picture

With pipeline completion expected in October 2017, there is not much time for Mr. Crooks to reflect on the broad scope of the project. Upon prompting, however, he conveyed a sense of pride in everything involved with the work. “The complexity of water today is certainly a lot different than it was decades ago. The planning, permitting, and resources involved with water delivery are a real challenge. But this project is one of the most innovative that I have ever seen. It has conservation, aquifer storage recovery, water recycling, desalinization, slant well intake technology, a potential landfill gas-to-electric energy supplemental energy source. . . . It has everything.”

Garney team performing initial utility location with potholes.

Outreach

Mr. Crooks reports that residents in the region are interested in this project. CalAm has responded accordingly. “Even though we are a private company that is regulated by the California Public Utility Commission we set up a governance structure to incorporate public oversight of the project. We wanted to be as responsive to the public as possible.”

In addition, CalAm representatives meet with neighborhood associations and go to city council meetings. They pass out flyers and put projectrelated notices on customer bills.

Rendering of future Monterey Peninsula Water Supply Project Desalination Plant.

They are getting the word out.

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The Power of Regional Collaboration: The American River Basin Conjunctive Use Program

By John Woodling

T

he Regional Water Authority (RWA) is a joint powers authority that serves water providers in El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, and Yolo Counties in their efforts to sustain and enhance the region’s water resources. The RWA American River Basin Regional Conjunctive Use Program (ARBCUP) is an ongoing effort to build and upgrade water facilities throughout the region to better manage surface and groundwater resources. Program components include new pipelines, pumps, and other facilities to store, treat, and convey water throughout the region.

Origins of the ARBCUP

In the early 1990s, municipal and county entities in and around Sacramento formed the Sacramento Water

Forum to address the conflict between increasing diversions of surface water to meet water demands and the environment on the lower American River. The collaborative process involved water providers, business stakeholders, and environmentalists in identifying reliable water supplies for regional growth and, at the same time, protecting the lower American River.

The ARBCUP came about because work through the Water Forum indicated a clear need to both expand surface water use and reduce surface water use, depending on the year’s hydrology. The environmental community agreed to support increased diversions of surface water in wet years, and in turn, water suppliers agreed to reduce diversions of surface water in dry years to maintain more water for the fisheries in the river. To do that, we needed to be able to coordinate the use of

Map of the American River Basin Regional Conjunctive Use Program.

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Municipal Water Leader

San Juan Water District Peterson Treatment Plant at Folsom Lake.

both groundwater and surface water. This dynamic gave rise to the ARBCUP. What is unique about the region is its large number of water suppliers. We have 21 suppliers serving approximately 2 million people. No individual water supplier has the assets to fully develop a conjunctive use program on its own. Most had developed either as surface water users or groundwater users, and most of these systems were dependent on one source or the other. So to make this work, we really had to come together.

Operating the ARBCUP

Since the ARBCUP began, there have been three undertakings that have been vital to its operations: expansion of surface water diversion and treatment facilities, increases in groundwater pumping capacity, and the ability to connect the region so water can be moved to where it is needed. The beauty of this program is we can build off it incrementally at any time and expand the ability to use both surface water and groundwater.

The ARBCUP has continued to grow and expand since its inception. The latest project component was the construction of a pipeline under the American River from the Carmichael Water District Water Treatment Plant on the north side of the river to the Golden State Water Company on the south side of the river. The pipeline allows Golden State to take advantage of surface water, when it is available, from the existing treatment plant.

Another project underway will interconnect the Golden State Water Company up to the city of Folsom. Golden State will be able to pump groundwater as needed to provide water to Folsom if surface supplies are constrained.

The ARBCUP has changed the condition of the

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groundwater basin for the better. The basin had been declining since World War II, with many of our water agencies being totally dependent on groundwater withdrawals to meet demands. We have seen groundwater levels recover about half a foot per year over the last 15 years. Today, the RWA is promoting the storage of groundwater in the basin so that it is healthy and full when we need to turn to it in dry years.

Going forward, we will continue to expand the infrastructure piece by piece. The RWA is looking at facilities that can address concerns with Folsom Reservoir.

The drought of 2014–2015 was a wake-up call to the risks posed by low storage levels in Folsom Reservoir. Projects that can move water from the groundwater basin in the west of the region and push it back uphill to the east to the surface water users are a priority right now.

Lessons Learned

We have learned a lot in the past couple of drought years. We did not fully understand the region’s vulnerability to low storage in Folsom or low river flows. In 2014, surface water diversions from the American and Sacramento Rivers were near the lower limits of design capacity. There will always be new stressors on supplies.

The RWA needs to prepare for things that cannot be foreseen and make the system as redundant and resilient as possible.

Another important lesson is that we can come up with regional solutions that leverage the assets of different agencies and meet water needs at a lower cost to customers with better environmental outcomes. Looking at things from a regional basis has really become our go-to approach, and that can be replicated in other water contexts. Much of 27

the region’s success has been due to independent decisions made by individual member agencies finding mutual benefits and acting.

We have also applied that concept to our regional advocacy efforts. When we started the RWA, it was intended to look inward and make our region work better.

However, we found it to be effective in advocating for funding from the state and federal government for some of our projects. The regional story and leveraging of facilities was a good message that sold well with legislators and state officials. That narrative has increasingly become our focus as we advocate at the state and federal government levels on water policy issues.

Future Opportunities and Challenges

Although the ARBCUP has provided an excellent model for agencies to follow, there are still challenges to face, including the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. While the RWA agencies will need to comply with

Groundwater well drilling.

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the new law, the region is already well on its way. We also have an opportunity to continue to be more sustainable.

We are seeing groundwater storage rise and water quality improve, and we are on a path to be a good example of the next generation of groundwater management.

Our long-term vision for the future has three elements.

The first is to improve water efficiency. We are committed to aggressive conservation. We added 400,000 people to the region over the past decade, but we have not increased total water demand. In fact, per-capita water use has declined significantly. We need to continue this effort because it is cost effective and because it is what the state expects.

The second element is to continue to meet customer needs while protecting the environment. Our surface water supplies are only as secure as the health of the American River. So water providers are funding the ongoing Sacramento Water Forum efforts, not only meeting their own commitments, but also funding habitat restoration on the river for fish. We have also been working on a new operations model for Folsom Reservoir that can benefit the fishery, water reliability for both people and fish, and storage.

The third element is the continuation of the infrastructure needed to continue the conjunctive use program. One such effort is the River Arc Project, a proposal for an additional diversion for urban water supply from the Sacramento River. River Arc will provide flexibility for the Central Valley Project by allowing contract commitments to be met either from Folsom Reservoir or from the Sacramento River. It would lessen our dependence on Folsom and allow it to be operated for delta water quality.

River Arc also gives us the ability to expand the use of surface water under the ARBCUP in wet years and offset groundwater use. We are also developing a more formalized groundwater bank and working with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to store Central Valley Project water. We believe this will not only help us, but also help the environment and other water users outside the region.

Overall, we are optimistic about the future of the RWA. The cooperative, yet independent, operation of regional water supplies has allowed our members to conserve water while serving an expanding population and to comply with ever-evolving environmental laws. We hope our success can provide a path for other water users to follow as they face many similar challenges in the future.

John Woodling is the executive director of the Regional Water Authority.

You can reach Mr. Woodling at jwoodling@rwah2o.org.

Municipal Water Leader

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Staying the Course on the Colorado:

R

A Conversation With U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s Terry Fulp

ecent agreements among water users on the Lower Colorado River are indicative of a collaborative spirit and resilience in the face of uncertain water supplies.

No one knows that more than Terry Fulp, regional director of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s Lower Colorado Region since 2012. Dr. Fulp has worked in the Lower Colorado since he first went to work for Reclamation in 1989, serving as deputy regional director before assuming his current position.

Dr. Fulp was also area manager of the Boulder Canyon Operations Office. In each of these capacities, he has focused on basin-wide solutions to the challenges of managing the water supplies of Lake Powell and Lake Mead. Dr. Fulp sat down with Irrigation Leader’s senior writer, John Crotty, to discuss the current water situation in the Lower Colorado, the future of water management and conservation in the basin, and how cooperation among all stakeholders has benefitted the region.

John Crotty: What are your projections for water storage in the lower basin and Lake Mead for 2017 and 2018?

Terry Fulp: Lake Mead is currently about 37 percent full, which is nearly 10 million acre-feet of water in storage. The water elevation is around 1,077 feet, 2 feet above the first shortage trigger of 1,075 feet. We project the January 1 levels in August of the previous year and use that projection to make water supply determinations for the coming calendar year, to give people time to plan accordingly. In August of this year, we predicted a January 1, 2017, level of about 1,079 feet, so we won’t be in a shortage condition in 2017. For 2018, the chance of a shortage condition is around 50 percent.

We use a two-year look ahead to do our operational projections. The model uses inflow forecasts from the National Weather Service, which are updated each month.

Since the snowpack for 2017 has not yet developed, the forecast for next year is based primarily on statistical analysis of historical data at this time. The current mostprobable projection shows we’ll be just below the shortage trigger for the beginning of 2018, but that is so uncertain at this time, we don’t hang our hat on it. As next year unfolds, we will keep updating the study, and by August 2017, we’ll have a much better handle on it and we’ll do the projection and make the determination for 2018.

The bottom line is that the Colorado River system has 30

Dr. Terry Fulp, regional director of the Lower Colorado Region, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

been resilient through this drought. We were fortunate to have a nearly full reservoir system at the end of 1999, which then fell to less than half full during the first 5 years of the drought, with 2002 being one of the worst years for inflow on record. Over the last 10 years or so, we have bounced around being about half full. Today, Lake Mead is not half full, but the system as a whole is.

I think the message is clear: Every drop counts. We must continue to use water wisely while we look for and implement water conservation and augmentation opportunities throughout the basin.

John Crotty: When did Reclamation start implementing these prediction techniques?

Terry Fulp: Although we’ve been making these types of projections since the late 1980s, the input information and models have improved substantially over the years. We included projections in the 2007 Interim Guidelines for Municipal Water Leader

determining the coordinated operation of Lake Powell and Lake Mead each year. The guidelines are in place through 2026, and I think they’ve worked very well so far.

The annual operation attempts to balance the contents of the two largest reservoirs on the system by providing triggers that determine the annual release from each reservoir based on the projections. As an example, given where the lakes are now and are projected to be over the next year, Lake Powell, which is currently about 51 percent full, is projected to release an additional 750,000 acre-feet of water to Lake Mead in 2017. Conversely, if Lake Powell were low, its annual release could be reduced by the same amount.

John Crotty: How do the experimental flows at Lake Powell fit into that context?

Terry Fulp: They’re really separate. The experimental flows out of Lake Powell fall within the total volume of our planned annual releases. These pulse flows, or high peak releases, come out of the total annual volume. It’s a shorter-term operational decision and does not affect the total annual release.

John Crotty: Should water users be mindful to look at the system as a whole, rather than looking at the individual reservoirs?

Terry Fulp: I think it is helpful to keep things in that context. However, the largest water deliveries for consumptive use are from Lake Mead, so we have to also be mindful of that, which is why we have the shortage provisions in the 2007 guidelines.

From a hydrologic perspective, it is a simple mass balance, similar to balancing your checkbook. In normal years, we deliver 9 million acre-feet per year out of Lake Mead to lower basin water users and Mexico. When we don’t have higher flow years, we don’t have 9 million acrefeet coming in and we use the water in storage in Mead to make up the difference. Over 90 percent of the water in Mead comes from the upper basin via Lake Powell and is mostly the product of snowmelt. When there is more snow and more water, Powell makes additional releases to Mead. When there is less water, we have to protect Powell, resulting in less water coming into Mead and less water released out of Mead.

The storage capacity is important and, again, is why our system has been so resilient through this drought. The bottom line is that we know the system is overallocated based on the 100-year historical record; the key question now is: What does the future hold? Climate change models are somewhat unclear as to what future precipitation may be in the basin; however, other studies show that if we Municipal Water Leader

The U.S. Department of the Interior conducting a high-flow release of water from Glen Canyon Dam in Arizona.

simply look at temperature increases observed over the past 50 years and projected in the future, we can expect something like a 10 percent decrease in inflow due simply to increased evapotranspiration. I think that clearly says again that every drop counts.

John Crotty: What kinds of conservation and storage measures have the parties to the 2014 memorandum of understanding (MOU) undertaken?

Terry Fulp: Let me first take a step back and explain how the MOU fits into how we are tackling this drought.

Our overall concern is the risk of reaching critically low reservoir elevations, particularly at Lake Mead, and that risk has increased significantly since the negotiation of the 2007 guidelines. We first sat down in summer 2013 31

and discussed the idea of a drought contingency plan that would reduce that risk, perhaps get it back to where we thought it was in 2005. The basic idea is folks would leave water in Lake Mead voluntarily as opposed to something mandated by the secretary, and we set out to explore ways of doing that.

In summer 2014, we implemented the Pilot System Conservation Program, through which we are testing conservation concepts whereby users are compensated for water left in Lake Mead. In December 2014, we also implemented the MOU you referred to, which targets about 750,000 acre-feet of water to be left in Lake Mead by 2017 through actions taken by the junior priority water district in each lower basin state and by Reclamation.

Progress has been made on both fronts. The pilot program has contracts in place to reduce deliveries totaling about 100,000 acre-feet. Regarding the MOU, quite a bit of work is ongoing, particularly by the Central Arizona Water Conservation District, which I understand should result in meeting their overall target by the end of this year.

And we’re still working hard to finalize a broader lower basin drought contingency plan.

John Crotty: What does the recent water sharing agreement between Phoenix and Tucson say both about current conditions and the ability for regional water

providers to collaborate and adapt to changing conditions?

Terry Fulp: I think it definitely speaks to their ability to adapt to conditions and find collaborative solutions to local water issues. To support such arrangements in the future, we are working with our operational partners at the Central Arizona Water Conservation District on a system use agreement to enable the movement of nonproject water through the Central Arizona Project infrastructure, particularly during times of drought. I think the core of this is the people of the region figuring out what makes the most sense within the legal, policy, and physical constraints.

John Crotty: We have a new administration and a new Congress. What should our newly elected officials know about the lower Colorado River basin with regard to storage and operations?

Terry Fulp: My message would be: We need to stay the course. Throughout my 27-year federal career, we have always continued our work on initiatives such as the drought contingency effort through changes in administrations. These issues are complex and take time to work through. The last thing we would want to do is start over.

Water intakes on Lake Mead behind Hoover Dam. 32

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Placer County Water Agency

By Andrew Fecko

T

he Placer County Water Agency (PCWA) is a public agency formed in 1957 by a special act of the California legislature for the purpose of building a water storage and conveyance project for the future prosperity of Placer County. At the time, major coastal metropolitan areas were building projects in the Sierra Nevada to export water to growing population centers, and the elected leaders of Placer County realized that if the people of the county were to have a strong economy and future, they had to secure a local water supply.

After forming, PCWA began securing area-oforigin water rights to build the Middle Fork Project, a multipurpose water supply and hydroelectric generation project. The Middle Fork Project uses two major storage reservoirs, Hell Hole and French Meadows, and 27 miles of tunnels to store and convey rain and snow that falls during California’s wet season and move it to customers during the dry season.

Completed in 1968, the Middle Fork Project has 350,000 acre-feet of storage and 244 megawatts of hydroelectric generating capacity.

34

In addition to the Middle Fork Project, PCWA purchases a significant quantity of water from the Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s Drum-Spaulding hydroelectric project.

With these two sources of water, PCWA serves approximately 130,000 retail customers in the communities of Colfax, Auburn, Rocklin, and Loomis, as well as in unincorporated areas of Placer County, and provides wholesale water for an additional 200,000 people in the surrounding area. In serving our customers, PCWA also generates 1 million megawatt-hours of clean, renewable hydroelectric energy for the California electric grid as an independent power producer.

Challenges in the Delta

One of the biggest challenges facing PCWA is the continuing environmental decline of the Sacramento– San Joaquin Bay Delta. The declining health of the delta has state and federal regulators looking upstream for additional sources of water to augment freshwater flow in the delta. Although freshwater flow is only one of the factors affecting delta health, other factors, such as invasive species, sea level rise, and lack of suitable habitat, are often ignored by regulators. As a result, Municipal Water Leader

Northern California tributary streams and reservoirs, such as the American River and Folsom Lake, are under constant pressure to make releases into the delta at the expense of our local ecosystems and our customers’ water needs.

This dynamic has a negative effect on both our irrigation and municipal customers. For example, in 2015, the last year of the most recent drought, the state ordered PCWA to reduce water use by over 30 percent, even though PCWA had sufficient supply to serve its customers. Our customers paid for the construction, maintenance, and use of our water storage and delivery systems to ensure water supply reliability during drought periods, but they did not have access to the water because of regulatory direction that had no relation to local conditions. This top-down approach to water conservation affects all water agencies in California and devalues past and future investments in water supply reliability.

Planning for Economic Development

To help mitigate some the uncertainty caused by outside bureaucracy, PCWA works closely with our partners in the local land use planning and development communities to develop the infrastructure necessary to support economic growth in Placer County. During the last two decades, Placer County consistently has been one of the fastest-growing counties in California. Building water treatment and conveyance infrastructure is an expensive proposition, so reducing costs by coordinated planning is essential. For example, when PCWA is building new treated water transmission lines to serve new or expanding communities, we always look at the ultimate land use plans of a larger geographic area in order to install infrastructure that will be sufficient to meet the needs of the larger region. This helps us lower final costs by installing backbone infrastructure in new streets and highways as they are being constructed and avoid the high cost and community disruption of upsizing pipes later.

Because the need for new infrastructure to serve growth usually precedes the home and business owners who will eventually populate the area, financing larger projects is always a challenge for water utilities. PCWA addresses this challenge in three ways. First, we collect connection fees for every new water meter we install, and these fees accumulate over time to fund future water infrastructure. Second, we look to our business partners in the land development community to prepay these connection fees to generate funds upfront. Finally, we provide a credit toward connection fees to our business partners for any infrastructure up to the meter that they construct to our specifications within their development.

All three of these mechanisms enable efficient and well-planned economic development to occur while we

Municipal Water Leader

Placer County Water Agency workers applying Gunite to line canals.

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The American River Pump Station in Placer County.

continue to build the infrastructure necessary to serve new customers.

Improving Efficiency With Technology

Much of our water infrastructure is more than 50 years old, with some portions dating back to the Gold Rush, so upgrading those systems with newer, more efficient technology is vital. One technology is advanced metering infrastructure, which allows customers to access their accounts via smartphones to see how much water they are using hour by hour. PCWA can also use that technology to detect leaks if there is activity or high use that is not in line with normal consumption. PCWA is currently laying the infrastructure for a phased rollout of advanced metering infrastructure in 2017.

Another example of technology improving efficiency is the installation of forecasting sensor networks, which tell us exactly how much water to expect coming into our reservoirs. Working with the University of California, Merced, PCWA installed advanced snow, rain, and soil moisture sensors throughout the Middle Fork Project watershed that can communicate in real time to our hydrology team. PCWA provides financial support to operate and maintain the technology in the American River

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basin, and the university in turn provides us with a data set that allows us to have an idea of what is happening on the ground. The operations and maintenance cost to PCWA is less than $40,000 annually, and the information gained allows us to improve reservoir operations and use water more efficiently.

Coordinating for the Future

In planning for the future, PCWA relies on its strong stewardship ethic. For example, PCWA is a signatory to the Sacramento Area Water Forum, an agreement signed in 2000 to take actions to help the lower American River ecosystem survive and thrive in all hydrologic conditions. We contribute to habitat enhancement, gravel augmentation, and renewal of riparian vegetation to provide maximum benefit to both the aquatic and the terrestrial species of the river. In addition to these physical habitat actions, the water agencies of the region reduce their water use in the driest years, and agencies like PCWA that operate their own reservoirs make additional releases to help our salmon and steelhead species survive. In Municipal Water Leader

wetter years, PCWA supplies Middle Fork Project water to agencies that were once wholly reliant on groundwater so that natural recharge can replenish local groundwater basins. The program has been incredibly successful; groundwater levels have recovered and local agencies have banked nearly 300,000 acre-feet of groundwater that can be relied on during drought years.

PCWA continues to be focused on building the necessary water infrastructure to facilitate economic development throughout Placer County and working with our partners in the greater Sacramento region to continue to make this a great place to live and work.

Andrew Fecko is the director of resource development at the Placer County Water Agency. You can reach Mr. Fecko at afecko@pcwa.net.

Spillway gates at the L.L. Anderson Dam Spillway Modification Project.

An elevated flume near Secret Town, California.

Municipal Water Leader

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2016 CALENDAR November 3

Columbia Basin Development League, Annual Conference, Moses Lake, WA

November 3–4

Idaho Water Users Association, Water Law Seminar, Boise, ID

November 13–17

American Water Resources Association, Annual Conference, Orlando, FL

November 14–16

National Water Resources Association, 85th Annual Convention, San Diego, CA

November 20–22

Nebraska Water Resources Association & Nebraska State Irrigation Association, Joint Convention, Kearney, NE

November 29–December 2 Association of California Water Agencies, 2016 Fall Conference & Exhibition, Anaheim, CA December 6–7

American Water Summit, Miami, FL

December 6–8

National Ground Water Association, Groundwater Week, Las Vegas, NV

December 14–16

Colorado River Water Users Association, 2016 Annual Conference, Las Vegas, NV

January 10–11, 2017

National Water Resources Association, Leadership Forum, Las Vegas, NV

January 24–26, 2017

Idaho Water Users Association, Annual Convention, Boise, ID

January 24–26, 2017

Texas Ground Water Association, Annual Convention, San Marcos, TX

January 25–27, 2017

Colorado Water Congress, Annual Convention, Denver, CO

February 4–7, 2017

National Association of Clean Water Agencies, Winter Conference, Tampa, FL

February 7–10, 2017

American Water Works Association & Water Environment Foundation, The Utility Management Conference, Tampa, FL

___________________________________________________________________________ To include your event in the calendar, e-mail Municipal.Water.Leader@waterstrategies.com.