Municipal Water Leader October 2018

Volume 5, Issue 9

A New Agency for a Growing Region: The Santa Clarita Valley Water Agency

October 2018

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STAFF: Kris Polly, Editor-in-Chief Joshua Dill, Managing Editor Tyler Young, Writer Nicole E. Venable, Graphic Designer 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 upon request. For more information, please contact our office at (202) 698-0690 or Municipal.Water.Leader@waterstrategies.com.

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A New Agency for a Growing Region: The Santa Clarita Valley Water Agency

Contents

October 2018 Volume 5, Issue 9 5 Big-Picture Thinking

By Kris Polly 6 A New Agency for a Growing Region: The Santa Clarita Valley Water Agency

18 Situational Awareness for Water Agencies: A Conversation With Officer Phil Ball

ASSOCIATION PROFILE 32 Problem-Solving in the Colorado River Basin: Jim Broderick of CRWUA

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Copyright Š 2018 Water Strategies LLC. Municipal Water Leader relies on the excellent contributions of a variety of natural resources 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 magazine, 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.

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COVER PHOTO:

The staff of the Santa Clarita Valley Water Agency. Photo courtesy of Santa Clarita Valley Water Agency.

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MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

PHOTO COURTESY OF SANTA CLARITA VALLEY WATER AGENCY.

12 The Quagga Mussel Experience: The Great Lakes’ Lessons for the West

DISTRICT PROFILE 24 Sustainability in the Middle of the Desert: Scottsdale Water

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Big-Picture Thinking

W

ater managers deal with huge geographical areas, huge quantities of water, and huge responsibilities.

In this issue of Municipal Water Leader, we take a look at the big-picture thinking that is required to successfully manage these challenges.

In our cover story, we speak to Matt Stone, the general manager of the Santa Clarita Valley Water Agency, a new entity created through an ambitious merger of several large water agencies north of Los Angeles. Mr. Stone tells us about the multiyear project of relationship building, problem solving, and detail-oriented planning that led to the creation of the agency, all based around the question, “If, historically, there had been just one integrated water retailer and wholesaler in the valley, how would it have been organized?”

The same spirit of big-picture thinking permeates the other agencies and programs we feature this month. Scottsdale Water responded to the challenge of the 1980 Arizona Groundwater Management Act by creating a unique Water Campus facility that provides the city with drinking water while also returning more ultrapure water to the regional aquifer than it removes.

The Colorado River Water Users Association, in the same part of the country, coordinates the efforts of seven states and an

By Kris Polly Indian tribal organization to manage the Colorado River— an especially pressing task in these days of drought. We also speak with two scientists from the University of Wisconsin– Milwaukee’s School of Freshwater Sciences about the quagga mussel, an invasive species that has permanently changed the ecology of the Great Lakes and is now reaching the water bodies of the West.

Finally, we speak with Officer Phil Ball of the Situational Awareness Institute. We all know that the day-to-day professional responsibilities of water managers are huge— but Officer Ball reminds us that managers also need to pay attention to employee safety and security. Big-picture thinking goes beyond ecosystems and watersheds—it involves managing all aspects of a workplace as well.

We hope you find this issue of Municipal Water Leader challenging and inspiring. M Kris Polly is editor-in-chief of Municipal Water Leader magazine and president of Water Strategies LLC, a government relations firm 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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A New Agency for a Growing Region: The Santa Clarita Valley Water Agency

The Santa Clarita Valley.

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he Santa Clarita Valley, north of Los Angeles, has grown in population by 41percent in the last 15 years, and its current population of 250,000 is expected to reach nearly half a million in the foreseeable future. To serve this growing population and deal with problems such as drought and natural disasters, the two major water providers in the valley, Newhall County Water District and Castaic Lake Water Agency, decided to move forward with a consolidation that resulted, in 2018, in the Santa Clarita Valley Water Agency (SCVWA).

In this interview, SCVWA General Manager Matt Stone speaks with Kris Polly, editor-in-chief of Municipal Water Leader, about the ambitious and successful plan to create a unified water district for the Santa Clarita Valley.

Kris Polly: Would you please tell our readers about your background and the SCVWA?

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MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

PHOTO BY JEFF TURNER.

Matt Stone: The Santa Clarita Valley sits about 30 miles north of Los Angeles at an elevation of about 1,300 feet.

We are in the first of the series of mountain valleys and passes that separate Los Angeles and Southern California from the Central Valley of California. We get our name from the Santa Clara River, which runs through the valley and out to sea near Ventura. The population is around 250,000, and we have approximately 72,000 retail service water connections in our area. Resourcewise, there is a significant groundwater basin below parts of the valley.

Significant growth started in the mid-1960s with Newhall

Land and Farming Company. We’ve experienced a 41 percent increase in population over the last 15 years. The area has a projected future population of a little over 480,000.

As far as my background, I started working in California water in 1984. My education includes an undergraduate civil engineering degree, a master’s degree in environmental engineering, and another one in public administration. I worked with the private sector for the first 10 years of my career as a consultant, focusing on water resources planning, preliminary design, and feasibility studies. I had a pretty diverse client base, with over 200 different assignments over that time period.

Later, I became interested in water policy, so I moved to the Municipal Water District of Orange County, a publicsector regional water wholesaler, and stayed there for the next 14 years. We were the third-largest member of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, and a big part of my duties included support for our appointed directors on that organization’s board, which familiarized me with a great number of interesting regional policy issues related to the management of the Colorado River and the Bay Delta, water-rate structure and design, water efficiency, legislative and public affairs, and integrated resource planning. I was also involved in a significant consolidation between the two water wholesalers in the county. That turned out to be good experience.

After that, I went out to the Inland Empire and managed Rancho California Water District, a retail water

and wastewater agency, for about 8 years. In addition to gaining experience in retail service, I was involved in two key projects: a Native American water-rights settlement and the acquisition of lands around our surface-storage reservoir to better protect the watershed. I came to Castaic Lake Water Agency (CLWA) almost 3 years ago when the consolidation process was poised to start moving forward.

reaching a conditional settlement agreement, and then crafting and passing legislation took about 3 years. The first year was really a facilitated discussion and negotiation. The two boards agreed to send emissaries and to meet as an ad hoc committee with a professional facilitator. They did that for over a year, with the immediate goal of airing and discussing differences.

They were successful in the initial goal of resolving the conflict and went on to shape a vision and guiding policy that both Kris Polly: The SCVWA was recently created through the boards approved. I should acknowledge the contributions consolidation of two water agencies. What issues drove the of our facilitator Nancy Miller, as well as CLWA board creation of the SCVWA? members Bill Cooper and Robert DiPrimio and NCWD board members Maria Gutzeit and Dan Mortensen, and our Matt Stone: To set the scene, the Santa Clarita Valley is fairly legal counsels Joe Byrne for Castaic Lake and Tom Bunn for self contained in that we have one groundwater basin, one Newhall County. water importer, and geography that quarters us off from the The second year really shifted to a public process: It surrounding areas. Public water retail service dates back to involved a series of public forums, board workshops, and the 1953 foundation of the Newhall County Water District, outreach to all the stakeholders that we could identify— which served a portion of the area. Two private businesses, community groups, and “The two agencies environmental organizations—as well as water companies—the Santa Clarita Water Company and the Valencia Water Company— continued negotiations on the details. The approved a were formed or acquired by landowners over the ad hoc committee included the two general settlement years to provide retail service. These providers (or managers—Steve Cole from Newhall agreement that their early predecessors) initially relied on local County and me. We brought in professionals groundwater sources. In the mid-1960s, CLWA mapped out the in public outreach, demographics, polling, was formed to serve as the state water contractor financial analysis to further study key features of the and and importer of water for the area. CLWA built the ideas and foster communication with new agency in late stakeholders. We incorporated feedback connections to the state water project system at Castaic Lake, as well as two regional water from the public to refine the final settlement 2016.” treatment plants and a 45-mile network of agreement between the two agencies on —MATT STONE large-diameter pipelines and regional storage to what this new entity might look like. The supplement local supply all over the valley. As two agencies approved a settlement the wholesaler, CLWA sold that water to the retail agencies. agreement that mapped out the key features of the new There is also a small Los Angeles County water system that agency in late 2016. serves a little over 1,300 connections, which was not part of The third year focused on introducing and passing a bill the overall consolidation. through the state legislature and having it passed into law. Our CLWA served as the regional water importer and took on local senator, Scott Wilk, did an amazing job shepherding the some other regional functions and partnering efforts with the Santa Clarita Water Agency Act through both houses of the retail agencies as water management became more complex.

California legislature and onto the governor’s desk. As the bill In 1999, when the family that owned it wanted to sell, CLWA progressed, further refinements and clarifications on key points acquired the Santa Clarita Water Company and obtained were incorporated. The governor signed it on the very last day legal authority to operate it as a public retail division of the in 2017 available for bill signing. I remember it well because I agency. In 2012, CLWA acquired the stock of the Valencia heard the news in an e-mail that I got as soon as I turned on Water Company from its owner, Newhall Land and Farming my phone after returning from a hiking trip in Yosemite. That Company, though since CLWA lacked the legal authority to was a major milestone. fully incorporate and operate it at the time, Valencia continued to operate separately for several years with a shareholderKris Polly: Would you give us more detail about how you appointed board. There were also a number of policy conflicts engaged your ratepayers in this process? and litigation between Newhall County Water District, the retailer, and CLWA, the wholesaler. That eventually led us to Matt Stone: We engaged the community in a number settlement discussions, which then led us to ask how we could of ways, with a big assist from a team of consultants from combine all these water agencies to more efficiently serve the CV Strategies. We had a series of public workshops: first, entire valley. There had been some prior discussions of the a large town hall, and then some more technically oriented concept, but they had failed to attract multilateral support. presentations. Some of the workshops had a walk-around The part of the process that focused on getting agreement format with stations where people were able to talk about on the concept from the boards, gathering community input, different issues and then leave a comment card with their MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

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thoughts in a box. We also conducted several significant public-opinion polls and sent out some postcard polls to gauge support and discover the areas of concern that the new agency could address. We housed the information we were creating, including technical reports, workshop videos, and PowerPoints, in a robust web portal. We also did extensive roadshows to local groups such as the chamber of commerce; political clubs; community-advisory groups; environmental groups; town councils; elected officials; CLWA’s blue ribbon committee of local leaders; realtors; and other business, industrial, and civic groups—anyone who was interested.

because water managers throughout California are also tasked with developing groundwater-sustainability plans that require a similar basin-wide framework.

Kris Polly: Is there anything else you can add about how the consolidation has saved resources?

Matt Stone: Working with a financial consultant during the exploratory phase of our consolidation, we found that we could potentially save as much as $14 million over the first 10 years of the existence of the new agency. Those savings come from a combination of reducing the duplication of outside services; Kris Polly: What are the advantages of consolidation for your a reduction in staff, which we have achieved by attrition; and ratepayers? a reduction in board costs over time, since the combined board will shrink down over the next few years to 9 people Matt Stone: There are several advantages. A single, unified from the original total of 15 people on two boards. Another agency now serves retail water to 98 percent of the valley. area in which we realized savings is in reducing the taxes and A small area receives retail service through the County franchise fees that Valencia Water Company had previously Waterworks District but receives wholesale water service paid, as well as the dividends it had been paying to its former from the new agency. We have a single owner. Those savings will be dedicated governing board, which allows us to hash out to retiring some of Valencia Water’s “One of the hallmarks policy differences in one place, as opposed outstanding obligations. Overall, we are of the new agency is to having competing decisions and conflicts way ahead of schedule on our savings that we are trying to that have to be resolved by litigation. The new projections. We expect to achieve embrace a more hollistic $13 million of the $14 million 10-year governance structure is also more in line with the California Voting Rights Act because it watershed focus, which savings projection in the first 3 years of will result in equal electoral districting instead operation. is a huge theme in of at-large voting.

California.”

Since we draw from a common Kris Polly: Is the board reduction going —MATT STONE groundwater basin and share a single waterto occur through attrition? import contract with the state, the unified agency has more flexibility to develop conjunctive-use Matt Stone: Yes. We decided that in the consolidation, we strategies dealing with both our local groundwater supplies would initially retain all elected and appointed officials. Over and our import supplies. For example, we had a fairly a few election cycles, we will reduce their number. We hired extensive drought in 2016, followed by a very wet year in a professional elections demographer who helped us create 2017, resulting in an abundance of imported water for the first equal-population electoral divisions. The districts needed to be time in many years. We asked retailers to take more imported California Voting Rights Act compliant and also to distribute water in order to let the groundwater basin replenish itself the directors equally among the three divisions. There will more quickly. They did do quite a bit voluntarily, but as a be elections in 2020 and 2022, and by January 2023, there unified agency we would have been able to do more. We will be a final 9-member board. At that point, the electorate are also pursuing a regional recycled-water program. Our will have vetted all the board members. We also included an previous attempts to achieve that cooperatively were awkward attrition provision in the enabling legislation stating that if because they involved multiple players who sometimes had a board member were to leave office for any reason during divergent interests. the transition period, the board could opt not to fill the seat One of the hallmarks of the new agency is that we are under certain conditions. One board member recently retired trying to embrace a more holistic watershed focus, which and moved out of state, and the board did exactly that. We are is a huge theme in California. Watershed and groundwater already down to 14, putting us ahead of schedule. management was not a priority for the previous regional agencies: They were really only created to import water or to Kris Polly: How did you manage different staff positions with focus on local retail water service. They did work cooperatively, the consolidation? but as autonomous organizations with sometimes-divergent priorities. We are in the early stages, but there is great Matt Stone: Interestingly, we really have not doubled our potential for the new agency to deal with issues such as the staff, as you might think. In combining entities that were removal of invasive plants and to work cooperatively with providing retail service in their areas with a wholesaler adjacent parts of the watershed. The timing is excellent, providing water treatment, we did have duplication in some

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MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

areas, mainly management and supervision. We also had some differences in whether a retailer provided services in house or contracted for them with a vendor or contractor.

We also realized that with the turnover rate these days, we could get to the size we wanted through attrition in around 3–5 years, if not sooner. The way it has played out, it will probably be closer to the 3-year mark. We wanted to communicate that to the staff because we did not want valuable people to leave out of concern or because of uncertainty. I think that was a wise move on the part of the boards. In the last year before consolidation, we did have several retirements in key management roles, and we strategically tried to survive with those positions vacant, knowing that when we combined the management teams, we could either eliminate them or fill them with new staff members.

The executive management team members of each of the agencies collaborated on a new plan designed around the question, “If, historically, there had been just one integrated water retailer and wholesaler in the valley, how would it have been organized?” It was a neat exercise. About a month before the start date, January 1, 2018, we presented a full organizational chart to the board and then to the staff, so everyone could see their place in the organization.

The other thing that we are trying to do is give our staff the opportunity to apply for and fill internal vacancies when there is an opportunity for them to move laterally or upward.

It is quite an art to decide whether to keep a position unfilled (and possibly eliminate it altogether) or to consider it a critical need. In some cases, we have also chosen to fill an existing position at a lower level. The study we had done recommended that we reduce 10–11 positions. We have eliminated 7 thus far and have a few other vacant positions on hold. We think we will reach our goal through staff attrition ahead of schedule.

We realized during our conversations that there were a few areas that none of us was adequately addressing. One great example is emergency preparedness. While we had the experience of the Northridge quake 25 years ago and covered many basic elements of emergency preparedness, we should have been doing more given the size of the valley’s population today and our relative remoteness from other urban areas.

That idea crystalized for me during one of the outreach meetings with our blue ribbon panel. We are creating a new position to elevate our emergency preparedness.

Kris Polly: How many employees do you have?

Matt Stone: Right now, we are at about 215 authorized positions, with 212 employees and 3 positions held vacant.

We started with 222 and eliminated 7 positions.

Kris Polly: What are the top lessons that you and your board members learned in this process?

The Santa Clarita Valley.

PHOTO BY JEFF TURNER.

Caption Needed.

MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

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The Santa Clarita Valley Water Agency team.

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Another lesson we took to heart is, “Go big or go home.”

During the ad hoc committee process and the year during which we were doing outreach, we strategized on how to succeed with legislation. We started to feel some trepidation about the potential cost of needed resources, but I think we all realized that we were committed to making this thing work. Once you decide you want to embark on this journey, do not skimp. It is a once-in-a-generation change, and getting the right expertise and technical help is going to make all the difference. That philosophy needs to extend to the efforts to integrate the agency and its systems after consolidation.

Yes, you need to achieve savings, but you also need to build a best-in-class agency to serve your community far into the future. Savings and customer value will follow. The last one is that persistence is really important. There are going to be a lot of setbacks and roadblocks, and you are just going to have to continue to move forward.

Kris Polly: Is there any additional advice that you would like to pass on to agencies considering consolidation?

Matt Stone: You have to identify who the committed leaders are going to be. Again, without those leaders it will not be possible. Engage as many stakeholders in the community as you can. If you do not talk to them, you will not know who might be a crucial support and who might knock the legs out MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

PHOTO BY JEFF TURNER.

Matt Stone: First and foremost, it took a really committed group of leaders on both boards to make this happen. That is what makes the difference in a successful consolidation. You could have the best idea in the world, but without committed leadership, it will be tough to get anything done.

Second, it is a team effort. You are going to need the active support and engagement of your management team and your staff. One of the really neat things about this process has been bringing that management team together and watching its members work out problems and challenges. There is the initial finish line of forming a new organization, but a whole lot more work comes after that. That is where your staff and management team come through.

Another lesson is that you cannot overcommunicate in a process like this. You are going to have to communicate over and over again in order to be successful. We did that particularly well during the outreach and legislative years. As we implement the consolidation, we are also focusing on internal communication.

You have to keep listening and keep finding better ways to communicate within your organization and among your external stakeholders, even after the official date of the consolidation.

We recently asked our staff how we are doing with internal communication. It was a good experience to get both positive reinforcement on what is working and constructive comments on what isn’t—and a reminder that no matter how busy you get, taking time to communicate clearly and often is vitally important.

PHOTO BY JEFF TURNER.

The Santa Clarita Valley.

from under you. I think it is important to make a strong case for the benefits of consolidation up front and also make clear what consolidation will not do. For example, we tried to be clear from the start that this would save money but that there were other reasons why we should do it.

Given the baseline cost pressures and mandates that water agencies are under, we did not publicly equate cost savings with reduced water rates, and we made sure to correct that message if it popped up anywhere. We also made the case for the wider benefits: unified governance; better ability to deal with regional issues; and integrated, holistic watershed management.

Getting to the institutional first day of a new agency is a huge effort, but that is not the end. Much more work has to follow in combining the staffs, developing a new MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

organization, syncing up your policies, bringing IT together, and bringing staff culture together. That takes additional years, and it is equally important to whether you will be successful or not.

Finally, I want to publicly acknowledge and thank both boards, the ad hoc committee, Senator Wilk and our other state and local elected officials, our management teams and staffs, our attorneys and consultants, our legislative advocates, our stakeholders, and all who expressed support or contributed constructive feedback as the proposal took shape. They each shared a role in our successful journey to form a new agency. M For more information about the Santa Clarita Valley Water Agency, visit yourscvwater.com.

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Quagga mussels from Lake Michigan.

The Quagga Mussel Experience: The Great Lakes’ Lessons for the West

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Joshua Dill: How and when did the quagga mussel invade the Great Lakes, and what have the effects been?

Russell Cuhel: Both the quagga and the zebra mussel came from the Dnieper River in Ukraine. They were

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transported in the ballast water of transatlantic shipping that came up into the Great Lakes via the St. Lawrence Seaway, through the canals and locks, and ultimately into Lake Superior. It is likely that they were first discharged into the Great Lakes in 1988 or 1989. They made an appearance in Lake Erie shortly thereafter. Here in Lake Michigan, they did not appear until the early 2000s—2002 or 2003. They undoubtedly were in all the Great Lakes by 1990, but because each of the lakes is different in its structure and the way that water and people move around, they did not become established in each lake at the same time. Some areas, like Green Bay, had a much more rapid initial establishment of zebra and quagga mussels than did the main basin of Lake Michigan, but neither reached the fantastic population densities found in less sedimentladen water.

We got a phone call in 2007 from the Metropolitan Water District in Los Angeles saying that they had quagga mussels in Lake Mead and Lake Havasu and asking for our advice. As far as we know, zebra mussels have not established themselves in California; quagga mussels were the first ones to get there.

When people remove the visible mussels from the bottom of their boats, that is superficial at best. The real problem is the almost-invisible mussel larvae, known as veligers, that get into the cooling systems of boat engines.

MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

PHOTO COURTESY OF RUSSELL CUHEL AND CARMEN AGUILAR.

he quagga mussel is an invasive species that, over the last 30 years, has heavily colonized the Great Lakes.

Its hydrodynamic, geochemical, optical, and ecological effects are so great that the species is termed an “ecosystemrevising organism” or “ecosystem engineer.” Now, quaggas are spreading to the rivers of California, Lake Mead, and other water bodies in the West—largely thanks to human enablers.

Not only does the quagga affect water bodies from an ecological point of view, it can also pose major problems for irrigators and water suppliers.

Russell Cuhel and Carmen Aguilar are scientists at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee’s School of Freshwater Sciences who have researched the quagga mussel from a biological and ecological point of view. They have also provided advice to water users in the West about how best to deal with the coming quagga invasion. In this interview with Municipal Water Leader Managing Editor Joshua Dill, Dr. Cuhel and Dr. Aguilar discuss the experience of the Great Lakes, particularly Lake Michigan, their area of firsthand expertise, and the lessons it can provide to the western states.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF RUSSELL CUHEL AND CARMEN AGUILAR.

They are inconspicuous, and as a result, Russell Cuhel: It appears that the same high levels they are being transported all over. In of variability that we have seen here in the Midwest Lake Michigan, for the first 10 years, also apply to the West. In the Great Lakes, we can the veligers were seasonal; you only saw easily say that they were released in the late 1980s, them in the water from late August to but they were not in evidence in Lake Michigan early October. They live in the water for until 2002. That is because of the reproductive about 6 weeks before they settle out. The method Carmen was talking about and the adults were spawning in July and August difficulty of observing individuals or small clusters and the mollusk larvae were swimming of animals early in the invasion sequence. The same around in the water in September. That thing is true out West. Lakes Havasu and Mead is when Labor Day falls, and in highwere already beginning to be heavily colonized in and mid-latitude areas, that is typically 2008, which is why we were called in 2007. It took when people take their boats out of 10 years for them to get into some of the rivers and the water. The engine-cooling water in pipelines around those lakes; in some cases it took Carmen Aguilar and Russell Cuhel.

September is full of veligers—they live until this year. But they were sizable, clearly visible in the upper water, not on the bottom. Then people trailer their adults. It might take 2 years under ideal conditions for them to boats out to the West Coast. The trip only takes a couple of days, grow to an inch. So it took 10 full years for the first live adults to and it is not very hot out, so the water in the engines and cooling be found in some of the rivers, but were they transported there or systems of the boats stays normal in temperature and the veligers did they grow there? survive. When the boat gets started in the new water area the Quaggas are going to appear earlier in water bodies with no veligers are released. flow—lakes and reservoirs—than in rivers with substantial flow.

Quagga mussels do not adhere as well as zebra mussels, so they Carmen Aguilar: One of the things to make sure that people do not do well in moving water. This means they live on the understand is that quagga mussel veligers are present in the downstream side or the underside of surfaces, which makes them surface water. Quagga mussels reproduce by broadcast spawning, less noticeable. Second, reproductive success is much lower in like corals do. They throw gametes into the water, which rivers as compared to lakes. As Carmen pointed out, the adults encounter each other and stay in the surface water. That is how spew out gametes that have to meet in the water. If there are only they get into the engines. You can see and remove adult mussels, a few putting out these gametes and the water is moving along a but you will not be able to see the veligers, which are only about run, the likelihood that the gametes meet and fertilize is small. In one-tenth of a millimeter in length. a lake where they can float around together, the odds are higher.

Another thing to keep in mind is the hardness of the water.

Joshua Dill: How quickly have the quagga mussels spread in the The mussels require calcium to produce their shells: The shell is West?

40 percent calcium by weight. For a moderate-sized adult

Quagga mussel larvae, known as veligers, a few days after spawning.

MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

Underwater footage shows vast fields of quaggas on the bottom of Lake Michigan.

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mussel (25 mm or 1 inch in length), that is a tenth of a gram of calcium per animal. If you are in an area where the bedrock is limestone or dolomite, they can do well, but in a soft-water area where there is not much calcium, they will not. If the water body in question doesn’t have snails, clams, or native mussels, the water is probably too soft to support these invaders.

A lot of the lakes that the mussels have been colonizing lately have been around Santa Clara and Ventura Counties in California and the San Gabriel River. We are noticing that they are moving around. The mussels actually have a foot that they can move around with, much like a snail; they do not move very fast, but they do move fast enough to relocate. If conditions become unfavorable—for example, if the level of oxygen is low—they can often escape. If you Joshua Dill: Are there any other geological or biological put an object down, they will definitely go to it. Anything differences between the Great Lakes and the bodies they can get on to allow them better access to filter of water in the West that affect how the quagga phytoplankton in the water column is attractive to them. mussels spread?

They rapidly colonized submerged buildings in Lake Mead.

The ability of quagga mussels to adhere to Russell Cuhel: Absolutely. I will use the “A lot of the lakes a wide variety of materials also gives them surface-to-volume ratio as an example. a big advantage over the seemingly similar that the mussels Lake Michigan has a low surface-tozebra mussel. Zebra mussels have strong have been volume ratio; the lake is deep and it is attachment fibers called byssal threads colonizing lately large enough to have a consistent current that tightly grip hard and porous surfaces because of persistent wind. On the other have been around like stone, metal, and wood. These are the hand, Lake Erie is very shallow; there, a materials of piers, coastal rocky bottoms, Santa Clara and good storm can resuspend mud. Wherever boats, and the like. Quagga mussels, on the Ventura Counties in other hand, can adhere to soft and granular mud is resuspended, mussels are less happy California and the substances, including sand, clay, and even than they are where the water is clearer, but quagga mussels are well adapted and their San Gabriel River.” consolidated mud. This broadens their range incurrent siphons, or feeding tubes, can tremendously. Often living deeper in the — Carmen Aguilar be as long as their bodies. Plankton make water and hence with less need to resist them happy and mud does not. If you are currents, fields of quagga mussels cover in a reservoir or another moderately deep expansive flat bottom regions. area where the warm water floats on the top and the deep water is cold, the mussels will do well. If you are in a warm Russell Cuhel: Another important thing is the structure river with rapid flow, they will not do well. In the Great of a basin. When the basin structure—the bottom of a Lakes, both the populations per square meter of colonized lake or river—is smooth, it is going to be a lot less rapidly surface and median animal size are greater where there is colonized compared to a basin that contains heterogeneous less suspended sediment—greater in Lake Michigan than structures. Rocks, pinnacles, or vertical structures can in Lake Erie. The other factor is the supply of plankton. intercept currents that will allow the animals to not deplete Lake Superior, which is low in plankton activity, has only their immediate areas of their food resources. recently shown the first signs of colonization along the There is another related factor that has not yet been shoreline. Lake Michigan, on the other hand, had a pretty well established but has a lot of circumstantial evidence to decent plankton population when the mussels first invaded. support it. The productivity of a water body has at least two Lake Erie has a lot of potential for suspended sediments, factors that are related to mussel success. One is whether so the western side of the lake is not a good habitat, but there are enough plankton being produced. Plankton the eastern part, which is deeper, does support a large production may be seasonal, and if the mussels have a long population of mussels. period of low food availability, they need to survive until the next bloom. Then the question arises as to whether there Carmen Aguilar: One of the things that people should is a lot of dissolved organic material in the water. That is be aware of is that quagga mussels thrive in a system with something that may enable mussels to last through some high levels of calcium. The shells of quagga mussels are dilute periods. much thinner than those of zebra mussels, so quaggas grow their shells much more quickly and with less calcium. As Joshua Dill: Would you tell our readers about the effects of long as they have some way of depositing the shell, the the quagga mussels? environment is viable. Another big thing is that quaggas do best in areas that are not very acidic. If you have a lake or a Russell Cuhel: Yes, but we need to distinguish between system that has low pH, their shells are not able to deposit moving water and reservoirs or lakes, where the water is in a timely manner and will erode away sooner. relatively still. Much less is known about the effects in

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MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

PHOTOS COURTESY OF RUSSELL CUHEL AND CARMEN AGUILAR.

A young quagga mussel.

moving waters. In still waters, one of the first unequivocal effects is on water clarity. Water clarity and particle loading completely change; you get very clear, low-particle water.

In Lake Michigan, transparency more than doubled; there is now enough light to see well without lights at depths of more than 200 feet. This makes for exceptional recreational or professional diving, as well as fishing for roaming top predators.

There is also an increased rate of deposition. The mussels suck in particles, and the ones that they do not use for making body tissue are returned to the water right where they are, but encased in a light mucus. These particles drop to the bottom, which becomes loaded with high organic-enriched material. That leads to localized anaerobic conditions where the bacteria break down the organic material, which leads to the depletion of oxygen at the water-sediment interface. The mussels may not be affected by the oxygen depletion because it is going on underneath them, and they can slowly move away. But it changes the mobilization of many elements, particularly metals, and in some deep pockets it can lead to localized anoxic conditions that can suffocate the mussels themselves. You can get pockets of anoxic muds where the bacteria will mobilize metals and stable mineral nutrients that can escape into overlying water.

Carmen Aguilar: For people who are treating water and relying on water movement, one of the main concerns is always the clogging of pipes and screens, which reduces pumping capability. What we have seen here with MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

Quagga mussels have long incurrent siphons, or feeding tubes, that allow them to find fresh plankton for food.

Wisconsin Energy is that they have to stop the flow and exchange screens to remove the mussels. When they are in pipe systems, the mussels tend to form multiple layers and have to be physically removed. We have been working with the water treatment facility here to let them know when there is a burst of veligers. That way they can do chemical treatments to protect their pipes. As Russell was saying, if you have a lot of mussels, the water may become depleted in calcium and experience other chemical changes. It is important for those in the industry to know when veligers are reproducing in their system.

I got a call one time from California about irrigation, which the state relies on heavily. One thing I mentioned to them is that, even if an irrigation system stops its water for a period of time and lets things dry, not everything will dry completely. These organisms can survive for about 5 days with no water surrounding them. There is also the concern that these mussels could change the characteristics of the water being used for irrigation. Removing and treating these mussels will of course add costs to an operation: When you have to stop a system, or have to send divers out to remove the mussels, it is going to add to your bottom line.

Joshua Dill: Would it be fair to say that sooner or later the quagga mussel is going to get into a majority of the water bodies in the western United States?

Russell Cuhel: Yes. I have a phrase—not many people like it, but it holds some truth: “It only takes one idiot.” If

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you have one person who takes a small fishing boat with an outboard motor from a contaminated lake during the veliger period into any other place, and the veligers get out there, it is over. There is nothing that you can do in an ecologically or socioeconomically practical way to get rid of them once they are in. But you can assess where to best place your resources by careful analysis of the water chemistry and environmental conditions of your site. Lowcalcium waters are of less concern, for example.

When we were working with the Metropolitan Water District, they told us that, in studying the movements and potential impacts of the quagga mussel, one of the things that would save the most effort would be to know where they did not have to worry about the mussels. They submitted a request to study the calcium requirements of veligers’ settling, and we wrote a proposal, but California went into financial trouble around that time and killed the study. The point was that lakes and rivers with low calcium are unlikely to have significant infestation. You can think about that in figuring out where to focus your efforts. It may not be an easy choice, but it needs to be made.

Carmen Aguilar: Educating the public is a big and necessary step. Mussels are in the surface water: Getting people to understand that is really important. We go a lot to fishing clubs and other places and we tell the people there that they are the ones who can protect against these mussels. There are a lot of people who like fishing in different systems and they do not think about how the mussel cycle works. As they go from one system to the next without taking care of the water in their motors, they transport the mussels. It may take a long time, but it will happen. The connectivity of the river systems in the West is going to be of concern for California.

Joshua Dill: It sounds like, other than prevention, there is no reliable way to remove quagga mussels from a water body once they are present.

Russell Cuhel: I would say that is correct. There are some lessons from the Great Lakes that can help people in the West. The first thing is that this is a great opportunity to use citizen science. For a small investment, you can equip local activist groups with underwater video cameras that can allow for the surveying of water bodies on a regular basis. There are plenty of citizen-science groups that would be willing to help.

The second thing is this. One of the big mistakes here in the Great Lakes was to assume that what was happening during the first few years of invasion was going to keep happening. The animals only live for 12–15 years. During the first years of establishment, they have a huge new effect on the ecosystem, but once they have been there for 10 years or more, they reach a new equilibrium at which the new ones are replacing the old. Because quagga mussels here live in a monolayer in still water, once they have established their habitat, the new ones will come in at the rate at which the old ones die off. There is a curve of impact that is very steep during the first 10 years; it levels off after that. Big lakes like Lake Mead that have had quagga mussels for about 10 years should be reaching stable conditions. That is why I think it is important for those in the West to do studies to establish where they are in the mussels’ community-development scheme. M For more about the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee School of Freshwater Sciences, visit its website at https://uwm.edu/freshwater/. Drs. Cuhel and Aguilar can be reached by email at rcuhel@uwm.edu and aguilar@uwm.edu.

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MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

PHOTO COURTESY OF RUSSELL CUHEL AND CARMEN AGUILAR.

Quagga mussels’ byssal threads, or anchoring fibers, allow them to adhere to sand or clay.

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Situational Awareness for Water Agencies: A Conversation With Officer Phil Ball

Officer Ball teaching water district employees in Qincy, Washington.

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s the lead instructor at the Situational Awareness Institute, Officer Phil Ball educates and trains professionals in government agencies and businesses on security and emergency preparedness. A former SWAT officer and a certified police officer in four states, Ball has over 25 years of law enforcement experience. Officer Ball’s seminars are designed to identify organizations’ and businesses’ vulnerabilities and provide specific advice on how to eliminate them to deter potential attackers from without and within.

The businesses and agencies that Officer Ball has worked with include irrigation districts and municipal water districts. In this interview with Municipal Water Leader Editor-in-Chief Kris Polly, Officer Ball discusses how water agencies need to think about and prepare for security situations.

Kris Polly: What should water agencies be mindful of when thinking of the security of their facilities?

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MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

PHOTOS COURTESY OF PHIL BALL.

Phil Ball: Generally, you will be dealing with two human factors: the people inside your site and the people visiting your site. Just as in a school, you want to have a single point of entry; buildings with multiple points of entry are very hard to defend and control. Having a single point of entry allows you to control the flow of people. Active shooters, for instance, generally plan to gain access to a large group of people. Preventing them from doing this frequently deters them.

It is also a good idea to screen the people coming into the building. If there is a problem, the receptionist should

be able to press one button and use the intercom system to notify those in the building. That allows people to lock the doors, turn off the lights, and silence their phones.

A lot of lawenforcement and government agencies have a difficult time screening potential employees. They Officer Phil Ball, lead instructor at the are tempted Situational Awareness Insitutute. to lower their standards in order to fill empty positions. But inviting a bad employee into your operation could end up being a negative thing for the rest of your employees and your operation as a whole. Once you have a problem employee, you have to document his or her problems, especially anger-management issues, and deal with potential lawsuits.

The best indicator of future behavior is past behavior.

There needs to be strict limitations on what you permit.

The shooter who killed several people at the Navy Yard

PHOTO COURTESY OF.

in Washington, DC, had arrests and violent offenses that Phil Ball: That is an interesting question. The FBI is now were overlooked during his background screening. Imagine recommending that agencies invite local law enforcement the liability that that company now faces because of a poor into their buildings before there is a problem so that they background investigation. can see their layout. We have seen local law-enforcement If a police officer has one conviction for domestic violence, agencies go to government facilities for meet-and-greets and his or her firearm is taken away and he or she can never be tours. From then on, the guys who are going to respond will a police officer again. You do not want someone with an know the layout of the facility. That will help them get to you anger-management issue having access to deadly force. In and help you in an emergency situation. a water district, you do not want someone with an angerI cannot tell you how many government and private management issue having access to your other employees; businesses have very expensive phone systems but don’t know you have a fiduciary responsibility to protect them. If you how to use them. If you ask an employee how to press one or disregard that and hire a person like that anyway, you own two buttons and page the entire building, most of the time that liability. he or she can’t. Often, he or she says that there is one specific Another thing to be aware of is cybersecurity, which right person in the office who knows how. Everyone in the office now is a greater threat than active shooters. should know how to do things like that. As Cyberattacks on utilities and water agencies we like to say on the firing range, everyone is “It is critical to be are a growing problem. I am working with a security officer; everyone’s eyes and ears are aware of threats a sister company with a potential merger valuable; and if there is a problem, everyone ahead, and we have realized that to cover needs to know how to address the problem and to have a our water district clients, we need to protect or alert others. contingency plan not only their physical security but also Training employees on the indicators to prevent and their information. Placing limitations on of possible violence is important. Different deter them and limit employees will have different ideas about what people can download and put on their their effects should what constitutes a threat based on their own computers is critical. It may be fun to play a little game on the computer over your lunch they occur, be they subjective experiences and judgment. We hour, but malware items can be embedded in physical, cyber, or want to put empirical data in front of them innocent-looking games. I have actually been and establish a clear threshold for reporting financial.” at a location where an information attack potential threats. That can allow management — Officer Phil Ball came through a game. The attacker was not to make decisions on whether law looking for information on customers—he or enforcement needs to be involved. You have she was actually looking for the floor plan and the emergency to establish clear policies for your employees that state that response plan for the facility. I was standing with the IT if someone comes in and does specific things, the employees technician as the attack was happening, and he asked me why need to report it, no questions asked. the attacker was looking for these specific things. I told him As for panic buttons, I would suggest the Solo Protect, that if someone were planning an assault on a government which is a device that can be issued to each employee. It facility, this information would be extremely valuable. That has GPS tracking, and wherever the employee is, if he caused a shutdown of the site’s mainframe, and we ended or she feels threatened, he or she can touch a button on up having to wipe everything. That was a really frightening the back of the device and call for help. The device looks experience for the IT technician and the other employees of like an identification card. The device opens a two-way the facility. communication link so that other coworkers can hear You need to be situationally aware of threats to prevent everything that is going on and assess whether the employee them; that is why my company is called the Situational needs help. You can train employees to give code words that Awareness Institute. It is critical to be aware of threats and to can act as signals for help while not alerting the potential have a contingency plan to prevent and deter them and limit threat that he or she is being monitored. their effects should they occur, be they physical, cyber, or financial. If you hire someone like me who deals with Kris Polly: It is essential that every agency have a security bad people, we can tell you what vulnerabilities they are plan in place. Would you please tell our readers about the looking for and secure them so that they will move on to basic elements of a security plan? easier targets.

Phil Ball: The basic elements are building security and Kris Polly: Would you please talk about the importance having a way to identify and monitor personal behaviors. of having a panic button and an immediate response to There is a legal concept called respondeat superior, which threats? Also, how should agencies coordinate with local law means that an employer is responsible for everything that an enforcement? employee does. A security plan involves making sure that MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

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Officer Ball instructing police officers in Texas.

employees know where all the exits are and know the most up-to-date emergency numbers for local first-response agencies. Another part of the security plan is making sure that you have correctly functioning fire alarms and smoke detectors. You also need functioning fire extinguishers that are available to employees. A lot of people do not know this, but a fire extinguisher is a good self-defense weapon. We offer a course on how to use a fire extinguisher for that purpose in extreme situations. Making sure that all your employees are on the same plan and making sure that everyone is on the same page will make things go much more smoothly should a problem arise. We have worked with several agencies that require their employees to know the security plan; they can face consequences if they do not.

Kris Polly: Would you tell our readers about the importance of video surveillance and of having a visible monitor that displays surveillance footage?

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Kris Polly: If an agency is concerned about its security, what is the first thing it should do?

Phil Ball: The first thing to do is to make a plan and have a professional assessment of security risks and needs. The assessment can provide a list of existing vulnerabilities and suggestions to reduce risk and increase security, organized in a tiered fashion according to severity.

Kris Polly: When an agency contracts a security professional to do an assessment, what key elements need to be addressed?

Phil Ball: What we have done in the past, whether we are working with a water district or a casino, is to sit down and MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

PHOTO COURTESY OF PHIL BALL.

Phil Ball: I have some customers with high-resolution surveillance all over their facilities, but no monitor displaying that fact for everyone to see. I would always suggest installing a monitor displaying a high-resolution feed of all of the cameras’ footage so that people see it as soon as they

come in. You also want to post some verbiage suggesting that there are other cameras in the building not visible on the monitor, so that no one attempts use the monitor to circumvent the camera system. Bad guys are always plotting to circumvent your system, so sometimes you need to do a little psychological operation to keep them guessing. There is no way to prevent crime, but you can displace it by eliminating as many vulnerabilities as possible. A monitor that people see as soon as they walk into a building is an excellent deterrent.

PHOTO COURTESY OF PHIL BALL.

Officer Ball teaching a gun-disarming technique at a martial arts school in Broward County, Florida.

read every page of an agency’s security policies. That is one thing that most security assessments do not do. We read the policy manual and make specific recommendations on how to tighten it up. I can’t tell you how big a vulnerability it is to have people using policies and procedures that expose them to legal liability and physical danger.

Looking at the physical site is important, but so is looking at the physical behaviors of the employees.

Sometimes certain behaviors have become institutionalized despite never having been approved. One thing that comes to mind are workplaces where everyone carries big lock-blade knives. There should be some type of safety training for that; otherwise, it is deliberate indifference and becomes a huge liability for the company.

The security assessment should also look at crime prevention through environmental-design recommendations for the physical building that will deter criminals, lower liability, and help contain an incident if it does occur. The security professional should also make recommendations on the equipment that you are issuing to employees.

Kris Polly: Is training part of this equation?

MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

Phil Ball: Most definitely. This is a perishable skill for employees, just like playing a musical instrument. You want to have trainings on a regular basis so that you can keep security at the top of your employees’ minds. We find that when people who have not been trained well are under extreme stress, they will go into fight-or-flight mode, which greatly diminishes their executive-thinking skills. You want what you learned in training to become instinctual. If an employee has to stop and think or find a list of procedures, that greatly increases risk. I was on a crime scene a couple of months ago where a life was lost. When I asked what the agency’s training was for this situation, I was told that they had had training on this issue, but that it had last happened years ago. You can either invest money in competent training, or you can invest a lot of money in litigation insurance. We have tracked information on this matter and found that after about 16 months have passed since the last training session, liability exceeds the amount of money that another training session would cost. M Officer Ball can be reached at saitactical@gmail.com or at (954) 292-5592. For more about the Situational Awareness Institute, visit its website at gobarricadefight.com.

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DISTRICT PROFILE

Sustainability in the Middle of the Desert: Scottsdale Water Scottsdale Water’s treatment plant for Central Arizona Project water.

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cottsdale Water has the formidable task of providing the quarter-million residents of the desert city of Scottsdale, Arizona, with water every day. Moreover, the utility must comply with the State of Arizona’s high standards of environmental sustainability and water-use efficiency.

Scottsdale Water responded to these challenges with a first-ofits-kind Water Campus that returns more water to the region’s aquifer than it takes out. For its accomplishments, Scottsdale Water received the Sustainable Water Utilities Management Award from the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies in 2018.

Brian K. Biesemeyer, PE, is the executive director of Scottsdale Water. In this interview, he speaks with Municipal Water Leader Managing Editor Joshua Dill about his utility’s unique Water Campus, its indirect potable reuse program, and its education initiatives in the Scottsdale community.

Joshua Dill: Please tell our readers about Scottsdale Water and the area it serves.

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Joshua Dill: Where does the water for your system come from?

Brian Biesemeyer: The largest portion of our total water supply—around 60 percent—comes from the Central Arizona Project, which is Colorado River water. We get another 13 percent from the Salt and Verde Rivers; that water is delivered to us by the Salt River Project. That Salt and Verde River water comes from watersheds in northern and eastern Arizona; they are not like the Colorado River, which runs through several states.

We also supplement our water supply during highdemand periods—at the height of our Arizona summers— with groundwater, but we are unique in that while we do pump groundwater, we actually put more water back into the ground through our recharge activities than we pump out. Scottsdale was the first city in Arizona to achieve safe yield, pumping out less groundwater than we put back in the aquifer. We have achieved safe yield every year since 2006. We are pretty proud of that, as it speaks to the sustainability of the city.

MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

PHOTO COURTESY OF SCOTTSDALE WATER.

Brian Biesemeyer: Scottsdale Water is a municipal water supplier for the City of Scottsdale. We serve a fairly large geographic area—about 185 square miles—with a population of about 240,000 folks. Scottsdale is a long, narrow city, about 32 miles long and only about 8 miles wide, with a fair bit of elevation change, rising 3,700 feet from south to north. We also have some beautiful desert geography and large preserve areas in between, so our service area creates some unique challenges.

We have a little over 2,000 miles of water main with 18 pressure zones, and about 1,400 miles of sewer main with five pumpback stations. We deliver, on average, about 67 million gallons per day of potable water and up to 20 million gallons per day of reclaimed and advanced treated water for irrigation, primarily to our golf courses.

Our annual operating budget is around $123 million.

DISTRICT PROFILE Reclaimed water makes up about 12 percent of our total water supply. In addition to our recharge efforts, we send reclaimed water to 24 different golf courses and the city’s large sports facility.

Joshua Dill: Where did the idea for your facility come from?

Brian Biesemeyer: I would say that the Water Campus is unique in the way that it combines all the different aspects of a complete water system in one location. And the Advanced Water Treatment facility is unique in that it has 20 years of successful operations behind it. There are other similar facilities, like Orange County Water District’s Groundwater Replenishment System, an impressive facility that recharges their aquifer, but Scottsdale’s Water Campus is about 10 years older and includes other water systems, all at one facility.

Brian Biesemeyer: In our case, I would argue that groundwater recharge is better. The large aquifer underneath Scottsdale gives us long-term supply flexibility and also lets us put a lot of water in the ground in the winter when it is not being consumed and then pull some of it out in the summer when our demands are much higher. It gives us the tremendous advantage of having a large storage tank right underneath us.

That said, while recharge is the best option for Scottsdale, immediate reuse is close to becoming a viable option

Brian Biesemeyer: The Water Campus idea came out of the 1980 Arizona Groundwater Management Act, which Joshua Dill: How has your district managed to achieve was a pioneering piece of water legislation. In the 1970s, safe yield every year since 2006?

Arizona faced the fact that we could not continue to mine groundwater endlessly. Doing so would wreak havoc on the Brian Biesemeyer: We reached safe yield through the environment and our economy. So the Arizona legislature efforts at our Water Campus. The Scottsdale Water Campus had the foresight to pass the Groundwater Management is a facility that combines four major components of a Act, which, among other things, incentivized folks to seek water system. It contains the 70-million-gallon-per-day out sustainable water supplies. drinking water treatment facility that treats our Central The Groundwater Management Act required any new Arizona Project water, a state-of-the-art water quality lab, development in the state’s most populous areas (designated a 20-million-gallon-per-day water reclamation facility, and Active Management Areas) to prove an assured water our Advanced Water Treatment facility. supply capable of sustaining its residents for at least The Advanced Water Treatment facility is really what 100 years. It also required that the large population areas makes the Scottsdale Water Campus unique. It uses of the state come into safe yield by the year 2025. It was ozonation, ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis, and ultraviolet because of this safe-yield requirement that Scottsdale photolysis to treat water from our reclamation plant to decided, back in the early 1980s, to take hold of our water ultrapure standards. It has a capacity of just over 20 million resource assets—mainly our wastewater—and come up with gallons per day. We use that ultrapure a way to treat that water and put it to future water to recharge our aquifer through “We put an average beneficial use. indirect potable reuse.

Out of that came our Water Campus. of around We recharge through 63 vadose zone We knew that we needed to recharge 5 million gallons wells that are all within a mile of the Water groundwater. We also knew that Scottsdale Campus. We put an average of around per day—every day— sits on a very pristine drinking water aquifer, 5 million gallons per day—every day—of which we were committed to not saffecting. of ultrapure water ultrapure water back into the ground So we made the decision decades ago that back into the ground the water we put back in the aquifer would through our indirect potable recharge through our indirect be of a quality equal to or better than the activities. We typically put more water in during the winter and pull some out in the water that was naturally down there, which portable recharge summer. Overall, we have been putting meant we needed to expand not only our activities.” more water in the ground than we have surface water treatment capacities but also — BRIAN BIESEMEYER been taking out since 2006. our wastewater treatment capabilities. We The Water Campus was the first indirect also knew that we would need a state-of-thepotable reuse facility in Arizona and is still art lab to ensure that everything worked. one of the largest in the world. We just celebrated the The ideas and planning for the campus began in the late 20th anniversary of indirect potable reuse at the Water 1980s and early 1990s, construction started in the midCampus. The facility came online in 1998 and was really a 1990s, and we started processing water in October 1998. huge achievement for the time.

Joshua Dill: What are the advantages of groundwater Joshua Dill: Are there any comparable facilities in the recharge? Is the process better than simply reusing the United States? purified water immediately?

MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

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DISTRICT PROFILE

Reverse osmosis trains at Scottsdale Water’s Advanced Water Treatment facility.

in Arizona. The state recently removed the prohibition against direct potable reuse, and since Scottsdale has the operational experience and the technology in place, we are working with the Department of Environmental Quality to define the regulatory requirements and the permitting process to enable cities here in Arizona to begin direct potable reuse.

Joshua Dill: Is Scottsdale being affected by the Colorado River drought?

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Brian Biesemeyer: We have a wide variety of programs.

On the conservation side, we have a variety of programs including both classroom-based youth-education programs and free adult workshop programs that focus on a bunch of water efficiency topics. We offer rebates for installation of a large assortment of WaterSense fixtures, as well as some unique rebates for the removal of high-water-use fixtures.

We’ll pay folks to convert their turf to desert-adapted landscaping, and Scottsdale was the first, and I believe is still the only, city in Arizona to offer rebates for spa and swimming pool removal and water softener removal. Water softeners are a particularly big issue for us because not only do they add to water demand, but they also return huge amounts of salt back into our wastewater-collection system, which we have to remove before we can reuse that water.

In Scottsdale, we’ve taken education outreach a step further and cover things beyond just water-use efficiency. In 2015, we launched the Scottsdale Water Citizen Academy with the goal of educating our residents and stakeholders about everything we do here at Scottsdale Water. The Academy is a course, with a class one night a week for 5 weeks, that covers all aspects of a sustainable water utility: treatment, distribution, collection, reclamation, water quality, finance, engineering—you name it, we cover it. The program is incredibly popular, so much so that we had to MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

PHOTO COURTESY OF SCOTTSDALE WATER.

Brian Biesemeyer: Yes, drought is an issue, but Arizona as a state has been pushing the conservation message through its water utility programs for over three decades. The 1980 Groundwater Management Act made water conservation a requirement for water providers. Water conservation is just a way of doing business in Arizona; it has been a constant theme running through all our utilities for decades. We have always recognized that we live in a desert state and that our state is subject to drought. So while we continually tighten our conservation efforts and strive to become more innovative, we have not had to make any drastic changes in our waterconservation effort in response to the drought.

Storing our water underground also allows us some cushion for drought. We don’t necessarily want to use those reserves, but if we have to, we could withdraw the water from the groundwater table as a droughtmitigation measure.

Joshua Dill: Does the district have any citizen-education programs regarding water use efficiency?

DISTRICT PROFILE

Participants in Scottsdale Water’s Citizen Academy program.

add a second session: We do it twice a year now. Most people take their water for granted, but when you tell them all that we do every day, they really love it. It was named the 2017 Public Education Program of the Year by the WateReuse Foundation. It’s a lot of work, but we’re really proud of it.

PHOTO COURTESY OF SCOTTSDALE WATER.

Joshua Dill: Tell us about the award you recently received from the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies.

Brian Biesemeyer: Scottsdale Water has a history of being recognized for our vision and overall water sustainability. We just received the Sustainable Water Utilities Management Award from the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies in our first year of eligibility—we received the Platinum Award in 2015—which was a huge honor, and really shows our commitment to our vision. We were also named a Utility of the Future Today in 2016 by a consortium of water agencies led by the U.S Enviornmental Protection Agency. That was great because it recognized us specifically for organizational culture, community partnering and engagement, energy efficiency, and water reuse, things that I think we do really well. I do think these awards are important because they reflect Scottsdale Water’s commitment to sustainability and acknowledge the great work our people do every day.

Brian Biesemeyer: Our vision is water sustainability through stewardship, innovation, and people. We have been successful in creating a sustainable water system for the city through those three things. And while it will cost money up front, we have found that if you invest in those things strategically and put a lot of effort into doing so efficiently, the costs are not much higher than traditional systems and provide a long-term payback for the whole community.

That commitment to sustainability also assures the community that they will have a long-term water supply that they can use now and long into the future.

Joshua Dill: What is your vision for the future?

Brian Biesemeyer: Scottsdale Water’s vision for the future is to continue to support innovation and people. The people who work for us do amazing things every day and are truly dedicated to our customers. We are going to continue to invest in them. We are also going to keep pursuing innovation so that we can find new and different ways to maintain a sustainable water supply. My job is to cultivate the skills of our people and to invest in the tools they need to allow them to do their jobs well every single day. M Brian K. Biesemeyer, PE, is the executive director of Scottsdale Water. He can be reached at bbiesemeyer@ScottsdaleAZ.gov.

Joshua Dill: What are some lessons that your water district can share with other districts across the country?

MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

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ASSOCIATION PROFILE

Problem-Solving in the Colorado River Basin: Jim Broderick of CRWUA

Lake Powell at low levels.

T

he Colorado River Water Users Association (CRWUA) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that brings together Colorado River water users from seven states and one tribal organization to discuss common issues and to find cooperative solutions. This mission is particularly important given the historic drought conditions the area is suffering.

As well as being the executive director of the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District, Jim Broderick is one of the three Colorado members of CRWUA’s board of trustees and, as of 2017, CRWUA’s president. In this interview with Municipal Water Leader Managing Editor Joshua Dill, Mr. Broderick discusses CRWUA’s origins and purpose and what its member states are doing to respond to the Colorado River drought.

Jim Broderick: I am the executive director of the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District. I have been here since 2003. I came from Arizona, where I worked in the water industry, specifically Tucson Water Utility. I came here because I was interested in large water operations, and Pueblo, where the district is headquartered, is my hometown. I thought it would be nice to come back to Colorado.

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Jim Broderick: CRWUA was organized in 1945 for the sole purpose of protecting the interests of all those who rely on the Colorado River system for water. It remains an organization committed Jim Broderick, president of CRWUA. to making certain that the participating states maintain an open dialogue on the issues through cooperation rather than conflict.

Joshua Dill: Who are the members of your organization?

Jim Broderick: CRWUA is made up of seven states and the Colorado River Indian Tribe Partnership. That includes Arizona, California, and Nevada with the Lower Basin, and Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming with the Upper Basin. Our board of trustees is made up of three MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

PHOTO BY THE UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

Joshua Dill: Please tell us about your background.

Joshua Dill: Tell us about CRWUA and its history.

ASSOCIATION PROFILE

Lake Mead at low levels.

members from each state and the Indian Tribe Partnership.

The officers are the president, the vice president, the secretary, the treasurer, and the assistant secretary and treasurer.

PHOTO COURTESY OF SOUTHWESTERN COLORADO WATER CONSERVANCY DISTRICT.

Joshua Dill: What are the issues that could lead to conflicts between the participating parties?

Jim Broderick: Any time you deal with a river the size of the Colorado, conflicts always arise when discussing floods or droughts, issues of not enough water or too much water, maintaining storage, and providing new storage and power.

All those issues have to be managed collaboratively. One of the most interesting things about CRWUA is that the members are committed to shared ideas such as managing water for the good of all. They try to look at issues from all perspectives. It is a unique group on a local, state, and national level.

Joshua Dill: How many people live in the area CRWUA covers?

Jim Broderick: About 40 million people are served by the Colorado River basin. The river is about 1,400 miles long.

Some people have said that if it were its own country, the Colorado River basin would either have the fifth- or seventh-largest economy in the world.

MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

Joshua Dill: You said that education is an important component of your mission. Who is doing the education, who is being educated, and what are they learning about?

Jim Broderick: Traditionally, that occurs during our annual conference in early December. This year, there is a discussion of drought contingency planning in the Upper and Lower Basins. The other issue we are discussing is technology from other countries that could be viable in the region. We always look at how we can make our water infrastructure more efficient and more economical.

In the upcoming meeting we will discuss agriculture and water transfers. We frequently deal with a double-edged sword: On one side, we have to make sure we have enough crops to provide food for the population, and on the other, we have to make sure we have enough water and electric power to meet their needs. It requires give and take. The same is true with the environment. We have to make sure the environment and the recreational use of water are both protected.

Joshua Dill: What are the respective proportions of your water used by municipal, industrial, and agricultural users?

Have those proportions been changing?

Jim Broderick: Since the early days, water has always been linked to mining and to agriculture. In a lot of

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ASSOCIATION PROFILE

Hoover Dam.

states, agriculture takes up about 80 percent of the water; in others, it takes up about 90 percent. Municipal and industrial users take the remainder. That percentage will shift depending upon where you are.

The issue is that there is only so much water. So what happens if the balance shifts to the municipal and industrial side? In the old days, you could develop or buy the water you needed and be done. That is not as viable an option today. Today, you will always see a little more water transferred from agriculture. The main push and pull occurs between municipal and agricultural uses. That said, we are seeing a reduction in the amount of water used by municipal users in many states because of conservation and public awareness. The same can be seen in agriculture because of innovation and the changeover from flood irrigation to drip irrigation or sprinklers.

Jim Broderick: The historic drought conditions in the Colorado River basin are currently having very dire effects for our water supply. The decline in the amount of water we get from snow and rain has created a sense of urgency. Around 2000, the certainty and security of the Colorado River water supply started to be called into question. The entire Colorado River basin is in the worst hydrologic cycle of our history.

Data collected from 2000 to 2018 show that we experienced the driest year on record in 2002, with the driest consecutive 2-year period on record occurring between 2012 and 2015. This can be seen in the levels of Lake Mead. Between 1999 and 2000, Lake Mead was 95 percent full; in 2018 it is 42 percent full. Data suggest this trend is likely to continue.Â

Joshua Dill: Do you exclusively manage surface water, or do you also deal with groundwater?Â

Jim Broderick: The worsening water supply within the Colorado River basin has increased the risk of a water shortage in Lake Powell serious enough to impede operations. It also threatens the ability of each of the Upper Basin states to fulfill mandated water rights within their respective states while meeting the delivery obligations under the 1922 Compact. The 1922 Compact and subsequent agreements require a rolling 10-year average of deliveries of 8.23 million acre-feet annually from the Upper Basin states.

Both these risks have serious implications for the Colorado River. The good news is that the Colorado River basin states, the U.S. federal government, Mexico, and other relevant stakeholders have developed drought-contingency plans (DCPs) to help minimize and mitigate the risks associated with the constant below-average water supply of the Colorado River.

Joshua Dill: Tell us about the drought conditions you have been dealing with recently, and the challenges they pose.

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MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

PHOTO COURTESY OF SOUTHWESTERN COLORADO WATER CONSERVANCY DISTRICT.

Jim Broderick: The Southeastern District supplies supplemental water from the Colorado River basin for municipal and agricultural uses in the Arkansas River basin through the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project. This is 100 percent surface water. Under Colorado water law, however, groundwater and surface supplies are intrinsically connected, and any tributary water pumped from the ground must be augmented with a surface supply. Return flows from the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project water are an important supply for well-augmentation groups.

Joshua Dill: What measures have CRWUA and its members been taking to prepare for the worst-case scenario?

ASSOCIATION PROFILE The Upper Colorado River basin’s DCP is designed to protect the critical elevations at Lake Powell and to ensure continued compliance with the 1922 Compact. Its second purpose is to implement authorized storage of conserved water from the Upper Basin so that it can establish a demand-management plan in wthe future.

The Lower Colorado River Basin’s DCP, however, is designed to require Arizona, California, and Nevada to contribute additional water to the storage in Lake Mead and to create additional incentives to store water in Lake Mead.

All of this has occurred because the challenges have been greater than water managers anticipated when they negotiated the 2007 agreement. That agreement sought to establish criteria for shortages in the operation of Lake Powell and Lake Mead. Hydroelectric power as well as water supply at both these reservoirs is at stake if a balance is not maintained. So we have had to look at that again to see what we need to do.

Buereau of Reclimation Commissioner Brenda Burman has issued a call to action for the Colorado Basin states to adopt DCPs before the Lower Basin experiences water shortages, and she has asked them to do it this year. The charge from Commissioner Burman highlights what we are trying to get at. During the early years, they gained valuable operational experience. They have also learned what the guidelines are. That is where we are as we attempt to finalize the DCP. Traditionally, we have been able to solve our issues by coming together as a basin, not as individual states or users. I think that we are in the process of getting that framework in place. The bigger question will be how do you implement the DCP. Those are some of the larger discussions going on in the basin states.

Joshua Dill: What other issues are you currently addressing?

Jim Broderick: There are all kinds of issues associated with water, but the big one the Colorado River has right now is getting through the planning effort to make sure we are prepared for the day when we may have to use them. The worst thing that could happen to us is not planning for it. Our member states have gotten the frameworks in place, and now it is time that we start to implement the plans.

Joshua Dill: What is your vision for the future?

Jim Broderick: My vision is a continued dialogue among the basin states to ensure we meet all needs. I think we would like to see better working arrangements so that every project or program encompasses municipal, industrial, agricultural, power, environmental, and recreational needs from the outset. From a water supply perspective, you will start to see people look at how to store water and push it out with new dams and reservoirs.

California is building new reservoirs today. The other critical piece is infrastructure. Maintaining infrastructure in an operational state is essential. Lastly, I hope there is more dialogue between people, so that we can understand every facet of the issues. I think that the water industry, in a lot of places, has the opportunity to bring in new perspectives. M Jim Broderick is the president of the Colorado River Water Users

Association and the executive director of the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District. He can be reached at jwb@secwcd.com.

PHOTO COURTESY OF.

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