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HomeMy WebLinkAbout; ; District Services; 1994-07-01CARLSBAD MUNICIPAL WATER DISTRICT DISTRICT SERVICES. The Carlsbad Municipal Water District (DistricO is a subsidiary district of the City of Carlsbad. The District's service area covers approximately 85 percent of the City, and supplies 15,000 acre feet of water to about 54,000 people through 17,000 meters. The majority of the 300 miles of pipeline in the distribution system is fairly new. The District currently purchases treated water from the San Diego County Water Authority (CWA), which purchases water from the Metropolitan Water District of Southem California (MWD) in Los Angeles, Califomia. MWD obtains its water from the State Water Project in Northem CaUfomia and from the Colorado River, During the development of the District's distribution system, a tremendous commitment was made to provide adequate storage and sufficient pipeline capacity. The District presently has approximately thirteen days of storage capacity at average daily demands. An additional storage tank is scheduled for construction in 1994, and will increase the District's storage capacity by six million gallons, bringing the total storage to 247 million gallons. As part of its commitment to quality and adequate storage and capacity, the District upgraded one of the major pipelines in its service area, the El Camino Real wateriine, which serves as one of the main arteries of the system. More recendy, a $2 million project on Palomar Airport Road replaced and upgraded another integral wateriine that supplies tbe center and southem portion of the City. Other smaller projects to replace and upgrade waterlines throughout the District's service area are nearing completion. These improvements will increase service reliability and quality. MAERKLE RESERVOIR AND DAM. One of the largest projects, a three-phased project, is that of Maerkle Reservoir and Dam. Maerkle Dam holds 195.5 million gallons of water (600 acre feet). Maerkle Reservoir is a ten-million-gallon operational reservoir that was constructed in 1989-90 to improve the quality of the water pumped firom Maerkle Dam. The second phase of this project involves the constmction of a chloramination station and pump station, which will also ensure the quality of the water. The pump station was recently completed and enables the District to utilize all 600 acre feet of water stored in Maerkle Dam, if needed. Previously, only 60 percent of the 600 acre feet was available for consumption; a pump was needed to bring the rest of the water up to the operational reservoir to be gravity-fed to customers. The final phase of the Maerkle improvements is the lining and covering of the open dam. This $7 million project is scheduled over the next two years and will secure the quahty of the water from the dam. The total capital outlay for the Maerkle Reservoir and Dam project will be $11.8 million, when all components are completed. CARLSBAD MUNICIPAL WATER DISTRICT Page 2 RECLAIMED WATER. The.Carlsbad Municipal Water District is one of a handful of agencies in San Diego County that is delivering reclaimed water to customers. Use of reclaimed water for outdoor uses such as irrigation helps off-set the demand for potable water and helps create a more reliable water supply. There are advantages to the customer who uses reclaimed water. One advantage is that when there is a drought situation and potable water usage is curtailed by some percentage, reclaimed water usage would not be reduced. The District's Reclaimed Water Master Plan was approved by the Board of Directors on March 3, 1991, and incorporates five phases over, a period of twenty years. Phase I was recently completed. Customers currently on-line include two golf courses, an elementary school, a shopping center, a residential development (median and landscape irrigation) and agricultural areas. Phase I also involved the completion of a $280,000 permanent reclaimed water pump station that allows the District to deliver all 2,500 acre feet of reclaimed water produced by its two sources, the Meadowlark Water Reclamation Facility and the Gafher Water'Treatment Plant. The total cost of Phase I was approximately $6,366,000, which was partially funded by a $5 million low-interest loan from the State Water Resources Control Board. During fiscal year 1993-94, . a potable water storage tank was converted for reclaimed water storage. Another potable tank will be converted to reclaimed water in the future, and yet a third tank will be constmcted at the site. A reclaimed water line was installed to run water firom the reclaimed water storage tanks down to Palomar Airport Road and west to customers in that area. This $3 million project was also part of Phase I of the Reclaimed Water Master Plan. Another portion of Phase I includes the District's expenditure of $1 million to purchase algae screens for Mahr Reservoir (an existing reclaimed water open storage reservoir of approximately 16 million gallons). These screens make the reservoir usable for reclaimed water and will provide a constant flow of water, and create some storage during the winter months. In order to supply the additional, reclaimed water needed for the remaining phases of the Reclaimed Water Master Plan, Phase II involves constmction of a 3 million gallons per day tertiary treatment facility. Also included in Phase II is the installation of additional reclaimed water distribution pipelines. Phase II is anticipated to begin during the 1994 - 1995 fiscal year. Phase II will incorporate customers in the southwestern part of the City and the area just north of the Palomar Airport Road and El Camino Real intersection. The estimated cost of Phase II is $12 million, with completion set for 1997. Phases IH and IV add a series of pipeline networks, another reservoir, and expansion of facilities, which will supply reclaimed water to the rest of the city.. Phase V is slated for completion in 2012, with the total cost of all five phases mounting to $55.7 million. The ultimate system would serve 11,480 acre feet per year of reclaimed water, with a peak demand of 21.4 million gallons per day. CARLSBAD MUNICIPAL WATER DISTRICT Page 3 CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS. The Metropolitan Water District of Southem Califomia (MWD) supplies water to the majority of customers in Southem Califomia. In order to ensure these customers of a reliable water supply, MWD has begun a $6 billion Capital Improvement Program, which includes the $2 billion Domenigoni Reservoir near Hemet. This reservoir will nearly double MWD's current water storage capacity. Southern Caiifomia is too reliant pn imported water supplies (about 90% is imported from either Northern Califomia or Colorado). To protect us from the next drought and from emergency water shortages, MWD has planned these improvement projects to make more water available locally. The San Diego County Water Authority (CWA) has begun a $720 million Capital Improvement Program designed to provide the area with needed storage and delivery facilities. CWA is also working to fully develop local water resources through water reclamation, groundwater recovery, conservation and possibly seawater desalination. WATER DELIVERY TO SANDIEGO COUNTY. In a normal year, San Diego County imports 90 percent of its water firom Northem California (via the State Water Project) and the Colorado River. This means the San Diego region is inextricably tied to Northem California's rivers and the Colorado River. State Water Project water released firom Lake Oroville flows down the Sacramento River and into the Delta. From there, it is pumped into the Califomia Aqueduct, which extends south through the state to urban Southern Cahfomia. But the state project was never completed. Today, it delivers only about half of the water it originally contracted to provide. More than 20 million Califomians, including San Diego County residents, rely on water pumped from the Delta. But concems about the Delta's health have led to state and federal regulations limiting Delta pumping. Such restrictions in tum limit the amount of water that San Diego County can rely on from the Delta. For more than 50 years, Colorado River water has been pumped into a Metropolitan Water District aqueduct for the trip west to urban Southem Califomia. But a 1964 Supreme Court decision increasing Arizona's water rights reduced the region's firm supply from the Colorado River by more than 50 percent. So far, thanks to surpluses in the river system, MWD has been able to continue filling the aqueduct to its maximum capacity. But this is bound to change as Arizona takes more of its entitlement. Solutions to San Diego County's water needs include: • water transfers between willing sellers and willing buyers coming together to shift water between themselves; • capital improvement projects designed to make our water supply as reliable as possible; CARLSBAD MUNICIPAL WATER DISTRICT Page 4 • development of local water resources, such as water reclamation, groundwater recovery, conservation and even seawater desalination; and • fixing the Delta, to guarantee the reliability of the state's water deUveries and a secure habitat for Delta wildlife. CONSERVATION PROGRAMS. The Carlsbad Water Ethic, approved by the CMWD Board of Directors in 1991, promotes responsible and efficient water use in our arid city. The following practices are to be followed even when we are not in a drought situation. It is hoped that Carlsbad residents will adopt these behaviors as a way of life: 1. New landscaping shall incorporate drought-tolerant plant materials and micro- irrigation (drip) systems wherever possible. 2. Water can never leave the user's property due to over-irrigation of landscape. 3. Watering must be done during the early morning or evening hours to minimize evaporation (between 4:00 p.m. and 9:00 a.m. the following morning). 4. AU leaks must be investigated and repaired. 5. Water cannot be used to clean paved surfaces, such as sidewalks, driveways, parking areas, etc., except to alleviate immediate safety or sanitation hazards. 6. Reclaimed or recycled water shall be used wherever and whenever possible. The District is committed to implementing conservation programs that will reduce water demand and lessen our dependency on imported water supplies.. Programs currently in operation that can substantially reduce fiimre water use include: • public information campaigns (including school education) to educate consumers on how to modify water use habits to reduce consumption; • interior and exterior water audits for residential and commercial customers; • the promotion of water-saving devices and appliances, such as low-flow showerheads, faucet aerators and ultra-low flush toilets; • the promotion of low water-using landscaping; • distribution system water audits, leak detection and repair; and • large landscape water audits and incentive programs. Conservation coupled with supply augmentation can ensure a reliable water supply for Southem Califomia in the future.