[Water_news] 1. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS - Top Item for 3/8/08

 

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation for DWR personnel of significant news articles and comment

 

March 10, 2008

 

1.  Top Item -

 

Reclaimed water law is largely forgotten

Funding for network of pipes slashed by S.D.

San Diego Union Tribune – 3/8/08

By Mike Lee, STAFF WRITER

 

As drought gripped the region in 1989, the San Diego City Council took a bold step by ordering everyone who could feasibly use reclaimed water for irrigation and industrial purposes to do so. It wanted to save the precious supply of imported water for cooking, bathing and drinking.

 

Some leaders called the ordinance the most aggressive of its kind in the nation. Council members unanimously said it was “vital to public health and safety” given the city's heavy reliance on imported water. They even threatened to cut off water service for people who refused to comply.

 

Almost two decades later, San Diego still relies almost entirely on water taken from the Colorado River and Northern California. The region's supplies are being squeezed by population growth, small snowpacks and lawsuits that complicate water deliveries.

 

One reason the city isn't better prepared for drought is that its reclaimed-water mandate was largely forgotten for years. Another is the expense: It can take tens of thousands of dollars for each business, school, homeowners association and other water users to tap reclaimed water, especially if they have to retrofit their plumbing.

 

San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders – a big backer of using treated wastewater for irrigation and industry – said yesterday that he didn't know about the reclaimed-water law until he was questioned by The San Diego-Union Tribune. He said he would investigate the 1989 mandate.

 

“We can work with (major water users) to get them to start using recycled water. That is one of the things that I think we should make a priority,” Sanders said at a news conference to promote the success of the city's voluntary water conservation program.

 

City officials said they now require new developments near reclaimed-water pipes to connect to the system, but they haven't pressed existing water customers to do the same. Likewise, several city properties along those pipes haven't made the hookups.

 

San Diego's use of reclaimed water remains about 85 percent below the capacity of its two main reclamation plants, which cost more than $300 million to build in the late 1990s and early 2000s. That's partly because the city has sharply curtailed its funding for the network of purple pipes that distribute the reclaimed water.

 

Since the end of 2005, San Diego hasn't installed a single mile of purple piping for its mainline system. The network is about 80 miles long, connecting to La Jolla, Poway and Black Mountain Ranch on the northern edge of San Diego. Its visible pipes, sprinkler heads and other above-ground components are painted purple to indicate that they don't carry drinking water.

 

In a December interview, Sanders said the Water Department was spending what it could while responding to state-mandated upgrades on other parts of the water infrastructure.

The mayor, who was elected in November 2005, is the latest of many city politicians who, for various reasons, have been unable to maximize San Diego's use of reclaimed water over the years.

“It's just been a lack of willpower,” said Robert Simmons, an attorney who helped the Sierra Club sue San Diego in the 1990s over water issues.

“Everybody talks about conservation, but nobody in authority in this city has been willing over the years to . . . enforce the ordinance, and they have been unwilling to make the investment necessary to save water,” Simmons said.

 

Weak enforcement of the reclaimed-water mandate is the result of good intentions being thwarted by bureaucracy, said Councilwoman Donna Frye, head of the council's natural resources committee.

 

She blamed city staff for dragging its feet and the city's financial crises for diverting attention from water issues. Frye also said she and the council should have been more persistent in carrying out the mandate.

 

“A lot of this stuff just falls through the cracks,” Frye said.

 

Governments are haunted by a lack of follow-through, said Richard Ledford, who handled water reuse issues while serving as chief of staff for San Diego Mayor Susan Golding in the 1990s.

 

“Oftentimes, the system generates laws but we lose the champion or the crisis in the public's mind goes away,” Ledford said. “The result is that the programs and policies fade (because) no one is pushing them.”

 

That appears to be what happened with the reclaimed-water ordinance.

 

In 2002, top city officials told the natural resources committee that San Diego still lacked procedures to enforce the mandate. For instance, they didn't have a clear definition of who can feasibly meet the requirement.

 

The City Council responded by directing the city's Water Department to develop enforcement provisions. The main issue was how to apply the mandate in a way that made financial sense for water customers and the city.

 

In August 2004, the natural resources committee approved a series of measures targeting the largest water users along the mainline system of purple pipes. Even the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, which generally opposes mandates, supported the implementation plan.

 

But then, interest died again.

 

City officials had to grapple with major distractions, including federal investigations into the city's finances, the resignation of Mayor Dick Murphy and two councilmen, the death of a third councilman and the shift to having the mayor ,instead of a city manager, run City Hall.

 

Looming water shortages last year piqued interest in ways to bolster San Diego's water supplies. The City Council voted to develop plans for pumping highly purified wastewater to a reservoir for use as tap water. Many analysts said that option, combined with connecting more customers to the purple pipes, is the best way to take advantage of the city's water recycling capacity.

 

Sanders vetoed the council's reservoir proposal in November, saying San Diegans didn't want sewage – no matter how well-treated – in their drinking water. He promoted other measures, including expansion of the purple pipe system.

 

In December, the council voted 5-3 to override Sanders' veto and move forward with a demonstration project for reservoir augmentation, which critics dub “toilet to tap.” That initiative, which is taking shape this year, is expected to cost $6 million to $8 million. It's not clear where that money will come from.

 

The city's Water Department steadily lowered its spending on the purple pipe system – from $14.6 million in 2004 to $32,647 last year.

 

But for this fiscal year, San Diego was able to budget $747,484 for its reclaimed-water network after the City Council approved water rate increases backed by Sanders. The money will cover part of the cost of connecting purple pipes to nine parcels, including a housing development and open-space areas owned by the city.

Still, that level of funding won't come close to maximizing San Diego's use of recycled water.

 

Of the 18 largest potential reclaimed-water customers identified by the city in 2005, only one – Miramar Marine Corps Air Station – has tapped into the system, said Marsi Steirer, a top San Diego water official.

 

Another big water user is close to making its hookup. El Camino Memorial Park and Mortuary in Sorrento Valley plans to start irrigating its vast lawn with reclaimed water by late April, said Robert Dilday, who manages the reclaimed-water initiative for the cemetery.

 

Dilday first became concerned about reclaimed water after hearing of the city's 1989 ordinance. He eventually realized “there was not teeth in the mandate,” but by then he was sold on the concept.

 

He said it's been a long and frustrating process to obtain approvals from various departments at City Hall.

 

“Everything went real slow,” Dilday said. “It's astounding the way the bureaucracies are stacked up.”

 

As for expanding the city's mainline system of purple pipes, Steirer said San Diego doesn't have the money to make that happen.

 

San Diego also hasn't set aside money to connect several of its own properties to the network. In some cases, city parcels are within a few hundred feet of the pipeline and could be hooked up for less than $150,000 each.

 

To fund such work, the San Diego County grand jury recently advocated roughly tripling the price of reclaimed water. Such a move might backfire if businesses decide they can't quickly recoup the upfront cost of connecting to the purple-pipe system by paying discounted prices for reclaimed water versus drinking water.

One way or another, San Diego needs to boost the use of reclaimed water, said grand jury foreman Michael Letendre.

 

“If we don't invest in that system now, the price of water will outdistance the price of gas,” he said.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20080308/news_1n8pipes.html