Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
October 21, 2008
5. Agencies, Programs, People –
Case of the missing meters: Solved?
One valley, one water supplier, official says
As population grows, concern grows over how we’ll be supplied
Santa Clarita Valley Signal
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Case of the missing meters: Solved?
Sacramento
By Tony Bizjak
The city of
A company hired by the city to check in-ground boxes around the city reportedly has found 32,000 meters in place at homes and businesses.
That's just about the number that city officials believe they have purchased over the past decade from suppliers.
"All indications are that number (4,500) is going to be a lot less," assistant city manager Marty Hanneman said Monday. "How much, we don't know yet. We are in the ballpark but not certain."
The investigation into the whereabouts of more than a $1 million worth of unaccounted-for meters is expected to be finished and presented to the City Council in mid-November.
Hanneman said city officials are going through years of supplier invoices and are finding what they think are errors in documents from a main supplier, Badger Meter Inc. of
"We are still reconciling how much we thought we bought from Badger," Hanneman said. "We are finding the invoices are not accurate. So we are working with that company to clean up their invoice process."
Badger officials could not be reached Monday evening.
Hanneman said the city still is working with police to determine if any of its new meters are missing as a result of illegal resales. But Hanneman said Monday that doesn't appear to be the case.
"As of what we know right now, there is no indication that happened," he said.
Nevertheless, in a series of audits earlier this year, City Auditor Martin Kolkin found fault nearly across the board with the city's handling of its water meter program.
Deficiencies included record-keeping that couldn't account for 4,500 meters, or accurately account for how many meters had been installed. Problems included poor oversight, failure to follow competitive bidding procedures, unaccounted-for camcorders and cameras, and questionable employee debit card charges. #
http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/1329736.html
One valley, one water supplier, official says
As population grows, concern grows over how we’ll be supplied
Santa Clarita Valley Signal – 10/20/08
By Jim Holt
One of the Santa Clarita Valley’s top water officials sees one valley, one vision, one water agency.
Dan Masnada is general manager of the Castaic Lake Water Agency, which wholesales an uninterrupted supply of clean, safe drinking water to water retailers in the SCV, as the agency’s mandate dictates.
As he balances a dwindling supply of drought-diminished water with a development-heavy demand, Masnada and others at the agency see many benefits in streamlining the community’s supply of water.
“We have one valley. We have one city. Why doesn’t it seem logical to have one retailer?” Masnada said.
Currently the agency sells State Water Project water to four local water purveyors: the Valencia Water Company, the Newhall County Water District, Los Angeles County Waterworks Division 36 and the Santa Clarita Water Division. The latter purveyor, formerly an independent retailer, is now owned by the Castaic Lake Water Agency.
About half the valley’s water comes from the State Water Project through CLWA; the other half is pumped from the valley’s two underground aquifers.
Last April Masnanda and water board members met in a
When they emerged from the two-day strategy session, they had a road map of sorts, graphically rendered by Daniel Iacofano of the consulting firm MIG & Co.
Iacofamo drew a three-headed hydra circled in red next to notes that read: “Policy — wholesale should not subsidize retail.”
Iacofano also drew a clock-like sketch of the agency, with the CLWA acronym surrounded by agency accomplishments — “energy efficiency, diverse water portfolio, maximum use of conservation” — all under the banner in red reading “One Valley, One Water Company.”
The brainstorming session led to a state of mind about dovetailing water interests.
Such an idea is sure to meet with opposition.
The Newhall County Water District is the only local water board — besides Castaic Lake Water Agency’s — with publicly elected members.
When the possibility of merging
Others say one district for the entire valley would constitute a monopoly.
But advantages to one water district are evident: less overlapping infrastructure, pooled resources, elimination of the wholesale/retail tiers for delivery.
Masnada remains serious about one valley, one water agency.
'One Valley, One Vision' study session
At the city of Santa Clarita's Planning Commission study session Tuesday, city staff will present the "Draft Circulation Element" from the "One Valley, One Vision" Joint Valleywide General Plan. It's the fourth of five study sessions the commission scheduled in 2008 for public participation in discussion of the OVOV draft elements.
"The purpose of the Draft Circulation Element is to identify and promote a variety of techniques for improving mobility and developing alternative travel modes to increase the efficiency and capacity of the valley's roadway systems," said Jason Smisko, the city's senior planner and OVOV project manager.
The meeting starts 5:30 p.m. in the Century Room on the first floor of City Hall,
'One Valley, One Vision' workshops
City and county planners host a series of public workshops in November to hear what you think of "
* Nov. 7: Santa Clarita Sports Complex,
* Nov. 10: Rancho Pico Junior High,
* Nov. 13:
* Nov. 17:
http://www.the-signal.com/news/article/5019/
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