A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
May 29, 2009
2. Supply –
Glendora
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Glendora
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By Daniel Tedford
After a voluntary conservation effort failed, Glendora City Council members voted to enact mandatory conservation measures Tuesday.
The city had hoped voluntary guidelines and education would lead to a 10-percent decrease in water usage, but conservation peaked at 7 percent in October.
By March 2009, conservation had dropped to 1 percent and staff decided to recommend moving to Stage One Drought Condition. The highest stage is Stage Two.
"We feel the demand is threatened as we approach the summer months," said Public Works Director David Davies. "The reason for the timing now is because we are entering our peak demand season."
The new rules are: no cleaning of surfaces with running water, restaurants and hotels must only serve water upon request, uses that cause runoff are prohibited, and special hours and circumstances for irrigation are included.
Following a verbal and written warning, violators face fines as little as $150 and as much as $1,000, Davies said.
The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which sells water to providers all over
By current estimates,
If residents reduce water use by 10 percent, the city would probably pay only $212,000 in penalties, according to staff reports.
"It is a prudent measure the City Council is undertaking," said Metropolitan Water District spokesman Bob Muir.
Full enforcement of the measure isn't expected to be done for another two to three months, Davies said.
"In the long run, we absolutely hope," these become normal measures constantly enforced, said Davies. "We need to rethink the way we use water in
The biggest water-wasting culprit is the easiest to correct, said Jennifer Riley-Chetwynd, a spokeswoman for Glendora-based Rain Bird Corp., one of the country's largest irrigation companies.
"More often than not if a plant is struggling health wise, over watering can be a problem," she said. "Most people can afford to cut back water 10 percent or more and have it benefit plants."
Drip irrigation for plants and trees are one of the best methods to conserve while maintaining a yard, she said. Also, low-precipitation sprinklers use less water per minute than normal sprinklers and hoses, Riley-Chetwynd said.
If the city doesn't make its 10-percent goal, stage 2 measures would go into affect, Davies said. That would increase the conservation goal to 15 percent and water use for irrigation would be restricted to certain days and hours, he said.#
http://www.sgvtribune.com/news/ci_12463325
The
By Joe Naiman
The feasibility study for the proposed seawater desalination plant on
A report on the feasibility study was provided to the San Diego County Water Authority’s Water Planning Committee during a May 14 special meeting.
A draft feasibility study was completed in March.
In addition to the environmental and permitting issues, additional prerequisites include an agreement with the United States Marine Corps to locate the facility and conveyance pipelines on
“We have a long way to go,” said County Water Authority water resources manager Bob Yamada.
Less daunting future issues include defining roles and responsibilities for the various parties and amending the CWA’s capital improvement program to add the desalination plant.
The seawater desalination plant would provide desalinated water to the San Diego County Water Authority, the Municipal Water District of Orange County, and
It would produce between 50 and 150 million gallons per day (mgd) of desalinated water.
In November 2005 the County Water Authority, in conjunction with the Municipal Water District of Orange County, approved a consultant contract with RBF Consulting to conduct a detailed feasibility study for a potential seawater desalination plant on
The study included detailed feasibility evaluations of conveyance, intake, and discharge facilities as well as environmental and permitting requirements, cost estimates, and project implementation issues.
At one time the project was proposed to be located near the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, allowing for the use of the ocean intake and discharge tunnels for the abandoned Unit 1 power plant.
After the feasibility study was initiated, Southern California Edison expressed concern that the presence and operation of a desalination facility could complicate the operation of the nuclear power plant and hinder future regulatory compliance.
The proposed location was moved to the southwest corner of
A total of eight potential locations were evaluated, and two sites were considered viable for a facility producing between 50 and 150 mgd.
The CWA’s Urban Water Management Plan calls for 89,600 acre feet of desalinated water by 2030. A capacity of 50 mgd equates to 56,000 acre feet while 150 mgd would translate to 168,000 acre feet.
The buried infrastructure will be built to accommodate the 150 mgd ultimate capacity while the initial development would likely build a plant to handle 50 to 100 mgd with subsequent modular 50 mgd expansions.
The switch from San Onofre to the southwest portion of the base also had a positive effect for conveyance pipeline to the existing CWA infrastructure, although moving the facility south could carry adverse conveyance consequences for the Municipal Water District of Orange County.
Since the facility would provide water to the base as well as to the County Water Authority, it is still possible that conveyance pipelines to the northwest portion of the base could also serve
In addition to increasing the reliability and quality of water on the base, including the creation of the possibility of blending desalinated water with
The plant’s energy requirements may lead to the building of an energy cogeneration plant which could be used to provide emergency power to the base.
The power demand for the desalination facility is estimated at 40 megawatts for 50 mgd and 100-110 megawatts for 150 mgd.
If the desalination plant were to purchase power from the grid, two miles of 16,000-volt transmission lines would be required.
Cogeneration through natural gas turbine generators would require approximately five acres for that supplemental facility.
The use of some solar, wind, or wave-generated hydroelectric energy could also contribute to the plant’s power needs and help meet greenhouse gas offset requirements.
The feasibility study included worst-case scenario costing estimates and added a 30 to 40 percent contingency for capital costs.
“We’re very early in this project so there are very high contingencies,” Yamada said.
The capital costs also assume a 25 percent contingency for engineering, administration, legal, and other implementation matters.
The capital cost for a 50 mgd plant, including the conveyance infrastructure designed for the eventual 150 mgd production, is estimated to be between $1.2 billion and $1.3 billion while the capital costs for a 100 mgd plant are estimated at $1.7 billion to $1.9 billion.
The facility cost breaks down to 57 percent for treatment facilities, 28 percent for conveyance, and 15 percent for intake and discharge facilities.
The operation and maintenance costs are estimated at $42-50 million for 50 mgd and $79-96 million for 100 mgd.
Although the estimated cost per acre foot of $2000-2200 for a 50 mgd plant and $1700 for a 100 mgd facility significantly exceeds the Calendar Year 2009 treated water supply rate of $631 per acre foot, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California has imposed a 19.7 percent increase effective September 1 which has led to a proposed CWA rate of $747 per acre foot for next year.
The
The Metropolitan Water District’s contract for hydroelectric power from Hoover Dam is up for renewal in 2017, a year before the scheduled operation of the
“If they lose the cheap power at
MWD’s 19.7 percent increase included a Delta surcharge to address State Water Project transport issues.
“I’m not sure what the increase would be, but there would be some,” Lewinger said.
The CWA’s 2020 supply portfolio without the desalination project provides 12 percent of its water from MWD’s Colorado River Aqueduct allocation and 17 percent of its supply from MWD’s State Water Project allocation.
The 2020 supply portfolio with a 100 mgd
“You really need to look at this as a 50 year out type of work,” said CWA director of water resources Ken Weinberg.
“The long-term benefit is something we’ve been exploring.”
Yamada also noted that worst-case planning led to the energy cost estimate of ten cents per kilowatt hour. “We would be hopeful that we could get a lower price than ten cents, but we were conservative,” he said.
The offshore outfall, which would be constructed with both seabed pipelines and outfall tunnel sections, would include a diffuser system to achieve salinity dilution requirements.
In addition to the possibility of use by
Ironically, the Santa Margarita River Conjunctive Use Project combined with the desalination plant could create a surplus of treated water in
That creates the possibility that excess treated water would be stored with raw water and then re-treated, adding to the cost of that twice-treated water.
“We need to take a really careful look on that,” Lewinger said.
Even if the double treatment adds to the cost of that water, it would replace water purchases which involve MWD wheeling rates for transport and still could be less expensive than the purchased water it would replace.
City of
“That might not be such a bad idea for the region,” he said.
“I won’t say it’s impossible,” he said, “[just] don’t count on it.”
Jungreis warned that CWA would need to ensure that any part of the desalination facility, including the construction process, would not have a negative impact on the military base’s training mission or the quality of life.
“For this to succeed it has to be done in a way that doesn’t adversely impact the training mission,” he said.
An agreement with
Assuming that the CWA’s June 25 meeting sees the board approve the capital project budget request to continue studies, the technical studies would begin in mid-2009 and preparation of the environmental document would begin around mid-2010.
The environmental documentation process is expected to take approximately two years. #
http://www.thevillagenews.com/story/38107/
A glimpse of the new reservoir
The
By Melanie Hicken
Surrounded by ongoing construction, officials were briefed Thursday on how the project had progressed since the February demolition of the original reservoir.
“Our goal was to have storage back available to us before the hot days of summer,” Peter Kavounas, assistant general manager for water services at Glendale Water & Power, told a group of city officials during the tour of the almost-completed reservoir and pump station, which lie under a 2.34-acre area of the 45-acre Chevy Chase Country Club golf course.
Water officials determined that a replacement of the original 1920s reservoir was necessary because cracks in the concrete, caused by the 1994 Northridge Earthquake, had compromised its structural integrity.
The first of two inner-cells for the reservoir is almost complete and will be filled in a few weeks once testing is completed, Kavounas said. The 14.5-million-gallon reservoir is set to be fully operational in August before it’s landscaped over by January, when the city committed to refurbishing the golf course.
“In January, you’ll walk out there and you won’t even know it’s there,” said Jerry Gatney, a senior engineer for the project, one of the largest in the water utility’s history.
Owners of the golf course initially opposed the project, but reached a $2.5-million settlement with the city last year to allow access to the land and pay for the green’s reconfiguration.
Kavounas and other utility officials praised the reservoir’s builder, SEMA Construction, for keeping the project on track after unexpected groundwater caused construction delays in March.
In September, the City Council approved a revised work schedule, allowing for Saturday construction to make up for lost time. On Tuesday, the council will be asked to authorize hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of contract amendments for construction management and consulting services for the reservoir.
During the tour, engineers explained various features of the reservoir, such as extra reinforcement for earthquakes and a design to prevent any leaking.
“If there’s ever an earthquake, run for that pump station. It’s not coming down,” said Gary Roepke, the project’s supervising engineer.
One of the biggest challenges of the project was staying within the confines of the site and trying to keep noise and other disturbances to a minimum for both the golf course and surrounding neighborhoods, project managers said. All dirt was kept on site to use as filler to minimize truck trips to and from the site, but this left crews “trying to fit everything in this tiny space,” Roepke said.
City Building Official Stuart Tom, who went on the tour, said that he was initially skeptical of the immensity of the project, but was impressed with how it stayed on track.
“When we build a 14-million-gallon reservoir, we only want to do it once,” he said.#
http://www.glendalenewspress.com/articles/2009/05/29/politics/gnp-reservoir29.txt
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