FPUD and Rainbow to work together on new supply

The Fallbrook Public Utility District and the Rainbow Municipal Water District now have a Memorandum of Understanding to work with each other on new water resource development and emergency supply.

The Dec. 3 Rainbow board meeting included a 4-0 vote with Michael Mack absent to approve the Memorandum of Understanding with FPUD while FPUD’s Dec. 9 board meeting approved the MOU on a 4-0 vote with Don McDougal absent. The MOU provisions include both collaborating on long-term water supply development and working together to improve emergency water supply capabilities.

“It’s just a good opportunity for us to work together and try to save money for our ratepayers,” FPUD general manager Jack Bebee said.

“The district is always interested in developing local supplies, and we’re excited to partner with FPUD and Camp Pendleton in achieving potential new supply for our customers,” Rainbow general manager Tom Kennedy said.

The Santa Margarita Conjunctive Use Project being pursued by FPUD, U.S. Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation will enhance groundwater recharge and recovery capability within the lower Santa Margarita River basin and develop a program which will increase available water supplies for FPUD and Camp Pendleton.

The Conjunctive Use Project is expected to be complete in 2022, and for a normal water year based on the average over the past 50 years, FPUD can expect an additional 3,100 acre-feet of supply from the project.

FPUD is also pursuing an indirect potable reuse pilot project which would recharge recycled water in the Santa Margarita River basin. The project would place recycled water, which is currently discharged into the ocean, into the groundwater basin. The indirect potable reuse program would be separate from the Santa Margarita River Conjunctive Use Project but would enhance the additional supply provided by storing water in that basin.

Both FPUD and Rainbow were affected when repairs to a San Diego County Water Authority pipeline where it crosses Moosa Creek caused two shutdowns of that SDCWA facility to install and remove isolation bulkheads.

The MOU said that in the event of a CWA or Metropolitan Water District of Southern California pipeline failure which deprives at least one FPUD or Rainbow connection of imported water supply the two water districts will work together to provide emergency supply to FPUD and Rainbow customers.

“Rainbow and us have a lot of common boundaries,” Bebee said. “We need to coordinate together for emergency conditions.”

In addition to having common boundaries Rainbow and FPUD also have common interconnections. Both districts also have substantial storage capacity within their systems, and the MOU calls for the two districts to coordinate support for emergency supply through interconnects and available storage.

The two districts will also work together to identify opportunities to rehabilitate and maintain existing interconnects and to establish new interconnections where appropriate, and the cost of those projects would be shared based on an agreement by both districts.

The Conjunctive Use Project will give FPUD access to emergency supplies. The MOU between FPUD and Rainbow calls for FPUD to coordinate with Camp Pendleton to identify and to make available sufficient emergency supplies for Rainbow in an emergency situation to the extent water beyond FPUD’s emergency supply needs is available.

FPUD’s general manager will make the determination that a surplus of available water would allow such supply to be provided to Rainbow.

In the event that one district has to provide the other with emergency supply the providing district will be reimbursed at the wholesale cost of the imported water provider which serves the supplying district.

FPUD and Camp Pendleton currently discharge approximately 2.6 million gallons per day of treated water into the Pacific Ocean through the Oceanside Outfall. The Conjunctive Use Project constructed facilities to convey water from the Santa Margarita River basin, so it is possible that water undergoing tertiary treatment could also be stored in the groundwater basin and later extracted and treated to meet potable water standards.

The current discharge total would equate to approximately 3,000 acre-feet per year should feasibility studies and permits lead to construction of an indirect potable reuse project.

The state’s Department of Water Resources has a grant program for Integrated Regional Water Management projects. The CWA administers grants for member agencies and other applicants.

The November 2014 election included the passage of Proposition 1, which allocates $510 million for IRWM projects including $37 million to the San Diego County portion of the San Diego hydrologic region.

DWR does not issue the entire amount of IRWM funding in one grant application process but utilizes rounds of grant applications and awards. Because the grant funding is allocated by region, the San Diego region will receive the full amount but DWR must approve the specific projects.

The current round of Proposition 1 funding will include $687,500 to FPUD for the indirect potable reuse pilot project. The CWA board approved that grant application Sept. 26. The grant application process includes consultation with DWR, and the application may be refined. The estimated total cost of the pilot project including a feasibility study is $1.5 million.

FPUD has budgeted $700,000 over a two-year period for the pilot project and studies. Although the studies will identify the expected allocation of flows from the project Rainbow has agreed to fund 15% of the non-grant share, or $105,000.

The MOU stipulates that Rainbow will participate in the feasibility study including assisting in the development of technical data related to the district’s customer demands to identify the potential amount of water from the project Rainbow could use.

The MOU said that FPUD will charge Rainbow the pro-rata share of the feasibility study costs after the grant funding is deducted, so the $105,000 is an estimate.

If FPUD desires amendments to the agreement with the consultant performing the feasibility study FPUD will confer with Rainbow about the proposed amendments although FPUD has the power to approve reasonable amendments without specific Rainbow approval.

The clauses of the MOU also include that FPUD and Rainbow will work together on evaluating other alternative water supply development and recycled projects within the combined jurisdiction of the two agencies.

“We’ll work on opportunities to work together,” Bebee said.