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County renews IRWM agreement

The Integrated Regional Water Management agreement between San Diego County, the city of San Diego and the San Diego County Water Authority was scheduled to expire Dec. 31, but the IRWM will be extended for at least another five years.

The county Board of Supervisors voted 5-0, Wednesday, Oct. 28, to approve a new memorandum of understanding with the city and the County Water Authority. That agreement will cover the period from Jan. 1, 2021, to Dec. 31, 2025.

The supervisors’ action also found the MOU to be exempt from California Environmental Quality Act review.

In November 2002, the state’s voters approved Proposition 50, which authorized the spending of $3.4 billion for projects involving freshwater and coastal resources. Chapter 8 of Proposition 50 authorized up to $500 million for IRWM planning and implementation grants. Following the passage of Proposition 50, the three county partners entered into a Memorandum of Understanding to form a regional water management group to lead the IRWM effort in the San Diego region.

The County Water Authority was designated as the lead agency of the RWMG, which also organized a Regional Advisory Committee with 27 representatives from water management, business, academia and other sectors. The initial San Diego IRWM was adopted locally in 2007 and approved by the state’s Department of Water Resources in 2009. The IRWM was updated in 2013 and 2019.

In November 2006, the state’s voters passed Proposition 84, which authorized $1 billion of IRWM funding including $91 million for the San Diego hydrologic region, which includes parts of Orange County and Riverside County.

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.

The CWA administers grants for member agencies and other applicants. Because the grant funding is allocated by region, the San Diego region will receive the full amount although DWR must approve the specific projects.

The grant application process includes consultation with DWR, and some of the applications may be refined. The most recent grant funding to the CWA was awarded July 8, and the $15 million included $687,500 to the Fallbrook Public Utility District for an indirect potable reuse pilot project.

The San Diego region has received approximately $111 million in IRWM grants from DWR. The county has received approximately $2.8 million, including $1.7 million for the development of objectives and approaches to manage water quality issues in the Santa Margarita Watershed.

The city, the county and the CWA share the costs of the IRWM equally. The newest memorandum of understanding limited the county’s total payments to $853,857 for the five-year period.

The MOU included criteria for selecting project proposals, protocol for managing awarded grants, a process to select and fund consultants to provide technical and administrative support to the RWMG, public outreach, maintenance of a website for the IRWM and grant application technical assistance for underrepresented communities.

In addition to sharing the costs for grant administration and consultants, each agency will participate in IRWM plan updates and in the selection of proposals, and each agency will also participate in the Regional Advisory Committee.

Joe Naiman can be reached by email at [email protected].

Author Bio

Joe Naiman, Writer

Joe Naiman has been writing for the Village News since 2001

 

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