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Partnerships and long-term planning ensure highly reliable water for North County

SAN DIEGO – It may be hard to fathom, but Lindbergh Field in San Diego receives less annual rainfall in an average year than the desert city of Tucson, Arizona. So how is it possible that enough water flows every time San Diego County's 3.3 million residents turn on the tap?

The answers have taken years to come to fruition: regional partnerships and long-term planning. By working together over several decades, the San Diego County Water Authority, Fallbrook Public Utility District, Rainbow Municipal Water District and 22 other retail water agencies across the county have made major investments on behalf of ratepayers. These projects and programs ensure a safe, reliable supply of water for customers countywide and support local urban and ag businesses.

One cornerstone of this collaboration is the development of the Urban Water Management Plan, which the Water Authority updates every five years in collaboration with its retail member agencies to ensure sufficient water during normal and dry years alike. This strategic plan forecasts water demands and supplies decades ahead to make sure San Diego County remains resilient to drought and other potential water supply shortages.

The importance of long-term planning for dry times was highlighted by a historic statewide drought in the early 1990s. That's when San Diego County's primary water supplier at the time, the Los Angeles-based Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, made severe cutbacks to our region. San Diego County residents were required to immediately reduce water use by 30%. Local family farmers were ordered to reduce water use by 90%.

Knowing that this would devastate North County's thriving agriculture industry and the families that support it, the San Diego County Water Authority worked with its 24 member agencies to ensure farmers had enough water to continue operations and avoid the 90% cuts.

While longer-term supply reductions were avoided by the "Miracle March" rains of 1991, that crisis proved pivotal for San Diego County. The severe and sudden cutbacks imposed by MWD spurred local planning and investments to make sure that the region – from Fallbrook in the north to San Ysidro in the south – never again faced the same peril caused by relying primarily on imported water from one source.

And that's where the Water Authority's long-term planning comes into play. Previous versions of the Water Authority's Urban Water Management Plan spurred investments in regional infrastructure projects that local water agencies rely on today to store and transport highly reliable supplies in wet and dry years and during emergencies.

These investments include development of the largest ocean desalination plant in the nation, the largest dam raise in the nation and the largest ag-urban water transfer in California history. And they've paid off, culminating in San Diego County having one of the most diverse and reliable water supplies in the country.

The result was that the Water Authority was ready when drought hit its region again between 2009-2011 and 2015-2016. The Water Authority had diversified its water supply and placed enough water in storage to minimize the impact of MWD's significant imported water supply cuts and protect San Diego County customers.

As the Water Authority looks to the future, its current Urban Water Management Plan update will account for the growth of local water supply projects, such as Fallbrook's Santa Margarita Conjunctive Use Project. These local projects are critical for the region's long-term water sustainability. Added together, these local projects are expected to comprise about 8% of the county's water supplies by 2045.

These local supply projects, coupled with regional investments by the Water Authority, highlight how San Diego County's water future will be built upon partnerships and long-term planning.

At a time when the climate is increasingly unpredictable, local families and businesses can count on the Water Authority and its member agencies working collaboratively to deliver safe, reliable water each and every day, rain or shine. It's just one more example of how San Diego County water agencies are working together, every step of the way, to make the region stronger together.

A draft of the Water Authority's newest Urban Water Management Plan will be available for public review in early 2021. To read more about the plan and watch a brief video about the planning process, visit www.sdcwa.org/urban-water-management-plan-1.

Submitted by the San Diego County Water Authority.

 

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