Quarterly Water Supply Strategy and
Budget Report
California-American Water – Water Distribution
System: July – September 2004
June
21, 2004
1. Management
Objectives
The
District desires to maximize the long-term production potential and protect the
environmental quality of the Carmel River and Seaside Ground Water Basins. In addition, the District desires to
maximize the amount of water that can be diverted from the Carmel River Basin
and injected into the Seaside Ground Water Basin while complying with the
instream flow requirements recommended by National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA
Fisheries) to protect the Carmel River steelhead population. To accomplish these goals, a water supply
strategy and budget for production within the California-American Water
(Cal-Am) water distribution system is reviewed quarterly to determine the optimal
strategy for operations, given the current hydrologic and system
conditions.
2. Quarterly
Water Supply Strategy: July – September 2004
On
June 8, 2004, staff from the District, Cal-Am, California Department of Fish
and Game (CDFG), and the NOAA Fisheries discussed the proposed water supply
strategy and related topics for the remainder of June 2004 and the July –
September 2004 period. Currently, Los
Padres Reservoir is nearly full, San Clemente Reservoir is drawn down to
elevation ~515.5 feet, the Carmel River is flowing less than 20 cubic feet per
second (cfs) at the MPWMD gaging station at Don Juan Bridge in Garland Park,
and the river is discontinuous or dry below Via Mallorca Bridge at River Mile
3.5 (RM 3.5).
Given these “below normal” conditions, it was agreed that Cal-Am would not exceed a daily diversion rate of 0.5 cfs from its wells in the Upper Carmel Valley, as limited by their Conservation Agreement with NOAA Fisheries. Currently, the feasibility of diverting water at San Clemente Dam is constrained by water quality and operations related to the San Clemente Reservoir Drawdown Project mandated by the Department of Water Resources (DWR). For the Seaside Basin, it was agreed that Cal-Am would maintain production at near maximum capacity for the remainder of June, July, August and September, with the goal not to exceed a total production level of 4,000 AF for Water Year 2004. The remainder of the water needed to serve Cal-Am customers during this quarter will be produced from Cal-Am’s wells in the Lower Carmel Valley and Cal-Am will operate its wells in the Lower Carmel Valley in a downstream to upstream sequence. In conformance with the District’s temporary water right permit to divert water and inject it into the Seaside Basin, it is assumed that no water will be diverted and injected during the June – September 2004 period.
Based
on the rainfall and runoff that occurred during the October-May 2004 period, it
was agreed that the projections for the upcoming quarter should be based on the
assumption that inflows will be 68 percent of normal during the budgeted July
through September 2004 period. Based on
this assumption, District staff projected monthly-unimpaired inflows at San
Clemente Dam of 952, 272, 68 and 68 acre-feet (AF) for the months of June,
July, August and September 2004, respectively.
These monthly inflows are 68 percent of the expected median flow values
for the 1902-1996 period of record. Table 1 shows a monthly breakdown of the
recommended diversion and release schedule under the projected inflow
conditions. Table 1 also shows expected
inflows, outflows, and storage volumes at Los Padres and San Clemente
Reservoirs for the July – September 2004 period.
It should be noted that there is some uncertainty regarding the rainfall and runoff that will occur during the upcoming quarter. If actual inflows are more or less than projected for the budget period, the group will reconvene and adjust the diversion and release rates accordingly. These adjustments will take into account flows needed for rearing juvenile steelhead and a goal to minimize late summer drying of the lower river.
U:\staff\word\boardpacket\2004\2004boardpacket\20040621\PublicHearings\18\item18_exh18b.doc
Revised 6/11/2004