SUMMARY: The
Board will accept public comment and take action on the October through December
2010 Quarterly Water Supply Strategy and Budget for California American Water’s
(CAW) Main and Laguna Seca Subarea Water
Distribution Systems (WDS). The proposed
budget, which is included as Exhibits 13-A
and 13-B, shows monthly production by
source of supply that is required to meet projected customer demand in CAW’s Main
and Laguna Seca Subarea systems, i.e.,
Ryan Ranch, Bishop, and Hidden Hills, during the October through December
2010 period. The proposed strategy and
budget is designed to maximize the long-term production potential and protect
the environmental quality of the Seaside Groundwater and Carmel River Basins.
Exhibit 13-A shows the anticipated production by CAW’s
Main system for each production source and the actual production values for the
water year to date through the end of August 2010. Please note that the anticipated production
values assume that CAW annual Main system production for Water Year (WY) 2011 will
not exceed 13,299 acre-feet (AF), including 3,170 AF from the Coastal Subareas
of the Seaside Groundwater
Basin, 1,111 AF from ASR Phase 1
recovery, and 9,018 AF from the Carmel
River Basin. The total from the Carmel
River Basin is consistent with State
Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) Order Nos. 95-10, 98-04, 2002-0002, and 2009-0060, and the total from
the Seaside Groundwater
Basin is consistent with the Seaside Basin adjudication decision. Both of
these limits are subject to change, pending future regulatory actions. For the purpose of this budget, it is assumed
that a range of extremely wet to normal inflow conditions will occur, with
flows ramping down one level of water year type during each month from
September through December 2010. This
approach was taken to best match the current pattern of the river’s flow
recession, which is not similar enough to any other water year on record that staff
could select the recession pattern from a single year to represent the likely
future recession in river flows.
Exhibit 13-B shows the anticipated production by
CAW’s Laguna Seca Subarea system for each production source and the actual
production values for WY 2010 to date through the end of August 2010. Please note that the anticipated production
values assume that CAW’s annual Laguna Seca Subarea systems’ production will
not exceed 246 AF from the Laguna Seca Subarea of the Seaside Groundwater
Basin. This total is consistent with the Seaside Basin adjudication decision.
RECOMMENDATION: The
Board should receive public input, close the Public Hearing, and discuss the
proposed quarterly water supply budget.
District staff recommends adoption of the proposed budget. The budget is described in greater detail in Exhibit
13-C, Quarterly Water Supply Strategy
Report: October –December 2010.
BACKGROUND:
The Quarterly Water Supply Strategy and Budget pertains to production
within CAW’s Main and Laguna Seca Subarea
systems for the three-month period of October, November, and December 2010. Staff from the District, CAW, and the National
Marine Fisheries Services (NMFS) cooperatively developed this strategy on September
8, 2010. Based on current reservoir and
Carmel Valley Alluvial Aquifer storage conditions, and the significant rainfall
that has occurred to date, it was agreed that a range of “extremely wet"
to “normal” inflow conditions will occur, with flows ramping down one level of
water year type during each month from September through December 2010. Thereafter, “normal” year inflows would be used
to assess CAW’s operations and set monthly production targets for CAW’s systems
from January through September 2011.
To
meet customer demand in its main system, CAW will produce approximately 0 AF of
groundwater from its wells in the Upper
Carmel Valley
during October, November, and December 2010.
Similarly, CAW will produce approximately 687, 447, and 446 AF of
groundwater from its wells in the Lower
Carmel Valley
during October, November, and December 2010, respectively. The permitted diversion season for ASR does not
begin again until December 1, which is during WY 2011. Diversions to storage for ASR Phase 1 will
begin after December 1st, whenever flows in the river are legally
adequate to do so. However, for planning
purposes staff did not schedule any diversions to ASR storage until the next
Quarter of January – March, 2011.
It
was also agreed that, subject to rainfall and runoff conditions in the Carmel River Basin,
CAW would continue to produce water from the Coastal Subareas of the Seaside Basin during this period. In October and
November, the production goal is to maximize the recovery of water stored in WY
2010 by ASR, with 496 AF and 480 AF to be recovered, respectively. December’s production from the Coastal
Subareas of the Seaside
Groundwater Basin
would be comprised of 270 AF of native groundwater, combined with 135 AF of
storage recovered from ASR. There is
also a goal of producing an additional 25 AF of treated brackish groundwater
from the Sand City Desalination Plant in each of these three months. However, average monthly production from this
source to date has been approximately 8 AF per month during the project’s
initial start-up phase since April 2010.
In addition, it was also agreed that CAW should produce only 24, 16, and
13 AF of groundwater from its wells in the Laguna Seca Subarea for its
customers in the Ryan Ranch, Bishop, and Hidden Hills systems during October,
November, and December 2010, respectively. Lastly, it was agreed that CAW would not
divert any water from San Clemente Reservoir through the Carmel Valley Filter
Plant during this quarter. CAW will
operate its wells in the Lower
Carmel Valley
in a downstream-to-upstream order. If
actual natural river inflows are less than projected for the budget period, the
group will reconvene and adjust the LPD release rates accordingly.
Rule
101, Section B of the District Rules and Regulations requires that a Public
Hearing be held at the time of determination of the District water supply
management strategy. Notice of this
Public Hearing has been published in The Herald. Adoption of the quarterly water supply
strategy and budget is categorically exempt from the California Environmental
Quality Act (CEQA) requirements as per Article 19, Section 15301 (Class 1). A Notice of Exemption will be filed with the
Monterey County Clerk's office, pending Board action on this item.
EXHIBITS
13-A Quarterly Water Supply Strategy and Budget
for CAW Main System: October –December 2010
13-B Quarterly Water Supply Strategy and
Budget for CAW Subsystems: October –December 2010
13-C Quarterly
Water Supply Strategy and Budget Report: October –December 2010
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