Message from the President
By Joan C. Finnegan, MWDOC Board President
On Friday, May 20, 2011, Municipal Water District of Orange County (MWDOC), Orange County Water District (OCWD), and the Disneyland Resort will host the fourth annual OC Water Summit at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel in Anaheim. As President of MWDOC, I want to encourage each of you to attend and participate in this year’s summit.
The OC Water Summit is an innovative forum that tackles water supply issues and sets real solutions in motion. The event brings together experts to engage southern California business professionals, water industry stakeholders, elected officials, community leaders, scientists, environmentalists, and others in discussions about the ongoing water supply challenges facing our state and how they impact our economy and quality of life.
Online registration is available at http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=xr8waecab&et=1105327706317&s=11443&e=001zO9X0Tgvtqw7VPGYssoACEpbNFfmv0j0SJ2a21chI0QN5CWE3QOK1zmP0Sydkwhn9jOOO5kMHZZRKWTbnkhEGO78UPnAlK6FtngeLDTKuPi9uB8bLHPfVg==.
This year’s program highlights include:
- Edward G. Means, Principal Investigator of “The Value of Water,” a study funded by the Water Research Foundation.
- Curt Schmutte, P.E., Engineering Consultant for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.
- Congressman Tom McClintock, Chairman of the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water and Power.
- Michael Hiltzik, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of Colossus: Hoover Dam and the Making of the American Century.
- Dr. Lucy Jones, Chief Scientist of the US Geological Survey Multi-Hazard Demonstration Project for Southern California
Some of our speakers have contributed articles for this issue of eCurrents that will provide prospective guests with a glimpse of what they will be presenting at the summit. For additional information about the summit or to register online, please visit http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=xr8waecab&et=1105327706317&s=11443&e=001zO9X0Tgvtqw7VPGYssoACEpbNFfmv0j0SJ2a21chI0QN5CWE3QOK1zmP0Sydkwhn9jOOO5kMHZZRKWTbnkhEGO78UPnAlK6FtngeLDTKuPi9uB8bLHPfVg==.
We look forward to seeing you at the OC Water Summit on Friday, May 20, 2011 at Disney's Grand Californian Hotel.
Communicating the Value of Water: A Key Component in Establishing Public Support for Future Investments.
By Edward G. Means, Principal Investigator, Water Research Foundation "The Value of Water" Study
By Edward G. Means, Principal Investigator, Water Research Foundation "The Value of Water" Study
In the modern competitive business environment serving more and more well-informed clientele, today’s water purveyors face an unrelenting challenge of delivering recognized value through the products and services offered by them in providing safe, reliable, affordable, and secure supply of potable water. The ailing infrastructure of the nation adds to the complexity and continually requires greater levels of funding. In a poll of 71 water and wastewater utility managers and other experts, an overwhelming majority identified the need for significant additional financial resource needs to adequately address this challenge as a top issue facing water and wastewater utilities. Currently, very little Government funding is available for such efforts, and most of the utilities need to rely on financial resources from their customer base.
In order to effectively carry out their duties of continuing to deliver safe and good tasting water to their customers, water utilities continuously seek new and effective means to communicate the value of their products and services to their customer’s (general public), the community decision makers (the elected officials), and the significant influences on the decision making process (the media).
Click here to read more about The Value of Water.
Delta Seismic Risks: What is at Stake for California?
By Curt Schmutte, P.E., Engineering Consultant, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
By Curt Schmutte, P.E., Engineering Consultant, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is the hub of California’s water system, home to a unique ecosystem and a diverse agricultural and recreational economy. This portion of California’s geography is extremely complex, highly altered, and not sustainable in its current form or function. The problems range from declining health of the Delta fish species, on-going island subsidence, potential levee failures due to earthquakes, upstream and in-Delta diversions, predicted sea level rise, water quality degradation, and urbanization.
Significant portions of Southern California’s water supplies are pumped through the Delta and are vulnerable to long-term outage due to an earthquake. The true level of risk has only been appreciated in recent years through separate efforts by university researchers and government agencies. As the Delta land surface sinks further below sea level due to farming activity, it creates a bigger hole to fill with seawater and increases Delta levee stresses. The levees were never designed to resist soil liquefaction and are very expensive to upgrade. Finally, the chances of a large shaking event striking the Delta are known to be high and increasing according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
Click here to read more about Delta Seismic Risks.
California Forward Moves Closer to Finalizing its Government Reform Proposals
By David J. Cordero, MWDOC Director of Government Affairs
By David J. Cordero, MWDOC Director of Government Affairs
Last month, readers of eCurrents were made aware of two government reform efforts out of Sacramento that both placed a particular emphasis on potential changes in the governance and financing of the more than 2,000 independent special districts that exist throughout California. The first entity looking into potential reforms was the Assembly Committee on Accountability and Administrative Review (AAR). The second was California Forward, a non-profit, bi-partisan organization that was formed in 2008 to advocate for state and local government reforms, with the intention of enacting them into law either through the Legislature or the ballot box.
Representatives from California Forward have traveled throughout the state in recent months holding “Speak Up California” events for community and business leaders, elected officials, non-profit organizations, and other interested parties. These outreach events have provided California Forward with opportunities to make its case for state and local government reform, share its evolving reform framework entitled, “Making California Work Again: Restructuring State-Local Relationships,” and solicit input and secure conceptual “buy in” for its proposals.
California Forward released its final draft framework earlier this month, and a final round of regional meetings around the state (Inland Empire, Los Angeles, San Diego, Bay Area, and the Central Valley) will soon begin to again solicit stakeholder feedback.
Orange County special district and other local government officials will have an opportunity to engage California Forward in a policy dialogue about the organization’s recommendations at the meeting of the Water Advisory Committee of Orange County (WACO) on Friday, May 6, 2011. The meeting is from 7:30-9:00 a.m. in the MWDOC/OCWD Board Room (18700 Ward Street, Fountain Valley).
Click here to read more about California Forward's government reform framework and proposals.
Click here to download a copy of California Forward's reform framework (April 19, 2011), executive summary, and four-page short summary.
The Municipal Water District or Orange County (MWDOC) is currently in the process of preparing its 2010 Regional Urban Water Management Plan for adoption this summer. The Urban Water Management Plan is a document required under state law to be updated every five years to ensure that water agencies across the state are planning for adequate water supplies to meet existing and future water demands in their service areas. A draft version of MWDOC’s Urban Water Management Plan has been released and can be downloaded here. A public hearing on the plan will be held during MWDOC’s regular monthly Board Meeting on May 18, 2011.
An important new requirement for the 2010 Urban Water Management Plans is the establishment of water conservation targets to achieve a 20 percent reduction in per capita water use by the year 2020, as required under the Water Conservation Act of 2009, commonly referred to as 20 by 2020. In the past year and a half, MWDOC staff has participated in various stakeholder committees charged with drafting the guidelines under the 20 by 2020 law, and we have worked to ensure that all of the water suppliers in Orange County get credit for the significant investments that they have already made in conservation and recycled water.
Click here to read more about MWDOC's Draft Urban Water Management Plan.
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