CASE STUDY: Metropolitan Water District of Southern California

1
CASE STUDY Metropolitan Water Districtof
Southern California

• Regional water wholesaler to 6 counties - 5,200
  square miles
• 26 member agencies
• 18 million people
• Regional economy 600 billion
• Water supplies meets about half of retail
  demands

Slides from William J. Hasencamp, MWD Aug 2006
http//www.state.co.us/gov_dir/leg_dir/lcsstaff/CS
G2006/Powerpoints/Colorado20River20Basin20Forum
20PPT-20Thurs.20Aug2010/CO20River20Hasencamp
20060810.ppt
2
MWD Member Agencies
3
Southern CaliforniasWater Supply (2000)
LAKE SHASTA
LOS ANGELES AQUEDUCTS 0.2 MAF
LAKE OROVILLE
Bay-Delta
COLORADO RIVER AQUEDUCT 1.2 MAF
STATE WATER PROJECT1.4 MAF
LOCAL 1.7 MAF
METROPOLITAN WATER DISTRICT SERVICE AREA
4
(No Transcript)
5
Colorado River Entitlements Deliveries(Million
acre-feet)
Mexico
6
http//www.mwdh2o.com/mwdh2o/pages/yourwater/suppl
y/colorado/colorado04.html
7
In a nutshell making 5.1 to 4.4
1 MAF 18 million people
VS.
4 MAF Cantaloupes, dates, grapes and oranges,
lemons, avocados, and other fruits lettuce,
tomatoes, onions, carrots and other vegetables
alfalfa, wheat, and other forage crops.
8
When CA uses 5.1 maf and is under a court order
to reduce to 4.4 maf, who loses H2O?
1 MAF 18 million people
??
4 MAF Cantaloupes, dates, grapes and oranges,
lemons, avocados, and other fruits lettuce,
tomatoes, onions, carrots and other vegetables
alfalfa, wheat, and other forage crops.
9
Who owns the water?

• Water Rights.
• Water is owned by the public (state). Those with
  rights to water may put water to beneficial use.
• Groundwater rights. No permit required.
• Riparian Water Rights. Comes from English common
  law. All landowners whose land abuts a stream
  have the right to share in the use of the water.
  These rights cannot be sold.
• Contractual Water Rights. A legal right to divert
  water from publicly owned waters. This means from
  water development projects
• Senior water rights / Junior water rights.
  Different contracts carry seniority of use. Thus,
  when the Federal Government declared CA to be
  overdrawing water, the Metropolitan Water
  District Rights were junior to Imperial Valley
  (IID), so IID retained water while MWD did not.

10
Who owns the water?

• State Water Resources Control Board
• Part of CA EPA
• Controls water quality and water allocation
• Creates local boards
• Adjudicates conflicts
• Manages water transfers / water market structure

11
Under the US water laws, the Metropolitan Water
District is the new kid on the block in terms of
water usage, so it is has water rights that are
JUNIOR to the Imperial Irrigation District, so it
loses water and must resort to buying the water
from the Imperial Irrigation District.
Winner
0.55 MAF 16 million people
??
3.85 MAF Cantaloupes, dates, grapes and oranges,
lemons, avocados, and other fruits lettuce,
tomatoes, onions, carrots and other vegetables
alfalfa, wheat, and other forage crops.
Loser
12
Water scarcity the future

• Reallocation of water from agricultural to urban
  uses.
• Water markets.
• Conservation
• Low flow toilets, showers.
• Landscaping.
• More efficient irrigation.
• More allocation to in stream uses.
• Bay-Delta Restoration (Calfed).
• Endangered Species Act (salmon, Klamath basin).
• Public trust (Mono Lake).

13
Lakes/wetlands
The Klamath Problem. Two states. Endangered
Species. Powerful water lobbies. Lots of
interested parties
Dams/reservoirs
Klamath
Trinity
14
Californias Emerging Water Market
Conserving water by making it valuable. Authorizin
g groups who have a water right to sell the water
will encourage conservation because the resource
has a market value. Without a market Water
rights are use it or lose it.
15
(No Transcript)
16
(No Transcript)
17
Standings

• Bay Area
• Berkeley Bowlers 8
• San Jose Bush Babies 7
• San Francisco Huskies 6
• Oakland Bombers 6 Lafayette Diablos 5

• So Cal
• Snta Barb Green 9
• Ventura Squid 9
• SD Explorers 6
• SLO Moes 5
• LA Ducts 4

• Pacific Rim
• Sac Planetiers (1) 14
• Hawaii T.huggers 9
• Alaska Drillers 5
• Sonoma Whiners 4
• Martinez Muirs 3

18
Water Pollution
19
November 6, 2006
Important Point
20
Legislating Clean Water
21
Legislating Clean Water
Concern over clean water is NOT just a 1970s
thing

• 1899 Rivers and Harbors Act
• 1912 Public Health Service Act
• 1924 Oil Pollution Act
• 1948 Water Pollution Control Act
• 1972 Clean Water Act
• 1972 Marine Protection, Research, and
  Sanctuaries Act
• 1977 Clean Water Act
• 1987 Water Quality Act
• 1990 Oil Pollution Act

22
Water Pollution

• Infectious agents - 25 million deaths a year
• Organic materials - BOD, DO content, oxygen sag
• Plant nutrients - eutrophication, toxic tides
• Metals - mercury and lead poisoning
• Nonmetallic salts - poison seeps and springs
• Acids and bases - ecosystem destabilization
• Organic chemicals - birth defects, cancer
• Sediments - clogged estuaries, coral reefs
• Thermal pollution - many species affected

There are MANY ways to impact water quality
23
Get to know

• Eutrophication
• Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD)

24
3 Main Laws
25
Clean Water Act (1972)

• Strong goals.
• Complete elimination of pollutant discharge into
  navigable waters by 1985.
• Interim goal fishable and swimmable waters.
• No discharge of toxic pollutants in toxic
  quantities.
• Strong bipartisan support.
• Nixon vetoed (projected to cost 24 billion),
  Congress overrode a day later.
• Placed EPA in charge of administration

26
CWA Provisions

• Provided incentive money for sewage treatment.
• Required permits for point discharges.
• National Pollution Discharge Elimination System
  (NDPES).
• Set ambient water quality standards.
• Standards set based on purpose/use of water body,
  so that use will not be diminished.
• Acknowledged the importance of wetlands
• Section 404 cannot develop wetlands without
  permit from Army Corps of Engineers.

27
Sources of Pollution
Point sources.nonpoint sources
THERE HAS BEEN A LOT OF PROGRESS IN CLEANING
THESE UP IN THE PAST 25 YEARS
28
EPA Water quality rules

• Rules restrict concentration of 96 controlled
  chemicals with toxic potential
• These include volatile organics, nitrate,
  cyanide, asbestos, acrylamide
• Requires filtration of water for viruses and
  other disease agents (giardia, intestinal
  parasites)
• Requires testing for total coliform bacteria
• Coliform bacteria, indicators of potential
  problems, lack of biotic sterilization

29
Note on the EPA

• EPA is an independent, watchdog agency with a
  mandate for pollution control.
• EPA has no jurisdiction over most land use
  issues.
• This makes it hard for EPA to address some root
  causes of pollution.
• Also makes EPA more independent of resource-using
  constituencies than other agencies.
• EPA primarily functions as an overseer to
  parallel state agencies.
• One of the areas where states complain about
  having to pay for laws the Federal government
  imposes on them.

30
1972 Marine Protection, Research, and
Sanctuaries Act
POINT Additional laws have served to fine tune
aspects of cleaning up water

• Did lots of things (established marine
  sanctuaries), but among them limited dumping in
  marine waters

1977 Clean Water Act amendments

• Strengthened controls on toxic pollutants
• Allowed states to assume control of programs

31
1987 Water Quality Act

• Created a revolving loan fund for construction of
  sewage treatment facilities (many still need
  updating)
• Outlined a watershed management approach to water
  pollution
• Required states to assess non-point pollution
  problems
• Grants available

Watershed Management issues next time.
32
Storm drains Residential fertilizers Ag chemicals
Sources of Pollution
THESE ARE THE NEXT BIG CHALLENGE
33
(No Transcript)
34
Why is this an important difference?

• Point sources
• Relatively easy to identify and regulate.
• Major target of existing legislation.
• Non-point sources
• Diffuse.
• Difficult to assign responsibility.
• Little legislation.
• Major remaining source of most water pollution
  problems.

35
Safe Drinking Water Act (1974 ,1986, 1996)

• Regulates any source supplying drinking water to
  25 people.
• EPA sets guidelines, states enforce.
• Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCLs) for designated
  pollutants.
• Only piece of environmental legislation
  reauthorized by 104th Congress (when was the
  104th? 1995-1996).

36
The Point

• Unlike ESA, and more so than Clean Air Act, the
  US continued to follow up on 1970s water
  legislation with amendments and new legislation
  to provide people and nature with clean water.
• There is a heavy financial cost to poor water
  quality.

37
Leading types of pollution in surface waters
Rivers and Streams
Siltation Nutrients Bacteria O2 depleting
substances Pesticides Habitat Suspended
solids Metals
EPA
38
The Importance of WETLANDS Water is naturally
purified by wetlands and by filtration through to
the groundwater
Drainage of wetlands has reduced the capacity of
natural landscapes to reduce non-point pollutants
39
Pollution in the San Francisco Bay
PEOPLE and WETLANDS

• Continuing sources from upstream non-point
  source pollutants (agriculture).
• Problem worsened by loss of surrounding wetlands
  that helped filter water.

40
Selenium a noteworthy special case

• Selenium is a rare element that is a required
  component of vertebrate diets.
• But ONLY in trace amounts
• The central valley soils are naturally rich in
  selenium.
• Irrigation flushes selenium from soils and washes
  it downstream

41
The irrigation solution

• To solve the problem of excess irrigation water,
  the Kesterson Wildlife Refuge was established.
• Agricultural runoff terminates in the Refuge.
• Increased incidence of deformed birds (avocets,
  stilts, shrikes, etc)
• What to do?

42
A suite of unpalatable solutions

• Cease irrigation
• Pump irrigation water to the ocean
• Create thousands of small holding fields on each
  farm
• Allow Kesterson to increase selenium
  concentrations

43
Surface Water Quality Today
Text
44
Groundwater Pollution
45
EPA
GROUNDWATER QUALITY

• Polluting groundwater
• STORAGE TANKS
• LANDFILLS
• SEPTIC SYSTEMS
• HAZARDOUS WASTE SITES
• SURFACE IMPOUNDMENTS

AG
46
Some summary points

• Agriculture is the leading source of pollution
  lakes, rivers and streams.
• affect 25 of all rivers and streams surveyed by
  the EPA and
• contributes to 70 of all water quality problems
  identified in rivers and streams.
• Siltation is the most common pollutant in rivers
  and streams
• 18 of rivers and streams
• 50 of water quality problems in rivers and
  streams
• Nutrients and metals are the most common
  pollutants affecting lakes
• 20 of all lakes
• 50 of all water quality problems in lakes

47
Non-point source pollution

• Largest remaining source of pollution, increasing
  recognition that future policy must address.
• Policy initiatives focused on this problem
• 1986 Amendments to CWA feds to provide funding
  and support to states (Section 319).
• Under Clinton Clean Water Initiative, in part
  due to failure of Congress to reauthorize the
  CWA.

48
November 6, 2006
Important Point
49
CWA final note

• One of the strongest and most controversial
  components of the CWA was not originally a major
  focus of the Act
• Section 404, regulates wetland filling.
• Set US Corps of Engineers as the regulatory
  agency. (Why?)
• Now the major tool for protection of wetland
  habitats.
• Has drawn strong opposition and some major
  lawsuits.
• In spite of Section 404, wetland loss in the U.S.
  has slowed but not stopped.

50
Uses the government as a tool to inform concerned
citizens
51
(No Transcript)
52
There are now an abundance of local and regional
citizen action groups, citizen committees,
public-private partnerships to improve
stewardship of aquatic habitats
LOWER PUTAH CREEK COORDINATING COMMITTEE
53
X
Mostly EPA sites, mostly incentive programs
X
X not EPA
54
(No Transcript)
55
The Point

• Local activism appears to be the wave of the
  future in environmental protection.
• If you like the place you live and want to see it
  protected, then you had better become an active
  participant in its management.

56
And the rest of the world?
57
Sewage

• 2.9 billion people live in areas with inadequate
  or no sewage collection or treatment.
• 250 million cases of waterborne diseases are
  reported each year.
• 10 million deaths

58
Sewage

• Pathogens carried by sewage
• typhoid fever
• (Salmonella typhi, bact.)
• Cholera
• (Vibrio cholerae, bact.)
• Salmonellosis
• (Salmonella spp. Bact)
• Diarrhea
• (Eschericha coli, bact)
• Hepatitis A (virus)
• Poliomyelitus (virus)
• Dysentery (bact)
• Giardiasis (protozoan)
• Other roundworms and flatworms

59
(No Transcript)
60
(No Transcript)
61
Rain Shadow Effects
Appendix
62
Water projects create goods and bads
63
Example of uncontrolled water diversion
Aral Sea
Population increase water scarcity