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Chapter 10:
A Long-term Commitment to Reliability
MAKING MAJ
OR INVESTMENTS
W
hile Water Authority leaders looked
near and far to diversify water sup-
plies, they realized that new sources
couldn’t reach their potential for boosting
regional
water supply reliability without a coordi-
nated set of
major investments in treatment
plants, pipelines and reservoirs. Only with
those pieces in place would the region have
the kind of robust and resilient system that
would allow it to make the most of the wet
years and survive the dry ones. Beginning in
1989, the Water Authority set its sights on
making significant investments in major new
water facilities to increase overall system relia-
bility and flexibility. It was a complicated
endeavor: Not only did the Water Authority ai
m
to i
mprove its emergency water storage and
delivery system, but it needed to add or
upgrade facilities that deliver, store and treat
water day in and day out.
The commitment evolved and grew over
the years, cul
minating in what became a
$3.6 billion Capital I
mprovement Program, or
CIP, by early 2013 that addressed the meat-
and-potatoes of
water delivery: emergency and
dry-year storage, new pipeline connections,
pumping and treatment facilities, and mainte-
nance. The CIP also embraced new
opportunities such as facilitating water transfers
and generating hydroelectric power. At the
peak of construction, the Water Authority spent
nearly $1 million a day on what was the largest
effort in county history to enhance its regional
water infrastructure – an effort that will pay divi-
dends for decades.
MITIGATING THE THREATS
Earthquake faults present the most potentially
catastrophic vulnerability for Southern
California’s water supplies. The aqueduct from
Northern California to the Metropolitan Water
District of Southern California travels over seis-
mic faults, including the infamous San Andreas
Fault. All of the major pipelines from Riverside
County to San Diego County cross the Elsinore
Fault zone. And San Diego County’s location at
the end of the pipes means that it will be affect-
ed by any major disruption upstream – a situa-
tion that prompted the Water Authority to build
an emergency storage system south of the
Elsinore Fault to provide a secure, local
water supply.
But earthquakes aren’t the only threat. The
Water Authority also is preparing for potential
i
mpacts from a changing cli
mate. As tempera-
tures rise, snowfall and snowmelt patterns are
shifting in the Sierra Nevada and the Colorado
River Basin. The California Department of
Water
The Emergency Storage
Project “Represents an insur-
ance policy that safe, reliable
water will be available to
support the region’s econo-
my, the job base, and the
quality of life for the more
than three million residents,
even if the primary water
supply lines are temporarily
disrupted.”
The San Diego County Grand Jury,
2007
Emergency Storage Project: The Olivenhain Dam,
topped out at 318 feet tall, was completed in 2003