HomeMy WebLinkAbout11/17/1992, 5 - STATE WATER PROJECT - WHALE ROCK EXCHANGE lll'ullyuhllnlln�'I�Iunll 4 MEETING OATS
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allWll IIII'I Iul'ull San '.IS OBISpO November 17, 1992
COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT MM NUMBER:
FROM: John Moss PREPARED BY: Gary W. Henderson G--�to
Acting U ' ties Director Water Division Manager
SUBJECT: State Water Project - Whale Rock Exchange
CAO RECOMMENDATION:
Receive Report from County Staff and Provide Direction to Staff Concerning the Exchange of State
Water for Whale Rock Water.
DISCUSSION:
On July 7, 1992, the City Council approved the concept of exchanging State Water for Whale Rock water
with the three Cayucos water purveyors (see staff report Attachment B). The Council action at that time
was based on the assumption that the City would be a participant in the State Water Project. On
November 3, 1992, the residents of the City passed Measure H which overturned the City's decision to
participate in the State Water Project. The Cayucos Water Agencies request that the City reconsider the
exchange idea and direct City staff to continue negotiations on an agreement to allow the exchange.
The idea of an exchange was presented in the environmental impact report prepared for the local facilities
portion of the State Water Project. The exchange was identified as the preferred alternative, from an
environmental standpoint, to the construction of the Chorro Valley pipeline. City staff's evaluation of
exchanging Whale Rock water with all agencies served through the Chorro Valley pipeline indicated that
the City could only serve the Cayucos area and Cuesta College without severely impacting the City's safe
annual yield from Whale Rock. Therefore, the Chorro Valley pipeline will be built to serve Morro Bay,
California Men's Colony, County Operations, and Cuesta College. Without an exchange, the Cayucos
water agencies would have to build minimum of 4 miles of additional pipelines to supply State Water to
the area. The construction of such a pipeline is considered cost prohibitive by the agencies. If an
exchange is not accomplished, the Cayuos agencies will most likely not participate in the State Water
Project and will not be able to meet the future projected water supply demands in their area.
Possible Concerns
The residents of San Luis Obispo have rejected the State Water Project for a number of reasons including
environmental impacts to the Delta and water quality concerns. If the City participated in the exchange
these issues would still be present although to a lesser degree (ie. 200 of verses 3,000 af). There may
be strong opposition by the public to participation in the State Water Project in any form based on these
concerns.
Possible Benefits
The main benefit that County staff has identified is the City would be tied. into the State Water Project
and could receive water in emergency situations. The idea is that if the City were in an extreme water
supply shortage, there could be the possibility that emergency water could be delivered to the City from
the State Water system. During the recent drought, an emergency water bank was established which
allowed agencies who receive state water to purchase additional amounts from this supply.
������►���►�iIN11111i �IIIIIU city of San L - o61Spo
EM COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT
State Water - Whale Rock Exchange
Page 2
Summary
Staff requests that the Council consider the information presented by the County at tonight's meeting and
provide direction to staff concerning continuing negotiations on the agreement for the State Water-Whale
Rock exchange.
Attachments: A. Letter from County concerning exchange
B. July 7, 1992 staff report concerning exchange
'.
COURTY Attacnment A
Sfl0 LUIS 0B1 � 10 DEPARTMENGII NT
COUNTY GOVERNMENT CENTER • ROOM 207 • SAN LUIS OBISPO, CALIFORNIA 93408
NTON MILNE PHONE (805) 781-5252 • FAX (805) 781-1229
JUNTY ENGINEER
GLEN L PRIDDY
DEPUTY COUNTY ENGINEER
ENGINEERING SERVICES 4
NOEL KING ROADS
DEPUTY COUNTY ENGINEER
ADMINISTRATION TRANSIT
FLOOD CONTROL
WATER CONSERVATION
COUNTY SURVEYOR
November 5, 1992 SPECIAL DISTRICTS
Council Members
City of San Luis Obispo
990 Palm St.
San Luis Obispo, CA 93401
Subject: Water Exchange Agreement Between the County's Waterworks
District No. 8 (Cayucos) and the City of San Luis Obispo,
Agency Member of the Whale Rock Commission,
Reconsideration, San Luis Obispo City Council Meeting of
November 17, 1992
Dear Honorable Council Members:
The Water Agreement between the San Luis Obispo County Flood
Control and Water Conservation District and San Luis Obispo County
Waterworks District No. 8, Cayucos, involving contract obligations
for delivery of State Project water, identifies the most economical
manner for Cayucos to make additional water available to its
customers is by means of an exchange of water with a member agency
of the Whale Rock Commission. San Luis Obispo County Waterworks
District No. 8 wishes to finalize an exchange agreement with the
City of San Luis Obispo and requests that the City reconsider and
affirm its position on the matter of an exchange agreement.
We are prepared, based on our discussions and negotiations with the
staff of your Utility Department, to final our draft exchange
agreement for Council and District acceptance, approval and
execution. In consideration of your earlier direction to staff,
Waterworks District No. 8, along with representatives of the two
other water purveyors within the Cayucos area, Morro Rock Mutual
Water Company and Paso Robles Beach Water Association, have been
working with the City's Utility Department staff in preparing a
draft exchange agreement which meets the legal, regulatory and
operational concerns of all agencies involved.
We believe, that even in light of the City's current vote for
non-participation in the Coastal Branch portion of the State Water
Project, there are operational and economic benefits to be received
by the parties involved in this agreement. For Waterworks District
No. 8 and the other Cayucos purveyors, the matter is foremost
economic, while at the same time providing operational diversity.
For the Whale Rock Commission, and specifically the City of San
�-3
Luis Obispo, operational diversity and enhanced contingency
planning is gained through the direct connection to a statewide
water supply infrastructure; while financial risk and
responsibility, and source reliability are secured by agreement
criteria addressing exchange details.
It is our hope that the Council will agree that the benefits to
both agencies will provide the incentive for reconsideration and
direction to staff to continue the process to formalize the
agreement for agency execution. Staff members representing
Waterworks District No. 8 and representatives of Morro Rock Mutual
Water Company and Paso Robles Beach Water Association of Cayucos
will be in attendance at your Council meeting to address your
questions and concerns of this request. Any specific questions or
comments you may have prior to the scheduled meeting may be
addressed to me at the above number.
We sincerely hope that for the mutual benefit of our agencies that
we are successful in completing these negotiations for the benefit
of the customers that we serve.
Sincerely,
GLEN PRIDDY
Deputy County Engineer
Waterworks District No. 8
cc: Chairman Laurenc L. Laurent, District 2
Paso Robles Beach Water Association
Morro Rock Mutual Water Company
lgg\city.ltr.ds
Attachment B
MEETING DATE:
j► City o� san Luis oBispo Jul 7. 1992
ITEM NUM
HOZ9COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT GBER
FROM 'UPJI: William T. Hetland � PREPARED BY: Gary W. Henderson
_ �1
Utilities Director Water Division Manager
SUBJECT: State Water Project - Whale Rock Exchange
CAO RECOMMENDATION. Direct Staff to Proceed with Alternative 3 or 4 and negotiate
Agreements with Involved Agencies and Return to Council for
Final Approval.
BACKGROUND:
The City Council approved the City's participation in the State Water Project on April 21,
1992. Following this decision, a number of agencies have requested that the City of San Luis
Obispo exchange water from Whale Rock Reservoir for State Water which would eliminate the
need to build all or a portion of the Chorro Valley pipeline.
The idea of an exchange was presented in the environmental impact report prepared for the
local facilities portion of the State Water Project. The exchange was identified as the preferred
alternative, from an environmental standpoint, to the construction of the Cborro Valley
pipeline. The Chorro Valley pipeline would begin at the Cuesta Tunnel (which was
constructed to convey water from Salinas Reservoir) and proceed up the valley parallel to the
Whale Rock pipeline to Morro Bay and then proceed on to Cayucos (see Attachment 1 for
map of the Chorro Valley pipeline).
PURPOSE
The purpose of this report is to assess the impact of the exchange on the City's water supply
resources and identify other areas of concerns which the Council needs to be aware of prior to
making a policy decision on the exchange. If
the City of San Luis Obispo does not
participate in the State Water project, it is Table I: Requested Exchange Amounts
assumed that no exchange would be possible.
City of Morro Bay 1,313 of
The agencies that are interested in an County Water Works District #8 80 of
exchange and the amounts of water Morro Rock Mutual Water Co. 61 of
requested are shown in Table 1. If all the Paso Robles Beach Water Assoc. 40 of
agencies were included in the exchange, the Festa College 200 of
total amount would be 2,119 acre-feet per County Operations 425 of
year (afy). This large amount of yearly
exchange from Whale Rock Reservoir would TOTAL 2,119 of
have a significant impact on the City's safe
annual yield estimate.
"VA
city o� san Luis OBisp0
COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT.
State-M'ater Project -1N1ale Rock Exchange
Page 2-
PROCEDURE
The City of San Luis Obispo has adopted a multi-water resource supply policy. A computer
model was developed based on the coordinated operation of the two reservoirs and recent
hydrologic information. Based on this ana]ysis, City Council recently adopted a revised
combined safe annual yield of 7,735 afy (assuming 500 afy of groundwater). This computer
model was utilized to determine the impact of exchanging Whale Rock water for an equal
amount of State Water.
The computer in, is based on a number of assumptions which have a direct impact on the
ability of the City of San Luis Obispo to participate in an exchange of water. The model
assumes that groundwater (500 &&) and state water are used first, then Salinas Reservoir is
used next to meet the City's water demand. Whale Rock water is the Iast to be used and is
primarily held in storage as a backup reserve. The analysis also assumes that each year a
minimum of 1,000 of is used from Whale Rock due to water quality problems at Salinas
Reservoir (ie. algae.blooms, sediment washed in during storms, etc.). This is an important
assumption and has a direct impact on the amount of water that the City can exchange with
other agencies. Except for the above amount withdrawn from Whale Rock, Whale Rock is
only used wben Salinas reaches minimum pool. By managing the water supply in this manner,
the City increases the overall held from the reservoirs.
Based on the above assumptions, staff analyzed the impact of an exchange on the City's safe
annual yield estimates. Figure 1 shows the impact on the City's yield with varying exchange ".
amounts. The figure indicates that
exchanging Whale Rock water for State
Water can have a significant impact on the - — - —
City's safe annual yield. This reduction in
yield is due to Whale Rock being used by the d
exchange agencies and not being available as
WD-
a City backup to Salinas Reservoir. It
basically eliminates the City's advantage of
coordinated use of the two reservoirs. .
3 3
RESULT'S
DD-
Attempting to withdraw 2,119 afy in addition '
to the 1,000 afy which is already assumed, , .o, 80 soo ,,,o „o,
exceeds the City's safe annual ;Meld from. EXCAMCBEAMM" (A-F.Ya
Whale Rock Reservoir. Therefore, the City
would be unable to meet the full requested Figure 1: Impacts of Exchange Amounts
exchange amount It was then determined,
based on hydrologic data from September 1943 to December 1991, that the maximum exchange
amount, in addition to the 1,000 afy, that could be withdrawn from Whale Rock would be 1,145
� ►IV1�I �j city of san Luis mspo
COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT
State-�'_4'ater Project - Whale Rock Exchange
Page 3
afy. The major problem with exchanging this amount of water is that the critical time period
controlling the computer analysis is the end of the data in the program (ie. December 1991).
Therefore, the critical time period has not ended and since Whale Rock Reservoir did not see
a significant increase in storage this year, the amount calculated as a maximum (ie. 1,145 afy) is
questionable. If this amount was exchanged on an annual basis, there would be a reduction of
880 afy in the City's yield. This indicates that the City would lose the majority of the increased
yield attributable to the coordinated operation of the two reservoirs.
In order for the City to avoid being negatively impacted, it is assumed that any decrease in the
City's safe annual yield would need to be offset by an equal amount of state water above the
Whale Rock exchange amount. Therefore, the City would not support a one for one exchange
for state water. It is obvious from the above discussion, that the City cannot protide all of the
requested exchange amounts. The amount requested by the City of Morro Bay is
approximately 62% of the total requested and as such has a drastic impact on the possibility of
an exchange. With the reduction in City yield shown in Figure 1, an exchange with Morro Bay
would not appear to be in the City of San Luis Obispo or Morro Bay's best interest because of
the large exchange amount results in a significant reduction in safe annual yield. In other
words, if the City of San Luis Obispo were to exchange water with only Morro Bay, who has a
maximum requested allotment of 1,313 afy, the City would only exchange approximately 800 afy
(see Fig. 1 - 800 exchange + 550.reduction = 1,350) of water from Whale Rock Reservoir in
order to offset the amount of safe annual yield lost due to the exchange.
CMC/CAL POLY EXCHANGE
The California Men's Colony has requested an exchange of 400 afy of state water for an equal
amount of Whale Rock water with Cal Poly. Cal Poly will not have a physical connection to
the State Water Project, the exchange would require an agreement with the City to accept the.
state water into our system and provide water to Cal Poly through their existing connections to
our,system. The exchange which the California Men's Colony is negotiating with Cal Poly will
have a minimal impact on the City of San Luis Obispo. The impact is significantly less than an
exchange of the City's Whale Rock water because the City can deliver water from any of our
sources to Cal Poly (ie. the reservoirs can still be operated in a coordinated fashion).
The impact on the City's safe annual yield due to an exchange between CMC and Cal Poly, is a
result of state water being delivered at a constant rate throughout the year but Cal Poly's water
demand fluctuating during the period. Fifteen (15) acre-feet per year is loss through
evaporation due to water left in storage resulting from the variation in Cal Poly's demand.
This means that if CMC wishes to exchange 400 afy of Whale Rock water they Aill need to
provide 400 afy to Cal Poly and 15 afy to the City of San Luis Obispo. This item will have to
be addressed in negotiations with CMC and Cal Poly.
,11110 'is city of San Luis OBISp0
COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT
State Water Project - Whale Rock Exchange
Page 4
OTHER CONCERNS
Since State Water is delivered at a constant rate to participating agencies, it is questionable if
the City of San Luis Obispo can currently use more than the 3,000 afy. This is due to the fact
that currently the City is using approximately 5,000 afy but the daily demand fluctuates
throughout the year. There are currently days during the year that the demand may not equal
the constant delivery rate of state water if the City agrees to exchange a large amount of
Whale Rock water. The demand is expected to increase following the end of mandatory
rationing but may require the City to cut back requested state water deliveries in the interim.
This may cause an increase in the unit cost of state water which would need to be recovered
from the, agencies involved in the exchange.
The City's current water right permit for Whale Rock Reservoir defines the service area as the
City of San Luis Obispo and Cuesta College. An exchange with any other agencies will require
an application for change of service area to, be filed with the State Water Resources Control
Board. This change of service area will require CEQA review and State Board approval.
There are a number of other technical issues which will have to be addressed in the
agreements between the City and the agencies if such an exchange were to take place. The
agreements will have to be carefully prepared to insure that the City is protected under present
and future conditions (ie. the City's water supply resources are not adversely impacted). These
agreements would be brought back to Council for their approval.
ALTERNATIVES
A number of alternatives are listed below for consideration. The impacts of each alternative
are shown in Table 2.
a
Alternative 1: Exchange the maximum amount of 1,145 afy distributed proportionally
among all requesting agencies. To offset the reduction in the City's safe
annual yield, the agencies would have to provide the City with 2,025 afy of
State water. The agencies would only receive 54% of the requested
amount of state water but would still be required to purchase 96% of the
state water which they have requested. A major problem with this
alternative is that the City could not currently utilize 5,025 afy (3,000 +
2,025) at a constant rate. This amount of water exceeds our daily demand
for most of the year. This alternative is not recommended
Alternative 2: Agree to exchange water with all the agencies, except Morro Bay. The
total exchange amount would be 806 afy which would need to be offset
with approximately 1,355 afy of state water. The agencies would either
have to increase their allocation request or reduce the amount of water
requested to be exchanged from Whale Rock Each agency would receive
approximately 60% of the state water exchanged with the City.
S h p city o� san Luis OBISPO
COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT
St2te-V412ter Project - Rfiale Rock Exchange.
Page 5
Alternative 3: Agree to exchange water with only Cuesta College and the Cayucos Water
agencies (ie. County Waterworks District 7-8, Morro Rock Mutual Water
Co. and Paso Robles Beach Water Assoc.). If you assume that Morro Bay
will not participate in the exchange but will still receive state water, a
pipeline would be built to provide water to Morro Bay and would pass
right by the California Men's Colony. The County Operations Center
could therefore be served through an existing connection to CMC's system
and would be able to utilize existing wells to provide for their peaking
needs (unlike Cuesta College). The total exchange amount would be 381
afy which would require approximately 530 afy (ie. 149 afy reduction to
City + 381 afy exchange) of state water to offset the reduction in the
City's yeld. Each agency would receive approximately 729o' of the state
water exchanged with the City.
It should be noted that Cuesta College already receives water from the
City of San Luis Obispo. Any amount of State Water'excbanged with
Cuesta will have a positive impact on the City's water supply situation by
offsetting the current demand on Whale Rock Reservoir.
Alternative 4: Only exchange water with the Cayucos Area Water Organizations. The
total amount of the exchange would be 181 afy which would require
approximately 210 afy of state water. The agency would receive ,.
approximately 8617o of the state water exchanged with the City. The
County Board of Supervisors have approved state water for County
Waterworks District No. 8 in Cayucos contingent on an exchange. If an
exchange can not be agreed upon,there is a serious question as to whether
the other two Cayucos agencies could afford to construct the pipeline from
Morro Bay to Cayucos. If this alternative were implemented, Cuesta
College would need to negotiate with CMC to provide for peaking
capability.
Alternative 5: No exchange of Whale Rock water for state water. This would effectively
eliminate the Cayucos Area Water Agencies from participation in the state
water project.
S
City o� san tins oaispo
COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT
State NN'ater Project - Whale Rock Exchange
Page 6-
Table II: Summary of Alternatives
Aeencies SWP Amount Exchange Amount % of_SWP Amount €xchanged
1. All 2,025 19145 54%
2. All, except 1,355 806. 6017o
Marro Bay
3. Cayucos & 530 381 72%
Cuesta College
4. Cayucos 210 181 $6%
FISCAL IMPACT:
There would be a financial benefit to the City of San Luis Obispo depending on the amount of
water exchanged. Savings would result from decreased pumping required from Salinas or
Whale Rock Reservoir. The City could also benefit from increased deliveries of State Water if
the proposed hydroelectric facility were constructed by the City at the first City turnout from
the pipeline at Reservoir No. 1. The increased flows, if delivered to this location, would result
in increased energy production. The exact extent of the benefits to the City have not been
estimated at this time due to the large number of alternatives.
There would also be a savings to the agencies that participate in the exchange resulting from
not having to construct the pipeline up the Chorro Valley. The agencies would have to provide
for treatment of the surface water from Whale Rock which would reduce their potential
savings.
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends the Council direct staff to proceed with Alternative 3 or 4, staff would work
with Cuesta and CMC to negotiate an agreement to provide for Cuesta's peaking needs. Also,
recommend that CMC accept state water directly if a pipeline is constructed to their facilities.
These alternatives would have the least impact on the City's water supply resources while still
accommodating the needs of, Cuesta College and Cayucos Water agencies.
Attachment: 1. Map of Proposed Chorro Valley Pipeline
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