Thursday, August 9, 2012


Southern California’s Management and Distribution of Drinking Water: - A summary of facts from the largest wholesaler of water in Southern California 
The Metropolitan Water District (MWD)

  1. Created in 1928 under authority of the Metropolitan Water District Act (California Statutes 1927, Chapter 429). The act authorizes Metropolitan to: levy property taxes within its service area; establish water rates; impose charges for water standby and service availability, incur general obligations bonded indebtedness and issue revenue bonds, notes and short-term revenue certificates; execute contracts; and exercise the power of eminent domain for the purpose of acquiring property.
  2. Its main purpose is to provide supplemental supply of water for domestic and municipal uses at whole sale rates to its member public agencies.
  3. Its mission is to provide its service area with adequate and reliable supplies of high quality water to meet present and future needs in an environmentally and economically responsible way.
  4. Comprises 26 member public agencies, 14 of those consisting of cities, 11 municipal water districts, and one county water authority. Its service area comprises approximately 5,200 sq miles and includes portions of the six counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego and Ventura with a combined population of approximately 18 million.
  5. Governed by a 37-member Board of Directors with each member agency having at least one representative on the board.
  6. Provides 40 to 60 percent of the water used within its service area in any year.
  7. It has two principal water sources, the State Water Project (SWP) in Northern California, via the California Aqueduct and the Colorado River, via the Colorado River aqueduct.
  8. The State Water Project (SWP) facilities are owned and operated by the Department of Water Resources (DWR). Twenty-nine agencies have entered into contracts with DWR to receive water from the SWP. 
  9. The SWP under a 100 percent allocation provides Metropolitan 1,911,500 acre-feet of water. (An acre-foot is the amount of water that will cover one acre to a depth of one foot and equals approximately 326,000 gallons, which represents the needs of two average families in and around the home for one year.)
  10. The Department of Water Resources (DWR) has altered the operations of the State Water Project (SWP) to accommodate species of fish listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) such as the Delta Smelt, Chinook Salmon, Sturgeon, & Steelhead. These changes in project operations have adversely affected water contracts and resulted in significant reduction of SWP water deliveries. Operational constraints likely will continue until long-term solutions to the problems in the Bay-Delta are identified and implemented.
  11. The Colorado River is Metropolitan’s original source of water. The Colorado River Aqueduct, which is owned and operated by Metropolitan conveys up to 1.25 million acre-feet of water per year to Metropolitan’s member agencies.
  12. Same as the SWP, the Colorado River deliveries can be affected by environmental regulations among other considerations. A number of species listed under the ESA such as the bonytail chub, razorback sucker, willow flycatcher and clapper rail can adversely affect water deliveries to accommodate for the survival of these species.
  13. Metropolitan also faces a number of challenges in providing reliable water supply for Southern California. Consumer demand and locally supplied water vary from year to year, resulting in variability in water sales. In recent years supplies and demands have been affected by drought, population growth, water use restrictions, economic conditions, weather conditions and environmental laws, and judicial decisions. Future water sales will be subject to variability due to these and other factors.
  14. Recent drought conditions and court-ordered restrictions in connection with the State Water Project have placed additional limitations on Metropolitan’s ability to obtain and deliver water supplies to its member agencies.
  15. Metropolitan, its member agencies, sub-agencies, and groundwater basin managers developed an Integrated Water Resources Plan (“IRP”) as long term planning guideline for resources and capital investments. The IRP strategy identifies a balance of local and imported water resources within Metropolitan’ service area. Several components of the IRP strategy include water conservation, recycled water, conjunctive use, water transfers and exchanges, groundwater recovery, seawater desalination, others.
  16. Water rates are established by a majority of the voting power of the Board. Metropolitan’s water rates are not subject to regulation by the Public Utilities Commission of California, or by any other state, local, or Federal agency.
  17. Metropolitan’s internal water distribution includes 14 dams and reservoirs, five regional treatment plants, over 800 miles of transmission pipelines, feeders and canals and 16 hydroelectric plants.
  18.  Metropolitan’s storage capacity, which includes reservoirs, conjunctive use and other groundwater storage programs within Metropolitan’s service area, is approximately 5.54 million acre-feet. In 2011, approximately 626,000 acre-feet of stored water was emergency sotorage that was reserved for use in the event of supply interruptions from earthquakes or similar emergencies, as well as extended droughts. Metropolitan’s emergency storage requirement is establish periodically to provide a six- month water supply at 75 percent of member agencies retail demand under normal hydrologic conditions.
  19. Effective storage management is dependent on having sufficient years of excess supplies to store water so that it can be used during times of shortage.

To learn more about the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California visit http://www.mwdh2o.com/