CWA endorses Issa bill to fund Santa Margarita Project

The San Diego County Water Authority voted to endorse Federal legislation which would provide funding for the Santa Margarita Conjunctive Use Project.

The CWA board voted February 24 to adopt a position of support for House Resolution 125, which would authorize the conjunctive use project involving the Fallbrook Public Utility District and Camp Pendleton and would appropriate $60 million for the estimated construction cost as well as future sums required to operate and maintain the project.

“We appreciate the county’s endorsement and look forward to working with them,” said Keith Lewinger, the general manager of FPUD and that district’s representative on the CWA board.

The Santa Margarita Conjunctive Use Project would divert Santa Margarita River flows into percolation ponds and ultimately into an aquifer. Water from that aquifer would be treated and used as a potable supply on Camp Pendleton and in the FPUD service area. The annual yield could be as much as 16,000 acre-feet, and under the terms of HR 125 the Secretary of the Navy is allotted 60 percent of the project’s yield while FPUD is allotted the remaining 40 percent. (Another clause in HR 125 states that if the Secretary of the Navy does not have immediate need for any portion of the 60 percent yield allocated to the military, the administering official may enter into temporary contracts for the delivery of the excess water. That clause does not specify FPUD as the beneficiary of the contracts for excess water, creating the option of delivery to a third-party agency.)

FPUD has been involved in discussions about using Santa Margarita River water for more than 50 years. In 2003 Congress authorized $450,000 for a feasibility study of the Santa Margarita Conjunctive Use Project. An authorization and appropriation bill was introduced by Congressman Darrell Issa in 2004; HR 4389 passed the House of Representatives in the 108th Congress but was not heard by the US Senate before the statutory deadline.

HR 125 is authored by Issa and is co-sponsored by California Representative Ken Calvert. The bill was introduced January 4 and has been referred to the Committee on Resources and to the Committee on Armed Services.

HR 125 authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to construct, operate, and maintain the project to be located below the confluence of DeLuz Creek with the Santa Margarita River. The yield will be available for Camp Pendleton, the Naval Weapons Station, and the FPUD service area for irrigation, municipal, domestic, military, and other uses.

The project would not be constructed until all state permits have been received, an agreement for repayment between FPUD and the United States has been approved, the project is determined to be economically and technically feasible, and FPUD agrees to waive any prior allocation rights.

The Department of the Navy shall not be responsible for any construction costs except upon completion, when it would be charged in proportion to its use of the project. FPUD will repay the United States over a period of up to 56 years after water for FPUD use exceeds 6,000 acre feet per year.