Weese shutdown included in 2015-16 Aqueduct Operating Plan

San Diego County Water Authority system operations manager Jim Fisher briefed the SDCWA's Engineering and Operations Committee on the CWA's annual Aqueduct Operating Plan, including a three-week shutdown of the Weese Water Treatment Plant in Bonsall during December, during the committee's June 25 meeting.

The presentation, which was a non-voting item for the committee and full board, covered the Aqueduct Operating Plan (AOP) for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2015, and ending June 30, 2016. The AOP is used as a planning element to optimize the delivery, treatment, and storage of water in the CWA's service area by facilitating coordination and communication among the CWA, its member agencies, and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD).

The AOP includes a summary of scheduled shutdowns or outages which impact delivery of treated or untreated water, pump station operating schedules, member agency major maintenance information, and the production and consumption of energy for CWA hydroelectric facilities, pump stations, and the CWA's treatment plant. The plan utilizes information obtained from member agencies, historical delivery data, aqueduct constraints, and shutdown plans. A shutdown is defined as temporary closure of a large portion with regional effects while an outage is defined as a more localized portion closure and impact.

Currently five CWA pipelines carry water along the San Diego Aqueduct from MWD's Lake Skinner facility in Temecula. Pipelines 1, 2, and 4 convey treated water while Pipelines 3 and 5 deliver untreated supply. The aqueduct system has a treated water capacity of 650 cubic feet per second (cfs) and an untreated water capacity of 780 cfs.

"We don't expect to have any issues," Fisher said. "We'll have plenty of capacity on both the untreated and treated systems."

The Weese Water Treatment Plant will be shut down for maintenance from Dec. 10 through Dec. 31. Although the Weese Water Treatment Plant is in Bonsall, it is owned by the City of Oceanside and operated by Oceanside's Water Utilities Department.