Water officials OK spending more to line canals

By: GIG CONAUGHTON - Staff Writer | Thursday, April 27, 2006 11:50 PM PDT ∞

SAN DIEGO ---- Saying the water it would bring to San Diego County over the next century was too cheap to pass up, regional water leaders voted Thursday to spend an additional $38.3 million on a long-discussed project to line a canal in Imperial Valley.

Four North County water agencies opposed the expenditure, saying it wasn't quite as cheap as it looked.

San Diego County Water Authority board members also voted to spend $4 million more on a similar lining project in Coachella Valley.

The two actions mean the Water Authority, and county water ratepayers, will spend at least $134.3 million ---- on top of the $219.3 million the state is giving the Water Authority for the projects ---- to complete the projects for a total of $353.6 million.

Officials say the water that the canal-lining projects will bring to county residents will be the cheapest, most reliable portion of the county's water supply for most of the next 110 years.

"It is dirt-cheap water," Halla Razak, the Water Authority's Colorado River program manager, said during a break in Thursday's meeting. "I mean, trying to find new sources of water right now is like ---- not possible."

Razak said the cost of the water that the lining projects will provide to county residents, averaged out over the 110 years it will be delivered, will be around $20 per acre-foot.

By contrast, the Water Authority now pays the Metropolitan Water District $502 to $598 per acre-foot for water. One acre-foot of water is 325,900 gallons, enough to sustain two households for an entire year.

When the canal linings are completed in 2008, they will immediately account for 8 percent of the county's supply, delivering enough water to sustain 154,000 households a year ---- for the next 110 years.

The two projects will build a concrete-lined, 23-mile stretch of the now-earthen, 82-mile All-American Canal in Imperial Valley, and a 35-mile stretch of the Coachella Canal in Coachella Valley.

The canal linings are part of a complex series of agreements among San Diego County, Imperial Valley, Coachella, Metropolitan and federal officials. It would conserve Colorado River water that is now seeping into the earthen beds of the canals and transfer it to San Diego County residents.

Construction on the Coachella lining is well under way.

Water Authority board members agreed Thursday to spend $38.5 million more on the All-American Canal project after bids came in higher than expected.

The Water Authority board's vote clears the way for Imperial Irrigation District board members to award the bids before June 1 to trigger construction of the All-American Canal.

Not all Water Authority board members were completely happy Thursday with the board's action.

Board members Keith Lewinger from Fallbrook, Greg Quist from Escondido, Gary Arant from Valley Center and Tom Brammell of Ramona voted against spending the extra $38.5 million on the All-American project, saying that a portion of the project was much too expensive.

The 23-mile All-American Canal is divided into three sections, or "reaches."

Razak told board members Thursday that proportionally, the most expensive construction bids were submitted on the canal lining's third "reach."

That third section is just 5.44 miles long, and accounts for just 3 percent of the total water that the canal lining would provide. But Razak said it accounted for 11 percent of the total cost, some $30.6 million.

She said the state's funding would cover the cost of lining the other two sections, but that the Water Authority would have to cover the cost of the third section.

Lewinger, Quist and Brammell said that while the overall average cost of the canal-lining water was extremely cheap, the cost per acre-foot of water from the third section ---- if isolated ---- was much higher.

Razak estimated that cost to be $524 per acre-foot.

But Lewinger said that most of the payment would be borne by ratepayers in the first 30 years ---- because the capital-improvement loan repayment period to pay for the canal lining would be 30 years.

He said that meant the true cost of water from the third section would be an exorbitant $900 per acre-foot, more expensive than any other water the agency buys.

Quist said that board members needed to decide immediately whether they would establish any kind of upper limit on what they would spend for water.

"It strikes me that we're acting a little bit like sailors on shore leave, and having a good time about it," Quist said. "Every new water supply that shows up we say, 'OK, we'll buy it, we'll buy it.'

"At what point do we say, 'We're done, it's too expensive?' " he asked. "We ought to have that policy discussion so that when this happens again ---- and it does happen periodically ---- we can draw back on our policy decisions and say, 'This is too expensive.' "

But the majority of Water Authority board members rejected the objections.

Bud Pocklington of the South Bay Irrigation District said it was more important to look at the average cost of the water over the 110 years, and the fact that it would be a reliable source that could be counted on for more than a century.

He said spending the money now would benefit county residents long into the future.

"Just about three weeks ago, we celebrated the (anniversary of building) the Sweetwater Dam and reservoir, 118 years," Pocklington said. "They paid $232,000 in 1888 to build that, and I'm so thankful they built that. I'll betcha that $232,000 in 1888 was a lot of money. And so I'm thankful that we're going to do this (canal-lining). too."

Contact staff writer Gig Conaughton at (760) 739-6696 or gconaughton@nctimes.com.

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