Sacramento Water Committee Special Meeting – March 26, 2019
STREAMING COPY IN PREPARATION — RECORDING AVAILABLE FROM THE ORIGINAL SOURCE
Sacramento Water Committee Special Meeting – March 26, 2019
The Water Committee of the City of Sacramento held a special meeting on Tuesday, March 26, 2019, at 1:02 p.m. in the City Hall Council Chamber. The meeting lasted approximately 51 minutes, adjourning at 1:53 p.m. The committee approved the 2019 regular meeting schedule, elected a vice chair, and received informational presentations on water supply infrastructure, water rights and regulatory processes, and proposed updates to General Plan policies for the Department of Utilities (DOU). No public comments were made.
Consent Calendar
- Approved the 2019 Regular Meeting Schedule for the Water Committee (Motion by Member Guerra, seconded by Member Harris; all in favor; Member Ashby absent).
Discussion Items
- Nomination and Selection of Vice Chair: Chair Harris nominated Vice Mayor Eric Guerra for Vice Chair; he accepted. Motion passed unanimously (Harris/Guerra).
- Water Supply Overview and Potential Need for Additional Water Supply Infrastructure (Item 5): Brett Ewart, Senior Engineer, presented projections indicating the city may need new supply by around 2035, driven by population growth (from ~500,000 to 640,000 by 2035) and the extension of existing capacity through water efficiency. Current per capita water use is under 170 gallons per capita per day (GPCD) and has not rebounded to pre-drought levels. Two potential expansion sites: the River Arc (a regional partnership with California American Water, PCWA, and Sacramento County Water Agency) and an upgrade of the Sacramento River Water Treatment Plant (rehabilitated in 2016 to its designed firm capacity of 160 million gallons per day). A phase one plan ($3.5 million contract) for conceptual design and CEQA is anticipated for City Council consideration in May 2019. Staff emphasized balancing growth with water use efficiency and are updating development impact fees (critical for funding $500 million first phase). Discussion also covered the potential for a regional water bank and the Aquifer Storage and Recovery program.
- Water Rights and Water Supply Regulatory Processes (Item 3): Jim Peifer, Principal Engineer, presented on the Bay-Delta Water Quality Control Plan update by the State Water Resources Control Board, and the emerging Voluntary Agreements (VA) as an alternative to mandatory unimpaired flow requirements (45-65% release from reservoirs). The VAs include a 15-year term, 40,000 acre-feet of flow from American River agencies (including City contributions of 2,000–5,000 acre-feet from groundwater), habitat creation (50 acres spawning, 150 acres rearing), and a modified flow management standard (MFMS) from Folsom Reservoir that is critical to preserving the city’s water supply reliability. The city would pay ~$2/acre-foot (~$200,000/year) into a science and habitat fund. The VA is expected to go to City Council by the end of 2019. Also discussed: the WaterFix project (twin tunnels) – litigation is stayed until May 2, 2019, pending the state’s shift from two tunnels to one; the city is filing a federal appropriation request for system resiliency.
- General Plan Policies for the Department of Utilities (Item 4): Lauren Ledesma, Program Analyst, described the DOU’s process for updating the Utilities Element of the 2040 General Plan. The approach includes: (1) adding new policies on recycled water, sustainability, and environmental justice (e.g., impacts on disadvantaged communities); (2) consolidating existing policies (e.g., three river-friendly landscaping policies into one outcome-focused policy); and (3) updating policies for new regulations, clarity, and consistency. The committee provided input on the need for policies addressing outreach to disadvantaged and non-English-speaking communities. A follow-up presentation with draft policy language is anticipated in three months, with final policies in fall 2019.
Key Outcomes
- Approved the 2019 Regular Meeting Schedule for the Water Committee (unanimous).
- Elected Eric Guerra as Vice Chair for 2019 (unanimous).
- Received and filed the presentations on Water Supply Overview, Water Rights/Regulatory Processes, and General Plan Policies; staff will return with updates at future meetings.
Meeting Transcript
Selecting a vice chair is going to be very easy. Makes you feel important, doesn't it? Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to this meeting of the City of Sacramento Water Committee, March twenty sixth, twenty nineteen. Clerk, will you call roll, please? Member Ashby. Member Guerra. Here. Chair Harris. Present. We do have a quorum for the March twenty-sixth water committee. Thank you very much. Will you join me in the pledge, please? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. I'll move consent. And I'll second. All those in favor? Great. So we have a schedule for the rest of the year. We'll have three more meetings. November, October. Okay. Very good. Our discussion calendar. The first item is nomination of a vice chair for the water committee, and I would like to use my privilege to nominate our vice mayor for vice chair. I would like to accept that. Very good. All those in favor? So moved. Or not our consent, but our agenda order. We're just going to start with um item number five, please. So that would be the water supply overview and potential need for additional water supply, and I believe Mr. Ewart. Okay. Uh I also wanted to touch on a couple of additional programs or projects that we're working on that would be related to that question of new supply for the city residents. So you you may recall the last time this committee met was in November 2018. Uh one of the items there was we had a conversation about uh what we called a conjunctive use program, and where we talked about the need to invest in both groundwater facilities and surface water facilities. Uh, groundwater for the drier periods and surface water for the wet, when you also want to recharge your groundwater wells or your groundwater aquifer. So, mostly during that uh committee we uh presentation we focused on groundwater, but today we wanted to spend a little more time on surface water. During that last November water committee meeting, we had uh let this committee know that you know right now the projection we're looking at is about 15 years until we think uh new supply needs to be available to for for growth or to allow those groundwater wells to rest and recharge the aquifer. And and and to make that to make that work to meet that schedule, we're looking at needing to start some of the surface water planning and the you know, working on the development impact fees now, updating those uh to be able to fund such a program. So this is just a reminder slide. This is right out of the general plan. It's a policy-driven uh work that we're doing, uh, namely staff make sure that you're planning and securing funding for uh water supply for the growth of the city and its existing residents. A couple of the issues that I just really wanted to highlight today throughout the presentation. Uh first, you know, the when and the why of the new supply. We already articulated when, about 15 years, uh, but wanted to discuss some of the drivers behind that that statement about 15 years. Uh also wanted to briefly address how long it might take to do that. Uh some of the other issues we're concerned about is also water quality.
openpublica.com