Good afternoon, everyone.

Um now call the environment committee.

Back up.

Welcome to the committee meeting of January twenty second.

Uh Sarah Jordan will provide information instruction for the public to participate.

Sarah, please proceed.

Members of the public who wish to provide testimony via a call in or internet-based service option must enter the virtual speaking queue within five minutes after the conclusion of in-person public testimony or before the virtual speaking queue is exhausted, whichever occurs first.

This will allow for better meeting management between the two platforms and ensure the committee is able to manage and conduct city business.

We appreciate the public's cooperation.

Chair.

Thank you, Sarah.

Now we will call the environment committee meeting of January 22nd, 2026 to order.

Sarah, if you'd please call the role.

Vice Chair Campbell here.

Council President Lakava.

Chair Ela Rivera.

Also attending the meeting today is City Attorney Representative Nicole Dino.

Mayoral Representative Randy Wilde and IBA representative Jordan Moore.

If you are in person, please complete a speaker slip located at the entrance of chambers and place it in the speaker slip box at the table at the front of the room.

Please do so in a timely manner to ensure proper meeting management.

Members of the public can join the webinar by computer, tablet, or smartphone by accessing the link, which is listed online in the preamble language of the agenda on the city's webpage to join the Zoom webinar by telephone phone.

Please dial 1669, 2545252 and when prompted.

Input Webinar ID 1607329638 pound.

This information is also available on the agenda and it will appear on the screen during the public comment period for each agenda item.

Please note that if you're watching via City TV 24 or online, there may be delay.

Please participate via the audio on your phone and meet your TV or computer when it is your turn to speak.

If you wish to speak to a particular item, please wait for that item to be called and then raise your hand to speak by tapping the raise your hand icon.

Or if you're calling participant by selecting star nine on your cell phone or landline.

If you raise your hand during a non-comment period, your hand will be lowered.

Chair.

Thank you, Sarah.

All right, we've got a quorum.

And as a little housekeeping note before we get started, we'll be taking our agenda out of order, beginning with consent items one through five, then information item 11.

Yes, there's 11 items on this agenda, followed by discussion items six through ten.

Uh and with that, we will move to non agenda public comment.

Sarah, please proceed.

Thank you, Chair.

Perule 2.7, non-agenda public comment is an opportunity for members of the public to comment on items that are not on the agenda but are within the subject matter jurisdiction of this committee.

Each speaker will have two minutes.

And as a reminder, if you're calling in, you can dial 1669-2545252, inputting webinar ID 16072, 9638 pound.

We have not received any speaker slips here in chambers, so I will begin the five-minute timer for all those in the virtual queue to indicate if they wish to provide comment at this time.

We will begin testimony with Becky Rapp.

Please unmute and begin.

Good afternoon, Chair and members of the environmental committee.

My name is Becky Roth, and I'm here to speak about how environmental health, equity, and housing work together to support healthy communities.

As the city prepares for upcoming land development code updates, I urge this committee to request language focused on inclusive smoke-free affordable housing for any housing project, public or private that receives public subsidies.

Clean air should not stop at the front door.

And for families living in multi-unit housing, secondhand smoke moves through walls, vents, and shared spaces.

Children, seniors, and people with asthma or heart disease don't get to opt out of that exposure.

For them, smoke-free housing is not a preference.

It's access to safe housing.

When public dollars help create or preserve affordable homes, we have a responsibility to ensure that those homes protect basic environmental health.

Smoke-free housing reduces indoor air pollution, lowers fire risk, and supports housing stability.

It is simple.

Preventative standard that aligns with the city's climate, public health, and environmental justice goals.

So I ask this committee to recognize smoke-free affordable housing as an environmental health issue and support a land development code update requiring smoke-free housing for all subsidies subsidized projects.

Thank you.

Thank you for your testimony.

Terry Ann Skelly, please unmute and begin.

Good afternoon and happy new year, Chair Elo Rivera and City Council members Campbell and LaCaba.

My name is Terry Ann Skelly.

I'm a parent and public health educator and a planning group member.

Our planning group members feel that in that environmental policies can go a long way in protecting those who are less advantaged.

Those who experience social, economic, and health disparities because of their exposure to polluted water and unclean air.

Thanks for the many agenda items today regarding polluted water and the need for pure air.

Regarding unclean air or air pollutants, it causes significant widespread and often fatal damage to human health, the environment, and the climate.

The Surgeon General recognized this when he released a report titled, I quote, Eliminating Tobacco Related Disease and Death Addressing Disparities.

End quote.

Protecting all city residents from exposure to secondhand tobacco and cannabis smoke in all indoor and outdoor settings should be a priority for 2026.

And reducing the availability and advertising related to tobacco and marijuana products and their use should also be a priority of our city.

So 2026 could be the best time for our city to consider an emergency ban of marijuana and tobacco smoking and vaping in all public spaces.

This will go a long way in reducing social, economic, and health disparities associated for those exposed to disrespectful use of marijuana or tobacco on our streets in our end in our many common areas around the city.

Thank you for listening to me.

Thank you for your testimony.

Our next speaker is Peggy Walker.

Please unmute and begin.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, committee members.

Our home environment where we spend most of our time and raise our children should be a safe and healthy refuge.

I come to join the two previous speakers and a San Diego County Coalition of Tobacco Free Organizations asking your support of smoke-free multi-unit housing policy.

Many studies show that smoking related exposures in MUH housing developments are widespread, causing considerable environmental health and economic problems.

There is considerable evidence of the adverse outcomes of smoking of any kind, tobacco or weed in multi-unit housing.

And the most at risk are vulnerable populations like children, pregnant women, and those with respiratory disorders or other illnesses.

While smoking has declined, studies show about 18% of teens and adults continue to smoke.

Tobacco and thousands more smoke and vape marijuana products.

Folks living in multi-unit housing are defenseless against this drifting smoke.

Smoke-free public indoor places and workplace policies go a long way in reduction of personal exposure to second and third hand smoke, but multi-unit homes are the single most important microenvironment where highest exposure to secondhand smoke occurs.

That's according to the Surgeon General.

Thank you for the consideration of smoke-free policy.

Thank you for your comment.

The five-minute timer has concluded.

We have one hand remaining in the queue, and we will take no other callers beyond this remaining individual.

Kathleen Lippett, please unmute and begin.

Thank you.

Good morning.

Thank you for letting me speak.

I've done public health research for at least 20 or more years.

And I'd like to make a comment about water.

So we have data that comes from the National Vital Statistics System, and it provides complete data on births and deaths in the U.S.

The system is overseen by the CDC.

And many people who have looked at this data had sudden and uncomfortable realization that they've been lied to for their entire lives.

The medical profession is taking credit for those diseases going away, and they have done so over 50 years.

They do not deserve the credit because it wasn't vaccines that made those diseases go away.

It was better sanitation and potable water.

But here's what happened.

Authentic public health experts predicted that the medical community would take credit for the precipitous drop in infectious diseases.

The truth is, measles that were deaths measles and whooping cough and diphtheria, typhoid, and polio, they followed the same pattern.

They had already gone down to baseline for the deaths per 100,000 when vaccines were introduced.

Unfortunately, public health began to be politicized at that time, and that phenomenon has only worsened.

We have allowed economic conflicts of interest to influence public health policies and decisions.

The inverse relationship we see today manifest in the Volt Foss of public health, public electives that support industries that produce, manufacture, distribute, and promote unhealthy, unsafe products, promoting them to youth without any robust oversight and silence on the part of the departments that we put in place to protect us, whether it's air or water.

Please pay attention to this and not politics.

Thank you for letting me speak.

Thank you for that concluding remark.

And Chair, this concludes non-agenda public comment.

All right.

Thank you so much, Sarah.

And thank you to the members of the public for sharing your voices.

Are there any committee mayor, city attorney, or IBA or city auditor comments?

Hearing none.

Any requests for continuance?

Hearing none, let's move to our agenda and begin with the approval of our consent items.

Are there any requests to pull items from the consent agenda?

Hearing none.

Let's proceed with public comment, sir.

Thank you, Chair.

The public comment period for the consent agenda is now open.

The consent agenda includes items one through five.

Item number one, approval of the committee minutes from November 13th, 2025.

Item number two, authorization to execute a contract with U.S.

peroxide for full service operations and maintenance management program providing hydrogen sulfide odor control at public utilities department wastewater facilities.

Item number three, third amendment to agreement with Luth and Turley for as needed remediation and cleanup services from City of San Diego water main breaks and sewer backups pursuant to council policy 400-10.

Item number four, award three as needed environmental consultant support services agreements, contract seven with Harris and Associates, eight with Judec, and nine with Helix Environmental Planning Incorporated.

Item number five, authorize the third amendment to sole source agreement with GeoSyntec consultants to provide technical consultant services for national pollutant discharge elimination systems.

Each speaker will have one minute per item.

Chair, we have not received any speaker slips and no hands have gone up in the virtual queue.

So this will conclude comment on the consent agenda items one through five.

All right, thank you so much.

We'll begin our discussion with Council Member Campbell.

Thank you so much.

All right, thank you.

We've got a motion to approve.

We have a second from Council President Lakaba.

With that, all those in favor of approving the consent agenda, items one through five, please say aye.

Aye.

That passes unanimously and brings us to info item 11.

Sarah, if you'd please introduce that item.

Thank you, Chair.

Item number 11 is the Pure Water Program update.

And if you're watching on City TV or the live stream online and you'd like to dial in to speak, please call 1669-2545252 and when prompted, input webinar ID 16072-9638 pound.

Chair.

All right, thank you.

So we're going to hear a combined uh comprehensive presentation for items six through eleven.

We'll take public comment for information item set uh excuse me, information item 11 and follow with committee member questions and comments.

We'll then review items six through ten individually, take public comment, and continue with committee member discussion and entertain separate motions for each individual item.

Simple enough, right?

Um we'll figure it out.

Um I believe in us.

Um please introduce yourself for the record and tell us how much time you like for uh the presentation.

Introduce yourself.

Sure, good afternoon.

My name is Doug Campbell.

I'm an assistant director in the public utilities department.

And go ahead.

Akron Bass Union, deputy director with engineering capital projects department.

Thank you.

Lisa Salaya, Executive Assistant Director for Public Utilities, and I believe we'll need 20 minutes for the presentation.

Um I just wanted to start by thanking you all for the opportunity to provide an update and on our progress of our pure water program.

We are excited at where we are at, how far we have come in what is before us.

Today's update will depict our significant progress to date and how in this year we will shift our focus from construction to commissioning this massive and highly technical system to produce pure water by the end of this year.

With that, I'll turn it over to Doug Campbell for details on our presentation.

Thank you, Lisa.

So uh starting today with our program update, uh Akram and I will cover a number of aspects related to phase one of Pure Water, including the construction schedule and progress, uh our financing, uh, our public outreach, the project labor agreement, our operational readiness preparation, as well as commissioning.

I'll then uh provide an update on our phase two uh planning process as well as the construction status of our central area small scale facility.

We'll then present the five action items that we've brought today.

So, as a reminder, phase one consists of 12 major construction projects.

Starting at the bottom of this map, uh we have the Marina Pump Station, which is a new facility which will divert 32 million gallons per day of wastewater away from our Point Lomo wastewater treatment plant towards our uh North City phase one pure water project.

Via uh the pipeline that we see in yellow here.

Uh, this pipeline runs 12 miles, um, 10 miles uh through the city and delivers that additional wastewater to our existing North City water reclamation plant.

That facility is being expanded and upgraded from 30 to 52 million gallons per day or MGD capacity.

Under construction across the street is a new uh North City Pure Water Facility.

This is a state-of-the-art indirect potable reuse uh treatment facility with a comprehensive five-step potable reuse treatment process.

Uh from there, 30 million gallons per day of purified water will be conveyed to Miramar Reservoir via a pipeline that runs down Miramar Road and through Scripps Ranch.

Um the water is delivered to the reservoir through a subway subaqueous pipeline that uh has arms for uh distribution of the water throughout the reservoir.

Co-located at Miramar Reservoir is our Miramar drinking water treatment plant, which will use Miramar Reservoir as a source of drinking water along with our imported water aqueduct administered by the County Water Authority.

And our existing uh Metropolitan Biosolids Center is also being uh expanded as part of this project.

The city is awarded 1.136 billion dollars for construction of phase one of Pure Water San Diego and allocated 244.7 million in pooled contingency funds for potential change order.

As of August 31st, our total construction expenditures have reached 1.06 billion, and change orders have encumbered 167 million, leaving the pooled contingency balance at about 78 million dollars.

For a schedule update, we're currently scheduled to reach intermediate substantial completion of our North City Pure Water facility in the spring of this year.

This is the red bar in the graphic.

As the largest infrastructure project in the city's history, commissioning is anticipated to be lengthy and complex.

It's gonna take up most of 2026 for us.

The 120-day integration period, um, which is thrown as the thick green bar in this uh schematic.

Refers to the time when tertiary treated water starts being delivered from the North City water reclamation plant, and we are commissioning the system as a whole.

Our current schedule has this beginning delivery of purified water to Miramar Reservoir in late 2026.

In accordance with the regulations, we will ramp up our flow from seven and a half MGD to 15 to 30, uh reaching 30 million gallons per day in mid-2027.

These timelines put us ahead of the commitments that are included in our Point Loma wastewater treatment plant uh permit from the regulators as well as our cooperative agreement with our environmental stakeholders.

The city has worked aggressively to secure very advantageous financing to support pure water.

This includes grants as well as large loans from the Federal Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act, WIFIA for short, and the state revolving fund SRF loan program.

Of the 733.5 million in low interest WIFIA loans with rates between 1.29 and 1.82%.

$581.6 million has been reimbursed through December 1st of 2025.

Notably, those Wi FIA reimbursements have not experienced any delays, and all have been received in 30 days or less.8 to 1.1%.

Of that amount, the city's received 415.8 million dollars in reimbursements as of December 1st.

The city and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California entered into a local resources program agreement, which will pay the city $340 per acre foot of purified uh for per acre foot of purified water delivered to Miramar Reservoir.

This is a 25-year program and could provide up to 285 million dollars towards uh our our project.

Um that agreement was recently uh extended by the Metropolitan Water District to extend the start date from June 30th, 2025 to June 30th, 2028.

And I'll note that this is one of the action items that we will again present uh later in this presentation.

With that, I will turn it over to Akron for some construction updates.

Thank you, Doug.

Uh so I'm just gonna highlight a few of the construction uh accomplishments we've had over uh this last period.

Um if you've been out to the sites recently, you've seen they've drastically changed from where we've been uh previously or what we've seen in the past.

Um so the water reclamation plant.

Um so the water reclamation plant, this is the existing facility that's operating 24 hours a day, creating recycled water and is being expanded as Doug mentioned earlier.

Um we're turning things on, new equipment has been put online, we're taking things on.

Actually, in the last couple of weeks, we've been able to send water across the street to the new pure water facility.

The brand new facility is a big accomplishment for us.

And that pure water facility is you know, we're also turning equipment on uh commissioning.

Again, this year is going to be really about commissioning, putting all the pieces together, testing things, make sure they work correctly, and they work together.

Um finally on this page, uh the Metro Biosolid System, which is also being upgraded.

Pictures to the right here.

Um middle picture shows you kind of the inside of the OM building.

This will house our operations and maintenance folks in the future.

Um, and then the uh picture to the bottom is a view of the pure water facility.

As you can see, this was a green field.

There was nothing on that when we started, so lots of progress on that.

On the conveyance side, um, we've uh installed approximately 90% of the pipelines, uh over 26 miles.

Uh 13 of the 14 tunnels have been completed.

Um, and the I-805 tunnel, which was a challenge, you guys heard about it uh a year ago or so, uh, where we had change uh changes in the condition because due to boulders and things we didn't anticipate.

Uh we made it through that.

That bottom left picture is a light really literally at the end of the tunnel, the 805 tunnel when we made it the breakthrough.

Um moving over uh to the facility side, uh, the marina pump station, which is one of the projects where we had early issues with when we're in construction, is now over 85% complete.

Um the electrical building is coming uh through, and uh we're doing some testing on some of the pumps.

And on the Miramar Pump station, at which is at the very end uh of the program here.

Um we've rehabed six pumps improving the resiliency, and we're installing photovoltaic um for the uh for the plant.

Um just wanted to highlight a little bit on the project labor agreement, as you recall as part of the financing uh for pure water.

We were required to do uh the project labor agreement.

This was the first one the city has taken.

This one is uh different than the uh new one that covers all other projects, this one's specific only to pure water.

Uh, there were some commitments in there in terms of targeted uh workers.

Um the targeted workers includes veterans previously homeless, previously incarcerated.

Our goal was 10%.

We're exceeding that, we're at 18%.

Uh the PLA also had a uh goal of 35% city resident workers.

That one has been challenging.

We're at 23%.

That's been kind of consistent throughout.

Um but in terms of county residents, we are uh at over 60 percent in county residents uh working on the program.

Um towards the right, there's some more information there if you're interested of um how many uh dollars in wages we've paid to the different uh targeted uh goals um folks.

Um so lots of good accomplishments there, but you could see you know over 500 over 650,000 hours worked um covered by uh city residents.

So moving on to an update on our outreach efforts.

Just as our program would not be successful without public outreach on the benefits of potable reuse, our construction would not be successful without a robust community engagement program.

Um we do that by engaging with a lot of pure uh community working group updates.

Um we have an interactive traffic closure map on our website that provides a good reference for our customers.

And we do update customers on our construction schedule and other info through door hangers, flyers, social media, and other email blasts.

Uh we do engage with community, a lot of community events.

You can see a list here, including Sand Egg Bike Anywhere Day, Mira Mesa Street Fair, and others.

Um we we thank our construction partners and allowing us to facilitate some fairly large tours for uh industry uh conferences held in San Diego over the summer and fall, including the California Water Reuse Conference, California Association of Sanitation Agencies, and the American Council of Engineering Companies, the latter of which featured a speech uh by council president Joe Locava.

So thank you, sir, for your support.

Um we are proud of our partnership with AL Smith Brewing.

Uh they used our purified water to create a beer called rebeer.

Um, because of the exceptionally high quality and and low hardness of our purified water, they're able to make a hoppy lager, which is a style of beer that typically can't be produced in San Diego due to our relatively hard salty water.

Uh update on uh regulatory efforts.

Uh the point Loma uh NPDES permit.

This is a permit that allows discharge of treated uh wastewater to the environment.

Uh we are expecting approval from the regional water quality control board in the spring of 2025 uh after the Coastal Commission voted for their approval in February.

Recent rulings by the United States Supreme Court and the California Appellate Court required the regional board and the EPA to re-review the permit to ensure alignment with those rulings.

The updated permit was released for public comment on September or in September of 2025, and we expect final adoption of that permit uh in February uh next month.

Uh for our North City Pure Water Permit, the city's been working closely with uh the California Division of Drinking Water or DDW and other regulators to finalize three first of their kind reports required under the indirect potable reuse surface water augmentation rules.

These are the uh operations plan, the joint plan, and the operational ramp up plan.

Our major focus right now is the operations plan, which specifies how the facility will be operated to achieve regulatory compliance.

Following a lengthy review period, we received the second and final set of comments from our regulators on this over 400 page uh document in on December 31st.

Um, and uh the actions that we outline in that report will be verified via an on-site inspection uh in late 2026.

That's sort of the final stage before we are approved to deliver water to the reservoir.

And finally, the Ocean Pollution Reduction Act 2, or Oprah 2 as we call it, remains on the House agenda.

This act would formalize the permitting of the Point Loma Wastewater Treatment Plant moving forward in conjunction with the implementation of Pure Water San Diego.

Um, just a few notes.

I think Okram covered these pretty well on some of our operational readiness efforts.

Um staff continue to uh prepare for the integration of pure water into our daily operations.

This program brings together the wastewater and drinking water site of our house in a way as never before, so we have ongoing readiness and coordination meetings related to that effort.

We recently switched to 24-7 operations at our North City water reclamation plant as required by regulations, and staff is undergoing training and lots of preparation as the capacity of that facility will increase nearly twofold and have significant upgrades to our treatment process.

At our North City Pure Water Facility, we're preparing to move into our new operations maintenance building in March or April of this year.

We continue hiring for operations maintenance positions and acquiring contracts such as chemical and other support contracts to ensure the facility is prepared when it is ready to go.

Uh city pure water facility lab.

Um each laboratory must be accredited by the state to uh report regulatory compliance data, and that must be done on site.

It's based on address, so the staff is uh preparing to achieve that accreditation quickly upon move in.

Our Miramar water treatment plant will be treating the new purified water source uh from phase one of Pure Water San Diego.

Uh they've been undergoing a review of new operational strategies for the reservoir as well as preparing to utilize that reservoir on a much larger percentage basis than historically.

And just some details on our commissioning process.

So, condition can commissioning a program of this magnitude is a significant effort that starts with commissioning the at the end of individual project level and culminates in system-wide conditioning of the combination of projects that make up pure water phase one.

These individual individual projects must function as a complete system of pump stations, conveyance, and treatment in order to produce purified water.

Starting at the equipment level, sort of at the top of this graphic.

Each individual piece of equipment, equipment, or instrument is verified to be properly installed, functioning, and communicating properly.

Once each individual piece of equipment is uh commissioned, then we move on to the unit process level.

This is sort of one treatment area at a facility.

For example, the ozone treatment system at our pure water facility has over a hundred individual pieces of equipment that each must be verified to work individually and then is a unit process to meet the regulatory requirements for treatment.

From there, we commission each facility at the facility level to make sure each facility is uh meeting all of the design criteria and operating properly.

Then we move on to commissioning at a program level so that we're sure that all the projects that make up pure water phase one operate together.

There are also some regulatory hurdles that are required towards the end of our commissioning process, including a validation study on our ultraviolet reactors and an on-site inspection by our regulators.

The hope is that this slide and explanation gives you a better sense of how much goes into making all of the phase one construction projects come together.

What's unique about Pure Water, beyond it being the city's largest infrastructure project, is that all of the many components, um, excuse me, sorry, is that all the many components along the way have to be brought online and function properly as a cohesive system to ensure we're ready to operate.

Is that all the many components along the way have to be brought online and function properly as a cohesive system to ensure we're ready to operate.

So some of the activities will be undergoing in the next six months, including uh operational readiness and functional testing of our marina pump station and the pipelines.

Uh we'll be assuming operations of the secondary clarifiers at our North City water reclamation plants.

Um commissioning of each individual treatment process, operational readiness and functional testing at the North City Pure Water Facility, as well as our pure water pipeline and declarination facility.

So moving on to our phase two planning efforts.

Uh program planning for phase two is continuing with an expected completion date at the end of 2026.

As a reminder, the original pure water program planning effort, which directly informed our legally and legally enforceable cooperative agreement with our environmental stakeholders, was completed over a decade ago.

Public utilities department and our Metro JPA stakeholders are engaging in workshops with these environmental groups to discuss the change conditions of the past 13 years.

These change conditions are helping inform a data-driven alternative screening process, which evaluates the impacts of project alternatives on the current and future wastewater and drinking water systems.

In 2026, our department will be narrowing screened alternatives and developing preliminary preliminary layout and cost estimates.

We expect to share additional information and arrive at a preferred phase two alternative for further design, which could provide the framework for a revised cooperative agreement by the end of this calendar year.

And finally, uh an update on our central area small scale facility.

Per the regulations, every potable reuse project must build a demonstration facility to confirm that you're able to treat the unique wake wastewater characteristics of that sewer shed uh to meet regulatory compliance.

Construction of our phase two central area small scale facility or CASIF is nearly complete.

Uh it's installed at our Point Loma Wastewater Treatment Plant, and we'll soon begin operations and testing at this location.

Um the CASIP is the first of its kind demonstration facility.

It's the first demo facility to directly compare indirect and direct potable reuse treatment trains simultaneously on identical source water to evaluate uh the difference in those treatment processes.

And it's the first facility with three um different parallel reverse osmosis treatment technologies.

Um there's conventional RO, which is three-stage, there's one called flow reversal, and a third called closed circuit RO.

The goal of these is to evaluate greater recovery of the input water, possibly all the way up to 95% in a cost-efficient and productive uh fashion.

So this concludes our program update, and uh we will um move on to our first uh action item presentation.

Okay, thank you.

So um the first one is uh an amendment to our North City Pure Water Facility Local Resources Program Incentive Agreement with Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.

I touched on this a little bit earlier.

The proposed action is to authorize an amendment to LRP agreement number 191282 to extend the start of operation date for our phase one project from June 30th, 2025 to June 30th, 2028.

MWD has a local resources program to provide financial incentives for the development of local water uh supplies to insert supply reliability for the Southern California region.

In 2019, MWD approved our uh phase one of Pure Water to receive 340 dollars per acre foot over a 25-year period, which could amount uh to 11.4 million annually and about 285 million over the life of the project, over the 25-year life of the agreement, pardon.

Uh the extension is needed due to the unforeseen delays in our construction process.

And uh the Met Board of Directors approved this extension uh request at its May 13th, 2025 board meeting.

With that, I'll turn it over to Occra.

Okay.

Uh thank you, Doug.

Uh, the next action item we have is for an extension or the sole source agreement for PM Web, which is our web-based project control system.

Um, this software is used for all of our day-to-day uh interactions with the contractor.

Um I'll get into a little bit more of what that means later.

But the proposed actions we have is an ordinance extending the contract for an additional three years for an amount not to exceed 684,000 and giving the authority to the CFO to expend that those funds.

So a little bit more about um the background on PM Web.

This contract was originally awarded in 2016 and then a sole source agreement was uh issued in 2022.

Um that sole sources slated to expire uh this June.

Um again, this software is used for all the interactions with the contractor, including our request for information, uh submittal review process, uh change orders, invoicing, um so day to days used uh by our construction management team along with the contractor.

Um some of the benefits of having the software is we everything is web-based, all the data is backed up on a daily basis.

Um it's organized in a way that uh it's easy to use and easy to be able to pull data back.

So um we're asking for this extension uh longer than we anticipate construction to continue.

We want to make sure we have the data and the backup in case there's any claims or anything that come up at the end of construction.

So the additional costs will help uh renew the software and provide the support needed for any software updates or things that needed uh during the through the rest of the duration of the contract.

Um so again, the original contract was for 4850 uh 78,000 dollars.

Uh, the sole source in 2022 was for a million dollars, and this request is for 684,000, putting the total at 2.16 million dollars.

Our next action, actually, the next two actions are both related to our construction management consultant firms.

Uh, this first one is with uh Parsons and Black and Beach joint venture, um, and they're the as needed uh construction management consultant on the treatment and facilities projects.

Uh proposed action is the ordinance uh to extend for an addition um an additional two years and five months, in addition to an additional not to exceed amount of five point six million dollars, and the authority to expend those funds.

Um this contract um is supporting the construction management team is supporting the major treatment plant projects and the North City Water Reclamation Plant, uh the Pure Water Facility, the equalization basins, uh the Miramar pump station, uh the Metro Biosolids, and the CASIF project that Doug just went over a moment ago.

Uh so these extensions are needed as due to the delays in the construction.

Uh these construction management firms are our day-to-day eyes and ears on the ground.

They're helping us uh ensure that the contractors are meeting all requirements following the contract and ensuring that they're supporting us in any claims that we may receive from any contractors.

Addition to all the support we needed for all the startup and commissioning, and as Doug mentioned earlier, that is a very complex thing for a project of this size.

Uh the original contract with the Parsons Black and Beach was for 75 million dollars back in 2018.

Uh as you may recall, that was prior to the lawsuit that delayed the program.

Uh first amendment incorporated the PLA.

Uh that was a no cost.

Uh second amendment uh was for $35 million back in 2023.

And this amendment, which we anticipate is the final amendment needed, is for an additional $5.6 million, uh, putting the total at 115 million six hundred thousand dollars.

Uh next two slides are just for uh backup information.

Uh this first slide shows you the task or all the different task orders that the um uh CM team is helping us work on, so all the different projects, and then uh the slide after that is just kind of relate that to the projects that they're working on and the percentage complete that they're at.

Okay, I'm not gonna go over progress on these projects since we just went over that earlier in the information item.

Uh, the next um action item is the amendment with our other construction management firm, uh Jacobs, uh formerly known as CH2M Hill.

Um, and they're helping us on all the conveyance projects, so all the pipelines uh in the streets, uh, as well as the Marina Pump station.

Uh, the requested action is for a an ordinance uh to extend the contract for an additional two years and five months, and an additional not to exceed amount of four million dollars and the authority to be able to expend those funds.

Um as I mentioned, um Jacobs is supporting us on all the pipelines, so all the pipelines uh from the Marina Pump station itself all the way to the auto-reclamation plant, as well as the pipelines from the new pure water facility all the way in and including the subacqueous pipeline that goes at the bottom of the lake bed in the Miramar reservoir.

Um again, the extension is needed for similar reasons as to what I just mentioned, um encountering unforeseen conditions, uh, delays in construction, uh, some additional scope, um, and as well as a specialty inspections needed for welding of pipes and things like that that the city does not do, and as well as commissioning um and startup support.

The original contract with Jacobs was for 48 million dollars back in 2018, again prior to the lawsuit.

Uh, the first extension um uh amendment was in 2023 uh to extend the contract.

This was no cost.

Amendment number two incorporated the PLA, also no cost.

Our first amendment uh third amendment uh added an additional 40 million dollars back in 2023, and this fourth and final amendment is adding an additional four million dollars uh for a total uh amount of 89 million dollars.

So both the CM contracts, the amendment uh approximate percentage is about five percent additional.

What we need to kind of close out the the projects.

And we're extending these contracts, both of them farther longer than we need for construction.

Again, in case we get into a claims issue, we want to make sure we have their support to help us support uh support the city's backing up uh uh to um deal with any claims that come in at the end of construction.

Uh the next two slides are similar to the ones we had on Parsons Black and Beach, just showing the different tasks uh that the CM team is working on with Jacobs, and the following slide is showing the projects and the percentages complete they're at.

Okay, um our last um action item, um item 10 is a consolidated action for contractor uh cont uh contract time extensions.

So, as you all know, uh contracts with the city are limited to five years.

Anything goes past five years is an ordinance required to approved by council.

Um so as we over the last 18 months or maybe two years, we've been coming to council and extending a lot of our contracts, make sure we have the authority to extend things.

This is the last of those where we need sure we have the ability to extend past the five years.

Again, we do not anticipate we're gonna need all the time in here.

We want to make sure we have the ability to extend and make sure the contracts do not stop or the construction does not stop because we need to get come to council and get an extension, authority and extend.

So there's three projects here.

We're asking for the authority to extend the construction contracts.

Uh the first one, sub item A is an ordinance support um approving the extension of the contract for an additional 12 months with OHLA.

Uh sub item E is ordinance extending an additional 32 months with uh WA RASIC and sub item C is an ordinance extending up to an additional 29 months uh with PCL.

So I'm just gonna go over uh these three projects uh fairly quickly.

Um but the OHL contract.

Um so we've this is the one that had the I-805 tunnel.

Uh we had issues there with um, and this is one we recently brought to council uh where we um asked for additional money to do all the paving uh Genesee.

Uh so uh there is uh the unforeseen some things on the 805 tunnel that push this back.

In addition, uh, because we're doing some work within edge areas that are vegetated that requires a 25 months revegetation and monitoring uh period at the end of construction.

So we want to make sure we have the contractor on board to be able to close that out, which will extend past the five years.

Uh similarly, uh similarly on WA RASIC.

This is a contractor for the pure water pipeline, uh, which is from the new treatment plant all the way through the reservoir.

Um we've hit unforeseen with a utility conflicts.

Um there were some uh tunnels where we had to go under the 805, sorry, the 15 tunnel.

Um it also had some additional other tunnels.

Additionally, this one has similar re-vegetation issues and uh that require the 25 months revegetation period.

Uh lastly is the Metro Biosolids Center.

Um, this one we're asking for extension.

This is part of the the capacity as we ramp up and get the rest of the pure water program on board.

There's gonna be more flows coming in, so we want to make sure we have PCL on board in case something happens, we need to adjust something.

Uh their construction is nearing completion, but we want to ensure we have them on board as we ramp up and send more flows to the Metro Biosolid Center.

If there's anything that needs to be addressed, they're able to address that.

With that, that concludes all of our presentations.

All right, thank you so much.

Let's begin with a public comment on item 11 if there is any, Sarah.

Thank you, Chair.

The public comment period for item number 11 is now open, and we have not received any slips, and there are no hands up in the queue.

So this concludes testimony for item 11.

All right.

Is there any committee member questions and comments?

Uh Council President, I do imagine that speaking to that group of engineers was quite a thrill for you and for them.

Um but I'll hand it over to you.

It made my day.

And I can tell you if you want to see anybody geek out over the pure water program, those engineers were very, very excited.

I didn't actually go on the tour part because I had just done it, uh, but I know they were very excited.

Um we even got a couple of fancy awards to honor the work.

Uh, but in all all seriousness, uh, you know, I've always kind of reflected, and I think I've said it in some of the previous uh annual updates.

You know, this is one of the most amazing things the city has done.

Um, and kudos to everybody at PUD, the number of people that are no longer with the city, but extraordinary ECP.

Biggest CIP project we've ever done, as far as I can tell, from despite what some of the naysayers looks like it's on schedule under budget.

We'll see how the final numbers shake out, but it certainly is below the allocation that you uh asked authorization for.

So just extraordinary work forward.

Um, and I know you really faced a lot of people that constantly criticize, kind of forgot why we were doing this going forward.

Um, even some of the media seems to have forgotten over the years about why we're doing this.

Uh uh, but you you remained an undante and just kept pushing forward, pushing forward, doing exactly the right thing in the right order the right way.

Um, and now there are excitement of the commissioning process, which is it's not just tighten that last bolt, we're done, we're walking away.

It's that's a really all those pieces come together.

Um just um a couple of uh questions uh for the very lengthy report.

The the action items I'm gonna be supportive of.

Um late last year, uh, when we got the five-year projections about rates and how switching from pure water from switching from point Loma to pure water, really is how do we anticipate how that affects rates.

I mean, I think that's the public's really hungry to know about that now that we're just about ready to throw the switch.

Anyway yes, so we have accounted for when pure water goes live in regards to our rates.

Um one of the advantage, obviously, there's multiple advantages in regards to pure water.

There's two dual benefits in regards to pure water.

Um, first off, we are always remember avoiding cost of having to upgrade secondary at Point Loma.

So our wastewater customers are avoiding rate increases.

On the water side, once it is gone live and we start producing pure water, we're buying less from the San Diego County Water Authority.

And we produced information that did show that pure water from a water supply benefit is about 2100 per acre foot compared to buying that water for about 2600 per acre.

So right away, there is a benefit to the ratepayers from that.

Okay.

And as a reminder, that's buying water from County Water Authority is our single biggest expense that really drives the rates.

So coming in less expensive.

Um of the action items, item six, thank you, Lisa, for that, uh, is an incentive program.

Um are those incentives built into the rate calculations going forward, and that's how customers will get a benefit from that.

Yes, the the incentive program from the NWD, the local resource program, is built into our rate case and and um will be part of uh our program moving forward.

Okay, uh great.

I'm glad uh there wasn't much challenge in getting the dates extended there.

And I think the last question I have is uh you kind of wrapped up the information portion with talk about phase two.

Um, and I want to make sure that there is clarity about what your slides showed because there was a I think the last um stage was making a choice, and I think that choice related to the three different uh trains that you're actually testing at the central plant.

Is that correct?

So you've testing a lot of different ideas at this at the pilot program.

So so the original plan for phase two was conceived in 2012.

Right.

And since then there have been a number of change conditions.

It wouldn't be prudent to just take a 13-year-old plan and just implement it.

So we're working with our environmental stakeholders as well as our Metro JPA partners to evaluate six change conditions that have occurred since then related to drinking water demand, wastewater availability, the condition of our dams, climate change, uh new regulations that allow for direct potable reuse in addition to indirect potable reuse and affordability.

Um so that's causing us to look at a number of alternatives, both in terms of uh location, size, type of program, indirect or direct potable reuse, as well as which technologies uh will be implemented, and uh that process is expected to conclude at the end of 2026.

Okay, I would uh I will tell you that I'll be very concerned if we start reducing the capacity based on what the settlement is, based on what the expectations of others are.

Um I know that the world does not stand still while we're waiting for phase two to come in, but I'd be very concerned.

I would want the council to be very involved in that conversation going forward with enough leeway time so that we can make an informed decision, both from the operation side and from the council side uh going forward.

And I know you'll keep the environment committee uh briefed along the way as you've done such a great job.

But again, let me wrap and just say kudos to all of you and the very good work that you've done.

It's just really an extraordinary testament to what city employees can do uh when you're given clear direction uh from the elected officials uh and direction to get this job done, and you certainly have done that, so kudos to that.

Um you want me to make a motion on the first the kitchen.

Kick things off.

Yeah, okay.

We'll take the the action items next.

Um just is just on a uh 11.

Counts uh Vice Chair Campbell.

Thank you so much.

Uh thanks for the presentation.

Uh thanks for all the hard work.

Uh it's just absolutely amazing.

This is a tremendously successful program.

I know that we're gonna be so happy to have that pure water.

And uh I just want to make sure that the public understands that the process is used biologically to purify the water are really excellent.

Uh if you've not been out to the treatment plant that's the demonstration model, it's open.

Uh you can call and make an appointment to get a tour and taste the water, and it's really quite good and quite exciting that our hard water is gonna come out not so hard on top of the fact that it'll be so pure.

So I I just I'm really impressed with it.

I can't thank you enough.

Kudos to you, and I hope it isn't too hard to get through all these regulatory barriers, but I know we'll make it.

So I'm in full support, and I I thank you for everything.

Thank you, Vice Chair Campbell.

Um thank you for the presentation here.

The council president did a great job of asking uh a number of questions and making a number of points, so I I don't want to belabor that.

There was one part that I think could use a little more explanation.

There's the the timeline and kind of being uh ahead of schedule, if you will, and there's been multiple points in time where contracts have needed to be extended.

Can you explain just kind of in layman terms how we can need extensions for contracts, but also be ahead of the overall timeline?

Sure.

The the program commitments that are included in our cooperative agreement as well as the point lemma MPDS permit sort of were um put, you know, sort of at an agreed upon date to where we were comfortable that things would be completed.

We were running well ahead of that schedule when we awarded all of these contracts initially.

As we hit five years of construction, some of it due to construction delays, we've had some issues, you know, with supply chain issues, et cetera.

So we, you know, contracts have a maximum of five years, and you know, I think we anticipated from the start that many of those contracts would reach that five-year limit and still have us ahead of those uh those uh deadlines or those commitments.

You got it.

So the the distinction between there being a delay and being behind schedule, those aren't necessarily the same thing, and in this case that would be true.

Well, an example I'll give is uh and the revegetation, and we've talked about that a little bit today.

Uh that re-vegetation um is done after we have water flowing, so we'll meet all the regulatory requirements, and that doesn't uh affect the dates that we need to meet for the regulatories.

So that's just one example where you know we yes, the the re-vegetation is going to be take longer, so we need to extend the contract, but that doesn't affect our uh ability to get water and treat water and meet the regulatory requirements.

Yeah, yeah.

Some of the contract extension uh end of the agreements do extend past those commitments that I that I mentioned, but that's to wrap up the program and and do the closeouts, et cetera.

But we could be producing water before the end of some of these contract deadlines.

Got it.

Um I also just want to um reaff reaffirm my support for for phase two, uh, the importance of seeing that move forward.

I appreciate uh the point that council president made in terms of uh ensuring that the council is is included in that conversation um and that we have that conversation in the context of all that the totality of what we're seeking um for city benefits from um from pure water as a as an overall system.

Um I think there have been some there have been there have been conversations, some in good faith, and I think some quite uh to be quite honest, in less good faith about pure water in a much more narrow scope than they should be taking place in.

It the the benefits of pure water extend beyond simply delivering water for people to drink.

Oh, I actually did have one more question.

There was uh the the question about the need to update the plan.

And you said well, you know, this is from 2013.

It's a long time ago.

A fair question might be well, why did we create a plan that wasn't going to be implemented for so long?

Why spend the time, money, and resources on that?

Um, how often are we creating plans for things that we won't be able to act upon in time?

So that we're basically we we know we're going to have to do it all over again, so why bother?

Uh it was important at the time to sort of lay out the the long-term vision for the pure water program because uh that 2012 recycled water study informed our negotiations with our environmental stakeholders who you know were threatening to sue us related to this effort, and so it was important to to lay out the full scope of the program as known at that time, which informed our negotiations that led to the cooperative agreement.

Um and you know, similar to that, we are currently engaged with the environmental stakeholders stakeholders as we review that original plan.

Meaning ensuring that the priorities of then are the same priorities today, uh is like what what is that conversation sound like?

I I think that's exactly what it is.

It's the outline of the plan.

So the whole entire concept and what we're doing in the spirit of everything of what we identified in that recycled water study from over a dozen years ago is still applicable.

What we're trying to do is look at how do we address this with affordability, different water volumes that are being requested by our customers.

How do we do all these things within that?

So I think the plan was, and we are trying to look forward for the next 25 years as best as we could.

Um I I credit the team of not just taking a plan that we said from 12 years ago and just building it.

Um we really want to do, and we have to look at affordability.

It is a different environment today than it was then.

But the plan itself, in the vast majority of it, we're still using the concepts, we're changing different aspects of it in the different science in different um you know data points in it.

And the other follow-up thing about that is that there are new regulations that are available to us now that we didn't have before.

Direct potable reuse was not an option before.

But because we had that plan, we are able to push legislation and push the regulators to develop those.

Got it.

Thank thank you for that.

Um with that, that brings us to the end of our conversation around uh item 11.

No motion required here.

Let's move to the discussion agenda.

Um Sarah, you'll still introduce item six, um, even though we've also received our presentation on item six.

Sarah?

Thank you, Chair.

Item number six is the amendment to North City Pure Water Facility Local Resources Program Incentive Agreement with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.

And if you're watching on City TV or the live stream online, you'd like to speak, please call 1669-2545252.

Inputting webinar ID 160732 9638 pound.

Chair.

All right.

Nothing.

Yeah, yeah, please.

All right, so um, we're gonna pull up the action slides um for item six.

Okay.

Um ready for public comment?

Is that all right?

We have one chair, uh excuse me, chair, we have one hand up in the virtual queue, so I will begin the five-minute timer for anybody who would like to indicate if they wish to provide comment on item number six.

I did see a hand up, but I believe the hand has gone down for item six.

I will wait a few seconds to see if it pops back up.

And with no speaker slips here in chambers and the hand not going back up in the queue, this concludes testimony for item six.

All right, we'll entertain uh motion in a second now.

Uh obviously, if there's any additional questions or comments, beginning with Council President Lakava.

I'll move the recommendation on item six.

Okay.

We've got a motion there.

Vice Chair Campbell.

I'd be happy to second the motion, and we're changing the dates as needed.

Thank you.

All right.

We've got a motion and a second.

And with that, Sarah, if you'd like to call the roll.

Item six passes unanimously three zero.

Okay.

That brings us to item seven.

Sarah, if you'd like to introduce that, and as if we can't, as that's being introduced, pull up the slides for item seven as well.

Thank you, Chair.

Item number seven is the Pure Water Program First Amendment to the agreement with PM Webb to provide a web-based project control system for the Pure Water Program Phase One, Soul Source Agreement number four two six five.

Okay.

And again, having not received any slips here in chambers and no hands up in the virtual queue.

This will conclude testimony on item seven.

Oh all right.

Thank you so much.

Uh Council President, all right to uh use your motion here.

Uh Vice Chair Campbell, your second as well.

All right.

Um we have a motion and a second.

Uh if you'd like to call the roll here.

And item seven passes unanimously, three zero.

Okay.

That brings us to item eight.

Same uh drill here.

Item number eight.

We got it.

We're on it.

Item number eight is the peer water program amendment number three to the agreement with Parsons Black and Veach joint venture for as needed construction manager treatment plant and facilities project.

And with no hands in the queue and having no receive no slips, this will conclude testimony for item eight.

All right, council president.

Yeah, we've got a motion, Vice Chair Campbell.

We've got a second.

Sarah, if you please call the roll.

And item eight passes unanimously three zero.

Okay, that brings us to item nine.

We're getting more efficient each item here.

Natalie, you saved yourself a few steps there.

Good work.

Item number nine is the pure water and program amendment number four to the agreement with Jacobs CH to M Hill Engineers for as needed construction management services conveyance projects.

And again, receiving no speaker slips here in chambers and no hands up in the virtual queue.

This concludes testimony on item number nine.

Thank you.

Council President.

Vice Chair.

All right.

We've got a motion and a second.

And the roll has been called.

Item nine passes unanimously.

Three zero.

All right, thank you, Sarah.

And uh last but not least, item 10 if you would.

And item number 10 is the pure water phase one consolidated action contractor contract time extension.

And with no hands in the queue and having received no slips, this concludes testimony for item number 10.

All right, thank you.

Council President and Vice Chair.

All right, we've got a motion and a second.

And uh please register your votes.

Dr.

Campbell, can you please register your vote?

And item number 10 passes unanimously 30.

Okay, thank you so much.

That brings us to the end of our agenda.

Uh thank you to um staff.

Thank thank you, um Sarah and Natalie for helping us navigate um what could have been a messy um a messy meeting in terms of the number of items.

Um really appreciate that.

Uh we're we'll adjourn uh to the next regularly scheduled meeting for the environment committee on Thursday, February 12th, 2026 at 1 p.m.

Thank you, everyone.

We're adjourned.