VALLEY CENTER MUNICIPAL WATER DISTRICT
Regular Board Meeting
Monday, October 6, 2008
Time: 2:00 P.M.
Place: Board Room
29300 Valley Center Road
Valley Center, CA 92082
The Valley Center Municipal Water District Board of Directors’ meeting was called to order by President Broomell at 2:00 P.M.
ROLL CALL
Board members present were: Directors Broomell, Polito, Aleshire, Stone and Haskell. Staff members present were: General Manager Arant, General Counsel Cowett, District Engineer Grabbe, Director of Operations Hoyle, Director of Finance Jeffrey, Board Secretary Stetson, and IT Specialist Learue. Spectators present were: Mr. Ayala, Mr. Ziegaus and Mr. Bunts.
CONSENT CALENDAR
1. Upon motion by Polito, seconded by Stone and unanimously carried, the following consent calendar items were approved:
• Minutes of the Board meeting held September 15, 2008
• Audit demand check numbers 119841 through 120074 and wire disbursements 08-060 through 08-094
• Report of expense reimbursements for the quarter ended September 30, 2008
ACTION AGENDA
2. Approval of First Amendment to the Water Purchase Agreement with Poseidon Resources and Update on Project:
In December 2005, an agreement with Poseidon Resources to purchase up to 7,500 ac ft. of desalted seawater had been approved. Due to delays in the approval process for the desalination plant, certain performance time frames in the agreement need to be amended.
Mr. Peter MacLaggan, Vice President of Poseidon Resources, provided an update on the Carlsbad Desalination Project stating that all required discretionary approvals
have been obtained. The Project will be the most technologically advanced, energy efficient and environmentally-sensitive desalination facility in the world and will neutralize its net carbon footprint. Mr. MacLaggan noted that the purchase of renewable energy credits from the District’s Lake Turner Solar Photovoltaic Project will be pursued. Poseidon Resources will be restoring 55 acres of marine wetlands. Lawsuits have been filed challenging the actions of the San Diego Regional Water Quality Board and State Lands Commission that approved permits for the desalination project. This litigation is being pursued in the courts and an additional lawsuit challenging the approval granted by the California Coastal Commission is expected.
Construction of the Carlsbad Desalination Project is expected to begin in mid-2009 with its completion in 2011. Prior to construction, final plans will be submitted to the City of Carlsbad and the Coastal Commission and Power Purchase Agreements with SDG&E will be executed. The project interconnection points and delivery regime for delivery of the desalted sea water to the agencies with water purchase agreements will be identified. Also, funding from Metropolitan to defray costs will be secured.
Amendments to the Water Purchase Agreement with Poseidon Resources extending the date to determine the Interconnection Points, Delivery Regime and Appurtenant Facilities Agreement to April 1, 2009, were recommended.
General Manager Arant stated that opportunities to fund infrastructure improvements to maximize delivery of the desalted water will be sought. The San Diego County Water Authority’s Local Projects Fund may assist in funding delivery systems.
Upon motion by Aleshire, seconded by Polito and unanimously carried, the following resolution, entitled:
RESOLUTION NO. 2008-35
A RESOLUTION OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF
THE VALLEY CENTER MUNICIPAL WATER DISTRICT
APPROVING THE FIRST AMENDMENT TO THE WATER
PURCHASE AGREEMENT WITH POSEIDON RESOURCES
was adopted by the following vote, to wit:
AYES: Directors Broomell, Polito, Aleshire, Stone and Haskell
NOES: None
ABSENT: None
3. Presentation on the Proposed Meadowood Project:
Mr. Jim Ayala, Director of Community Development for Pardee Homes and the Meadowood Project, gave a presentation to update the Board on the proposed Meadowood Project to be developed as a master-planned community located east of Interstate 15 and north of Highway 76. As proposed, the property of approximately 400 acres will be developed into 858 single-family and multi-family homes and includes an elementary school, park, trails, preserved agricultural groves and an on-site wastewater treatment plant. The Meadowood Draft EIR has been submitted to the County of San Diego and is anticipated that its public review will be early 2009.
Mr. Ayala stated that a portion of the Meadowood Project is located within the San Luis Rey Municipal Water District and that LAFCO will be completing a Municipal Service Review and Sphere of Influence Update to determine the appropriate retail agency for the area. The Meadowood Project would need to be annexed into the Metropolitan Water District, San Diego County Water Authority and the designated retail water agency for water service.
A water supply assessment has been completed for the Meadowood Project and submitted to the county for determination of concurrence of water availability. The baseline water demand for the Meadowood project prior to water conservation measures is approximately 739 acre feet per year. Mr. Ayala reported that Pardee Homes is proposing a model water conservation community, incorporating state-of-the-art conservation measures to fully mitigate Meadowood’s water demands for a no net increase in imported water supply needs. The elements to be incorporated into the Meadowood project to achieve the net zero water footprint are: advanced water conservation, local groundwater use, on-site water recycling and water supply offsets. Advanced conservation features in the project’s design along with the continued use of local groundwater and on-site water recycling will reduce the baseline water demands by 202 and 382 acre feet per year, respectively, for an approximate water demand of 155 acre feet per year. Mr. Ayala explained that participation in water supply offsets will fully mitigate Meadowood’s potable water demands to become a net zero water-use community. Water supply offset programs could include in-district and neighboring water district reuse, ocean desalination water, interagency agreements and water transfers. Discussion ensued regarding the Fallbrook Community Planning Group’s input on the proposed development’s zoning and facility improvements, and pre-annexation agreement with Rainbow Municipal Water District. The District’s position is that the developers in this area will coordinate their efforts for the construction of one wastewater treatment and disposal facility.
4. Resolution Approving Change Order No. 5 for the Phase 1 and 2 SCADA System Construction Contract with Rock Electric:
District Engineer Grabbe provided an update on the SCADA System Phase 1 and 2 construction project which is converting the tone telemetry system at 14 facility sites to a radio system network and adding additional process monitoring and control equipment to monitor systems’ status and pump efficiency. At present, all but one of the pump station’s panels have been delivered with the remaining panel in-route. The panels will be installed and integration on the system will be completed. The contractor and staff have been installing starters that provide data on the pump operations.
Rock Electric, Inc. was awarded the construction contract in the amount of $1,147,500 and four change orders were previously approved totaling $74,637. A fifth change order in the amount of $38,623 has been submitted to install new electrical key switches and keys, the installation of light fixtures, switches, photocells and associated conduit and wiring at the Meadows Reservoir site, and the installation of an additional flow meter at the Betsworth Pump Station. Approval of Change Order No. 5 to the SCADA construction contract with Rock Electric, Inc. in the amount of $38,623 was recommended which will result in a total contract amount of $1,260,760.
Upon motion by Aleshire, seconded by Haskell and unanimously carried, the following resolution, entitled:
RESOLUTION NO. 2008-36
RESOLUTION OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF
THE VALLEY CENTER MUNICIPAL WATER DISTRICT
APPROVING CHANGE ORDER NO. 5 TO THE CONTRACT
WITH ROCK ELECTRIC, INC. FOR CONSTRUCTION OF
THE SCADA PHASE 1 AND 2 IMPROVEMENTS
was adopted by the following vote, to wit:
AYES: Directors Broomell, Polito, Aleshire, Stone and Haskell
NOES: None
ABSENT: None
GENERAL MANAGER’S AGENDA
5. Review of Miscellaneous Informational Items:
General Manager Arant reported on the following miscellaneous items:
▪ The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California Board of Directors will consider and is expected to take action at its meeting of October 13 and 14, 2008, regarding the Interim Agricultural Water Program Opt-Out proposal. The opt-out program, if adopted, will allow IAWP participants to opt-out of the program effective January 1, 2009. The agricultural discount will be reduced annually until it is completely phased-out by January 1, 2013. Metropolitan will fund conservation programs for agricultural customers that are expected to assist with on-farm conservation measures.
The San Diego County Water Authority’s Special Agricultural Water Rate may be retained. The SAWR discount of $111/ac. ft. was approved to mitigate the negative impact of water facility capital projects’ costs upon regional agriculture. As such, the IAWP participants are not charged the commodity portion of the Authority’s storage charge, are charged Metropolitan’s discounted rate that does not include costs for the IID transfer water, canal lining projects, and the Central Valley transfer and groundwater storage assets, and pay the MWD-IAWP treatment rate. As such, the IAWP participants would not receive the added reliability benefit associated with these projects in a shortage condition. Customers that opt out of Metropolitan Water District’s IAWP will no longer be required to reduce usage by 30% compared to the 2005-06 base year, but in the event of an emergency storage project incident, the Authority will reduce its supply to M&I customers by 70% and agricultural customers will be cut by 50% of supplies. Further, participants receiving the Authority’s SAWR will not benefit from the IID transfer water, canal lining water or the groundwater storage assets and thus a reduction in supplies from Metropolitan will be fully applied, but non-SAWR participants will benefit from these supplies and be subject to a lesser reduction of water consumption.
▪ San Diego Gas & Electric has implemented new procedures in an attempt to reduce the potential of a fire. One new procedure involves turning off power lines under certain extreme weather conditions in certain high-risk fire areas. Shutting off the power could affect 45,000 customers including areas in the District’s service area. Prior to implementing this new procedure, there was no public process and water supply and wastewater treatment issues were not considered. SDG&E’s service representative stated that they have a plan regarding the availability of portable emergency power, but it has not been distributed even though the policy to turn off power lines under certain weather conditions is in effect.
▪ An agreement has been executed for the solar power carport project at the District’s Administrative facility through a Power Purchase Agreement with Solar Electric Solutions. The District will own the renewable energy credits within 5 years of the completion of the solar project. Energy cost savings to the District will be from $800 to $1,000 per year.
▪ Mr. Richard Vanderwoude of 14098 Kelowna Lane was notified of a demand for payment of $304,850.22 representing unauthorized and un-metered water use on his property between 1985 and 2008 which includes interest and treble damages. Mr. Vanderwoude has not reconciled the matter, and the District will initiate legal proceedings to recover the money.
CLOSED SESSION
6. A Closed Session was called by President Broomell at 3:45 p.m. pursuant to:
• Government Code §54956.9(b), Conference with Legal Counsel, Anticipated Litigation
Number of potential cases: 1
RECONVENE
7. The Regular Board meeting was reconvened at 3:58 p.m. No action was reported.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS’ AGENDA
8. Report on ACWA Regions 8, 9 and 10 Workshop:
Directors Aleshire and Stone reported they had attended the recent ACWA Regions 8, 9 and 10 Fall workshop held in Irvine in which the theme was “Surviving Until the Fix”. Information was provided by agencies on their conservation programs. These programs include: landscape workshops, distribution of efficient irrigation controllers, irrigation management programs, water budget allocation programs based on GIS and aerial photographs, the City of San Diego’s recycled water program, grants for irrigation systems, the Groundwater Replenishment Program in Orange County and the Desalter project within Irvine Ranch. Tim Quinn, Executive Director of ACWA, talked about California’s water situation and the sustainability of the water situation, including the Delta, which will be obtained through recycling, reclamation, desalination and improvements to the Delta.
ADJOURNMENT
9. Upon motion by Polito, seconded by Haskell and unanimously carried, the meeting was adjourned at 4:19 p.m.
ATTEST: ATTEST:
____________________________ _______________________________
President Secretary