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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1992/04/22 - Minutes - Adjourned Joint (Chino Basin Municipal Water District)April 22. 1992 CITY OF RANCHO CUCAMONGA CITY COUNCIL MINUTES ACljoumed Joint Meeting Rancho Cucamonga City Council and the Chino Basin Municipal Water District A. CAI,I, TO ORDER An adjourned joint meeting of the Rancho Cucamonga City Council and the Chino Basin Municipal Water District was held on Wednesday, April 22, 1992, in the Rains Conference Room of the Civic Center, located at 10500 Civic Center Drive, Rancho Cucamonga, California. The meeting was called to order at 7:06 p.m. by Mayor Dennis L. Stout. Present were Councilmembers: William J. Alexander, Diane Willjams, and Mayor Dennis L. Stout. Absent were Councilmembers: Charles J. Buquet II, who was on his way from Orange County, and Pamela J. Wright, who was recuperating after surgery. Also present were: Jerry B. Fulwood, Deputy City Manager; Rick Gomez, Community Development Director, Joe O'Neil, City Engineer, and Jan Sutton, Deputy City Clerk. Present from Chino Basin Municipal Water District Board of Directors were: John Anderson, Bill Hill, Anne Dumhue, and President Dwight French. Also present from Chino Basin Municipal Water District were: Tom Homan, General Manager, Vincent De Palma Jr., Manager of Engineering; Ed James, Water Resources Director; Gary Hackney, Planning Department Director, Harlan Delzer, Finance & Budget Department; Karen Stinson, Public Information Officer, Paula Barron, Executive Assistant; Edna Morasse, Board Secretary; and MicheHe Lauffer, Recording Secretary. B. ITEMS OF DISCUSSION B1, UPDATR ON CHINO BASIN MUNICIPAl. WATER DISTRICT'S 10-YF. AR CAPITAt. IMPROV!~.ME. NT PROGRAM (WITH EMPHASIS ON RP-4) (1204-00 WATER) Tom Homan, General Manager, stated they would like to reacqualnt the City with what has been happening with their 10-year plan. He stated they felt they had a good system of communication with the various cities in the West End, and with Cucamonga County Water District in our area. (i) City Council/Chino Basin Municipal Water District Joint Meeting Minutes April 22, 1992 Page 2 (2) Gary Hackney, Planning Department Director, presented a diagram showing the boundaries for the Water District. He stated RP1 and RP2 were curren~y on line and provided treatment for the District, and pointed out their service areas. He stated the Carbon Canyon plant, which is the first treatment plant they have built, is starting up now. He stated the addition of RP3 in Fontana and RP4 in Rancho Cucamonga will help to divert some of the flow from RP1, and will help to even out service requirements. He stated the 10-year capital improvement plan is a dynamic document, and it changes yearly in response to the growth rate. He showed a chart for RPI and its projection of flow, and explained how RP3 and RP4 will help to stabilize RP1 at its current capacity of 44 million gallons per day. He stated this particular program was fairly aggressive, and the cost for it approaches $1 billion over the 10- Councilmember Alexander asked if the projected completion of RP3 in 1994/95 included any potential changes in the economic conditions, or has that affected their estimated completion date. Gary Hackney, Planning Department Director, stated the project has been delayed for a number of reasons, but also because the growth forecasts were down. Mayor Stout asked if they would have the capacity in the future that if one of the plants were to go do, it could be shifted to another facility. Gary Hackney, Planning Department Director, stated they do not plan for that level of redundancy', they plan on everything being filled up when they are on-line. Mayor Stout asked what would happen if one of the plants had to be shut down due to an emergency, such as an Vincent DePaima, Manager of Engineering, stated the plants are designed for redundancy in the structure, that all of the plants have stand-by power and are designed to withstand earthquakes, and do not sustain very much structural damage. He stated they have emergency holding basins on site to hold contaminated water until it can be treated. B2. DISCUSSION OF CHINO BASIN MUNICIPAL WATER DISTRICT REGULATIONS (1204-00 WATER) Gary Hackney, Planning Department Director, explained how regulations for nitrogen standards and ammonia reduction to protect aquatic habitat were affecting the District. He felt that these regulations would introduce an additional $60 million in costs to the 10-year capital improvement plan. Dwight French, President, stated the reason they are being regulated to reduce their nitrogen amounts is because the water is going downstream as the water supply for Orange County. He stated the ammonia reduction regulations are to maintain the water supply for animals that live in their discharge, which are only there because of their discharge. He stated the regulations they are being asked to meet are the same as if you were in Tahoe discharging into the Truckee River. Councilmember Alexander asked if Orange County was paying for any of these regulations and improvements. Dwight French, President, stated they are not paying anything at the current time. Mayor Stout asked if they knew how much per household the $60 million would average out to be. City Council/Chino Basin Municipal Water District Joint Meeting Minutes April 22, 1992 Page 3 Bill Hill, Director, stated it was $1.92. Councilmember Alexande~ ~ked if there was any way to collect a pro rata share from Orange County since they ate the main beneficiary of this. Dwight French, President, stated the only way to get them to pay would probably be when they were able to have a more aggressive reclaimed water program, then Orange County would probably be willing to pay for their water. Mayor Stout stated one problem is that agencies often do not inform the public as to what affect these regulations will have on them. He felt if the public really understood how their rates are being affected by certain regulations or requirements, they might not accept it that costs just naturally go up every year, without knowing the reason why or if there is anything they can do about it. Tom Hornart, General Manager, stated the $60 million was just one piece of meeting new regulations. He stated about a third of their 10-year program is estimated to be required for meeting new regulations. He stated in fiscal year 1988/89 they started to keep track of costs to the homeowner associated with regulations. At that time their fee was $4.00/mo EDU, now it is close to $7.00/mo EDU, and $2.00 of that was just for regulations. Gary Hackney, Planning Department Director, spoke about the Clean Water Act, and how its requirements for waste water are more swingeat than drinking water standards in order to protect the habitat, and what they do to meet those regulations. He spoke about the new sludge regulations that are due this summer, and that they expect them to be more re-use oriented, which would go along with their cornposting project. He then went over the three local AQMD rules affecting their emissions, AB 2588 regarding volatile organic compounds, and SCAQMD rule 1179 regarding VOC and odor inventory, as well as the new requirements for testing storm water run-off. Bill Hill, Director, explained about how the regulations are affecting their costs, and staP~cl they will start listing those costs on the bills so that people will know why they are paying that amounL Mayor Stout felt it was not always the fault of the regulatory agencies themselves, it was the California Legislature that creates these problems. B3. DISCUSSION ON R~.C~ .AMATION STUDY ~MPHASIS ON RP-4) (1204-00 WATER) Tom Homan, General Manager, stated when the District took over RP1 in 1973, it was set up to treat 128 million gallons per day. As they have become more regulated, the capacity has dropped over the years to where it is only processing approximately 50 million gallons per day, which was a consideration when planning to add plants. He stated another consideration would be that the additional plants could help them with a water reclamation program. He stated the study for the reclamation master plan for each facility was nearing completion. Ed James, Water Resources Director, spoke about the different plans they were preparing for the reclamation study, and that they' hoped to have it completed by June 1992. He showed a diagram with the consultant's recommendation for RP4, which focused on maximizing water reuse at a minimum cost. He showed a chart of potential users of reclaimed water during the initial phase. Dwight French, President, stated the water price for reclaimed water may be cheaper in the future, but their contractual arrangements require them to charge users for the treatment, and they would need to do some type of institutional type of arrangement so they could bring the price down. He stated pan of the problem today is that the water that comes from RP1 is owned by another agency, and in order for them to sell that water, they have to charge (3) City Council/Chine Basin Municipal Water Dis~ct Joint Meeting Minutes April 22, 1992 Page 4 (4) for the trealment, so it over prices the water to where they just put it back in the river and let it go down to Orange County. He stated they have to worry about institutional arrangements with other agencies like Orange County, who might not take it favorably when Chine Basin starts pulling water out of the river. They also have to consider the Water Master and other agencies. On the analysis though, the water is considered as being free water. Tom Heman, General Manager, stated that in regards to the water shortage, there has been nothing done on a statewide basis to develop a water supply for Southern California, so they will have to do what they can on a local level. The program for reclamation allows them to optimiz~ what they have locally. The recent rains have helped Southern California, but the Department of Water Resources still rates Northern California as a critical water need, so they have only given Metropolitan Water District (MWD) half of their allocated State Water Project water. He stated their reclamation project is nearing completion and will coincide with the construction of RP4. He then presented an update on the Water Resource Management Study which was initiated in November of 1991, the MWD conjunctive use demo study, the Chine desalter system design, which is to start in fiscal year 1992/93, and the co- cornposting project which will be under construction in fiscal year 1992/93. He also showed charts about the nitrate concentrations in the groundwater, from the years 1960 to 2000, and went over how unless the water was treated, a large portion of the groundwater would be unusable. He stated the desalter project will be a way to deal with the nitrate problem, as well as the co-composting project once they got that issue resolved. Mayor Stout asked who are the major opponents to the co-composting project Dwight French, President, stated there is one dairyman who owns property close to the proposed cornposting site, and the women's prison in Chine. He stated that all of the testimony from the regulatory agencies has been in their favor, but they have been tied up in court for more than a year now on this. They discussed the impacts the delay has been causing. Mayor Stout asked if they have figured out if the flood control measures that have been built in the last ten years have affected the basin's ability to be recharged. Tom Heman, General Manager, stated the water resource plan will be evaluating that issue. B4. UPDATE ON WATER ISSUES GIVEN BY M~TROPOLITAN WATER DISTRICT DIRECTOR HII.I. ( 1204-00 WATER) Bill Hill, Director, stated MWD also has a 10-year plan, but at a cost of $10 billion, and as with Chine Basin, environmental regulations are the biggest cost at this time. He stated one of the major problems is storage facilities. He stated MWD is trying to build a reservoir in the Riverside area, which would be larger than all the reservoirs in Southern California put together, but there is a tremendous cost involved. He also went over the environmental issues MWD is faced with in building the reservoir. He then spoke about the four pumps which have been completed for the Water Project pumping plant, and how they cannot turn all four of them on at once because it creates a backflow problem in the delta, and covered the impact of that He felt the way things are currendy, they might not ever get any new water from up north. He felt they would need to concentrate on conservation and recycling water in order to meet their future needs. He spoke about how MWD will be raising their rates even though there is enough water for this year, because they are facing major repairs that are needed for the aqueduct system which will be spread out over ten years. He went over how new regulations can impact MWD to the point of having to add new departments to administer them. He stated MWD is doing what it can to help get all the water they can to help the local agencies, but he does not see the State doing anything to help out. He spoke about how the solution to the pumping station problem would be to build a peripheral canal to the current one, some of the problems associated with the Los Banes Grande reservoir, measures that would need to be taken to insure that City Council/Chino Basin Municipal Water District Joint Meeting Minutes April 22, 1992 Page 5 (5) saltwater did not get into the Slate Water Project, and water reuse philosophy for lVSVD. He also recounted problems during the drought when agricultural groups approached them about buying water at whatever cost, and when MWD purchased water through the water bank for lhem, the growers would not purchase it because it cost too much, so MWD had to take a loss on iL He stated that Assemblyman Kelley from Riverside was sponsoring a bill that would bring agriculture up to the same level as residential in the MWD service area. He then spoke about the current partial and standby charges that MWD is charging it users. B5. DISCUSSION OF ITEMS OF MUTUAl, INTEREST (1204-00 WATER) No items of mutual interest were discussed. C. COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE PUB!,IC No communications were made from the public. D. ADJOURNMENT MOTION: Moved by Alexander, seconded by Williams to adjourn to Executive Session to discass personnel matters on April 29, 1992, at 6:00 p.m. in the De Ann room of the Civic Center. Motion carried unanimously, 3-0-2 (Buquet, Wright absent). The meeting adjourned at 8:50 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Jan Sutton Deputy City Clerk Approved: May 6, 1992