As one of the most significant water security decisions of this generation, the Board of Directors of the Metropolitan Water District (MWD) of Southern California has voted to approve the District’s $4.3 billion 26% share of financing for the $17 billion California WaterFix project to modernize the State’s water system and help improve supply reliability for the Southland.

Water supply security is the heart of the project

At its 10 October meeting, the MWD Board officially endorsed the state-federal project and to move forward on a governance structure to build and finance the mega project that calls for excavation of more than 73 miles (117km) of large diameter TBM-bored segmentally-lined tunnels beneath the delta area of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California.

About 30% of the water that flows out of taps in Southern California comes from Northern California via a current delivery system of canals and water courses. Of particular concern is the 1,100-mile levee system in the delta area that is increasingly vulnerable to earthquakes, flooding, saltwater intrusion, climate change and environmental degradation. The California WaterFix project comprises more than 13.5 miles (22km) of intake tunnels from three new intake structures on the Sacramento River and more than 30 miles (48km) of twin delivery tunnels to underpass the delta levee system and deliver water by gravity to a new pumping station at the Clifton Court Forebay where supply will be lifted into the existing system of delivery canals to Southern California (Fig 1).

In announcing the vote, Randy Record, Metropolitan Board Chairman, said: "Every generation of Southern Californians has to reinvest in our water system to ensure a reliable water future. Today’s vote reaffirms that historic commitment and vision. We simply must modernize and improve the reliability of our imported supplies as well as meet the needs of growth by developing more local supplies and extending conservation."

Fig 1. Principal elements of the project

As a State-established cooperative of 26 cities and water agencies, MWD serves nearly 19 million people in six counties of Southern California. It imports water from the Colorado River and Northern California to supplement local supplies and assists its members in developing increased water conservation, recycling, storage and other resource-management programs.

General Manager of MWD Jeffrey Kightlinger said: "Given our size, Metropolitan is the anchor tenant for any successful California WaterFix and this vote puts us on record as being ready and willing to participate. We still have a way to go before we have a final, fully funded project, but this vote keeps WaterFix on the path to finding a viable and lasting solution to water security."

The vote by the Board follows more than a decade of planning, preliminary design, environmental analysis, regulatory review, and concludes several months of public review and discussions in July and August on a series of policy white papers examining the project’s construction, operations, benefits and cost.

As well as approving the Metropolitan level of investment for the proposed project, the Board voted to finalize the project’s governance structures; participate in an adaptive management program; and join separate joint-power authorities to oversee construction and finance.

With the official endorsement of the project, Metropolitan is the latest of several other State water agencies to approve participation in the WaterFix project and with other agencies scheduled to follow. Once participating water agencies vote to identify their initial level of investment, Metropolitan expects further deliberations to identify how to move forward with the project. Any additional level of investment by Metropolitan would require further action by the District’s Board.

The multi-billion water delivery project in Northern California that is based on the excavation of more than 73 miles (117km) of large diameter TBM-bored segmentally-lined tunneling beneath the delta area of the San Francisco Bay has cleared a major phase of its development and implementation.

On Friday 21 July, California Governor Jerry Brown approved for the project a California Environmental Quality Act and signed legislation granting the project a Notice of Determination. This completes the State’s environmental process for the program and while there may be need for a subsequent Record of Decision from the US Federal Government and to meet Federal environmental impact requirements, the Notice of Determination from the State Government permits the project to move from the planning phase into the implementation phase.

Approval of the State’s environmental process and the Record of Determination ends a long and complex journey for the project that started decades ago. The history of the project in detail was presented recently and recorded in a hearing about the project by the Board of the Metropolitan Water District (MWD) (watch the videos of the proceedings).

Introduction and history of the project development

The hearing by the Special Committee of the Board for Bay Delta and Water Planning heard details of the first of three white papers. The specific objective of the first paper is to:

• Review the physical infrastructure;
• Outline the State’s approach to managing and implementing the project through a proposed Design/Construction Joint Powers Authority; and
• Outline the project’s planned approach to risk management and to present key risk-related issues and measures adopted to keep the project within cost and schedule targets.

Additional Committee meetings and workshops are scheduled to discuss two further white papers on operations and on financing and cost allocation before the MWD Board will take a vote at its 12 September meeting on the next steps to advance the project and its construction.

MWD is the principal beneficiary and promoter of the project. It is the supplier of potable water to its local water authority companies in Southern California who provide fresh water to individual customers, clients and ratepayers in their service areas. These areas include the mega population conurbations of Los Angeles and San Diego. The State’s Department of Water Resources is also a stakeholder in the project to protect the interests of the State as a whole.

Cost estimate to implement the project

Management of project risk

The need for the WaterFix project is to secure and increase current water supply system canals from the water-abundant areas of California to the more arid, high water-demand areas of the south. In addition, the project is designed to protect the ecology and the natural as well as manmade waterway infrastructure of the San Francisco Bay delta area at the end of the Sacramento River and safeguard the fresh water resource of the River from the rising salt water sea levels of the bay.

Water supply security is the heart of the project

The cost of the proposed new infrastructure of the WaterFix project is estimated at $17 billion and extrapolated from a cost study in 2014 to 2017 prices. This multi-billion investment is spread over a projected 16-year implementation period from an approval date. As well as intake structures and construction of new water holding reservoirs, major construction centers on excavation of more than 13.5 miles (22km) of intake tunnels from the Sacramento River and more than 30 miles (48km) of twin tunnels, for 60 miles and nearly 100km of large diameter TBM tunnels, to deliver the water by gravity to a new pumping station at the Clifton Court Forebay where it will be lifted into the existing system of delivery canals to southern California.

The project has passed through many planning variations, the most significant to replace proposed new systems of canals underground into tunnels, and has been the subject of many studies and reviews to reduce the impact of the project on the environment and to reduce costs and control the risks associated with implementation of the civil works.

MWD Board questions and discussion session

Contributions from the public to the meeting

The project has also attracted significant public attention. It is a contentious issue for the residents of northern California and also for environmentalists who promote alternative options for meeting water needs in southern California including water conservation and more efficient use of gray water. It has also attracted organized opposition from farmers in the central valley region who rely heavily on existing water supplies to sustain their commercial crops and livelihoods.

The details of the project and its history, as well as presentations by the public and interest groups, are presented in the video edits of the recent Special Committee MWD Board meeting. Further news will be reported as the project moves through the coming weeks of hearings and developments.