Reclaimed water project reduced

A State Water Resources Control Board decision is being hailed as a victory by champions of Southern California steelhead trout and other opponents of a proposed diversion of Aliso Creek runoff, but they may be celebrating too soon.

South Coast Water District officials, who proposed the diversion, are waiting to hear if a correction to their application to divert water for irrigation will persuade the State Water Resources Control Board to reconsider the limit imposed in a permit issued Feb. 24. The district meant to request a permit to divert 890 acre-feet of water per year from the creek to irrigate 310 acres, not the 30 acres that appeared on the application, resulting in a reduction of 88 acre-feet per year.

“We talked to State Water Resources Control Board staff member Antonio Barreles, and he understood that the 30 acres was supposed to be 310, for service to all of our areas on recycled water,” district spokeswoman Linda Homscheid said Tuesday.

Denial of the larger amount requested was based on a California Code of Regulations section that requires a denial or reduction of the amount in an application that clearly exceeds the capacity of a proposed diversion or exceeds a reasonable amount for the applied use: 890 acre-feet deemed as excessive for the 30 acres, about the size of Aliso Creek Golf Course and Inn.

“We are confident that this will be worked out, and we will be able to remove the amount of water [from the creek] needed to meet the increased demand for high-quality recycled water “” while keeping the flow of Aliso Creek at a level that will protect biological resources,” Homscheid said.

However, the location of the project in the district’s application also is in error, said project critic Devora Herz.

“The project will be located 1.5 miles inland from the Pacific Coast Highway in Laguna Beach,” states the application.

Homscheid said the project is to be on land owned by the South Orange County Wastewater Authority, which is on unincorporated county land up the Aliso Creek watershed.

The project as proposed by the district would use abandoned urban runoff water recovered from the creek, treated to provide a low-saline addition to existing recycled water supplies.

As approved, the permit allows the removal of 1.23 cubic feet of water per second from the creek for blending with recycled water to reduce salinity for irrigation purposes, not to exceed 88 acre-feet per year.

That is about one-tenth of the 890 acre-feet requested, for which an application fee of $14,200 was paid by the district.

“We had seen discrepancies in the draft permit that we received from the State Water Resources Board several months ago and had sent a letter providing clarification, but we did not receive any response,” Homscheid said.

“Three hundred and ten acres supports the 890 acre-feet of water requested. We were surprised by the reduction.”

However, the reduction was viewed as a triumph by steelhead trout advocates.

“I consider this a victory because the state approved what I suggested four years ago,” Roger von Butow said.

He calls it the 10% solution.

Von Butow said the proposed project ignored the damage to the Southern California steelhead trout, which is on the endangered species list. The diversion would reverse conditions needed by the steelhead, including low toxicity and low water temperatures, by reducing the depth of the water in the creek.

Homscheid said the district could find no documentation that the fish ever inhabited the creek waters but fish had been seen in the creek in the 1970s, according to von Butow, founder of the Clean Water Now! Coalition.

The coalition was among the six opponents of the project that filed official protests, one of which was not accepted by the Water Resources Control Board.

Citizen Water Shed Monitors of Orange County, National Marine Fisheries Services and residents Hertz and Joanne Sutch also submitted protests. Others wrote letters, but did not file official protests.

Protests from the coalition, Hertz and Sutch were canceled due to technicalities.

The fisheries services protest was dismissed with its consent when the water board included conditions that protected the Southern California steelhead in any permit issued.

Von Butow questioned the wisdom of the district spending ratepayers’ funds to install and maintain the diversion of urban runoff for 89 acre-feet per year.

If the resource board sticks with its 88 acre-feet limit, the district board would reconsider the project, Homscheid said.

“We have no anticipation of it coming to that and if it did we would petition for reconsideration,” she said.

The city has allocated $25,000 for the project, but the funds have not been distributed, City Manager Ken Frank said. The county pledged $50,000, also not yet received.

“I encourage SCWD to be happy with the approval they received.” Hertz said. “However, if South Coast Water District is so inclined to spend well into the double digits, more of their customers money on legal fees, to process an appeal, I am ready and more than happy to help them spend it and confident about the outcome.”

The district has a memo of understanding with Clear Creek Systems Inc. that if the permits are approved, the district will pay the company $11,000 a month for five years to produce filtered water to be piped into the recycling plant. That does not include the cost of electricity. The district would also buy the treated water for $442 per acre foot.

“We have been operating under an M.O.U. with Clear Creek since April of 2008,” Homscheid said.

The district first heard of the technology to be used by Clear Creek more than five years ago at Aliso Creek Watershed meetings, specifically from Dean Williams, she said.

Homscheid denied reports that South Laguna resident Michael Beanan has financial ties to the company. Beanan was a spokesman for the South Laguna Civic Assn., which approached the water district about cleaning up the creek by removing urban runoff when a means to reduce the salt in recycled water was being sought, Homscheid said.

Clear Creek is a commercial enterprise that designs, installs and monitors treatment systems for storm water and ground water, and specializes in providing comprehensive solutions to a wide range of water treatment needs and construction de-watering needs, according to its website.

Using recycled water for irrigation could help relieve the decrease in imported potable “” drinkable “” water supplies and higher costs that hit the South Coast and the Laguna Beach County Water districts this year, due to several years of drought and court ordered decisions to protect a small Sacrament Delta fish, district officials said.

“We don’t need a diversion,” Hertz said. “A city study showed that there is more than ample water for potable water from existing supplies if the treatment was upgraded to the tertiary level.”

Hertz said taking treatment up as level was a preferable way to spend district funds.

“Further, this project requires a Coastal Development Permit and I will make certain it does not get approved by the coastal commission,” Hertz said. “I am the queen of coastal development permits.”

Construction of the facility is proposed to be completed by Dec. 31, 2019, but the district expects to have it up and running much sooner, Homscheid said.

Annual inspections after January will be conducted to determine if minimal flows would impede fish migration or flow connectivity.

Progress reports are required.

No date has been set for notification from the resource board management on the results of its review of the error in acreage to be irrigated with blended water.

“We hope it will be soon,” Homscheid said.