water sustainability

By Marty Miller

We face many attacks on our water supply from the enivironment to the judicial system.

At VID we have typical problems that all agencies have. We have aging pipelines and reservoirs that are constantly being upgraded. This is reflected in our cost of service. We are always replacing aging lines and spend over one million dollars a year upgrading the system. We also get over 7,000 acre feet of water a year (average) from Lake Henshaw which accounts for a small protion of our water supply. The rest we purchase from MWD thru the San Diego Water Authority. We have no control over those costs and pass them directly to the ratepayer.

While everyone hears of the Colorado as being a big supplier it too has it's problems. The Quaga Mussel. This mussel attacks piplines and pumps. At present the Diamond Valley Lake emergency reservoir cannot take this water as it will contaminate the pumps with the mussel. Besides the continuing drought, which was much milder this year, we have the judicial drought, the EPA, and now the National Marine and wildlife agency involved with water.

Our biggest supply comes from the North. This supply is endangered by the well known delta smelt judical action that has stopped the pumps. We only have the pumps turned on at specific times of the year. Because Diamond Valley reservoir takes this water from the delta it is now at half capacity.

The latest attack is an effort to reintroduce, if it was ever there, the steelhead trout to the San Luis Rey river. This will require the redirection of the waters of Lake Henshaw and also require reduced pumping of the lower waters of the river. All to try and provide water for another species of fish that has been long gone for over seventy years, if it had ever been there anyway.

As a board member of VID it is my job to fight for water supplies for my ratepayers, make sure the money is spent correctly, and to keep cost as low as possible, while keeping VID solvent. In short, when you turn on the valve I want the water to flow. I will fight to see that continues.