Water Wars: United Water opposes Oxnard recycled water shipments for Pleasant Valley Water District

By George Miller

The letter, below, from Lynn E. Maulhardt, President, United Water Conservation District’s outlines their rationale for fighting the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Board ruling allowing Oxnard to transport GREAT project recycled water via United Water resources for use by Pleasant Valley County Water District, for agricultural purposes.

Lynn E. Maulhardt, President, United Water Conservation District’

As you can see in the letter, United’s rationale is protecting United and ratepayers from potential liability connected with that water. Well, if that is the concern, why not arrange for insurance, or incorporate a legal disclaimer/transfer of responsibility to Oxnard?

CitizensJournal.us contacted Tony Morgan, United’s Groundwater and Water Resources Deputy General Manager, on Monday. He confirmed what was in the letter. When asked if the potential liability issue could be resolved, he stated, yes, with an indemnification agreement. But he raised other important issues, too, namely the use of company resources and the potential of resulting interference with its own operations and revenue stream, without United’s consent. This could even affect rates adversely. He said that the parties must first sit down, discuss and complete agreement on next steps, which they have not been able to accomplish. While lawsuits weren’t discussed, it would seem like the potential exists.

Piping in and storing Oxnard recycled water as proposed would not only potentially deny United some of the use of its own resources. It could potentially affect its uptake of the anticipated possible (but not definite) bounty of El Nino rainwater this winter.  We do not know how material the impact would be on United’s resources. The rainwater would also be of lower cost than the Oxnard recycled water, Morgan stated. 

Lou Balderrama, Oxnard City Engineer

Technical Commentary
We also contacted Lou Balderrama, City Engineer of Oxnard, who told us he couldn’t discuss legal aspects, but gave us some technical points, worded for un-technical people, like us. He acknowledged that United could have a resource conflict and that Oxnard could fill one of the Oxnard reservoirs in about a week, if they devoted enough recycled output to it. But, Mr. Balderrama said the water would likely be used as fast as it is delivered, so full reservoirs attributable to Oxnard deliveries to United Water reservoirs are not a likely occurrence. But of course, no one knows how much water might be harvested from a bountiful El Nino. Also, since recycled water must be separated from potable water supplies, we’re not sure how this is applicable., since those reservoirs would then need to be dedicated to recycled water. Current output capacity of the GREAT program recycling system is 6.25 MGD (Million Gallons/Day). It would be four times that when fully operational.

If the drought ends, water is then in greater abundance and recycled water becomes financially uncompetitive, it would create a tough situation. The very high capital costs and fixed operating costs are considerable, but recovering variable costs and as much fixed costs as possible would be a consideration if that occurred. Having the GREAT program ready for future severe droughts, or even an extension of this one, is desirable. GREAT  rates might eventually become more competitive, as alternative sources increase in cost.

Other Expert Comments:

“Unnamed sources”

A knowledgeable source, who asked not to be identified, said that part of the problem here is that multiple organizations with sometimes conflicting priorities cannot effectively perform “conjunctive management” of surface, imported and groundwater resources. There is also a resultant duplication of resources. In addition to all that, they must frequently battle environmentalists’ agendas. He opined that the various organizations might better be combined into a single one to reduce some of the inherent conflicts and improve coordination of “many moving parts.”  Still another knowledgeable source said that United may have other agendas and that they missed the boat in not making a deal with Oxnard, while others did. The source also said that United “has compliance issues,” which we didn’t explore.

So in summary, four issues are known to us:

Oxnard’s GREAT recycling plant

– Liability issue, which United said is resolvable.

– Conflicting priorities of United resource utilization by Oxnard/Pleasant Valley vs. United’s interests, without its consent. Some would say that this constitutes an unlawful taking without compensation, although we haven’t heard those words from anyone at United. Moran indicated that all parties should sit down at the table to discuss that. They haven’t yet?

– Potential impact on water rates.

– … and of course, revenue impact on Oxnard, after arrangements had already been made and massive Oxnard resources were committed to the delivery of Oxnard-produced recycled water. There are other potential recycled water customers right in Oxnard, but agreements and very costly delivery systems must be created. Deliveries of recycled water to Oxnard’s city-owned money-losing River Ridge Golf Club commenced only recently.

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George Miller is Publisher of Citizensjournal.us and a “retired” operations management consultant, active in civic affairs, living in Oxnard.

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