[0:58] Ready when you are?

[1:04] Good morning, everybody. And welcome. We'll call the meeting to order. Stephanie, roll call, please. Yes. Director Shua. Here. Vice chairperson, Keegan. And chairperson, Santaus. Yes. You have a quorum. Thank you, Stephanie. Time off and report the comment on any item, not on the agenda. Do we have anybody?

[1:29] So online, there are no hands raised. And I just got a comment.

[1:35] for item 4.3. Okay. So there are no comments, public comments for this item number two.

[1:42] If anybody does, this let us know. We're very open here. We'll be glad to accommodate you.

[1:47] We'll go to approval of minutes.

[1:52] Motion to approve meeting minutes of June 24, 2024.

[1:57] Second. There's a second. All of Abraham? Aye. All opposed. That carries. Thank you.

[2:03] Now, we'll go to the regular agenda, receive information on the Safe Clean Water Conservation

[2:09] Program, project a two water conservation rebates, and programs.

[2:16] Christian.

[2:17] Yeah, good morning, committee.

[2:18] Here's the service.

[2:19] It's an officer for the water supply division.

[2:20] I will turn this over to Ashley Shannon.

[2:24] Thank you.

[2:26] Thank you.

[2:27] Hi, I'm Alex.

[2:28] Good morning.

[2:29] I'm Ashley Shannon, Senior Water Conservation Specialist of Valley Waters, Water Supply Planning and Conservation

[2:34] Unit.

[2:35] Thank you, Chair Sondos and many for having me here today.

[2:40] Today I'm going to be providing an update on the Safe Clean Water, the A2 Conservation

[2:45] Programs and Update.

[2:49] So through the 2020 voter approved measure S, a Renewal Valley Waters Safe Clean Water

[2:54] and Natural Flood Protection Program, up to 1 million per year, is for water conservation activities,

[3:01] including rebates, technical assistance, and public education within the first

[3:05] seven years of safe clean water.

[3:08] The water now,

[3:09] sick clean water funding not only helps

[3:11] value water meets is countywide long-term

[3:13] conservation goals of 110,000 acre feet of water

[3:16] by 2040, which since writing this,

[3:19] we now have a 2050 poll.

[3:21] But these water conservation programs also increase

[3:23] for water supply reliability and reduce greenhouse gases

[3:27] and irrigation run-off pollution to the bay.

[3:30] In fiscal year 2024,

[3:32] Safety and Water Provide and Opportunity to enhance and create our landscape rebate program,

[3:38] our long-busters program, and our qualified water efficient landscape retraining, which I will go over.

[3:45] To increase participation in Valley Waters Water Conservation Program, Safety and Water Funding was utilized

[3:51] to increase our landscape conversion rebate from $1 per square foot to $2.

[3:56] and was utilized to increase funding payment to local nonprofit RCD Forest for the Lombuster's program,

[4:04] increasing from $2 per square foot to $4 per square foot.

[4:08] The Lombuster's program is offered to low-income community members, United States veterans,

[4:12] and other disadvantaged community members.

[4:14] And in fiscal year 24 resulted in 23,000 square feet of long conversion,

[4:19] spread over 23 different projects.

[4:23] The increased funding for landscape rebate program led to the conversion over 1.4 million square feet of lawn,

[4:29] 1 million of which was eligible for the safety and water funding.

[4:35] The total square footage of lawn convertant fiscal year was approximately 29% lower than the previous fiscal year,

[4:42] so lower than 2023. However, it does remain significantly higher than pre-safety water funding,

[4:48] and nearly 316% higher than fiscal year 2021, which in fiscal year 23 and 24, it's also

[4:58] notice of notable with our landscape rebate.

[5:00] Program, that participation from our commercial, industrial, and institutional, which were for

[5:06] two SCI sectors and multi-family sites, experience a shift. So previously, the CII and multi-family

[5:13] sites accounted for about 5% of the applications rebated and about 25% of the long conversion

[5:21] law and square footage converted. However, we saw in fiscal year 23 and 24 that the CII and

[5:28] multi-family participation grows to about 10% of the applications

[5:32] rebated and about 43% of the long conversion projects.

[5:36] So we're seeing more of the larger sites and larger projects within those.

[5:41] This increase in RCAI and multi-family participation

[5:44] is likely due to the increase in square footage that was made possible.

[5:49] I mean, rebate that was made possible by safely water funding

[5:52] And in 2022, our increase cap for commercial sites to 100,000 from 50,000.

[6:00] In addition, the ban on irrigation and non-functional turf at these sites adopted both by

[6:05] Valley Water and at the state level likely increased attributed to the increase and

[6:10] participation from those sectors.

[6:15] Our safety and water funding program allowed Valley Water to pilot new programs and

[6:20] resources for the public to help better conserve water. In fiscal year 24, the enhanced training

[6:26] for landscape professionals are made possible by safety and water funding, which we was securing

[6:32] contractor, California water fishing partnership, to administer the EPA water since certified

[6:39] qualified water efficient landscape for training, often referred to as 12, which is a training

[6:44] for landscape professionals who live when we offered it with who live and work in Santa Clara County.

[6:50] The quail training, offered in both Spanish and English,

[6:54] equipped our local landscapers, contractors, and designers

[6:57] with tools they need to provide water-ficient landscaping

[7:00] to our residents in Santa Clara County.

[7:03] Over the contract, the training provided 165 participants

[7:06] over five classes with a knowledge and water-ficient landscaping

[7:10] and practices, including water management

[7:13] and preserving our valuable resources.

[7:17] In spring of 2024, we hosted the last training

[7:20] under the contract in Spanish at Valley Water Facilities with 30 attendees in this cloud in that class.

[7:32] So for an accepts significant water program funding offered us an opportunity to pilot not just while training,

[7:38] but also our webinar series landscape summit and permaculture pilot, which was offered in the previous years of safety and water funding.

[7:46] These pilots were highly successful and as a result, Valley Water is pursuing extensions and expansions of these programs to continue operating

[7:54] them to the public. So, a value water, we actually just secured a contract to offer the landscape

[7:58] summit and workshop series as a permanent program, so that will be coming soon. And we'll

[8:04] be releasing an RFER working on the contract in fiscal year 25 to continue the quail training

[8:10] into the future. We saw all of these as positive programs with good feedback from the public.

[8:16] The popular permaculture program that has actually received a value water grant to continue

[8:21] to offer the program in Spanish, with graduates from our Safety and Water

[8:25] Funded Pilot helping to teach the new series.

[8:28] And our long-busters program ended in June of 2024.

[8:34] And a new contract has been secured to offer enhanced landscape

[8:38] direct installation program for low-income residents in Santa Clara County.

[8:42] So this program has been expanded to include

[8:46] With a gray water laundry landscape systems, rain water capture, irrigation equipment upgrades,

[8:52] and urban street trade planting, in addition to the long conversions that was offered

[8:56] under the long-busters program.

[8:59] This program will be offered to participants of the long-busters wheat list before being

[9:04] launched to the general public.

[9:07] In fiscal year 25, as we look forward, safety and water funding will continue to support

[9:11] the landscape rebate program, allowing for the $2 per square foot conversion rate to

[9:15] continue. Increased participation in this program will ensure value water reaches our 2040

[9:20] and now our 2050 goals, water conservation goals. Funny will also be used for the design of

[9:27] the 26,000 square foot demonstration garden adjacent to value waters headquarters building,

[9:33] which was presented to this committee in May of 2024, the May 2024 meeting.

[9:38] And with that, I will open it up for questions.

[9:43] committee members or a

[9:48] bruh.

[9:49] I need to flip back through this.

[9:53] Well, I think I think that's

[9:55] great news that we're seeing more

[9:57] multi-family participation.

[10:00] I hear a lot from people who live in multi-family housing and if they don't have that conversion, they're very irritated by the fact that some people are just very cablier about water use and there's no impacts to them. So I think it's really nice that that message is getting out.

[10:17] The qualified water efficient landscape retraining, again, another success story,

[10:25] I think it's great.

[10:27] One question I have, like, is there, there's a benefit to the people that participate and that they get the training and that they're able to learn this stuff.

[10:39] Um, do we do anything sort of to help those folks with their opinion, like, I don't know,

[10:45] they could have stickers that they could put on their trucks to say they've gone through

[10:51] this training, um, another thing might be, uh, and I don't know if this, you know, gets

[10:58] into, um, a category.

[11:00] I mean, normally we don't like to call out people, but we could have listening to say these

[11:05] on these people have gone through this training.

[11:08] So I really think that to expand the program,

[11:12] we want to show that there's a really direct benefit

[11:15] to those folks.

[11:16] So if we have done that, great, if we haven't,

[11:19] or thinking about it, I think that's

[11:22] would be a cool thing to do.

[11:24] Yeah, I think that's a great,

[11:26] because we do really want to promote these folks.

[11:28] So the Qual Training Program is an EPI program

[11:32] that's nationally recognized.

[11:33] and they have a database where people from the public can go in and search for

[11:38] their zip code and find a qualified landscaper in that area. We have a list of

[11:45] landscapers who are on our landscape design assistance program list and on our

[11:50] landscape professionals list that we can list their qualifications and one of those qualifications

[11:55] can be the 12 program. But I do think that's a great idea. It's probably more that we can do to

[12:01] as well. Great. I mean, I think we're, don't give me wrong. I think we're doing great work.

[12:06] And I just always want to think, how do we reward our behavior, right? How do we make people want

[12:11] to participate? And how do we draw the attention of the public? Like, oh, you know, here's,

[12:16] here's someone that has the training to be able to help me save water. And then in terms of the next

[12:21] steps, delighted to hear the landscape summit is going to be permanent. And I wasn't quite sure about the

[12:29] landscape, direct installation program, you said that we had partnered with

[12:33] long busters and that has expired and then there's a replacement, but I

[12:38] wasn't sure what the replacement was. Yeah, and this is probably recent, but

[12:44] the contract has been, we went out to bid, we did, we released an RFP and the

[12:49] bid was awarded to smart yards co-op to run that program for us as a

[12:58] contractors to now implement that program. It does have more elements to it.

[13:06] So yeah, our contract with our city forest was set to expire.

[13:10] And in the end of fiscal year 24, so our next set was to go out to bid for that one.

[13:15] And you said we went out to bid was that a qualification space selection process or was it low cost.

[13:25] Thank you, and I just want to say great work. It's always wonderful. So here are the positive progress that we're making. So thank you very much.

[13:34] No.

[13:38] I had a chance to encourage you to know, now you're both on the landscape and committee.

[13:43] And I got to see the little shannas at the giant game.

[13:46] Oh, yes.

[13:47] Yep, that was a good event.

[13:51] How about when it comes to the language,

[13:53] we have Spanish, and we have the chart,

[13:58] what else do we have there?

[14:01] For the call training, we had it in Spanish and English.

[14:04] We have it, yeah, and he's also.

[14:06] We don't, I think currently because it's a national program,

[14:10] it has only been translated into Spanish,

[14:12] at this point, but I'm not positive of the plans

[14:16] to translate it into additional languages,

[14:18] But I know it's it kind of has to be changed at that EPA level, but you know see if there's a need because

[15:00] And these are the community. Also, mail pages increase in all the time. And is all cities

[15:09] partners with us on a rebates example, like, you know, mail pages, certain are they all with us? And if

[15:15] not why not, how can we go about it? Yeah, currently five of the different cities or water retellers

[15:22] are partnered with us. So we have a city for the Lansing Group, a program specifically city

[15:28] Palo Alto, Susana Clara, Seidma Pides,

[15:32] San Jose Municipal Water, and City of Morgan Hill.

[15:37] Is that five?

[15:40] And then actually we just got City of Gilroy this year.

[15:43] Oh yeah.

[15:44] Which one?

[15:45] City of Gilroy.

[15:46] Oh great.

[15:47] They've come to our landscape and meet again.

[15:49] Great.

[15:50] How do we do more outreach or is it?

[15:53] But you're cutting it.

[15:54] What's the issue?

[15:54] Do you know typically it is a challenge of two things so either it's a challenge of funding or in the sense of do they have the funding to participate in the cost share and then there are the other challenges sometimes they're legal says whether or not they could actually do cost shares for this particular program so that's the other hurdle that we have to go through.

[16:18] Yeah, because of the day we just made a presentation at the milk. It was rotary and a young gentleman there had a good question. He said in Indian, they allowed the roof water come down to go to the ground.

[16:31] How we looked into that about getting any kind of rebate or recognition.

[16:36] Yeah, so we actually we do we do have rainwater capture components to our landscape rebate program. So one of them is rain gardens, which essentially tries to keep as much roof water on site and sink that into.

[16:47] the soil and then we also have rain barrels and systems as part of the

[16:52] rainy day as well. But do we have the actual gutter to go straight into the earth?

[16:57] Construction wise, yes. You know, it is different in different sites, but yes, some of them

[17:02] will redirect into earth and have kind of a friend strain system that, you know,

[17:05] drains out into the landscape. And so you do see a lot of those kind of go

[17:09] straight. It depends on site for site. I don't think those are requirements.

[17:12] Come up in a new idea. They just come to you if they have the planning or whatever

[17:15] I mean, you guys think it's okay, and they would get a rebate.

[17:19] I'm sorry, say, say, say, they would possibly get a rebate.

[17:24] Yeah, I mean, it needs to fit within the, you know, kind of,

[17:27] respecified requirements of our program.

[17:30] So like the, probably closest to that is the rain garden.

[17:35] It's the same concept where really it's taking that down spout and it's redirecting it

[17:39] that goes underground or not into kind of a shallow excavated area or underground where it does kind of

[17:47] hold that on site and just sink in the soil. So it's a bio-swell of sorts. But it is the redirect of

[17:54] the downspot. I said, you know, I'm really not sure, but I said bring your right

[17:58] days and again, your number and so on. As always, you know, great, you know, it was up at the

[18:03] bar golf course Brian got any comments beautiful beautiful golf course up there

[18:09] at the chance to go to a charity event. What's that?

[18:17] Yeah, great.

[18:23] Great job. Any public comments?

[18:27] Definitely anybody? Looks like online there are none and I have no cards.

[18:33] All right, thank you. Thank you, it was always.

[18:40] And we're looking forward to that summit.

[18:42] It's an usually February, right?

[18:44] End of February, what are 28th and what are we having in 27th?

[18:50] Because of the date hasn't been set for it, but we just started the, we actually, maybe just a couple of weeks ago got that contract signed off and so we've been meeting with the contractor and we'll be the next thing we'll be to set a date for that.

[19:02] I've been with you ever since I've been here in every year, it just gets better and better and please get spacked.

[19:09] Yeah. Okay. Let's go to 4.2. Receive update on BF6DEM, Raise and Reservoir Expansion.

[19:18] Good morning, Chair, Central, Vince Jen, Deputy for Warfare.

[19:20] Our favorite driver, hi, Dana.

[19:23] How are you doing?

[19:27] Dana Jacobson will be prime to meeting update.

[19:31] Okay. Great. Thanks, Vince.

[19:33] Again, I'm Dana Jacobson, Senior Water Resources Specialist and the Import of Water Unit.

[19:37] Now, we also have Chuck Gardner, the president of the Hallmark Group, participating remotely.

[19:42] He's serving as the project manager for the Water Authority and will be available for questions.

[19:47] Today, I'll be providing an update on the BS system raise and reservoir expansion project,

[19:51] which is a partnership between the San Luis Delta Mendoza Water Authority and the Bureau of Reclamation.

[19:56] Let's spend several months since our last update.

[19:59] So...

[20:00] Next steps. This is just an informational item for you today, but we do expect to bring a recommendation to this committee, and ultimately to the board later this fall or winter.

[20:12] As you know, a system creates San Luis Reservoir, which is the nation's largest Austrian Reservoir, this facility is critically important for value water, as both our state and federal supplies are stored there, and we have direct access to these water supplies through facilities that we operate ourselves.

[20:28] The dam raised project simply involves raising the existing dam by an additional 10 feet and expanding the storage of San Luis Reservoir by 130,000 acre feet.

[20:38] This project would occur concurrently with a separate project that's meant to address seismic safety concerns that the existing dam.

[20:45] The dam safety project began way back in 2022 and is well underway and it's important to realize that this is driving the schedule for the dam raised project as well.

[20:55] So, we need to keep pace with that underlying project to realize the cost and schedule efficiencies of doing both projects at the same time.

[21:05] The project is eligible for up to 50% of costs for funding from the Federal Win Act.

[21:12] However, a reclamation intends to limit its participation to 30%.

[21:16] This 30% represents about 39,000 acre-feet of storage capacity that would be managed by the Bureau of Reclamation for CVP purposes.

[21:25] The remaining 70% or 91,000 acre feet would be managed by the water authority on behalf of the project participants.

[21:33] Now we think that this is a reasonable approach because it makes more space available for project participants and it simplifies the cost allocation approach.

[21:43] The back in June of 2023 value waters forward approved approximately $1.6 million in funding for the planning phase of the project and reserve up to 60,000 acre feet of storage capacity.

[21:55] in the project. This is equivalent to about 66 percent of all the capacity that's allocated to

[22:01] the project participants. At this time, there was a shortfall in storage requests of about

[22:05] 6000 acre feet, but since this time, the Wesleyan's water district has stepped up to fill the

[22:10] void and that project is now fully subscribed. But we do expect that these percentages could shift

[22:18] a little bit when it comes time for the next cash call.

[22:24] But the bulk of our time over the last

[22:25] months has been spent on negotiations for a cost share and management agreement, this agreement

[22:30] is critically important because it'll define how the costs and benefits are shared between

[22:34] the Bureau of Reclamation and the project participants. The negotiations have been a little

[22:39] bit more difficult than we anticipated, but at this point we think the agreement is in a really

[22:43] good place and should be completed in the next month or so. The current thinking is that

[22:48] Reclamation and the water authority would share construction responsibilities for the

[22:52] information being responsible for the construction of the dam raised and the water

[22:57] authority or perhaps even cow trans managing the construction of state route 152, but

[23:02] this hasn't been finally decided yet. When the project is complete,

[23:08] the reclamation would retain ownership of the facility as a federal asset and the

[23:12] participants would be provided a contractual right to storage to be managed through the water

[23:17] authority. This is a similar arrangement to Valley Water's water service contract,

[23:21] But instead of water supply, we would be contracting for storage instead, but we would not own the underlying facility.

[23:29] Additionally, the per- oops, let's see.

[23:33] Okay, so now move on to the project benefits.

[23:36] The participants would be given access to storage capacity and relative to the proportion to their investments.

[23:42] In that space, they could store any water that's available to us for value water that includes both our state and federal supplies,

[23:49] and a supplemental water transfers.

[23:52] The agreement also provides for the allocation and storage of surplus CVP water that wouldn't

[23:57] be available to us absent investment in this project.

[24:01] And we'll also be able to store surplus state water project butter in this space as well.

[24:06] We really take advantage of those opportunities now because of a lack of storage capability.

[24:11] An additional benefit would be that we would have the option to lease or market our

[24:15] share of capacity to offset project costs.

[24:18] So

[24:21] while we're really excited about this project, it's not completely without risk.

[24:26] One of the more difficult issues to resolve through the negotiations is the security of a water stored on our behalf.

[24:34] We expect that different water types will have different levels of protections.

[24:38] For example, throughout the negotiations, reclamation has been adamant that there are certain limited search situations where they may need to use or access our stored central valid project supplies.

[24:49] Now, this is would likely only occur in a severe or multi-year drought, but it is a risk.

[24:56] However, we do expect that our state water project supplies would have a much higher...

[25:00] Attach to the remain agreement as an exhibit. These individual agreements are described in a little bit more detail on the memos, but I won't go into them now.

[25:09] But please be aware, the value water will not be a party to any of these agreements, and instead will continue to participate in the project through an activity agreement with the water authority.

[25:19] But we do expect that approval by value waters board will be needed before the water authority approves and executes the cost share agreement.

[25:29] A total of about $24 million is needed to, from the project participants to complete the planning and design phase of the project.

[25:36] And initial $3.5 million will be requested in late 2024, concurrent with approval of the cost share and management agreement.

[25:45] And a more substantial commitment of about $20 million will be needed in early 2026 with final instruction funding needed in early 2028.

[25:57] And moving on to next steps here, as I stated before, we're just wrapping up negotiations on the cost share and management agreement.

[26:06] We'll bring this back to the committee for a recommendation later this fall and that'll be paired with an additional, an additional funding request and likely revisions to the activity agreement with a water authority.

[26:18] If that's approved, we'll move on to negotiations for the subsequent agreements and then we'll start to explore financing options and governance structures.

[26:29] And that concludes my presentation and I'm about to take any questions.

[26:33] Thank you, Dana.

[26:34] Before I go on, I didn't get a chance to introduce John Tank and San Jose Water Company.

[26:39] John's thanks for coming.

[26:41] And the reason I'm surprised, because I wasn't a phone with him today, but some other stuff.

[26:46] But just recently, he had a constituent out there that really had some problems with San Jose Water Company.

[26:50] And John Representative, the company, could have easily been hard to know is what I mean.

[26:58] I want to say again, thank you, that constituents called me back and said what a wonderful job you did,

[27:03] even though you had a disagreement, that you represented both of them well.

[27:07] Thank you.

[27:09] Any questions on the committee?

[27:12] Where were we going?

[27:12] They apologize for all the questions, but I wasn't on the previous committee about

[27:19] storage. So some of this stuff is a little new to me. So we referenced both in the memo and in the presentation.

[27:31] There were a lot of modifications of state route 152, but we're not explicit about those.

[27:36] I'm assuming it's to facilitate the instruction access.

[27:41] it's going to be needed or not. I don't know what it is.

[27:44] Yeah, what that is is it's actually a really big deal.

[27:47] It accounts for about half of the project costs.

[27:51] And because of the increase in the storage level and the reservoir,

[27:53] they're going to need to raise about 10 or 11 feet.

[27:56] That little section on the east side,

[28:00] where it goes around the bend down the hands down

[28:01] and to lock those bones there, they need to raise the elevation of the road.

[28:06] Yes, I've driven you in there.

[28:08] So now it's all making sense to me.

[28:09] I mean, well, I understand they'd have a lot of construction traffic, but to, okay, so it's really about the fact we're doing a little bit.

[28:16] One thing.

[28:19] And a couple more things.

[28:24] So, if we look at page 2 of 11 in the presentation, and this visual is great, by the way, so existing dam, the dam safety rays, the water supply rays, and.

[28:39] So we say the seismic repair project is already underway, like what level?

[28:48] Yeah, there are three contracts.

[28:50] Reclamation is going to let three contracts for that project.

[28:54] I believe we're there at now as they're working on the design for the third phase.

[29:00] Or actually the second phase is underway and they need to incorporate the design for the

[29:05] into the third phase of the damn safety project. And so that we expect that to happen kind of an early 2020

[29:13] five. So are you saying phase two is under construction? I believe so. I think so.

[30:00] But, you know, we had our experience with Anderson where we ran into conditions that we didn't expect. And so seismic repairs can always be challenging. And then we have to coordinate it with our project. So I'm sure that staff is aware of all of that and we'll be keeping an eye on it. And we're a big partner.

[30:22] let me go back. We must be because trust you, or tell me go buy and everybody's written up there.

[30:30] Yes, and actually, if you would check Cardano? He may know, yeah.

[30:35] So let's, we'll try to phone a friend real quick and see if check Cardano is. They're either in the

[30:39] first or the second contract, so you can see when we drive by, they're right now that they are

[30:43] developing, they're doing creating access roadways and working on various things up there.

[30:48] With the key part of what Dana was talking about is they're currently designing or finishing

[30:54] up the design for that third phase and that's where we really need to make sure that we can keep

[30:58] this risk raised part because we have to piggyback and make sure that before they move forward

[31:02] with that third phase that all the commitments and everything is ready for the system raised to go

[31:09] through is Chuck online, maybe you can answer it. Through the chair Chuck is not on the

[31:14] There they are. Charles Garden.

[31:20] Can you hear me? Yes. Right. They're going the second contract right now.

[31:27] And so the first phase and second phase is just the over excavation of the foot of the dam.

[31:34] So they're trying to get there's I don't know the exact type of soil condition that they're trying to get to.

[31:39] But they're trying to excavate to more solid foundation material. And so that's a lot of what you've seen so far.

[31:46] And then they're starting to refill the over excavation with more stable material as they start to prepare for the crest or the dam safety rays.

[31:56] Excuse me. That third contract they're expecting to release as Dana was saying.

[32:03] Sometime it's moving around a bit. It was spring. I think it's moving more towards summer.

[32:10] A lot of the work they're doing also is just looking at suitable soils around the dam area

[32:18] for the crust rays and for the safety of dam rays and also for the Highway 152 rays.

[32:24] So there's a good bit of geotech investigation that's going on and was noted there is a

[32:30] a fault that runs through the reservoir, and so that's the reason for the safety of

[32:37] dams project.

[32:38] There's been a lot of analysis that says that during a significant seismic event, the

[32:44] dam would sunk some 10 to 12 feet, which may allow for overtopping if the reservoir

[32:50] happened to be full at the time of that seismic event, and so that's the reason for the

[33:00] to get some economy in scale, it makes sense to do the crest rays concurrent with the safety

[33:07] of dams rays.

[33:08] And so as Dana was saying, our challenge is to make sure we're that safety of dams

[33:14] projects starts to move into this contract free that the crest rays is also approved and

[33:20] ready to move forward concurrent with that project.

[33:24] Thank you for that very thorough response and my, my supposition that this is very intricate and we have a lot of moving parts that need to work together is a reality and thank you for both agencies working closely together. I appreciate that.

[33:43] Under participant benefits, this is page 611, we talk about the third bullet, non-central

[33:54] valley project water and other water types expected to have a high level of protection.

[33:59] I didn't understand what we meant by that sentence.

[34:02] Yeah, so this is been difficult to negotiate with the Bureau of Reclamation, right?

[34:07] So we're building a construction project here to store our water, right?

[34:10] So we expect that water to be there when we need it.

[34:14] And so the arrangement that's being negotiated would give different levels of protection to different water types.

[34:23] I don't know if we want to get into it too much now or wait until the negotiations are done.

[34:29] But there's an issue related to reclamation water rights that they kind of won't give up on.

[34:35] They think that they have risk related to their water rights.

[34:38] if there's CBP water located in the reservoir when they need that water to meet higher priority

[34:46] statutory or contractual obligations or to protect public health and safety.

[34:52] And so there are limited circumstances in the worst of worst years where a

[34:55] information may need to access or take that water.

[35:00] So it sounds like this is a very complicated issue that could justify a presentation all of its own at some point. Yes. Thank you. It's it's it's it's not an easy question to answer to there. And lastly, we we don't define what our costs per acre foot would be with this project. Is there a reason for that?

[35:24] We've had it in previous presentations, and I think it's been part of the water supply

[35:28] master plan as well. In this presentation, we didn't focus on it as far as construction

[35:33] cost per acre foot. I think it's about $7,600 per acre feet. But as far as water supply,

[35:39] I don't think that we have that number. It's, yeah, I would just add that the number

[35:46] has been provided as part of the water master plan analysis where it's compared in a manner

[35:53] consistent with the way it's calculated for other projects.

[35:57] Fortunately, I don't have that number of the top of my head.

[36:01] I apologize for asking so many questions, but I haven't.

[36:04] No problem.

[36:06] It's been presented several times.

[36:07] It hasn't changed.

[36:09] All right.

[36:10] Thank you very much.

[36:11] That's it.

[36:11] Thanks so much.

[36:12] All right.

[36:14] Any, how do you up there, definitely?

[36:18] Thank you, Chair.

[36:19] There are no hands raised online and I have no cards.

[36:22] anybody else in the building? No. Thank you, data. All right. Thank you.

[36:33] Go to a 4.3 receive information update on the unique.

[36:37] Requirements was a Pacheca reservoir expansion project.

[36:44] And by the way, Ryan just got through making a presentation at the Santa Clara County Emergency Operations Council

[36:51] and excellent four star job as usual.

[36:55] Thank you, Chair. Good morning, committee. I'm Ryan McCarty. I'm deputy operating officer at the dam safety and capital delivery division.

[37:04] So, given an update today on the Shaco Reservoir Expansion Project, this is the next presentation in our series of presentations focusing today on the unique requirements and some of the unique benefits associated with them.

[37:18] So we'll go through the presentation, and then we can take questions at the end, or if there's something you want to stop me on, just to just follow.

[37:26] Okay, I don't want to spend too much time on the operations and the benefits, because we've talked about it several times before, but they are important to just give a refresher on how these connect to the unique requirements of the project.

[37:37] So here you have the slide that shows the benefits and these nice photos describing each of the benefits and what the operations are needed for each of those benefits down below.

[37:51] So really you can see that trend here, you know, we're capturing and storing local and imported water to use for emergency supply.

[37:58] And then also capturing natural inflows as you use for environmental benefit. So not going to spend a lot of time on this one, but just wanted to sum that up and have it out here in the information.

[38:09] And this slide, I think, is important, not sure we've done this before, but just comparing

[38:14] what Pecheco's operations and what it would look like, how full it would be over a

[38:19] period of time compared to one of our typical reservoirs. In this case, we use Chesbro,

[38:24] as an example. And most of our original reservoirs were designed to fill and drain each year.

[38:32] So, to store water from the local watershed in the winter and send it down to the creek in the

[38:37] to do groundwater recharge and environmental benefits and, you know, keep those creeks flowing.

[38:43] So you can see what's the top there, that's what Chesbro looks like in almost every year.

[38:48] It fills and drains and some years it doesn't fill it all.

[38:51] We have droughts and then comparing that to the graph there on the bottom and showing what the

[38:56] Pachaco reservoir would look like.

[38:58] Just kind of you can tell from the magnitude with Chesbro still shown at the bottom there.

[39:02] how much more water work we're storing and how it can extend its life through like the

[39:07] 1984 drought. It's still maintained some water in it at the end there as we would have used

[39:14] that for emergency supply during that drought.

[39:23] Okay, so those operations connect with some

[39:25] important pieces on our water rights. So another refresher here we've seen this graph many times

[39:30] we just wanted to highlight again that the reservoir contains both imported water supplies from

[39:35] was reservoir, or through our imported water supply system, and natural inflow showing the darker

[39:40] blue color down below. So there's always some ratio of natural water to imported water stored in

[39:47] the reservoir, and you give them time based on our modeling.

[39:53] In so in order to do that, there's

[39:54] a few different things, we'll need to accomplish that are unique to this project and the first.

[40:00] Actual pieces with both Central Valley Project and State Water Project to be able to store the water in there, but could potentially be water rights changes as well.

[40:10] So we're still going through conversations on that and working through the different details and preparing our path forward for that.

[40:18] We will certainly need to have a change petition for the existing

[40:24] Pachaco water water district water right, which is what the current reservoir uses, and that's a 7,250 foot

[40:32] acre foot annual amount of water, and so we will be moving that

[40:37] Point where the water is released upstream for the new dam location, so that will that will take a

[40:43] Water right permit change

[40:46] And lastly, the large one, that's pretty obvious,

[40:49] will need a new water right to capture flows,

[40:52] larger flows from the North Park,

[40:54] particular creek watershed.

[40:55] So to store that natural inflow,

[40:57] we'll certainly need to be able to increase,

[41:00] or get a new water right and increase the amount

[41:02] that's able to be stored in the expanded reservoir.

[41:05] And on the next slide, you'll kind of see what these all mean geographically.

[41:09] So again, number one, you see there, down at the bottom,

[41:12] That's basically highlighting where the connection point to the Pacheco conduit will be and that will allow us to move water into the reservoir through the Pacheco conduit.

[41:23] The important water supplies is also move water out into the Pacheco conduit. So there's definitely some contractual changes needed there.

[41:31] And then number two, you can see the change petition showing that the movement, where the water on the existing North Park dam water right would move to and maintain particular past water districts water right, and just by moving it upstream a bit, and then the third one there, you can see the watershed highlighted above and collecting the water so that comes into that into the reservoir there.

[41:58] Okay, so next I'll talk about some of the other contractual types of things that we need there unique to the project.

[42:07] So for the water storage investment program, there's some special requirements that all of the wizard projects have to undergo and they call them public benefit contracts.

[42:16] So these are contracts with the administering agencies.

[42:19] in our case to the Department of Water Resources for Emergency Supply and the California Department of

[42:25] the Fish and Wildlife for the environmental benefits and the creek releases.

[42:30] So once we get all the details on what this will look like, we'll have to go through a process

[42:34] to develop these public benefit contracts and work through all the details on the releases will

[42:40] make or the emergency storage will have in all these different cases. So they will also include

[42:46] Adaptive management plans, metrics for evaluation, evaluating the, how well the public benefits are working, and then also kind of forward thinking on decision making processes.

[42:59] So they're pretty involved and we've been working with some of the other water storage investment program projects and talking to them how they're doing on their progress.

[43:09] There hasn't been a lot of progress on many of the projects. It's it's a pretty complicated issue to really try to hone in on how these all look, but there has been

[43:16] one project that successfully gone through this as harvest water. So there's some success there.

[43:23] And then lastly, we'll also need our funding agreement for the full amount of our grant through

[43:29] the California Water Commission. So that's I'll get into some more details on what the requirements are

[43:33] for that as well.

[43:39] So this slide just kind of adds a little bit more detail of what I just described.

[43:44] So going through the different public benefit types and what the needs are for the public benefit

[43:50] contracts. So first you have the emergency water supply with the California Department of Water Resources.

[43:56] And then it shows what the contract considerations are at this point.

[43:59] With our 2021 supplemental feasibility study we had about 100,000 acre feed of emergency storage.

[44:07] So we'll have to monetize that with DWR and come up with the way to to show that we're providing that public benefit through that action.

[44:17] Next, we have the Pachaco Creek Fisheries, that's the releases that go into Pachaco Creek.

[44:22] So that's with CDFW, and we actually made quite a bit of progress on what our release model looks like.

[44:29] It's in our draft EIR, and also our supplemental feasibility documentation, showing the benefits to Pachaco Creek through our modeling.

[44:37] In both keeping the creek wet, you're round to aid in migration up and down the creek, and then also lower the temperatures of the water.

[44:45] So, we made quite a bit of a headway on that.

[44:47] We have actually begun conversations with CDFW on that, on that piece.

[44:54] And then the third one here is the environmental enhancement through,

[44:58] basically the transfer to the,

[45:00] All except to work with CDP or the Central Value Project and Reclamation to organize how those transfers will come into play.

[45:08] So kind of unique considerations for this portion of the project, but it's really important that we have our public benefit structure in a written agreement that we can all understand and share so we can move forward.

[45:22] Okay, so the California Water Commission or CWC funding agreement, so this is the final funding agreement that's needed.

[45:30] It's essentially to get the large amount of the grant that remaining 475 million.

[45:37] So, just listed here, all the things we need.

[45:40] The first one is the contracts I just described for public benefits.

[45:45] We'll have to have all of our feasibility studies finalize and complete,

[45:48] and our final environmental documentation, including our final EIR, and EIS, and then all of the federal

[45:55] state and local approvals and permits, so everything will have to be inhand, and then any contracts

[46:01] with other beneficiaries like partners that derive benefits from the project. So essentially we have

[46:06] to be construction ready before we get the CWC funding, so that's kind of the last contractual milestone

[46:13] that will happen before we build with it, start construction, of course, after border

[46:17] approval.

[46:22] Okay, so this is kind of going back to the unique operations, and the ability to

[46:28] capture the natural inflows and the unstoppable CBP and state water project supplies, but just kind

[46:34] of highlighting how that works. And these will require workings with both central valley project and

[46:40] state water project to orchestrate these movements of imported water. So we would be working closely

[46:46] as we do with our important water group on making these happen, but this is a key to the project

[46:52] to build a store, this excess water that comes in these wet years, which we talk about a lot

[46:57] just really briefly, but there is quite a bit that goes into it. So capturing these natural

[47:03] inflows into the expanded Chica Resvera already went over that, so that'll make up some ratio

[47:09] of the store water, but then there's two different types of basically the excess water that comes

[47:14] in wet years. They call that section 215 water, Article 21 water. Of course, I'm not the expert on

[47:19] this but others in the room are. So thank you for your help developing this presentation on these slides.

[47:26] But essentially with those are, is ways that we can get water beyond our current contracts with

[47:32] both the state and federal systems and store that. And typically now, that water is available in

[47:38] wet years and we don't always have a place to put it. So that's kind of the major piece of the expanded

[47:42] the shape of reservoir to be able to utilize that available water.

[47:47] And then also, we'll call an unstoppable water during wet years.

[47:51] Sometimes we can't take our entire contract water.

[47:54] When we have so much water coming into the system and being stored in a reservoirs,

[47:58] just our existing contracts, we can't maximize them in some years.

[48:02] That's what that fourth bullet means there.

[48:06] And so kind of trying to get some perspectives on what this looks like.

[48:09] we did the quick 2023 water year case study, which was a wet year, especially in the Pachaco water shed.

[48:17] And so what we calculated there from what we had in our system and measuring the streamgates

[48:23] along Pachaco Creek and above the reservoir itself is almost 43,000 acre feet of natural inflow

[48:29] would have come into the reservoir in that water year and there would have been about 58,000 acre feet

[48:36] available article 21 and section 2115 water. So that's that water above our contract.

[48:44] And then there could have been about 20,000 acre feet of our own contract water that we could have

[48:50] stored in particular reservoir in that year. So that would have been a pretty beneficial year for

[48:55] the reservoir. Of course, all years are not like that, but that is really the purpose of this project

[49:00] is to really bank on those wet years when the water comes and be able to store it in this

[49:05] of Oregon use it for the dryers.

[49:12] Okay, so just wanted to list a couple other unique elements of

[49:16] the project first. There are many to this large and complex project, but I just want to highlight

[49:21] these that we'll be talking about in future presentations or we've also covered in past presentations.

[49:28] But the first one is the partnership opportunity. So we have been

[49:32] directed by the art board to pursue partnerships on this project to help fund it and offer up

[49:37] to 50,000 acre feet of storage capacity for partners.

[49:42] So there will be more presentations

[49:43] and details on that in the future.

[49:46] We've talked about the incidental flood protection,

[49:48] but can't go without mentioning.

[49:50] It is a pretty major incidental benefit to the project,

[49:54] and we present on that in the past.

[49:56] And then there are all kinds of neat facts about this.

[50:00] This project in how big it is and how unique it is. But, you know, it is the first new reservoir and dam in Santa

[50:06] Clara County since 1957. So over 67 years since we've done anything remotely close to this, but it also

[50:14] expands on an existing reservoir that is not currently owned by Valley Water, but within Santa Clara County. So

[50:20] really kind of the unique element in itself that kind of drives this opportunity.

[50:28] Okay, so I had

[50:29] thank you Ryan committee members

[50:35] thank you

[50:42] Ryan for the presentation can you

[50:46] explain a more detail about this in multi-year operation for particular

[50:52] that's not clear understand it completely so does that mean that we put

[50:59] water in there we don't release water until the time we need it no matter how long

[51:04] period is. Yeah, so that's one I understand in bed. Yeah, that's it in a nutshell. So this is all

[51:11] based on our weep modeling, which is kind of our local model that we use to incorporate all of

[51:17] our different water supply assets throughout our whole system. So, you know, in wet years,

[51:24] the water isn't really needed from the checkup, right? We can get it from Anderson. We can get it

[51:29] I should have also mentioned that I did use Chesbro as an example, but Anderson does somewhat operate a bit like the Chaco when it's not restricted and of course not empty, but it is currently not operating now.

[51:43] But it same kind of concept is to have some some carryover of water stored in the wet years, but it wouldn't last as long as Chaco because we would utilize that water from Anderson most likely before that.

[51:55] but the wheat modeling considers all the different pieces

[51:58] going into it and adds Pacheco into it

[52:01] and kind of evaluates how it would be used in that scenario.

[52:07] So, there will be any blue curve type of thing

[52:13] for if we have Pacheco in place for operation,

[52:19] it'll will be operating at based on year by year,

[52:24] uh... situation and then decision to be made uh...

[52:28] uh... year to year basis

[52:30] yeah for the water supply component

[52:32] uh... yes you're you're right but there will be a rule curve

[52:36] for the creek releases so we will have

[52:38] a rule curve developed through our public benefits contract cdfw

[52:42] like i described that

[52:44] releases about an average about nine thousand acre feet per year

[52:48] and so that's supposed to come out of the uh... the

[52:50] the natural inflow watershed bucket

[52:52] So that's for the environmental benefit.

[52:57] So that's for the environmental benefit.

[52:59] So what I'm also concerned is that

[53:06] the incidental flow protection benefit

[53:11] do we anticipate that in our operation or

[53:16] strictly incidental.

[53:18] So the way that we have that set up in our operations now

[53:22] is that each year we would have at least the existing reservoirs capacity available in the reservoir.

[53:30] Okay, so it's about 5,500 acre feet now, the current reservoir. And so each year as we get

[53:35] into November, we'll make sure that we have at least that much space available in the reservoir,

[53:40] so we wouldn't be ever increasing, but it also be unlikely at that time a year that we would have,

[53:46] you know, much more than that anyway. But so that's kind of our baseline. But in most

[53:51] there's more available. And I think we did a slide back a few presentations ago that showed

[53:57] kind of the averages and what's available. But usually when you get into a wet year you're coming

[54:03] out of a dry year. So there must likely be much more available. If we use some of that for water

[54:08] supplier in that year. Thank you. My other question is that I'm starting the slides of

[54:23] 55 and particularly 56. I was ability to capture natural info and on storeable CPM

[55:00] The point of these bullets are we will dispatch it to how well have these benefits. So as for the challenging requirement in order to give these benefits, what are the other any special requirements that's making these benefits.

[55:29] It's a real-life, a particular movie challenging, and then difficult takes a long time in

[55:35] that.

[55:36] I don't think particularly challenging, because these are available now, these mechanisms,

[55:41] but just not available to put into an expanded reservoir.

[55:45] So really we just want to make sure, you know, you're for year we're looking and paying attention

[55:49] to what is available through these different mechanisms and trying to utilize that.

[55:54] So it's really just kind of adding, you know, kind of a new element to, you know, an important

[55:58] water group and what they do and, you know, looking for additional water sources in these years.

[56:04] So there's not really anything we have to do. I don't believe and please help me if I'm wrong,

[56:09] contractually ahead of time to secure these or anything that is really kind of on a case by case

[56:14] basis. Okay.

[56:18] Okay. Okay. Okay. That's, that's well, I hope to, I hope to hear that it's a,

[56:24] It's not something that in addition to what we currently do, and then just so basically the

[56:34] opportunities that's available now, we cannot utilize those opportunities.

[56:41] And then these benefits, data here, gave us the ability to realize some of these opportunities.

[56:49] But it's so all the rules and regulation and negotiation already in place, that's basically what we need.

[57:00] There's no additional lots of work, requirement related to realizing these potential benefits.

[57:11] There's still some details that need to be completely put together.

[57:15] There's still, sorry, the Pacheco project is still working on its operations curves and how things will work and then we'll still be working together on how it will partner with our other projects and making sure we're looking there.

[57:28] We were specifically talking about 2015 and 21.

[57:31] There may be, we may not, you know, depending on how things work, we may take that water in locally and we may store other water in that particular area.

[57:39] we may not be that particular water but the crux or the what will be realized if we have

[57:45] storage available when water is excess and there is 2015 or 21 available there is the ability

[57:51] to store a type of water in Pacheco and so I just wanted to you I know you I'm sorry to make it

[57:58] complicated and I know you can't ask to direct question is it is it completely set up right now

[58:02] and I just want to let you know that it's not completely set up on how to make that into the various

[58:08] things as Ryan talked about. There are various ways we have to make sure we can put the water in those various places.

[58:13] And if it's not 2015 or 21, we will be able to put other water into Chaco and use that to 15 and 21 locally.

[58:22] Okay.

[58:23] So I think originally when this started with this committee that we asked for these topics to be.

[58:35] study them, then presented to a full board, the whole idea is that any challenges that,

[58:42] any new challenges that we currently don't, and don't do, or we do, never, never, never

[58:50] happens, is for the board to understand these things.

[58:54] So that when we make decisions, these things can be, they can be, in our head, that this

[59:02] work, this may not work, that kind of thing. So that's why I ask these questions. And this, the, the,

[59:09] the, to me, the, uh, uh, uh, probably number one reason that we're either even considering

[59:16] particularizable is because of these bullet points on this particular slides, right? Yeah. So it is really,

[59:25] it's something that it's it's it's can be can be accomplished. You see a lot of work and a lot of effort. Yeah, it's not something like we keep working on it. Keep working on it and the opt coaches too big and it can never happen. That's why I asked the question.

[59:45] So yeah, if I, if I may, I would just say, you know, similar to cis we've been negotiating

[59:52] with the bureau to nail down how the operations would, and

[1:00:06] Thank you. My last question is that remind me that I think when we came up at this committee

[1:00:29] measure to mitigate plant, like a mitigation measure,

[1:00:34] plant half of what these are, you were meant to impact.

[1:00:37] And that we haven't, we haven't seen that discussion yet, you know?

[1:00:45] I don't think so. I thought we had a presentation on

[1:00:49] environmental kind of topics. We can't remember what we gave that one or not.

[1:00:56] Okay, apologies, but yeah, let me look back into that. Okay, we certainly plan to discuss it because there are, there's a lot, I mean, I suppose they're unique, but we do mitigation for all of our projects.

[1:01:08] Yeah, I know, yeah.

[1:01:11] We can get into more detail in the environmental discussion.

[1:01:13] We do mitigation according to these rules and regulations and by getting permits, I think the original thought of having that as a separate category is that.

[1:01:26] is the mitigation going to be so big, that's really beyond.

[1:01:34] Well, this is a bit much easier.

[1:01:36] Yeah, just that because we hear these things,

[1:01:39] and it exactly how big it is

[1:01:41] and how do we anticipate that kind of,

[1:01:46] as we move forward, we're going to learn more and more about

[1:01:48] what kind of a requirement and then a sequel process

[1:01:52] process and need a process that's going to be requires to mitigate. Just because of the size

[1:01:59] of this project, how if it's a far beyond the usual mitigations that we do for our other project,

[1:02:13] this is, let's something that the board should know.

[1:02:19] Would you like to add a little bit of discussion about that?

[1:02:23] I think the presentation of the board on this topic goes.

[1:02:26] I think that would be, I think that would be good.

[1:02:29] Actually, one of the reasons that a generous in my mind is that

[1:02:36] this public comment from Sierra Club about some of these issues.

[1:02:41] So I thought, those are all good issues.

[1:02:44] However, it seems that they fall into a category

[1:02:48] of that we already said.

[1:02:51] We're going to the Borses, the oil,

[1:02:53] at least understand that the size and then the extent

[1:02:58] of the mitigation related to this project.

[1:03:02] If it's regular, it's good.

[1:03:05] If it's not, it's beyond our regular project,

[1:03:08] we need to know about that.

[1:03:10] And of course, there's a money associated with that also. Yeah. So, okay. And that's my question. Thank you, Chair.

[1:03:20] Thank you. What a remission.

[1:03:26] Thank you. Two things struck me when is how incredibly complex all of this is. There's a lot of movie parts.

[1:03:39] There's certain levels of risk associated with some things and a lot of things need to come together in the most optimistic world.

[1:03:56] Yeah, the other thing that struck me was, we used the word unique nine times in the staff report.

[1:04:05] I didn't count it in the presentation, but certainly Mr. MacArthur used unique quite extensively.

[1:04:14] And I actually looked it up, the synonyms for unique, it's an adjective, distinctive, individual, special, idiosyncratic,

[1:04:23] working, eccentric, isolated, single, solo, lone, solitary, uncommon, unusual, peculiar,

[1:04:31] novel-strange odd, sweet generous. So I don't know that it's the best word to emphasize

[1:04:38] that much, because we don't want to be ideas in Cratica, or Corky.

[1:04:45] Chair, I'm sorry, can I interrupt? I think I started when I started

[1:04:52] this discussion, I used the work you need.

[1:04:55] Yeah, in my mind, I was thinking that this is something that's just related.

[1:05:05] So, it's not Ryan, it's not Ryan, it's not Ryan that uses what it is, and then they just use this word as a, we're going to take a vote on how many, how many people like unique and how they feel like special.

[1:05:19] Okay, anyone like City of Syncratic, but so, and thank you for that explanation, and also by the way, Churchway, thank you for your questions, which I think are important to be able to address the board.

[1:05:32] I'm going to just briefly touch on some of the Sierra Club comments first and then go through the presentation.

[1:05:43] So the Sierra Club said the benefits are not as concerning as unique project requirements and which merit much more attention from the board and staff.

[1:05:55] And so I agree with that. I think we've heard a lot about the benefits of the project and there are benefits to this project.

[1:06:04] But there's a lot of requirements, and I think there's a lot of uncertainty too, including the challenges that will or might arise.

[1:06:14] One issue that, and a lot of these, I think, factor into kind of an environmental perspective like requirements related to the incursion into a state park.

[1:06:25] I think that's opening a whole can of worms and I think we need to have a better handle on how that could potentially impact the project.

[1:06:38] And then just the comment, requirements related to managing the largest and most complex infrastructure project ever undertaken by Valley Water.

[1:06:48] complexity of project management,

[1:06:50] risk of delay, cost,

[1:06:51] escalation, land acquisition,

[1:06:53] challenges, other remote location.

[1:06:55] That's a big one.

[1:06:59] Again, I think I think I want to see sort of the level of risk

[1:07:03] associated with things and have those defined.

[1:07:09] Specific content in the staff report.

[1:07:12] We talk a lot about processes in regards to water rights

[1:07:17] and CVP contractual changes, it would be great

[1:07:22] to have those described in more detail,

[1:07:25] including the milestones and probable time frames.

[1:07:28] And the process for land acquisition

[1:07:31] and eminent domain should also be described.

[1:07:34] Given that it doesn't seem like we have particularly

[1:07:40] amenable partners willing to sell to us.

[1:07:43] So there's other comments as well,

[1:07:45] but those are kind of the main ones.

[1:07:51] So, looking through the presentation,

[1:07:58] water rights page 7 of 17.

[1:08:03] So, again, these are things that have time frames,

[1:08:10] and durations and issues.

[1:08:14] So, potential changes to imported water contracts

[1:08:17] or water rights.

[1:08:18] So, we may, and I think likely need to have contractual changes regarding storing important

[1:08:26] water supplies.

[1:08:28] So, I'd like to see a little more definition, or at least level of risk, potential range

[1:08:34] of time frame for these things to happen, and then the particular past water district water

[1:08:39] right permit, that needs to be a change petition and to modify the point of diversion.

[1:08:45] that's going to take time and effort. And then the new water right to appropriate natural

[1:08:52] inflow from surrounding watershed for storage. And I'll get to the comment on that we're

[1:09:00] we get into more detail, but all of these things have a certain level of risk. All of these have

[1:09:05] timeframes that we don't want to say they're impossible, but we don't want to be

[1:09:11] and do the optimistic either that we need to identify those, um, appropriately.

[1:09:19] And then if we go on to

[1:09:29] age 11 of 17, um, the contracts for administering public benefits.

[1:09:36] So we identify three public benefits type emergency water supply, environmental enhancement for

[1:09:45] take a creek fisheries, environmental enhancement

[1:09:48] for the Sengwakeen Watershed Wildlife Refuges.

[1:09:53] And then we have a contract entity, DWR,

[1:09:57] Artificial Wildlife, and again, Department of Fish and Wildlife.

[1:10:00] We identify three public benefits type, emergency water supply, environmental enhancement for the Pacheco Creek fisheries, environmental enhancement for

[1:10:32] the St.

[1:10:33] And I definitely see the benefit of the emergency water supply for valley water.

[1:10:38] When I look at the other two, to me, it seems like the benefit is more associated with

[1:10:51] another county than necessarily our county.

[1:10:55] And maybe I'm looking at that wrong, I don't know, do you even answer to that?

[1:11:01] Yes, so the California water commission considers them state benefits. So they don't really look at it as a county on a whole. So a lot of these other projects are very much regional sites,

[1:11:10] most of the carols, of course, we know that they're benefiting other counties, but with these contracts for public benefits, it's with the state and a requirement of the California water commission to basically confirm how much money will be

[1:11:26] basically giving back to the public and they consider the public state, not Santa Clara County, not San Bernardo County.

[1:11:35] So does that mean that by the project providing these benefits, it makes it easier for us to get permits or money or.

[1:11:46] These are directly connected to our the state, was it funding.

[1:11:50] Okay. Yeah, so it's basically to justify our our funding contribution from the state by providing these public benefits.

[1:11:56] Okay, and maybe, I think that's a great explanation, and I think clarifying that would

[1:12:04] be be useful.

[1:12:08] And Director Shway asked a question on page 14 of 17, the ability to capture natural inflows

[1:12:18] an unsterable CDP and state water private supplies.

[1:12:25] So this water, where's it going right now?

[1:12:29] What is that water doing?

[1:12:30] And I'll tell you I'm asking that question

[1:12:32] because sometimes I'm concerned about whether we might have

[1:12:37] an environmental issue, right?

[1:12:39] Like sometimes water that isn't going directly towards water

[1:12:42] supply may be serving some sort of environmental benefit.

[1:12:46] And I don't know, I can't tell if that's the case here.

[1:12:51] Someone else in the room manager, I'm not sure where it goes.

[1:12:54] I'm more focused exclusively on BHACO in our system.

[1:12:59] I'll start off with just kind of saying that there are specific requirements and specific operating parameters in which the central valley project and state water project can offer what they call

[1:13:09] excess or floods low water in typically under section 215 or article 21 of our contracts.

[1:13:17] With that, I'm going to divert it to Cindy a little bit, but in the end, these are waters that are typically only available in the

[1:13:24] wetest of years when all the other requirements have been environmental and other requirements have been met and then they have permission to divert these excess sometimes called floods low but Cindy.

[1:13:40] So during what conditions these has air and mention these types of water can be made available

[1:13:46] through our existing contracts, our state water project and CBP contracts, we have access

[1:13:52] to be supplies through those contracts currently.

[1:13:56] We take very little of those supplies typically because when those supplies are available,

[1:14:02] You know, it's wet and our existing storage situation is typically full, so we don't have any place to put those water supplies.

[1:14:12] If we have additional storage, we would be able to secure those supplies through our existing contracts and, you know, theoretically, we would put those in storage.

[1:14:23] So, those supplies are the, are supplies we plan to store in, in CISC.

[1:14:31] And if the Chaco were available, we would intend to store those supplies in the Chaco as well.

[1:14:41] So, just to make sure I understand you guys, and I thank you for the explanations.

[1:14:46] In essence, this water is not providing any kind of real environmental benefit because it's a wet year, right?

[1:14:58] So, so it truly is.

[1:15:00] In addition to all the supplies needed to meet the requirements under the biological opinions under the incidental take permit under the water quality control plan all of those water quality and a biological requirements are met and the state and federal projects are pumping all they can to put into storage and meet general project needs and then this is water on top of that that would otherwise go out to the bay not meeting any criteria or identified need.

[1:15:30] So I sometimes think that water that goes out to the bay does serve an environmental

[1:15:33] benefit, but thank you for that presentation. Maybe when it goes to the full board,

[1:15:39] just being a little more explicit that this is definitely a legitimate use for that water,

[1:15:48] and that shouldn't be problematic. And then on the last page of the slide,

[1:15:59] We have partnership opportunity, I don't think that we've heard from any partners yet that

[1:16:06] actually are offering financial participation at this point.

[1:16:10] That's what we heard last time and I'm assuming that's still the case.

[1:16:13] That's correct.

[1:16:14] Yeah, we do have some interest, but nothing set yet.

[1:16:19] And do any of the interested parties have the wherewithal to provide significant funding?

[1:16:25] I believe they do. I think it's like like us, it's almost a large scale decision making process and what they want to invest in, you know, in different types of infrastructure, but they do recognize the need for expanding their their storage in the future and being able to kind of do the same thing we're doing is is to water and what years to use in dry years.

[1:16:47] Okay, because the the first partners that we were identifying for the most part didn't seem to have, you know, much in a way.

[1:16:54] of cash to bring to the deal.

[1:16:56] But so it's encouraging to know that other parties

[1:16:59] are willing to, are looking at investing in this.

[1:17:04] And then under incidental flood protection,

[1:17:06] this is something I asked about at our last meeting.

[1:17:10] And first we were saying the project provide flood protection.

[1:17:13] And now we're saying incidental flood protection,

[1:17:15] which is good, that's correct.

[1:17:17] I do think that we need to quantify.

[1:17:22] And I think reduces extensive flooding even for frequent small events.

[1:17:28] I don't know that we've done a real analysis of that.

[1:17:30] And I would like to see an analysis of that.

[1:17:33] If we're going to be taking credit for blood reduction,

[1:17:39] we should be able to identify to some extent what that might entail.

[1:17:45] Okay, that's it. Thank you.

[1:17:48] any other comments, anybody in the building? Okay, we have Stephanie, anybody that we knew we have Jim

[1:17:58] minus, we have the Sierra Club, no more than we've given to us, but go ahead, please.

[1:18:04] So there are, yes, there's one online comment, Kay Irvin, and there's one in person comments.

[1:18:11] Thank you.

[1:18:17] Good afternoon.

[1:18:19] Good afternoon, committee.

[1:18:20] Can you hear me?

[1:18:22] Really?

[1:18:24] Okay, sorry.

[1:18:25] I'm not sure why it's not working better.

[1:18:28] Good night.

[1:18:29] Okay.

[1:18:31] I want to thank the directors for your questions and for recognizing some of this year's

[1:18:36] class comments.

[1:18:38] As communicated in our comments, we are very disappointed in the minimal information and discussion

[1:18:44] provided about the unique challenges involved in the planning design and permitting for the

[1:18:52] new Pacheco-reservant. And I wanted to emphasize the questions about water rights for natural

[1:19:01] flows from the north or Pacheco Creek. It's unclear how much water will be available and if it's

[1:19:08] the additional cost and time, it will take to obtain this permit. I would also like to note

[1:19:16] that this is the first time I've seen a definitive statement that Valley Water will apply

[1:19:20] for water rights for natural flow.

[1:19:25] And then I heard that it was important possibly for the

[1:19:38] but I just think there needs to be more detailed information about where all the natural inflow

[1:19:50] goes, what are all the uses, and the process, also the process for obtaining water rights

[1:19:58] for the natural influence.

[1:20:01] There are no hands raised on mine.

[1:20:03] Thank you, Stephanie. We have Jim Curl here on 4.3.

[1:20:09] Jim.

[1:20:09] Good morning. My name is Jim Cool. I am a civil activist and environmental activist advocate.

[1:20:19] I apologize. I sent nine questions to the board here.

[1:20:26] And I sent them in Sunday morning and I frankly didn't have notice of this meeting and didn't have an opportunity to generate a really cogent response.

[1:20:40] But you have nine questions.

[1:20:43] I'm not going to bog this meeting down with nine detailed questions.

[1:20:51] But let me read this kind of response I have here.

[1:20:54] I was shocked after reviewing the planned presentation here that only the benefits of Pacheco were being presented and not also the disadvantages.

[1:21:06] There is no valley water independent devil's advocate process testing the effectiveness of proposed projects with comparative benchmark steps in place.

[1:21:19] The devil advocates role responsibility evidently resides with the board of directors.

[1:21:26] However, I have seldom observed tough questions being asked by the board, who remain very supportive of the established programs.

[1:21:36] I find it shocking that a primary reliance exists on ad hoc residents such as myself to ask difficult penetrating questions.

[1:21:47] Valley Water is an unprecedented program of investing $30 billion, inclusive of interest in the next 20 years and multiple infrastructure projects that will raise North County's wholesale groundwater, 620%.

[1:22:04] The need for investment is driven by concerns of extended drought caused by climate change that

[1:22:11] will cut off the imported Delta water supply for extended droughts and climate colleges

[1:22:19] are unable to forecast.

[1:22:22] The investment program is also being driven by unrealistic aid bag population growth of 1% per

[1:22:28] requiring more water, when realistically the population is declining, or will be flat because of Bay Area cost of living prices.

[1:22:42] Pachaco is by far the least effective of the three reservoir expansions which are planned with an investment of 5.6 billion with interest.

[1:22:51] The results in a cost of $29,500 per acre foot produced in comparison, but Kerosene expansion will cost $5,100 per acre foot.

[1:23:05] The problem is the Chaco site is less than ideal for building a reservoir.

[1:23:10] The board needs to request that both pros and cons, and be identified, and the questions

[1:23:18] submitted once,

[1:23:22] if you want me to continue on with.

[1:23:23] Yes, go ahead.

[1:23:24] Okay.

[1:23:25] Focus needs to be on whether a Pacheco expansion is necessary, and whether a catalyst in San Luis

[1:23:31] Reservoir expansions are then, then self-power, solos, sufficient in the design, drought, weak

[1:23:38] simulation to achieve satisfactory water supply resiliency.

[1:23:44] When coupled with San Jose direct portable reuse refinery,

[1:23:50] recycle water exchange, and order local salt water desalination.

[1:23:56] Limiting the Chaco would fund most of these other programs,

[1:24:00] and significantly decreased the North County projected whole soil,

[1:24:04] water charge, easing the cost of living crisis.

[1:24:07] project pruning is overdue. That's much fun. Thank you Jim. Okay. Any other comments

[1:24:15] on anybody? Barbara, go ahead. Yeah, just one thing. You know, I was struck by the fact that

[1:24:23] on some of our projects like for example Anderson, we have an external panel of experts and we

[1:24:32] also have that on our advanced purified water program or we have people that are at least

[1:24:41] following what the changes in the regulations are. I think it might be helpful to do something

[1:24:47] similar on the Chaco given how complex it is. I think it's hard for the average person to

[1:24:55] to actually be able to grasp all of this,

[1:24:59] so many moving parts.

[1:25:00] That's the scale of it is so big. I think if we had a panel that could provide objective analysis, I'm not saying staff is an objective, but I think that is something that could build greater support for the project or greater clarity about the project.

[1:25:26] I mean, I don't want to make any assumptions here, but I really think that that's something

[1:25:30] that we should look at and that it would provide a benefit to the board and to the public.

[1:25:40] To the chair.

[1:25:41] Just want to mention, we do have a technical review board for the design elements, but I think

[1:25:45] you're talking more about the global picture of the project, the operations and environmental

[1:25:51] permitting, planning all that kind of stuff.

[1:25:53] but we do have a technical review board outside

[1:25:56] independent experts in different fields.

[1:25:58] Like we have on Anderson, it's not a requirement

[1:26:00] like it is on Anderson,

[1:26:02] so we don't have the FERC element.

[1:26:03] So it's actually our own piece we developed

[1:26:06] called our technical review board or TRB.

[1:26:09] Actually, I would say the design component

[1:26:12] to the project is the thing that I have the most confidence in.

[1:26:16] You're commented about kind of that bigger issue

[1:26:20] and what level of risk or the schedules

[1:26:24] where the decision points, I think that that's something

[1:26:27] we could use some external help.

[1:26:28] Thank you.

[1:26:30] No, thank you, Chair.

[1:26:32] Yeah, I think the article has a good suggestion.

[1:26:37] Then the board has recognized that we

[1:26:43] are evaluating many storage opportunities

[1:26:45] and then through that process, one or two opportunities will be selected as future

[1:26:56] capturing investment. And I remember could be wrong that here's the new property

[1:27:05] answering this question that you do have experts on the water supply,

[1:27:14] master plan. That is the panel. Remember this, there's this, there's this professor from

[1:27:22] UC Berkeley who did the who wrote the water version for some, I forgot the title, but I

[1:27:32] remember he is one of those experts that's on the panel, but they, that, the purpose of that,

[1:27:39] And I know it's to support all of us in looking at these big pictures that Director Keegan just mentioned that to make decision goes through the decision process to fine tune with our the opportunities to do for the future.

[1:28:00] Am I correct?

[1:28:01] Yes, that is correct.

[1:28:02] We have a panel and if we'd like me to mention all the names and titles, I'd be happy to.

[1:28:08] If you remember, you'll probably remember them very much.

[1:28:13] We have David Sunday, he's a professor with Berkeley.

[1:28:17] We have Nusa Jami.

[1:28:18] She is the Chief Development Officer for Research

[1:28:21] at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab.

[1:28:24] She previously worked at Stanford as well

[1:28:26] and has been on prior panels for us.

[1:28:30] Michael Anderson, who's the state climatologist

[1:28:32] for the Department of Water Resources

[1:28:34] And Young Sing Sun, who has his own consulting firm, but he's been an expert in the field for a long time.

[1:28:43] Thank you.

[1:28:45] Anyone else?

[1:28:45] I hope, yeah.

[1:28:47] That's helpful.

[1:28:49] And we have, we do have regular meetings with them to, so that they review all or analysis through the using the water supply master plan.

[1:28:58] All right, correct?

[1:29:00] Okay.

[1:29:00] Yeah. Well, I think the water commission would be a pretty good example.

[1:29:04] The water company. Yeah. The game is the money.

[1:29:08] So we must think it's pretty good. Stay. Oh, yeah. Okay. Anybody else?

[1:29:14] Actually through the chair and response to that I just wanted to say my level of discomfort has to do

[1:29:22] and not so much with with technical issues it has to do with like I think we can come up with a good

[1:30:00] The number of things that can be challenged and like the issues associated with impacting a state park, the issues associated with so many things like change petitions where we have to get people to agree to make changes.

[1:30:21] all those things create uncertainty and

[1:30:26] and also create the opportunity for delay.

[1:30:30] That's why I think it needs to be a project management kind of person.

[1:30:34] So I see it as being an agent to the good work

[1:30:37] that is being done by the current folks working on the water supply master plan.

[1:30:44] But I think, I don't think their focus is so much on

[1:30:47] the nuts and bolts of what I'd like to see in response. Thank you.

[1:30:54] And can I add something to that to this comment?

[1:30:57] And I totally agree with what the Keegan said.

[1:31:00] And that's the, at least in my mind, that's the purpose of starting these series of more detailed discussion with the board on these kind of like nuts and bolts.

[1:31:15] Yeah. So, and then by the time we go through the water supply master plan that hopefully

[1:31:24] that what we learned from this more in-depth level discussion on particular project,

[1:31:33] your health and in decision making for the future investment on water supply,

[1:31:40] through the water supply management planning.

[1:31:42] Yeah. So I just want to also say that we're not the board hasn't made a decision to

[1:31:53] invest in any of these opportunities. We put money in multiple projects so that we don't kill any

[1:32:02] opportunity. We want to keep all these opportunities alive so that we have options.

[1:32:08] and then it's a process to form where we are,

[1:32:12] where we're having to, where we are now

[1:32:14] and then moving forward to the end and then we have a schedule,

[1:32:20] but then the schedule is a process.

[1:32:25] It's not like I'm doing a design and that's 30, 60, 90,

[1:32:31] and then I know pretty much when my 90% construction drawing

[1:32:35] will be ready.

[1:32:36] This is a lot of supply planning. It's more of a process and we do have a schedule, but then we need to realize that the schedule will change as we learn more as we learn more.

[1:32:47] And I want to thank staff for all the good work that's happening so all the process and then in past years.

[1:32:57] And sometimes I do get kind of a defensive about how some of these comments

[1:33:02] received that you have never really, my discolors to see information.

[1:33:06] I just find out about this information, but it's because it's a process.

[1:33:11] We didn't know about this information.

[1:33:13] As soon as staff know about the information, staff discolors to

[1:33:16] information and then discuss the information with us.

[1:33:19] And as we move forward, I think similar situation likely will happen too.

[1:33:24] So just want to make that clear and we're all in just together and thank you for everybody's participation.

[1:33:35] And that's why we have this meeting to ask all those questions and information so the board will be better prepared when it's asked to make a decision.

[1:33:44] Moving on, thank you all. Thank you, appreciate the discussion. Thank you Ryan, appreciate it.

[1:33:49] We're point four, review and discuss the water supply and the men management committee work plan.

[1:33:57] Is that definitely?

[1:33:58] I can speak on it very just very briefly.

[1:34:01] Thank you chair.

[1:34:03] I, in reviewing the work plan as the clerk.

[1:34:08] I noticed there were quite a few items on one month and not so.

[1:34:12] And I did work with staff to kind of rebalance the work plan.

[1:34:14] And I did mention it to you, Chair San Jose, and you said that was okay.

[1:34:18] So thank you so much.

[1:34:19] Just to kind of help the commission, I'm sorry, the committee utilized their time

[1:34:23] best and flow a little bit more.

[1:34:25] And obviously this is subject to change, but that is my comment for.

[1:34:31] Will be a new year doing a great job, appreciate it, appreciate the communication with me in the comments.

[1:34:37] Before we go to the public comments.

[1:34:42] I know thank you chair. No online comments and no, no in person, but again, thank you to the staff so much for your support. I really really appreciate it. Thank you.

Water Supply and Demand Management Committee Regular Meeting - Aug 26th, 2024

Agenda

Transcript