Orange County Grand Jury • 2008-2009 • Agency Response
Response to: "Paper Water" - Does Orange County Have A Reliable Future? 06/19/09 4.13MB

Paper Water - Does Orange -c ounty Have a Reliable - -F-u ture?*

Published: August 26, 2009 5 pages
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Findings and Recommendations 4 findings

F1
There is inadequate coordination between local land-use planning agencies BOWIE, ARNESON, WILES & GIANNONE and local water supply agencies, resulting in a process that fails to fully Legal Counsel engage the issues. (a). Water agencies have tended to avoid interfering with or participating in growth-management decisions. (b). Cities and the County have tended to not critically evaluate the limitations of the water agencies' supply projections.
Related Recommendations (1)
R1
respective water supply agency, should prepare for adoption by its city council, a dedicated Water Element to its General Plan in conjunction with a future update, not to exceed June 30, 2010. This document should include detailed implementation measures based on objective-based policies that match realistic projections of the County's future water supplies. These objectives, policies and implementation measures should address imported supply constraints, including catastrophic outages and incorporate the realistic availability and timing of "new" water sources such as desalination, contaminated groundwater reclamation and surface water recycling. (Findings F1 a & b, and F2 a & b) 1965 Placentia Avenue ◆ Costa Mesa, California 92627 Telephone (949) 631-1200 ♦ FAX (949) 574-1036 www.mesawater.org Mesa Consolidated Water District The Honorable Kim Dunning, Presiding Judge August 26, 2009 District Mission: Dedicated to Satisfying our Community's
F2
a & b) R-2 Response: The recommendation will not be implemented because it is not COLEEN L. MONTELEONE Interim General Manager/ Mesa's communications systems in place provide sufficient warranted. District Secretary opportunities for the public to become informed. VICTORIA L. BEATLEY Treasurer/Auditor "A complete sudden break in the imported supplies" was a component of the BOWIE, ARNESON, WILES & GIANNONE statewide Golden Guardian exercise in 2008 in which Mesa was among the 20 Legal Counsel Orange County water and wastewater utilities that participated. This type of exercise or variations of it are repeated periodically. Mesa regularly works with Water Emergency Response Organization of Orange County and holds Emergency Operations Center exercises at the District. R-3 Each MWDOC member agency should reaffirm to LAFCO that it will assign the resources necessary to expediently resolve regional governance issues. While the subject study is being facilitated by LAFCO, the options are with the agencies to decide what is best for all. Once conclusions are reached, the parties need to agree quickly and, hopefully, unanimously to adopt a course of action. (Findings F3 a, b & c) R-3 Response: The recommendation will not_be implemented because it is not warranted. Mesa supports the Municipal Water District of Orange County (MWDOC) and supports the current regional governance through MWDOC. 1965 Placentia Avenue ◆ Costa Mesa, California 92627 Telephone (949) 631-1200 ♦ FAX (949) 574-1036 www.mesawater.org Mesa Consolidated Nater District The Honorable Kim Dunning, Presiding Judge August 26, 2009 District Mission: Dedicated to Satisfying our Community's R-4 Each Orange County retail and wholesale water agency should affirm its Water Needs commitment to a fair-share financial responsibility in completing the emergency water supply network for the entire County. The entire County should be prepared together for any conditions of drought, natural or human- caused disaster, or any other catastrophic disruption. WEROC should BOARD OF DIRECTORS commence meetings of all parties, to facilitate consensus on an equitable SHAWN DEWANE funding/financing agreement. (Finding F4 a & b) President Division V FRED R. BOCKMILLER R-4 Response: The recommendation will not be implemented because it is not First Vice President warranted. Mesa already contributes its fare share by participating in the Water Division I Emergency Response Organization of Orange County. JAMES F. ATKINSON Vice President Division IV Respectfully submitted, TRUDY OHLIG-HALL Vice President Division III WAND VACANT Vice President Division II Shawn Dewane President, Board of Directors COLEEN L. MONTELEONE Interim General Manager/ Mesa Board of Directors c: District Secretary Central Files VICTORIA L. BEATLEY Treasurer/Auditor BOWIE, ARNESON, WILES & GIANNONE Legal Counsel . . 1965 Placentia Avenue ◆ Costa Mesa, California 92627 Telephone (949) 631-1200 ♦ FAX (949) 574-1036 www.mesawater.org .
Related Recommendations (1)
R2
Each Orange County retail and wholesale water agency should affirm its SHAWN DEWANE responsibility to develop new, additional, innovative public outreach President Division V programs, beyond water conservation and rationing programs, to expose the FRED R. BOCKMILLER larger issues surrounding water supply constraints facing Orange County. First Vice President The objective should be to connect the public with the problem. The outreach Division I effort should entail a water emergency exercise that simulates a complete, JAMES F. ATKINSON Vice President sudden break in imported water deliveries. The exercise should be aimed Division IV directly at the public and enlist wide-spread public participation on a TRUDY OHLIG-HALL Vice President recurring basis beginning by June 30, 2010. This recommendation may be Division III satisfied by a multi-agency exercise but the inability to coordinate such an VACANT Vice President event should not preclude the individual agency's responsibility. (Findings Division II F2 a & b)
F3
LAFCO is the agency charged with facilitating constructive changes in COLEEN L. MONTELEONE governmental structure to promote efficient delivery of services. To this end, Interim General Manager/ District Secretary LAFCO is conducting a governance study of MWDOC which is the VICTORIA L. BEATLEY designated representative for nearly all of the Orange County retail water Treasurer/Auditor agencies, acting on their behalf with their surface water supplier BOWIE, ARNESON, WILES & GIANNONE Metropolitan. Legal Counsel (a). There are a number of points of governance disagreement between MWDOC and several of its member agencies. This is creating an impediment to the on-going effectiveness of these agencies in critical areas of Orange County's water supply management. (b). The current disagreement is a distraction from the greater good of the agencies working toward Orange County's water future. (c). The stakeholders in LAFCO's study failed to meet their March 11, 2009 deadline for LAFCO's public hearing on this matter. Continued delays are unacceptable.
Related Recommendations (1)
R3
Each MWDOC member agency should reaffirm to LAFCO that it will assign the resources necessary to expediently resolve regional governance issues. While the subject study is being facilitated by LAFCO, the options are with the agencies to decide what is best for all. Once conclusions are reached, the parties need to agree quickly and, hopefully, unanimously to adopt a course of action. (Findings F3 a, b & c)
F4
Orange County is uniquely fortunate to have a vast, high-quality, well- Water Needs managed groundwater basin serving its north geographical area. However, in its south reaches, it has an equally large, high-growth area with virtually no available groundwater resources. BOARD OF DIRECTORS (a). The difference in groundwater availability creates a "haves versus SHAWN DEWANE have-nots" situation that is conducive to inherent conflicts. President Division V (b). The difference in groundwater availability provides opportunities FRED R. BOCKMILLER First Vice President for responsible participants to develop and construct long-term Division I solutions which will benefit the entire County. JAMES F. ATKINSON Vice President Division IV
Related Recommendations (1)
R4
Each Orange County retail and wholesale water agency should affirm its Water Needs commitment to a fair-share financial responsibility in completing the emergency water supply network for the entire County. The entire County should be prepared together for any conditions of drought, natural or human- caused disaster, or any other catastrophic disruption. WEROC should BOARD OF DIRECTORS commence meetings of all parties, to facilitate consensus on an equitable SHAWN DEWANE funding/financing agreement. (Finding F4 a & b) President Division V FRED R. BOCKMILLER

* This report's PDF did not contain easily extractable text and required Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for analysis. There may be minor errors in the extracted findings and recommendations due to OCR limitations with scanned documents.