Received Aug 1 5 2017 Grand Jury*

Conclusions 3

• CL1
  C-01: Cities' water plans are based on historic water availability patterns which may no longer be applicable. Over the last 100 years, water availability from precipitation has been trending downward and may never return to what was considered average. (FA-04, FA-06, FA-14, FA-15) Response to C-01: Partially disagree. The City agrees that water plans are based on historic water availability patterns which may no longer be applicable due to climate change projections and increased regulatory requirements. However, the City's Urban Water Management Plan (UWMP) and Comprehensive Water Resources Reports (CWRRs) take into account not only the historical water availability patterns from precipitation but also water supply agreements, existing and anticipated regulatory and environmental issues, and drought conditions. 501 Poli Street • P.O. Box 99 • Ventura, California 93002-0099 • 805.654.7800 • cityofventura.net Printed on 100% post consumer waste City of San Buenaventura – Water Considerations for Cities August 7, 2017 Page 2 of 5 C-02: Cities' plans address the minimum, state-required, three-year drought scenarios. None of the UWMPs address a long-term drought, even though the current drought has lasted over five years. (FA-04, FA-05, FA-06, FA-07) Response to C-02: Agree. The City's 2015 UWMP meets the minimum, state-required, three-year drought scenario. The City's future CWRR will evaluate a long-term drought scenario. C-03: Long term city plans are based on the optimistic view there will be as much water available in 2035 or 2040, as there was in 2010. Additional future water resources are not well-defined other than being described as imported water or coming from recycling and conservations efforts. (FA-01, FA-04, FA-06, FA-09) Response to C-03: Disagree. The City's 2015 UWMP identifies planned long-term water supply projects including the Foster Park Wellfield Production Restoration, Expansion of Recycled Water/Advanced Treatment Potable Reuse, Pure Water Pipelines, Ocean Desalination, and Brine Line Ocean Outfall projects (see pages 3-11 and 3-12 of the 2015 UWMP). C-04: Current and future ratepayers will bear the burden of the cost of building water purification facilities, desalination plants, desalters, recycling plants, additional pipelines, and storage facilities needed to ensure there is an adequate water supply system in the future. (FA-04, FA-13) Response to C-04: Partially disagree. Current and future ratepayers will not bear the entire cost of future water supply and associated infrastructure. In 2016, the City adopted the Water Rights Dedication and Water Resource Net Zero Fee Requirements for new or intensified development. The ordinance requires subject projects to offset new or intensified water demand through one or more compliance options, including dedication of water rights, extraordinary conservation requirements, and/or payment of a fee. The fee proceeds shall be used to acquire and/or develop additional water resources or water rights for new potable supplies for use by the City. C-05: Since many of the cities in the County rely on MWD wholesale water, Cities should base UWMPs on the wholesalers' prediction that retail water demand will outstrip total reliable water resources by 2040. (FA-03) City of San Buenaventura – Water Considerations for Cities August 7, 2017 Page 3 of 5 Response to C-05: Partially Disagree. While many cities have connections to the State water system and rely on MWD for importing State water, the City of San Buenaventura does not. The City is working to ensure that retail water demand does not outstrip total reliable water resources at any time. If and when the City of San Buenaventura connects to the State water system, we agree that future UWMPs should consider MWD's and any other wholesalers' predictions. C-06: The UWMPs use different sources for analyzing past and future populations. The inconsistency makes it difficult to compare plans, especially when cities have multiple retail water providers. Some UWMPs even use different population sources within the same report. (FA-02, FA-08) Response to C-06: Partially Disagree. The City's 2015 UWMP analyzes population based on the California Department of Finance Data (CDFD), years 2000 to 2015. We are not aware of all possible sources used by other cities. However, the CDFD has been, by all accounts, as reliable a source for predicting population growth as any other source for the City of San Buenaventura. We suspect that other cities may use different sources that have given more accurate predictions for them, depending on their own demographics, land-use policies, and other factors that differ between cities. C-07: Cities' water plans do not appear to adequately address catastrophic failures or interruptions within the system, such as:
• CL2
  Infrastructure failures (dams)
• CL3
  Saltwater intrusion City of San Buenaventura – Water Considerations for Cities August 7, 2017 Page 4 of 5