Water Districts: a New Era in Public Involvement

There is inadequate coordination between local land use planning agencies and local water supply agencies, resulting in a process that fails to engage the issues. IRWD disagrees with this finding. A number of critical factors go into the land use decision- making process, including the availability of a reliable water supply. Water agencies do not have the authority to make land use decisions. Water agencies are required to provide essential information to the designated land use planning authorities so an informed decision can be made. As part of on-going efforts to achieve sound land use decisions, IRWD coordinates with affected cities, the County of Orange, and development interests. The coordination between the land use agencies and water supply agencies is mandated by the California Water Code 510910 et seq., Assessment of Water Supply (SB-610). As part of the land use agency's CEQA analysis, the code requires the land-use agency to request a water supply assessment from the appropriate public water agency for any development with the equivalent water use requirements of a 500 dwelling unit project. The water supply assessment must take into account not only the project in question, but all existing development and any future developments that the agency may have knowledge of regardless of its size or current status. The water supply assessment serves as a critical means of evaluating future water supplies for the entire service area of the water entity and provides critical technical information to the public and land use agencies. This process is designed to fully engage the water supply agencies and the land use agencies to address water supply issues before new development projects are approved. As part of a project's CEQA documentation, the water supply assessment is designed to engage both the public and elected officials from interested agencies. Additionally, under Government Code §66473.7(b)(l), written verification by the public water system of the availability of a sufficient water supply is required in conjunction with or prior to the approval of any tentative map that includes a residential subdivision of more than 500 dwelling units. IRWD notes that the Report appears to question a statement excerpted from an IRWD water supply verification that IRWD ". ..does not allocate particular supplies to any project, but identifies total supplies for its service area." Although the Report does not identify a specific flaw or criticism in this statement, it characterizes it as a "caveat" or a "disclaimer." To the contrary, IRWD believes that it is short-sighted and unrealistic for an agency such as IRWD, with an integrated system served from several sources, to disaggregate supplies and allocate them to specific projects. Once a development project is connected and serving customers, IRWD's long-term supply and demand planning is done with the recognition that it cannot simply take a particular community off its system if a supply source falls short. September 15,2009 Irvine Ranch Water District F.l(a): Water agencies have tended to avoid integering with or participating in growth- management decisions. IRWD disagrees with this finding. There is not a "tendency to avoid interfering" on the part of water agencies, but a careful observance of jurisdictional limitations in full accordance with California law. As required, water agencies provide information and assistance to cities regarding the availability of water supplies so cities may consider that information when they make growth-management decisions (as explained in IRWD's responses to Findings F. 1 and F.l(b)). It is beyond a water agency's statutory purpose and jurisdiction to usurp or attempt to influence or constrain those decisions by general purpose agencies. Although water agencies may advise cities of the insufficiency of supplies and may even take temporary emergency actions (such as service connection moratoria), over the long term water agencies have a duty to use reasonable efforts to obtain supplies to meet demands. Growth management policy to meet water supply constraints and any other resource limitations is a matter for the cities, counties and the state. This is made evident by: (1) California appellate court decisions which acknowledge both a requirement for water agencies to "exert every reasonable effort" to augment their supplies and broad discretion for the agencies in deciding how to do that (e.g.,B uilding Industry Association v. Marin Municipal Water District (19 9 1) 235 CA3d 164 1. Likewise, a water agency has to analyze whether it is inducing growth if it secures supplies that "get ahead" of a land use agency's planning. County of Amador v. El Dorado County Water Agency (1999) 76 C A ~9'3~ 1, 950); (2) statutory provisions requiring water agencies to undergo public notice procedures and make findings of emergency or necessity before they take actions to limit demand to conserve supplies (e.g.,W ater Code sections 350 et seq. and 375 et seq.; Government Code section 65589.7); (3) statutory provisions for cooperation by water agencies with development project proponents or cities to secure more supplies, and for supply planning to alleviate insufficiencies (Government Code section 66473.7(f); Water Code section 10911 ); (4) the express language of the water supply verification statute disclaiming an intent to change the obligation of water suppliers to provide service to existing and future customers (Government Code section 66473.7(n)). F.l(b): Cities and the County have tended to not critically evaluate the limitations of water supply agencies' supply projections. IRWD disagrees with this finding. As described in IRWD's response to Findings F. 1, the water supply assessment process requires a dialogue between cities and the county on development projects and future water supply projections for the entire service area. IRWD has completed multiple water supply assessments for multiple cities within IRWD's service area including the cities of Orange, Lake Forest, Irvine, Tustin, and Newport Beach. Through the process of completing these assessments, IRWD has extensively reviewed the availability of water supplies and their potential limitations with staff from each of these cities. Discussions have included global warming effects on long-term supplies, Bay-Delta issues, the Colorado River drought, imported water allocations, along with IRWD's groundwater supplies, recycled water supplies, brackish water supplies and future water supplies such as desalinization and water banking. IRWD reviews not only the information available at the County level but from Metropolitan Water District and state agencies as well. IRWD has been requested to attend and present this same information directly to city councils. In addition, and completely separate from the water September 15,2009 Irvine Ranch Water District supply assessment discussions, IRWD has presented updated water reliability information to many of these same cities.

Some board members are conducting their professional practices with member agencies and use their elected positions to promote their competitiveness. September 15,2009 Irvine Ranch Water District - 2) "Paper Water" Does Orange County Have a Reliable Future?

LAFCO is the agency charged with facilitating constructive changes in governmental structure to promote efJicient delivery of services. To this end, LAFCO is conducting a governance study of MWDOC which is the designated representative for nearly all the Orange County retail water agencies, acting on their behalf with their sullface water supplier Metropolitan. IRWD generally agrees with this finding. LAFCO is indeed conducting a governance study which is designed to identify feasible alternatives to MWDOC's existing governance structure and to address concerns of many of MWDOC's south Orange County member agencies. These long-standing and well documented concerns regarding MWDOC include the structure of MWDOC's board representation, expansion of services, growth in budget, growth in reserve levels, cost recovery methods and lack of public scrutiny and accountability. It should be noted that MWDOC does not represent Santa Ana, Anaheim or Fullerton residents, but does represent the remainder of the County.

Orange County is uniquely fortunate to have a vast, high-quality, well-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. IRWD agrees with the finding that northern Orange County has a well-managed groundwater basin, but we disagree that south Orange County has "virtually no available groundwater resources." Further discussion regarding this point is included below.