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HomeMy WebLinkAbout07-13-2015 Legislative & Public Affairs Meeting Agenda Orange County Sanitation District ",, Monday July 13, 2015 Regular Meeting of the 3:30 P.M. Legislative and Public _ Administration Building Affairs Committee Conference Room A & B 10844 Ellis Avenue Fountain Valley, CA "0 r"E � (714) 593-7433 AGENDA PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: DECLARATION OF QUORUM: PUBLIC COMMENTS: If you wish to speak, please complete a Speaker's Form and give it to the Clerk of the Board. Speakers are requested to limit comments to three minutes. REPORTS: The Committee Chair and the General Manager may present verbal reports on miscellaneous matters of general interest to the Committee Members. These reports are for information only and require no action by the Committee. CONSENT ITEMS: 1. Approve minutes for the Committee meeting held on June 10, 2015. INFORMATIONAL ITEMS: 2. Public Affairs Update 3. Legislative Update NON-CONSENT ITEMS: 4. Recommend to the Board of Directors to: Cancel the August 10, 2015 regular meeting of the Legislative and Public Affairs Committee. 07/1W15 Legislative and Public Affairs Committee Page 1 of 2 OTHER BUSINESS AND COMMUNICATIONS OR SUPPLEMENTAL AGENDA ITEMS IF ANY: ADJOURNMENT: The next Legislative and Public Affairs Committee meeting is scheduled for Monday, August 10, 2015 at 8:00 a.m. Accommodations for the Disabled: Meeting Rooms are wheelchair accessible. If you require any special disability related accommodations, please contact the Orange County Sanitation District Clerk of the Board's office at (714) 593-7433 at least 72 hours prior to the scheduled meeting. Requests must specify the nature of the disability and the type of accommodation requested. Agenda Posting: In accordance with the requirements of California Government Code Section 54954.2,this agenda has been posted outside the main gate of the Sanitation District's Administration Building located at 10844 Ellis Avenue, Fountain Valley, California,and on the Sanitation District's website at www.ocsd.com,not less than 72 hours prior to the meeting date and time above. All public records relating to each agenda item, including any public records distributed less than 72 hours prior to the meeting to all, or a majority of the Board of Directors,are available for public inspection in the office of the Clerk of the Board. NOTICE TO DIRECTORS: To place items on the agenda for the Committee Meeting, items must be submitted to the Clerk of the Board 14 days before the meeting. Kelly A. Lore Clerk of the Board (714)593-7433 klore0ocsd.com For any questions on the agenda,Committee members may contact staff at: General Manager James D. Herberg (714)593-7300 iherberg(Wocsd.com Assistant General Manager Bob Ghirelli (714)593-7400 rghire1li(c3ocsd.com 07/13/75 Legislative and Public Affairs Committee Page 2 of 2 ITEM NO. 1 MINUTES OF THE LEGISLATIVE AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS COMMITTEE Orange County Sanitation District Monday, June 8, 2015, at 8:00 a.m. A regular meeting of the Legislative and Public Affairs Committee was called to order by Chair Beamish on Monday, June 8, 2015, at 8:00 a.m. in the Administration Building of the Orange County Sanitation District. Chair Beamish led the pledge of allegiance. A quorum was declared present, as follows: COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT: STAFF PRESENT Tom Beamish, Board Chair Jim Herberg, General Manager John Nielsen, Board Vice-Chair Bob Ghirelli, Assistant General Manager Tyler Diep, Director Nick Arhontes, Director of Facilities Robert Kiley, Director Support Services Lucille Kring, Director Rob Thompson, Director of Engineering Greg Sebourn, Director Ed Torres, Director of Operations & John Withers, Director Maintenance Lorenzo Tyner, Director of Finance & COMMITTEE MEMBERS ABSENT: Administrative Services None. Kelly Lore, Clerk of the Board Jennifer Cabral Ann Crafton Al Garcia Lori Khadjadorian Eric Sirjord Nina Tran OTHERS PRESENT: Brad Hogin, General Counsel Eric Sapirstein, ENS (via Teleconference) Eric O'Donnell, Townsend Public Affairs Heather Stratman, Townsend Public Affairs John Ruetten, Resource Trends, Inc. 05/08/2015 Legislative and Public Affairs Committee Minutes Page 1 of PUBLIC COMMENTS: None. REPORTS: General Manager, Jim Herberg, introduced Nick Arhontes,Director of Facilities Support Services, who reported on a proposed mural at "A" Street Pump Station. The committee was very receptive to the concept. CONSENT ITEMS: 1. MOVED, SECONDED and DULY CARRIED TO: Approve minutes for the Committee meeting held on May 11, 2015. AYES: Beamish; Diep; Kiley, Kring, Seboum and Withers NOES: None ABSTENTIONS: None ABSENT: Nielsen Vice Chair Nielsen arrived at 8:11 a.m. INFORMATIONAL ITEMS: 2. Public Affairs Update Principal Public Affairs Specialist, Jennifer Cabral reported on the following: 19 tours provided; six career days; Public Works events; Korean festival, Tustin chili cookoff; social media update; ocsd news alerts; published articles; and the CBS interview with OCWD General Manager, Mike Markus. 3. Legislative Updates Principal Public Affairs Specialist, Jennifer Cabral reported on the following: WaterSMART grant and the thank you letters of support to the delegation being sent from Chair Beamish and a reminder of the GWRS expansion ceremony to be held June 26. 05/08/2015 Legislative and Public Affairs Committee Minutes Page 2of4 Ms. Cabral introduced Eric Sapirstein, ENS Resources, who provided an update on the feasibility study; drought relief bill and policies; new grants program at EPA for water recycling; reforms to the Clean Water Act and and an update on the Waters of the U.S. Rulemaking. Heather Stratman, Townsend Associates reported on the following: 2015- 16 proposed state budget which is due by June 15; one time drought funding of 2.2 billion; 475 million in Water Recycling and advanced water treatment projects; rolling applications for water recycling; and the a $5 million grant through Proposition 84 funds for the Newhope-Placentia Trunk Replacement (2-72) project. OCSD will take part in a panel interview on Friday, June 12 at SAWPA in Riverside where staff will discuss the value of wastewater as a local resource and the future water reliability of our region. Vice Chair Nielsen informed the Committee that the Chair of OCFA has requested that OCSD prepare a letter of opposition to AB 1217 (Daly), a proposed bill which would change the composition, selection method and terms of the OCFA Board of Directors, increasing representation by County supervisors from two members to three while decreasing the representation of city board members from 23 to 10. Ms. Cabral will reference the legislative plan to ensure a position to this bill can be taken; or if this item needs to be agendized to a Committee. Director Withers departed the meeting at 8:30 a.m. NON-CONSENT ITEMS: Assistant General Manager Bob Ghirelli gave a brief summary of the item and introduced John Ruetten, Resource Trends, Inc. who provided an information PowerPoint presentation which included: reasons to utility brand; perceptions and categorizations by target audiences; transparency and accountability; OCSD's business values and brand framework; organizational standards; communication strategies and a review of OCSD's documents. 4. MOVED, SECONDED and DULY CARRIED TO: Recommend to the Board of Directors: Approve the Communication Strategy for OCSD Utility Branding as part of the General Managers Fiscal Year 2014-2015 Work Plan. AYES: Beamish; Diep; Kiley, Kring, Nielsen, and Seboum NOES: None 05/08/2015 Legislative and Public Affairs Committee Minutes Page 3of4 ABSTENTIONS: None ABSENT: Withers OTHER BUSINESS AND COMMUNICATIONS OR SUPPLEMENTAL AGENDA ITEMS, IF ANY: None. ADJOURNMENT: Chair Beamish declared the meeting adjourned at 9:45 a.m. to the next Legislative and Public Affairs Committee Meeting, July 13, 2015 at 3:30 p.m. Submitted by: Kelly A. Lore Clerk of the Board 05/08/2015 Legislative and Public Affairs Committee Minutes Page 4 of LEGISLATIVE AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS MEETING Meeting Date 07/13/15 AGENDA REPORT Item Number 2 Orange County Sanitation District FROM: James D. Herberg, General Manager Originator: Bob Ghirelli, Assistant General Manager SUBJECT: PUBLIC AFFAIRS UPDATE GENERAL MANAGER'S RECOMMENDATION Information Only. SUMMARY Staff will provide an update on recent public affairs activities. PRIOR COMMITTEE/BOARD ACTIONS N/A ADDITIONAL INFORMATION June 2015 Activity # # of Guests OCSD/OCWDTours 13 263 OCSD Tours 6 86 Events 5 —1200 BUDGET/PURCHASING ORDINANCE COMPLIANCE N/A ATTACHMENT The following attachment(s)are attached and maybe viewed on-line at the OCSD website(www.ocsd.com) with the complete agenda package: • Outreach Calendar • Media Clips Page 1 RETURN TO AGENDA Zs sn OCSD Outreach Report - 6/29/2015 Date Time Or anizati Location Purpose Attendee Contact 06/01/2015- 900- 1030 Plant Tour Boardroom Home School Group to lour Ryal Wheeler Tour Guide Cheryl Scott P1. Approx. 15 guests. 06/02/2015- 900- 1500 Plant Tours Boardroom Godinez HS to lour P1. Ryal Wheeler& Eros Yong Cheryl Scott Approx. 98 guests. 4 tours Tour Guides 06/03/2015- 900- 1030 Plant Tour Boardroom West Coast Univ. Nursing Gina Tetsch Tour Guide Cheryl Scott Tour. Approx. 25 guests. 06/05/2015- 900- 1030 Plant Tour Boardroom West Coast Univ. Nursing Gina Tetsch Tour Guide Cheryl Scott Tour. Approx. 25 guests. 06/07/2015- 1100- 1730 Tustin Chili Old Town OCSD to host Information Various OCSD Employees Cheryl Scott Cook-Off Tustin booth at the 2015 Tustin chili cook-off 06/08/2015- 900- 1200 Plant Tours Boardroom Jordon High School to tour Gina Tetsch&Cindy Mums Cheryl Scott P1. Approx. 50 guests. Tour Guides 06/10/2015- 830- 1030 Plant Tour Boardroom City of San Diego Jim Spears Tour Guide Cheryl Scott Operations Staff to tour P1. Approx. 15 guests O6/10/2015- 1300- 1400 Speaking HB Library Southern California JD Eric Heish Speaker Cheryl Scott Engagement Edwards User group. Approx. 100 guests. 6/29/2015 1:03:09 PM OCSD Outreach Report - 612 912 01 5 Date Time Orcianizati Location Purpose Attendee Contact 06/15/2015- 830- 1030 Lab Tour Lab City of San Diego to lour Mike VonWinkelmann tour Cheryl Scott Lab. Approx. 15 guests. Guide 06/17/2015- 1000- 1130 Plant Tour Room B OLT Engineers to tour P1. Cindy Muna Tour Guide Cheryl Scott Approx. 6 guests 06/19/2015- 900- 1030 Plant Tour Boardroom Vanguard University Gina Tetsch Tour Guide Cheryl Scott Nursing to tour P1. Approx. 11 guests. 06/22/2015- 900- 1100 Plant Tour Boardroom UCI Water PIRE UPP Sharon Yin Tour Guide Cheryl Scott Down Under to tour P1. Approx. 15 guests. 06/23/2015- 1330- 1430 Plant Tour Boardroom City of San Mateo to tour Gary Conklin Tour Guide Cheryl Scott P1. Approx. 8 guests. 06/23/2015- 1000- 1100 Plant Tour GM Conf. Alison Martin from Ed Jim Herberg Tour Guide Cheryl Scott Room Royce's office to tour P1. 06/24/2015- 900- 1030 Plant Tour Boardroom WeslCoasl University Dierdre Bingman Tour Cheryl Scott Nursing to tour P1. Guide 06/24/2015- 1200- 1400 Plant Tour Room C OC Waste&Recycling to Lisa Rothbart Tour Guide Cheryl Scott tour Pi. Approx. 14 guests 06/29/2015- 1000- 1200 Plant Tour Room A Don Froelich and guests to Crystal Mena Tour Guide Cheryl Scott tour Pi. Approx. 5 guests. 6/29/2015 1:03:09 PM RETURN TO AGENDA Zs sn OCSD Outreach Report - 6/29/2015 Date Time Or anizati Location Purpose Attendee Contact 06/29/2015- 900- 1030 Plant Tour Boardroom CSUF Nursing Class to Gina Tetsch Tour Guide Cheryl Scott tour P1. Approx. 13 guests 07/01/2015- 930- 1200 Plant Tours Boardroom Spurgeon Middle School to Lisa Rothbart& Eros Yong Cheryl Scott tour P1. Approx.40 Tour Guides guests. 2 tours 07/07/2015- 900- 1200 Plant Tour Boardroom Godinez HS Summer PA Staff Tour Guides Cheryl Scott Program to lour P1. 2 tours. Approx. 40 guests. 07/08/2015- 900- 1030 Plant Tour Boardroom CSUF Nursing to tour Gina Tetsch Tour Guide Cheryl Scott Pi.  Approx. 26 guests. 07/09/2015- 900- 1030 Plant Tour Boardroom WestCoast University Gina Tetsch Tour Guide Cheryl Scott Nursing to tour P1.  Approx. 28 guests. 07/10/2015- 1100- 1230 Plant Tour Boardroom Eng. Construction Assoc. Cindy Murra Tour Guide Cheryl Scott to tour P1. Approx. 15 guests. 07/14/2015- 900- 1030 Plant Tour Boardroom WestCoast University Gina Tetsch Tour Guide Cheryl Scott Nursing to tour Pi. Approx. 28 guests. 6/29/2015 1:03:09 PM OCSD Outreach Report - 612 912 01 5 Date Time Or anizati Location Purpose Attendee Contact 07/15/2015- 1000- 1130 Plant Tour Boardroom Olive Crest Academy to Eric Sirjord Tour Guide Cheryl Scott tour P1. Approx. 25 guests. 07/15/2015- 900- 1030 Plant Tour Admin. Building Dir. Bartlett to lour P1. Jim Herberg Tour Guide Cheryl Scott 07/16/2015- 1400- 1600 Plant Tour Boardroom MEMA group to lour Plant Ingrid Hellebrand Tour Cheryl Scott 1. Approx. 30 guests. Guide 07/17/2015- 900- 1030 Plant Tour Boardroom WestCoasl University Gina Tetsch Tour Guide Cheryl Scott Nursing to tour P1. Approx. 28 guests. 07/17/2015- 1500- 1600 Plant Tour Admin. Building Boardmember Bartlett to Jim Herberg Tour Guide Cheryl Scott tour P1. 07/21/2015- 900- 1030 Plant Tour Boardroom OCHCA Nursing to tour Gina Tetsch Tour Guide Cheryl Scott Pi. 07/22/2015- 1130- 1330 Westminster Sigler Park, OCSD to host an Juan Ambriz and PA staff Cheryl Scott Safety Day Westminster information booth. to host booth 07/27/2015- 900- 1030 Plant Tour Boardroom WestCoast University Gina Tetsch Tour Guide Cheryl Scott Nursing to tour P1. Approx. 28 guests. 7/28/2015 900- 1030 Plant Tour Boardroom New Employee/Open PA Staff Tour Guides Cheryl Scott 6/29/2015 1:03:09 PM RETURN TO AGENDA Zs sn OCSD Outreach Report - 6/29/2015 Date Time Or anizati Location Purpose Attendee Contact 07/29/2015- 900- 1030 Plant Tour Boardroom CSUF Nursing Class to Gina Tetsch Tour Guide Cheryl Scott tour P1. Approx. 13 guests. 07/30/2015- 1100- 1230 Plant Tour Boardroom MWDOC to tour P1. Ann Crafton Tour Guide Cheryl Scott Approx. 20 guests. 07/31/2015- 1300- 1430 Plant Tour Boardroom CSUF Health Science Ryal Wheeler Tour Guide Cheryl Scott Class to tour Pi. Approx. 30 guests. 6/29/2015 1:03:09 PM Monthly News Clippings G�JN�V S A N I TgT�Oy = 9 Q 2 c� o � FCTi� �E June 2015 OCSD Public Affairs Office RETURN TO AGENDA Table of Contents GWRS...................................................................................PAGE 1 June 2, 2015 Maximizing the synergies between energy and water By: Anthony Bennett Filtration + Separation June 11, 2015 Effluent Communities: Why drought will mean getting used to drinking treated sewage By: Glen Martin California Magazine June 14, 2015 Privacy fogs big O.C. water users By: Teri Sforza OC Register June 18, 2015 Drought survival: O.C. makes 100 million gallons of wastewater a day drinkable By: Independent Staff Huntington Beach Independent June 26, 2015 GWRS Expansion By: The Associated Press Staff San Luis Obispo Times June 26, 2015 Orange County expands groundwater system By: Amy Taxin Associated Press GWRS CONTINUED.................................................................PAGE 28 June 27, 2015 Orange County's Toilet-to-tap water recycling program expands By: Aaron Orlowski OC Register June 27, 2015 Orange County expands groundwater system By: Associated Press Staff KSBY 6 News HUMAN INTEREST................................................... .................PAGE 32 June 1, 2015 How special pay is padding pension checks in OC, elsewhere By: Teri Sforza OC Register June 15, 2015 Dispatches from the Association of California Cities—Orange County's Blabfest By: Charles Lam OC Weekly June 18, 2015 Stretch of Huntington State Beach gets beach bummer grade By: Aaron Orlowski/Laylan Connelly OC Register TWITTER POSTINGS................................................... ..............PAGE 46 FACEBOOK POSTINGS................................................... ..........PAGE 52 RETURN TO AGENDA June 2, 2015 Filtration+Separation Maximizing the synergies between energy and water 02 June 2015 Filtration+Separation Anthony Bennett looks at synergies between water treatment and power production systems and demonstrates how they can be operated to improve the overall efficiency of drinking water production and power generation processes. He also examines seawater and other alternative sources and explains how they can be treated and re-used by advanced filtration and separation technologies to reduce pressure on drinking water sources. Water management involves intercepting the hydrological cycle at the municipal level.(Image courtesy of varunaishutterstock) We read about water scarcity and climate change issues in the news regularly. What used to be a topic restricted to technical specialists has now become a common focus for conversation in political and economic arenas. 1 Water scarcity is a significant and well documented problem that continues to cause concern as the human population grows and industrialization increases. But all the media attention has led to many advances, both in terms of technology and in manufacturing processes, to improve the situation and provide reliable sources of drinking water. Seawater provides an obvious resource to tackle the problem of water scarcity, especially and obviously in coastal areas, but alternative sources of water can also be utilized where a readily available conventional supply is unavailable. We can define alternative sources of water as those which have not been significantly exploited, due to the need for advanced technology to remove elements such as organic and inorganic pollutants and toxins. Examples of alternative sources of water include highly turbid river water, eutrophic lake water or secondary treated effluent. Alternative sources have been successfully used for indirect drinking applications, ultrapure water processes such as semiconductors or high purity water applications in manufacturing industry or power generation systems and we describe examples of these applications below. Compounding the problems associated with water scarcity is the expanding global energy consumption issue. Water usage and energy consumption are intimately linked -the production of water requires a significant amount of energy and the production of energy requires a significant amount of water. As a result, process solutions to produce drinking water must also take into account the need for energy conservation. Advances in water reuse technologies have allowed designers and engineers to make better use of water that has already served one need but with effective treatment could go on to serve one or more additional purposes. However, advances in desalination technology can make it more economical to turn seawater directly into drinking water or, with further treatment, into water for industrial purposes. 2 RETURN TO AGENDA 6 is p f ; _ lots � Industrialization and population growth lead to water scarcity problems.(Image courtesy of leungchopan/shutterstock) Hydrological cycle But the opportunities for increasing environmental sustainability can be overlooked by concentrating on the separate applications of water and wastewater treatment without considering the whole hydrological cycle, which needs to be managed in an integrated way so we avoid focusing on these disciplines as unrelated subjects. The benefits of utilizing alternative water sources have become better understood over the last decade. The responsibility for the management and control of water consumption throughout the hydrological cycle typically rests with local governments, agencies and their regulators. Their priorities are to reduce waste, control demand, minimize leakage and evaporation losses and maximize the efficiency of the water management process. On a planetary scale, the hydrological cycle involves evaporation from sea and land, the formation of clouds and then the water falling back to Earth as precipitation, being collected in rivers and entering the sea again before being intercepted for use as drinking water and discharged from municipalities as treated effluent. We can think of the concept of shrinking this cycle and just consider the local perspective, with treated wastewater being recycled into drinking water in adjacent treatment plants, or planned indirect potable use of wastewater, 3 where treated wastewater is used to replenish groundwater. The groundwater is then used as a drinking water source. Often, when seawater is not readily available, we find power generation facilities located on the outskirts of municipalities along with wastewater treatment facilities and drinking water treatment systems fed from alternative sources. We could consider using these alternative sources of water for cooling and process water in the power station rather than using treated water but this requires us to be able to manage the hydrological cycle for the city as a whole. If we integrate power generation and water treatment processes as a single management activity, we can focus on various benefits including reduced aqueous pollution into receiving waters and retention of high quality water for drinking supply. Hybridization Hybridization is an approach to increase the efficiency of an overall system by taking advantage of the synergy between different unit process solutions. In a municipal water management plan, the efficiency of power generation systems could be increased by reducing the inefficient period which occurs during periods of low demand such as during the night or in the summer months. This unused power generation capacity could be used to increase water treatment rates if there is sufficient water demand or storage capacity. Also, any surplus energy generated from intermittent renewable sources, such as wind or solar photovoltaic systems, during periods of low demand and high production could be directed towards water treatment processes. Hybridization could be used to exploit this unused capacity as part of a comprehensive water management plan. Using the example of treating wastewater for planned indirect drinking use, demand periods would tend to vary on diurnal cycles. During the low demand period, water could be "banked" into groundwater or reservoir storage at a high rate to create fresh water aquifers in brackish or saline zones, or supplement surface water supplies. Also, where appropriate, this could help control seawater ingress due to over abstraction of groundwater or, in the future, help combat rising seawater levels expected due to climate change. We can argue that we could then effectively convert unsold off peak electricity or excess renewable production into valuable fresh groundwater in the low demand period, for future use in the high demand period, hence effectively storing energy and using the groundwater or reservoir"bank" like a battery. Technology Desalination of seawater can be achieved by using thermal or membrane processes, or a hybrid combination of the two types. In the late 19th century, the first major technical advance in desalination technology was the development of the multiple effect distillation (MED) 4 RETURN TO AGENDA process. Here, pre-heated feed water flowing over tubes in the first effect is heated by prime steam, resulting in evaporation of a fraction of the water content of the feed. The water vapor generated by brine evaporation in each effect flows to the next effect, where heat is supplied for additional evaporation at a lower temperature. There the vapor condenses, giving up its latent heat to evaporate an additional fraction of water from the brine. The process of evaporation-plus-condensation is repeated from effect to effect, hence the term 'multiple effect.' Each effect operates at successively lower pressure and temperature. In the mid-1960s multistage flash (MSF) distillation became popular. In MSF, seawater (after mixing with the recycle stream) is pressurized and heated to the maximum top brine temperature (TBT). When the heated brine flows into a stage maintained at slightly below the saturation vapor pressure of the water, a fraction of its water content flashes into steam. The flashed vapor passes through a mist eliminator and condenses on the exterior surface of heat transfer tubing. The condensed liquid drips into trays as a product water. The unflashed brine enters a second stage where it flashes again to vapor at a lower temperature, producing a further quantity of product water. The flashing-cooling process is repeated from stage to stage until both the cooled brine and the cooled distillate are finally discharged from the plant as blow- down brine and product water. Reverse osmosis At the same time as MSF was being developed the first reverse osmosis (RO) membrane was produced. In RO, treated water termed 'permeate' passes from the feed to the product side of the membrane when a pressure exceeding the osmotic pressure of the feed water is applied. This 'reverses' the natural osmotic flow and concentrates salt ions into a waste concentrate stream. In the early years of desalination, positive displacement and centrifugal pumps provided 100% of the energy to power a seawater RO plant, but innovations in the field of energy recovery have improved efficiency. Waste energy from RO systems can be recovered and can account for 25-30% of the energy required to overcome the osmotic pressure of seawater. This lowers the total energy requirement of desalination plants dramatically. Nearly all membrane-based desalination plants today utilize some form of energy recovery. Future innovations in pumping and energy recovery, combined with innovations in membrane technology, hold the key to lowering the operating cost of desalination even further. An equally important aspect of lowering the costs of desalination is the reduction made in the capital cost of membrane-based RO systems. This cost bears a direct relationship to the 5 overall cost of water, as most plants are financed and their initial costs are amortized into the overall cost of water produced. It is likely over the coming years that we will see a continuing reduction in energy costs per unit treated water due to more efficient energy recovery systems, the introduction of new types of membranes and higher fluxes through the RO membranes. It is also likely that new types of membranes will be far more fouling resistant. Water entering RO systems can be pre-treated to reduce or eliminate the potential for fouling using other technologies such as ultra-violet (UV) sterilization and the membrane technologies ultrafiltration (UF), microfiltration (MF) and nanofiltration (NF). OF and MF technologies can be incorporated into membrane bioreactor (MBR) systems. Here, a feed supply high in organic fouling potential can be treated in an aerobic bioreactor to reduce total suspended solids and chemical oxygen demand, with the solids removed in a separate 'side- stream' or an integrated membrane system. The International Desalination Association (IDA) advises that the effective use of MBR, UF, MF, NF and RO technologies is likely to dramatically increase the number and size of water reuse projects over the next decade and we could envisage the direct coupling of advanced water reuse technologies with seawater desalination as a means of reducing energy and cost still further. Notable examples of advanced water reuse techniques also incorporating the concept of water banking described above are currently installed at various sites around the world. Two examples in Singapore and California, United States, are summarized below. We also include a smaller UK example where secondary treated effluent is processed for feed directly as required into a power station as demineralized water. A number of large scale hybrid seawater desalination plants are under construction utilizing the thermal and membrane technologies described above. Many of the recent plants in the Middle East are being built as integrated hybrid solutions where the best properties of thermal processes are combined with the best features of membrane technology. This provides optimum solutions for power production and the production of fresh water from the desalination systems as demand varies throughout the day and year. These hybrid projects combine power generation capability with IVIED or MSF, and NF and RO systems are added to raise efficiency and water recovery rates. Singapore The Singapore Water Reclamation Study was initiated in 1998 by the Singapore Public Utilities Board (PUB) to determine the suitability of using high-purity water as an alternative source of ground and surface water to supplement Singapore's water supply. The treated NEWater (the braded high quality water) meets the USA Environmental Protection Agency 6 RETURN TO AGENDA and World Health Organization drinking water standards. It is produced from municipal secondary treated effluent using MF, RO and UV. Following extensive pilot testing, full scale NEWater factories at Bedok and Kranji water reclamation plants were commissioned in 2002. The largest plant at Kranji was designed to initially treat 40 MLD with a capacity to expand to 72 MLD in the future. Since February 2003, treated water has been supplied to industries for non-drinking use in power generation and other applications. In 2004, the third NEWater factory at Seletar was commissioned, which began supplying treated water to the microelectronics industry. Then, high purity water produced directly from the secondary treated effluent was being used in semiconductor wafer fabrication plants at the Ang Mo Kio industrial area in Singapore. The recent addition of the Sembcorp NEWater Plant marks a major step in Singapore's water sustainability activities with its total capacity increasing significantly to 228 MLD, a similar capacity to the GWRS in California (see below). The NEWater Project meets more than 30% of Singapore's total water demand with the majority of the reclaimed water supplementing surface water reservoirs. The contract for the latest NEWater facility was awarded to Sembcorp in January 2008 by the PUB under a public-private partnership initiative. The project was engineered in two phases over a two-year period. The initial phase of the plant, producing 69 MLD, began operations in 2009. This was the second and largest NEWater plant to be designed, built, owned and operated by the private sector, while PUB owns another three plants. This new plant uses the same established and proven water reuse technology pioneered by PUB. NEWater from this plant meets the same quality standards as those applicable to the other NEWater plants. California The Groundwater Replenishment System (GWRS) in California also processes municipal secondary treated effluent that would have previously been discharged into the Pacific Ocean. The 'waste' is treated using a three-step process consisting of MF, RO and UV with hydrogen peroxide. The process produces high quality water that exceeds all Californian and US federal drinking water standards. Treated water is used to replenish groundwater reserves and increase the supply of lower saline sources for subsequent drinking water production, irrigation and agriculture. Operational since January 2008, this advanced water purification project can produce up to 265 MLD of high quality water, enough, when treated further, to meet the needs of nearly 600,000 residents in north and central Orange County, California. 7 The design and construction of the GWRS was a project jointly funded by the Orange County Water District and the Orange County Sanitation District (OCSD). These two public agencies have worked together for more than 30 years, previously on the Water Factory 21 project that led to the development of the GWRS. Water used in the GWRS is first treated at OCSD, which collects more than 757 MLD of wastewater and removes a high degree of impurities through several processes. A stringent source control program limits metals and chemicals flowing into OCSD's plants in the Fountain Valley and Huntington Beach areas. The wastewater undergoes treatment through bar screens, grit chambers, trickling filters, activated sludge systems, clarifiers and disinfection processes before it is sent to the GWRS. Following treatment by MF and RO in the GWRS, the treated water is exposed to high intensity UV light with hydrogen peroxide to disinfect and destroy any trace organic compounds that may have passed through the RO membranes. This provides an effective disinfection and advanced oxidation process that eliminates these compounds. UK A smaller scale project in the UK has been in operation for over a decade and incorporates MF and RO technology with secondary treated municipal effluent again used as an alternative source, processed into high purity water for feeding directly into the Centrica- owned Peterborough gas turbine power station. The station is located adjacent to Flag Fen Sewage Treatment Works. ACWA Services built and installed the plant, commissioning the system in 2000. The RO plant produces water with a conductivity of less than 60 pS/cm enabling demineralized water production at the power station to increase by 20% with a reduction of over 90% in the costs of ion exchange regeneration. A total of 1.25 MLD of drinking water is saved (previously purchased from Anglian Water)which initially reduced the power station's total water usage by 11%. Whilst the Flag Fen project is not on the same throughput scale as the NEWater Project or the GWRS, it does show demand for drinking water can be reduced at the municipal or smaller scale by industries utilizing alternative sources of water directly, using proven advanced filtration and separation technology. The geographical location of the power station in Peterborough and Flag Fen sewage treatment works was a main driver for the project. But the opportunity for synergies and hybridization were limited due to the type of power station in existence and the water quality and volume requirements. Saudi Arabia The largest operational hybrid desalination and power production plant in the world is currently the Ras AI-Khair hybrid plant in Saudi Arabia that incorporates RO membranes and 8 RETURN TO AGENDA MSF thermal technology to produce 308 MLD and 728 MLD respectively. The plant is dual purpose, with an export production rapacity of 1,025 MLD desalinated water and an electricity production capacity of 2,650 MW. The construction of the plant commenced in February 2011 and was completed earlier this year. The power plant comprises five 600 MW combined cycle gas turbine units and two 220 MW single cycle gas turbine units. Maaden's new alumina refinery, located nearby, will utilize up to 1,350 MW of the electricity and 25 MLD of the water produced. The largest operational hybrid thermal desalination and power production plant is currently the Jubail Water and Power plant (JWAP) incorporating IVIED technology, also located in Saudi Arabia. This is a Marafiq plant built by SIDEM with 800 MLD production capacity from 27 IVIED units. The cost was US$ 1 bn. This is also a dual purpose plant generating 2,744 MW electricity in addition to the desalinated water. United Arab Emirates The largest hybrid MED-RO plant currently is the Fujairah II project, a SIDEMNeolia project built as a green field development in the United Arab Emirates and producing 2000 MW of power and 591 MLD of desalinated water. The hybrid system includes five high-efficiency gas turbines operated in combined cycle mode. The Fujairah I project, owned by Emirates Sembcorp Water and Power Company and commissioned in 2004, comprises a hybrid MSF-RO system again combined with power production, with an electricity generation capacity of 893 MW and a seawater desalination production capacity of 455 MLD. We have suggested that comprehensive water management, which examines the water cycle as a whole, is required to make the most effective overall use of seawater and alternative sources of water whist optimizing power generation capacity. In addition, there is the need to reduce waste, demand, leakage and evaporation losses so we can maximize water management efficiency. The GWR system and NEWater plants provide excellent examples of how alternative sources can be used on a municipal scale to expand drinking water supplies and reduce the pressure on traditional raw water sources. Filtration and separation technology for the treatment of secondary effluent is now well proven and consistently high quality, high purity water can be produced. Based on the large scale experiences in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, we can envisage the possibility of future projects where alternative water and seawater systems can become integrated with power generation systems to provide cooling, process and freshwater for banking and storage when required, using various local water sources. 9 This would make the most effective use of hybridization in the selection of process technologies, reducing the overall energy requirement and environmental impact of a municipality by making full use of generation capacity during periods of low power demand and high renewable energy production. The challenge is for the development of integrated solutions at the municipal scale where both water efficiency and energy efficiency can be maximized whilst maintaining security of drinking water supply. The world will continue to face pressure on its water supply. Population growth, climate change and industrial development with increased energy requirements will inevitably force the trend to continue. But the high visibility of the water scarcity issue today has driven and will continue to drive innovation and investment in the water and energy sectors, with the development of emerging technologies and improved manufacturing processes. 10 RETURN TO AGENDA June 11, 2015 California Magazine TA CAL ALUMNI A S S O C I A T 1 0 N UC Berkeley California Magazine June 11,2015 Effluent Communities: Why Drought Will Mean Getting Used to Drinking Treated Sewage By Glen Martin It's the kind of subject that lends itself to the lowest of low humor,but we'll try to resist that temptation. Because at bottom(sorry), it's among the most serious of subjects, speaking as it does to basic survival.We're talking about water(again), of course. But more specifically,we're talking about blackwater: Sewage. And even more particularly,recycling sewage, treating it to the potable level and—gulp—drinking it again. And don't think this is a desperate, ad hoc, futuristic proposal engendered by the drought. Blackwater reclamation is happening now, right here in California, and on a significant scale. Orange County?It's been recycling sewage for a while. Each and every day,the OC is injecting 70 million gallons of erstwhile effluent(that is, sewage treated to potable standards) into local aquifers; from there,much of it is pumped back up to local taps and consumed. Whittier? They're recycling about 44 million gallons a day. Around Cbino,it's about 18 million gallons a day, and near LAX, they're injecting 12 million gallons of transmuted sewage (i.e.,pure water)underground. And don't feel smug if you're reading this in NorCal. The Santa Clara County Water District is seriously considering blackwater recycling. 11 A fanciful exhibit at San Framisca's Expl.rarorium shawed.....ueamishness about associating a miler with drinking water. Still,the basic concept of repurposing sewage is nothing new, says David Sedlak, a UC Berkeley professor of environmental science and engineering, the co-director of the Berkeley Water Center, and the director of the Institute for Environmental Science and Engineering. "Back in the 1920s,before the widespread availability of inexpensive fertilizers, sewage was viewed as an asset because the solids were rich in nitrogen and phosphorous," says Sedlak. "The value wasn't in the water." That changed by the 1970s, says Sedlak,when wastewater reclamation"took a great leap forward. Wastewater was treated to a high but not potable degree in conventional treatment plants and then used on golf courses,commercial building landscaping and highway medians, and in commercial boilers and refineries." That policy was well-received, says Sedlak; a lot of wastewater treatment plants were built around the state to accommodate the trend. But the approach only worked well for properties that were relatively close to the plants—properties that didn't require a lot of new pipes and valves for distributing the treated water. And by the 1990s, the low-hanging fruit had been plucked; or rather,nearby properties already had been serviced. Outlying tracts required new infrastructure to deliver the treated wastewater, and that was costly. "San Jose looked at an ambitious recycling project for South Bay office parks," says Sedlak, "but they soon realized that the plan would be prohibitively expensive. That's because it required a distribution network separate from the potable water network—a"purple pipe" system, so called because the pipes 12 RETURN TO AGENDA for reclaimed wastewater systems are usually purple. So they lost interest. And as the costs of expansion became clear,that waning enthusiasm was replicated"elsewhere. For landscaping purposes, wastewater typically was treated by extensive filtration and large volumes of chlorine. It was"safe,"but not truly"potable."Even if you wanted to drink it,you'd gag on the chlorine, says Sedlak. But significant progress in reverse osmosis—a purification process that uses sophisticated membranes with minute pores to remove salt,toxic compounds and pathogens hanged the whole approach to blackwater reclamation. It is now possible to purify large volumes of wastewater to the sweet,pellucid,potable stage quickly and efficiently. These advances, coupled with a growing recognition that drought and subsequent water shortages in California are anything but anomalous,have made the toilet-to-teacup-option more attractiveto water district managers, if not consumers. Orange County, in fact, got with the program way back in 1976 (the year that marked California's last major drought, excluding the current crisis). "It started out as a project to create a barrier against seawater intruding into the county's aquifers due to overpumping,"says Sedlak. "They used a process that involved microfiltration, ultraviolet light, hydrogen peroxide and reverse osmosis,then injected the water underground. (The treated water) stopped the saltwater intrusion,but it also—as managers knew it would—flowed back into the aquifer, where it was pumped up for consumption." After producing about 30 million gallons daily for many years,Orange County built an expanded treatment plant in 2008 and notified up production to its current 70 million gallon quotidian level. Half the water is used mainly to stop saltwater intrusion, and half goes to recharge basins,where it percolates into the aquifer and eventually flows to the homes of district customers. But Orange County's experience isn't necessarily replicable everywhere, observes Sedlak. First, Orange County had little choice but to recycle what it sullied. It grew at a dizzying pace through the last half of the 20"Century, and it had junior water rights. Too,the county has good aquifers. They are permeable, capacious and stable, and they hold a lot of water. Finally,residents trusted the Orange County Water District and Sanitation District;the agencies were widely viewed as competent, leaders in innovation,and responsive to customers. That isn't the case in other areas,where local government officials may have rockier relations with their constituents. 13 "A wastewater reclamation project for the Dublin/San Ramon area failed because the wastewater district didn't have a great reputation with the public,"observes Sedlak. Of course, it's also true that many consumers remain deeply uncomfortable with the notion of drinking reclaimed sewage, says Sedlak,the co-author of a paper on the subject that appeared recently in the journal Environmental Science and Technology. "Proposed projects for San Diego,the San Fernando Valley and the San Gabriel River(in southern Los Angeles) fell through largely because of the toilet-to-tap stigma," says Sedlak. "It's often the case that someone writes a letter to the editor, or makes a joke on late night TV, or a group of people show up at city council meetings, and then the whole thing goes up in flames." Given the unrelenting nature of the drought,Californians may not have the luxury of foregoing reclaimed sewage forever. And in researching their paper for Environmental Science and Technology, Sedlak and his co-authors(Sasha Harris-Lovett, Christopher Him,Michael Kiparsky and Bernhard Troffer) determined that the"yuck factor" is actually just a small part of the problem. Rather,he says, three other elements must be addressed to gain community acceptance. "First, consumers have to believe the project is in their best interests,"says Sedlak. "Second, they have to trust the agencies treating and delivering the water, and the government regulators that are monitoring the process. They have to believe that the local agencies are reliable and up to the job, and that regulators are rigorous in their oversight. If people think that the regulators are too cozy with the agencies,there can be a problem. Finally, people need to be comfortable with the technology. Singapore treats its sewage to potability, and they have a fancy visitor's center at their treatment plant. They give tours, and at the end of it you get a bottle of treated water to drink if you want to. That shows the government has nothing to hide, it strips the mystery from process, and it helps people take it for granted rather than view it with dread and foreboding." Posted on June 11, 2015 - 5:08pm 14 RETURN TO AGENDA June 18, 2015 OC Register Ox�vGE COUNTY 11 -1 1 ER mA TE G1 WATCHDOG Privacy fogs big O.C. water users Records reveal a mix of obvious and obscure. 6/14/15 TERISFORZA STAFF COLUMNIST Disney's Anaheim Resort is among the world's most popular attractions (about 25.4 million visitors a year). Disney is the largest employer in Orange County (about 28,000 workers). And the company owns the biggest single slice of Anaheim property, ranked by assessed value ($4.7 billion). So it makes sense that Disney was the single biggest water user in Orange County, spending $3.35 million on water last year—three times as much as Southern California tourist attractions Sea World or the San Diego Zoo, while having about six times the visitors as either park. Orange County's largest water users — at least those that surface in public docu- ments — are a mix of the obvious and the obscure. They are land barons and university campuses; a technology company and a Kleenex factory; golf courses and a county landfill; posh resorts and shopping malls. But many remain a mystery, because water-use data is private in California, even during an extreme drought. Except for when it's not, which is often, and why we're able to bring you this story. No. 2 on the list is the county's largest landowner, developer and master-planner the Irvine Co., with billings of$2.7 million from the Irvine Ranch Water District. Add to that $635,000 for the company's residential and commercial developments served by Newport Beach and the Mesa Water District. Nearly half of O.C.'s Top 20 water users were government entities themselves. In addition to cities, school districts and colleges with lots of lawns to water, there was D.C.'s main 15 sewer operation, and father down the list were various Caltrans properties and even the county jail. So sure, put that bucket in your shower, rip out your lawn and disconnect the sprinkler system. But if you really want to make a dent in urban water use, lean on your local officials to tighten the spigots at public properties. MYSTERY Water use has become a matter of acute interest—and public shaming — in California, to due to the historic drought, an emergency declaration by the governor, and cutbacks of as much as an agonizing 36 percent ordered for water-guzzling corners of Orange County. Comprehensive public data on water use is obviously useful, especially in the current circumstances. But it's mostly cloak-anddagger stuff. The Legislature, pushed by California's booming tech industry, passed exceptions to the state's public records laws in the 1990s to keep most of this information out of sight. Thus the Register had to sort through obscure public documents to assemble a database. While usage data is, indeed, private, agencies often reveal details to potential investors when they sell bonds to finance water system improvements. Sometimes details appear in an agency's audited financial statements. They unveil, most often, the system's top 10 water users and how much each user paid. But the information is imperfect: The heaviest users in a small agency like Tustin may use a lot less water than "light" users in a big agency like Irvine Ranch. The lighter Tustin users will make Tustin's top 10 list, and thus our database, while the heavier Irvine users (still light compared to the Irvine Co.)will not. Afew agencies declined to provide any information at all, including the cities of Orange and Buena Park, and the El Toro and Trabuco Canyon water districts. These were mostly smaller agencies that would not affect the top of the list. Even among agencies that do cough up data, there's a wild lack of uniformity that makes comparisons difficult. Most report only what customers pay for water, omitting how much they use entirely. Others just list the names of their biggest users, in alphabetical order, and say nothing more. Unless individual water districts provide additional data, it's nearly impossible to verify whether big water users have cut back as they say they have. One of the odder finds, perhaps, is that the county spent more than a half-million dollars on water at the Olinda Landfill in Brea. That trash dump still uses drinking water to spray down the dirt piled atop the heap, which is meant to control "fugitive dust" and odor—a move required by airquality officials. "We can't have fugitive dust escape," said Julie Chay, spokeswoman for Orange County Waste & Recycling. "And different soils use water differently." The county is looking at infrastructure improvements to avoid using drinking water to control fugitive dust. There's a power plant at the landfill, using methane gas from decaying trash to 16 RETURN TO AGENDA generate electricity; water cools its turbines; and the county is working on capturing that cooling water to spray down the dump. Research has begun, but there's no timetable yet for getting it done, Chay said. KLEENEX MILL The city of Brea is working with the county on getting something done, spokesman Chris Reimer said, stressing that this water use is not cosmetic but for health and safety purposes "that benefit a very large regional population:" Not far away, Kimberly-Clark Corp. —whose Fullerton mill ran up a $1.2 million water bill in 2013 — is several steps ahead of the curve. It makes water-intensive, paper-based tissues at the mill, and has been "aggressively pursuing water conservation" since 2001, said officials from the city and company alike. The Fullerton mill recycles nearly 70 percent of the water used in the manufacturing process, and it is now among Kimberly-Clark's most efficient water users in North America, spokesman Bob Brand said by email. The vast areas maintained by the Rancho Santa Margarita Landscape and Recreation Corp. are irrigated with potable water. The homeowners association, which spent $1.3 million on water last year, cut back usage 28 percent over the last five months of 2014 vs. the same period in 2013. It's examining the possibility of adding reclaimed water connections, officials said. Disney spokeswoman Suzi Brown said the parks take water conservation extremely seriously. While water use has had slight upticks in recent years, it was essentially the same in 2014 as it was in 2007, according to Anaheim bond disclosures. Over that same time period, Disney added Cars Land to California Adventure and welcomed an additional 4.8 million yearly visitors, according to figures from the Themed Entertainment Association. Nearly all of the water at the Disney Resort is recycled in some manner, said Brown. Back in 2008, when Disney had to drain California Adventure's giant Paradise Bay to prepare the new "World of Color' show, it seemed a shame to send all that water down the storm drains and into the ocean. So Disney worked with the Orange County Water District to divert the water into O.C.'s Groundwater Replenishment System. This system — hailed as the future by many water experts—treats waste water to a high level of purification, then injects it into the earth so it can replenish underground drinking water basins and keep seawater from intruding on same. OCWD, in its turn, praised Disney for its efforts, and encourages other businesses to follow suit. "Since 1955, water conservation has been one of our key environmental goals," Brown said by email. The Irvine Co. said much the same. Nearly 50 years ago, it helped create the Michelson Water Reclamation Plant that's owned and operated by the Irvine Ranch Water District, said 17 spokesman Bill Lobdell. The plant recycles some 20 million gallons of water daily for Irvine and parts of Newport Beach, Costa Mesa, Lake Forest and Orange. Nearly every retail, office and apartment community in Irvine — 91 percent, as well as parks, greenbelts and medians — uses recycled water for landscaping, Lobdell said. To meet Irvine's goal to reduce consumption by 16 percent, the Irvine Co. is considering changing landscape materials, expanding the use of more efficient irrigation systems, and installing more water-efficient fixtures in older apartments. "This is a complex challenge, especially since we make extensive use of recycled water in Irvine and the Newport Coast and our newer properties already have state-of-the-art, water- conservation systems that make additional reductions more difficult," Lobdell said by email. Folks in Yorba Linda, No. 3on our list, may have the toughest time: They must reduce use by 36 percent. "We have no illusions," said Damon Micalizzi, spokesman for the Yorba Linda Water District. "We think 36 percent is unfair. But that doesn't change the fact that we have a significant and serious drought, and we'll do everything we can to cut back." The city of Yorba Linda has scaled back on watering the 400-plus acres of landscaping it maintains. But some of that is where wildland meets suburbia, and the Orange County Fire Association requires it to protect homes from potential fires, said City Manager Mark Pulone. Meantime, the water district is offering seminars on reducing water use, and a session last week got so full it had to turn people away. 'THE OVEN' Other big users at the top of the list include homeowners associations for vast developments in the warm southeastern reaches of the county once dubbed "El Horno" —the oven. Thousands of new homes are slated for development here. The Ladera Ranch Maintenance Corp., overseeing a 4,000-acre development, spent nearly $1.7 million on water last year. The Coto de Caza equivalent, CZ Master Association, spent $1.1 million. They're all trying to conserve one of every four gallons used. No easy task. In Ladera Ranch, more than 90 percent of the water used for landscaping is reclaimed waste water, said Ken Gibson, executive director for Ladera Ranch's association. Some 750 acres of common areas are irrigated by a sophisticated central brain that waters based on weather, soil conditions, plant needs and evapotranspiration —water lost to evaporation or absorbed by plants—with built-in alarms for leaks and line breaks. Drinkable water is only used for irrigation in about 1,200 front yards, courtyards, village clubhouses and pool areas, Gibson said. In Mission Viejo, more than 80 percent of irrigation is done with reclaimed water, officials said. 18 RETURN TO AGENDA So Mission Viejo, Ladera Ranch, and the other large homeowners associations to the east and south (and just about everyone everywhere else) are ripping out turf, replacing it with drought-resistant plants, encouraging homeowners to invest in water-efficient systems. "Ladera was developed with a sophisticated 'Riverine' system that takes urban runoff down to the Horno Basin, of which a portion of this water is diverted back to the community as reclaimed irrigation water,' said Gibson. And while the Orange County Sanitation District—which processes sewage for about 2.5 million people—did indeed buy more than ahalf-million dollars worth of water last year, much of it circles back into into the Groundwater Replenishment System, said spokeswoman Jennifer Cabral. The Sanitation District's plant in Fountain Valley uses about 240,000 gallons of drinking water a day, but sends 100 million gallons to the GWRS daily. There, the water undergoes advanced treatment, resulting in 70 million gallons of purified H2O being injected into the ground to refresh the aquifer. This isn't yet possible at the sewer district's Huntington Beach treatment plant, but it got a $450,000 federal grant to help move that along, Cabral said. In many ways, Orange County's conservation efforts work against it, said Brett Barbra, who represents the Municipal Water District of Orange County. It doesn't get much credit for having the GWRS already online, or for having extensive recycled water systems throughout Irvine and elsewhere. Everyone still has mandatory conservation goals. "What the state board did with those mandatory goals was idiotic;" Barbre said. "If you're living in a Hong Kong-style high-rise condo at the beach, you only have to cut back 6 percent. If you're in a single-family home with a yard in Yorba Linda, you have to cut back 36 percent. It's a war on single-family homes, a war on grass, a war on swimming pools. Yorba Linda is never going to make that 36 percent." What will happen then? If the state imposes punitive fines, it could find itself the target of lawsuits and general pandemonium, Barbra said. CONTACT THE WRITER: tsforza@ocregister.com 19 June 18, 2015 HBlndependent HUNTTINCTON BEACH INDEPENDENT Drought survival: O.C. makes ioo million gallons of wastewater a day drinkable Desalination foes say it makes more sense to clean wastewater than to dump it in the ocean, only to retrieve it in a saltier condition. Thursday,June 18, 2015 a P IY The recycled water on the left has gone through micmfiltration,reverse osmosis and ultraviolet exposure at the Orange County Water District's groundwater replenishment system in Fountain Valley. (SCOTT SMELTZER,HB Independent/May 27,2015) 20 RETURN TO AGENDA I Photo Gallery:Where wastewater becomes drinkable water By Anthony Clark Carpio Juner72og ro7p.m. Like other water agencies in California,the Orange County Water District is looking at ways to encourage ratepayers to conserve. But it also is looking for sources of water to ensure that its customers don't have to go without. In May,the district entered negotiations with Poseidon Water to determine whether buying water from the company's proposed ocean desalination plant in Huntington Beach would be worthwhile. While those talks continue,the district reached a milestone that could be a big factor in how Orange County manages its water supply during the lingering drought. The water district's groundwater replenishment system,a purification facility tucked between the 405 Freeway and the Santa Ana River in Fountain Valley,recently underwent a$156.2-million expansion that bumped production from 70 million gallons of water per day to too million gallons per day.That's enough for about 850,000 people. The facility,the largest of its kind in the world,produces drinkable supplies from recycled wastewater to be stored in the county's groundwater basin near Anaheim. In a joint project with the Orange County Sanitation District,the water district purifies treated wastewater and injects the potable water into the underground basin to be used by 19 member agencies in its service area,which includes Huntington Beach,Fountain Valley,Costa Mesa,Irvine and Newport Beach. "It's the only thing that will get us through this[drought],"said Orange County Water District board President Cathy Green. "Our imported water has been cut back.This water could never be cut back.It's ours." The partnership between the water and sanitation districts dates to the 1g7os,when the water agency built Water Factory 21,one of the first facilities to use reverse osmosis to purify water,said Michael Markus,the Orange County Water District's general manager. Until it went offiine in 2004,Water Factory 21 produced about 15 million gallons per day of potable water. But in the late 199os,the water and sanitation districts were in the works to build a bigger facility capable of producing more water. Jim Herberg,general manager of the sanitation district,said the wastewater agency was looking to build another outfall pipe to discharge its treated effluent.At the same time,the water district was looking for a new source of water for the county.Instead of disposing of the water in the ocean,the sanitation agency teamed with the water district to build the groundwater replenishment system. In January 2oo8,the$481-million facility went online,providing up to 7o million gallons of potable water per day before the expansion. 21 The sanitation district currently treats about 1qo million gallons of wastewater per day and disposes of about go million to roo million gallons of treated effluent into the ocean each day.The remainder goes to the groundwater replenishment system to be purified as drinkable water and stored.Both agencies are awaiting a study to help determine whether it would be feasible to send more water into the groundwater system. If the study is favorable,the water district says,it has enough room to expand its facility again to produce up to 130 million gallons per day of potable water. "The sanitation district will be discharging next to nothing out to the ocean,"Markus said."We'll probably be recycling 85%to go%of their flow." How groundwater replenishment works Wastewater goes through three treatment components when it is purified by the groundwater replenishment system:microfiltration,reverse osmosis and ultraviolet light. When treated wastewater from the sanitation district's Fountain Valley facility arrives at the groundwater replenishment system through underground pipes,it undergoes a microfiltration process that removes any solids,organisms,bacteria and some viruses. Like other major water purification systems,the major step in the process is the reverse osmosis treatment. Water is passed at high pressure through about 22,050 membranes to remove salt,viruses and pharmaceuticals. Compared with ocean water desalination,the groundwater replenishment system's reverse osmosis process uses less energy because less salt needs to be removed from the wastewater,Markus said. Unlike desalination,the last step in the water district's purification process is mixing the water with hydrogen peroxide and shining ultraviolet light on it to kill any remaining bacteria and viruses. "The entire[purification] process only takes about 45 minutes,"Markus said. Desalination or recycled wastewater? Poseidon Vice President Scott Maloni said his company supports the groundwater replenishment system and recognizes it as the county's top priority in supplying residents with water.However,desalination could contribute to that,he added. "We think[the desalination plant]is complementary,"he said. For nearly a decade,Poseidon has been trying to get its proposed$1-billion Huntington Beach desalination plant approved for construction.It has approvals from the city of Huntington Beach,the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board and the State Lands Commission but is waiting for a development permit from the California Coastal Commission,which may review the application late this year. The facility,which is projected to produce 5o million gallons of potable water per day,would be next to the AES power plant at Pacific Coast Highway and Newland Street. The project's opponents claim that the cost of desalination would increase water rates and that the plant would consume a high amount of energy and harm marine life. 22 RETURN TO AGENDA Maloni said permitting agencies have determined that the project"would not negatively affect marine life or degrade water quality,"and he believes the groundwater replenishment system is not drought-proof. "During a drought,if there's less water being consumed,then that means less water being recycled,"he said."That affects the capacity of[the groundwater replenishment system]....Desalination is immune to those effects." Former Huntington Beach Mayor Debbie Cook who for the past decade has been keeping a close eye on the Poseidon project,said ocean desalination should be the last route for the county and that expanding wastewater recycling should be a priority statewide. "There are so many places along the coast that are dumping water that could easily be treated for a fraction of a cost of ocean desalination;'she said. Water purified by the groundwater replenishment system is sold to the Orange County Water District's member agencies for$294 per acre-foot,Markus said.In comparison,the district's cost to buy imported water from the Municipal Water District of Orange County is about$660 per acre-foot for untreated water and about$1,003 per acre-foot for treated water. The estimated cost of Poseidon's water has yet to be determined.In May,the Orange County Water District approved a term sheet with the company that serves as the basis for negotiating the waters cost.Currently, the agencies are using the price of treated Municipal Water District water as the base cost and tacking on premiums. Poseidon previously stated that water from the Huntington Beach plant would cost about$1,812 per acre- foot.A 2014 study by consultant Clean Energy Capital estimated the median price at$1,922 per acre-foot. Cook said it doesn't make sense for the sanitation district to dump treated wastewater into the ocean to be pulled out later by a desalination plant. "We dump effluent off the coast of Huntington Beach,and then Poseidon's just going to suck the same effluent back into their pipes,but it's going to be a lot saltier,"she said. The drought and declining wastewater In recent years,Herberg said,the sanitation district has treated less wastewater because residents are conserving water during the drought.The agency currently receives about 190 million gallons per day,but about a decade ago,it got as much as 220 million gallons per day. "Our goal is to recycle as much as we get,"he said. "Wastewater flows are down,but we want to recycle t00%of it" In April,the State Water Resources Control Board set water-conservation benchmarks for cities and water agencies across California in an effort to reduce overall water use by 25%. Markus said he has concerns about the decline in wastewater but believes the mandatory water restrictions won't have a significant effect on the groundwater replenishment system. "With the governor's call for the 25%conservation,most of that is going to be outside the house,"Markus said."But people will also be taking shorter showers and buying energy-efficient washers.I'm thinking maybe it'll be about a 5%decrease in wastewater,but well have to wait and see." Herberg said the groundwater system will remain crucial to Orange County's water supply. 23 "It's enormously important to Orange County and our region,"he said."It has surpassed the flow of the Santa Ana River as being an important part of our supply.If we didn't have the groundwater replenishment system,we would definitely be in a lot worse shape than we are." 24 RETURN TO AGENDA June 26, 2015 The Tribune San Luis Obispo Tribune The Associated Press June 26, 2015 FOUNTAIN VALLEY, Calif. —An Orange County water district is adding more purified wastewater to its groundwater basin, helping the area continue to rely on mostly local water sources even during times of drought. The Orange County Water District on Friday unveiled the expansion of its groundwater replenishment system, which now produces 100 million gallons of water a day. The district started the system in 2008 to produce 70 million gallons a day, and hopes to expand further. The system purifies treated wastewater and releases it into the groundwater basin where it is pumped out as drinking water for 2.4 million residents in central and northern Orange County Tom Beamish, chair of the Orange County Sanitation District, says more than half of the district's wastewater is now being reused. 25 June 26, 2015 The Washington Times 94ca� in�tun Orange County expands groundwater system Posted,2015-06-26 The Washington Times i By AMY TAXBQ-Associated Press-Friday,June 26,2015 FOUNTAIN VALLEY, Calif. (AP) -An Orange County water district said Friday it is adding more purified wastewater to its groundwater basin, helping to continue its reliance on mostly local water sources during the drought. The Orange County Water District expanded its groundwater replenishment system to produce 100 million gallons of water a day,up from 70 million when it began in 2008. 26 RETURN TO AGENDA The system purifies treated wastewater and releases it into the groundwater basin where it is pumped out as drinking water for residents in the central and northern parts of the county. "It's a great day for all people that drink water," said Tom Beamish, chair of the Orange County Sanitation District, adding that more than half of his district's wastewater is now being reused. "We are a model for the rest of the state" The $142 million expansion began three years ago,with the additional water coming as California grapples with its fourth year of drought. Earlier this year,the state mandated cutbacks by local water agencies, and residents have been trying to conserve by tearing out lawns and taking shorter showers. Earlier this month,the city of Riverside sued the state water board over the restrictions, claiming the rules are unfair because the city has ample groundwater supplies. In the Orange County district, about two-thirds of the water comes from the groundwater basin and a third is imported from Northern California. With the expansion, the replenishment system now produces enough water for about a third of the district's 2.4 million residents. The district hopes to further expand the project to produce 130 million gallons of water each day. When the project began, the district had to overcome public skepticism about introducing wastewater- after it was treated and purified-into the system that delivers drinking water to residents. 27 June 27, 2015 OC Register ORANGE COUNTY RMIS= Orange County's 'toilet-to-tap' water recycling program expands June 27,2015 Updated 3:49 p.m. Cathy Green,president of the Orange County Water District, and others toast with recycled water on Friday. , ANA VENEGAS, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER BY AARON ORLOWSKI/STAFF WRITER By the numbers The $142 million initial expansion of the Groundwater Replenishment System began in 2012 and included: Two 7.5-million-gallon storage tanks; 28 RETURN TO AGENDA 6,840 microfiltration membranes; 6,300 reverse osmosis membranes; 1,728 ultraviolet light lamps. Officials unveiled an initial expansion of Orange County Water District's wastewater recycling facility in Fountain Valley on Friday,bringing production from 70 million gallons per day to 100 million gallons. With the $142 million expansion,the wastewater program provides enough recycled water to meet the needs of about 850,000 Orange County residents. The Fountain Valley plant is the largest of its kind in the world. Another, final expansion of the Groundwater Replenishment System,which began treating water in 2008,would bring production to 130 million gallons per day. At the water district's facility in Fountain Valley, lightly treated wastewater from the Orange County Sanitation District that would otherwise be discharged into the ocean is pumped through a series of filters. The heart of OCWD's advanced filtering process is when the water is forced through reverse osmosis membranes,which also can be used to take the salt out of seawater. The water comes out ultrapure and is used to replenish groundwater stocks through recharge basins in Anaheim. It also is injected into wells in Fountain Valley to ward off saltwater that could penetrate the groundwater basin from the ocean. Water agencies pump the groundwater out and distribute it as tap water to 2.5 million people in north and central Orange County. As water supplies have tightened during California's four-year drought, experts have looked to wastewater as a source that's not dependent on rainfall. "With the drought,this expansion has come on in the nick of time," said Mike Markus, the water district's general manager. With a final expansion planned sometime in the next decade, officials hope to eventually treat and recycle all the water produced by the sanitation district, which serves 2.5 million people in north and central Orange County. Current plans would treat only about 70 percent of the water generated by the sanitation district. "Hopefully, that 70 percent can increase," said Tom Beamish, chairman of the board of directors at the sanitation district. "We are committed to making that final expansion a reality." To complete the final expansion,the sanitation district will have to figure out how to transport water from its treatment plant in Huntington Beach to OCWD's system in Fountain Valley. The water district is already recycling all of the water generated by the sanitation district's Fountain Valley plant. 29 Advances in membrane technology have made reverse osmosis systems cheaper to operate. Other advances lower energy costs by reusing the pressure that forces water through the membranes. As part of the initial expansion,the water district built two 7.5-million-gallon storage tanks to hold some water during the day and run it through the filters overnight, when the sanitation district isn't producing as much wastewater. The Groundwater Replenishment System is in a category called indirect potable reuse,which means there's a buffer between the recycled water and those who drink it—in this case, the groundwater aquifer. In the coming years,water experts predict direct potable reuse—wherein recycled wastewater is pumped straight into pipes destined for homes—will become common. Some water officials lament that it isn't common already. "It's a shame we have to put it in the ground in order to use it," said Philip Anthony, a member of the water district's board. Orange County politicos spoke at Friday's event,including Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, Rep. Loretta Sanchez, State Sen. John Moorlach,Assemblyman Matthew Harper and Assemblyman Travis Allen. Contact the writer: aorlowski@ocregister.com. Twitter: @aamnorlowski 30 RETURN TO AGENDA June 27, 2015 KSBY 6 News KSBY&,NEWS LIVE . LOCAL . EVERYWHERE . Orange County expands groundwater system By Associated Press FOUNTAIN VALLEY,Calif.(AP)-An Orange County water district is adding more purified wastewater to its groundwater basin,helping the area continue to rely on mostly local water sources even during times of drought. The Orange County Water District on Friday unveiled the expansion of its groundwater replenishment system,which now produces 100 million gallons of water a day. The district started the system in 2008 to produce 70 million gallons a day,and hopes to expand further. The system purifies treated wastewater and releases it into the groundwater basin where it is pumped out as drinking water for 2.4 million residents in central and northern Orange County. Tom Beamish,chair of the Orange County Sanitation District, says more than half of the district's wastewater is now being reused. 31 June 1, 2015 OC Register ORANGE COUNTY RMIS= Watchdog: How special pay is padding pension checks in Orange County, elsewhere May 31,2015 Updated June 1, 2015 11:10 a.m. a. Former Sheriff Mike Carona was making$207,979 per year when he stepped down in 2008 after 32 years of service. Last year,his pension was $231,922. LEONARD ORTIZ, FILE PHOTO By TERI SFORZA/STAFF COLUMNIST taform@mmgiater.com 32 RETURN TO AGENDA How pay data has evolved Before the state controller ordered public agencies to start reporting actual compensation paid to public employees after the Bell scandal in 2010,base salaries and salary ranges were often all people had to work with. Now, the state controller's public pay database(publicpay.ca.gov) includes far greater detail—breaking pay into regular, lump sum, overtime and other categories, as well as detailing the cost of pension benefits,health insurance and deferred compensation. It specifies pension formulas, but lists each position by title only, excluding people's names. Transparent California's database(transparentcalifomia.com)works from the same raw data as the state controller's,but it publishes names as well as financial detail. It also includes pension data from public retirement systems not yet posted online by the agencies. Average employee pensions Here are the average pensions for a few of the agencies whose retirement plans are administered by the Orange County Employees Retirement System. All figures are for workers with at least 30 years of service. O.C. Fire Authority $128,626 O.C. Department of Education $114,658 O.C. Sanitation District $103,574 O.C. Vector Control District $74,348 O.C. Transportation Authority $59,240 Source: OCERS, Transparent California They're the little extras tacked on to "pensionable pay"—from mainstays like chunks of unused leave time to such oddities as the"motorcycle bonus"and"confined space pay." Add them up, and some public workers in Orange County are boosting their"final average salaries"by some 20 percent, according to an analysis by Transparent California,the data arm of the conservative California Policy Center. 33 That number is important,as it's used to determine how much retirees will earn as pension for the rest of then lives. A Register review of data from the Orange County Employees Retirement System found dozens of new retirees whose first-year pension checks either eclipsed their"final average salaries,"or came quite close. Eighty-one of the 688 people who retired in 2014 had pensions that were at least 90 percent of their final average salaries. As a group,the new retirees averaged 63 percent of final average salary,the Register found. "The problem is not that we found some law-breaking here,it's that this doesn't break any law at all," said Robert Feltner, research director for Transparent California. "It's a systemwide practice, and there's nothing wrong with an employee working a system that says, `Would you like some free money?' "I'm a free-market guy,"Feltner said. "People respond to incentives. The system itself is just really, incredibly, overgenerous, on the backs of taxpayers who don't have this type of opportunity." `Pension spiking' Fellner calls the phenomenon "pension-spiking,"a term that draws the ire of OCERS officials. "Spiking is an unwarranted pay raise in the final 36 months of a member's OCERS-covered career," said spokesman Robert Kinsler by email. "OCERS audits all member records on a regular basis to ensure there is no spiking." Union officials say Fellner works for an organization that's unabashed in its desire to revamp the public pension system, and that such efforts threaten America's middle class. Some workers are pumping up to 20 percent of pay into retirement accounts to help make these pensions possible,they note. Retirement formulas do indeed reward longevity, which can make a 30-year-worker's pension rival his working pay,officials said. Pension benefits are not allowed to exceed 100 percent of final average salary, at least initially. Once automatic annual cost-of-living adjustments kick in, however,pensions can exceed what was earned while working. Consider former Sheriff Mike Carona, who was convicted in 2009 of witness tampering and sentenced to 5 1/2 years in federal prison. He is serving the last six months of his sentence at home in Orange. Carona was making$207,979 a year when he stepped down in 2008 after 32 years of service. Last year,his pension was $231,922. 34 RETURN TO AGENDA "OCERS is very concerned about any allegations of pension spiking,"said David H. Lantzer, deputy chief counsel for OCERS,by email. "These adjustments are statutorily required and may increase retirement benefits to more than 100 percent of a member's final average salary. However, cost of living increases are added to the base retirement,which should never be more than 100 percent of final average salary." Generous pension hikes granted during the financial-market boom days of the late 1990s and early 2000s have brought governments to their knees, from Detroit to Chicago and Stockton to San Bernardino. Aggravated by"pension holidays" (when retirement funds appeared so super-funded that officials quit putting money into them)and by the worst recession in decades (which vaporized money that was supposed to grow to help fulfill those generous promises), governments now find themselves forced to pump more money into pensions to make up for lost ground. By and large,they have no choice. Public pension promises are considered legally etched in stone. If investments don't earn enough to pay what's been promised,taxpayers must make up the difference. OCERS had an unfunded liability of$4.9 billion as of December, according to financial statements. It was 69.6 percent funded—meaning it had that much of what's currently pledged to current and future retirees. Not Chicago Experts like to see a funded status of at least 80 percent,though some say even that's not enough. Still,Orange County is no Chicago, the latest municipal damsel in distress. That city's four pension systems are only about 50 percent funded. The Transparent California review focused on"full-career retirees"—those with 30 or more years of service—who stepped down in 2013 and 2014. They collected pensions worth 96 percent of final salary,the data showed. •A division chief with the Orange County Fire Authority had a final average salary of$209,262 after 32 years of service. His pension was $203,423 last year. • A maintenance specialist at the Orange County Sanitation District made $126,117 in 2012,then retired after 35 years of service. He received$115,232 in pension last year. •An assistant airport director for the county had final average salary of$201,115 after 32 years of service,retiring with a pension of$177,094. Final figures were significantly higher than base pay, and often boosted by`other pay"—usually cash- outs of unused leave time that had been banked for years. 35 The airport director had$125,760 of"other pay"in her final year. The county executive manager had $112,590. "My understanding of the term `pension spiking' is it refers to a practice that inflates one's pensionable compensation by using additional forms of pay,or selling back unused sick/vacation leave,to increase pensionable compensation beyond their standard salary amount,"Fellner said in an exchange with OCERS. "Based on this definition, clearly the process that OCERS uses to calculate pensionable compensation would qualify." OCERS countered that its methods are in line with California Supreme Court rulings. They've been in use since 1998, and have been a model for other retirement systems statewide. "The subject of what pay item goes into the actual monthly allowance that a member receives can be confusing," said OCERS spokesman Kinsler. "Keep in mind that a member's base salary is not the same as their final compensation,which can legitimately include other pay items aside from their daily wage." OCERS looks to each member's labor for what can legally be included in final average salary. Every situation is different,but the most common addition is annual leave hours,he said. It's "blatantly misleading"to focus on retirees with 30 years of service—about 16 percent of the total— when most retire with far less, said Tom Dominguez, president of the Association of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs. The average safety member retires after 24.25 years of service,he said. In 2013,the governor's pension reform law aimed to scale back the sweeteners by limiting what kinds of extra pay can be included in final calculations for new hires. It will trim liabilities eventually,but not until those hired after Jan. 1, 2013, start retiring,years from now. The sprinkler premium When it comes to adding extras, OCERS' agencies me hardly alone. It runs towards the middle of the pack—a bit more generous than some pension systems in California, and a bit more stingy than others, Feltner said. Last year, the world's largest public pension system—the California Public Employees' Retirement System—added 99 kinds of special pay that can sweeten pensions for those hired after the governor's reforms, without figuring out how much more that will cost over the long haul. CalPERS' pensionable pay now includes: • The"sprinkler and backflow premium"—compensation to groundskeepers routinely assigned to 36 RETURN TO AGENDA repair large sprinkler head controllers,valves and backflow prevention devices. • The"street lamp replacement premium"—compensation to maintenance workers routinely assigned to replace street lamps from an aerial bucket. • The"tree crew premium"—compensation to maintenance workers routinely assigned to remove, prune or otherwise care for trees. • The"dictation/shorthand/typing premium"for clerical workers. Gov. Jerry Brown didn't have a problem with most of the list,but he blasted the inclusion of temporary pay resulting from short-term promotions as pensionable pay. "This disregards the rule that pensions will be based on normal monthly pay and not on short term, ad hoc pay increases,"Brown wrote in a letter urging CalPERS to reject that item. His request was ignored. Final average salaries were often quite a bit higher than base pay, and often exceeded the maximum listed in ajob's salary range, said Transparent California's Fellner. An Orange County"Deputy Sheriff II"has a published salary range of$62,774 to $87,693. Yet one deputy sheriff retired in 2013 with a final average salary of$100,904, allowing him a pension of $94,000. "It's interesting how misleading the salary range is," Fellner said. Agencies whose retirees earned more than six figures argued that it's the price of doing business. The Orange County Sanitation District,where the average 30-plus-year pension exceeded$103,000, is the third-largest wastewater treatment agency west of the Mississippi River. It protects public health and the environment,which requires a workforce of engineers, scientists, chemists and other skilled professionals and mechanics, said spokeswoman Jennifer Cabral.As such,average salaries tend to be higher. "We understand the need to contain costs," she said,pointing out that the agency lowered benefits for new hires years before it was mandatory. "We also understand the importance to ensure we have the most qualified employees protecting the public's health and the natural environment 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year." Contact the writer: tsforza@ocregister.com 37 June 15, 2015 OC Weekly Dispatches from the Association of California Cities--Orange County's Blabfest By Charles Lam Mon., Jun. 15 2015 at 7,03 AM Comments (0) Categories: Politics Photo by Jennifer Fedrizzi Infrastructure! Infrastructure in Orange County is tough business, what with the 34 different cities and dozens and dozens of other various special districts. I mean, heck, have you driven around the airport? There's three cities there that can barely communicate who borders where and who's in charge of what. So, what's a totally non-governmental organization's to do when they host an infrastructure summit sponsored by some hopeful government contractors? How do you put on an event that has a takeaway both for Seal Beach and for Yorba Linda? The Orange County chapter of the Association of California Cities--the conservative response to the actually-respectable 38 RETURN TO AGENDA League of California Cities--decided on an event full of streetcar and water talk. I went, and here's what I learned (hint: I learned a lot more about one local mayor's French speaking ability than I did about anything else). • SanTana Monsieur Le Maire for Life Miguel Pulido's French could probably kick my French's ass, and I have a degree in the language (Zot zot, my program doesn't exist anymore.) Listen close during the intros of ACCOC's The City Square podcast, you might hear him introducing himself in la belle langue. Get over your French, Don Papi- -doesn't help you run SanTana one bit. • You know how the Anaheim Streetcar and the Garden Grove-Santa Ana Streetcar would most likely be technologically incompatible? You can blame that (mostly) on event moderator and former big man in the state capitol Curt Pringle and his government, who wanted their streetcar to run above street level. Santa Ana's, which is farther along in the planning process, started its life running in the road. • The Orange County/Costa Mesa Hilton gave us all an awesome parking discount. $10 for 7 hours? What a deal. • "Desal is environmentally friendly" -- a quote lifted from an ACCOC video of a tour they took of the Poseidon's Carlsbad desalination plant. Poseidon, of course, being a sponsor of this event and an affiliate member of ACC-OC. • Pringle spent the entirety of the event in an arm sling, thanks to recent shoulder surgery. Don't worry, he's fine. Heal quick, Curt! • ACCOC's desal panel wasn't ENTIRELY one-sided. Poseidon VP Scott Maloni and Tustin City Councilor Allan Bernstein were joined on stage by Surfrider's own Joe Geever. Joe's was pretty obviously the smartest person up there, but he was also the least charismatic :(. • Maloni's a sharp one. He took a few jabs at Pringle's love for fanny packs. Pringle replies: "All of a sudden, I signed up for the Surfrider foundation." Maloni's rebuttal? "You'd be the first one." Oof. • According to Maloni, $400 to $500 of the $1,800 per acre-foot of water San Diego county will be paying for their desalinated water is in delivery costs. I wonder how much OC would pay, seeing how we'd have to build the actual pipeline. • Bernstein was trying to be on his best behavior, PC-wise. He switched a "man" to a "man and woman" pretty quick. No one really cared, though. • An aside: Why does the Orange County Sanitation District and the Orange County Transportation Authority need to sponsor this kind of thing? Seriously? What kind of half decent politician doesn't know about the work they do already? • Santa Margarita Water District Board Member Charley Wilson occasionally lapses into saying "hwat" instead of"what" and it's pretty awesome. • Aliso Viejo's Mike Munzig (also a former People Issue subject) is some kind of hard worker. I spotted him designing his own election posters while learning about water. For more fun, check out this video of Dana Rohrabacher's birthday bash on Mike's YouTube channel: 39 • The Hilton has some of the fanciest paper towels I've ever seen. Tree per towel, I swear. • They had some kind of shitty fire alarm, though. It went off for a false alarm while staff was prepping the conference room for lunch, and barely anyone noticed. The hotel made an announcement that it was a false alarm, and even less people heard that. • What do you have for lunch at one of these shindigs? Mediocre, but fancy looking, hotel food. On the menu: mixed greens salad with cubed cucumber, some kind of radish, and citrus, generic risotto, over-cooked stuffed chicken breast, and some standard grilled veg. Oh yeah, the ticket price? Around the neighborhood of$170. • Speaking of lunch, the Hilton announced it was ready by having one of their staffers stand by the door and just play some wooden chime things. • Pringle's official portrait's gotta be getting up there in age. I think it might be in its teens by now. Seriously though. Curt doesn't look like this anymore. 40 RETURN TO AGENDA • "When I was mayor of Anaheim, I loved speaking in Modesto" — Curt Pringle • San Diego politicians are still making bacon jokes, as afternoon speaker San Diego City Councilor Mark Kersey demonstrated. • Kersey's talk was the most interesting of the day, aided greatly by the fact that he led with a clip of John Oliver's Last Week Tonight. • And finally, speaking of infrastructure, the Hilton's audio system pooped out for a few moments right in the middle of Kersey's speech. What timing. • An aside: Do the companies that sponsor these kind of things have to report the expenses as lobbying costs? 'Cause they kind of are, aren't they? I'm looking at you Cadiz, Poseidon, Waste Management. (Seriously though, why is OCSD and OCTA sponsoring this thing? Don't they have other things they can do with that money?) All in all, I didn't learn anything I didn't already know and I can't say I'm surprised. Follow OC Weekly on Twitter @ocweekly or on Facebook! Email., clam@ocweekly.com. Twitter: @charlesnam. Follow OC Weekly on Twitter @ocweekly or on Facebook! 41 June 18, 2015 OC Register ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER Stretch of Huntington State Beach gets 'beach bummer' grade from Heal the Bay: How did other O.C. beaches fare? June 1Z201S Updated June 18, 2015 6:18 a.m. Huntington State Beach's water quality problems are back. An annual beach report card released Wednesday ranked the beach at Brookhurst Street one of the 10 worst for water quality in the state, eaming the label"beach bummer."It was the only beach in Orange County with that ignominious distinction. In general,water quality in Orange County and statewide was excellent, matching the trend of the past few years, especially during the summer. Analysts said the drought could be a contributor because less rain means less dirty runoff making its way to beaches. The report, from the environmental group Heal the Bay,comes years after public health officials closed several miles of beach along Huntington Beach for two months because of water quality problems during the peak of the 1999 summer swimming season. Millions of dollars were funneled then to discover what caused the high bacteria levels. Theories abounded: the excrement from the birds in the nearby Talbert Marsh, leaky pipes in the beach bathrooms, treated effluent from the sanitation district outfall 4.5 miles offshore,urban runoff. But studies found no smoking gun. Over the course of several years,improvements were made. Bathroom pipes were fixed. Runoff in flood channels was diverted during dry times. The sanitation district started disinfecting its effluent. The problems gradually went away.Now,bacteria levels are unusually high again. 42 RETURN TO AGENDA County officials monitor levels at beaches by testing for bacteria that show up along with pathogens. They issue warnings when levels exceed certain thresholds, going as far as closing the beaches if levels get too high. That hasn't happened at Brookhurst Street yet. County officials said the increased bacteria levels couldn't be explained,but noted that they correlated with the tides. High tides,which could flush pollutants out of nearby channels and tidal inlets,brought with them higher bacteria levels. "There's really nothing else to explain it,"said Mary Anne Skorpanich,the deputy director of the county's public works department, and division manager of environmental resources. Surfer Bryce Leisy of Long Beach was surprised to hear that the water off Brookhurst Street made the beach bummer list. "I've never felt it was that bad. Right now, you go out there and it's crystal clear, you're out past where the waves are breaking and you can see the sand,"he said, adding that warning signs haven't kept him from surfing. "I've never really gotten sick." Though Huntington Beach's severe water quality problems in 1999 were short-lived, the two months of beach closure"spurred intense interest in managing and reducing the runoff down to that area,"said Ray Hiemstra,the associate director of Orange County Coastkeeper, an environmental group. Today, that urban runoff is widely considered the biggest problem for coastal waters. Overspray from sprinkler systems irrigating lawns runs into the gutter, collecting bacteria from pet waste,pesticides and other pollutants from spilled motor oil,trash and yard waste, among other things. That water runs through storm drain channels and into the ocean. Even worse is when it rains. Then a deluge of water floods storm channels and dumps into ocean near popular beaches. Current health department guidelines implore beachgoers to avoid the water for three days after min, and to stay 100 feet away from openly flowing storm drains. But based on a recent study,Heal the Bay is recommending increasing that to five days. Heal the Bay's report assigns letter grades for the summer season(April 2014 to October 2014); the winter season(November 2014 to March 2015),when it tends to rain more; and wet weather—any day when it actually does rain. During wet weather, only 49 percent of Orange County beaches earned an A or B grade in Heal the Bay's report,worse than the state average. In contrast,when it was dry during the summer,only one out of 101 beaches got below an A or B. In winter, 88 percent of Orange County beaches got an A or B grade. The cleanest beaches in Orange County—or at least the ones that made Heal the Bay's Honor Roll list —were Balboa Beach and the Wedge in Newport,Treasure Island,Laguna Lido apartments and Dana Point Harbor Guest Dock. 43 Two beaches that for years frequented the beach bummer list—Poche Beach and Doheny State Beach —managed to avoid it for a second year in a row. Rick Erkeneff, chairman of the South O.C. Surfrider chapter,was surprised that Poche didn't make the list, especially since it was there for five consecutive years previously. A stormwater outfall at the beach has long contributed to water problems there. "That outfall is pretty nasty urban runoff,"he said. The drought could have something to do with the cleaner water. With less water running through stoma drains, less pollution makes its way from land to sea. "Because we're four years into a drought,we haven't had historical flows. The water quality gets better because there's not as much urban run off and outfall,Erkeneff said. The drought may yield water quality improvements in other ways, too, leading to more improvements in capturing and using stormwater,or allowing it to soak into the ground,where it can be pumped out and used again. Water scarcity is driving up the need for new sources of water, and water managers are increasingly viewing storrnwater as a potential resource, said James Alamillo,who manages the beach report card for Heal the Bay. "There's an economic value now in taking what used to be viewed as a cost to deal with. The nuisance is changing to the valuable,"he said. Already, new and redeveloped properties in Orange County must retain the first three-fourths of an inch of rain that falls on the property. To do that,builders can install permeable pavement,which allows rainwater to soak through to the ground, or bioswales,which collect runoff and channel it to vegetated basins,where it seeps into the ground. Those rules,part of a scheme called low-impact development, came online in 2013 and have already been applied to between 10,000 and 15,000 acres countywide, said Richard Boon,the chief of the county's stormwater program. The county is also exploring building basins to capture stormwater from a wider area and allowing it to trickle into the ground. "If there's no rainfall leaving your property, then there's no pollutants leaving your property," said Skorpanich,the environmental resources manager. 44 RETURN TO AGENDA Beach quality report card Heal the Bay's annual beach report card graded Orange County's beaches for 2014-2015 based on water quality.The grades A to F assigned to each location represent the risk of adverse health effects to beachgoers based upon water quality. The better the grade,the lower the risk of contracting an illness from water recreation at that location. S ox&V W&W dry Vd wrtlw SEAL BEACH (WI-M (WOW) yurYarl Projection of 1st Street A D F Projection of 8th Street A A B Seal Beach Pier A B C Projection of 14th Street A A A SURFSIDE BEACH Projection of Sea Way A+ A+ A SUNSET BEACH Projection of Broadway A A+ A BOLSA CHICA BEACH Across from the reserve flood gates A+ A A BOLSA CHICA RESERVE Down coast end of State Beach A B F HUNTINGTON CITY BEACH Bluffs A B A Projection of 17th St. A+ A A+ Jack's Snack Bar/Huntington St. A A A Projection of Beach Blvd. A A A HUNTINGTON STATE BEACH Projection of Newland St. A A A Projection of Magnolia St. A A B Projection of Brookhurst St. C F F Santa Ana River mouth A A F NEWPORT BEACH Projection of Orange St. A A+ F Projection of 52nd/53rd St. A A+ A Projection of 38th St. A A+ A+ 45 June 2015 MD Tweets Twitter Posts for June 2015 Tweeted 10 times,Re-tweeted 8 times 60C Sewers @OC_Sewers Jun 27 We're at the Fountain Valley Summerfest today from 11am-4pm. Come stop by our booth and get some #w2f swag! Amanda Smith @amandaJOYsmith Jun 26 LIVE on Periscope: @SenatorMoorlach speaks at#GWRS Expansion Dedication i-Orangeuounty#OCWD #catcot#drought Ochttps://www.periscope.tv/w/aFl5ljlzMzk5Njl8MjkxM DEwMDDjGpa9GfxW klyHg3t9HXw5xKaGYeC4dS5HM1v_4El6FQ== ... 46 RETURN TO AGENDA 1 manda Smith @amandaJOYsmith Jun 26 Sitting where final expansion of#GWRS will be! @OCWDWaterNews #ocsd #ocwd 100 mil gal of pure water produced daily! r MA Orange County Water '-POCWDWaterNews Jun 26 47 Toasting the expansion with a glass of delicious #GWRS water hftp://ow.ly/i/bvyyl . t fig 1- Orange County Water @OCWDWaterNews Jun 26 Celebrating an additional 30 MGD of fresh clean water at the #GWRS Initial Expansion Dedication. 60C Sewers @OC_Sewers Jun 24 OCSD's Board of Director's meets tonight at 6 p.m. Click link to view the agenda. http://www.ocsd.com/board-of-directors/board-meetings ... ®Public Works @pwmag Jun 24 Watch this video on #OSHA's new guidelines regarding confined spaces hftp://ow.ly/O630H 60C Sewers @OC_Sewers Jun 23 Thank you Alison @RepEdRoyce's & Director's Kiley @YLWD & Beamish @LaHabraCA for touring OCSD's facility in FV today. 48 RETURN TO AGENDA 60C Sewers @OC_Sewers Jun 22 We are accepting applications for the position of Electrical Technician II. If you're interested please apply. http://agency.governmentjobs.com/ocsd/default.cfm ... A WOur Water Counts @OurWaterCounts Jun 22 Nothing comes from nothing...but something pretty amazing can come from wastewater http://bit.ly/leDu8NB @cvbtnews 60C Sewers @OC_Sewers Jun 15 In 1954 @OC_Sewers treated only 30 million gallons of wastewater per day. Today we treat about 200 million gallons! #funfact OC Sewers @OC_Sewers Jun 9 We are accepting applications for the position of Engineering Manager. If you're interested please apply. http://agency.governmentjobs.com/ocsd/default.cfm ... eOC Sewers @OC_Sewers Jun 7 We're at the Tustin Chili Cook-off today till 5:30 pm. Come stop by our booth for some #w2f swag! 49 "'•" Orange County Water @OCWDWaterNews Jun 4 #GWRS featured on @CBSThisMorning http://ow.ly/NTpRN IIIIIIIIIIIELIM OC Sewers @OC_Sewers Jun 1 New compost facility for Orange County's #biosolids. #treatedsewagesludge http://bit.ly/ocsd- ieua OC Sewers @OC_Sewers Jun 1 Thank you @YKAssembly, Directors' Kiley @YLWD & Beamish @La_Habra_OC for touring OCSD's facility in Fountain Valley. AASCE Orange County @ASCEoc Jun 1 50 RETURN TO AGENDA Read about#OC @ASCE_EWRI's recent tour of Orange County Water District's water purification facility: http://ow.ly/NzBS1 @OC_Sewers OC Sewers @OC_Sewers Jun 1 We are accepting applications for the position of Safety & Health Representative. If you're interested please apply. http://agency.governmentjobs.com/ocsd/default.cfm ... 51 June 2015 OCSD Facebook Postings Facebook Posts for June 2015 Posted 11 times and Re-Shared 4 times range County Sanitation District Published by Kelly Newell - Jaae 27 at a 26am We're at the Fountain Valley Summerfest today from l lam-4pm. Come stop by our booth and get some#wha@flush swag! Orange County Sanitation District Published by Kelly Newell - June 2e at 1:06pm Great article on the expansion of the Groundwater Replenishment System. San Luis Obispo The Associated Press ...See More :ICTak THE TRIBUNE Orange County expands groundwater system 52 RETURN TO AGENDA An Orange County water district is adding more purified wastewater to its groundwater basin, helping the area continue to rely on mostly local water sources even during times of drought. SANLUISOBISPOWM Orange County Sanitation District shared Orange County's Groundwater Replenishment System's photo. Published by Kelly Newell . Juno 26 at 10:49am l Orange County's Groundwater Replenishment System Celebrating 30 MOD of new clean water at the NGWRS Initial Expansion Dedication Orange County Sanitation District Published by Kelly Newell Junc 2a at IO:osam OCSD's Board of Director's meets tonight at 6 p.m. Click link to view the agenda.http://www.ocsd.com/board-of- directors/board-meetings Board of Directors Meeting ©2015 Orange County Sanitation District.All Rights Reserved.Website Created by Vision Internet-The Government website experts OCSD COM Orange County Sanitation District with Yorba Linda Water District Published by Kelly Newell Janc D at 2:25mn Thank you Alison Martin from Congressman Royce's office for taking a tour of our Plant I facility in Fountain Valley today! #CA39#What2FIwh 53 Orange County Sanitation District Published by Kelly Newell - June 22 at 2:59pm We are accepting applications for the position of Electrical Technician Il.If you're interested please apply.http://agency.govemment obs.com/ocsd/default.cfm AM IF Orange County Sanitation District shared Municipal Water District of Orange County's photo. Published by Kelly Newell June22 at 7:34am � 19 Municipal Water District of Orange County Dropping tissues in the trash instead of flushing them down the toilet eliminates water waste and prevents inconvenient clogs. w Orange County Sanitation District Published by Kelly Newell June i 5 at l:56pm In 1954 @OC_Sewers treated only 30 million gallons of wastewater per day.Today we treat about 200 million gallons! #funfact Orange County Sanitation District Published by Kelly Newell - June 9 at 734am We are accepting applications fa the position of Engineering Manager. If you're interested please apply.hftp://agency.govemmenoobs.com/ocsd/default.cfin 54 RETURN TO AGENDA Orange County Sanitation District Published by Kelly Newell . June 7 at 11:35am We're at the Tustin Chili Cook-off today until 5:30 p.m.Thanks to our General Manager for stopping by as well. Come stop by our booth and get your free#what2flush swag! Orange County Sanitation District via Orange County Water District Published by Kelly Newell - June 5 at 7:28am Great story on GWRS! California plant transforming sewage into drinking water In the midst of California's historic drought,cities and towns are looking for any source of water they can find.That includes a water recycling process some call... CBSNBWS.COM Orange County Sanitation District Published by Kelly Newell June t at 1232pm my's#biosolids.#treatedsewagesludge http://bit.ly/ocsd-ieua 0 0 0 0 0 Orange County Sanitation District : Biosolids News 55 The Orange County Sanitation District(OCSD)has been invited to take our biosolids to the Inland Empire Regional Compost Facility(IERCF)in Rancho Cucamonga,California.On June 8,2015,OCSD vall begin hauling two truck... OCSEWERSCOM Orange County Sanitation District Published by Kelly Newell . June t at lo:alam Thank you Assemblywoman Young Kim,Director Kiley(Yorba Linda Water District)and Chairman Tom Beamish (City of La Harba)for touring OCSD's Plant No.1 facility in Fountain Valley on Thursday. p JIM Orange County Sanitation District Published by Kelly Newell - June l at zt lam We are accepting applications for the position of Safety&Health Representative.If you're interested please apply.http://agency.govemmentjobs.com/ocsd/default.cftn 56 LEGISLATIVE AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS MEETING Meeting Date 07/13/15 AGENDA REPORT Item Number 3 Orange County Sanitation District FROM: James D. Herberg, General Manager Originator: Bob Ghirelli, Assistant General Manager SUBJECT: LEGISLATIVE UPDATE GENERAL MANAGER'S RECOMMENDATION Information Only. SUMMARY Staff will provide an update on recent federal and state legislative activities. PRIOR COMMITTEE/BOARD ACTIONS N/A ADDITIONAL INFORMATION BUDGET/PURCHASING ORDINANCE COMPLIANCE N/A ATTACHMENT The following attachment(s) am attached in hard copy and may be viewed on-line at the OCSD website (mm w.ocsd.com) with the complete agenda package: • Federal Update-ENS Resources • State-Townsend Public Affairs • Grant Matrix Page 1 RETURN TO AGENDA A06.1i 'W V/ NESOY MC ES MEMORANDUM TO: Jennifer Cabral Rebecca Long FROM: Eric Sapirstein DATE: June 29, 2015 SUBJECT: Washington Update During the past month, we continued to monitor the development of a number of legislative and regulatory matters. As expected, both the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations completed action on fiscal year spending for USEPA with significant cuts to its budget. At the same time, drought legislation was introduced in the House, but a Senate bill, as well as an expected House measure targeting recycling, remains to be introduced. Finally, USEPA took the final step and issued the Clean Water Rule. Fiscal Year 2016 Budget Congressional committees have approved the fiscal year 2016 budget for USEPA and, in so doing, imposed a 23% reduction on the combined purchasing power of the clean water and drinking water trust fund program,the SIZE. The soon to be debated and voted on in the Senate and House bills would only provide the wastewater SRF $1.0 billion instead of $1.4 billion. Stakeholders consider this higher level the desired funding level. Because of the funding reduction, along with a number of policy riders, including a prohibition on the implementation of the Clean Water Rule, a strong and formal veto message from the White House was issued on the bills. The funding level of the SRF program is critical because of the ongoing priority to leverage SRF assistance in support of water recycling. For this and other reasons,we believe that when Congress and the White House reach a final agreement on spending levels later this year,SRF funding levels will be increased. ENS Resources,Inc. 110114-Street,N.W. Washington,D.C.20005 Phone 202.466.3755/Telehx 202.466.3787 RETURN TO AGENDA With regard to water recycling, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation received strong support in both the House and Senate. Specifically, the WaterSmart program, which provides the District with its funding for the feasibility study effort, is appropriated just over $20 million. In addition, the Senate version of USBR's budget provides an additional $52.5 million to support drought relief projects like water recycling and other conservation efforts. If this funding survives in a final budget agreement, it should offer the District supplemental funding opportunities to support its feasibility study into developing new water recycling supplies. Water Supply and Drought Prior to recessing for July 4ffi, Representative David Valadoa (R-CA), along with a number of Members as cosponsors, introduced H.R. 2898. It would address a number of regulatory mandates considered to be the cause of the ongoing drought. In addition, the bill seeks to require that the federal government operate its water supply projects with greater Flexibility to ensure maximum water supply deliveries for human consumption needs. Joining Valadao, as cosponsors are the District's Members Mimi Walters, Dana Rohrabacher, and Ed Royce. The legislation does not provide for additional funding of water recycling or other alternative supply water projects. Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer both issued statements rejecting much of H.R. 2898 on the basis of its provisions to relax environmental mandates. Upon Congress' return, Representative Jared Huffman (D-CA) is expected to introduce an alternative bill to address the drought. Under the Huffman approach, a priority would be placed upon the development of water recycling and desalination projects, as well as other conservation approaches, in lieu of relaxing environmental mandates such as the ESA. Huffman invited the District to participate in a roundtable discussion on how to address the drought and approaches to facilitate water recycling project construction. We do not anticipate that the Huffman bill will be considered in the House, but he has been working with Senator Feinstein to incorporate his priorities into her legislation. In the Senate, Feinstein is expected to introduce her drought legislation shortly after the Senate returns to work on July 7. Unlike the H.R. 2898, Feinstein's bill is expected to provide a focus on providing assistance for water recycling and desalination needs. This reportedly will include a new program within USBR to provide loan guarantees to water and desalination projects. The bill is also expected to address regulatory mandates. Unlike H.R. 2898's approach, it is presumed that any streamlining of mandates will focus on facilitating the development of alternative water supply projects and storage facilities. For the District, the Senator's bill might offer new avenues to fund water recycling projects. ENS Resources,Inc. 110114-Street,N.W. Washington,D.C.20005 Phone 202.466.3755/Telehx 202.466.3787 RETURN TO AGENDA Finally, Boxer's pending bill, Water for the 21n Century, could become part of any negotiations to develop a consensus drought bill. If this occurs, then it should provide for additional resources being dedicated to the development of water recycling projects through direct grants,low interest loans, or loan guarantees. Waters of the U.S.Rulemaking USEPA issued the final rule governing the regulation of waters in the U.S. The rule will become effective on August 28, 2015. As the District had sought, the rule continues the current exemption from further regulation of wastewater systems. The rule also clarifies that water recycling facilities are not subject to regulation because of the water supplies conveyed. Despite the fact that the rule has clarified that the District's interests would not be affected, the debate has not ended. As mentioned earlier, policy riders on USEPA's spending bill to prevent the implementation of the rule remain before Congress.Also, more than fifteen states have now launched a legal challenge to the rule. As matters stand, even with the uncertainty created by the challenges, the District should not have any adverse impacts to its operations. ENS Resources,Inc. 110114-Street,N.W. Washington,D.C.20005 Phone 202.466.3755/Telehx 202.466.3787 TOWNS E N D RETURN TO AGENDA PUBLIC AFFAIRS rsT TPA lass To: Orange County Sanitation District From: Townsend Public Affairs, Inc. Date: June 29, 2015 Subject: Legislative and Public Affairs Agenda Report State Political Update All attention in the Capitol over the past several weeks has been centered on finalizing the State Budget and moving legislation through the House-of-Origin deadline. On June 15, the Legislature passed a budget, thereby meeting their constitutional mandate to adopt a spending plan. However, the action taken, to pass the main budget bill and four of the trailer bills, did not address many of the outstanding issues that were still pending between the Legislature and the Governor, including the drought trailer bill. The main budget bill, AB 93, passed out of the Legislature on party-line votes in each House of the Legislature. The spending plan included $117.5 billion in General Fund spending and established total reserves of $5.7 billion ($1.5 billion in regular reserve and $4.2 billion in the State's rainy day fund). The budget spending level is based on the Legislative Analyst's Office revenue projections for the upcoming year, which are over $3 billion above the projections from the Governor's Office. A day after the Legislature approved the main budget bill an agreement was announced between the Governor and Legislative Leadership on the complete budget package. The agreement that was reached utilized the Governor's revenue projections that were included in the May Revise and contained approximately $61 million in spending above what was proposed in the May Revise. The total spending in the budget agreement was approximately $2 billion less than what the Legislature approved on June 15. Ultimately, a compromise budget bill, and accompanying trailer bills, was passed by the Legislature on June 19. Southern California Office•1401 Dove Street•suite 330•Newport Beach,CA 92660•Phone(949)399-9050•Fax(949)476-8215 State Capitol Office•925 L Street•Suite 1404•Sacramento,CA 95814•Phone(916)4474086•Fax(916)444-0383 Federal Office•600 Pennsylvania SE•Suite 207•Washington,DC 20003•Phone(202)646-8696•Fax(202)U64555 Northern California Office•300 Frank Ogawa Plaza•Suite 204•Oakland,CA 94612•Phone(510)835-9050•Fax(510)835-9030 RETURN TO AGENDA The final budget deal, with minimal line item vetoes, established a general fund budget of $115.4 billion for the upcoming fiscal year, which is based on the Administration's overall revenue projections for the coming year. The Legislature ultimately approved one primary budget bill, which made amendments to the budget they approved earlier in the week, as well as a package of thirteen trailer bills. The primary budget measure, as well as a majority of the trailer bills, passed along party-lines. The Governor signed this bill June 24. Despite significant opposition from Republican members of both Houses, the final package included SB 88, a water resources trailer bill. SB 88 contained the following: • Language authorizing the State Water Resource Control Board to consolidate water systems that are serving disadvantaged communities in unincorporated areas with unreliable and unsafe drinking water. This language was significantly narrowed in scope from its original version which would have authorized the SWRCB to require consolidation for any public water system that failed to provide an adequate supply of safe drinking water. • A CEQA exemption, during a drought state of emergency, for building or expanding a recycled water pipeline and related groundwater replenishment infrastructure if it is within existing rights of way, does not impact wetlands, and where construction impacts are fully mitigated. • Expanded local enforcement authority for local water agencies to issue penalties for violations of state water conservation requirements. The penalties can be up to $1,000 for the first violation and increase for subsequent violations. • Allows the SWRCB to account for penalties assessed for violations of the emergency conservation regulations and deposit the funds into an account to support for water conservation activities. ® July 2015 Report 2 RETURN TO AGENDA The final budget package also contained significant funding from Proposition 1 to provide resources to help address the drought and other related water infrastructure. Included in the package, $210.7 million for water recycling, desalination, and advanced treatment projects will be available over the next three years. Specifically, the FY 15-16 budget contained: $783 million for competitive grants and loans to address groundwater contamination $132 million for competitive grants for water recycling • $50 million for grants and loans for desalination projects • $180 million for public water system infrastructure improvements to meet safe drinking water standards $160 million for grants for wastewater treatment projects $100 million for grants for stone water management projects • $60 million for groundwater sustainability • $54 million for urban water conservation programs • $35 million for agricultural water conservation • $15.4 million for water conservation at state facilities $115 million for emergency response programs and projects such as: o Enhanced Fire Protection o California Disaster Assistance Act o Removal of emergency salinity barriers in the Delta The package of bills that was approved by the Legislature was sent to the Governor for his consideration, along with the main budget bill. The Governor signed the budget June 24, using his line item veto sparingly. He trimmed only a couple million dollars that he deemed unnecessary and duplicative. Finally, some important Legislative dates to note: 7/14—Second house policy committee deadline is • 7/18—Adjourn for summer recess • 8/18— Return from summer recess 8/28— Fiscal committee deadline • 8/31-9/11— Floor session only • 9/11 — Legislative recess 10/11— Deadline for Governor to sign or veto bills Proposition 84 Round 3 Funding Integrated Regional Water Management Since early January, TPA has been tracking the development of the final round of Proposition 84 funding for the Integrated Regional Water Management (IRWM) program, administered by the Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority (SAWPA). The call for projects for the final round of funding opened on April 21, with $60 million available for projects. This is the largest funding allocation for Proposition 84 IRWM projects, and no cap was placed on applications. ® July 2015 Report 3 RETURN TO AGENDA The deadline to submit applications was Wednesday, May 27 at 5:00 PM. The short call for projects window is the result of an accelerated timeline from the Department of Water Resources to finish allocating funds from Proposition 84 in order to make room for incoming funding from Proposition 1. Once project applications have been submitted to SAWPA, they will be considered by a project review committee (PRC), who will make a recommendation on inclusion for the SAWPA application to DWR. DWR is expected to share their draft award recommendations in November, and award announcement are expected in December 2015. OCSD submitted an application for funding. The proposed project will widen approximately 38,000 feel of pipe to provide the required capacity for current and future sewer flows. Existing flows that exceeded the pipes capacity were being diverted into the Santa Ana River Interceptor Line (SARI) which is non-reclaimable to the Ground Water Replenishment System (GWRS). By increasing the capacity of the pipes, 8 million gallons a day of water will now be redirected to OCSD's Plant 1 and then deposited in the groundwater basin by the GWRS. OCSD's goal is 100 percent recycling of all water that comes into Plant 1, and eventually Plant 2, to then be sent to GWRS. TPA worked with OCSD staff to submit the application for funding in the amount of $5 million. The SAWPA Steering Committee has recommended the funding of$1 million to the Newhope- Placentia Trunk Replacement project. The next step in the process requires SAWPA to submit the Santa Ana Region Funding Plan to DWR by August 7 that includes the proposed projects to be considered for funding. TPA has begun to work with staff to get SAWPA all of the required information about the project that they need by their deadline. A recap of activities related to the grant application include: • Work closely with OCSD staff to write and submit the IRWM application • Coordinate with Department of Water Resources to ensure correct information was used • Actively followed SAWPA's accelerated timeline to ensure project completeness • Attended SAWPA Integration and Pillars workshops as well as Steering Committee meetings to better understand the application and its process • Outreach to SAWPA Steering Committee members in relation to the proposed project Moving forward TPA will do the following: • Continue to assist staff in answering any questions that SAWPA will have with the project • Attend weekly updates via conference calls between SAWPA staff and OCSD • Continue to monitor deadlines and ensure the application is on track ® July 2015 Report 4 RETURN TO AGENDA Legislation AB 327(Gordon) Public Works., Volunteers(OCSD Supports) Assembly Member Gordon's bill, AB 327, extends the sunset date on public works exemption for specified "volunteers" and other related individuals. Existing law defines "public works," for purposes of regulating public works contracts, as, among other things, construction, alteration, demolition, installation, or repair work that is performed under contract and paid for in whole or in part out of public funds. Pursuant to existing law, all workers employed on public works projects are required to be paid not less than the general prevailing rate of per diem wages for work, except as specified. This bill would extend those provisions until January 1, 2024, at which date those provisions would be repealed. There are 146 groups that support this bill, including OCSD. There are also no registered oppositions. It passed on the Assembly floor 78-0 with 2 abstaining. On June 22 it passed the Senate floor 37 — 0 with 3 abstaining. OCSD has submitted a letter of support. The bill has passed both the Assembly and the Senate and is currently ordered to engrossing and enrolling. AB 888 (Bloom) Waste Management., Plastic Microbeads (OCSD Supports) Assembly Member Bloom's bill, AB 888, bans the use of plastic microbeads in personal care products, which are synthetic additives to products such as facial washes, body scrubs, shampoos, soaps, toothpaste eyeliner, lip gloss, deodorant, and sunscreen sticks. Many, if not most of these products are intended to be flushed down the sink or bath drains. Because of the microbeads small size, which AB 888 defines as less than 5 mm on all sides, they routinely pass through wastewater treatment facilities into the environment, where they present a hazard to habitat and marine life when ingested. With the support of 63 groups mostly composed of environmental and wastewater entities, including the California Association of Sanitation Agencies (CASA), who is a sponsor the bill, AB 888 passed through both its assigned policy committees. The legislation moved unanimously through Assembly Natural Resources on April 13, and Assembly Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials on April 28. The bill passed on the Assembly floor 59-12, with 9 abstaining. The bill passed the Senate Environmental Quality Committee, and was re-referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee. There are only eight groups registered in opposition to the bill from the manufacturing and retail fields. It is worth noting that large companies such as Unilever, Proctor & Gamble, and Johnson & Johnson have recognized the harm microbeads have on the environment, and previously pledged to phase them out of their products. This phase out period was not uniform among the companies, and in some cases open ended, which this legislation addresses by setting a hard deadline of January 1, 2020. ® July 2015 Report 5 RETURN TO AGENDA AB 1144 (Rendon) Renewable Portfolio Standard Program (OCSD Supports) Assembly Member Rendon's Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) Program would allow public agencies to finance energy related infrastructure by selling renewable energy credits (REC) generated by methane gas. Some wastewater utilities, such as OCSD, already put methane to use for energy generation within their own facility. However, smaller facilities without the supporting energy infrastructure, under this bill would be able to sell RECs for credits under RPS Category 1, which is the largest category with the most demand for credits. Currently, unbundled RECs are categorized in 'bucket 3' by the Public Utilities Commission, regardless of their source. AB 1144 met the deadline to pass from its policy committees, moving unanimously through both the Assembly Committee on Utilities and Commerce on April 20, and out of Assembly Natural Resources, April 27. It was passed on the Assembly floor with 73-0,with 7 abstaining. The bill is currently in the Senate Energy, Utilities, and Communications Committee. The bill is sponsored by CASA, and is supported by nine other groups including Southern California Edison. Only the Utility Reform Network has registered in opposition to the bill. AB 1217(Daly) Orange County Fire Authority(OCSD Oppose) AB 1217 would reduce the Orange County Fire Authority Board of Directors from 25 to 13 individuals. The OCFA is a regional fire service agency that serves 23 cities in Orange County and all unincorporated areas. OCFA service area covers 1.68 million residents with its 71 fire stations located throughout the county. One member from each city, as well as two representatives from the County, sits on the Board of Directors for the OCFA. This legislation would increase the County representation to three members, and select the other 10 based on population weighted voting, and a "one city one vote "tactic that would bring the board to 13 members. AS 1217 was recently amended, reducing the county represented to two, and dividing representation by having four cash contract cities, and seven structural fire fund cities sit on the board. These 11 cities represented will be selected by the OCFA City Selection Committee based on weighted population and "one city one vote" practices. Opposition for the bill are claiming this is a local issue and should not be handled by Sacramento. Also, this creates a dangerous precedent for the consolidation of various Joint Powers Authorities around the state. The only supporter of this bill is the City of Santa Ana, who benefits by getting a much higher representation percentage on the new Board of Directors. Supporters of the bill claim the 25 person Board is very inefficient and the bill would allow for better governance of the OCFA service area. AB 1217 passed the Assembly 47-25-8, and is currently in the Senate Governance and Finance Committee. TPA drafted an opposition letter on behalf of the District and submitted it the week of 6/15. ® July 2015 Report 6 RETURN TO AGENDA AB 1347(Chiu) Public Contracts: Claims(OCSD Opposed) AB 1347 would establish a claims resolution process for public contracts when public entities and contractors are in dispute concerning a contract of $375,000 or less. The bill applies to public entities at both the state and local level. The bill is meant to address delays of payments to California public works contractors. The legislation is opposed by 30 groups, mostly composed of local governments and special districts have cited that the legislation is redundant as a claims resolution process is already in place under current law. Further, that the timelines established under this bill are not tenable, and that a 10 percent interest rate on late payments is usurious. While the author has made some amendments based on feedback from the opposition, such as extending the period of time public agencies can respond to a claim if they don't have a scheduled meeting where they may take action, none of the groups in opposition have changed their position. Support for the bill has come from the contractor and construction industry. AB 1347 is currently in the Senate and has been referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee. SB 119 (Hill), Protection of Subsurface Installations (OCSD Neutral) SB 119, which would make several changes to the laws governing subsurface excavations. Among the changes of concern for the District, was the initial removal of the marking exemption for non-pressurized pipes, such as sewer laterals, from existing law. This exemption has subsequently been reinserted into SB 119. The impetus for the bill has been the ongoing damage to subsurface infrastructure caused by irresponsible excavation practices that has resulted in injury and death to excavation team members, such as the San Bruno pipeline explosion from 2013. Following a recent gas line explosion in Fresno on April 20, Senator Hill's office sent out an update informing the working group of the incident. While the explosion was caused by excavation related activity, it was determined that no call was made to 811, and has not negatively impacted the non-pressurized line exemption re-inserted in the legislation. The legislation has gone through two rounds of amendments based on feedback from the stakeholder input process. Among the most recent amendments was clarifying language added to address the responsibility of subsurface installations during a change in ownership, and the removal of language that limited excavator responsibility for damage to traffic loops if struck, as well as a number of other technical fixes. SB 119 is currently in the Assembly and has been referred to the Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee. SB 272 (Hertzberg) The California Public Records Act(OCSD Watch) SB 272 would require each local agency to create a catalog of enterprise systems. The catalog must be publically available upon request in the office of the clerk as well as posted on the agencies Website. The bill would require the catalog to disclose a list of the enterprise systems utilized by the agency, and, among other things, the current system vendor and product. Because the bill would require local agencies to perform additional duties, it would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason. SB 272 passed the Senate floor with a vote of 37.0-2. It is currently in the Assembly Judiciary Committee. ® July 2015 Report 7 RETURN TO AGENDA SB 355 (Lara) San Gabriel and Lower Los Angeles Rivers and Mountains Conservancy. (OCSD Opposed Unless Amended) SB 355, which removes one of Orange County's two voting seats on the San Gabriel and Lower Los Angeles Rivers and Mountains Conservancy (RMC), and adds seats in the Los Angeles area, moved to the Assembly after passing off the Senate floor, 24 to 12 with 3 abstentions. Those Senators voting against the legislation include the Orange County delegation: Senator Nguyen, Senator Moorlach, Senator Huff, and Senator Bates, as well as Senator Anderson, Senator Berryhill, Senator Cannella, Senator Fuller, Senator Gaines, Senator Morrell, Senator Neilson, and Senator Stone. Both Senators Fuller and Stone voted also against the legislation when it was in the Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee. On June 15, this bill was amended to preserve the two Orange County seats on the San Gabriel and Lower Los Angeles Rivers and Mountains Conservancy Board. Both seats will be filled by members of the Orange County Division of the League of California Cities. TPA continues to work closely with the bill author on this legislation. SB 355 passed out of the Assembly Natural Resources Committee and has been re-referred to the Assembly Appropriations Committee. ® July 2015 Report 8 Orange County Sanitation District Monday, June 29, 2015 AB 83 (Gaff,,D) Information Practices Act of 1977. Current Text.Amended:6252015 odL hunt Introduced.1162015 Last Amend.6252015 Location:6252015-S.JUD. Desk Policy Fiscal Floor Desk Policy Fiscal Floor Cone.. u�� let House 2nd House Cane Enrolled Vetoed Chaptered Calendar. 7r72015 1:30p.m.-Room 112 SENATE JUDICLIRY,JACKSON, Chair Summary.Current taw requires a person or business that owns,licenses,or maintains personal information about a California resident to implement and maintain reasonable security procedures and practices appropriate to the nature of the information,to protect the personal information from unauthorized access,destruction,use, modification,or disclosure. This bill would define "reasonable security procedures and practices"for purposes of these provisions as requiring,at a minimum,security of personal information,including geophysical location information and biometric information,to the degree that any reasonably prudent business would provide,as specified Organization Position OCSD Watch AB168 (Maiensehein R) Localgovernmentfinance. Current Text:Introduced:1222015 udf him[ Introduced:1222015 Location:5/752015-A.2 YEAR ® Policy Fiscal Floor Desk Policy Fiscal Floor Conf. ❑❑❑ Conc. Exrolkd Vetoed Chaptered Ist Vouse 2nd House Summary:Current law requires the county auditor,in the case in which a qualifying city becomes the successor agency to a special district as a result of a merger with that district as described in a specified statute,to additionally allocate to that successor qualifying city that amount ofproperty tax revenue that otherwise would have been allocated to that special district pursuant to general allocation requirements. This bill would make nonsubstantive changes to the provision pertaining to property tax revenue allocations to a qualifying city that merges with a special district. Organization Position OCSD Watch AB 199 (EEggman D) Alternative energy.recycled feedstock Current Text.Amended:6192015 nalf html Introduced.1292015 LastAmend.6192015 Location:611 02 0 1 5-A.REV. & TAX Desk Po/icy Fiscal Floor Desk Polity Fiscal Floor Conf. ��� let House 2nd House Cana Enrolled 'Vetoed'Chaptered Summary.Current law establishes the California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority to provide financial assistance for projects that promote the use ofalternadve energies and authorizes the authority to approve a project for financial assistance in the form of a sales and use lax exclusion. This bill would expand projects eligible far the sales and use tax exclusion to include projects that process or utilize recycled feedstock,but would not include a project that processes or utilizes recycled feedstock in a manner that constitutes disposal Organization Position OCSU Watch RETURN TO AGENDA AB 291 (Medina D) California Environmental Quality Act:local agencies:notice of determination:water. Current Text:Amended:61102015 odf html Introduced.21172015 Last Amend.61102015 Location.61102015-S.EQ. _ Desk Policy Fiscal Floor Desk Policy Fiscal Floor Conf. ��� 1st House 2nd House Cane Enrolled Vetoed Chaptered Calendar. 7112015 9:30 am.-Room 3191 SENATE ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY, WIECKOWSKI, Chair Summary.CEQA requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project,as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment. This bill would authorize a local agency,for certain wafer projects,to file the notice with the county clerk ofthe county in which the local agency's principal office is located,along with any required payment to the Department of Fish and Wildlife,and with the Office of Planning and Research,and to transmit a copy ofthe notice to the county clerks of the counties in which the water project is located,as specified Organization Position OCSU Watch AB 300 (Aleio D) Safe Water and Wildlife Protection Act of 2016. Current Text:Amended:6252015 odL tan/ Introduced.21122015 Last Amend:6252015 Location:6252015-S.E.Q. Desk Policy Fiscal Floor Desk Polity Fiscal Floor Cortf. ��� 1st House 2nd House Cane Enrolled Veoed Chaptered Summary. Would enact the Safe Water and Wildlife Protection Act of2016,which would require the State Water Resources Control Board to establish and coordinate the Algal Bloom Task Force,comprised of specified representatives ofstale agencies,including the conservancy,in consultation with the Secretary for Environmental Protection,and would prescribe the functions and duties ofthe task farce. Organization Position OCSD Watch AB 307 (Mathis R) Graywater.groundwater recharge. Current Text:Introduced:21122015 pdf bast Introduced:21122015 Location:511 52 0 1 5-A. 2 YEAR . PaUcy Fiscal Floor Desk Policy Fiscal Floor Canj. ❑❑❑ L Cone Enrolled Vetoed Cha tiered IstHouse 2nd House Summary. Would state the intent ofthe Legislature to enact legislation to explicitly permit the usage of residential, commercial,and industrial graywater for the recharge ofa groundwater basin or aquifer. Organization Position OCSD Watch RETURN TO AGENDA AB 308 (Mathis R) Graywater:agricultural use. Current Text.Introduced:21122015 Pdf hand Introduced:21122015 Location:511 52 0 1 5-A. 2 YEAR . PaRcy FlscA! Furor Desk Policy Fiscal Floor Canf. ❑7� Conc. Enrolled Veined Chaprered IstHause 2ndHouse Summary: Would state the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation to explicitly permit incorporated and unincorporated communities to sell graywater far agricultural purposes and agriculture to use graywater for agriculture!purposes Organization Position OCSD Watch AB 311 (Gallaeher R) Environmental quality: Water Quality,Supply,and Infrastructure lmprovementAca of2014. Current Teri:Amended:41152015 ud( him/ Introduced:21122015 LastAmend:41152015 Location:5112015-A.2 YEAR Desk ur Fiscal Floor Desk Policy Fiscal Floor Conf. � y Conc. Enrolled Vetoed Cha tered 1st House 2ndHouse Summary: Would require a public agency,in certifying an environmental impact report and in granting approvals for specified water storage projects funded,in whole or in part,by Proposition 1,to comply with specified procedures.Because a public agency would be required to comply with those new procedures,this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would authorize the public agency to concurrently prepare the record ofproceedings for the project. This bill contains other related provisions and other existing laws. Organization Position OCSD Watch AB 327 (Gordon D) Public works:volunteers. Current Text:Enrollment: 62612015 odf ham! Introduced:211312015 LastAmend:41302015 Location:62612015-A.ENROLLED Desk Policy Fiscal Floor Desk Policy Fiscal Enro Floor Con. Ist House 2ndHouse Conc Vetoed Chaptered Summary:Ad workers employed on public works projects are required to be paid not less than the general prevailing rate ofper diem wages for work,except as specified. Current law governing public works does not apply to specified work performed by a volunteer,a volunteer coordinator,or a member ofthe California Conservation Corps or a community conservation corps. These provisions are effective only until January 1,2017,and as of that date are repealed. This bitl would extend those provisions until January 1,2024,at which date those provisions would be repealed. The bill would also delete an obsolete provision. This bill contains other existing laws. Organization Position OCSD Support RETURN TO AGENDA AB 356 (Williams D) Oil andgas:groundwater monitoring. Current Text:Amended:61112015 pdf hmul Introduced.211712015 LastAmend.61112015 Location:61112015-A.INACTIVE FILE _ Desk Policy Fiscal Floor Desk Policy Fiscol Floor Conf. ��t Ist Elouse 2nd House Cone. Enrolled Vetoed Chap[ered Summary: Would authorize the State Oil and Gas Supervisor to require a well operator to implement a monitoring program for belowground oil production tanks and facilities,and disposal and injection wells,. Because a failure to comply with this requirement would be a crime,this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. This bill contains other related provisions and other existing laws. Organization Position OCSD Watch AB 434 (Garcia.Eduardo D) Drinking water:point-of-entry andpoinhof--use treatment Current Text:Amended:6252015 udf html Introduced.21192015 LastAmend.6252015 Location:6252015-S.APPR. Desk Policy Fiscal Floor Desk Policy Fiscal Floor Conc Enrolled Ist House 2nd House I Can Vetoe Chaptered Summary:State Water Resources Control Board to adopt regulations,similar to those previously authorized for adoption by the State Department of Public Health,governing the use ofpoint-of-entry andpoint-of--use treatment by a public water system in lieu of centralized treatment where it can be demonstrated that centralized treatment is not immediately economically feasible,with specified limitations. The bill would exempt the regulations from the Administrative Procedure Act and would require that the regulations and any amendments to the regulations remain in effect until revised by the slate board. This bill would also prohibit the use ofpoint-of entry treatment absent The slate board determination of no community opposition,and would delete the limitation on the duration of these permits. This bill contains other related provisions Organization Position OCSD Watch AB 478 (Ifarp A) Desalination. Current Text:Introduced.2232015 pdf land Introduced.2232015 Location:5/152015-A. 2 YEAR . Policy Fiscal Floor Desk Policy Fiscal Floor lonf one. Enraged Vetoed Chaptered Istilause 2nd House Summary.Current law provides that is it the intention ofthe Legislature that the Department of Water Resources shall undertake to find economic and efficient methods of desalting saline water so that desalted water may be made available to help meet the growing water requirements of the state. This bill would make a nonsubstantive change in these provisions. Organization Position OCSD Watch RETURN TO AGENDA AB 888 (Bloom D) Waste management:plastic microbeads. Current Text.Amended:41222015 Pdf hm l Introduced:22612015 LastAmend:41222015 Location:6/172015-S.JUD. _ Desk Policy Fiscal FJaor Desk Policy Fiscal Floor Conf. �7� /st House 2nd House Cone Enro!!eQ Vetoed Ch fered Calendar: 61302015 1:30 p.m.-Room 112 SENATE JUDICIARY,JACKSON, Chair Summary: Would prohibit,on and after Januory 1,2020,a person,as defined,from selling or offering far promotional purposes in this state a personal care product containing plastic microbeads that are used to exfoliate or cleanse in a rinse-offproduct,as specified. The bill would exempt from those prohibitions the sale or promotional offer of a product containing less than 1 part per million(pin )by weight of plastic microbeads,as provided. This bill contains other related provisions. Organization Position OCSD Support AB 954 (Mathis R) Water and Wastewater Loan and Grant Program. Current Text:Amended:62/2015 Pdf him! Introduced:22612015 LastAmend:6WO15 Location:6/18/2015-5 E.Q. Desk Policy Fiscal Floor Desk Policy Fiscal Floor Conf.us nrolled��� /st Hoe 2nd Ho Cone E Vetoe Chapfered Calendar. 7/152015 9:30 am.-Room 3191 SENATE ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY, WIECKOWSKI, Chair Summary: Would require the State Wafer Resources Control Board to establish a program to provide low-interest loans and grants to local agencies for law-interest loans and grants to eligible applicants for specified purposes relating to drinking water and wastewater treatment This bill would create the Water and Wastewater Loan and Grant Fund and provide that the moneys in this fund are available,upon appropriation by the Legislature,to the board far expenditure for the program. This bill would transfer to the Water and Wastewater Loan and Grant Fund$10,000,000from the General Fund. This bill contains other related provisions Organization Position OCSD Watch AB 957 (Mathis R) Water Quality,Supply,and Infrastructure lmprovementAct of2014. Current Text.Amended:3262015 Pdf hm l Introduced:22612015 LastAmend:3262015 Location:5/1120I5-A.2 YEAR Desk nr Fisrol Floor Desk Policy Fiscal Floor Conf. ❑❑❑ 3K Enrolled Vetoed Cha tered Conc. 1st House 2nd House Sommary: The Water Quality,Supply,and Infrastructure Impro vem en I A et of 2014 requires specified water recycling and advanced treatment fechnology projects to be selected on a competitive basis,considering specified criteria,including,among other criteria, water supply reliability improvement and public health benefits from improved drinking water quality or supply. This bill would include in the water supply reliability improvement criterion whether the project is proposed by a community that is heavily dependent on groundwater from a basin in overdraft,and would include in the public health benefits criterion whether the project is proposed by a community that has extended, or is in the process of extending,its wafer service delivery to entities reliant on either contaminated groundwater or groundwater wells that have run dry. Organization Position OCSD Watch RETURN TO AGENDA AB 1077 (Holden D) Mutual water companies:open meetings. Current Text:Amended:61222015 adf himl Introduced.2272015 LastAmend.6222015 Location:6242015-S. THIRD READING Desk Policy Fiscal Floor Desk Policy Fiscal Floor Conf. 7�� lst House 2nd House Cone Enrolled Vetoed Chap[ered Calendar. 6292015 k120 SENATE ASSEMBLY BILLS-THIRD READING FILE Summary. Would prohibit a mutual water company from meeting solely in an executive session without holding a meeting. The bill would require notice of a meeting to be given to an eligible person at least 4 days prior to the meetings. The bill would require a board of directors of a mutual water company to allow an eligible person to personally attend a meeting of the board,ifthe eligible person gave the board at least 24 hours advance written notice ofhis or her intent to personally attend the meeting. Organization Position OCSD Watch AB 1144 (Rendon D) California Renewables Portfolio Standard Program:unbundled renewable energy credits. Current Text:Amended:41142015 ud! html Introduced.2272015 LastAmend.41142015 Location:6/42015-S. E. U,& C. Desk Policy Fiscal Floor Desk Polity Fiscal Floor Conf. u�� Ist House 2nd House Cone Enrolled Vetoed Chaptered Calendar: 7/72015 9:30 a.m.-Room 3191 SENATE ENERGY, UTILITIESAND COMMUNICATIONS,HUESO, Chair Summary. Would, under the California Renewables Portfolio Standard Program,provide that unbundled renewable energy credits may be used to meet the first category of the portfolio content requirements if among other things that the credits are earned by electricity that is generated by an entity that if it were a person or corporation,would be excluded from the definition of an electrical corporation by operation of the exclusions for a corporation or person employing landfill gas technology or digester gas technology. This bill contains other existing laws. Organization Position OCSD Support AB 1217 (DalE D) Orange County Fire Authority. Current Text:Amended:6192015 Ddf ham/ Introduced.2272015 Last Amend:6192015 Location:6192015-S. GOV. &F. Desk Policy Fiscal Floor Desk Polity Fiscal Floor Conf. Enrolled ��� lst House Ind House Cone Vetoe Chaptered Calendar: 7/g2015 9:30 a.m.-Room 112 SENATE GOVERNANCEAND FINANCE,HERTZBERG, Chair Summary. Would,as of January 1,2017,require the Board of Directors of the Orange County Fire Authority,a joint powers agency,to consist of]3 members,each serving a term of 2 years. The bill would create the Orange County Fire Authority City Selection Committee to select 11 of those board members from cities that contract with the authority for fire protection services,as specified. The bill would additionally require 2 of the members of the Board ofDireclors of the Orange County Fire Authority to be members of the board ofsupervisors ofthe County of Orange,"specified. This bill contains other related provisions. Organization Position OCSD Oppose RETURN TO AGENDA AB 1347 (Chia D) Public contracts:claim& Current Text:Amended:6/12015 od( himl Introduced:21272015 LastAmend:6112015 Location:611&2015-S.✓UD. Desk Policy Fiscal FJaor Desk Policy Fiscal Floor Cortf. ��� 1st House 2nd House Cone Enrolled Vetoe Chaptered Calendar: 6,302015 1:30 p.m.-Room 112 SENATE JUDICIARY,JACKSON, Chair Summary: Would establish,for contracts entered into on or after January 1,2016,a claim resolution process applicable to all claims by contractors in connection with public works. The bill would define a claim as a separate demand by the contractor for one or more of..a time extension for relief from damages or penalties for delay, payment of money or damages arising from work done pursuant to the contract for a public work,or payment of an amount disputed by the public entity,as specified. This bill contains other related provisions and other existing laws. Organization Position OCSD Oppose AB 1454 (Wagner R) Water quality standards:trash:single-use carryout bags. Current Text:Amended:4202015 ttdf html Introduced:21272015 LastAmend:41202015 Location:51112015-A.2 YEAR Desk M Z a Floor Desk Policy Ftscal F1oar Conf, '� Conc. Enrolled Vetoed Chaptered !st House 2nd House Summary: Would suspend the operation of certain amendments to water quality control plans relating to the total maximum daily load for trash unless and until the provisions inoperative due to a pending referendum election became effective. This bill would require the State Water Resources Control Board to revisit and revise water quality control plans to address impaired water quality due to trash if the law pending referendum is defeated at the November 8,2016,statewide general election. Organization Position OCSD Watch SB 119 (Hill D) Protection ofsubsurface installations. Current Text:Amended:61162015 ruff himl Introduced:111412015 LastAmend:61162015 Location:61162015-A. U. &C. Desk Policy Fiscal FJaor Desk Policy Fiscol Floor Cortf. �7� Ist House 2nd House Cone Enrolled Vetoed Chaptered Calendar: 71612015 3 p.m.-State Capitol,Room 437 ASSEMBLY UTILITIES AND COMMERCE,RENDON, Chair Summary: Would require the Contractors'State License Board to adopt a program to enforce violations of provisions relating to excavation. The bill would authorize the board to require a contractor to undergo training, levy a fne,and suspend a contractor's license for a violation. This bill contains other related provisions and other existing laws. Organization Position OCSD Oppose Unless Amended SB 122 (✓acksou D) California Environmental Quality Act. record ofproceedings. RETURN TO AGENDA Current Text:Amended:6/L2015 ndf html Introduced:11152015 LastAmend:61L2015 Location:61112015-A.NAT.RES. Desk Policy Fiscal Floor Desk Policy Pistol Floor Con. 1st House 2rtd House Conc. enrolled Vetoed Chapfered Calendar: 6292015 1:30 p.m.-State Capitol,Room 447 ASSEMBLYNA TURAL RESOURCES WILLIAMS, Chair Summary:CEQA establishes a procedure for the preparation and certification of the record ofproceedings upon the fling ofan action or proceeding challenging a lead agency's action on the grounds of noncompliance with CEQA. This bill would require the lead agency,at the request ofa project applicant and consent of the lead agency,to prepare a record ofproceedings concurrently with the preparation of a negative declaration,mitigated negative declaration,EIR,or other environmental document far projects. This bill contains other related provisions. Organization Position OCSD Watch SB 127 (Vida k R) Environmental quality: Water Quality,Supply,and Infrastructure Improvement Act of2014. Current Text:Introduced:12012015 Pdf html Introduced:1202015 Location:5112015-S. 2 YEAR Desk ■ Fiscal Floor Desk Policy Fiscal Floor Con . Conc. Enrolled Vetoed Chapt¢red 1st House 2rtd House Summary:CEQA establishes a procedure by which a person may seek judicial review of the decision of the lead agency made pursuant to CEQA and a procedure for the preparation and certification of the record ofproceedings upon the fling of an action or proceeding challenging a lead agency's action on the grounds of noncompliance with CEQA. This bill would require the public agency,in certifying the environmental impact report and in granting approvals for projects funded,in whole or in part,by Proposition 1,including the concurrent preparation of the record ofproceedings and the certification of the record ofproceeding within 5 days ofthe filing ofa specified notice,to comply with specified procedures. Organization Position OCSD Watch Sit 184 (Committee on Governance and Finance) Localgovernment:omnibus bill. Current Text:Amended:61152015 odL hunt Introduced:2192015 Last Amend. 61152015 Location:611512015-A.L. GOV. Desk Policy Fiscal Floor Desk Polity Fiscal Floor Cortf. ��� 1st House 2rtd House Cane Enrolled Vetoed�tered Calendar: 7112015 1:30 p.m.-State Capitol,Room 447 ASSEMBLYLOCAL GOVERNMENT,MAIENSCHEIN Chair Summary:Current law authorizes specified local entities,including cities,counties,special districts,and other authorized public corporations,to collect fees,tolls,rates,rentals,or other charges for water,sanitation,storm drainage,or sewerage system services and facilities. Under current law,a local entity may collect these charges on the property tax roll at the same time and in the same manner as its general property faxes.If the entity collects these charges in this way,current law requires the entity to prepare and file with its clerk or secretary a report describing each parcel ofproperty receiving the above-described services and the amount charged.Existing law requires the clerk or secretary to annually file the report with the auditor. This bill would define "clerk"to mean the clerk of the legislative body or secrenry of the entity. Organization Position OCSD Watch SB 208 (Lars D) Integrated regional water management plans:grants:advancedpayment RETURN TO AGENDA Current Text:Amended:622015 ndf hhnl Introduced:21112015 LastAmend:61L2015 Location:6212015-A. W.,P.& W. Desk Policy Fiscal FJaor Desk Policy Fisrol Floor Conf. �� IstHome 2ndHouse Conc. Enrolled Veroed Cha tered Calendar. 61302015 9:30 a.m.-State Capitol,Room 437 ASSEMBLY WATER,PARKS,AND WILDLIFE,LEVINE,Chair Summary: Would require a regional water managementgroup,within 90 days of notice that a grant has been awarded,to provide the Department of Water Resources with a list of projects to be funded by the grant funds where the project proponent is a nonprofit organization,as defined,or a disadvantaged community,as defined,or the project benefits a disadvantaged community. This bill would require the department,within 60 days of receiving the project information,to provide advanced payment of 50%of the grant award for those projects that satisfy specified criteria and would require the advanced funds to be handled,as prescribed. Organization Position OCSD Watch SB 226 (J avlev D) Sustainable Groundwater Management Act:groundwater rights. Current Text:Amended:5152015 pelf haul Introduced:211312015 LastAmend:5152015 Location:6212015-A. W.,P.& W. Desk Policy Fiscal FJaor Desk Policy Fiscal Floor Conf. ��� 1st House 2ndHouse Conc Enrolled Vetae Chaptered Calendar: 61302015 9:30 a.m.-State Capitol,Room 437 ASSEMBLY WATER,PARKS,AND WILDLIFE,LEVINE,Chair Summary: The bill would provide that a court shall use the Code of Civil Procedure for determining rights to groundwater,except as provided by the special procedures established in the bill. This bill would require the process for determining rights to groundwater to be available to any court of competent jurisdiction. The bill would provide that it applies to Indian tribes and the federal government. The bill would require the boundaries of a basin to be as identified in Bulletin 118, unless other basin boundaries are established,as specified. This bill contains other existing laws and other provisions. Organization Position OCSD Watch SB 272 (He a D) The California Public Records Act:local agencies:inventory. Current Test:Amended:6252015 pdf Mml Introduced:211912015 LastAmend:6252015 Location:6252015-A.✓UD. Desk Policy Fiscal FJaor Desk Policy Fisrol Floor Cortf. 7E.r.11ed Vetoed House 2ndHouse Come. Enrolled Vetoed Chaplered Calendar: 61302015 9 a.m.-State Capitol,Room 4202 ASSEMBLYJUDICIARY,MARK STONE,Chair Summary: Would require each local agency,except a school district,in implementing the California Public Records Act,to create a catalog ofinformation technology systems,as defined,to make the catalog publicly available upon request in the office of the clerk of the agency's legislative body,and to post the catalog on the local agency's Internet Web site. The bill would require the catalog to disclose a list of the information technology systems utilized by the agency,and,among other things,the current system vendor and product. Organization Position OCSD Watch RETURN TO AGENDA SB 355 (Loral)) San Gabriel and Lower Los Angeles Rivers and Mountains Conservancy. Current Text:Amended:612512015 Pddf hm l Introduced:212412015 LastAmend:612512015 Location:612 512 0 1 5-A.APPR. Desk Policy Fiscal Flaor Desk Policy Fiscal Floor Cortf. ��� 1st House 2nd House Cane IEnolled Veroed Chaptered Summary:Current law establishes the San Gabriel and Lower Los Angeles Rivers and Mountains Conservancy, which is responsible for the preservation and protection of specified lands within the San Gabriel and Lower Los Angeles Rivers and Mountains area,as defined. This bill would increase to 15 the number of voting members of the governing board,by adding 2 members who are residents of a city not otherwise represented on the governing board at the time of the member's appointment,one bordering the Lower Los Angeles River and the other bordering the San Gabriel River,as prescribed. Organization Position OCSD Oppose SB 385 (Hueso D) Primary drinking water standards:hezavaleM chromium:compliance plan Current Tezt:Amended:61182015 udf html Introduced:2242015 LastAmend:61182015 Location:61182015-A.E.S. & T.M. Desk Policy Fiscal Floor Desk Policy Fiscal Floor Con. Isi House 2nd House Cana Enrolled Veined Chapmred Calendar: 6/3020/5 1:30 p.m.-Slate Capitol,Room 444 ASSEMBLYENVIRONMENTAL SAFETYAND TOXICMATERIALS,ALEJO, Chair Summary: Would authorize, until January 1,2020,the Slate Water Resources Control Board,at the request ofa public water system that prepares and submits a compliance plan to the stale board,m grant a period oftime to achieve compliance with the primary drinking water standard for hexavalent chromium by approving the compliance plan,as prescribed. This bill would require a public water system to provide specified notice regarding the compliance plan to the persons served by the public water system and the public water system to send written status reports to the slate board. Organization Position OCSD Watch Total Measures: 29 Total Tracking Forms: 29 RETURN TO AGENDA MCI's Grant Funding Tracker Name of Grant Synopsis of Grant Amount of Grant Applying Y/N Project/Program Reason Deadline The P2 grant program supports grants and/or cooperative agreements that provide pollution We do not fit within the guidelines of the grant. It EPA Pollution Prevention (P2) prevention technical assistance services or training to In fiscal year 2015, EPA anticipates approximately$3.97 states that the grant will be given to"state businesses. Funded projects use P2 techniques that million will be available under this program. governments,colleges and universities(recognized reduce and/or eliminate pollution from air,water and/or as instrumentalities of the state),federally- land. No C4P recognized tribes and intertribal consortia". 5/14/2015 The program promotes projects that"encourage the development and use of safer alternatives to The SRA funds projects that address: (1)climate change hazardous chemicals",and references EPA and DTSC mitigation/prevention of greenhouse gas emission by priority lists. The program guidelines describe EPA Source Reduction Assistance(SRA) providing technical assistance to businesses;(2)food EPA has a total of$1.2 million to award in SRA grants hazardous materials as chemical ingredients, paints, manufacturing; and (3)State or community approaches nationwide in FY 2015. solvents and pesticides on land and hazardous to hazardous materials source reduction. wastes. The guidelines give examples like assisting business to improve material practices that reduce the risk of release of hazardous chemicals during a No C4P storm. 5/28/2015 Integrated Regional Water Management Funding: $5.4 billion in general obligation bonds for water and Designed to encourage integrated regional strategies for flood control projects.$60 million for the Santa Ana Prop 84 management of water resources and to provide funding Region. for implementation projects that support integrated Appyling for the grant.SAW PA has recommeded water management. Yes Projects include:2-72 OCSD to receive$1 million. Next phase: DWR Spring 2015 The Drought Response Program is funded under the U.S. Total program fuding$3 million. Award ceiling Department of the Interior's(Interior)WaterSMART $300,000.00 (Sustain and Manage America's Resources for Tomorrow) Program.The Drought Response Program supports a proactive approach to drought by providing assistance to water users to (1)develop and update comprehensive drought contingency plans Drought Contingency Plans, The schedule for the project shows final completion Water Smart Drought Resiliency (2)implement projects that will build long-term in October 2020. USBR requires that the project be resiliency to drought(Drought Resiliency Projects),and completed by September 30,2017(FDA p.45). Our (3)implement emergency response actions.This Funding project does not fit within this timeline. Opportunity Announcement(FDA)supports Drought Resiliency Projects that will build long-term resiliency to drought and reduce the need for emergency response actions. No. Projects include:2-72 1 1 6/25/2015 State Water Resources Control Board provides funding Authorize$7.12 billion in general obligation bonds for for the planning,design and construction of water state water supply infrastructure projects.$725 million Prop l recycling projects that offset or augment state fresh for water recycling and advanced water treatment water supplies. technology projects. Yes SP-173 We are looking at applying for this grant. Fall/Winter 2015 Updated: Monday,June 29,2015 LEGISLATIVE AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS COMMITTEE Nob/ngDDaate Toi20z/tsir AGENDA REPORT Item Number Item Number a Orange County Sanitation District FROM: James D. Herberg, General Manager Originator: Bob Ghirelli, Assistant General Manager SUBJECT: CANCELLATION OF THE AUGUST 10, 2015, REGULAR MEETING OF THE LEGISLATIVE AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS COMMITTEE GENERAL MANAGER'S RECOMMENDATION Cancel the August 10, 2015 regular meeting of the Legislative and Public Affairs Committee SUMMARY The Legislative and Public Affairs (LAPA) Committee was initially created as a special committee with no regular meeting time. In January 2015, the LAPA committee was formally changed to a standing committee. The schedule of meeting times approved by the Board of Directors in December 2014 included August 10, 2015 as a meeting date for the LAPA committee. As August is a dark month for all other OCSD standing committees, this cancellation would align with the others. Action is required at this time to provide the public proper notice of cancellation. PRIOR COMMITTEE/BOARD ACTIONS N/A ADDITIONAL INFORMATION The recommended schedule of meetings for year 2016 will be brought to the Board in December of 2015 for approval and will request this committee be dark in January and August of that year. CEQA N/A BUDGET/PURCHASING ORDINANCE COMPLIANCE N/A ATTACHMENT N/A Page 1 of 1 ORANGE COUNTY SANITATION DISTRICT Agenda Terminology Glossary Glossary of Terms and Abbreviations AQMD Air Quality Management District ASCE American Society of Civil Engineers BOD Biochemical Oxygen Demand CARB California Air Resources Board CASA California Association of Sanitation Agencies CCTV Closed Circuit Television CEQA California Environmental Quality Act CRWQCB California Regional Water Quality Control Board CWA Clean Water Act CWEA California Water Environment Association EIR Environmental Impact Report EMT Executive Management Team EPA U.S. Environmental Protection Agency FOG Fats, Oils, and Grease FSSD Facilities Support Services Department gpd Gallons per day GWR System Groundwater Replenishment System (also called GWRS) ICS Incident Command System IERP Integrated Emergency Control Plan LOS Level of Service MGD Million gallons per day NACWA National Association of Clean Water Agencies NPDES National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System NWRI National Water Research Institute O&M Operations and Maintenance OCCOG Orange County Council of Governments OCHCA Orange County Health Care Agency OCSD Orange County Sanitation District OCWD Orange County Water District GOBS Ocean Outfall Booster Station OSHA Occupational Safety and Health Administration POTW Publicly Owned Treatment Works ppm Parts per million RFP Request For Proposal RWQCB Regional Water Quality Control Board SARFPA Santa Ana River Flood Protection Agency Glossary of Terms and Abbreviations SARI Santa Ana River Inceptor SARWQCB Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board SAWPA Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority SCADA Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system SCAP Southern California Alliance of Publicly Owned Treatment Works SCAQMD South Coast Air Quality Management District SOCWA South Orange County Wastewater Authority SSMP Sanitary Sewer Management Plan SSO Sanitary Sewer Overflow SWRCB State Water Resources Control Board TDS Total Dissolved Solids TMDL Total Maximum Daily Load TSS Total Suspended Solids WDR Waste Discharge Requirements WEF Water Environment Federation WERF Water Environment Research Foundation Activated-sludge process — A secondary biological wastewater treatment process where bacteria reproduce at a high rate with the introduction of excess air or oxygen, and consume dissolved nutrients in the wastewater. Benthos— The community of organisms, such as sea stars, worms and shrimp, which live on, in, or near the seabed, also know as the benthic zone. Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD)—The amount of oxygen used when organic matter undergoes decomposition by microorganisms. Testing for BOD is done to assess the amount of organic matter in water. Biosolids — Biosolids are nutrient rich organic and highly treated solid materials produced by the wastewater treatment process. This high-quality product can be recycled as a soil amendment on farm land or further processed as an earth-like product for commercial and home gardens to improve and maintain fertile soil and stimulate plant growth. Capital Improvement Program (CIP) — Projects for repair, rehabilitation, and replacement of assets. Also includes treatment improvements, additional capacity, and projects for the support facilities. Coliform bacteria—A group of bacteria found in the intestines of humans and other animals, but also occasionally found elsewhere used as indicators of sewage pollution. E. coli are the most common bacteria in wastewater. Collections system — In wastewater, it is the system of typically underground pipes that receive and convey sanitary wastewater or storm water. Certificate of Participation (COP) —A type of financing where an investor purchases a share of the lease revenues of a program rather than the bond being secured by those revenues. Glossary of Terms and Abbreviations Contaminants of Potential Concern (CPC) — Pharmaceuticals, hormones, and other organic wastewater contaminants. Dilution to Threshold (D!f) — the dilution at which the majority of the people detect the odor becomes the DrT for that air sample. Greenhouse gases — In the order of relative abundance water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone gases that are considered the cause of global warming ("greenhouse effect"). Groundwater Replenishment (GWR) System — A joint water reclamation project that proactively responds to Southern California's current and future water needs. This joint project between the Orange County Water District and the Orange County Sanitation District provides 70 million gallons a day of drinking quality water to replenish the local groundwater supply. Levels of Service (LOS)—Goals to support environmental and public expectations for performance. NDMA— N-Nitrosodimethylamine is an N-nitrosoamine suspected cancer-causing agent. It has been found in the Groundwater Replenishment System process and is eliminated using hydrogen peroxide with extra ultra-violet treatment. National Biosolids Partnership (NBP) — An alliance of the National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA) and Water Environment Federation (WEF), with advisory support from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). NBP is committed to developing and advancing environmentally sound and sustainable biosolids management practices that go beyond regulatory compliance and promote public participation in order to enhance the credibility of local agency biosolids programs and improved communications that lead to public acceptance. Plume—A visible or measurable concentration of discharge from a stationary source or fixed facility. Publicly-owned Treatment Works (POTW)— Municipal wastewater treatment plant. Santa Ana River Interceptor (SARI) Line — A regional brine line designed to convey 30 million gallons per day (MGD) of non-reclaimable wastewater from the upper Santa Ana River basin to the ocean for disposal, after treatment. Sanitary sewer — Separate sewer systems specifically for the carrying of domestic and industrial wastewater. Combined sewers carry both wastewater and urban run-off. South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) — Regional regulatory agency that develops plans and regulations designed to achieve public health standards by reducing emissions from business and industry. Secondary treatment — Biological wastewater treatment, particularly the activated-sludge process, where bacteria and other microorganisms consume dissolved nutrients in wastewater. Sludge—Untreated solid material created by the treatment of wastewater. Total suspended solids (TSS)—The amount of solids floating and in suspension in wastewater. Trickling filter — A biological secondary treatment process in which bacteria and other microorganisms, growing as slime on the surface of rocks or plastic media, consume nutrients in wastewater as it trickles over them. Glossary of Terms and Abbreviations Urban runoff — Water from city streets and domestic properties that carry pollutants into the storm drains, rivers, lakes, and oceans. Wastewater—Any water that enters the sanitary sewer. Watershed —A land area from which water drains to a particular water body. OCSD's service area is in the Santa Ana River Watershed.