Plans for Los Vaqueros Reservoir Expansion End

This week, the Contra Costa Water District Board announced an end to the Los Vaqueros Reservoir Phase 2 Expansion Project for a number of reasons.

Those reasons, which will not impact ratepayers, but those wanting to buy water, include:

• Funding/project costs – for example, in 2017 it was  $980 million. Today, its nearly $1.6 billion (inflation/delays)
• Regulation roadblocks – for example, water yield that now has to stay in the delta, CCWD says they saw a decrease in yield by up to 30%.
• Project sustainability/viability – reduced protections to ratepayers. Meanwhile, additional time may not create solutions.
• Decreased Interest in water storage – for example, interest in storage declined by 50%.

While this may seem like a negative to outside agencies, the CCWD board opted to protect ratepayers, than expand a reservoir simply for water storage for outside agencies to purchase–leaving them with one less resource in future droughts.

The Joint Powers Authority was formed in October of 2021 which included: Alameda County Water District, Contra Costa Water District, East Bay Municipal Utility District, Grassland Water District, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority, Valley Water, Zone 7 and the Department of Water Resources

Contra Costa Water District (CCWD) Board President Ernesto A. Avila issued the following statement regarding the CCWD Board’s direction for staff to develop an approach to end CCWD’s participation in the Los Vaqueros Reservoir Phase 2 Expansion Project.

Concord —“Contra Costa Water District (CCWD) has been a champion of a second expansion of our reservoir for decades. As difficult as the decision was for the Board to look at ending our participation, we have reached the point where the facts show that this well-intended project is not viable.”

“Due to a variety of factors, the projected benefits to all partners – urban, agriculture and wildlife refuges – have been diminishing while costs have been increasing significantly. Water agency requests to buy into the added storage have decreased substantially, leaving that component of the project undersubscribed. Meanwhile, discussions on the necessary agreements have been ongoing for years and a growing number of issues continue to be deferred instead of being resolved. These are the facts.”

“The latest project updates from members of the Los Vaqueros Joint Powers Authority (JPA) affirm that permitting and regulatory requirements have significantly reduced the amount of water that agencies can expect from the project. With increasing costs and other constraints, the project compares less favorably today to other water supply strategies.”

“All of the agencies involved in exploring the project are obligated to their governing boards and customers. For CCWD, protecting water supply and quality for our customers is a fundamental commitment of this Board as memorialized in CCWD’s Principles guiding exploration of this regional project in 2003 and confirmed by CCWD’s customers in 2004. Also fundamental is protecting our customers from financial risk from the project and the risk due to Los Vaqueros being offline for up to five years of dam construction, particularly with the potential for a severe drought occurring in any given year. With the deteriorating business cases among member agencies, these risks are increasing.”

“All of the partners have worked hard to address the issues, but the changed conditions and their impacts on the viability of this project necessitated CCWD to have a frank and timely discussion if continuing this path is a responsible use of public dollars including a difficult decision on whether to end our participation in this project. The Board agreed based on the facts we have that now is the appropriate time for CCWD to develop an approach to conclude its participation.”

“CCWD appreciates and respects the collaboration with local, state, and federal partners to try to move this project forward. We need to take the valuable lessons learned in this process to further strengthen our efforts to work together on projects to improve water supply and water quality for our region.”

Source

Editors Note: