IID OKs a small amount of money for conservation programs By DARREN SIMON, Special to this Newspaper
Wednesday, August 22, 2007 10:46 PM PDT
The Imperial Irrigation District board has given staff the green light to fully launch the early test stages of a $5 billion water conservation program one that could force water rate hikes in years to come.
But even as the program known as the Definite Plan begins, there still are lingering questions from board members as to why the program will cost so much and discussions could turn to cutting back expenses.
Talk of water conservation comes as the district is contractually obligated to conserve enough water to serve hundreds of thousands of homes in San Diego and Coachella as part of a 75-year water pact.
Eventually the conservation program is to pay for itself through revenue from the sale of water to San Diego and Coachella, but that funding will come late in the transfer process.
That means early on the district may have to finance hundreds of millions of dollars if not more to cover the conservation costs.
“IID always knew it would have to borrow money in the so-called early years and it would make it all back in the back years,” IID spokesman Kevin Kelley said.
THE VOTE
On Tuesday the IID board voted 4-1 to allow staff to spend $5.7 million the last of the $13 million needed to fully implement the early test stages of the water conservation program.
Director Mike Abatti cast the lone vote against freeing up the $5.7 million as he raised concerns with the costs of the testing and of the entire conservation effort.
“I have not seen a business plan yet,” Abatti said.
One concern for board members is that there will be more than a decade period, starting in 2010, in which the district will face costs with little revenue as support. That is where the fear of rate hikes comes into play.
IID staff members said by approving the funds Tuesday the district is not committing itself to future expenditures.
“In voting to approve the near-term pilot projects called for in this agenda item, the board is not committing itself to any particular course in either financing or implementing the Definite Plan,” IID acting General Manager Elston Grubaugh said.
The testing stages Grubaugh spoke of will evaluate how successfully the district can save water through upgrading its water systems and by installing pump systems to capture seepage water. The district will also start to evaluate how farmers can best save water through on-farm conservation.
That $13 million represents a drop in the bucket compared to the projected $5 billion cost the district will face over the 75-year life of the water transfer, but even spending the $13 million was cause for concern during Tuesday’s board meeting.
San Diego County Water Authority, which by 2027 is to be receiving some 200,000 acre-feet of Imperial Valley water, is obligated to pay the district $10 million by Dec. 31 and that money is to help pay for the $13 million test projects.
IID Chief Financial Officer Robert Vodzack told the board he has seen nothing in writing that San Diego will pay those funds, and that prompted concerns from Abatti.
Grubaugh responded, saying the water pact with San Diego states its obligations to pay the $10 million, and Jeff Garber, general counsel for the district, said if SDCWA does not pay the $10 million it would be in breach of the water pact.
THE FUTURE
For IID staff involved in developing the water conservation program, Tuesday’s vote proved crucial.
In water conservation terms, deadlines of years are as difficult to meet as deadlines of days, even hours, one might face in school and work.
The IID is bumping up against a 2017 deadline to move from its current method of conserving transfer water a method that has some Valley farmers leaving their land barren to save water.
By 2017 the district must transition from that so-called fallowing program to a water efficiency-based program involving system improvements and on-farm water conservation where farmers will play a lead role in saving water.
IID staff has said that to meet that 2017 deadline they have to start the test projects immediately to see what works and what doesn’t.
On Tuesday, Grubaugh said in reality the Definite Plan “isn’t all that definite.”
“What is definite is the critical need to move forward with these near-term recommendations, which will establish a verifiable framework for what the Definite Plan will become,” Grubaugh said.
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