UWM Plan - Municipal Water District of Orange County

7. Future Water Supply Projects and Programs
7.1. Water Management Tools
MWDOC has worked closely with its member agencies to decrease dependence on
imported supplies and increase supply reliability by further developing local supplies.
Development of additional local supplies improves both local and regional reliability.
Although MWDOC is not responsible for carrying out specific supply development
projects in the region, it follows closely with those currently being developed by its
member agencies.
7.2. Transfer or Exchange Opportunities
Metropolitan currently has a tiered unbundled rate structure. Tier 2 of this rate structure
increases the cost of supply to a member agency in order to provide a price signal that
encourages development of alternative supply sources. One alternative source of supply
may be a transfer or exchange of water with a different agency.
The CALFED Bay-Delta Program (CALFED) has helped to develop an effective market
for water transactions in the Bay-Delta region. This market is demonstrated by the water
purchases made by the Environmental Water Account and Metropolitan in recent years.
MWDOC and its member agencies plan to evaluate selected transfer or exchange
opportunities in the future. These opportunities can help ensure supply reliability in dry
years and avoid the higher Tier 2 cost of supply from Metropolitan. The continued
development of a market for water transactions under CALFED will only increase the
likelihood of MWDOC’s participation in this market when appropriate opportunities
arise.
Mesa Consolidated Water District - Mesa plans to expand their Colored Water
Treatment Facility. With this expansion, Mesa is exploring opportunities that may
develop into potential transfer or exchange opportunities. These would include the selling
of excess pumped water from the expansion to neighboring entities.
IRWD Strand Ranch Water Banking Program – As previously noted, IRWD has
completed negotiations with Metropolitan and MWDOC for storage and extraction of
water from the Strand Ranch Integrated Banking Project. IRWD is already working on
opportunities to expand these types of transactions.
Santa Margarita Water District – As previously discussed, SMWD has actively pursued
additional water supply reliability through water transfers. They are currently involved in
the analysis and evaluation of the Cadiz water storage project.
Municipal Water District of Orange County
2010 Urban Water Management Plan
Final
7-1