Flores, Valerie
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Tim Brick
Tuesday, January 25, 2022 10:25 AM
Flares, Valerie
RE: PASADENA'S WATER SUPPLY AND PROJECTED WATER USE
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Please distribute this material to the Council members for the discussion on "PASADENA'S WATER SUPPLY AND PROJECTED WATER USE" at today's meeting of the City Council Municipal Services Committee.
Thank you.
Tim Brick
Pasadena St.91101
https://www.Basadenanow.com/main/guest-opinion-tim-brick-its-time-to-reestablish-the-pasadena-water- department
Guest Opinion | Tini Brick: It's Tinie
to Reestablish the Pasadena Water
Departinent
Published on Monday, January 24, 2022 | 5:00 am
PASADENA NOW
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IPasadena needs to
stop neglecting water. Since 1967 when the Pasadena Water Department (PWD) was swallowed up in a new consolidated Pasadena Water & Power Department (PWP), the water side has suffered. The results of that neglect are crippling, as is now apparent, and must be corrected for the sake of future generations.
The Pasadena Water Department was established in 1912 when Pasadena took over the facilities of the three pioneer land and water companies that served early Pasadena. The Light and Power Department had already been established in 1905, but the PWD served as a stand-alone, independent city department until 1967 when City Manager John Phillips recommended consolidating the two departments into one joint agency, the Pasadena Water and Power Department. It was a controversial move with several city officials expressing the concern that it would lead to a lack of proper oversight and focus on the critically important water issue. To placate those concerns, the Board of City Directors (City Council) agreed that the General Manager of the new department would alternate between the water side and the power business. The first General Manager of the consolidated Pasadena Water and Power Department was John Behner, a water engineer. Behner didn't last long in the role, though, expressing his frustration with the lack of focus on water when he resigned in 1970. The next GM was T. M. Goodrich from the power side and then Karl Johnson from the water side, but by the mid-1980s, that succession plan was discarded, and no GM with water expertise has headed PWP since then.
Other Southern California cities that have municipal utilities have followed the same pattern of joint water and power operations, modeled on the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. But there is an inevitability in the power division receiving the bulk of attention and focus because the expenses and revenues from 2 electric operations are many times greater than those from underpriced water.
Electricity is flashier and more innovative.
In the era of climate change, that calculus changes. Developing a resilient water program is one of the greatest challenges facing Southern California and Pasadena in particular. In this challenging era, Pasadena should stop treating water as a neglected stepchild.
The Pasadena Water Department had great accomplishments and demonstrated Southern California leadership during the independent era. During that fifty-five- year period, the Pasadena Water Department consolidated the early water entities, introduced improved water treatment methodologies, spearheaded the development of the Metropolitan Water District and the Colorado River Aqueduct, and helped shape the State Water Project. In the 19403 it worked with local pumpers and the court to develop a safe yield water adjudication to end the decline in the Raymond groundwater basin underneath Pasadena. In the fifty-five years since 1967, the accomplishments have been meager. PWP has allowed the groundwater levels to continue their decline to ominous levels. PWP's program to develop recycled water from the Glendale/LA treatment plant has fallen apart after 25 years and more than $20 million in expenses. The aging infrastructure program has stalled, and maintenance of critical facilities like Sunset Reservoir has been neglected.
There's no question about it. PWPs water planning and implementation capability has shriveled under the benign negligence of successive general managers. PWP's recently approved Water System and Resources Plan, their $425 million 25-year plan, reveals the results of that weakness. It was developed by consultants with little staff direction and fails to recognize critical local concerns, especially the decline of the Raymond Basin and the need for more aggressive conservation programs and rate restructuring. Instead, it concentrates on maximizing groundwater pumping without any well-defined program for replenishing the basin. It's a prescription for disaster. Maybe that catastrophe will be one generation away, but it is inevitable if prompt changes aren't made to face the severity of the crisis.
Currently, both the PWP general manager and water division chief positions are vacant. The job description for the water division head has been posted. Despite the enormous challenges Pasadena faces, it calls for a middle level caretaker with a pay scale that is inadequate to attract the top talent that will be necessary to resolve Pasadena's water crisis.
3 There's a simple solution: reestablish the Pasadena Water Department as a separate department with strong management and direction. Build a new planning and managerial structure that focuses on the challenges of climate change and resilient water. Give water the attention it merits.
Tim Brick served on the Pasadena Utility Advisory Commission from 1979 to 1993 and represented Pasadena on the board of Directors of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California from 1985 to 2012. He served as the elected chairman of that board from 2006 to 2010.
4 Flores, Valerie
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GFOSTER102
Tuesday, January 25, 2022 10:29 AM
Wilson, Andy; Hampton, Tyron; Williams, Felicia; Rivas, Jessica Flares, Valeric
Municipal Services Committee Item 3. Pasadena's Water Supply CAUTION: This email was delivered from the Internet. Do not click links or open attachments unless you know the content is safe. Report phish using the Phish Alert Button. Learn more....
Please request full reporting from City staff regarding the Stormwater Master Plan referenced on Slide 4 "Local Water Supply" page 116 of the pdf attachment:
Partnership with Pasadena Public Works
Stormwater Master Plan
Thanks to information provided by my Council District Office, I learned that Public Works is in the process of completing a Stormwater Master Plan scheduled for completion by the end of the fiscal year.
Can we expect a Draft Stormwater Master Plan by June 30, 2022? What is the review process?
What is the nature of PWP partnership with Public Works? Will the Stormwater Master Plan be written by City staff or a consultant? If written by a consultant, what is the name of the consultant? What is the amount of the contract and when was it signed by the City? Sincerely,
Genette Foster
Pasadena 91106
1 Flares, Valeric
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/ - richard luczyski
Tuesday, January 25, 2022 11:15 AM
Williams, Felicia; Jomsky, Mark; Wilson, Andy; Gordo, Victor; Tim Brick; Hampton, Tyron; Masuda, Gene; Kennedy, John J.; Madison, Steve; Rivas, Jessica; Pasadena Now; Flares, Valerie
Today's water department discussion
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Felicia, Once again I seem to get my news from the Now News when relating to city Business. I'll bet you won't get a handful of comments from your district and that's because no one has any clue about how the water department works. They turn on their water and it still comes out but I see big changes coming on who will be able to use a declining water supply for a city not using future planning needs by continuing to over build the city demand. I have a body of questions I've asked the water department with equal amounts of answers. Some of those answers just don't relate to the questions.
In today's discussion the first thing I would like to know is why are we beginning the discussion talking about the supply starting in 2025 - 2040? Why not start with today's water supply and all the proposed new buildings including hotels which will use most of today's water supply. Why are homeowners who have been the backbone of Pasadena the ones who will suffer the most? We don't get to deduct our water bills on our taxes like all the businesses are allowed to do . Homeowners have landscaping to preserve in the form of our tree inventory to start. Many trees in our district are dying already and the plan will be to cut back even more in the future. Who is going to police how many people are in your residence to see that the correct amount is used each day?
I have great interest in the Raymond Basin water table where toxic chemicals exist and a complete inventory of where they exist I believe is unknown. So as the basin starts to get filled those chemicals will move around with the new water coming in. I'm told that perchlorate acts just like water. So more testing will need to be done just for this one chemical and a blending of MWD water and other added chemicals will be needed to make water safe to drink. If not possible thyroid problems will be inflicted on an unknowing public. It would be nice to have our water department give the interested public water tours of the water filtration system. Our water department does so little to advise the public about our water in live discussions even before Covid.
I'd like to know how much it costs to pump our existing water from the Basin and if we will use even more when we get the water. What will that cost add up to? How many acre feet are now pumped in a tear? What is our water allotment per year from MWD.
Tell us more about the lost water that never gets billed out to a customer? I've heard it is 8% of our water use? How come PWP is talking about excess water being bought from MWD and stored when I was told MWD doesn't sell discount water, it is allowed to flow to the ocean.
Tell us more about a desalination program and what that will cost? Lastly for now: What is parcel level water infiltration? Why a mystery term I've not heard before? So Felicia I do hope your commission (MSC ) does a good job asking questions and getting answers today for questions asked instead of getting back to you later?
Richard
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