City Council
Report
City Council Meeting: March 14, 2023
Agenda Item: 5.C
1 of 7
To: Mayor and City Council
From: Rick Valte, Public Works Director, Public Works, Water Resources Subject: Adoption of Resolutions Authorizing the Application for Grant Funds from the California State Department of Water Resources Urban Drought Relief Grant and the United States and the Bureau of Reclamation’s WaterSMART: Water Recycling and Desalination Planning Grant Program
Recommended Action
Staff Recommends that the City Council:
1. Adopt the attached resolutions authorizing the application for grants funds in the amount of $22.8 million with the California State Department of Water Resources’ Urban Community Drought Relief Grant Program and $961,033 with the United States Bureau of Reclamation’s WaterSMART: Water Recycling and Desalination Planning Grant Program.
2. Authorize the City Manager to execute all necessary documents to apply for the grant, accept the grant, if awarded, and accept all grant renewals, if awarded.
3. Adopt a finding of Categorical Exemption pursuant to Section 15262, Section 15302, Section 15303, Section 15304, and Section 15306 of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines.
Summary
To continue the City’s efforts in securing a reliable and drought resilient water supply while maintaining affordability of water, staff is seeking to apply for grant funding to support local water supply projects and planning efforts with the California Department of Water Resources and the United States Bureau of Reclamation. If successful, the grants would help the City accelerate current budgeted water supply projects and provide funding to accelerate future unfunded rehabilitation or resiliency projects for the City’s water and wastewater infrastructure. For the Department of Water Resources’ Urban Community Drought Relief Grant Program, the City is requesting approximately $22.8 million in grant funds to accelerate currently budgeted projects and provide a 2 of 7
matching fund of approximately $7.6 million (25% matching contribution toward total project cost) from projects that are already budgeted in the City’s Fiscal Year 2022-24 Capital Improvement Program (CIP) budget. For the United States Bureau of Reclamation WaterSMART: Water Recycling and Desalination Planning grant opportunity, the City is requesting $961,033 in grant funding to advance future, unfunded planning efforts to maximize water recycling opportunities within the City and provide a funding match of $961,033 (50% matching contribution toward total project cost) from projects that are already budgeted in the City’s 2022-24 CIP budget. As part of the grant application submittal, both DWR and USBR require the City’s governing body to authorize the City Manager to file an application for funding, commit to matching fund requirements, and to negotiate and enter into an agreement with the funding agency, if awarded.
Discussion
The effects of Climate Change have impacted water supply availability, reliability, and resiliency across the State of California and the Southwest United States as ongoing drought conditions enter the 3
rd year of a multi-year drought. To mitigate climate change impacts on regional and local water supply reliability, Federal and State agencies have released several funding opportunities that support the planning, development, and implementation of water supply projects that bolster water supply reliability and resiliency while maintaining accessibility and affordability of water. The California Department of Water Resources was allocated an additional $545 million to award grants for drought relief projects and up to $300 million is being solicited through the Urban Community Drought Relief Grant Program. The United States Bureau of Reclamation recently released the WaterSMART: Water Recycling and Desalination Planning grant application aimed to assist and secure water supplies for future generations as well as alleviate drought conditions across the Western United States.
Having a diverse, sustainable, and drought resilient local water supply, or Water SelfSufficiency, was one of three primary environmental sustainability goals established by the City Council, along with Zero Waste and Carbon Neutrality, to advance the outcomes in the Sustainable City Plan. The City adopted an update to the Sustainable 3 of 7
Water Master Plan in 2018 (Attachment A) with the goal of achieving water selfsufficiency by 2023. Climate change has created a volatile water cycle in California, characterized by periods of record setting drought or intense heavy precipitation, that has disrupted consistency in water availability and reliability across the region.
Becoming water self-sufficient as a city means long-term cost certainty for our residents, equitable access to safe, high-quality drinking water throughout the community while creating a diverse, sustainable, and drought-resilient local water supply to reduce the City’s reliance on imported water supplies. The goal of achieving 99% locally sourced water by 2023 has been impacted by the 2020 Regional Housing Needs Assessment, the Covid-19 Pandemic, and increased climate change impacts on local water supplies.
As discussed in the 2020 Urban Water Management Plan (Attachment B) and presented to Council at the June 8, 2021 City Council Meeting, the original goal may be impacted by as much as 20%, but this impact could potentially be mitigated through increased water conservation efforts (e.g., Smart Water meters to reduce water leaks) to achieve 85-90% water self-sufficiency.
The Water Resources Division is seeking to apply for grant funds to continue the City’s efforts to reduce our reliance on imported water supplies, promote water conservation to permanently reduce water demand, and provide a reliable and drought resilient water supply. As the Western United States continue to address severe drought conditions, both State and Federal agencies have released funding packages to provide immediate drought relief and secure reliable water supplies for future generations.
Through the California Department of Water Resources’ Urban Community Drought Relief Grant program, staff is seeking funding support of up to $22.8 million for updating planning documents to address future water needs, implement a groundwater recharge well to replenish local groundwater aquifers with advanced treated recycled water from the City’s Sustainable Water Infrastructure Project (SWIP) (as outlined in the Groundwater Sustainability Plan, Attachment C), replacement of two aging groundwater production wells at the Charnock Well Field, and implementation of smart water meters in the City. The City is required to provide matching funds, approximately $7.8 million or 25% of the total project cost, for the requested grant amount. The required matching 4 of 7
funds will be from projects that are currently budgeted in the City’s CIP. Receiving outside funding for already budgeted projects would free up funding resources to advance unfunded, future capital improvement or rehabilitation projects (e.g., rehabilitating the City’s four treated water storage reservoirs) for the City’s water and wastewater infrastructure.
The United States Bureau of Reclamation released the WaterSMART: Water Recycling and Desalination Planning grant application in December 2022 aimed to assist to stretch and secure water supplies for future generations as well as alleviate drought conditions across the Western United States. The WaterSMART program provides financial assistance to water agencies for projects that seek to conserve and use water more efficiently where water recycling and desalination are essential tools for stretching the limited water supplies in the Western United States. These sources provide local communities with a new source of clean water to increase water management flexibility and reliability. Staff is applying for grant funding under WaterSMART Funding Group I that provides up to $1 million in funding with a matching requirement of 50%, to assess the feasibility of advancing the City’s desalination capacity and/or water recycling efforts through direct potable reuse. Staff is applying for $961,033 in grant funding from the WaterSMART program and a grant fund match amount of $961,033 (50% matching) will be provided through the Groundwater Recharge Well SM-11i Project that is already budgeted in the City’s CIP.
Environmental Review
Proposed updates to the City’s water supply master plan(s) and feasibility studies are statutorily exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) under Section 15262 which exempts feasibility or planning studies for possible future actions. A complete CEQA review will be conducted for the identified projects in the master plan(s) or feasibility studies if the project is selected to move forward for implementation.
Projects that are already budgeted through the City’s CIP and used as matching fund requirements for the grant applications have already completed the necessary CEQA requirements. These projects include Groundwater Recharge Well SM-11i and SM-12i, 5 of 7
Groundwater Resiliency Well Improvements at Charnock Well Field, and the Smart Water Metering Project. The potential environmental effects of the groundwater recharge well (SM-11i and SM-12i) were previously analyzed in the Olympic Arcadia Treatment Plant Initial Study/Mitigated Negative Declaration (IS/MND) (State Clearinghouse No. 2020070129), adopted on November 24, 2020. As determined in the previously adopted IS/MND, impacts would be less than significant with the implementation of adopted mitigation measures.
The proposed five monitoring wells in the Santa Monica Basin are exempt from CEQA pursuant to Section 15303 (Section 15303 (New Construction or Conversion of Small Structures), Section 15304 (Class 4 – Minor Alterations to Land), and Section 15306 (information Collection) of the CEQA Guidelines.
• Section 15303 exempts the construction of new small facilities or structures, including utility structures and extensions.
• Section 15304 exempts minor alterations to land, which do not involve removal of mature or scenic trees. Activities include minor grading, trenching, and backfilling
• Section 15306 exempts the basic data collection, research, experimental management, and resource evaluation activities which do not result in a serious or major disturbance to an environmental resource
The groundwater monitoring wells will be drilled up to depths between 400 to 800 feet below the surface with minimal ground surface area disturbed. Upon completion, the appearance of the monitoring wells will be largely confined to a small area with each well covered by a concrete pad not larger than 4 by 4 feet. The monitoring wells will provide information and data necessary to implement long-term sustainable groundwater planning and management for the Basin. Therefore, the installation of the monitoring wells qualifies for CEQA exemption pursuant to Sections 15303, 15304, and 15306 as they consist of the new construction of small structures, minor alteration to land, and information collection activities. In addition, none of the exceptions specified in Section 15300.2 of CEQA Guidelines would apply that would preclude the use of the CEQA exemptions:
6 of 7
• The project site is not located in a sensitive environment • The project will not have a significant effect on the environment due to unusual circumstances
• The project would not damage scenic resources
• The project would not be located on a hazardous waste site based on a review of relevant databases
• The project would not cause a change to a historical resource as there are no historic resources identified within the identified site locations Replacement of the two groundwater productions wells at the Charnock Well Field is exempt from CEQA as set forth in Section 15302 (Replacement/Reconstruction) of the CEQA Guidelines which exempts replacement or reconstruction of existing structures and facilities where the new structure will be located in the same site as the structure replaced and will have substantially the same purpose and capacity as the structure replaced because this project would replace existing groundwater productions wells that are beyond its asset life.
The Smart Water Metering Project, or Automated Metering Infrastructure, is also exempt from CEQA as set forth in Section 15302 (Replacement/Reconstruction) of the CEQA Guidelines because this project would replace and upgrade existing water meters and meter boxes.
Past Council Actions
Meeting Date Description
11/27/2018
(Attachment A)
City Council directs staff to proceed with an update to the Sustainable Water Master Plan and the recommended pathway to water self-sufficiency
6/8/2021
(Attachment B)
Public Hearing and Adoption of the City of Santa Monica’s 2020 Urban Water Management Plan and Water Shortage Contingency Plan
12/7/2021
(Attachment C)
Approval of Final Santa Monica Basin GSP
7 of 7
Financial Impacts and Budget Actions
There is no immediate financial impact or budget action necessary as a result of recommended action. For the Department of Water Resources’ Urban Community Drought Relief Grant Program, Staff is requesting approximately $22.8 million in grant funds to accelerate currently budgeted projects and provide a matching fund of approximately $7.6 million (25% matching contribution toward total project cost). For the United States Bureau of Reclamation WaterSMART: Water Recycling and Desalination Planning grant opportunity, Staff is requesting $961,033 in grant funding to advance future, unfunded planning efforts to maximize water recycling opportunities within the City and provide a funding match of $961,033 (50% matching contribution toward total project cost) from projects that are already budgeted in the City’s 2022-24 CIP budget. Staff will return to Council with budget changes if the grant is awarded.
Prepared By: Chris Aguillon, Water Resources Protection Specialist Approved Forwarded to Council
Attachments:
A. November 18, 2018 Staff Report for the Sustainable Water Master Plan Update (Web Link)
B. June 8, 2021 Staff Report for the 2020 Urban Water Management Plan (Web Link)
C. Decmeber 7, 2021 Staff Report for the Groundwater Sustainability Plan (Web Link)
D. Resolution - Urban Community Drought Relief Grant
E. Resolution - WaterSMART Grant