In its bid to become a water dealer across the West, the San Diego County Water Authority is exploring selling off some of its most expensive supplies to a small Orange County water district.
Dan Denham, the Water Authority’s new general manager, got unanimous approval from his board Thursday to pursue selling some of the region’s de-salted ocean water to Moulton Niguel Water District. Moulton Niguel serves 172,000 customers to six cities in southern Orange County including parts of Dana Point and San Juan Capistrano. The agency is mostly dependent on imported water from places like the Colorado River and the Sierra Nevada snowpack and it’s looking to diversify its sources.
“I see no harm in exploring this. If anything, we’ll learn whether this could be a great deal for both regions,” said Joone Kim-Lopez, general manager at Moulton Niguel Water District. Her board will consider the agreement next week.
No money, water or commitments are made or exchanged at this stage in the process, both parties stressed. It’s simply opening up an avenue for a water district in need of extra supplies during droughts to tap resources from another that has ample to spare.
And the Water Authority has plenty of water supplies to spare. It’s the sole customer of one of the largest desalination plants in the world and made major deals with Imperial Valley farmers for Colorado River water to avoid water cuts in drier times. While that insulated the Water Authority from shouldering major cutbacks during the last drought, the cost of water is rising rapidly in San Diego. The agency passed a 9.5 percent rate increase last year, which its 23 member agencies must absorb or pass on to customers.
But the region needs less water than it did over 30 years ago during the last wave of major water contract signing. San Diegans learned to conserve over the years and use about 50 percent less water than they did in 1990. That and local water districts are starting to recycle wastewater for reuse, which means the region needs to buy even less water from the Water Authority.
The city of San Diego is desperate for water rate relief and has been pushing the Water Authority to offload its expensive supplies. The city is in the middle of building a multi-billion dollar wastewater-to-drinking water system called Pure Water. That’s partly why the city hiked water rates by 10.2 percent this year and another 8.7 percent for 2025.
Denham is responding to that request by making deals like the one with Moulton, and with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California to buy cheaper supplies. But following two very rainy years, the Water Authority is selling much less water and is staring down budget woes of its own this year.
“Our sales are down. We’re not selling water and this is not just a wet year thing,” Denham told Voice of San Diego. “Our eye is toward rebalancing our water portfolio.”
Denham said this is a signal that the Water Authority is interested in more than just Moulton Niguel partnering, especially since the Carlsbad desalination plant is not even producing at its full capacity.
People in East County are being set up to drink treated toilet water whose treating chemicals can leach lead from our pipes, while San Diego’s desal water from the ocean is sold? Abominable!
Where are you getting East County? My understanding is pure water is primarily for residents of the City of San Diego. I can’t speak to your concerns about contamination that leaches lead from piping, but other places, do recycle water for drinking, e.g. Orange County through the GWRS. You can read more about the project on the city’s website: https://www.sandiego.gov/public-utilities/sustainability/pure-water-sd