ITEM:

ACTION ITEM

 

3.

RECEIVE PUBLIC COMMENT AND CONSIDER CHANGES TO PROJECT SIZING BY CALIFORNIA AMERICAN WATER

 

Meeting Date:

February 12, 2013

Budgeted: 

N/A

 

 

 

From:

David J. Stoldt,

Program/

N/A

 

General Manager

Line Item:

 

 

Prepared By:

David J. Stoldt

Cost Estimate:

None

 

General Counsel  Review:  N/A

Committee Recommendation:  N/A

CEQA Compliance:  N/A

 

SUMMARY: At the January 30, 2013 Board meeting, the Board directed staff to include several positions in the District testimony due February 22, 2013 in the proceeding of A.12-04-012 at the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC.)  The Board, however, desired greater public input with respect to the sizing of the desalination plant capacity.

 

Cal-Am indicated that it was increasing the size of the proposed desalination facilities to incorporate replenishment of the Seaside Basin, as well as potential demand they had previously not included in the project sizing.  These include build-out of the Pebble Beach project the EIR for which was certified by the County last summer, the potential “bounce back” in tourism resulting from economic recovery and utilizing existing visitor-serving capacity, and legal lots of record.  These additions are shown in the table below:

 

Estimated Demand –Mid Range (AFY)

15,296

5yr Average (AFY)

13,290

Pebble Beach (AFY)

325

Tourism Bounce Back (AFY)

500

Lots of Record (AFY)

1,181

 

The resulting revised facility size is 6,252 AF with GWR, or 9,752 without GWR.

 

RECOMMENDATION:  The Board should discuss and determine if it would like to adopt a formal position of support, disagreement, or neutrality.  Such position will be incorporated into District testimony to be filed in February.

 

BACKGROUND:  As part of its application, Cal-Am indicated it needed new supplies of 9,006 acre foot per year (AFY) in order to meet an annual estimated demand of 15,250 AFY. This estimated demand was derived from the last Environmental Impact Report (“EIR”) and was the amount agreed upon by the parties in the settlement adopted in decision D.10-12-016.

 

Since Cal-Am filed its application, a couple of items have been brought to their attention that merits an adjustment to the estimated annual demand. These changes are as follows:

 

 

 

 

 

As part of their supplemental testimony, Cal-Am has re-evaluated the plant size to accommodate the above listed supply and demand changes with the assumption that current demands remain equal to the 5-year historical average which is approximately 13,290 AFY.

 

Summed up, the revised demands are 15,296 AFY, however, due to the reduction in the Seaside Basin supply, the desal plant needs to be sized larger by approximately 700 AFY or 0.6 million gallons per day (MGD) to account for the reduction in supply. Please refer to Exhibit 3-C which is a plant sizing memorandum from RBF Consulting dated January 7, 2013 that discusses the updated sizing of the plant with and without the Groundwater Replenishment (GWR) project.

 

The resulting revised facility size is 6,252 AF with GWR, or 9,752 without GWR.

 

EXHIBITS

3-A      Overview of Legal Lots of Record Documentation

3-B      MPWMD Analysis of Hospitality Bounce-Back

3-C      Plant Sizing Memorandum

 

 

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