Fountain Valley, CA
(April 4, 2018) – The Municipal Water District of Orange County (MWDOC) Board of Directors voted unanimously to adopt a resolution supporting the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California’s (Metropolitan) additional investment in the California WaterFix, to build the full two tunnel project. The California WaterFix is a cutting-edge solution proposed by state and federal agencies to upgrade the State Water Project, a decades-old water delivery system in the northern part of the state.
Nearly a quarter of Orange County’s total water demand is met with imported water from the State Water Project. The action today follows Metropolitan’s staff announcement on Monday to pursue a staged approach to the California WaterFix project as proposed by the Brown Administration—build two intake facilities and a single tunnel with the capacity of 6,000 cubic-feet per second (cfs), and a third intake with 3,000 cfs, with a second tunnel to follow at a later date, to eventually bring the project to its full capacity. While the MWDOC Resolution endorses this approach, it goes further, calling on Metropolitan
to finance and build the full project at once, to achieve the environmental and water supply goals as the project was originally designed.
“This is a generational project and Metropolitan needs to lead the way on this,” said MWDOC Board President and Metropolitan Director, Brett Barbre. “That’s what we’ve always done and we need to show the courage and commitment to build both tunnels and we need to do it now.”
Implementation of the California WaterFix will modernize the State Water Project system to increase storage reserve levels statewide and protect the state from the devastating effects of drought. An investment in this project will also further expedite environmental and water supply benefits including reverse flow reductions, operational flexibility, seismic resiliency, climate change adaptation, and improved water quality. The California WaterFix is the most cost-effective approach that supports MWDOC’s mission “to provide reliable, high-quality supplies…to meet present and future needs” and will help protect our water supply reliability for decades to come.
The Metropolitan Board of Directors will formally vote on April 10, 2018, on the agency’s level of investment in the California WaterFix.
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The Municipal Water District of Orange County (MWDOC)
is a wholesale water provider and resource planning agency whose efforts focus on sound planning and appropriate investments in water supply development, water use efficiency, public information, legislative advocacy, water education, and emergency preparedness.
MWDOC's service area includes all of Orange County with the exception of Anaheim, Santa Ana, and Fullerton. MWDOC serves Orange County through 28 retail water agencies.
