Carlsbad plots 3-year water saving course

CARLSBAD — Water is in supply for San Diego County residents thanks to billions of dollars in infrastructure creation and aggressive water reduction measures.

Shadi Sami and Rosalyn Prickett, both of the Carlsbad Municipal Water District, outlined Tuesday to the board of directors their 2015 Urban Water Management Plan (UWMP).

The plan, which must be updated every five years, also must be submitted to the state as part of its new regulations concerning water reduction efforts, supply totals and their three-year target.

“The San Diego County Water Authority announced the region and its 24 member agencies will have adequate supplies to meet their three-year targets,” Sami said.

The new mandates requires agencies to reduce water consumption by 20 percent by 2020. Currently, the city is well above those targets and as a result, do not have to meet a three-year reduction.

Prickett said the state gave cities the ability to establish their own baseline, which is a 10-year average from at least 2004, minus 20 percent, to meet the 2020 goal.

The CMWD’s goal was 28 percent savings in 2015 and dropped to 20 percent in 2016 due to the desalination plant coming online.

The state water resources board also allowed for self-certification and targets after releasing its new standards in May.

“We have to be careful of planning for the future,” Prickett said. “We don’t want to revert back to our old ways. CMWD is in a Stage 2 drought level and recommends to remain so until the district advises otherwise.”

Carlsbad’s target of 259 gallons per capita per day (gpcd) is the 2015 target, while the 10 percent reduction comes in at 233 gpcd. The 2020 target is 207.

Currently, the 2015 use is at 145 gpcd, which is a result of the water restrictions and mandates imposed by the state. However, Prickett said the city will have “no problem” meeting the 2020 targets.

For its UWMP, the district used a population and demand analysis using customer billing records to project demand.

The numbers include 91,935 people by 2020 using 18,007 acre-feet of potable water and 5,078 of recycled water. Potable users slightly increase by 2025 and jump to 19,465 to 19,768 by 2030 and 2040, respectively. Recycled consumption, however, is expected to remain at its 2020 levels through 2040.

The number of customers in the CMWD is less than the overall city population as some users are in other water district’s jurisdiction.

Imported water from SDCWA, meanwhile, will increase from 15,507 acre-feet in 2020 to 17,268 by 2040. Desalinated water remains steady at 2,500 due to the city’s contract with the county and Poseidon Water. Recycled water, meanwhile, is projected to grow from 10,519 in 2020 to 10,706 by 2040.

However, the city may be able to receive more desalinated water should the SDCWA

“We have more supply available than our demands on the recycled water side because of the capacity of our reclamation plant,” Prickett said. ‘That’s a good thing. (If) we can identify new customers we can reduce our potable demands.”