CALIFORNIA-NEVADA SECTION AWWA v36 • n2 • Summer 2022 S URCE Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
www.ca-nv-awwa.org 5 6 FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Work That Matters By Sue Mosburg 8 SECTION NEWS 2021 Annual Report 9 In Memorium: Danny Leonardo 10 Spotlight on SOURCE Award Winners 38 INDEX TO ADVERTISERS ABOUT THE COVER California and Nevada contain a rich diversity of people and cultures, each connected by the need for a safe, affordable and reliable water supply. We invite readers and members of the California and Nevada water communities to comment on the magazine and issues in the water and wastewater industries. FEATURES DEPARTMENTS CONTENTS 16 The (Business) Case for Water Equity and Water Justice By Walt Walker, P.E. 32 Why Water Conservation Does Not Work By Wayne Tate 35 Inflatable Plug Offers Fix for Hydroelectric Power Plant Project By Angus W. Stocking, L.S. 12 A Digital Domain for Diversity Development By Brent Alspach 28 Celebrating 30 Years of Quenching Catalina's Thirst By Brian Leventhal 22 Atmospheric Thirst By Kelsey Fitzgerald S URCE Join the conversation on social media! Find us @canvawwa or @CANVSectionAWWA.
6 SOURCE summer 2022 SUMMER IS IN FULL SWING, the season when water is on everyone’s mind. Whether we are drinking, swimming, watering or conserving, we are embracing the importance of this precious resource. In turn, we realize the importance of what we do for the water industry and the impact our work has on the communities it serves. In this issue of SOURCE, you will find the section’s Annual Report from 2021, which always gives me great feelings of pride for all our volunteers and staff. The CA-NV Section AWWA’s accomplishments are never the work of a few but the dedication and hard work of hundreds, working together and striving for the same goal. Our upcoming Annual Fall Conference is a perfect example of that collaboration. AFC22 will be in Sacramento at the SAFE Credit Union Convention Center, October 23–26. We invite you to register and experience our mission to Lead, Educate and Serve. Until then, stay cool everyone. S Mission Statement Dedicated to leading, educating, and serving the water industry and our communities. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE CHAIR David Hokanson CHAIR ELECT Christine Boyle VICE CHAIR Larry Lyford PAST CHAIR Joy Eldredge ASSOCIATION DIRECTOR Kate Nutting ASSOCIATION DIRECTOR Heather Collins TREASURER Jim Elliott SECRETARY Sue Mosburg TRUSTEES DIRECTORS CONFERENCE Colter Andersen EDUCATION Uzi Daniel CERTIFICATION BOARD Bill Cardinal TECHNICAL PROGRAMS Susan Willis DIVISION CHAIRS UTILITY MANAGEMENT Sepideh Shirkhani WATER RESOURCES Nathan Boyle WATER QUALITY Adam Feffer ENGINEERING David Gould OPERATORS DIVISION Tommy Pearce COUNCILS MANUFACTURERS & ASSOCIATES COUNCIL Rich Hopkins MEMBER ENGAGEMENT & DEVELOPMENT Tom Bloomer PHILANTHROPY COUNCIL Stephanie Hearn WATER UTILITY COUNCIL E.J. Caldwell Edgar Dymally Tarrah Henrie Robert Janowski Gordon Williams Jim Wollbrinck Yan Zhang Work That Matters Sue Mosburg FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
8 SOURCE summer 2022 SECTION NEWS
www.ca-nv-awwa.org 9 CALIFORNIA-NEVADA SECTION, AMERICAN WATER WORKS ASSOCIATION 10435 Ashford Street, Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91730 Fax: (909) 481-4688 or (909) 291-2107 (909) 481-7200 | www.ca-nv-awwa.org SOURCE Magazine Mission Statement To serve the regional water community with news and information about developments, regulations, technology and trends affecting CA-NV AWWA Section members and California and Nevada’s water professionals. Section Staff S URCE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Sue Mosburg DIRECTOR OF EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS William Penn MEMBER & ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES MANAGER Armando Apodaca CERTIFICATION MANAGER Steven Garner FINANCE MANAGER Jenna Bland CERTIFICATION SUPERVISOR Gina Enriquez EDUCATION SPECIALIST Jennifer Sandoval COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER Danielle Hook EVENTS SPECIALIST Jordan Otero REGISTRATION/ACCOUNTING SPECIALIST Shobhana Chickarmane ADMINISTRATIVE SPECIALIST Jenny Mosburg PUBLISHED JULY 2022. © Apogee Publications. All rights reserved. The contents of this publication may not be reproduced by any means, in whole or in part,without the prior written consent of the publisher. PUBLISHER APOGEE PUBLICATIONS 6528 Greenleaf Avenue, Suite 219 Whittier, CA 90601 (562) 698-3424 ADVERTISING SALES MANAGER Kathleen Pishotta (352) 371-4933 EDITOR Lynn Lipinski MANAGING EDITOR Nicole Millman-Falk ART DIRECTOR Aude Cabaldon SECTION NEWS In Memoriam: Danny Leonardo By Jeff Carson DANNY LEONARDO, a beloved senior water/ wastewater systems operator at the Dublin San Ramon Services District (DSRSD), passed away after a sudden illness on September 24, 2021. Throughout his 18-year career with DSRSD, Leonardo dedicated himself to maintaining healthy drinking water for customers in the Bay Area’s Tri-Valley community and held a consistently positive, can-do attitude while contributing to the district and the regional water operator community. Named the DSRSD Employee of the Year in 2017, Leonardo trained many operators at DSRSD. “You could always rely on Danny to give a straight answer and a good recommendation on a solution. Danny was dependable and liked by all,” said Jaclyn Yee, DSRSD senior engineer. Leonardo is survived by a large and loving family, including his wife Becky, daughter Hailey, and son Zackery. S Jeff Carson is the operations director at Dublin San Ramon Services District.
10 SOURCE summer 2022 SECTION NEWS SOURCE MAGAZINE IS PROUD TO HAVE LAUNCHED the SOURCE Editorial Awards four years ago. The SOURCE Editorial Awards recognize the writer or team of writers who contributed the most outstanding article to the magazine in the previous year. Winners are chosen by a panel that evaluates each article on its research, readability and language, organization and overall presentation. We are honored to have such an esteemed group of individuals as our winners and look forward to many more in the future. Here is a roundup of our winners to date: Spotlight on SOURCE Award Winners • The first winners were a team of five authors: IssamNajm, Ph.D., P.E., Water Quality & Treatment Solutions, Inc.; Brian Gallagher, Water Quality & Treatment Solutions, Inc.; Gurpal Deol, Zone 7 Water Agency; Lyda Hakes, Alameda County Water District; Peter Zhou, P.E., Valley Water. Their article, “Cyanotoxin Destruction with Oxidants at Surface Water Treatment Plants,” in the Winter 2018 issue described the results of a bench-scale study to evaluate the efficiency of their treatment systems in destroying cyanotoxins. SOURCE Publisher Mel Sturr, Editor Lynn Lipinski, Issam Najm, Peter Zhou, Cris Pena (accepting for Lyda Hakes from Alameda County Water District), Awards Committee Member Colter Andersen and Section Chair Kate Nutting. Photo by Michael Santos and Anthony Godinez. • The second winner was Larry Rice, executive director of Redwood Glen, who was recognized for his article, “Building a New Community Water System in California,” in the Fall 2019 issue describing the journey of a small, faith-based summer camp in California’s San Mateo County as it built its own water system after its regular service was cut off.
www.ca-nv-awwa.org 11 SECTION NEWS • The fourth winners were Jean Debroux, Ph.D., and Stephen Timko, Ph.D. , both f rom Kennedy Jenks. Their article, “Winning the PFAS Battle” in the Winter 2021 issue, provided an excellent overview of the strategies for addressing PFAS contamination in water supplies. • The third winners were Sepideh Shirkhani and Sergio Escalante, both fromMetropolitan Water District of Southern California. Their article, “Lessons Learned from Condition-based Maintenance Program,” offered insights from a four-year effort to managing assets as infrastructure ages. The article appeared in the Summer 2020 issue. We are so proud of all our winners, and we are excited to see what they will achieve in the future. Thank you for your continued support of SOURCE Magazine. S Lynn Lipinski is the editor of SOURCE Magazine.
12 SOURCE summer 2022 FOR Diversity Development ADigital Domain AS I REFLECT on what the AWWA Water Quality Technology Division (WQTD) Board of Trustees accomplished under my three-year tenure (which concludes with ACE22) as its Chair, I am most fulfilled by a newly launched diversity initiative of humble origin that will hopefully spark significant enrichment of the AWWA community.
www.ca-nv-awwa.org 13 DIVERSITY DEVELOPMENT WHILE “DIVERSITY” has become the leading buzzword across our contemporary cultural landscape, it’s important to understand that this concept is more than just a trendy preoccupation for the WQTD Trustees; it is a long-standing critical consideration that has important practical implications. The Trustees have always been very cognizant of diversity, as the Division embodies a wide array of demographic categories with unique perspectives that are each essential to the conversation on water quality: professional sector (i.e., utilities, engineering firms, equipment manufacturers, academics and regulators); geography; gender; and race. Although it can be challenging to achieve balanced representation among the nine Trustee positions, it is one of the key priorities in making new appointments to the group. To illustrate the essent ialness of thi s object ive, consider the Trustees’ role in comprising the core of the Planning Committee for the AWWA’s Water Quality Technology Conference. For the 2022 event, there were an unusually high number of submissions focused on the water quality impacts of wildfires. If all of the Trustees hailed from wetter locales without a history of such fires, the importance of this topic to a large swath of the industry—including most of the CA-NV Section—might be overlooked. Likewise, utilities have more concerns than just academics; rural areas have disparate treatment challenges from urban environments. Racial groups can have divergent water quality perspectives based on experiences in their respective cultural communities. Neglecting this diversity would inherently limit our collective understanding of crucial water quality issues. During a discussion of new Trustee appointments in 2019, one astute member observed that the group was very effective at accomplishing diversity in many respects, with the notable exception of race. This deficiency was not due to a lack of attentiveness but rather a dearth of racial diversity among the Trustee applicant pool. Since our best applicants typically come from the committees under the purview of the Division, with the most active and committed participants often seeking to serve as Trustees, a review of our roster of volunteers suggested a similar paucity of racial diversity. Given that committee membership is open to anyone willing to invest the time, this finding strongly suggested that there were communities largely unaware that volunteering was not only possible but encouraged, or perhaps even that such opportunities existed. Thus, while it would be relatively straightforward for the Trustees to recruit more diverse applicants from personal contacts in an effort to notch an easy win, such a short-term solution would not address the underlying structural problem that important demographic groups were not sufficiently engaged as AWWA volunteers. A more effective, sustainable solution would involve increasing awareness of AWWA, including membership benefits and volunteer opportunities, among underrepresented groups in the earliest stages of their careers, thereby providing the committees with a steady stream of more diverse participants, some of whom will ultimately become highly qualified Trustee applicants. With this objective in mind, a small ad-hoc group of volunteers and AWWA staff convened to formulate an outreach strategy that would benefit not only the WQTD but the entirety of AWWA and its sections. The group initially identified student engagement as an effective means of cultivating a more diversified AWWA membership base. Our research suggested that although many of the 107 institutions designated as Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) by the United States Department of Education had degree programs directly or indirectly related to water supply and treatment, AWWA student chapters were virtually non-existent on these campuses. Thus, a focused effort to cultivate an AWWA presence at HBCUs offered the opportunity to significantly impact the group’s diversity goal. While vibrant student chapters can be a sustainable conduit for young professionals to become active AWWA volunteers, each campus start-up requires substantial time and energy to initiate. The support of an BY BRENT ALSPACH
14 SOURCE summer 2022 enthusiastic faculty sponsor is critical for success. Moreover, each chapter would serve only a small fraction of the applicable student population. Seeding individual HBCUs would be prohibitive for reaching the expansive underserved community in a timely manner. However, by leveraging contemporary virtual tools, honed by necessity during the pandemic, the entirety of the diffuse community could be served simultaneously without physical on-campus resources or location-specific faculty participation. Hence, the idea of the first-of-its-kind AWWA HBCU Virtual Student Chapter was born. The new v i r t ua l c hap t e r wa s launched in spring 2022 with aspirations to provide all of the same benefits as its more traditional counterparts, albeit in the virtual space, including: • Networking with more than 50,000 water professionals • C onnect ion among students with similar interests • L eadership growth • I nformation about academic scholarships • Participation in the AWWA volunteer corps • L earning opportunities from experts in the field • Career advancement Information about the AWWA HBCU Virtual Student Chapter is available at www.awwa.org/ hbcu. Because a virtual plat form cannot ful ly replace every aspect of the in-person community, it is hoped that participation in the virtual chapter will spread organically at HBCU campuses and, in some cases, ultimately result in the establishment of a more traditional, location-based student chapter that is independently operated, with its own faculty sponsorship, officers and activities. Note that this is just the first step toward actively growing a more diverse AWWA volunteer corps, as there are numerous other underrepresented racial groups to bolster. Although the success of the HBCU Virtual Student Chapter may foster similar outreach efforts for other such communities, the most effective means of connection may also differ in each case, with new solutions yet to be created—digital or otherwise. It is important to underscore that this effort does not simply aspire to diversity for diversity’s sake, but rather represents a strategic, long-term investment in the future of the water industry. In addition to the practical value of understanding water quality issues through the lens of different racial demographics, the so-called silver tsunami of our aging workforce has been well-documented, prompting the need for more committed water industry professionals of all races. Finding new and innovative ways to engage any untapped, high-value talent pool is critical for workforce sustainability and the consequent assurance of reliable, safe and high-quality potable supplies for the customers we serve. S Brent Alspach is the director o f appl i ed re s e arch at Arcadis. DIVERSITY DEVELOPMENT
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16 SOURCE summer 2022 THE (BUSINESS) CASE FOR WATER EQUITY AND WATER JUSTICE By WALT WALKER, P.E.
www.ca-nv-awwa.org 17 WATER EQUITY AND JUSTICE WATER CAN BE A FORCE FOR EQUITY AND OPPORTUNITY. It can revitalize and strengthen communities to make them more inclusive and resilient. Investments in water infrastructure can stimulate jobs and local economies. No one entity can solve these challenges or harness these opportunities alone. As stated by the U.S. Water Alliance, building more equitable water systems will require leaning on the diverse talents and resourcesofwater utilities, environmental groups, nonprofits andphilanthropy, community-based organizations and pressures from like-minded investors and residents. Water equity is realized when all communities have access to safe, clean, affordable drinking water and wastewater services; are resilient in the face of floods, drought and other climate risks; have a role in decision-making processes related to water management in their communities; and share in the economic, social and environmental benefits of water systems. To achieve that, water equity must be about forging coalitions on the path to environmental justice and water justice — building authentic relationships across sectors and requiring commitment to sustained engagement and sharing power with underserved communities to co-create shared priorities. At its roots, equity refers to just and fair inclusion — a condition in which everyone has an opportunity to participate and prosper. It is important to distinguish that equity is not the same as equality. Equity is a solution for addressing imbalanced social systems. Justice can take equity one step further by fixing the systems in a way that leads to long-term, sustainable and equitable access for generations to come. Therefore, designing with equity in mind to achieve justice understands the historical context of injustices such as racism, vast economic disparities in communities, gender inequality, accessibility issues for people with disabilities, displacement from land/ property, resource extraction, lack of investment in our communities and our infrastructure. To achieve environmental justice through equitycentered community design, we need to see the intersection of our water infrastructure with community development, design-based problemsolving and equitable outcomes. With this understanding of water equity, we must ask, what are the outcomes that can be achieved by instituting initiatives, policy and opening up to this mindset of inclusion? By investing in water equity, the return seen is multifaceted and impactful. As such, there is a strong case to be made on investing in water equity. The outcomes extend to accessing federal and state funding, regional collaboration, increased contracting and procurement participation, local workforce development, as well as looking holistically at community development across all infrastructure. Designing and building with equity in mind can lead to rewarding outcomes for our industry. The more equitable a society and the more meaningful opportunities available, the better it is for everyone. Global studies have shown that countries with greater income equality have a higher life expectancy, and that income inequality affects quality of life for all. An effective equity approach to deep-rooted social value and economic investment is development of community benefits programs and policies that can transform
18 SOURCE summer 2022 communities. These programs create opportunities with multiple benefits that otherwise might not have existed. It is building a sustainable and long-lasting equitable and healthy community. For local government and utilities, it can be embedding an intersectional approach of committing resources to provide with opportunities in workforce, education and growth in community economic development, social infrastructure and accessibility. Specifically, for water resource utilities, this is an opportunity to leverage the triple-bottom line (social, economic, environmental) impact that utilities have in the community with its professional engineering, construction and construction-related projects, multiplying the potential for how communities benefit from capital investments in their service area. Well-designed community benefits programs put plans and policies in place to create incentives within the contracting process for community benefit outcomes, which include business and contribution requirements, building partnerships with local organizations and demonstrating meaningful effort towards civic service. This can be an exciting opportunity to reimagine what partnerships and creating community looks like. Elements of an equitable community benefits program could look like the following: WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT • Creating or increasing exposure of local youth to careers in WATER EQUITY AND JUSTICE "Water equity is realized when all communities have access to safe, clean, affordable drinking water and wastewater services are resilient in the face of floods, drought and other climate risks; have a role in decision-making processes related to water management in their communities; and share in the economic, social and environmental benefits of water systems.”
www.ca-nv-awwa.org 19 the water sector; skills-trade and construction skills training for adults 18+; small business outreach and mentorship; helping individuals receive employment training and ultimately jobs; creating lasting partnerships that build a water/environmental career pipeline for present and future. COMMITMENT TO CIVIC SERVICE • Establishing deep roots in the community, which is reflective of what we do working in the water industry. Supported by metrics, this can include volunteer hours or in-kind services to schools or non-profits or providing technical support for community improvements. COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS • Demonstrating community-driven design and community engagement. • Creating long-lasting partnerships with community-based organizations (CBOs), such as the local Urban League, academia, environmental justice and community-based organizations. Focusing on initiatives that are providing education and training opportunities. An example is development of a training program in collaboration by consultants and local CBOs that helps train unemployed individuals to find good paying jobs in construction related trades. This can be supported by sponsorship of the cohorts of this program, quality and insightful feedback on resume building and interview prep that help graduates find and secure first jobs in the careers that can support their families and their ongoing learning. • Empowering students through a science, technology, engineering, arts and math (STEAM), public health and anthropological curriculum. Engage local professionals to participate in an informational panel session on water careers and its impact on the world. Organize local tours of water facilities and provide established internships or scholarship-based apprenticeships. CONTRACTING AND PROCUREMENT/ SUPPLIER DIVERSITY • Improving the diversity and capacity/ expertise of firms that receive design WATER EQUITY AND JUSTICE "Designing and building with equity in mind can lead to rewarding outcomes for our industry.”
20 SOURCE summer 2022 and construction contracts and creating community benefits in neighborhoods where the utility is working. Expanding local hiring preferences. Establishing utilization goals for minority-, women-, veteran-owned and/ or disadvantaged-businesses. • Supporting startup business and local accelerators for design, construction, subcontractor and construction supply firms with a focus on providing resources to local minority business owners and entrepreneurs and supporting their capacity building in the utility service area. The water industry can be a force for delivering and making progress against many of the challenges that our country faces right now — the pandemic, the need for community economic recovery, the challenges around racial equity and environmental justice, our climate crisis and developing pathways where we can all play a part in a better future. The water industry can lead water justice outcomes by driving social, value-centered community benefits programs to be good neighbors and partners in our communities. Let’s share the success stories in our industry while also removing the boundaries of our perceived limitations, re-imagining that anything is possible through the power of partnership and commitment. It’s not only the right thing to do, but it’s the smart thing to do. S As Greeley and Hansen’s Water Equity Practice Leader, Walt Walker, P.E., works with utility leaders across the nation to accelerate equitable water management and policies and collaborative community-focused programs. WATER EQUITY AND JUSTICE "The water industry can be a force for delivering and making progress against many of the challenges that our country faces right now — the pandemic, the need for community economic recovery, the challenges around racial equity and environmental justice, our climate crisis and developing pathways where we can all play a part in a better future.”
22 SOURCE summer 2022 New Study Shows Robust Increases in By Kelsey Fit zgerald Largest changes centered over Rio Grande region of Southwestern U.S. Photo by Ricardo Panella/DRI In arid Western states, the climate is growing warmer and drier, leading to increased demand for water resources from humans and ecosystems. Now, the atmosphere across
MODESTO WELLS ATMOSPHERIC THIRST www.ca-nv-awwa.org 23 Across U.S. During Past 40 Years much of the U.S. is also demanding a greater share of water than it used to, according to a new study by a team from Desert Research Institute (DRI), University of California/Merced and Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California/San Diego. —>
24 SOURCE summer 2022 ATMOSPHERIC THIRST THE STUDY WAS PUBLISHED in the Journal of Hydrometeorology and assessed trends in evaporative demand across the United States during a 40-year period from 1980-2020 using five datasets. Evaporative demand, sometimes described as “atmospheric thirst,” is a measure of the potential loss of water from the earth’s surface to the atmosphere based on variables including temperature, humidity, wind speed and solar radiation. The team’s findings showed substantial increases in atmospheric thirst across much of the Western U.S. during the past 40 years, with the largest and most robust increases in an area centered around the Rio Grande and Lower Colorado Rivers. These regions have experienced changes on the order of two-to-three standard deviations from what was seen during the baseline period of 1980-2000. “This means that atmospheric thirst conditions in parts of the country are now verging outside of the range that was experienced 20 to 40 years ago, especially in some regions of the Southwest,” said lead author Christine Albano, Ph.D., of DRI. “This is really important to understand, because we know that atmospheric thirst is a persistent force in pushing Western landscapes and water supplies toward drought.” To learn more about the role that different climate variables play in determining atmospheric thirst, Albano and her colleagues analyzed the relative influences of temperature, wind speed, solar radiation and humidity. They found that, on average, increases in temperature were responsible for 57% of the changes observed in all regions, with humidity (26%), wind speed (10%) and solar radiation (8%) playing lesser roles. “This study shows the dominant role that warming has played on the increasing evaporative demand and foreshadows the increased water stressors the West faces with continued warming,” said study co-author John Abatzoglou, Ph.D., of University of California/Merced. For farmers and other water users, increases in atmospheric thirst mean that in the future, more water will be required to meet existing water needs. Some of these changes observed in this study are centered over areas where warming temperatures and lowerthan-average precipitation are already creating stress on water supplies. For example, in the Rio Grande region, the study authors calculated that atmospheric thirst increased by 8 to 15% between 1980 and 2020. Holding all else equal and assuming no other changes in management, this means that 8 to 15% more water is now required to maintain the same thoroughly watered crop. “Our analysis suggests that crops now require more water than they did in the past and can be expected to require more water in the future,” said study coauthor Justin Huntington, Ph.D., of DRI.
www.ca-nv-awwa.org 25 ATMOSPHERIC THIRST Chart by Christine Albano/DRI
26 SOURCE summer 2022 Other impacts of increased atmospheric thirst include drought, increased forest fire area and reduced streamflows. “Our results indicate that, decade by decade, for every drop of precipitation that falls, less and less water is likely to drain into streams, wetlands, aquifers or other water bodies,” said study co-author Michael Dettinger, Ph.D., of Scripps Institution of Oceanography and DRI. “Resource managers, policy makers and the public need to be aware of these changes and plan for these impacts now and into the future.” Members of the team are now developing seasonal to sub-seasonal forecasts of evaporative demand. “We anticipate these types of forecasts will be important for drought and fire forecasting applications,” said study co-author Dan McEvoy, Ph.D., of DRI. Additional Information The full text of the study, “A multi-dataset assessment of climatic drivers and uncertainties of recent trends in evaporative demand across the continental U.S.,” is available for free from the Journal of Hydrometeorology: https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/ journals/hydr/23/4/JHM-D-21-0163.1.xml. (See Figure 1.) The study team included Christine Albano (DRI), John Abatzoglou (University of California/Merced), Daniel McEvoy (DRI), Justin Huntington (DRI), Charles Morton (DRI), Michael Dettinger (Scripps Institution of Oceanography/DRI), and Thomas Ott (DRI). S Kelsey Fitzgerald is the senior communications officer at Desert Research Institute in Reno, Nevada. ATMOSPHERIC THIRST Fig. 1. (top) Average trend slope (change per year) of reference evapotranspiration (ETo) across all datasets and by water resource region; (a)– (h) the contribution of individual drivers to observed ETo trends by dataset, as determined through sensitivity analysis, for select regions. The black dots indicate the spatially averaged ETo trend for each region and dataset as a point of reference.
www.ca-nv-awwa.org 27 SECTION NEWS
28 SOURCE summer 2022 Celebrating 30 Years of Quenching Catalina’s THIRST SCE’S DESALINATION PLANTS MEET AN INCREASINGLY CRITICAL NEED ON THE DROUGHT-PARCHED ISLAND. By Brian Leventhal The desalination process strips salt out of ocean water from two underground saltwater beach wells to make it drinkable. Photo courtesy of Edison International.
www.ca-nv-awwa.org 29 F AMOUSLY lauded in 1958 by the popular male quartet Four Preps as a romantic destination, Santa Catalina Island is unique among communities in Southern California Edison’s (SCE) service area: I t’s the only place where SCE provides electricity, water and gas to customers. And though the quartet noted Catalina has “water all around it everywhere,” persistent drought means there’s not nearly enough to drink for the island’s 4,000 fulltime residents and nearly one million annual visitors. As a result, “desalination on Catalina is more important than ever,” said Ron Hite, SCE’s senior manager for Catalina. This year marks the 30th anniversary of SCE’s first desalination plant on the island. The desalination process strips salt out of ocean water from two underground saltwater beach wells to make it drinkable. It was a developing technology in 1992 when Edison built the first ocean-water-to-drinking-water plant on the West Coast, one of the prototypes not just for California but for the entire country. SCE ' S DESAL Ron Hite, SCE senior manager for Catalina Island, inspects maintenance records at Desalination Plant #1, which has been operational since 1992. Photo by Jay Martin.
30 SOURCE summer 2022 SCE built a second Catalina desalination plant in 2016, using newer technology that has increased desalinated water production to alltime highs, breaking production records in 2020 and again last year. “The second plant is highly efficient, producing twice the water using the same amount of energy as the first,” saidHite. As part of the next phase of desalination enhancement, SCE targets improving desalination production by 80% with the addition of a third well. The third well would let the treatment plant operate at a higher capacity. Before the desalination plants, Catalina relied entirely on groundwater and the water collected in reservoirs from sparse seasonal rains for its drinking water. The island would resort to bringing additional drinking water in by barge during significant droughts, while residents and businesses have endured strict water rationing. “Tourism on the island — its main economic driver — is dependent on having reliable water sources despite the drought cycles that have affected the island for the SCE ' S DESAL Before the desalination plants were built, Catalina Island endured periods of water rationing and importing water by barge during serious droughts. Photo courtesy of Edison International.
www.ca-nv-awwa.org 31 past 30 years,” said Ann Marshall, mayor of Avalon, Catalina’s only city. SCE built the first desalination plant in response to the development of the nearby Hamilton Cove condominiums and the drought in the late 1980s. “Today, we’re producing as much as 160 gallons per minute, which helps combat climate change and drought impacts on the community,” said Frank Beach, SCE’s senior supervisor of water and gas utilities on Catalina. “One of the great benefits of desalination is that it’s a droughtresistant resource. In addition, the filtration process makes economic and environmental sense.” SCE recently entered into grant funding agreements with the California Department of Water Resources, which will reimburse costs totaling $12.3 million toward desalination enhancement projects, helping save money for customers. S Brian Leventhal is a writer for Edison International’s Energized by Edison. SCE ' S DESAL Over the past 30 years, SCE’s desalination plants have become a critical piece of Catalina’s infrastructure — making everyday life possible.
32 SOURCE summer 2022 AS OF SPRING 2022, National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) data show nearly 70% of the lower 48 U.S. states in drought, affecting more than 100 million residents. California, in particular, is facing a deepening water crisis, with more than 93% of the state experiencing extreme drought. 2022 is the state’s driest year on record for the past 128 years, while 58 counties are currently under a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) disaster designation (NIDIS, 2022). Recognizing that the challenge demands a new approach, state regulators shifted their focus from conservation to efficiency, enacting new efficiency standards in 2018 for indoor and outdoor water use. To meet those standards, utilities are using software that combines water use, aerial mapping and remote sensing data to pinpoint and outreach to their most inefficient users. The goal is to achieve bigger reductions in water use with less effort and expense, while helping water utilities improve service area efficiency and gain deeper insights into district trends. The Problemwith Water Conservation During the historic 2015 drought, California imposed a mandatory 25% cutback in water use across the state, with individual targets based on the user’s 2013 water bill. Ultimately, however, this approach was unfair to many residents, alienating many efficient users when their efforts were needed the most. Consider, for example, two residents on opposite ends of the efficiency spectrum. Resident A hoses off their driveway, leaves the hose running while washing their car and has a yard full of lush tropical plants. Resident B uses water-saving showerheads, captures water in a bucket while waiting for the shower to warm up and has no lawn. Resident A uses 10,000 gallons per month compared with Resident B’s 2,500 gallons per month. When the new cutbacks hit, Resident B had few remaining tools to reduce waste as their overall use was already low. This meant they would start getting letters and even fines from the local water WATERCONSERVATION DOES NOTWORK How focusing on water efficiency is helping California water agencies cope with diminishing water supply BY WAYNE TATE WHY
www.ca-nv-awwa.org 33 board, although they were more diligent about conserving water. For Resident A, all that was required to comply with the 25% reduction was to stop hosing off their driveway and put a water-efficient nozzle on their hose. California’s SB 606 and AB 1668 represent a shift away from one-size-fits-all cutbacks, creating district-level water budgets based on irrigable land, local evapotranspiration rates and household size. Rather than just water use quantity, water efficiency is a central theme of these bills, which establish criteria for determining a district’s water allocation based on new urban water use efficiency standards. The state providedwater agencieswith irrigated landscape data as part of the legislation. But that data alone is insufficient to identify where inefficiencies exist among the agencies’ service area residents. Other metrics, such as demographic data, parcel characteristics and evapotraspiration rates, are necessary to pinpoint inefficient users. This is where software solutions help, combining these datasets to identify inefficient users andmanage targetedwater conservation campaigns. A New Approach to Reducing Residential Water Consumption Efficiency-centric solutions are driving clear results across the state, helping water districts save thousands of acre-feet of water annually and avoid millions in new infrastructure costs. However, achieving this kind of change is easier when water agencies have visibility into parcel-level use and allocation based on lot size and the number of residents. Software solutions can help utilities across the state bring it all together by combining water use, allocation, landscape area measurement and remote sensing data into a simple GIS environment. Some software, like WaterView, simplifies compliance with the new efficiency standards, displaying dashboard metrics that include use as a percentage of allocation at the parcel and district levels. They also can provide a window into water use efficiency to help identify which users are using more than their fair share. For example, water agencies can identify the customers using more than 200% of their allocation, providing a targeted list of where outreach is likely to drive the biggest change in water use. Agencies can use this technology to track use throughout the year — rather than discovering too late that they have exceeded their allocation. Advanced Analytics Drive Deeper Insights In summer 2021, California Governor Gavin Newsom called for a voluntary 15% cutback in residential water use, focusing onmeasures such as reducing landscape irrigation. Doing so in a way that’s both effective for utilities and fair to users is another challenge where the answer is to focus on water use efficiency. Looking at historical use data, one water agency determined that they would need to save roughly 69,000 CCFs to achieve a 15% reduction across the district. WATER EFFICIENCY
34 SOURCE summer 2022 They were able to use software to break users into efficiency tiers based on their use and conservation score. That data showed that if they focused on getting the least efficient 30% of customers to reduce use by 30%, it would result in a savings of nearly 67,000 CCF. They could achieve the same total reduction district-wide by focusing on the most inefficient 30% as they would if every customer reduced water use by 15%. Just as important, they would only have to reach out to the most inefficient 30% of users — in other words, the lowhanging fruit where small actions are likely to drive comparatively large results. At the same time, this strategy would help avoid the political repercussions of pressuring already efficient users to cut back. Identifying patterns is also an area where advanced data management is helping water utilities find easy opportunities to reduce water use. A water supplier in the desert near Palm Springs, for instance, noticed a spike in water use in the fall, when lower temperature and watering needs should cause use to decline. It suspected that some residents had forgotten to reset their sprinkler timers, resulting in excessive watering and waste. Equipped with data on those exceeding their allocation, it can tailor its outreach to customers with specific reminders to help the district meet its allocation target. They can also create a campaign for that target group and track the effectiveness of outreach activities to evaluate what’s working and what’s not. Turf replacement initiatives, too, can benefit from detailed mapping data, making these programs more efficient and effective. Turf is a massive contributor to water inefficiency. The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California paid $340 million in rebates for replacing turf with drought-tolerant landscaping in response to the 2015 drought. To maximize the impact of turf replacement campaigns, utilities can use software to search for residents with the most turf. Reaching out to residents with more than 2,000 square feet of turf, for example, is a strategic place to start, helping achieve bigger results through smaller-scale efforts. Reducing residential water consumption is a thorny challenge, especially in water-stressed areas where many people are already going above and beyond to minimize waste. By changing the goal to wasting less rather than just using less, water utilities can ensure the time and money they invest in customer outreach delivers maximum impact. These tools give agencies what they need to do it, helping improve service area efficiency and mitigate the impact of drought in a way that’s fair to all. Reference National Current Conditions (2022). National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS). https://www.drought.gov/ current-conditions. S Wayne Tate is the founder and president of Eagle Aerial Solutions of Irvine, California. WATER EFFICIENCY
www.ca-nv-awwa.org 35 INFLATABLE PLUG Inflatable Plug Offers Fix FOR HYDROELECTRIC POWER PLANT PROJECT b y ANGUS W. S TOCK I NG, L . S . Photo courtesy of Petersen Products WHEN BRIAN SIMON, A PROJECT MANAGER AT GRACE-TITAN DVBE, first looked at the Potter Valley Bypass job it looked difficult, but straightforward. Grace-Titan had been asked to remove a section of the penstock that supplies Pacific Gas & Electric’s (PGE) Potter Valley hydroelectric power plant and install a Y-branch. But that meant that the five-foot diameter penstock had to be shut down temporarily, and that’s where things got complicated.
36 SOURCE summer 2022 The penstock and the gate valve that’s supposed to close it down when needed, were both more than a hundred years old. Because of the age and condition of the gate valve, Grace-Titan was told to expect flow leakage as high as 1,200 gpm and to account for this preparation and design. “The operators did a fantastic job when closing the gate valve,” said Simon. “In fact, as it turned out, flow rates topped out at about 400 gpm.” Stopping Flows Simon had to find a way to plug the penstock downstream of the valve and keep pressures relatively low. The water could have been diverted with pumps, but there were serious downsides to that approach. "If we'd used pumps, there would always have been the possibility that they'd fail," he explained. That would also have exposed downstream workers who would be welding inside the penstock to unacceptable safety risks. It would also affect power plant operations, so pumps would have to be monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week by both a Grace- Titan employee and a PG&E representative. The cost would be enormous and wouldn't completely eliminate the safety risks. Instead, a physical block was needed, and an existing 18-inch manway presented the best opportunity. "We hadn't done anything like this before, so we did some research," said Simon, "and it seemed like an inflatable plug was the way to go." Simon selected specialty pipe supply maker Petersen Products Company. Petersen fabricated a plug that could be folded for insertion through the manway, then inflated with low-pressure pumped water to fill and block the penstock. "We opened up the manway and inserted the plug. It took three of us to control it as we lowered it in," said Simon. Once in place, the plug was tethered with dual aircraft cables and inflated with a diaphragm pump and controller purchased from Petersen. "It didn't actually seal well the first time we inflated it," said Simon, "probably because of oversized rivets in the old pipe. So we hauled it back out, repositioned it and pumped it up again." This time, the plug sealed well and held for the entire seven weeks of the project. INFLATABLE PLUG
www.ca-nv-awwa.org 37 With the plug in place, the flow backed up to the manway and through a fitting made by Andre Revel, a Grace-Titan consultant for the leak control procedure. This fitting diverted the water to the tailrace in a controlled manner. The Grace-Titan crew was able to work safely without having to rely on a powered system with moving parts. To monitor water levels at the manway, Simon installed a sight glass connected to a dip tube. The water levels in the penstock were calibrated to the sight glass, providing a way to quickly check levels and thus pressure buildup. Clear Benefits toNewApproach Simon said the plug definitely saved money and was probably instrumental in getting the job in the first place. "I would say that proposing the plug helped us get the job, because PG&E liked our plan. And it saved a lot of money, for us and the plant, because we saved the labor of having two people on the site continually, for seven weeks. That could have been over a $100,000 just in labor. Plus, of course, the plug was safer because we didn't have to worry about pumps failing. It also eased environmental concerns regarding pump or generator refueling." Because this was a first project with new technology, Petersen worked with Grace-Titan on the design and deployment of the plug. Design calculations from Grace-Titan were checked by Petersen's engineers and a Petersen representative was on site for the deployment. Simon said that Grace-Titan is definitely looking for more inflatable plug applications and hopes to put their new expertise to work soon. After seven weeks, the plug was drained by the diaphragm pump and removed with the help of a forklift. It had held without failure, and Simon said it looked good; "It's in excellent shape, no damage at all," he said. "We could reuse it." Safer and easier are great qualities in a new technology, especially when that solution is less expensive as well. By being open to new ideas and doing a little research, Grace-Titan has developed useful new capabilities that they'll put to work on future projects. S Angus W. Stocking, L.S. is a licensed land surveyor and freelance infrastructure writer. INFLATABLE PLUG
38 SOURCE summer 2022 American . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . american-usa com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Applied Process Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . appliedcartridgesystems com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Bay Area Coating Consultants, Inc (BCCS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . bayareacoating com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Carollo Engineers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . carollo com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 College of the Canyons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . canyons edu/water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Crosno Construction, Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . crosnoconstruction com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 CSI Services, Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . csiservices biz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Diamond Companies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . diamondfiberglass com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Ferguson Enterprises, LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ferguson com/waterworks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . opposite table of contents Fluid Conservation Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . fluidconservation com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Ford Meter Box Co . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . fordmeterbox com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Integra Chemical Co . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vita-d-chlor com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 GEI Consultants Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . geiconsultants com 15 GF Piping Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . gfps com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37, 38 Haaker Equipment Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . haaker com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . inside back cover M E Simpson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . mesimpson com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Mueller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . muellerwp com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . inside front cover Murray Smith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . murraysmith us . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 National Storage Tank, Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . nationalstoragetank com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Pittsburgh Tank & Tower Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . pttg com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Pure Technologies, a Xylem brand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xylem com/pure-technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 SL Environment Law Group LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . slenvironment com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . opposite inside front cover Tesco Controls, Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . tescocontrols com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . outside back cover The Trenton Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . trentoncorp com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . opposite Director's Message Utility Crane & Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . utilityce com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Veolia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . veolianorthamerica com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 XiO Water Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiowater com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 INDEX TO ADVERTISERS
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