Compton, Metropolitan Launch Water Storage Program Benefiting City, Region.

LOS ANGELES -- Officials of the city of Compton and the Metropolitan Water District signed an agreement today that will improve water reliability and drought protection for the city and the region for the next 25 years.

State Proposition 13 funds will provide $2.42 million to upgrade the Compton Municipal Water Department's pipelines and wells to allow the city to pump a total of 2,289 acre-feet of Metropolitan's imported water in to the local groundwater aquifer.

An acre-foot is about 326,000 gallons, enough water to provide the needs of two typical families for a year.

"Those improvements will be used on a daily basis to provide water to our citizens," said Compton Mayor Eric J. Perrodin, "and they will also be used when Metropolitan asks us to withdraw some of the stored water, rather than ordering imported supplies from Met.

"By reducing the demands on Metropolitan, we're allowing MWD's imported supplies to be used elsewhere in the region," Perrodin said.

"I am very proud of this agreement, which will help upgrade Compton's infrastructure, as well as add to regional water-supply reliability," said Compton Councilman Isadore Hall III, who also serves as Compton's representative on the Metropolitan board of directors.

"This is Metropolitan's sixth conjunctive use program using Proposition 13 monies," Hall said, "and others are being negotiated throughout the region."

Wes Bannister, chairman of the Metropolitan board, noted that MWD's other five Proposition 13 conjunctive use storage programs are with the city of Long Beach and Central Basin Municipal Water District; Foothill Municipal Water District; Three Valleys Municipal Water District and the city of La Verne; Inland Empire Utilities Agency, Three Valleys Municipal Water District and the Chino Basin Watermaster; and with the Municipal Water District of Orange County and Orange County Water District.

"Together, these six agreements provide Metropolitan, its member public agencies and the urban region with 187,300 acre-feet of water storage," Bannister said. "By comparison, Metropolitan's second-largest reservoir -- Lake Mathews, near Riverside -- holds 182,000 acre-feet at capacity."

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is a cooperative of 26 cities and water agencies serving 18 million people in six counties. The district imports water from the Colorado River and Northern California to supplement local supplies, and helps its members to develop increased water conservation, recycling, storage and other resource-management programs.