Conservation, Recycling, Storage Investments Paying off for Southern California in Withstanding Levee Break.

News Editors/Business Editors

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 3, 2004

As a result of the investments Southern California has made in conservation, recycling and storage projects, imported water supplies for the region's 18 million consumers remain reliable today despite a major levee break in the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, Metropolitan Water District officials announced.

Metropolitan Chief Executive Officer Ronald R. Gastelum said Southern California is expected to withstand the 300-foot levee break, which flooded the Jones Tract in the Bay/Delta and potentially jeopardized the quality of drinking water supplies.

"Fortunately, Southern California has sufficient water supplies south of the Bay/Delta in Central Valley groundwater storage projects and state project facilities, including San Luis Reservoir, Castaic Lake and Lake Silverwood," Gastelum said. "This allows us to manage the break at Jones Tract until the state system in the Bay/Delta normalizes."

Metropolitan stands ready to work with the state and federal government, as well as the other affected agencies, to develop plans that address the immediate impacts of the break and improve the future reliability of supplies throughout California, he said.

Gastelum noted that the levee incident occurred during Metropolitan's ongoing multimillion-dollar water conservation outreach campaign.

"This Bay/Delta event reminds us why these efforts are so important," he said. "Every drop of water we save is an added drop of water at a reservoir or groundwater aquifer that helps us to meet unexpected operational, natural and regulatory events. The only thing we know for sure is that unexpected things will happen, and we're ready."

Debra Man, Metropolitan's chief operating officer, stated Southern California has increased ten-fold the amount of water stored at various facilities in the region and around the state since the early 1990s.

Last year, 53 percent of the region's water demands were met through local resources like conservation and recycling, greatly reducing our reliance on imported sources, such as State Water Project supplies, for direct consumptive purposes. Today, a large portion of the water we take from Northern California goes into storage for use later, Man said.

Calling today's break at the upper Jones tract "unfortunate," Man also described it as the "ultimate test" of Metropolitan's supply dependability strategy.

"At the same time, we're also managing a major Metropolitan pipeline shutdown impacting 1 million consumers in eastern Los Angeles and western San Bernardino counties," Man said. "Although we're managing this outage, along with the shut down of the state pumps south of the Bay/Delta, it should remind us that everyone must do their part from the agencies and cities to residents who help conserve and better manage our water resources."

State water pumps that send water to Southern California had already been turned off for maintenance before the break occurred, Man said.

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is a cooperative of 26 cities and water agencies serving nearly 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.