BOARD AGENDA MEMORANDUM
SUBJECT:
Title
Next Steps for the Untreated Surface Water Program (Continued From October 22, 2019).
End
RECOMMENDATION:
Recommendation
Review Board Policy and Planning Committee's recommendation to seek stakeholder input on the future of the Untreated Surface Water Program, including the recommendation to sunset the Program.
Body
SUMMARY:
On April 12, 2016, in response to significant issues that had been identified with the current Untreated Surface Water Program (Program), the Board directed staff to update the 1974 Rules and Regulations (Rules) for the Service of Surface Water and provided guidance by approving eight principles for the revision of the Program. See Attachment 1.
During the process of revising the Rules to meet the Board approved guiding principles, staff identified that a Program where Valley Water directly sells water to a select set of customers may not be sustainable. In multiple discussions with the Board Policy and Planning Committee (Committee), a recommendation was made for an eventual sunsetting of the Program instead of revision of the Rules.
A six-step process is recommended by staff to gather stakeholder input on the future of the Program for consideration by the Committee and then the Board.
BACKGROUND:
The Program is predominantly used by customers for irrigation. The cost of Valley Water's untreated surface water is 5 to 20 times less than what the major retailers in the county charge for potable water. This leads to many instances where one business or neighbor will be paying significantly less for irrigation with Valley Water's water than the next-door neighbor or business that uses the same amount of water. The program currently has 73 customers meaning the Program is currently only used by less than 0.01% of the households and businesses in Santa Clara County.
The operation of the raw water system has become more complex in the last decades, and surface water deliveries have had a gr...
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