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Planning Program
Southern California Area Office

The Southern California Area Planning Program offers water management consultative services and can assist in addressing water issues in your area, developing integrated and sustainable solutions to water problems from a regional perspective, and providing local program advocacy. Reclamation promotes the efficient use of water through conservation, recycling, salinity management, ground and surface water conjunctive management, storm water management for water supply, drinking water protection and groundwater recharge. Some of the programs we've been involved in include:


new iconSouthern California Regional Brine-Concentrate Management Study - Phase I

The Southern California Regional Brine-Concentrate Management Study is a collaboration between the Bureau of Reclamation and 14 local and state agency partners who together form the Brine Executive Management Team. The Team identified the management of brine-concentrate as significant in addressing southern California’s water supply reliability. Management of brine-concentrate faces economic, environmental, and regulatory hurdles to developing ocean and brackish groundwater supplies and recycling water. Developing these new water supply sources is important for water and wastewater agencies in southern California due to limitations in availability of existing imported water and good quality groundwater supplies. As these existing supplies continue to be strained, lower quality and more expensive water sources will be developed or recovered for use.

Development of these lower quality waters often requires the use of membrane or other treatment technologies that produce brine or concentrate waste streams. This waste is classified by the United States
Environmental Protection Agency as an industrial waste and can face regulatory limitations on disposal. Currently, the most common practice for disposal is the use of brinelines and ocean outfalls. However, as the
amount of brine-concentrate waste increases, several implementation, regulatory, and institutional issues present complex challenges
to agencies.

From the issues facing management of brine-concentrate, it is clear that there are a number of different elements that together formulate the regional landscape for management of this waste stream. These elements are the amount of brine-concentrate produced, regulatory issues driving brine-concentrate management needs (including emerging constituents of concern), institutional arrangements, available
brine-concentrate management or disposal options, and planned agency brine-concentrate management projects including pilot/demonstration projects. Each of these is a key element in formulating a comprehensive view of the southern California brine-concentrate management landscape. For this reason, complete reports were developed for each of these elements as part of this study:

Water and Energy Efficiency Program for Commercial, Industrial, and Institutional Customer Classes in Southern California

As a major water provider for southern California, the Bureau of Reclamation, in partnership with the California Energy Commission and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, commissioned an innovative study in 2007 to bring together energy utilities, water districts, wastewater sanitation districts, and state and local agencies to study the potential for integrated water and energy efficiency programs. This approach allows water districts and energy utilities to take advantage of opportunities to leverage their limited resources and coordinate resource management efforts to meet future needs. The study:

• identifies potential SoCal commercial, industrial, and institutional (CII) customer classes for participation in water and energy efficiency programs;

• summarizes savings potentials for these CII customer classes;

• develops audit guidelines and tools to identify water and energy efficiency improvements, and recommends opportunities for enhancing practices at CII customer sites;

• identifies marketing and outreach practices that are best suited for promoting water and energy efficiency in southern California; and

• develops a method for evaluating the costs and benefits associated with water and energy efficiency improvements.

A final report on this activity, published in 2009, is available in 5 volumes:

Southern California Comprehensive Water Reclamation and Reuse Study (SCCWRRS)

This 6-year, $6 million study evaluated the feasibility of maximizing the beneficial uses of recycled water through regional collaborative programs. SCCWRRS covered a 6 county area in southern California, included over 7,300 demand points and all wastewater supplies in its data bases. SCCWRRS was a partnership between Reclamation and 8 cost sharing partners:

A final report on this activity is available with attachments (all are PDF files):

Southern California Water Recycling Projects Initiative

The Southern California Water Recycling Projects Initiative is a multi-year Bureau of Reclamation planning program. The Initiative is designed to continue the work begun during the Southern California Comprehensive Water Reclamation and Reuse Study and assist local water and wastewater agencies in final planning and environmental documentation leading to implementation of projects identified in the SCCWRRS. The Initiative began in 2000 with $3.4 million dedicated to effort over the following three years. The Initiative began with 12 cost sharing partners:

Several reports have been produced during the initiative including:

Santa Margarita River Watershed Activities

October 29, 2008, Conjunctive Use Project Open House Presentation Materials
     Presentation (PDF, 2.45 MB)
     Decision Regarding Alternatives for Further Study Memorandum - December 11, 2006 (PDF, 125 KB)
     Recommendation of Alternatives for Further Investigation Memorandum - June 2, 2005 (PDF, 24 KB)
     Proposed Obermeyer Modifications to O’Neill Diversion Weir - August 2004 (PDF, 884 KB)

Santa Margarita River Conjunctive Use Project
     Final Technical Memorandum No. 1 - April 2007 (PDF, 3.1 MB)
     Final Technical Memo No. 2.2 - Volume 1 - April 2007 (PDF, 2.1 MB)
     Final Technical Memo No. 2.2 - Volume 2 - April 2007 (PDF, 8.8 MB)
     Final Technical Memo No. 3 - April 2007 (PDF, 3.4 MB)

Santa Margarita River Conjunctive Use Pre-Feasibility Plan Formulation Study - May 2005 (PDF, 6.3 MB) and Appendices (PDF, 467 KB)

Report - Hydraulic & Sediment Considerations for Proposed Modifications to O’Neill Diversion Weir on Santa Margarita River - Sept 2004 (PDF, 1.2 MB)

Report - Santa Margarita Watershed Supply Augmentation, Water Quality Protection, and Environmental Enhancement Program - December 2003 (PDF, 1.6 MB)
           Appendix A (PDF, 2.5 MB)
           Appendix B (PDF, 1.1 MB)
           Appendix C (PDF, 335 KB)
           Appendix D (PDF, 56 KB)

Recycle and Reuse Study - Fallbrook Public Utility District: Supplemental Study to the Santa Margarita River Recharge and Recovery Enhancement Program - Permit 15000 Feasibility Study for Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton - February 2002
           Part 1 (PDF, 7.6 MB)
           Part 2 (PDF, 1.4 MB)
           Part 3 (PDF, 6.2 MB)
           Part 4 (PDF, 6.2 MB)
           Part 5 (PDF, 4.7 MB)

Santa Margarita River Recharge and Recovery Enhancement Program - Permit 15000 Feasibility Study for Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton - March 2001
           Part 1 (PDF, 3.6 MB)
           Part 2 (PDF, 5.4 MB)
           Part 3 (PDF, 4 MB)
           Part 4 (PDF, 2.7 MB)
           Appendix A (PDF, 3.1 MB)
           Appendix B - Part 1 (PDF, 6.3 MB)
           Appendix B - Part 2 (PDF, 3.9 MB)
           Appendix B - Part 3 (PDF, 6.3 MB)
           Appendix C (PDF, 645 KB)
           Appendix D (PDF, 3.7 MB)
           Appendix E (PDF, 2.7 MB)
           Appendix F (PDF, 6.1 MB)
           Appendix G (PDF, 8.2 MB)

Reclamation holds three water rights permits totaling 185,000 acre-feet on the Santa Margarita River. These permits were intended for surface water impoundment that, at one time, Reclamation was proposing to develop. Under California Water Rights Law, these permits must be "perfected" - the water must put to beneficial use - by 2007 or the water rights may be lost. Reclamation has been meeting with interested parties on the watershed to examine the possibility of perfecting the permits by identifying and implementing a functional equivalent to the dams and surface impoundment originally envisioned for these permits.

As a result of these discussions, Reclamation recognizes that more effective water management on the watershed will depend on water quality monitoring methods that include water supply management as an objective. Presently, Santa Margarita watershed agencies are required to monitor for various constituents as set by the California Regional Water Quality Control Board. These water quality monitoring requirements are viewed as expensive, with little water management value, by local water agencies. Thus, to augment local water supplies through perfection of Reclamation's water rights permits, a more effective water quality monitoring approach needs to be identified and adopted for use on the watershed by the regulatory authorities.

Activities included a review of existing methodology and regulations, and development of new water quality monitoring plan. Reclamation, along with its partners on the watershed, obtained and reviewed information on monitoring programs by Santa Margarita River watershed agencies, and suggested monitoring alternatives. The information was obtained from Fallbrook Public Utilities District, Rancho California Water District, Eastern Municipal Water District, Riverside County Flood Control and Water Conservation District, the Santa Margarita River Watermaster, the Pechanga, Cahuilla, Pauma, and Ramona Band of Indians, US Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base Office of Water Resources.

Reclamation developed a framework-monitoring plan to supersede existing monitoring requirements, and satisfy regulatory mandates scheduled to be set on the Santa Margarita watershed and water supply issues related to the water rights permits that Reclamation holds in the name of local agencies.

In January 2005, Reclamation held public meetings to receive comments on the scope of issues to be addressed in a Environmental Impact Statement /Environmental Impact Report (EIS/EIR) for a proposed conjunctive use water resource development project on the Santa Margarita River. The Federal Register Notice about this activity offers additional information.

Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers Watershed Activities

The Los Angeles County Basin Watershed is home to nearly 30% of California's citizens. This area is also heavily dependent on water supplies from the Owens Valley, Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, and Colorado River. As such, the population in the Watershed is subject to increasingly unreliable water supplies from growing urban and industrial demands, environmental water user competition and competition from water users outside the Watershed. Reclamation has assumed an active role in partnering with local water, wastewater, and storm water management agencies to identify feasible local water supply development and management strategies with the intention of easing pressures on imported southern California water supplies, all of which are associated with limited supplies, increasing competition, and regulatory pressures.

Urban and industrial activities in the Watershed negatively impact the water quality of receiving waters including the Santa Monica Bay and Long Beach Harbor. Additionally, stormwater quality management has become an increasingly important and potentially expensive issue. Wastewater agencies are only treating this stormwater runoff in very limited amounts, and Los Angeles County and its 88 cities are facing increasing costs and increasingly stringent stormwater quality regulations. They are therefore interested in this water supply in that they must treat and/or otherwise dispose of it in an economically feasible fashion. Local water agencies are interested in the potential supply augmentation opportunities of this stormwater. Together with academic, environmental, community based organizations, and municipalities, these agencies have formed the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers Watershed Council to evaluate the beneficial opportunities associated with the water supply management issues in the Watersheds and identify multi-purpose solutions which benefit multiple partners.

Need More Information?

If you have water resources planning questions or need technical assistance, call 951-695-5310.

Webmaster: Colleen Dwyer, cdwyer@usbr.gov
Updated: November 2009