EMERGENCY WATER STORAGE PROJECT: AN ACHIEVEMENT IN PLANNING, PERMITTING, FUNDING AND IMPLEMENTING MAJOR DAM PROJECTS IN CALIFORNIA

摘要

The San Diego County Water Authority (Authority) has a need for emergency water for 2.8 million people, an $89 billion US economy, and quality of life within its 3 675 km~2 service area along the Southern California coast. This semi-arid region has historically imported water up to 95 % from hundreds of miles away. Water conveyance facilities cross active fault zones. A destructive earthquake could damage the conveyance systems and leave the region without imported water for up to six months. By developing the Emergency Storage Project (ESP), the Authority has made several significant achievements in planning, permitting, and financing dam projects. They include emergency water shortfall projection, development of a quantitative decision model for alternatives screening and ranking, implementation of an innovative communications approach, and development of an improved funding mechanism. The ESP will provide 111 x 10~6 m~3 of emergency water with construction of a new Olivenhain Dam, raising of San Vicente Dam, and re-operation of Hodges Reservoir. Olivenhain Dam, when completed in 2002, will be the tallest roller-compacted concrete dam in North America and the first of its kind in California. The ESP is to be implemented in four phases with costs of about $736 million US over a ten-year period. The ESP, when completed, will help the region avoid economic losses of about 25 percent of regional sales, and job losses approaching 30 percent above normal regional unemployment, which could occur from a severe water shortage in Southern California.