HR125DEC16

TheWeekInCongress.com

Week Ending December 16, 2005

H.R.125 To authorize the Secretary of the Interior to construct facilities to provide water for irrigation, municipal, domestic, military, and other uses from the Santa Margarita River, California, and for other purposes.

BRIEF

Water use and allocations disputes have risen in the Santa Margarita River basin since farming began there in earnest during the early 1900s, the report accompanying the bill explained. A 1940 court judgment partitioned water use between upper and lower basin interests but lawsuits continued.

A 1954 effort to build a dam and provide water to the area and USMC base Camp Pendleton never came to fruition. Enter the successful effort to transform the area from ranches to suburbs full of tract homes and the need for water became critical.

This bill aims to resolve some of the problems by providing for enhanced recharge and recovery from the underground basin on Camp Pendleton to provide water for the base and for the utility district there. The project would provide water for Camp Pendleton and 35,000 families. The project partially privatizes the water supply system and sets aside riparian rights and upland habitats of the river covering about 1,300 acres where once a dam was to be built.

Sponsor: Representative Darrell E. Issa (R-CA-49^th)

Vote: Passed by voice vote December 13, 2005.

Cost to the taxpayers: The bill authorizes $60 million. “CBO estimates that implementing H.R. 125 would cost $55 million over the 2006-2010 period and an additional $9 million after that period, including adjustments for anticipated inflation. If funds were appropriated to implement this legislation, there would be an increase of offsetting receipts to the federal government of about $2 million a year for 40 years starting in 2011. (Such offsetting receipts are a credit against direct spending.) Assuming funds are appropriated to build this project, local users would be required to repay about 40 percent of construction costs.”

MORE INFORMATION

The proposed project includes the construction of enhanced recharge facilities that contain a new collapsible diversion weir and 46 acres of new recharge ponds. The enhanced recharge potential is 14,000 acre-feet per year (af/yr), in addition to the naturally occurring recharge. The collapsible weir will divert flows, facilitate transport of sediments to the lower river and estuary, and provide beach replenishment. The project will also include the construction of eight or more new production wells, monitoring wells, and a collection system to provide a total of 18,000 af/yr of extraction capability. The project water will be distributed to the existing Camp Pendleton and the District distribution systems through construction of two pump stations and approximately thirteen miles of transmission pipeline. The pipeline will also connect Camp Pendleton to the regional water delivery system for emergency supply purposes.

Major activities taking place in preparation for project implementation include a prefeasibility study recently completed by the Bureau of Reclamation for a joint feasibility study and Environmental Impact Report/Environmental Impact Statement under the California Environmental Quality Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. Funding for this effort comes from several federal sources, including Camp Pendleton, Military Construction, and a Reclamation Planning account, as well as local funding contributed by the Fallbrook Public Utility District.

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