Like most Southern California water agencies, the Ramona Municipal Water District (RMWD) has recently struggled to balance increasing costs of raw water and operating expenses with declining water sales. In ongoing efforts to hold down customer rate increases, maintain high levels of services and improve customer satisfaction, the district’s board of directors and management team
Santa Margarita Water District’s new 244-million-gallon Upper Chiquita Reservoir is the largest domestic water reservoir built in south Orange County since the 1970s. Built on 27-acres of canyon slope, the reservoir is located in the South Orange County Sub-region Natural Community Conservation Plan/Master Streambed Alteration Agreement/Habitat Conservation Plan (NCCP/MSAA/HCP) and San Juan Creek and Western
Municipal agencies’ staffing challenge is well known – retiring boomers; a next generation workforce that is smaller and less experienced in critical technical areas; an unstable economy; tighter budgets. When agencies talk to us about extension of staff they view it as a cost-effective way to match the right technical expertise with fluctuating and diverse
Aging infrastructure and lack of capacity due to population growth are straining sewer collection systems, leaving agencies vulnerable to potential spills and resulting fines. “Municipalities face increasing public pressure and regulatory requirements, such as the statewide waste discharge requirements, to have reliable, responsible infrastructure management in place,” said Steve Jepsen, a Dudek capital improvement program
Even with environmental permits in hand and construction set to begin, routine pre-construction surveys sometimes result in the unexpected discovery of sensitive (endangered) species. The San Diego County Water Authority’s project to raise San Vicente Dam – the largest such project in the United States – had been issued permits for three federally listed endangered
