www.nctimes.com/business/article_374c8f42-f630-5fec-a75a-e1d41e2c7159.html

The North County Times - Californian

By BRADLEY J. FIKES - bfikes@nctimes.com | Posted: Wednesday, July 28, 2010 6:46 pm

Southern California will get a welcome addition to its strained water supply this fall if a proposed swap with Central Valley farmers goes through.

Plans to refill half-depleted Diamond Valley Lake, a major backup source of water for Southwest Riverside and San Diego counties, would also get a significant boost. That would give the region a greater margin of safety as California continues to struggle with drought.

Under the proposal, Metropolitan Water District, Southern California's main water wholesaler, would receive about 50,000 to 100,000 acre-feet from Westlands Water District, a mainly agricultural district southwest of Fresno. An acre-foot is about 326,000 gallons, or enough water to last two average families of four for a year.

Much of the water would be stored in Diamond Valley Lake, said Jeff Kightlinger, Metropolitan's general manager and CEO. The rest would be sent directly to member agencies.

Located near Hemet, Diamond Valley Lake is Metropolitan's biggest reservoir, with a capacity of 800,000 acre-feet. It was opened in 1999 to provide supplementary storage for San Diego County and other nearby population centers. But it's now just half-full, Kightlinger said.

If all goes well, Metropolitan will use the water from Westlands and other sources to fill Diamond Valley Lake to 75 percent capacity by the end of this year, Kightlinger said.

"The boaters and fishermen will like that, we will like that, and our member agencies will like that," Kightlinger said. "Our region's water insurance policy will have gotten a lot stronger."

Westlands stands to lose the water because of a quirk in its storage rights in the San Luis Reservoir, in western Merced County. The reservoir is likely to fill up this year. But space will be needed in the reservoir for other customer agencies that have precedence over Westlands.

In other words, Westlands has only so much time to get whatever benefit it can from that extra water before the year ends, or lose it all. And that places Metropolitan in an advantageous bargaining position.

For every 3 acre-feet Metropolitan gets, 2 acre-feet would be returned when Westlands can take the water next year. The water would be returned by diverting water to Westlands that would have been shipped to Metropolitan.

"The benefit to them would be that they would be going into next year knowing that (Westlands would receive) whatever their initial allocation was, plus whatever water they had already delivered to Metropolitan," Kightlinger said.

Westlands' board gave the project the go-ahead on Tuesday, said spokeswoman Sarah Woolf. The California Department of Water Resources, the State Water Quality Control Board, and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation must also approve the transfer.

Metropolitan's board is scheduled to consider it in August.

"Assuming they approve it, we'll just start moving that water, probably in the September/October time frame," Kightlinger said.

Call staff writer Bradley J. Fikes at 760-739-6641.