Oso Creek Project By Santa Margarita Water District Breaks Ground

Mission Viejo & Santa Margarita Water District: Two Giants Collaborate & The Environment Wins!

The Mission Viejo City Council, the 2nd largest municipality in South OC, on March 28, 2017 approved the "Core Area Vision Plan," designed to enhance the heart of Mission Viejo (MV). [1]

Meanwhile, SOC's largest water utility (drinking, reclaim/recycle and wastewater treatment plant operator) Santa Margarita Water District (SMWD) is beginning another phase in a multi-faceted series of projects going back to 1975 and included the construction of the Upper Oso Creek Reservoir in 1979. [2]

Multi-purpose, multi-beneficial, and yes, although a cliché, transformational. It will help turn back the clock environmentally, to some pre-development, more eco-friendly watercourse and riparian habitat conditions.

The Reservoir will play a role in SMWD's "vision," its short, mid and long term strategic planning for this area that customers will definitely benefit from: Greater independence from outside-of-the-region suppliers, achieve more competitive rates, plus provide increasingly reliable and sustainable local supplies.

My NGO, Clean Water Now (CWN) presented SMWD with a strongly-worded, enthusiastic letter of support for the initial phase and if necessary will follow through with subsequent ones as the Project progresses.

Grants aren't limited to just conceptual/planning phases, but often proponents (if eligible) can apply and recover subsidies/reimbursements as their projects proceed through construction stages. Thus with State and/or federal grant funding, expenditures are defrayed, reduced to help offset utility costs and eventually save ratepayers.

A sore spot and pet peeve going back to CWN's founding in 1998 is a simple, provable truth: The County has done mostly nothing to improve the physical, chemical or biological integrity of the SOC watersheds, its jurisdictionally determined, CalEPA-mandated Basin Plan Objectives. [3]

Especially aggravating and galling to us is total failure in the water quality improvement/urban runoff degradation sector. Historical records support our allegations, County governance divisions study things to death (relatively inexpensive) but never seem to find the big ticket money necessary to fix what they helped break via rampant urbanization of formerly pastoral open space.

Only 3 SOC cities that drain SOC watersheds existed prior to around the late 1980s (San Juan Capo, San Clemente & Laguna Beach), the remainder were given the County's unbridled, unhindered development, slackened and in too many instances, plain off-the-leash benefits.

By the late 1990s, the accumulation of the adverse impacts was being acknowledged in formal studies published by State and federal agencies but unfortunately the alarming damage (some irreversible/irreparable) already done.

I don't blame development corporations, I blame the oversight agency (County of Orange) where the buck stopped decades ago. Its officials should have anticipated, been proactive, taken the long view, i.e., buffered, mitigated potentially significant negative impacts via modulation and restraint regarding future sprawl.

OC Supervisor campaigns were propped up, coffers and power delivered to and from them with little consideration given the cumulative impacts of such dense over-development. This included massive swaths of impervious surfaces that readily slough runoff near our creeks and pollute them in plentitude.

Bold and innovative, SMWD is in essence seizing the moment and has taken on the societal task, the lofty goal of reversing some of that existing entropy in upper Oso Creek. Heartiest congrats to both MV and SMWD for stepping up, standing and delivering to better the San Juan Creek Watershed in general too.

CWN has a policy that where and when our mission statement is congruent, aligns with a project, we'll add our voice. It's impossible to know to what measurable extent our support assists grant applications and objectives, but we haven't stopped trying to make a difference, tilt the scales.

As SOC's premier watershed watchdogs for the past 26 years, we simultaneously honor our grass roots commitment to the degraded ecological communities which projects like this restore, preserve and protect.

We do know that NGOs seldom sign on to grants unless for personal fiscal gain, $$$ food chain beneficiaries. Uncompensated, we remain optimistic that our path is another way for community based organizations to amplify and enhance lead agency funding opportunities, achieve long sought after enviro-improvements for the general public.

Readers should note that surplus water from the Project will be directed to SMWD's Upper Oso Reservoir (see photo in slideshow above) for future reclamation conversion to serve the area's clients.

Online research indicates that SMWD's 3 major goals by 2030 are:

1.) 30% Local Water Supply (10,000-14,000 AF)

The District is almost entirely reliant on imported water from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. In order to provide more reliability, SMWD is working on an alternative water supply by 2030.

2.) 6 Months of Drinking Water Storage

Santa Margarita Water District has a storage capacity of almost 430 million gallons of drinking water which represents one of the largest storage capacities in Orange County. However, the District typically brings in 10 billion gallons of drinking water per year. To provide additional security against long-term service interruption, the District is working with regional partners to develop regional water storage solutions.

3.) Recycle 100% of Wastewater

The District has one of the largest recycled water programs in Orange County. This has been achieved by innovative urban return projects as well as operating three wastewater reclamation plants. These plants are not only capable of treating the wastewater to the secondary treatment necessary to discharge to the ocean but can apply tertiary treatment which allows the water to be utilized in the District's recycled water system. During the winter months, more wastewater is generated than recycled water is needed which results in the District discharging the excess to the ocean. [4]

Hiking and biking mobility will be enhanced, open space connectivity and OC public trail access amplified, assertive water conservation/reclamation tactics and improved water quality in Oso Creek will emerge.

The Oso, along with the Arroyo Trabuco, are the 2 major tributaries to San Juan Creek's mainstem. As both a professional analyst and protectionist constantly monitoring the SOC watershed flows via the County's stream gage website, perennial flowing Oso has greater excess than the Arroyo Trabuco.

That "urban drool" surplus needs to not only be kept from its inevitable destination, Doheny State Beach, but from contaminating the watercourses and affecting wildlife on its journey.

The lower Oso Creek gage station near Juniper0 Serra High School in San Juan Capistrano is about 6 miles downstream from the Treatment Plant. During the non-rainy season, it usually reflects between 1-2 million gallons/day (mgd) streambed content near the Oso Creek confluence with the Arroyo Trabuco.

Here's the County's website, this link enables you to track both rainfall and stream flows, works most of the time (that's another gripe I won't go into), refreshes ≈ every 15 minutes: [5]

The County, the cities that drain into the SJCW, water utilities and watchdogs like my NGO, Clean Water Now (CWN), have known for decades that at least 1/3 of the surface flows throughout the region are of unnatural origin: Urban runoff from overwatering, basically poor management practices by homeowners and businesses.

This is directly attributable to lack of oversight and enforcement by the County and municipalities. CWN knows that the utilities aren't to blame. They provide the water, they're not water cops, aren't allowed or empowered to write violation citations like County or municipal staff are.

Those who should be held responsible, directly accountable for failed or lapsed usage practices are the County and cities as determined by State jurisdictional regulators. Like most in So Cal, our SOC streams frequently show up on the dreaded Clean Water Act 303(d) List Of Impaired or Threatened Waterbodies.

Often, the listings occur at the terminus of the creek segments, in the lower reaches where contaminants collect and conglomerate, exacerbate and amplify each other's toxicity. They tend to inhibit, if not outright kill, in residence biota....plant and animal life forms alike, the concentrations too high to sustain viable populations.

The County of Orange Flow Ecology Special Study (FESS), as part of its alternative stormwater permit path (NPDES, aka MS4 Permit) approved several years ago by said regulators, the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board (SDRWQCB), sustained this ≈ 1/3 unnatural, 2/3 natural drainage flow regime. [6]

Truly "wasted water," conveying an array of chemicals, metals and pathogens too numerous to list here, that "urban drool" is becoming an asset when futurists like SMWD take on the responsibility of remedies to ensure safe and healthy stakeholder recreational use too.

From an environmental perspective, what's not to love when MV and SMWD goals and objectives align? Synchronizing the desired outcomes, coordinating and then integrating each other's schedules, this key element is being put in place.

The demolition of the old infrastructure at the future site has been completed, SMWD and the residents of MV are ready, so as they say "It's time to build!"

The Oso Creek Water Reclamation Plant Improvement Project (OCWRPIP)

The Improvement Project includes:

1. A largely enclosed, sophisticated water treatment plant that can treat up to 3.3 mg of wastewater per day to recycled water standards;
2. An advanced water treatment facility – like the one used to fill Lake Mission Viejo - that can treat 1 mgd of Oso Creek urban runoff water to improve the water quality; and
3. New buildings for administration, warehouse space, and parking. The architecture and color elements will blend with the surrounding landscape and fit in with the visual character of Mission Viejo.

Project Overview

• $53 million investment
• 83% increase in plant capacity
• 20% smaller physical footprint
• Improved water quality in Oso Creek
• Increased local water supply
• Enclosed, underground portions of the plant will meet the visual appeal of Mission Viejo's Core Area Vision Plan"

Source: SMWD Director Of Communications Ms. Nicole Stanfield

"Much Mahalos" (many thanks) to Nicole for keeping CWN on her mailing list plus inviting me personally to the event. She seems to be "Everything, Everywhere, All At Once."

SMWD is going through a period of reorganization and transition, so "Next-Gen SMWD," building on prior successes like the Oso Barrier and Reservoir, will emerge.

[1] https://cityofmissionviejo.org/sites/default/files/mission-viejo-core-area-vision-plan.pdf

[2] https://www.ocregister.com/2006/09/12/upgrades-for-oso-creek-barrier/

[3] https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/sandiego/water_issues/programs/basin_plan/docs/chapter_1.pdf

[4] https://www.smwd.com/306/Your-...

[5] http://hydstra.ocpublicworks.com/web.htm

[6] https://www.southocwqip.org/pages/flow-ecology-study