This workshop is open to the public, but space is limited. To RSVP, contact Nikki Parrish, Program Administrator, UCLA Sustainable LA Grand Challenge.The goal of the LA’s Water Resource Future series is to bring togetherresearchers, water resource managers, and other stakeholders to investigate the
question: How much stormwater can Los Angeles County capture and store as
groundwater by 2050 and beyond, given climate change, water quality concerns,
ecosystem concerns, and economic and policy constraints? This discussion will inform the
implementation of the UCLA Sustainable LA Grand Challenge Work Plan by
identifying stakeholder information needs, research capabilities and gaps, and
opportunities for collaboration.
This workshop is the second in a two-part
series. The first, Understanding Local Stormwater Capture Potential, explored
recent stormwater capture planning efforts and the modeling tools used therein;
how to achieve integrated climate, surface hydrology, and groundwater modeling;
ecosystem considerations in stormwater capture; and policy barriers to
increased capture and potential solutions.
We are now undertaking a research effort to couple
existing stormwater capture and groundwater models to get a better grasp of the
quantities of captured stormwater that infiltrates to groundwater for projects
that don’t go into a spreading ground through a pipe.
This second workshop will focus on current
and future groundwater basin conditions, management, and rights in the
groundwater basins serving Los Angeles County. The aims are to better
understand:
How the basins were adjudicated, how they are
currently managed, how ownership rights have changed since adjudication, how
replenishment through spreading grounds is now financed, and the implications
for efforts to increase stormwater capture and infiltrationThe current state of knowledge of hydrogeology in the
region, how sea level rise due to climate change is expected to affect the
groundwater basins serving LA County, and the implications for efforts to
increase stormwater capture and infiltrationFrom groundwater managers’ and stormwater capture
agencies’ perspective, what the challenges are for incentivizing infiltration
of urban stormwater runoff, and what information is needed to value infiltrated
stormwater in groundwater PROGRAM
9:00 AM – 9:15 AM – Welcome and Opening Remarks
Casandra
Rauser, Director,
Sustainable LA Grand Challenge
Madelyn
Glickfeld, Director
UCLA Water Resources Group
9:15
AM – 10:30 AM – Session 1
Water
rights in adjudicated and unadjudicated basins in the Los Angeles County:
History, current status, implications for stormwater capture and storage, and
legal solutions
How were
the groundwater basins in Los Angeles County adjudicated? Who has
the right to store and extract groundwater in each basin in the region? How have
those rights changed over time? How does
this relate to the incredibly complex array of water entities who deliver water
in the LA Basin? Are
governance arrangements adequate for non–rights holders to obtain storage and
extraction rights for water captured through new stormwater projects? What legal
or administrative changes to adjudications or other institutional agreements
would need to happen to give value to stormwater replenishment projects?
Moderator: J.R. DeShazo, Professor and Director,
Luskin Center for Innovation
[20
minutes] Presentation by William
Blomquist, Indiana University
History of basin adjudication in Southern California
[20
minutes] Presentation by Stephanie
Pincetl, Professor and Director, UCLA California Center for Sustainable
Communities
The evolution of water rights holders in the adjudicated basins, discussion
of the implications of these rights for increased stormwater storage in these
areas.
[20
minutes] Alf Brandt, Senior Counsel,
Office of CA State Assembly Speaker Rendon
Increasing incentives for stormwater capture and storage in adjudicated
basins.
[20
minutes] Eric L.
Garner, Partner
Best, Best and Kreiger
Increasing stormwater incentives for non–rights holders in adjudicated basins,
and in unadjudicated basins subject to SGMA:
What are the legal avenues for stormwater agencies and groundwater basin
managers to do this?
[15
minutes] Audience Q&A
BREAK: 10:30 AM – 10:45 AM
10:45 AM – 12:15 PM – Session 2
The current physical state and
management of LA County’s major groundwater basins:
How
much storage capacity do these groundwater basins have? How
much of this capacity is not currently used, representing extra storage
potential for captured stormwater? Where
does hydrogeology make increased infiltration/injection of stormwater to groundwater
basins feasible? Which
basins have pollution issues, and how is this accounted for in management of
the basin? What
are current arrangements for compensating entities supplying groundwater
replenishment including reclaimed and imported water?
Moderator,
Erik Porse, Post Doctoral Researcher
UCLA California Center for Sustainable Communities
[20
minutes] Ted Johnson, Hydrogeologist, Water Replenishment District of
Southern California, Central and West Coast Basins
[20
minutes] Richard Slade, Watermaster, Upper Los Angeles River Area
Basin (ULARA)
[20
minutes] Steven Johnson or Kevin Smead, Stetson Engineers, San Gabriel and Raymond Basin
[15 minutes] Greg
Reed, Water Resources, Los Angeles
Department of Water and Power will discuss the status of unadjudicated basins
in Los Angeles County under SGMA and who is involved in responded to SGMA for
those basins
[15
minutes] Audience Q&A
LUNCH:
12:15 PM – 1:30 PM
1:30 PM – 2:40 PM – Session 3
Climate change and the Potential
Impact of Sea Level Rise on Coastal Groundwater Basins:
Which
groundwater basins are vulnerable to sea level rise with climate change? Can we model
the extent of intrusion? Will the existing salt water intrusion barriers work
to stem the impacts of sea level on saltwater intrusion? Are new
saltwater intrusion barriers going to be needed or feasible?
Moderator,
Alex Hall, Professor and Director
UCLA Center for Climate Change Solutions
Current Management of the
Seawater Intrusion Barriers:
[15
minutes] Eric Batman, Los Angeles County Department
of Public Works
[15
minutes] Ted Johnson, Southern
California Water Replenishment District
Projecting the impact of sea
level rise on coastal groundwater basins:
[20
minutes] Tracy Nishikawa, USGS Water Science Center – How can we estimate
how projected sea level rise will affect the coastal groundwater basins and the
salt water intrusion barriers?
Audience
Q&A 15 minutes
BREAK: 2:40 – 2:55
2:55 PM – 4:15 PM Session 4:
Increasing
Conjunctive Use and Storage through More Stormwater Capture: Moderated Panel
and Audience Discussions
What
would make a coupled stormwater and groundwater model useful to you in
determining the water supply quantification of any given stormwater capture
project?How
can we improve the incentives for stormwater capture and storage in groundwater
basins? Could
storage and extraction rights be granted to those who do projects to infiltrate
water? Or, are there easier or better ways to do this? What
are the concerns about stormwater infiltration into groundwater? Is there a
maximum that can be infiltrated and a maximum that can be drawn out? What
are the legal and physical basin constraints to allowing additional stormwater
project infiltration to be extracted?
Moderator, Madelyn Glickfeld, Director, UCLA
Water Resources Group
Angela George, Los Angeles
County Flood Control District Richard Slade, Watermaster Upper Los Angeles River Area Basin Rafael Villegas, Los Angeles
Department of Water and Power Robb Whitaker, General Manager Water Replenishment District of
Southern California, Staff for Central and West Basin Watermaster Tony Zampiello, Watermaster, Raymond and Main San Gabriel Basin Debra Man (invited), Metropolitan Water District of Southern CaliforniaAlf Brandt, Senior
Counsel, Office of CA State Assembly Speaker RendonEric Garner, Partner
Best, Best and Kreiger
4:15 PM – 4:30 PM
Summary and Next Steps
