Preservationists Decry Local Water Plan

A local preservationist told Pasadena Now on Thursday that a local water plan is detrimental to city resources.

The Water System & Resources Plan (WSRP) is a $425 million 25 year strategy that integrates investments for sustainable water resources with the infrastructure necessary to ensure high quality water service continues to be provided now and in the future.

The plan has a goal to convert the local and imported water supply to a 50/50 local and imported water supply.

Currently the water supply is 35% local and 65% import.

That 35% comes from the 40-square-mile Raymond Basin. According to the city’s website the basin underlies much of Pasadena, Altadena, Sierra Madre, San Marino, La Cañada-Flintridge and part of Arcadia.

“Pasadena faces a serious water crisis,” Brick told Pasadena Now on Thursday. “PWP’s long-term plan fails to address the challenges of rapidly falling groundwater levels and the impacts of climate change. It will degrade Hahamongna and the Arroyo Seco and could destroy the Raymond Groundwater Basin. We urge Pasadena to protect these invaluable environmental treasures and develop a resilient water plan for future generations.”

On Wednesday, Brick and other preservationists spoke before the Environmental Advisory Commission (EAC) on Tuesday.

The EAC sent comments regarding the 25 year Water System and Resources Plan to PWP a few months ago. The plan will go to the City Council soon for their approval.

“PWP’s proposed $427 million water plan covers a wide variety of ideas that extend out to 2045,” said former EAC member Morey Wolfson. “After a careful review, the plan’s approach to water supply lacks a convincing narrative on how Pasadena will arrest or reverse the 120-year steady decline in our local water supply. Action on that front is needed to prepare for water supply emergencies and as a source of water for future generations.”

The plan includes the Arroyo Seco Canyon Project (ASCP). The project aims to improve infrastructure at the Arroyo Seco in order to boost PWP’s local supply resources and capacity for more robust water supply goals.

The ASCP is undergoing a separate environmental review and approval project.

The Final Environmental Impact Report for ASCP was approved by a Pasadena zoning officer in January, but Arroyo Seco Foundation, Pasadena Audubon Society and several individuals including Ken Kules and Hugh Bowles, have appealed that determination.

The appeal is scheduled to be heard next week by Pasadena’s Zoning Appeals Board, after which the City Council will consider the FEIR and ASCP.

“The [water] Plan includes projects that will repair infrastructure that are important to delivery of water to customers,” said Ken Kules, veteran water engineer. “Those critical projects are packaged together with supply projects that seek to aggressively expand groundwater production in a groundwater basin that is already seriously overdrafted. Conspicuously absent from the plan is a full-throated commitment by Pasadena to show leadership at the Raymond Basin Management Board to pursue timely implementation of a plan to arrest the overdraft.”

PWP held two community meetings in November 2019 to receive public feedback regarding the plan.

According to the city, recent droughts significantly impacted water resources.

The droughts caused MWD to reduce the water allocations to its member agencies in response to state requirements and contributed to increased regulations for water use and groundwater management throughout the state.

The droughts, combined with several other factors including climate change, contributed to decreasing groundwater levels in the Raymond Basin.

To maintain and increase groundwater levels, the Raymond Basin Management Board (RBMB) initiated a voluntary 30 percent reduction in production of groundwater rights for all pumpers in the Pasadena Subarea in 2009.

The Arroyo Seco Foundation is calling on the city to use a living stream to capture storm flows and protect precious habitat;

ensure an adequate environmental flow for fish and wildlife during the dry season; and commit to a plan to stabilize and replenish the Raymond Groundwater Basin.

More than 650 people have signed a plan to protect the basin and the Hahamongna.

“We believe the Arroyo Seco Canyon Project and Pasadena’s 25-year Water Plan, the Water System and Resources Plan, will have detrimental impacts on the habitat, wildlife and water resources in Hahamongna and the Arroyo Seco.”