House OKs Lake Hodges Water Cleanup

North County Times - The U.S. House of Representatives voted Tuesday to give up to $20 million to help clean up dirty water in Lake Hodges.

Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Solana Beach, sponsored the legislation to pay up to 25 percent of the cost of a new water reclamation plant at Olivenhain Reservoir. The rest of the cost, up to $80 million, would need to be raised from other sources.

The cleaned water is to be transferred to Olivenhain Reservoir, under plans by the San Diego County Water Authority, the county's water wholesaler, to improve emergency storage.

But the Olivenhain Municipal Water District sued May 14 to stop such a transfer on the ground that it would degrade the water quality in its reservoir. Construction of a reclamation plant might lead to an out-of-court settlement, the district said, but it's too early to tell.

The Water Authority has previously said it can engineer the water transfer to reduce any harm to Olivenhain Reservoir. It plans to transfer at least 17,000 acre-feet of water into Olivenhain Reservoir from Lake Hodges, making it more available to the rest of the county.

An acre-foot is enough water to sustain an average family of four for a year.

Lake Hodges is polluted with many contaminants, including the decayed remnants of trees that grew at the lake bottom when its level was low, said Kimberly Thorner, general manager of Olivenhain Municipal Water District.

According to news reports in 2003, North County water officials had urged the city of San Diego, which owns Lake Hodges, to cut down the trees before the lake refilled.

However, no action was taken and the trees died when the water level rose.

"There are other problems, but this is one of the most significant," Thorner said of the decayed trees.

The Water Authority originally supported the Bilbray legislation but will reconsider, said Frank Belock, the authority's deputy general manager. The bill was amended "fairly significantly" a few weeks ago, he said, so the board needs to evaluate the changes.

Thorner said the lawsuit will continue for now but could be settled if the rest of the money needed to build the purification plant is raised.

Lake Hodges provides water only to a small part of North County, through connections to the Santa Fe Irrigation and San Dieguito Water districts.

Those communities include Solana Beach, Rancho Santa Fe, Encinitas and parts of Carlsbad.

If the Water Authority has its way, the lake will be connected to the rest of the county's water supply network. That could be helpful if supplies run low, either through drought or damage to the pipelines that import water to the county.

However, the Olivenhain water district says the Lake Hodges water is significantly dirtier than that in the Olivenhain reservoir due to the decaying trees, and it doesn't want that water getting into its supply.

Decaying organic matter encourages the growth of potentially harmful microbes. Chlorine kills the microbes, but can produce dangerous by-products such as trihalomethanes, linked to cancer and miscarriages. Ozone gas purification can remove the chemicals, but they are expensive.

The bill does not specify what technology will be used to purify the water.

In announcing its suit on May 14, the district said that 78 federally listed hazardous contaminants have been found in Lake Hodges over the last 10 years.

"Congressman Bilbray has been very diligently working for the last year and a half on this issue," Thorner said, praising Bilbray's help.'

Bilbray said the House vote showed that Democrats and Republicans can work together on the critical issue of water supply.

"I'm looking forward to working with our own senators, (Dianne) Feinstein and (Barbara) Boxer so we can get this to the president so this water can be made available," Bilbray said.

Bilbray's legislation, technically called HR 2649, now goes to the U.S. Senate. If approved, it goes on to President Bush for his signature or veto.

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