A process started more than two years ago to give a stronger voice to the cities, county and other agencies outside the city of San Diego that use its wastewater system has taken a significant step forward.
This month, a majority of members of the Metro Wastewater Commission became a Joint Powers Authority. This coalition of municipalities and special districts, an advisory committee to the city of San Diego, became a legal entity to more effectively address regional wastewater issues. And rightly so, because commission members pay for 32 percent of the system’s upkeep, including capital costs.
Formation of the JPA allows members to take a more proactive role in local wastewater issues. Establishing a regional wastewater JPA is consistent with action taken in other regions, notably Los Angeles, Orange County and the San Jose/Santa Clara area.
Participating agencies in the Metro JPA are the cities of Coronado, Del Mar, El Cajon, Imperial Beach, La Mesa, Lemon Grove and Poway, the county, the Padre Dam Water District, and the East Otay, Lakeside/Alpine, Spring Valley and Winter Gardens sanitation districts.
The cities of Chula Vista and National City and the Otay Water District have not yet chosen to be members of the JPA. Formed in 1998, the organization works with and counsels the city of San Diego and its Metropolitan Wastewater Department on the operation and maintenance of the regional system.
Member agencies pay usage rates based on the percentage of wastewater flow they generate. To ensure the rates are equitable, the Metro JPA maintains a technical adjunct Agencies for Fair and Objective Rate Determination, or AFFORD.
It monitors the implementation of San Diego’s metropolitan wastewater plan and the Metropolitan Wastewater Department’s engineering and financial practices.
Although organized before the Metro JPA, AFFORD has logically evolved into the JPA’s technical and engineering support group. With technical staffing provided by JPA member agencies, AFFORD reviews the pre-design, design and construction of the Metropolitan Wastewater Plan’s key projects.
AFFORD and its technical advisory committee developed the conceptual design and initial siting studies for the region’s wet weather storage facilities.
It also took a leading role in the siting of key wastewater facilities, including the South Bay Pump Station.
In the last few years, San Diego and its Metropolitan Wastewater Department have become increasingly sensitive to the rights of the other cities and agencies that share in the wastewater system. With the metro commission becoming a JPA, it can expect even greater receptivity to its increased involvement in policy and technical decisions influencing project costs and other wastewater-related issues.
Efficient, safe and environmentally effective treatment of wastewater is the responsibility of all agencies that use the system. It’s a partnership.
Goldby, a Poway city councilman, is chairman of the Metro Wastewater JPA.
