The Montara service territory includes the communities of Montara and Moss Beach, roughly 20 miles south of the cities of Pacifica and San Francisco. The area is generally bounded by San Vicente Creek on the south, the Pacific Ocean on the west, Martini Creek on the north, and the granitic rocks of Montara Mountain on the east. Water deposits are contained on the surface in these surrounding creeks and in weathered and fractured rock formations underneath the entire area.
Groundwater is accessed by an estimated 45 private domestic and municipal wells in the area, including eight wells owned by Citizens. In the Montara District itself, these wells generally produce small amounts of water unless they are drilled relatively deep. They average 209 feet in depth and yield an average water supply of 16.5 gallons per minute (gpm); more than 90% of the wells exceed 100 feet, more than 20% exceed 300 feet. Only about 40% of the wells yield more than 10 gpm. The Department of Water Resources (DWR) estimates the quantity of groundwater extracted for private domestic use is relatively small, based upon the number of San Mateo County applications for permits since 1986. Much of the groundwater is high in iron and manganese, and may require treatment prior to delivery to the customer.
The Denniston sub-basin, which is adjacent to the Montara area, yields more water, but extraction is limited by the California Coastal Commission. Water quality in this sub-basin is generally good. Citizens and the neighboring Coastside County Water District own wells in this sub-basin.
Regarding Citizens' operations, the Montara District has a long, well-documented history of water supply problems for which it has sought relief at the Commission. In December 1979, Citizens sought authority from the Commission to impose a temporary moratorium on new connections there because it did not have the water or the storage capacity to meet the growing demand of additional customers. At that time, Citizens had insufficient water and pressure for fire protection for 17% of existing customers. In 1981, the Commission issued an interim order for a moratorium on new connections in the Montara District. (Decision (D.) 93254.) This order was made permanent in 1986. (D.86-12-069.)
On November 12, 1991, Citizens filed Application (A.) 91-11-010 requesting a rate increase. The rate proceeding was consolidated with five customer complaints that were filed in 1992. These customers complained of low pressure, leaking mains, inadequate storage capacity for fire protection and emergency needs, and fire flow problems in an alleged inadequate, worn-out, difficult-to-serve, dispersed, multi-zone system. The remedies to rehabilitate the system were not cheap since the system is located in an area of poor quality groundwater with limited seasonal stream runoff for blending purposes. Known local water supplies were marginal for system needs, and imports of water were either unavailable or not feasible at that time. It would eventually take six years in this proceeding to determine a course of action to find solutions to these system problems and adopt a Master Plan of Improvements.
Initially, in the 1991 application, the parties supposedly settled all disputed issues. As part of the settlement, Citizens agreed to develop a comprehensive Master Plan addressing the needs and specific improvements to enhance water service in the Montara District. An interim order, Decision (D.) 93-04-027, granted a rate increase to Citizens subject to the provision that the system pass a Commission-validated fire flow test. This decision also directed Citizens to develop the proposed comprehensive Master Plan, including a plan for meeting the drinking water standards set by California Department of Health Services (DHS) and the Commission's GO 103 fire flow requirements. On rehearing, by D.93-10-041, we deferred rate relief in D.93-04-027 because the system was unable to demonstrate adequate GO103 service reliability. We again ordered Citizens to proceed with preparing the Master Plan.
Subsequently, in the same proceeding, Citizens prepared a draft Water System Master Plan in 1993 that recommended a desalination plant to obtain an additional supply of water. Citizens concluded that well water sources were not sufficient to meet the needs of the district. However, the desalination plant proposal was denied because of high costs. Instead, the Commission authorized a well option on an emergency basis. The Commission held the proceeding open for further investigation of system improvements.
Citizens and its consultants, Montgomery Watson, presented a revised Master Plan in 1996 that provided an analysis of all possible water sources available in the Montara District. The sources examined included surface water in creeks, well water, ocean water, water transfers and wheeling. Citizens concluded that:
1. Very little surface water was available from the creeks, and the surface water amounts were not reliable since they were seasonal.
2. Ocean water desalination was very expensive.
3. Wheeling and water transfer was impractical because of costs and the provision in the Raker Act forbidding sale of Hetch Hetchy water supplies to private water purveyors.
The 1996 plan recommended:
1. Drilling two new wells and rehabilitating one well.
2. Replacing undersized and leaking mains.
3. Improving storage and pumping facilities.
4. Testing and treating iron, manganese or other chemicals to make the water potable.
An evidentiary hearing was held on February 19, 1997, seeking comments from all the parties on the 1996 Master Plan. On August 26, 1997, the Commission agreed to a settlement that established two phases for implementing the 1996 Master Plan. Phase 1 included telemetry ($86,000), minor pipeline replacements ($112,000), and minor storage and pumping projects ($140,000) in the year 1997-98. Phase 2 included the drilling of Airport Well # 4 ($238,000) and minor pipeline replacements ($56,000). These expenditures were authorized to be recovered through advice letter filings. The rest of the Master Plan (estimated at approximately $3 million) was deferred until all parties had reviewed and were satisfied with the Plan.
In D.97-12-097, the final order in A. 91-11-010, the Commission approved the 1996 Master Plan and directed Citizens to update the plan by incorporating any recommendations in DWR's hydrologic study of the Montara area when it was completed.
DWR issued its study in April 2000. Therefore, in this new proceeding, Citizens reports on projects it has completed, deleting them from the improvement schedule, and incorporates DWR's recommendations, per our instructions in D.97-12-097. Citizens requests authority to proceed with the outlined improvements for a period of seven years, beginning in 2001.