The Santa Monica City Council on Tuesday unanimously endorsed a water strategy built on stepped-up conservation and, within a decade, purified wastewater piped directly into the city's drinking supply, and cleared staff to open formal talks with Los Angeles and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California on regional recycling.
The vote on an update to the city's Sustainable Water Master Plan came as officials acknowledged Santa Monica has missed its goal of meeting 99% of its water needs locally and as a regional water official warned that imported supplies are growing less reliable.
"I concur with your tiered approach, and I would say go forward and do all of it," Mayor Caroline Torosis said in making the motion, which Council member Ellis Raskin seconded. The council also found the update exempt from state environmental review.
Within five to 10 years, the city would maximize local recycling and expand conservation, projected to save about 200 acre-feet a year over 20 years. Longer term, the city would pursue partnerships with the district's Pure Water Southern California program and Los Angeles' Pure Water Los Angeles program, neither expected to be running until after 2035.
"Now is the time to have those conversations," Water Resources Manager Sunny Wang said.
Wang said local sources supply an estimated 80% to 85% of demand, a figure that won't be firm until two replacement wells at the Charnock Well Field are running. "We didn't meet that 99% goal. That was a pretty challenging goal to meet," he said.
He blamed the shortfall partly on the COVID-19 pandemic, when conservation staff was cut in half and recycled water and recharge well projects were deferred. He said the 2022 Groundwater Sustainability Plan clarified the basin's sustainable yield, which he put at about 9,000 to 10,000 acre-feet a year, not the roughly 15,000 once assumed. The wells also need rest.
"They can't be operated at 100% capacity 24/7. They're just not good for the wells," Wang said.
Staff projected a gap of up to 4,500 acre-feet by 2045 if new housing drives up demand without new conservation measures.
The recycling plan builds on the Sustainable Water Infrastructure Project, or SWIP, a plant completed in December 2022 beneath the Civic Center parking lot that purifies wastewater and stormwater. Under state rules adopted in 2023, the city would send that water through two more treatment plants and blend it into the drinking supply at up to 10%.
Wang said the idea came partly from residents during the Palisades Fire, who argued the plant's output was "already better than most tap waters in the country."
"Essentially, the water is going through two of everything that you could imagine," he said.
Mark Gold, who represents Santa Monica on the district's board and chairs its imported water committee, urged the city to press ahead with direct potable reuse.
"It is the law, you know. Nobody's done it yet," he said, adding that the regulations are "incredibly protective of public health."
Of imported supplies, Gold said, "It's pretty horrifying what's going on right now from a climate perspective."
Gold said flows into Lake Powell from 2020 to 2026 were down to 10.2 million acre-feet a year, while water rights under the 1922 Colorado River Compact total more than 16 million.
"We will see turbines at Hoover Dam shut down within the next year," Gold said.
The river system, he said, is "basically upside down about 5 million acre-feet a year."
"I'm always dire. The glass is always bone dry. It's never even half full," Gold said.
Wang called the district's planned recycling plant, which could produce 150 million gallons a day compared with SWIP's 1 million, "SWIP on steroids." Staff also studied seawater desalination and tapping contaminated groundwater beneath Santa Monica Airport but put both on a wait-and-see list.
"I know it's controversial, but you know we have to look at it," Wang said of desalination. Local groundwater costs the city $900 an acre-foot and imported water about $1,500, he said. Gold put desalination at about $3,500 to $6,500, citing the Carlsbad plant and projects at Doheny Beach and in Monterey.
When Council member Lana Negrete said she presumed desalination would hit ratepayers, Wang replied, "Oh yeah, it's expensive." Council member Natalya Zernitskaya said she has "real concerns with desalination."
An experimental Oceanwell system will be piloted in Santa Monica Bay in February, but "it's not ready for prime time yet," Gold said.
In a written comment, Sunset Park resident Nikki Kolhoff urged environmental review of housing proposed on former aerospace land near the airport, writing that development "further impedes" self-sufficiency.
Design and construction contracts will return to the council, Wang said, but a regional deal is further off. "That's not going to be anytime soon," he said.