Eastern Municipal Water District outlines $785 million capital plan, timeline for Paris North cleanup and local pipelines

Eastern Municipal Water District officials updated the Moreno Valley City Council at a Feb. 11 study session on a slate of ongoing and planned water and sewer projects in the city and on measures the district uses to maintain service during emergencies.

Joe Moad, general manager of Eastern Municipal Water District, told the council the agency is investing heavily in local supply and resiliency, saying, "We have a very diverse water supply portfolio" that includes imported supplies, recycled water, brackish desalination and groundwater. He said EMWD intends to invest about $785,000,000 in capital projects over the next five years and that the agency’s current fiscal-year budget is about $619,000,000.

The presentation’s principal project is the Paris North Groundwater Contamination Prevention and Remediation Program, which EMWD said received $62,000,000 through Proposition 1. Senior Director of Engineering Shonstone described an active construction program that includes multiple treatment wells (Wells 65, 66, 208 and 209), a centralized treatment facility on Paris Boulevard, monitoring wells and a pipeline program in phased construction. Shonstone said the large Paris North site has an estimated 30-month construction duration and that remaining pipeline work along Paris Boulevard (phase 3) should wrap in the coming months.

Council members pressed EMWD on coordination with city paving and on the district’s capacity to execute many projects that begin this year. Council member Delgado thanked EMWD for the work and asked for better coordination so trenching and paving schedules align with the city's pavement restoration plan. Moad and Shonstone said the district’s public-affairs team and city public-works staff are coordinating and that EMWD deploys many contractors to execute simultaneous projects.

Shonstone also reviewed other local projects: a Kitchen and Iris sewer replacement (about 3,500 linear feet of 24-inch sewer, near completion), an SR-60 sewer crossing at the future Oliver Street alignment, the Cactus 2 feeder pipeline (about 5.25 miles, phased, with night-work planned for some segments), the Judson 2.2-million-gallon tank (final design phase), several pressure-zone improvements and a booster-station replacement (the Kaumia booster) that was damaged in an earthquake. He said many projects are in final design or 100% design and offered tentative start and construction durations (for example, the Cactus 2 feeder phase is anticipated to start late 2027 with delivery in 2029–2030; Judson tank construction is two to 2.5 years once started).

On reliability and emergency operations, Moad described EMWD’s response to public-safety power shutoff (PSPS) events: when Edison listed facilities subject to shutoff this January, EMWD deployed portable and permanent generators and said no EMWD facilities were taken out of service during the event. He noted the district keeps tanks topped during red-flag conditions, runs hydrant spot checks in high-risk wildfire areas and has undertaken weed abatement and site-hardening near critical facilities. He also said EMWD is engaging with county fire officials and regulators about possible investments — such as additional helicopter access or revised regulatory exemptions for emergency fueling and fleet operations — that could improve wildfire response.

Council members raised implementation concerns, citing constituent complaints about temporary paving and unfinished repaving where EMWD had completed underground work. Shonstone said inspection staff require smoother temporary paving and that larger projects are being contracted to provide progressive restoration so finished paving occurs sooner in each segment. EMWD staff said residents should contact the district using signage posted at work sites or through public-affairs staff so problems can be addressed quickly.

The presentation listed quantitative program details provided by EMWD: service territory of about 682 square miles, roughly 600 employees, about 70,000 retail accounts, sales of just over 74,000 acre-feet of potable water and about 27,000 acre-feet of recycled water last year; wastewater treatment capacity of approximately 77,000,000 gallons per day (with current operations around 50,000,000 gpd); three brackish desalination plants supplying roughly 10 percent of water (about 14,000,000 gallons per day of drinking water produced by desalination plants); and the 2.2-million-gallon Judson tank as a planned storage project. EMWD said the Paris North monitoring-well program includes 14–15 monitoring locations and that many well casings include multiple depth measurements.

EMWD officials concluded by offering to improve coordination with the city's public-works department on traffic control, scheduling and public notifications. Council members thanked the presenters and the study session moved on to the next agenda item.