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Staff reports progress on pipeline design and grant reimbursements; EPA amendment and right-of-way steps pending
Summary
Staff updated the board on pipeline design milestones, grant reimbursements and federal grant administration. Key near-term milestones include a 90% design submittal planned for June, environmental work and right-of-way appraisals later in 2025, and requested EPA application language revisions tied to a resilience grant.
Staff reported progress on multiple implementation fronts for the import/pipeline project, including grant reimbursements, design milestones, environmental work and right-of-way planning.
Water Resources Manager Steve Johnson (presenting) said the Groundwater Authority has submitted invoices 9 and 10 for the route 1 implementation grant covering July–December and received nearly $1.7 million in reimbursement to date. He reported the Urban Community Drought Relief Program work (consolidation projects) currently has nearly $4 million in identified funding and that work on Rademacher pipeline connections is underway though final hookups await water-district transmission repairs. Johnson said phase 2 pipeline design is about 90% complete.
Johnson also reported the authority is awaiting a response from an EPA grant administrator after modifying application language requested by the current federal administration; staff characterized the change as an administrative alignment and said they remain in line to receive the resilience grant funds needed to finish pipeline design. On the Department of Water Resources implementation grant, staff confirmed an executed amendment extending the period of performance and reallocating tasks without increasing total allocation.
On construction planning, staff said they expect a 90% design submittal in June and 100% design by December 2025. Environmental services are ongoing; staff cited additional pickups related to Bureau of Land Management right-of-way, utility (Edison) routing issues and the need for a draft environmental assessment/EIR in the coming months. Right-of-way work is expected to produce final acquisition plans and legal descriptions by midyear and complete appraisals of parcels to be acquired by the end of 2025.
Staff noted shallow well mitigation currently has no active applications on file and that Navy/Coso monitoring well work remains in process pending permitting and SAM system reactivation for access. Johnson asked for board questions; none were raised at the time.
Why it matters: These milestones — grant reimbursements, EPA administrative review, design submittals and right-of-way planning — affect the project's schedule and the authority’s ability to obligate and spend grant funds. Staff urged continued coordination to meet design and environmental milestones.
