Why this matters
Sweetwater Authority serves 200,000 customers in Bonita, National City and the western and central portions of Chula Vista.
By Hannah Psalma Ramirez, inewsource community reporting intern
Sweetwater Authority officials said they have enough water to serve customers through 2025 after the recent storms.
The agency announced that it began transferring about 2 billion gallons from its Loveland Reservoir near Alpine to its Sweetwater Reservoir ahead of rainfall earlier this month. The move means the agency won’t have to purchase water from the county Water Authority, which would have cost more than $7 million.
Loveland was at 95% capacity before the water transfer. As of Tuesday, it was about 65% full.
From the Documenters
This story came from notes taken by Thomas Vedder, a San Diego Documenter, at a Sweetwater Authority meeting this month. The Documenters program trains and pays community members to document what happens at public meetings. Read the note here.
“This is just an example of the authority maximizing its local water sources to benefit its ratepayers,” Manny Delgado, the agency’s board chair, said at its latest meeting.
In general, 70% of Sweetwater’s supply comes from its two reservoirs and groundwater. The agency imports the rest from outside sources like the aqueduct systems from the Colorado River or the State Water Project. Buying from the San Diego County Water Authority, which recently increased wholesale water costs by 14%, is the most expensive.
Sweetwater Authority last transferred water — an estimated 1.1 billion gallons — from the Loveland Reservoir in January 2023.
The Sweetwater Reservoir was at 64% capacity as of Tuesday.
Type of Content
Brief: An account of a public government proceeding, written and edited by the San Diego Documenters.