Capital Improvement Program

The District provides water service to a population of more than 211,000 people which is expected to ultimately increase to 285,000 by the year 2035.  This growth, as well as the maintenance of existing assets, requires long-term capital planning.  The process is dynamic, due to the evolving needs of the community, the water supply issues, and changing regulations and, therefore, is part of the District’s overall strategic planning.

The capital planning process involves identifying current and future needs, and prioritizing them based on certain operating assumptions.  The primary objective of this planning effort is to support an orderly and efficient program of expansion, new water supply, replacement and betterment, while maintaining a stable long-range financial plan.

To accommodate this growth requires that the District invest $475 million in capital assets through ultimate build-out.  The Fiscal Year 2014 Capital Budget is $14 million and the six-year Capital Improvement Program (CIP) totals approximately $107 million.

Capital Improvement Projects

The Fiscal Year 2014 Capital Improvement Program (CIP) Budget consists of 63 projects.  The cost of the work planned for Fiscal Year 2014 is $14 million.  Of the 63 projects planned for Fiscal Year 2014, only five are designated as reimbursable projects with estimated costs totaling $154,000.  These projects are built by developers and reimbursed by the District.

The following shows how the $14 million of projects are broken down into four categories:

The Six-Year CIP and Fiscal Year 2014 Capital Budgets are consistent with the District’s Water Facilities Master Plan (previously known as, Water Resources Master Plan), current capacity fees, and the District’s strategic financial objectives.

Assumptions and Criteria

The CIP is developed based on the District's Water Facilities Master Plan incorporating historical data, growth, developers' input, SANDAG projections, and long-term economic outlook.

The Water Facilities Master Plan was based on several major assumptions and design criteria as follows:
1.   Utilizing historical water demands for each land use type in the District to calculate future demands.
2.   Using maximum day peaking factors that vary with demand level.
3.   Utilizing land use as planned by the City of Chula Vista.
4.   Providing ten days of emergency water supply through a maximum of five days in covered
      reservoirs and a minimum of five days from interconnections with adjacent agencies.
5.   Inclusion of emergency operational storage to meet the five-day covered storage
      requirement into the ten-day outage supply requirement.

 CIP Justification

The justification for each project is determined by whether it is required due to growth (Expansion), new water sources (New Supply), improvements or upgrades (Betterment), or to replace an existing asset (Replacement).

The CIP projects are identified and are prioritized based on the following criteria:
1.   Safety, restoration of service, immediate obligation, Board directed, or critical system need.
2.   System upgrades or requirements to maintain system reliability in the next few fiscal years.
3.   Need to meet the future growth of the system.
4.   Project requirement may be reduced in capacity or may have low probability of need in the future.

-   For Contracting Opportunities and RFP’s please refer to the Contracting/Bids section tab.

-   For a review of the Fiscal Year Capital Improvements Program Budget please refer to the Capital Improvements Program section tab.