Tri-Cities Water District PR Push Is Making Waves

For decades, a small, little-known agency worked quietly to deliver water to a small group of South County communities without fanfare. Until now.

No longer content with its obscurity, the Tri-Cities Municipal Water District recently launched a full-scale, $100,000 publicity campaign, put a Washington lobbyist on a $4,000 monthly retainer and began an intense local promotion.

The object of this public relations effort is the district’s new and unusual arrangement with the Marine Corps. Although still in the environmental study stage, the agreement would allow civilians to share Camp Pendleton’s underground water supply and provide South County with a new source of water and a basin for storage in emergencies.

While most South County officials laud the project, Tri-Cities has found that its new notoriety has sparked criticism.

Many South County officials look at the publicity campaign--$31,000 was spent on it last month alone--as a thinly disguised ploy to buy the district a future. Tri-Cities is one of four water districts that the Orange County Grand Jury has targeted for consolidation.

“This project with the Marines is simply a Tri-Cities survival kit,” said Dana Point Councilman Mike Eggers. “They’re just trying to save their necks.”

William C. Mecham, the water district board president, counters that the board is only doing what it was elected to do by the public: deliver water to South County as cheaply as possible. With water prices skyrocketing, long-ignored underground water has become a new valuable resource for districts around the state, Mecham said.

“Every penny we will spend will be reimbursed to us in the form of water,” said Mecham, a property management executive who was a San Clemente councilman for nine years. “We are spending money because this is a project that needs to be in the public eye with facts, not innuendo or misinformation.”

One of the district’s harshest critics comes from within its own five-member board. Ray L. Benedicktus, a retired engineer who worked for the giant Metropolitan Water District of Southern California for 28 years, has fought with his fellow board members to slow down the efforts on the $6-million Camp Pendleton project.

Although still months from being final, the district has spent nearly $94,000 on the project this year, much of it on recent publicity, Benedicktus said.

“Sure, this is a valuable project, but it is going to be very expensive and there are questions about the water quality,” said Benedicktus of Capistrano Beach. “We need to slow all the spending down, finish the environmental studies, and see what kind of recommendation the grand jury makes. We may not be around that much longer.”

But Benedicktus’ criticisms go further. He led a long fight to get district directors off $500 monthly health benefits although two--Mecham and Craig Strickland--continue to collect.

He also maintains that the district has no business spending $4,000 a month to keep a lobbyist such as the Washington-based McConnell/Ferguson Group on the payroll and should not be paying $75 an hour to part-time administrative assistant Julie Froeberg while field employees earn far less.

Its spending habits make Tri-Cities a district ripe for consolidation, Benedicktus said. The district’s biggest customer by far is the city of San Clemente, which should actually take over the operation, he said.

“This is a district run by consultants,” Benedicktus said. “Tri-Cities should go away. Our operation could easily be run by the city of San Clemente.”

Mecham brands Benedicktus a “malcontent.” The district’s lobbyist will be needed until the Camp Pendleton project--which took special federal legislation--is finally signed by the Marines, he added.

“There is no doubt we use consultants, we may even use them more than we should,” Mecham said. “But part of that is attempting to find the right organization that works for us.”

Until recent months, Tri-Cities quietly helped deliver water to a small group of water districts serving communities at the southern tip of the county, including San Clemente, Capistrano Beach in Dana Point and the San Onofre nuclear plant. The district was formed in 1959 by vote of a then-small group of South County residents who needed a new supplier to bring imported water to an area that was outgrowing the capacity of its local wells.

To bring new water south, the district built a series of pipelines linking a major water line near the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station to South County. Later, the district added two reservoirs designed to store 60 million gallons of water.

But several recent events have put the future of Tri-Cities in jeopardy. Most importantly, at the same time that water rates are skyrocketing, state budget cuts have tightened funds, a double whammy that has prompted a new push for consolidation of all small special districts.

Tri-Cities is a wholesale district that acts as a “middleman” in the water delivery system, buying water from one district and selling to other districts. And that makes it a prime consolidation target, in the eyes of many officials.

The existence of Tri-Cities adds a layer of costs to water customers, some officials say. Plus, Tri-Cities has long finished its construction phase and its current role has shifted largely to maintaining its equipment and pipelines and charging “pass through” costs to its retail customers.

“There is a real question whether Tri-Cities is as vital as it was when it was created,” said Bill Meadows, manager of the Capistrano Beach County Water District, which buys water from Tri-Cities. “Once a district has fulfilled its mission, as Tri-Cities has, shouldn’t it be dissolved or reduced in scope? . . . If it’s possible to lower water rates by reducing the responsibilities of Tri-Cities, that should be seriously looked at.”

Mecham and another board member, Jim Lawson, dismiss these criticisms as “politics,” power plays sparked by a scramble among all small districts in South County to survive the consolidation drive. The Camp Pendleton project, which the district has spent five years assembling, should not be put in danger over in-fighting, Lawson said.

“That’s all it is, politics . . . and the consolidation issue,” Lawson said. “If consolidation proves to have its advantages and someone can demonstrate it saves dollars and cents, so be it. But it should not jeopardize a long-term source of water. That’s really shortsighted.”

Tri-Cities Municipal Water District

* Founded: 1959

* Employees: 5

* Budget: About $13 million a year

* Service area: 18 square miles spanning San Clemente, the Capistrano Beach area of Dana Point and a small portion of northern San Diego County.

* Customers: Nearly 70,000 people

* Directors’ fees: Each of five directors are paid $125 for each meeting; the monthly cap is $600.

Source: Tri-Cities Municipal Water District