CVWD – Roadmap 

 

Crescenta Valley Water District (CVWD) takes great pride in delivering high quality, reliable and cost-efficient water and wastewater services to our 33,000 customers. As we uphold our mission statement “To provide quality water and wastewater services to the Crescenta Valley community in a dependable and economically responsible manner”, it is important that we recognize our key challenges and develop solutions now to secure our mission and reach our vision for the future of our District.

 

CVWD, as well as many other water providers throughout California, continue to face increasing operational and financial challenges to maintain and update infrastructure. Contributing to these challenges are escalating energy costs, expanding regulatory costs, rising imported water costs, the increasing costs of construction and the growing costs of deferred facility maintenance. It's imperative to recognize the district’s key challenges and develop and implement a proactive and aggressive action plan to immediately address these challenges.

 

The CVWD Board of Directors and the community have discussed the Long-Term Infrastructure and Funding Roadmap since early 2020. Through the Roadmap process, participants became acutely aware of a significant issue the District is facing and the estimated cost to address it. With much of our infrastructure built in the 1950s, a considerable portion of it is approaching or has exceeded its life expectancy. The CVWD Board is committed to a long-term plan to address the problem of deferred work on pipelines, wells, reservoirs, and other infrastructure to continue providing safe and reliable service to our customers.

 

Pipelines are the backbone of our infrastructure as they convey water to customers, and pipelines represent the most significant replacement costs. Based on this, the District is implementing a replacement program over the next 20 years that will replace the oldest pipelines as they exceed their life expectancy. This plan needs funding, and the Board has elected to present a three-year rate schedule to support a commitment to long-term planning and infrastructure reliability.  

 

CVWD Board meetings are typically held on the Second and Fourth Tuesday of the month at 7:00 p.m.  Board meetings are easier then ever to participate in as they are being held virtually with “Zoom”.  

 

The District welcomes and encourages public feedback.  In addition to making public comments at Board and Committee meetings, customers may email comments to ccolby@cvwd.com or drop off written comments at the main office.  

 

Some Quick Water Pipe Facts

 

• 45% of our water pipelines are between 50-80 years old.
• The average age of our pipelines is 46 years old.
• Our oldest pipe in operation was installed in 1933.
• The 20-year Pipeline Replacement program will start at 1.2 miles of pipe replacement  and then “ramp-up” each year by a ¼ mile for the next 10 years.  After 10 years the rate of replacement will decrease each year until the 20-year program is complete. This approach allows the District to build reserves and use these funds to pay for pipeline replacement rather than using more expensive bond financing.
• If the District kept pipeline replacement at a rate  of ½ mile per year, there would be pipes in the ground nearly 200 years, which increases the risk of failure.  Emergency pipeline replacement is much more expensive.
• Much of the District’s infrastructure is reaching the end of its useful life—about 80 years—and must be replaced.