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MWSI Project Phase II Conjunctive Use Summary Report - DRAFT August 22, 1995 to these existing customers. The additional costs required could be funded through additionaJ service fees or property tax that would be associated with system upgrades. Discussion of Conjunctive Use Feasibility The potential for development of new water supply yield through a conjunctive use approach appears to be sufficiently promising to justify further study in Phase III of the MWSI Project. While there are significant technical, institutional and environmental issues which would have to be resolved, the potential benefits inherent to the concept of conjunctive use - developing new yield without construction of major surface storage, reducing or eliminating groundwater depletion, and maximizing use of existing facilities - make further study of this water supply option attractive, From a surface provider perspective the conjunctive use concept may allow for better utilization of existing surface water rights, reservoirs, raw water pipeline and treatment facilities to produce additional yield with relatively small additional capital investment required, For the groundwater providers, in addition to the benefit ofpresefving the groundwater, there is the opportunity to more fully utilize investments in well infrastructure, pipeline collection systems, and water treatment facilities. The new infrastructure that would be required for water supply delivery under this plan would be the same as that required to deliver supplies from any new source other than groundwater, and hence is a cost that would eventually be incurred to bring a new renewable supply to the area. With regard to operations and mainlenance, there would be additional costs of treating the groundwater supplies which are not incurred today, however, most of the groundwater districts in the southeast metropolitan area are considering some type of water treatment of their groundwater supplies in the future. There would also be additional costs for pumping conjunctive use supplies in either direction, but these costs would be incurred for delivery of any new renewable supplies, The conjunctive use concept could be applied internally by a single provider having both unused surface supplies and developed groundwater resources. Alternatively, a conjunctive use arrangement could be devised among several surface water and groundwater providers, in which each entity would bring certain components of the conjunctive use plan together. In this latter case, a number of intergovernmental agreements would be required to address a variety of operational, financial and "control" issues, With regard to distribution, a large scale conjunctive use plan would probably best serve a number of cities and water districts throughout portions of the metropolitan area, Groundwater management and cost-related issues would probably require that districts and communities that are relatively close together participate in the program so that distribution facility costs are reasonable and groundwater use and recharge activities are adequately coordinated. 44