By Lisa Faught, Staff Writer

PASADENA

Local water officials are looking to store some more water right under our feet in the Raymond Basin.

As future water supplies in Southern California face uncertainty, water agencies are scouting for places to store water in the wet years to tap as a backup source during dry periods.

Under a Metropolitan Water District proposal, the agency would store an additional 75,000 acre feet of imported water in the basin as another source of reserves. MWD would run a new pipeline from a Glendale facility and build a new station to pump water back into the ground.

The project would allow local water agencies to draw more water in dry years, without building new reservoirs to hold all the water, said Tim Brick, Pasadena board member for MWD.

"This is really the next step in water conservation,' Brick said. "It will enable us to much better manage groundwater resources. It's kind of turned water planning upside down.'

In August, the Raymond Basin Management Board agreed to let MWD go forward with an environmental report on the project, with each of the 16 local water agencies asked to secure permission from their governing boards.

Now, with most of the local water agencies on board, the MWD is preparing to study how pumping water back into the ground will impact the Raymond Basin.

"These questions need to be reviewed,' said Kathleen Kunysz, conjunctive use program manager for MWD. "If you put more water in, does it change the pumping patterns? Could that affect the water quality?'

The Raymond Basin, which covers about 40 square miles, lies beneath the cities of Pasadena, South Pasadena, Altadena, Sierra Madre, La Canada Flintridge and San Marino.

Every year, 16 local water agencies extract about 30,000 acre- feet of water from the basin, which is usually mixed with imported water and piped into businesses and households.

MWD, which is a consortium of 26 cities and water agencies in Southern California, supplies most of the imported water locally.

The basin is naturally replenished through rainfall and water collected in spreading basins from the Arroyo Seco only a minimal amount of water is injected into the ground in La Canada Flintridge.

Although the groundwater level stays relatively stable because the Raymond Basin Management Board monitors how much water is pumped, the proposed project could ensure a plentiful water supply in dry times and improve the taste of water in the basin, said Ron Palmer, executive officer of the Raymond Basin Management Board.

MWD would pump water from the State Water Project into the ground, rather than using saltier water from the Colorado River, he said.

One potential problem is that water officials fear the extra water could aggravate plumes of contamination near the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Perchlorate contamination has forced Pasadena Water and Power to close a handful of wells because of stricter guidelines passed by the state Department of Health Services at the start of the year. Perchlorate is used to make rocket fuel.

Until PWP and JPL work out a financial agreement to clean the water of perchlorate, Pasadena Water and Power has switched to using more imported water from MWD, said Phyllis Currie, general manager at PWP.

The contamination is one reason for extreme caution in moving forward with the project, Palmer said.

"We don't want to knock everyone's water supply out,' Palmer said. "We're dealing with water supplies so critical, so crucial to so many people, we don't want to take a chance and put it in jeopardy.'

MWD is working on similar projects throughout the state, including with the Foothill Municipal Water District in La Canada Flintridge and the Three Valleys Municipal Water District in Claremont.

MWD likely will start work on the environmental report in winter, but the project still will require approval from the water agencies before moving forward.

Lisa Faught can be reached at (626) 578-6300, Ext. 4496, or by e-mail at lisa.faught@sgvn.com.