A San Diego County joint energy authority plans to issue $433.3 million in tax-exempt interim bonds to provide construction financing for an advanced water treatment project.
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Truist Securities is senior manager and JP Morgan is co-manager. The municipal advisor is CleanEnergyCapital and Best Best and Krieger are bond advisors and disclosure advisors.
Fitch Ratings gave the company an AA rating before the transaction. The bonds have a term of two years.
The public agency was created in 2019 through the execution of a JPA agreement between the Padre Dam Municipal Water District, the San Diego County Sanitation District and the City of El Cajon.
When completed, the project would provide 30% of eastern San Diego County’s drinking water supply, an online roadshow said. It would prevent 15 million gallons of wastewater from being discharged into the Pacific Ocean every day and create a reliable, local drinking water supply at a price that could compete with imported water, the roadshow said.
The debt will be used to finance part of the construction of a modern water treatment project in East County.
The East County AWP Project is a potable water reuse project and a joint project of Padre Dam MWD, San Diego County, El Cajon and Helix Water District.
Currently, most of East County’s wastewater is discharged into San Diego’s regional collection system, where it is treated and then discharged into the Pacific Ocean, the county’s website says.
In addition, almost all of East County’s drinking water is imported from Northern California and the Colorado River.
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The project would provide an alternative wastewater treatment system to minimize the financial impact of projected increases in wastewater costs of the City of San Diego’s Metropolitan Wastewater System.
The JPA’s primary activity is treating its members’ wastewater. The treatment process produces purified water that the JPA supplies to Helix and Padre Dam. Padre Dam is the project’s manager.
The East County AWP project will treat East County wastewater on-site and make it potable by producing treated water at a water treatment plant (AWP) that will be pumped to Lake Jennings Reservoir for surface water treatment (SWA) where it will be mixed with other water from Helix. After surface water treatment, the water will be piped to Helix’s RM Levy Water Treatment Plant where it will become potable.
The AWP project will treat the entire wastewater stream of 16 million tons per day at the water recycling plant and produce 11.5 million tons per day of treated water at the AWP plant. 10.3 million tons per day will be delivered to Lake Jennings Reservoir for SWA IPR and 1.2 million tons per day will be distributed to Padre Dam Title 22 recycled water customers. Pump station upgrades/expansions and a regional brine pipeline will also be completed. The AWP project is expected to come online in 2025.
The JPA manages the AWP project and is comprised of the three East County wastewater authorities (Padre Dam, the County and El Cajon).
Carollo Engineers provides management and administrative support, procurement support, professional engineering and technical support, information and data management planning, and future support services during construction, start-up and commissioning.
