HomeMy WebLinkAbout1O OCRCity Council Staff ReQort DATE: November 12, 2020 CONSENT CALENDAR SUBJECT: APPROVAL OF MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING FOR THE COACHELLA VALLEY SALT AND NUTRIENT MANAGEMENT PLAN FROM: BY: SUMMARY: David H. Ready, City Manager Development Services Department The City of Palm Springs is collaborating with seven (7) other water and wastewater agencies to develop a Coachella Valley Salt and Nutrient Management Plan ("CV- SNMP") to manage salts and nutrients found in Coachella Valley groundwater, to ensure attainment of water quality objectives, and to protect groundwater for beneficial uses. Approval of this item memorializes the terms, development, implementation and cost sharing with the participating agencies. The City's share of the cost will be approximately $30,000. RECOMMENDATION: 1. Approve the Memorandum of Understanding Regarding Collaboration on the Coachella Valley Salt and Nutrient Management Plan; and, 2. Authorize the City Manager to execute all necessary documents. BACKGROUND: In 2009, the State Water Resources Control Board (State Board) adopted the Recycled Water Policy (hereafter, the Policy). The purpose of the Policy was to encourage increased use of recycled water in a manner that implements state and federal water quality laws. In June 2015, pursuant to the Policy, the Coachella Valley Water District ("CVWD"), Desert Water Agency ("DWA"), and Indio Water Authority ("IWA") submitted the final Coachella Valley Groundwater Basin Salt and Nutrient Management Plan to the Regional Water Quality Control Board for the Colorado River Basin ("Regional Board"). The Regional Board has not approved nor accepted this plan. 2City Council Staff Report November 12, 2020 --Page 2 Approve MOU for Coachella Valley Salt and Nutrient Management Plan In December 2018, the State Board adopted amendments to the Policy in part to improve the SNMP guidelines based on lessons learned over the first seven years of implementation. The amendments to the SNMP guidelines primarily focused on clarifying the roles of the Regional Board in reviewing and accepting SNMPs, requiring periodic SNMP data assessments, plan reviews, and defining new compliance schedules for completing SNMPs in areas where they had either not been prepared or not approved by the Regional Board. On February 19, 2020, in accordance with the Recycled Water Policy as amended in 2018, the Regional Board, provided specific findings regarding which components of the plan submitted in 2015 were found to be insufficient and recommended to develop a SNMP acceptable to the Regional Board. Following the receipt of the Regional Board's findings, the original three agencies reached out to the local water and wastewater agencies in the Coachella Valley basin to develop the regional CV-SNMP. Each participating agency feels that it is in their best interest to collaborate on the development and implementation of the CV-SN MP. The participating agencies include: • City of Palm Springs • Coachella Valley Water District ("CVWD") • Coachella Water Authority and Sanitary District ("CW A/CSD") • Desert Water Agency ("DWA") • Indio Water Authority ("IWA") • Mission Springs Water District ("MSWD") • Myoma Dunes Mutual Water Company ("MDMWC") • Valley Sanitation District ("VSD") The participating agencies entered into discussions and agreed to work together to develop a work plan that can be submitted and approved by the Regional Board. The work plan will detail to the Regional Board the process the participating agencies will follow to prepare the CV-SNMP. The participating agencies also agreed to develop a Groundwater Monitoring Program Work Plan, where each agency will submit groundwater-monitoring data to a shared database. In May of 2020, the CVWD, acting as the lead for the participating agencies, released a request for proposals ("RFP") to hydrogeological service firms for the preparation of the work plans. In June of 2020, Stantec, Todd Groundwater, and Wildermuth Environmental, Inc., submitted proposals to CVWD, which were then distributed to each agency to evaluate. After deliberating the strengths and weaknesses of each proposal, Wildermuth Environmental, Inc. (the "Consultant") was selected as the most qualified consultant to prepare the work plans. 3City Council Staff Report November12,2020-Page3 Approve MOU for Coachella Valley Salt and Nutrient Management Plan City's Regional Board Order on Groundwater Quality The City has supported the use of recycled water in partnership with DWA for over 40 years, and first entered into an agreement for Water Conservation and Reclamation in December 1977. As noted in the 1977 agreement, both the City and DWA recognize the unique importance of water in a desert community and the need not only for effective conservation, but also for reuse of the water supplies of the area whenever feasible. It is through this agreement the City and DWA cooperated on reuse of the City's treated effluent from the wastewater processed at the Wastewater Treatment Plant ("WWTP"). The City's WWTP is a facility that is licensed and regulated under permits issued by the state through the Regional Board (called "Board Orders"). Many agencies discharge treated effluent from wastewater directly to rivers or the ocean ("receiving waters"), and under strict Board Orders issued by the state those agencies are required to treat and reduce the level of pollutants from wastewater prior to discharging to receiving waters. However, the City's WWTP discharges to land where treated effluent from wastewater can percolate into the groundwater into percolation basins constructed at the WWTP. Many agencies are required to implement advanced treatment processes to remove "Total Dissolved Solids" ( or TDS -comprised of salts in the wastewater) and nutrients ( or nitrogen) in the wastewater, with each having limits established by the state that are considered harmful if discharged into receiving waters. The City's WWTP has not been required to implement these advanced treatment processes, and the WWTP was designed and permitted by the state to treat the traditional pollutants in wastewater where effluent may be discharged to land and percolated into groundwater. Through the City's cooperative efforts with DWA on reuse of the City's treated effluent at the WWTP, DWA constructed a reclamation facility in 1988 and began accepting the City's treated wastewater (secondary effluent) from the WWTP. DWA, at its cost, constructed its reclamation facility to provide advanced treatment of the City's wastewater acceptable for reuse as irrigation meeting state regulations. DWA subsequently extended recycled water lines and has provided recycled water for irrigation purposes to nearby golf courses, Demuth Park, and landscaping along Dinah Shore Drive. As DWA expanded its recycled water customer base, the amount of treated effluent accepted by DWA from the City's WWTP increased, and the amount discharged by the City into the percolation ponds decreased. Over time, DWA has accepted on average nearly 70% of the total wastewater treated at the WWTP. However, demand for recycled water use is cyclical -with increased demand in the spring and summer and reduced demand in the fall and winter months, as demonstrated in the graph shown in Figure 1 on the next page. 4City Council Staff Report November 12, 2020 --Page 4 Approve MOU for Coachella Valley Salt and Nutrient Management Plan As shown on this graph, the total flow of treated wastewater discharged to the percolation ponds or accepted by DWA for further treatment as recycled water is around 6 million gallons per day. In June/July DWA accepts all or nearly all of the effluent, and in January/February the City discharges most of the treated effluent to the percolation ponds. 0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 U) 1.0 .... .... .... .... ri .... ~ .... c:. .b t!. t!. > C: "'5 bl) ~ QJ n, 0. n, ~ :, u. :E <{ :E .., <{ U) U) 1.0 U) " ,.... " ,.... ,..... ,.... " " ,..... .... .... .... ~ .... .... .... ~ .-4 .... ~ 1o .... Cl. t; > u C: 1, i!. ... > c "'5 Cl. QJ 0 0, ~ 0, n, 0. n, ~ :, QJ VI 0 z 0 u. :E < :E .., < VI Month-Vear ~lamation -DWA _•Percolation Ponds " ,.... " 00 00 00 00 00 00 ~ .... .... .... .... t .... .... .... > ~ c .b L > C: 0 n, QJ n, 0. n, ~ 0 z 0 .., u.. :E < ~ Figure 1. Effluent to DWA for Recycled Water vs. the City's Percolation Ponds. On September 21, 2017, the Regional Board issued the City a new Board Order for the WWTP that incorporates new regulations required by the state to minimize potential impacts to groundwater quality that may be caused by the City's discharge of treated effluent to the percolation ponds. Specifically, the new Board Order required the City to develop a total nitrogen (TN) control strategy and work plan; a total dissolved solids (TDS) source control program and work plan, and a groundwater monitoring technical report and work plan for the WWTP. Total Nitrogen (TN): The City is actively monitoring the impacts of the WWTP effluent percolation via monitoring wells adjacent to the percolation ponds. Nitrogen data during November 2011 to October 2016 indicated that the groundwater TN concentration exceeded the state's regulations that identify a primary "maximum contaminant level" ("MCL") of 1 O mg/L. As a result, the Regional Board requested that the City conduct a comprehensive investigation on the sources of nitrogen and evaluate the feasibility of achieving an effluent with TN concentration of less than 10 mg/L. 5City Council Staff Report November 12, 2020 --Page 5 Approve MOU for Coachella Valley Salt and Nutrient Management Plan Ultimately, after reviewing the City's investigations and feasibility analysis of meeting a new TN concentration limit of 10 mg/L the Regional Board can require the City to implement advanced treatment to reduce nutrients in the form of nitrogen from the City's wastewater prior to discharging any of it to the percolation ponds. Staff has serious concern with the implication of this by the Regional Board as the capital cost to install this advanced treatment (a "Biologically Activated Filter'' or "BAF") is estimated at $45 million with on-going operations/maintenance costs estimated at $2.3 million annually, and will supersede and make redundant the advanced treatment and chlorination that DWA has already installed at its reclamation facility. Nutrients are also a benefit in recycled water used for irrigation purposes as it assists in plant growth, so removal of TN is counter-productive to generating recycled water for irrigation. However, the Regional Board in following state regulations is looking at any potential harm to beneficial uses of groundwater, and may consider the impacts of higher concentrations of TN in the treated wastewater as being harmful requiring advanced treatment, no matter the concentration or volume of TN actually discharged by the City to the percolation ponds, ignoring the significant volume of treated wastewater that is accepted by DWA and used for recycled water purposes. Total Dissolved Solids (TDS): Salts, measured as TDS, at the WWTP is based on the incremental addition of TDS above the community's natural water supply to reflect the increase in TDS caused by the discharge of treated effluent to the City's percolation ponds and ultimately into the groundwater. The naturally occurring groundwater in the Palm Springs area has an average TDS concentration of approximately 350 milligrams per liter (mg/L), a concentration that is below the secondary MCL established by the state at 500 mg/L. TDS concentrations on average were identified at nearly 700 mg/L in groundwater monitoring wells near the City's percolation ponds, exceeding the state's secondary MCL of 500 mg/L -but below the state's "upper level" secondary MCL of 1,000 mg/L. In the new Board Order the Regional Board established an interim effluent TDS limit of 700 mg/L. A final effluent TDS limit will be determined based on discussions between the City and Regional Board after evaluating the data from additional groundwater monitoring wells recently installed by the City that were required by the Regional Board. Higher levels of salts are present in the City's wastewater due to the large number of chlorinated (and "salt water'') swimming pools in Palm Springs. Although the City prohibits the discharge of chlorinated swimming pool water into the sewer system, it is not possible to prevent homeowners from accessing the plumbing at the home and pumping pool water into the plumbing system, and ultimately, into the City's sewer system. The City also has a large number of water softener systems that use salts as a means of conditioning water used in the home -and prohibiting the use of these systems is currently prevented by state law. These sources of salts ultimately discharged into the sewer system are leading to the higher levels of TDS passed through the WWTP. 6City Council Staff Report November 12, 2020 --Page 6 Approve MOU for Coachella Valley Salt and Nutrient Management Plan Ultimately, after reviewing the concentration levels of TDS in the City's new groundwater monitoring wells, the Regional Board may impose a final effluent limit of 700 mg/Lor such other limit as it requires. The imposition of a TDS limit below the level of TDS that is naturally occurring in the City's wastewater will require the City to implement advanced treatment _to reduce concentration of TDS prior to discharging any treated effluent to the percolation ponds. Staff has similar concerns with the implication of this by the Regional Board as the capital cost to install advanced treatment (through "Reverse Osmosis" or "RO" treatment) to remove the solids from the wastewater. This treatment generates a byproduct ("brine"), a thick sludge substance with significantly high concentrations of salt - a solid requiring disposal through hauling and discharge to a legally permitted facility at a significantly high cost to the City. Alternatively, a further treatment process to incinerate the brine can be implemented, however, the capital and environmental costs are prohibitive. Imported Colorado River Water The Coachella Valley Water District (CVWD) and DWA have coordinated on management of the overall groundwater basis for many years. Both CVWD and DWA have jointly managed replenishment of the groundwater through importation of surface water from the Colorado River. The following is taken from CVWD's website: In the late 1960s, with its eye on the future growth of the Coachella Valley, CVWD joined the State Water Project (SWP), as did Desert Water Agency (DWA). Combined, the 2 agencies today hold an SWP entitlement of 194,100 acre-feet per year, equal to the 3rd largest entitlement in the state. In 1973, CVWD and Desert Water Agency began using their combined entitlements to the State Water Project to replenish the western Coachella Valley's aquifer at the Whitewater Spreading Area, northwest of Palm Springs. Today, modern facilities divert stormwater, natural runoff from nearby mountains and water released from the Colorado Aqueduct into the riverbed. During the first 35 years, the two agencies replenished more than 2 million acre-feet of water. However, regulatory restrictions and water shortages in the Sacramento Bay Delta have limited the districts' access to its imported water entitlements in recent years. The agencies also cooperatively operate the Mission Creek Replenishment Facility, west of Desert Hot Springs. The City of Palm Springs is located at the upper westerly boundary of the Coachella Valley, topographically highest as the ground level drops from Palm Springs to below sea level near La Quinta and further towards the Salton Sea. The location of the CVWD/DWA Whitewater Spreading Area is conducive to importing and percolating Colorado River at the upper reach of the groundwater basin, allowing the Colorado River water to spread throughout the entire basin. 7City Council Staff Report November 12, 2020 --Page 7 Approve MOU for Coachella Valley Salt and Nutrient Management Plan Colorado River is pumped from a facility at Lake Havasu near the Parker Dam through pipeline and aqueducts, and released via surface flow in Whiewater Canyon. However, Colorado River water itself has high levels of TDS. A 2017 publication reported TDS levels of 747 mg/L in Colorado River water at the Parker Dam. In 2017 DWA reported that a total of 385,994 acre-feet (or 125.8 billion gallons) of Colorado River water was imported and discharged to the Whitewater Spreading Area -the largest annual delivery there in the entire history of the groundwater replenishment program. The 125.8 billion gallons of Colorado River water imported and percolated into the groundwater (at a TDS level of 747 mg/L) compares to the 688.3 million gallons discharged by the City (at an annual average TDS level of 583 mg/L) to the percolation ponds at the WWTP during the 2019-2020 fiscal year (or 0.55% of the total of imported Colorado River water). Put another way -with a TDS concentration of 747 mg/Land with 125.8 billion gallons (or 476.1 billion liters) imported Colorado River water in 2017 added nearly 4,000,000 tons of TDS into the groundwater. On the other hand, in the 2019-2020 fiscal year, the City's discharge of 688.3 million gallons (or 2.61 billion liters) of treated effluent to the percolation ponds at a concentration of 583 mg/L added only 1,700 tons of TDS into the groundwater. This "mass-based" approach comparison to identify the relative harm to beneficial uses of groundwater caused by the City's WWTP has not yet been accepted by the Regional Board, and is not widely accepted by the state. However, it is this fact that represents the biggest disconnect between the Regional Board's effort to reduce the impacts caused on groundwater by TDS levels in the City's wastewater, and the legally permitted basis by which groundwater replenishment through imported Colorado River water at significantly more volumes and higher TDS concentration levels. The capital cost to add RO technology at the WWTP is estimated at an additional $26 million with an additional operations/maintenance cost of $2.2 million annually in addition to costs related to removal and disposal of the brine product generated by RO treatment. STAFF ANALYSIS: Through the City's participation with the CV-SNMP, Staff is learning that having a single TDS limit for the entire Coachella Valley does not account for the very complex and diverse hydrogeology of our groundwater basin. As noted, the single largest source of TDS in the basin is recharge water from the Colorado River, which the EPA measures as 747 mg/L for areas below Parker Dam. Groundwater underneath Palm Springs at the upper westerly boundary of the entire groundwater basin will have a higher level of TDS than areas further away from the source of the percolated Colorado River water near Whitewater. 8City Council Staff Report November12,2020-Page8 Approve MOU for Coachella Valley Salt and Nutrient Management Plan The naturally occurring groundwater may always be above the 500 mg/L MCL -and imposing this limit on the City's WWTP may not be reasonable. The regional approach to sharing data and collaborating on the CV-SNMP will allow for the TDS limits to be set based on historical data and allow for agencies to reach groundwater goals in a collaborative way. In order to meet the Regional Board's compliance timelines, the participating agencies and the Consultant have regular group meetings, as well as one on one meetings to collect available data and gather information on our groundwater basin. For this phase of the project, the Consultant is analyzing hydrogeological data from the various agencies in order to prepare a work plan for the Regional Board. This work plan will show how the participating agencies will be managing the levels of salt and nutrients in the basin's groundwater. Because this is mostly data analysis and the production of technical reports to support the implementation of the work plan, the participating agencies agreed to split the cost equally. The participating agencies prepared a Memorandum of Understanding ("MOU") that memorializes the terms, development, implementation and cost sharing between the agencies. A copy is included as Attachment 1. There will be future MOU's where costs could be split based on other factors such as number of customers, or having each agency cover the costs of their own expenses. A future MOU will be developed after the work plan is complete. Staff supports approval of the MOU as a way to collaborate on this important issue with the other participating agencies, and the benefit of shared data will help all agencies manage groundwater more effectively. It is hoped that the CV-SNMP may be useful in addressing the Regional Board's efforts to impose local limits for TN and TDS at the City's WWTP. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT: The requested City Council action is not a "Project" as defined by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Pursuant to Section 15378(a), a "Project" means the whole of an action, which has a potential for resulting in either a direct physical change in the environment, or a reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment. According to Section 15378(b), a Project does not include: (5) Organizational or administrative activities of governments that will not result in direct or indirect physical changes in the environment. FISCAL IMPACT: Sufficient Funds are available in the Wastewater Fund (Fund 420). 9City Council Staff Report November 12, 2020 --Page 9 Approve MOU for Coachella Valley Salt and Nutrient Management Plan SUBMITTED: Director of Development Services Attachment: 1. Memorandum of Understanding CV-SNMP Marcus L. Fuller, MPA, PLS, PE Assistant City Manager 10Attachment 1 11MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING REGAR DI NG COLLABORATION ON THE COACHELLA VALLEY SALT AND NUTRIENT MANAGEMENT PLAN This memorandum of understanding (MOU) is entered into among the Parties identified herein forthe purpose of collaborating on the developmentofa workplan to update the Coachella Valley Salt and Nutrient Management Plan (CV-SN MP) and on subsequent work that may arise from the CV-SN MP Development Workplan and Groundwater Monitoring Program Workplan. The Parties to this MOU shal I be collectively referred to herein as "Parties" and individually as "Party." Parties 1. City of Palm Springs, a charter city that owns its wastewatertreatment plant and manages municipal wastewaterwithin its service area. 2. Coachella Valley Water District (CVWD), a county water district organized underthe California County Water District Law, codified at Sections 30000, et seq., of the California Water Code and the Coachella ValleyWater District Merger Law, Water Code section 33100, et seq. 3. City of Coachella, a general-law City that provides water service through the Coachella Water Authority, a joint powers authority formed as a component of the City of Coachella and the Housing Authority of the City of Coachella, and manages municipalwastewaterin its service area through its subsidiary Coachella Sanitary District. 4. Desert Water Agency (DWA), an independent special district organized under the Desert Water Agency Law, codified at Sections 100-1, et seq., of the Appendix to the California Water Code. 5. Indio Water Authority, a joint powers authority formed as a component of the City of Indio and HousingAuthorityofthe City of Indio. 6. Mission Springs Water District, a county waterdistrict organized underthe California County Water District Law, codified at Sections 30000, et seq., of the California Water Code. 7. Myoma Dunes Mutual Water Company, a mutual water utility system organized under California Corporations Code Sections 14300, regulated under the U.S. EPA Safe Drinking Water Act, and by California's Water Code, Health and Safety Code. 8. Valley Sanitary District, a California special district, which operates under the authority of the Health and Safety Code, Sanitary District Act of 1923, Sections 6400 et seq. RECITALS A. The Policy/or Water Quality Control/or Recycled Water (Recycled Water Policy) required local water and wastewater agencies, together with local salt contributing stakeholders to develop a Salt and Nutrient Management Plan (SNMP) for those basins identified as "priority basins," to help address the potential for recycled water use to impact groundwater quality and to promote basin-wide management of salts and nutrients in groundwater. 1 12B. The CV-SN MP was prepared and submitted to the Colorado River Basin Regional Water Quality Control Board (Regional Board) in June of 2015, but was not adopted by the Regional Board because certain components were considered to be insufficient. C. On February 19, 2020, in accordance with the Recycled Water Policy as amended in 2018, the Regional Board, priorto adopting a determination on the CV-SNMP, provided specificfindings regarding which components of the CV-SN MP were found to be insufficient and recommendations to develop an acceptable SNMP. D. The Parties, which are composed of local water and wastewater agencies, have agreed that it is in their mutual interestto collaborate on the development ofan updated CV-SN MP, and further agreed to collaboratively prepare a CV-SN MP DevelopmentWorkplan and Groundwater Monitoring Program Workplan, as agreed to with the Regional Board and confirmed in their subsequent communication dated April 27, 2020. NOW, THEREFORE, it is mutually understood and agreed as follows: 1. Preparation of the CV-SN MP DevelopmentWorkplan The Parties will collaborate on the preparation of the CV-SNMP DevelopmentWorkplan and Groundwater Monitoring Program Workpl an. a. Consultant: The Parties selected Wildermuth Environmental, Inc. (WEI) to prepare the CV-SN MP Development Workplan and Groundwater Monitoring Program Workplan. CVWD has retained WEI on behalf of the Parties to complete this work. b. Cost-Share: The not-to-exceed cost for preparing the SNMP DevelopmentWorkplan and Groundwater Monitoring Program Workplan is $226,578.00. Each Party will be responsible for an equal share of the not-to-exceed cost for preparing these deliverables. c. Billing: WEI will submit monthly invoices to CVWD. CVWDwill initially be responsible for payment of such invoices, but will, in turn, invoice each of the other Parties fortheirequal share of each invoice. 2. Implementation of Monitoring Workplan The Parties will collaborate on the implementation of the Groundwater Monitoring Program Workplan. a. Monitoring: Each Party will be responsible for monitoring wells identified for inclusion in the monitoring network, in accordance with the Groundwater Monitoring Program Workplan, that are within theirownership or, if it is a customer-owned well, within their jurisdiction. Where jurisdictions overlap, the Parties with overlappingjurisdictions will designate the Party that will monitor individual customer-owned wells. b. Reporting: Each Party will be responsibleforsubmitting monitoring data according to the schedule and format identified in the Groundwater Monitoring Program Workplan. 2 13c. Monitoring Costs: Each Party will be responsible for absorbing its own costs related to implementation of its individual monitoring responsibilities identified in the Groundwater Monitoring Program Workplan. 3. Preparation of the Updated CV-SN MP The Parties will collaborate on the developmentofan updated CV-SN MP following completion of and in accordance with the recommendations in the SNMP DevelopmentWorkplan. The means of procuring consulting services and need to share additional costs associated with the development of the updated CV-SN MP will be addressed in future amendments to this MOU. 4. Participation by Other Local Salt Contributing Stake ho Ide rs It is the stated goal of the Parties to expand participation in this collaboration to any and all interested local salt contributing stakeholders. Addition of Parties and associated cost-share provisions will be addressed in future amendments to this MOU. 5. General Provisions Governing MOU a. Term. The term of this MOU shall be from the date the second Party signs this MOU ("Effective Date"). This MOU shall be effective as to any Parties that execute it, whether or not all named Parties execute it. b. Modification. This MOU may be amended in a writing signed by a duly authorized officer or representative of each of the Parties hereto. c. Termination. Any Party may terminate its participation in this MOU upon thirty (30) days prior written notice to the other Parties for any reason or no reason. Any Party terminating or otherwise ceasing its participation in this MOU shall be responsible for its share of the costs, as set forth herein, which are incurred on or before the effective date of said termination. d. Dispute Resolution. Each Party shall use its best efforts and work wholeheartedly and in good faith for the expeditious completion of the objectives of this MOU and the satisfactory performance of its terms. The Parties will attempt in good faith to resolve any dispute or disagreement arising out of or in relation to this MOU. If the dispute or disagreement cannot be settled amicably within fourteen (14) days from the date on which either Party has served written notice on the other Parties, the dispute or disagreement will be resolved by a simple majority vote. Final decisions agreed upon by a majority of the Parties wi 11 become binding on all Parties. e. Payment Default. In the event a Party (Defaulting Party) fails or refuses to make any of its payments underthis MOU, CVWDwill provide a 30-daynoticeto cure to the Defaulting Party. If the Defaulting Party does not make the required payment before expiration of the 30-day notice period, the Defaulting Party shall be deemed to have terminated its participation in this MOU. The Defaulting Party shall remain responsible for its share ofthe costs, as set forth herein, which are incurred on or before the expiration of the 30-day notice period. After the Defaulting Party has been deemed to have terminated its participation in this MOU, each 3 14remaining Party will be responsible for an equal share of the remaining not-to-exceed cost for preparing the deliverables. f. Counterparts. This MOU may be executed in one or more counterparts, each of which shall be deemed to be an original. 4 15IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the Parties have executed this MOU as of the day and year indicated below. David H. Ready City of Palm Springs J.M. Barrett Coachella Valley Water District William Pattison City of Coachella Mark S. Krause DesertWaterAgency Trish Rhay Indio Water Authority ArdenWallum Mission Springs Water District Mark Meeler Myoma Dunes Mutual Water Company Beverli A. Marshall Valley Sanitary District Date Date Date Date Date Date Date Date 5