Santa Fe Irrigation District, in conjunction with San Dieguito Water District, filed a lawsuit today against the City of San Diego, citing breach of contract, loss of local water, and other claims.  The lawsuit seeks financial damages due to lack of the District’s access to local water supply from Lake Hodges. The complaint alleges lack of proper maintenance of Hodges Dam resulted in an unsatisfactory rating by the State of California Department of Safety of Dams and a mandated restricted lower lake level. As a result of the City’s negligence, most water captured in Lake Hodges must be released, limiting the amount of water available to both districts, which violates long-standing agreements between the City and the agencies. 

Over the last two years, the City has released over an estimated 17,000 acre-feet, or 5.5 billion gallons, of the districts’ water into the ocean, equaling an approximate loss of $21 million or the equivalent of two years of water supply for SFID and SDWD.  In 2022, DSOD mandated emergency repairs be made immediately and ordered water released from the lake and the lake level lowered until permanent repairs or a new dam was completed. Due to the loss of local water supplies, SFID has been forced to develop a new rate structure, with some customers experiencing up to a 40% rate increase on their bi-monthly bills.  Other claims asserted by SFID against the City include a claim for violation of California’s Public Records Act. 

“Litigation was not the path that our District wanted to take, but we were left with no choice by the City of San Diego,” said Michael T. Hogan, Board President of SFID. “If they had been the responsible owner of the dam, lived up to their contractual obligations, and engaged in meaningful discussions with us over the years about maintenance or lack thereof, and their potential solutions, we would not be moving forward with this lawsuit. However, the City did not do that, and this Board has a fiduciary responsibility to our ratepayers to mitigate the financial impacts our customers have been and will continue to experience due to the city’s negligence. Infrastructure maintenance is a critical part of delivering water to our customers, and that has not been done, even though our District has been paying our share of maintenance costs. We are hopeful that we will continue our discussions with the City despite the filing of our claims and hope to resolve this matter positively for our ratepayers.”  

Lake Hodges Dam was built in 1918 by the San Dieguito Mutual Water Company and Santa Fe Land Improvement Company and was financed by the Santa Fe Railroad. SFID was formed in 1923. The City of San Diego acquired the lake and dam in 1925. Lake Hodges has a capacity of 31,000 acre-feet of water or 10 billion gallons. SFID receives approximately 30% of its annual water supply from Lake Hodges.