Water Wars or Regional Self-Sufficiency?

By Wayne A. Clark

Is it too late for Southern California to be Water Self-Sufficient?

Wayne Clark, President Municipal Water District of Orange County

It is too late for Southern California to be water self-sufficient. The decision to build the State Water Project in 1960, when the people of the state voted in favor of $1.75 billion in bonds to build the project, set the future course of population growth and economics of Southern California. The economy of the state of California, as a result, is the 5th largest in the world, with the economy of Southern California the 10th in the world.

The population of the state in 1968 was approximately 20 million. It has grown to some 34 million, with about 17 million in the service area of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. Demographers tell us that the future growth to some 50 million population in California will be nearly 80 percent due to the birth rate. To talk of water being "growth inducing" under these conditions is simply nonsense. One only needs to look at 3rd world cities, such as Tijuana, to see what happens when government fails to provide adequate water supplies. Nevertheless, the move toward regionalism is having an effect.

The Metropolitan Water District and its member agencies have cut dependence on imported water by developing local projects that produce a total of 190,000 acre-feet annually of reclaimed water for landscape irrigation (or 10 percent of imported water demand). The Orange County Water District is developing a project to produce 70,000 acre-feet annually for sinking in the groundwater basin to augment 250,000 acre-feet annually from the Santa Ana River that provides the basic source of drinking water to a population of some 2 million. Other conservation methods, such as satellite controlled sprinkler systems to limit landscape over-watering, retrofitting of low flow toilets and school education programs, also are being employed.

A major effort is also being made to store as much water as possible in groundwater basins in wet years for conjunctive use in moderately dry years and for direct emergency use in case of extreme drought. Mutually beneficial arrangements have been made for storage in several areas of the Central Valley, basins are being tested in Southern California desert areas, and working arrangements are being negotiated with basin managers within the Metropolitan service area.

Under pressure by the other Colorado River Basin States, the Secretary of Interior has ordered California to cut back its use of "surplus" water from the Colorado River over the next 15 years, to its legal apportionment of 4.4 million acre feet per year, under the Colorado River Basin states compact. The Secretary has requested that the Southern California agriculture and urban agencies that draw water from the Colorado demonstrate how that will be done and sign a "quantification" agreement by the end of this year.

Essentially, this means the Metropolitan Water District must reduce its take from the river by some quarter million acre feet over the 15-year period, water that in the past has been declared as "surplus." The agreement includes a transfer of "conserved" water from the Imperial Irrigation District to the San Diego County Water Authority of up to 200,000 acre-feet.

Unsettled as yet is whether conservation should be by on-farm means or by fallowing, and who will be responsible for maintenance of the Salton Sea as an "ecological treasure" when ag runoff no longer enters the huge salt sink. Environmental and 3rd party impacts are big issues to Imperial. And also to the environmental community and the local towns.

Anticipating the possibility of drought, cutbacks from the Colorado River and an uncertain future for the State Water Project under CalFed, the Metropolitan Water District made an all-out effort to build the Diamond Valley Reservoir near Hemet. The huge storage facility is recently completed and has stored some 800,000 acre-feet of "surplus" water while it was available.

Among the Metropolitan Water District's member agencies, there is a great deal of speculation that involvement in the CalFed Bay-Delta Program will not produce any additional water for Southern California. Nevertheless, since much of the money spent on the endless debate and meetings is derived from Southern California, it is felt to be prudent to remain at the table, mainly to attempt to make sure that water supplies to the State Water Project are not further reduced and that proper accord is given to science and drinking water quality.

Finally, the Metropolitan Water District has solicited proposals from its member agencies for development of seawater desalination facilities to produce an augmentation of supplies from an additional source. Met offered a subsidy of $250 an acre foot to help bridge the cost of some $800 to $1200 an acre foot for desalted water and the current price of $425 an acre foot proposed for treated imported water. Five member agencies responded with proposals for projects along the Southern California coast, including Los Angeles, West Basin (southwest LA county), Long Beach, Orange County and San Diego County. San Diego made the initial cut with a project proposed to produce some 50,000 acre-feet annually.

It is widely anticipated that all of the proposed projects will be under construction within the next decade. Success depends largely on the ability through capital subsidy or otherwise to cut the cost per acre-foot as close as possible to the price of treated imported water. There are, however, many contingencies, including environmental concerns, the introduction of desalted and purified water into existing distribution systems, and not least, the outlook for power supply and costs.

So, while there is no way for Southern California to back off its requirement for imported water # ranging from a minimum of 650,000 acre-feet in dry years to 1.5 million acre feet on average from the State Water Project # given the expectation of future population growth, nevertheless the region is responding fully to maximizing Best Management Practices, more efficient use of water through conjunctive use and through exotic new sources of water.