The Price Will Be Too High if We Don’t Act on Water

It is too soon to panic about Southern California running out of water. It is not too soon, however, to begin to end the complacency that, if left unchecked, will result in an inadequate water supply for a predicted population of 20 million people at the turn of the century.

The opening of the Central Arizona Project, which will take water once destined for Southern California and distribute it to our neighboring state; the continuing concern over groundwater contamination, and Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley’s position paper on water supply have all served to raise interest in water as an issue.

Yet efforts that would improve the system of moving water across the San Joaquin-Sacramento Delta for delivery to many parts of the state have not fared well in this decade: Voters rejected the Peripheral Canal in 1982, and Gov. George Deukmejian’s delta conveyance facility proposal met a similar fate before the Legislature two years ago.

In light of these setbacks it has become necessary to analyze water-supply alternatives and programs that, while not necessarily new, are more promising today than in the past.

The Metropolitan Water District has initiated discussions with the Imperial Irrigation District, a large agricultural agency having the bulk of California’s entitlement of Colorado River water, to finance millions of dollars worth of conservation facilities such as the lining of earthen irrigation canals.

We have also proposed to the federal Bureau of Reclamation a joint venture to line a portion of the All-American Canal near the Mexican border in order to save water that otherwise is lost to seepage.

We are seeking to expand a program in which excess water in wet years is spread in aquifers to be extracted during droughts. By agreement, we are storing surplus Colorado River water in a basin underlying the Coachella Valley Water District in Riverside County. We are also negotiating with water-rights holders in the Chino Basin in San Bernardino County to accomplish a similar agreement, and we are investigating other possibilities in Kern County.

Metropolitan is strongly supporting the state’s Department of Water Resources in its successful negotiations with the Bureau of Reclamation to achieve a coordinated operations agreement in the delta. Since both public entities pump from the delta, the agreement would save substantial water for the State Water Project--one of the water lifelines to Southern California--through coordinated management. The agreement also provides for the future purchase by the state of water that may be surplus to the federal project, subject to congressional approval. We are also investigating inquiries from San Joaquin Valley agricultural interests who are undergoing economic hardship. Under these proposals, Metropolitan would obtain all or part of the State Water Project entitlements for local districts in the Valley, and relieve them of the attendant financial obligations.

It is unfortunate, however, that none of these projects address the problems in the delta related to water quality, fishery protection or flooding--problems that would have been solved had the Peripheral Canal been approved, or at least mitigated by the governor’s water plan. Metropolitan supported both proposals, and will continue supporting solutions that are financially and environmentally sound.

The many activities listed here to help meet the future needs of the public are promising, but for the most part too new to pay any immediate dividends.

Fortunately, we have experienced three very wet years on the Colorado River system, and there should be ample water in storage for the next few years. This gives us needed time to study and pursue various possibilities. But not time to relax.

Among those possibilities must someday be a Peripheral Canal or some other type of delta conveyance facility for the State Water Project. From the start, a generation ago, the designers of this project planned such a facility as an essential element of the project. It remains the only means of improving the quality of water that we receive from the delta.

While political realities are thought to be discouraging, it is noteworthy that some political leaders in the north have initiated discussions with interested groups, both public and private, to address the environmental problem of the delta and the water-supply problems of Southern California.

We may be seeing the end of the north-south divisiveness over water and a positive swing to a statewide perspective.

This reflects a growing recognition that people are not going to stand still while Southern California experiences a prolonged drought. The severe social and economic consequences that would result, both in Southern California and in the state as a whole, are too high a price to pay for the option of doing nothing.