Water Transfer and MWD Costs

Your Oct. 25 editorial does not reflect the facts regarding the transfer of water from Imperial Irrigation District to San Diego. When the MWD was offered water to be purchased from some farmers in Imperial County for in excess of $300 per acre-foot, water that they pay $12.50 for, MWD declined. The San Diego Water Authority signed a deal with the same farmers for $225 and expected MWD to transfer that water to them at less than cost. MWD’s position from the start was that other water users in the MWD service area should not have to subsidize the cost of moving San Diego’s water.

The state then put $230 million into the deal from the general fund to pick up the cost San Diego was unwilling to pay. Since that time MWD has bent over backward to make the deal happen. MWD has put additional money on the table from the very start, but in the negotiations with the other parties has refused to agree to terms that could not be justified to ratepayers. MWD pays the state in excess of $300 million annually and gets less than half its water from the State Water Project. There are some ineffective organizations in the water business but the MWD is not one of them.

EDWARD C. LITTLE

Vice President, West Basin

Municipal Water District

Culver City