The Southern California Trend Toward Reduced Reliance on the Delta - Price Matters
Posted February 6, 2012 in Living Sustainably
Last week, I posted this piece about Southern California Urban Water Management Plans. Those plans show a significant trend toward investments in local supplies and reduced reliance on imported water. That trend is likely to grow, in part because of the rising cost of imported water.
Our analysis revealed that imported water from MWD now costs LADWP $912 per acre-foot, when all related costs are included. This is more expensive than some conservation, recycled water and stormwater projects. That’s nearly as expensive as the low end of desalted groundwater in the Chino basin. (There is more data on costs in the study.)
Price is not the single determining factor today, but the rising cost of imported water is certain to continue. In the most recent version of the Water Education Foundation’s Western Water magazine MWD General Manager Jeff Kightlinger states that “(In) the past five years, we had to basically double our rates…We’re going to have to raise rates every single year nonstop, pretty much forever, and it’s going to have to be more than inflation.” This trend isn’t lost on water managers. Increasingly, local water supplies are becoming cost-competitive. They also provide local jobs, local control, water quality benefits, as well as reduced vulnerability to climate change and to the uncertainties facing the Colorado River and the Bay-Delta. Increasingly, these tools are the smart bet for scarce ratepayer dollars.
These new UWMPs come at an important time. In 2009, the state legislature established a state policy of reducing reliance on water imported from the Delta. Less than two years later, that approach is gathering momentum among Southern California agencies.
Two years ago, a Southern California water agency board member said to me “Don’t call conservation and recycling ‘alternative supplies’. Those aren’t alternatives. They’re not Plan B. Those tools are our core strategies for the future."
Our reviews suggest three important next steps. First, the most forward-thinking water agencies must make the needed investments to implement their ambitious plans. Second, other MWD member agencies should take a second look at their ability to accelerate the development of local tools. And third, as the BDCP, the State Water Board and the Delta Stewardship Council consider the future of the Delta, the UWMPs that show how Southern California can reduce reliance on the Delta should play a major role in their thinking.
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Comments
James Singmaster, Ph.D.. — Feb 7 2012 01:03 AM
SoCal has an untapped forever water supply from the ocean. It would seem feasible to use SoCal's forever supply of sunlight to generate the energy needed to distill salt water to supply most of Cal. coastly communities with water. No one seems to worry that the canals from NoCal or eastern Cal-Nev could be broken apart by an earthquake.
So getting set up with distilling ocean water would avoid any mess with broken canals. The energy needed could be generated by mirrors concentrating sunlight on distilling vessels or by burning hydrogen generated by using sunlight to split water to hydrogen with one of several recently reported catalysts.
J. Singmaster, Ph.D., Environmental Chemist, Ret
John W. — Feb 7 2012 10:46 AM
Three basic strategies for Southern California: conservation, recycling and desalinization. As you use less and reuse more, salinity (brine) management and energy use will become increasingly an issue. Agencies should be exploring "value chain expansion" and be focused on the full life cycle of water through domestic use and associated by-products(commodities).