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BLOG: Let People Pay What Water is Worth – Sell Your Conserved Water

During dry years, water becomes scarcer, and, economically, people should pay more for it. But most urban residents do not pay directly for water scarcity. We only pay the financial cost of providing water through pipes, pumping, treatment plants, and reservoirs. We do not pay for the lost value that water would have had for environmental or agricultural uses outside our communities or the value of that water to other water users in our community.

These scarcity costs are real and including scarcity costs in water rates would appropriately increase incentives for water conservation.

OPINION: Time for the Legislature to Get Serious About Water Storage

For the past year, there has been a lot of optimism surrounding the potential relief from the five-year drought that El Niño could bring to California. But though we have seen our rivers swell and our mountains capped with snow, the precipitation from El Niño is not enough to provide a long-term solution to California’s water crisis.

California’s water woes are not simply from a lack of rainfall and changes in the climate; they exist because of a fundamental lack of infrastructure that even in times of record rainfall is not sufficient for our state’s needs.

OPINION: San Diego Region Rises to Water Challenges with Planning, Cooperation

As an extraordinarily hot and dry February gives way to what we hope will be a much wetter March, it’s worthwhile to take a few steps back and consider how well-prepared our region is to thrive even in drought.

There are many factors, of course, but long-term planning and cooperation are big reasons why we have adequate supplies when other parts of the state are struggling. That’s an accomplishment worth celebrating during one of the driest periods in California history.