During Jerry Brown’s first stint as governor four decades ago, he was openly disdainful of big public works projects, often citing British economist E.F. Schumacher’s 1973 book, “Small is Beautiful: A Study of Economics As If People Mattered.” Brown’s attitude manifested itself in a virtual halt to highway construction, which led to constant bickering with his fellow Democrats in the Legislature who wanted projects in their districts.
A recent column in these pages accurately described how climate fluctuations every few years can affect water supply in Southern California. And yes, supply variations must be addressed by water resource agencies. A solution being considered by the Orange County Water District, purchasing desalinated seawater from Poseidon Resources, would create a continuous supply of new water — even in the years when we don’t need it. Since we know that the problem is the variability of our water supply, why commit to a $1 billion alternative that does not address the problem of water supply variability?
Reflecting the city’s limited water supply, coupled with the ongoing drought, Ventura should continue to stay in a Stage 3 Water Shortage Event. That’s the recommendation Ventura Water General Manager Kevin Brown will make to the City Council on Monday night. If they approve it, elected officials will be confirming that the city’s water supply remains well below what used to be considered normal or typical conditions. Ventura has been in Stage 3 since September 2014, when the council called for a mandatory 20 percent reduction in water use.
San Diego’s warm spell is broken. When the clock struck midnight on Thursday, a 54-month run without a cooler-than-normal month ended. The last time a month was cooler than normal in town was October 2013 — 4½ years ago. It was a remarkable, rare run of warmth. There have been other extended warm spells in the city’s past, most notably in the early 1980s, but none were quite like the one that just ended. What caused the extended warm spell, and what does it mean?
We’ve got a great thing going here in San Diego County, from the mountains to the coast and from the far northern reaches of our region to the international border.
Our economy is strong – one of the largest in the nation – with everything from global giants to startups trying to make a splash. We’ve got the most small farms of any county in the country and innovative industries that put us on the map.
And our quality of life is second to none. People come from all over the world to play here and stay here. They come for our attractions, our beer, our climate and everything else this great region offers.
That makes me proud to call this place home. And it reminds me that none of this would be possible without one key ingredient: a safe and reliable water supply.
Think about it: We get just 10 inches of rain a year at Lindbergh Field. That’s not enough to sustain even a small fraction of what we do here day in and day out. In fact, the last time our natural water resources were sufficient for San Diego County was 1946.
At the time, San Diego was just at the start of its renaissance, first as a center of military operations, and later as one of the largest, most vibrant metropolitan areas in the nation.
Today, we boast an advanced economy that’s still a key military hub, and also a center of manufacturing, brewing, tourism, agriculture and so much else.
There are lots of reasons for our collective success, but none more foundational than steady and sufficient water supplies. Water is critical for developing new smart phone technology, next-generation medicines, high-tech military ships and world-class guitars and banjos. And the list goes on.
That’s where the San Diego County Water Authority and its 24 member agencies come in. Together, we secure, treat and deliver this vital resource 24/7/365.
We do it in pioneering and innovative ways, like new and enlarged reservoirs and the nation’s largest seawater desalination plant. We also work the front lines of water-use efficiency with rebates and resources to stretch every drop, because we appreciate the value of the region’s investments in safe and reliable water supplies.
So, every time you slice an avocado on your salad, use your smartphone for directions to the Gaslamp, watch your kid hit a home run on a Little League field, or stroll the tree-lined trails of Balboa Park, remember that this San Diego life is Brought to You by Water.
For more on the Water Authority’s Brought to You by Water program, go to https://b2ubyh2o.org/.
For the first time in the state’s history, California is setting permanent water-consumption goals to prepare for future droughts and climate change, with a local elected official involved in the historic move. Assemblywoman Laura Friedman (D-Glendale) introduced Assembly Bill 1668, one of the bills signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown Thursday. Her district also includes Burbank. Brown also signed Assembly Bill 606 by Robert Herzberg (D-Van Nuys). The laws will go into effect in January. “A lot of us have taken water for granted, but it’s not something we can take for granted in Southern California,” Friedman said.
June is here and the heat is on across many areas of the southern U.S., including the Four Corner states. Despite some recent precipitation, which helped lower drought numbers in some counties, overall conditions continue to intensify and expand. Rivers and watering holes across different areas of Utah, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico are drying up, forcing the closure of popular mountain recreation areas. Water restrictions are becoming the norm across the region.
As a young biologist in the 1970s, Peter Moyle remembers towing nets behind boats in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and catching 50 to 100 translucent, finger-length smelt in a matter of minutes. Moyle doesn’t see those days coming back. “I think extinction is imminent the way things are going,” said Moyle, a prominent UC Davis fisheries biologist. State biologists have found hardly any Delta smelt in their sampling nets in the past two years. Consecutive surveys in late April and early May found no smelt at all. Those results don’t mean the smelt have completely vanished.
At the Shiloh elementary school near Modesto, drinking fountains sit abandoned, covered in clear plastic. At Mom and Pop’s Diner, a fixture in the Merced County town of Dos Palos, regulars ask for bottled water because they know better than to consume what comes out of the tap. And in rural Alpaugh, a few miles west of Highway 99 in Tulare County, residents such as Sandra Meraz have spent more than four decades worrying about what flows from their faucets. “You drink the water at your own risk,” said Meraz, 77. “And that shouldn’t be. We have families here with young children.”
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
