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Despite receiving roughly half of normal rainfall this water year, the San Diego County Water Authority not only has plenty of water to meet regional demand for the foreseeable future but is seeking to transfer a limited amount of supplies to areas of the West with greater water scarcity.

Selling or leasing water to other agencies will help offset the cost of multi-generational water investments by the region and address affordability challenges that are being felt by water agencies across the state and nation. By offering a limited amount of highly reliable water, the Water Authority can both retain water security for San Diego County and mitigate upward pressure on rates.

“The San Diego region’s investments in water supply reliability have given us an unusual opportunity to both help ratepayers and support other regions that have fewer water supply options,” said Water Authority General Manager Dan Denham. “We are talking with potential partners in Southern California and beyond.”

In 2023 and 2024, the Water Authority saved San Diego County ratepayers $40 million with a series of complex transfers that helped raise the water level in Lake Mead, the keystone reservoir for the Colorado River system. While another similar deal is possible, the Water Authority is also negotiating with water-scarce areas about transferring drought-proof desalinated seawater for multiple years.

“We are in a new era in water management for San Diego County, an era marked by collaboration, creativity and efficiency,” Denham said. “The Water Authority is leading the way with strategic alliances that create multiple benefits for San Diego County and the Southwest.”

Such deals will take several months or even years to secure due to the complexities of water law. For instance, the Water Authority may be able to lease water to an agency in Arizona, using the Colorado River as the conduit for delivering those supplies. These kinds of exchanges and transfers help optimize water use, especially during droughts, and enable other users to benefit from a reliable water supply.

The Colorado River Basin provides essential water supplies to approximately 40 million people and 30 Tribal Nations, nearly 5.5 million acres of agricultural lands, and habitat for ecological resources across parts of several Western states (including Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming) and Mexico.

“While we can’t discuss the details of negotiations, it’s fair to say there is significant interest in buying some of our drought-resilient water – and that’s welcome news for San Diego County ratepayers,” said Denham. “Our goals are to maintain our water reliability for generations to come while at the same time controlling costs.”

“This is yet another step in our ongoing efforts to promote affordability for our ratepayers. We’re committed to doing everything we can to ease the burden on ratepayers while protecting the water security we’ve worked so hard to build,” said San Diego County Water Authority Board Chair Nick Serrano.

The more immediate good news for the region and state is that the California Department of Water Resources’ fourth snowpack survey of the year showed plenty of water in the Sierra to stretch through the summer and fall. While the San Diego region typically gets a small fraction of its water from Northern California, the health of the snowpack is important for the statewide economy.

DWR’s late March or early April measurements mark what is considered the peak snowpack each the year in the Sierra Nevada. On Friday, the agency reported the statewide snowpack is 90 percent of average.

The Colorado River Basin – which supplies about two-thirds of San Diego County’s water – also shows a healthy snowpack. Precipitation and snowpack are about average across the basin for this time of year. However, over the past two decades, a series of mostly dry years has strained the Colorado River. Most of the Water Authority’s water from the river is through conservation agreements in the Imperial Valley.

A new report from the San Diego Economic Development Corp. (EDC) shows the positive effect of the manufacturing sector on our regional economy. With $47 billion in economic impact across San Diego County, including more than 120,000 good-paying and low-barrier jobs, manufacturing is a cornerstone industry from San Ysidro to Oceanside. 

Few of those jobs – or other economic benefits – would exist without the safe and reliable water supplies provided by the San Diego County Water Authority and its member agencies. While sustainable water sources are often taken for granted, they support virtually every manufacturing process in one way or the other, from the region’s famous craft beers to the water used in biotech labs.    

To San Diego Councilmember Raul Campillo, these kinds of jobs have a huge impact for workers in our region. “That means you’re putting kids through college,” Campillo said at an event unveiling the report. “That means you’re inventing devices that save lives. That means you’re bringing people here to see what San Diego has to offer and that helps everybody.” 

The EDC’s report – sponsored by the Water Authority — highlights the outsized impact of small businesses in the manufacturing sector, careers that pay 31% more than the average regional salary, and the broad range of related industries helping to grow manufacturing in San Diego County. 

Yet it’s not just about the sector itself but the broader impact it has across the region. “When factoring in supply chain activities and consumer spending from wages, the sector supports an additional 146,000 jobs across the county,” the report said. “This means that for every 100 jobs added in manufacturing, another 121 jobs are created elsewhere in the economy.”

“Nearly 1 in 10 private sector jobs in the region is a manufacturing job,” Eduardo Velasquez, EDC Senior Director, Research and Economic Development, said.  

While the high cost of housing and the lack of developable space does hinder the sector’s ability for bigger growth, the companies in the sector are among the most innovative in the region and are dedicated to finding unique ways to expand even with those constraints. 

To read the entire report, click here.