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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.

For some, the very idea of privatizing water — a substance essential to human life on this planet — is simply unthinkable. Clean water is the right of every person, they would argue.

But if the history of water management in the western states is any indication, treating water as the commodity it is would go a long way toward curbing waste, improving delivery and ensuring that thirsty, growing cities have enough water to sustain themselves in an era of ongoing drought.

 

The glassy, cold Carmel River surged through a little valley in the Santa Lucia Mountains, cascading in front of a half-dozen workers and observers one day last week down a series of rock outcroppings, as if its sinuous path had been designed by nature. Nature, of course, had nothing to do with it. The half-mile section of river, with steppingstones, pools and a tableau of freshly planted trees and bushes along the bank, flows through what was once the flooded plain of the San Clemente Dam, a Monterey County landmark for 94 years until it was removed last year.

The Colorado River provides water for nearly 40 million people in seven western states, irrigating millions of acres of farmland, and generating thousands of megawatts of electricity. And though an official declaration of water shortage on the Colorado River has never been declared, and that careful planning has ensured Arizona and Colorado are well-supplied with water, residents need to know it’s a precious resource.

That was the message Thursday as the water chieftains of Arizona and Colorado spoke before a crowd of about 100 at the Water/Climate Briefing Annual Keynote Event held by Arizona State University’s Decision Center for a Desert City.

Ed Heinlein surveys the steep mountainside that has repeatedly unleashed tons of mud into the backyard of his Southern California home since a 2014 wildfire and still hopes the drought-stricken state gets more rain.

“We have to have the rain,” said Heinlein, whose home east of Los Angeles has become a poster child for the region’s cycle of fire and flood. “It’s bad for us but it’s desperate for the state.” Heinlein’s wish for rain may get answered this weekend, when forecasts call for a strong storm to bring rain and snow throughout California.