Doing Your Part to Help Solve California's Water Crisis
"Ask Not What Water Can Do For You..."
By Kent Norton, AICP, REA
As we are all painfully aware these days, California's water supply is limited but its population is still growing. Forecasters believe that the state, which currently has 38 million residents, will have 48 million by 2030. When you combine these growth projections with the delta smelt issue, drought conditions along the Colorado River, and increased demand for water from growing states such as Nevada and Arizona, the California water situation appears grim at best.
To help to alleviate some of the pressure, last August Governor Schwarzenegger has called for a statewide 20 percent "across the board" water conservation effort. Further, under terms of a federal court decision, the Department of Water Resources is cutting its initial allocation for water deliveries in 2008. The initial allocation was already expected to be lower because of dry conditions in the Sacramento and San Joaquin regions where the rivers feed water from the Sierra Mountain Range to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay-Delta and to State Water Project pumps. The question is - will there be enough?
A recent letter to the Governor, the Southern California Leadership Council, which includes former Governors Deukmejian, Wilson, and Davis, identified "the combinations of the extended drought in the Colorado River Basin, the failure to implement timely and effective improvements in California's water supply infrastructure, and the recent court interference in the Bay-Delta operations" as the primary reasons for the current water crisis. However, the letter indicated, "environmentally benign infrastructure improvements" can help improve the storage, capture and conveyance of water and further emphasized that, "California business leaders are united in their shared perspective that this may be a once in a generation opportunity to resolve differences among stakeholders in the best solution to the Bay-Delta."
This is certainly something to think about for those of us involved with in development in southern California. No one really knows how much water is or will be available to support development. While the state Department of Water Resources reliability report, which gives cities an idea of how much water they can expect to receive through the State Water Project in wet, dry and "average" years, it is simply an average, there are no uniform standards in place for estimating water supplies. The good news is that water districts, entrepreneurs and developers are beginning to understand the need for change and are getting creative. Over a third of residential water in California is consumed outdoors, mainly when homeowners water their lawns. The County of Riverside passed Ordinance 859 which requires water conservation for new home builders. In response, many developers and developments such as The Preserve in Chino and Dos Lagos near Corona have been able to drastically cut potable water use by reducing landscaping, installing drought-tolerant plants, using "smart" irrigation controls, and installing parallel pipe systems to deliver recycled water for outdoor use. It is increasingly clear that conservation and reuse initiatives should be strongly emphasized in development.
June 2008 Issue