[Water_news] 5. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: AGENCIES, PROGRAMS, PEOPLE - 4/28/08

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment

 

April 28, 2008

 

5. Agencies, Programs, People -

 

 

 

Join the fight against MWD tyranny

San Gabriel Valley Tribune – 4/27/08

By Ralph E. Shaffer

AS California's centuries-old water war threatens to once-again engulf the entire state, op-ed writers are already rolling out that old saw usually attributed to Mark Twain: "In the West, whiskey is for drinkin', water is for fightin'." Not only does the current water fightin' pit North against South, but communities in Southern California are now engaged in a civil war.

The problem is not drought. The culprit is unencumbered growth.

One need only consult the rainfall chart published annually in the local newspaper to see that we still enjoy a humid climate in the Los Angeles basin. Since the 1870s rainfall has fluctuated cyclically but the average has hardly changed. What has changed is the proliferating and unquenchable demand we have placed on that finite amount of liquid.

To keep up with our seemingly insatiable and ever-growing thirst, we first drained the artesian supply that once abounded on the plain. We built an aqueduct, than a second, to the Eastern Sierra. We diverted the Colorado River. Finally, we tapped the water of Northern California.

But even that wasn't enough. And now concern for the Delta Smelt has temporarily curtailed a significant portion of that supply.

So now we are about to fight among ourselves for what remains. This fight pits Lynwood against Beverly Hills, Covina against San Diego, in fact all the smaller and in many cases less affluent communities against the big, powerful and expanding ones. And the little guys aren't about to quit.

Last week, David filed suit against Goliath. The Central Basin Water District, covering many cities along the San Gabriel, Rio Hondo and Los Angeles rivers, went to court. The district charged that the octopus that controls allocation of much of our water, the Metropolitan Water District, imposed an illegal and unconstitutional plan to allocate the supply it distributes in violation of existing state law and without the required public hearings.

At the heart of the matter is the charge that two million residents dependent upon Central Basin for their water will be forced to pay more than affluent communities that are favored by the MWD plan. The suit claims that MWD deliberately favored developers, builders and business over the interests of residents.

Last February MWD responded to the loss of Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta water by creating an allocation plan that apportions the supply in a manner beneficial to Southern California areas in the forefront of development. Central Basin isn't one of them.

As a result, in the name of conservation static areas such as Compton and Bellflower will pay disproportionately higher rates for water consumed in excess of their allocated quota than will communities still going through major development. Central Basin claims that the plan treats more urbanized, less wealthy districts in a discriminatory manner, providing an economic windfall through more favorable rates to less urbanized, wealthier and growing areas.

All of this is done in the name of "conservation," according to MWD.

Yet Central Basin claims that its effective efforts at conservation are now being used against the district's residents because MWD established Central's quota on the basis of what has been used in the recent past.

Developing areas, on the other hand, get larger quotas based on their recent wasteful practices. While MWD argues that it seeks to conserve water it also argues that its allocation plan is not subject to state law requiring environmental review.

In the weeks and months ahead, as city after city is forced to raise residential water rates, impose watering curfews and levy over-use penalties, other water agencies, such as the Upper San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water District, ought to join Central Basin in this fight.

Without unity, the economic and political clout of powerful developers will be hard to overcome. #

 http://www.sgvtribune.com/opinions/ci_9077268

 

 

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