bay area council Archives - Southern California Water Coalition

To Meet Governor’s Drought Goals, These Projects Deserve Support

SCWC Staff — Fri, 26 Aug 2022 17:55:51 +0000

Governor Newsom recently unveiled a bold strategy for strengthening California’s drought resilience by storing, treating, and conserving more water. To help achieve the plan’s ambitious goals, lawmakers should appropriate $683 million from the budget surplus for large-scale recycled water projects, including $183 million for the Purified Water Project in Santa Clara County, and $500 million for Southern California’s Pure Water project in Carson and Hyperion Recycled Water Project in Los Angeles.

The Purified Water Project is the largest recycled water project under development in the Bay Area and when complete (as early as 2028) will increase Santa Clara County’s use of recycled water to 10% of demand with a drought-resilient supply. The Hyperion Recycled Water Project is the largest water recycling project under development in the U.S., and when finished will be capable of meeting more than a third of the entire City of Los Angeles’ water demand. The Pure Water Southern California project, developed by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California in partnership with the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts, will produce up to 150 million gallons of water daily, making it one of the largest water recycling facilities in the world.

There are numerous meritorious surface and groundwater storage and desalination projects across California that deserve general fund support. But when it comes to direct appropriation, these stand out.

First, these projects serve areas that are today highly dependent on increasingly unreliable imported water supplies. In 2022, both regions received just 5% of their allocation from the State Water Project plus what more they could obtain for human health and safety, and a record drought in the Colorado River basin is currently pushing Lakes Mead and Powell dangerously close to dead pool. A prolonged water supply shortage in these regions could kneecap housing and economic development in ways that would have profoundly negative effects across California’s economy and state budget.

Climate change makes such disaster scenarios far more likely than in the past. The Governor’s announcement came with new science that statewide precipitation is expected to decline 10 percent due to climate change. Last December, Scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories estimated warming temperatures will reduce the Sierra snowpack, the source of about a third of California’s water supply, to effectively zero most years beginning in the 2040s.

Second, both regions are among the most water efficient in the U.S. A 2017 analysis by the Bay Area Council Economic Institute found that the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara metropolitan statistical area (which would be served by the Purified Water Project) produces more economic value per gallon of water consumed than any other metro area in the U.S. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside came in third, just behind San Francisco. In other words, if water-efficiency was our only consideration, we’d concentrate growth precisely in these areas.

Lastly, these projects could begin delivering water by end the end of this decade in time to meet recycled water production goals outlined in the Governor’s water supply strategy. Should California experience a drought on the order of Australia’s feared Millennium Drought, these projects would be coming online in the nick of time.

While California doesn’t have the luxury of focusing on just one water supply solution, recycled water is more reliable than surface storage, less expensive than desalination, and enjoys broad support from environmentalists. It’s also safe and widely used in other water-constrained regions. Singapore and Kuwait currently meet 40% and 35% of their water demand with recycled water, respectively. Israel recycles 90% of its wastewater. California currently recycles just 10%.

That’s why a statewide coalition of business groups, water agencies, and labor organizations led by the Bay Area Council and the Southern California Water Coalition requested general funding allocations for both projects earlier this year.

Governor Newsom has called for recycling an additional 800,000 acre-feet of water per year by 2030. These projects alone would get us one-third of the way there while strengthening the resilience of California’s economic engine and its most populous region. The Governor and the legislature should fund them.

Jim Wunderman is President and CEO of the Bay Area Council. Charley Wilson is Executive Director and CEO of the Southern California Water Coalition (socalwater.org).

The post To Meet Governor’s Drought Goals, These Projects Deserve Support appeared first on Southern California Water Coalition.

Californians agree: Time is Now to Invest in Water Infrastructure

SCWC Staff — Mon, 02 May 2022 14:32:39 +0000

Tupac and Dr. Dre made California Love an anthem for the Golden State, but to many residents on either end of the Northern/Southern divide, it’s a lopsided love at best.

A light rivalry permeates the state from Eureka and the Bay Area to L.A. and San Diego over who has the better weather, sports teams, tacos, and, more seriously in this historically dry year, water management.

You know when Northern and Southern Californians agree vehemently on one thing, it’s time to pay attention. And that one thing is: Now is the time to invest boldly in water infrastructure.

Up and down the state, the voices of business, community leaders, labor, water leaders, and more are united on the need for modernization and improvement of our water systems.

It’s no secret that California is in the middle of a severe drought, its effects made worse by a warming planet. But what people may not fully realize is how outdated our water infrastructure is and how it is in serious need of repair and expansion. And we must make this a high priority for our leaders with the substantial surplus projected within the state budget.

California has presented itself as a global pathfinder in battling climate change. Taking this mantle makes sense. But now we need to truly represent, with real investment in critical drought preparedness and water resiliency infrastructure initiatives.

Within our beautiful state, the warning signals from our changing Earth are beginning to glare like the reddest flag, with droughts, heatwaves, wildfires, and extreme weather at the leading edge of disasters to come.

Our water supplies and the outdated systems conveying them to millions of Californians are now demonstrating the effects after another historically dry year. It’s not going to get better.

The state’s surplus can be used to make bold investments today to improve this situation. We may not come close to ending the danger. Still, these investments could mitigate drought effects, partly protect us against some of climate change’s consequences and show critical climate leadership when more is needed. The money would be well spent.

Tangled supply chains and empty store shelves have reminded everyone that old-fashioned physical infrastructure is still vital in a digital age. And although it is hard to envision a water crisis as water flows freely from so many taps, we must look beyond today’s reality to our state’s long-range needs.

Chief among these needs, and essential to the state’s economic future, are intelligent, well-aimed investments in infrastructure – recycled water projects large and small, water supply development and water use efficiency initiatives, State Water Project subsidence repairs, water treatment against emerging contaminants, storage, stormwater capture, flood control, and more. We have a complete list we are delighted to share.

We know the state has many pressing issues. But the evident shortcomings of the state’s critical water infrastructure should be on every state politician’s mind as climate change’s impacts slide more clearly into focus. Surely we do not wish to be the generation known for lacking the foresight or the political will to fund public needs and spur the economic growth that fuels the California way of life in the decades ahead.

We urge Governor Newsom and the State Legislature to act boldly in the 2022-23 budget by securing investments in California’s water infrastructure today. It’s the surest way to show California Love and a way for us in the Sunshine State to show authentic leadership in climate change policy.

–Charles Wilson, Executive Director, Southern California Water Coalition

Read the coalition letter signed by:

Read the coalition letter signed by the State Water Contractors, Kern County Water Agency, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, Central Coast Water Authority, Coachella Valley Water District, San Gorgonio Pass Water Agency, San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District, SCV Water, San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water District, Crestline Lake Arrowhead Water Agency, TLBWSD, Solano County Water Agency, Empire West Side Irrigation District, and AVEK.

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