Making sure a large urban region like San Diego County has enough water is important, to put it mildly. Over the last couple of decades, local water agencies, led by the San Diego County Water Authority (SDCWA), have put a lot of effort and a great deal of money into making sure we have a safe, resilient, reliable supply.
A new agreement approved by the Water Authority board on Thursday could lead to local ratepayers getting some of those investment dollars back. The agency described it as a landmark agreement.
“I think our board and our region in general took a monumental step towards something that I think will potentially change the Southwest and how we manage water,” said SDCWA General Manager Dan Denham.
The agreement clears the way for exploration of an interstate water transfer and exchange program that could see the Water Authority selling a lot of our extra water to other areas in Southern California and across the Southwest that are facing challenging situations with the Colorado River.
40 million people in the Southwest depend on the Colorado for at least some of their water. The U-S Geological Survey says the river’s flow has dropped by about 20% since 2000 due to a climate driven megadrought and increased evaporation.
San Diego’s potable water use has dropped 45% over those years. But the need has grown elsewhere across the Southwest, in cities like Las Vegas and Phoenix which also draw from the river.
SDCWA board member Jim Madaffer represents San Diego on the Colorado River Board, a state group that works with agencies from other states and the federal government on allocating the river’s water. “The congeniality amongst the agencies on the Colorado River Board is outstanding. We all work very well together. We realize that we are all at the end of the proverbial pipeline,” he said.
Madaffer said the new agreement should be an easy sell to other water agencies, in and outside of Southern California, allowing them to buy our extra water; a win-win made possible by huge investments like the Carlsbad Desalination Plant.
“Water that’s produced at the desal plant, maybe that could go to use in Arizona or in Nevada. It’s conceptually being explored,” said Madaffer.
Denham pointed out that those water sales would all happen on paper; no new pipes would have to be built. We’d stop taking so much from our Colorado River allotment and let it stay upstream where it would be purchased by other water agencies. All those agencies, along with the federal government, would have to approve the interagency agreements.
But if they do, Denham said water sales could begin later this year, and he said local ratepayers could see relief as early as 2027.
