California water crisis demands legislative action, says CVWD board of directors

From the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, this commentary written by the Cucamonga Valley Water District’s board of directors:

Recently, a special legislative session was called by the governor in order to address water infrastructure issues. To our chagrin, the Legislature failed to come to a compromise that addressed the looming water crisis in California.

One of the deal-breaking points was the philosophical discussion of whether or not it makes sense to construct new, large above-ground surface water storage projects in California. The surface water storage projects included in the governor’s proposal provided benefits to regions north and south of the Delta with some ancillary benefit to Southern California associated with the capture of storm water run-off and the ability to better manage rising water levels in the Delta.

We understand that any water bond proposal will need to provide benefits to a wide variety of interests in California in order to receive a wide range of support from all voters. As a local water provider we are supportive of bond proposals that provide funding for a variety of different alternatives to generate water supply. More specifically, our region is focused on the need to expand the use of recycled water for landscape and industrial purposes as well as the increase in programs that capture and recharge storm water, recycled water and imported water into local groundwater basins. Funding local supply development projects is cost-effective and ultimately decreases our dependence on imported water supplies that pass through the Delta.

As a region we are moving toward reducing our reliance on imported water; however, we realize that CVWD and other local and regional agencies may always rely, to some extent, on imported water supplies to supplement local water supplies in the future. Therefore, it is important to increase the reliability of our water supply from the Delta by ensuring that any future bond proposal includes funding to develop a conveyance system that diverts flows around the fragile Delta levee system, thereby reducing the vulnerability of California’s water infrastructure.

To read full text of this article from the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, click here.

Comments

Admin

• Log in

Credits

Powered by Vertigo & WordPress
WordPress Themes by Brian Gardner