This is just one post in the Water & Development Category

Population growth: how can California accomodate it’s growing population and assure adequate water supplies? Snow and McIntyre debate …

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 10, 2008 at 7:47 am

From the Los Angeles Times, the latest installment of the debate between Lester Snow, head of the Department of Water Resources, and Mandy McIntyre of the Planning & Conservation League:

Can California continue to grow given its endangered water resources? Should we be trying harder to limit or control growth, and if so, how? Lester Snow and Mindy McIntyre debate.

Lester Snow goes first (excerpt):

The decisions we are making now — how efficiently we use water and where we build our new communities — dictate how much flexibility we will have in the future and what the quality of life will be for the next generation of Californians.

Most land- and water-use decisions in California are made at the local and regional levels, though rarely is such decision-making integrated. For example, land-use planning that encourages low-density development greatly increases per-capita water demand. Such development patterns also inevitably lead to more dependence on automobiles, which are the largest source of climate-changing greenhouse gas emissions in California. The resulting climate changes will make it more difficult to maintain reliable water supplies.

Low-density development imposes other costs as well — it is generally more costly and difficult to provide flood protection for sprawling suburbs, and this growth reduces the availability of agricultural land. In all, such land uses threaten our water-supply reliability and are costly in many other ways. Land use and water planning must be better integrated to ensure that we make informed resource management decisions.

The bottom line: Good land-use planning and water management can help secure our future.

Mandy McIntyre responds:

Californians recently experienced the fallout of placing too much demand on limited energy resources. Our water supplies are affected in the same way. More demand on the system can mean less water-supply reliability. As with energy, when water supplies are over-tapped, disadvantaged communities that have the oldest and least efficient infrastructure are the hardest hit when rates go up and shortages occur. Water efficiency and new technologies, including water recycling and groundwater remediation, can restore reliability if they are implemented when growth occurs.

The good news is that pending legislation, AB 2153 by Assemblyman Paul Krekorian (D-Burbank), would keep the economy going while protecting water reliability. It would accomplish this by tapping into the enormous potential of water efficiency and other locally based supplies. AB 2153 would require developers to incorporate all feasible water efficiencies into their projects. Developers would then have to fully mitigate whatever remaining demand their projects create.

Mitigation would be accomplished through implementation of efficiencies in existing housing or by producing proven and highly reliable local water supplies. AB 2153, endorsed by the Planning and Conservation League and the Environmental Justice Coalition for Water, would ensure that disadvantaged communities are not left behind, directing a portion of the mitigation to upgrades and replacement of leaky pipes in such communities.