This is just one post in the Water & Development Category

If you want to build in San Diego, save some water

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 20, 2008 at 7:37 am

From Voice of San Diego:

For the first time, the city of San Diego is requiring a developer of a large project to offset its water demand, a step designed to address concerns that new development will exacerbate the city’s strained water supply.

The city’s Water Department is requiring Westfield, the developers of the $900 million University Towne Center mall expansion, to keep the project’s water demand neutral, a step that will require the developer to save between 21 million and 43 million gallons of water annually.

In the UTC project, new stores and residences will use more water, which the developers will offset by using reclaimed water — non-drinkable treated sewage — for irrigation. The company will also pay for other existing developments to do the same, enabling those using drinking water for irrigation to switch to reclaimed, non-potable water. That would boost the amount of drinking water in the city’s system, neutralizing the expansion’s increased demand.

For now, the policy is informal, hasn’t received City Council support and has no violation penalty. “This is all relatively new stuff, and it’s clearly being driven by an increased awareness of what the water supply conditions for Southern California are,” said Jim Barrett, the city’s director of public utilities. “I think we’re taking a much more proactive approach than we have in the past.”

Barrett said he looks to offsets as a way to address a state law requiring an assessment of large developments’ water supplies. The 6-year-old law, designed to ensure that supplies keep pace with growth, mandates that cities provide what is termed a “water supply assessment” for large developments: Subdivisions with more than 500 homes, hotels with more than 500 rooms, offices serving 1,000 or more people or shopping centers with more than a half-million square feet. The assessment must verify the city has a sufficient supply planned to accommodate the growth.

Most projects in the city would not rise to that level. Few are large enough to trigger the assessment. A Westfield spokeswoman declined comment.