BLOG
January 21st, 2008
As recently reported in The Los Angeles Times, cities and water agencies across California are scrambling to assess the ramifications of a first-ever shortage allocation plan that would govern water deliveries to communities stretching from the Santa Monica Mountains to the Inland Empire and south to the Mexican border. As with most water-related issues, deep rifts are developing among the member agencies of the Metropolitan Water District (MWD) over allotments under the plan, which will kick in if current water shortages necessitate rationing, possibly as early as spring. Thus, while this is not a global nor regional issue, we find the water politics emerging between big cities and smaller municipalities; urban vs. rural/agricultural users; and even new cities vs. older towns in the wake of this plan as indicators of trends that we see worldwide in response to water issues. As the article notes:
“…Some critics say the plan, devised by MWD staff, heavily favors Los Angeles and growing communities while penalizing smaller, less affluent, built-out cities with less clout.
…Under the plan’s complex formula, more water would flow to cities and agencies that depend heavily on MWD water as well as those that abruptly lose local supplies, are in growing areas or have installed certain water-conserving devices such as low-flow toilets.
Los Angeles would benefit from the “loss of local supply” feature if a drought sharply reduced the water it imports from the Eastern Sierra through the Los Angeles Aqueduct. San Diego, which gets most of its water from the MWD, would also receive assistance, since it has virtually no groundwater.
The formula would be the first of its kind adopted by the MWD, which cut supplies across the board in the droughts of the late 1970s and early ’90s.
…Some older cities are disturbed by what they see as the loss of their preferential rights. Those rights favor the first members of the MWD, which was created in 1928 when local cities banded together to finance the construction of the Colorado River Aqueduct. In return, those cities, including Los Angeles, Pasadena, Compton and Long Beach, were to be first in line in times of shortage.
The new formula would not give the same preferential rights to early MWD members during years of water shortages…”