A new water strategy

The Times' recent story, "Water shortage worst in decades," illustrates an often forgotten fact. Southern California is really a semi-arid desert -- brought to life by water supplies from the Colorado River, the Owens Valley and the State Water Project to supplement our local supplies. Our reliance on this imported water to meet the region's future needs puts us at ever greater risk. Future water supply reliability will increasingly depend on local self-help measures such as conservation, reuse, more below-ground storage of surplus supplies and even desalination.

By George Deukmejian, Pete Wilson and Gray Davis

May 8, 2008