‘Water Committee Looks for Wellspring of Public Support’

Thank you for The Times’ coverage of the Southern California Water Committee in Jeff Perlman’s article, “Wieder’s Water Committee Looks for Wellspring of Public Support” (April 7). However, I would like to have seen a more balanced treatment of the serious underlying issues concerning water and the committee’s goals, objectives and activities.

Southern California is highly dependent on water imported from other areas even in wet years. And we have already begun to lose supplies from one of Southern California’s three critical imported sources as Arizona siphons off court-sanctioned entitlements from the Colorado River Aqueduct. One thing on which there certainly seems to be a consensus is that by the year 2000, Southern California’s population will be significantly greater than today. And our water supplies will be less. Moreover, contamination from various sources is threatening many existing water supplies.

Like all major public works projects, water projects require long lead times to design, approve and construct before we can realize their benefits. We can’t wait until the need is upon us before constructive, well-conceived and balanced measures are taken. Should we have a repeat of the l976-77 drought (and we most surely will), it would likely require crisis actions.

The goal of the Southern California Water Committee is to secure an adequate, reliable, high-quality water supply that maximizes the beneficial use of this state’s water resources. The obstacles to sound solutions are not the lack of available water supplies, technology nor funding. Rather, as Sen. Pete Wilson is quoted in Perlman’s article, “What is really needed is for the public to gain an understanding.”

The growing list of members of the Southern California Water Committee reflects an emerging belief that our goal of adequate, reliable, high-quality water supplies is absolutely vital to Southern California’s future and to the quality not only of our lives but of our future generations.

The Water Committee is the only such organization structured to bridge the gaps among all segments of the community. While the Water Committee’s program is educational, we would be naive to believe that the solutions to water issues are in a vacuum and outside our established governmental and political processes. However, one thing is for certain: a well informed public will improve the quality of the decisions made through those processes in the best interests of all Californians.

LOU A. SMALLWOOD

Executive Director,

Southern California

Water Committee Inc.