What a Waste

Congress has an opportunity to ease considerably the potential for future water shortages in Southern California, and at no cost to the federal government.

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California has offered to pay the full cost of lining 68 miles of the All-American and Coachella canals in Imperial and Riverside counties in exchange for the water that would be conserved--an estimated 100,000 acre-feet a year, enough to supply the residential needs of 800,000 people. The project would be authorized by legislation introduced by Rep. Mel Levine (D-Santa Monica). Levine’s bill deserves speedy passage.

The 68 miles of canals currently consist of earth ditches; much water is lost through seepage. The All-American Canal takes Colorado River water to the Imperial Irrigation District, and the Coachella branch serves the Coachella Valley Water District south and east of Palm Springs.

The idea is such a good one that it is surprising that there is any opposition. But the Imperial Irrigation District is against the project, arguing that Metropolitan’s proposal constitutes “a reprehensible intrusion” into the affairs of Imperial County. The district would like to have its own canal-lining project sometime in the future and sell the conserved water for profit. But Metropolitan contends that any water saved goes to other Colorado users, and under the “Law of the River” cannot be sold elsewhere.

This is the same argument that has in part prevented Imperial and Metropolitan from reaching agreement on Metropolitan’s financing of conservation facilities within Imperial in exchange for the water saved. Imperial’s price is too high for Metropolitan, and is compounded by Imperial’s demand for an annual cost-of-living escalator on the cost of the conservation facilities. In the canal-lining project, Metropolitan would get the water in perpetuity in exchange for the one-time outlay of $150 million to $200 million.

Congress should ignore Imperial’s argument. Imperial does not own the All-American Canal. The federal government does. All California users of Colorado water have a stake in its efficient operation. Imperial should be more concerned about impending state action against the district for the failure to stop the loss of hundreds of thousands of acre-feet of precious Colorado water leaking through its inefficient distribution system--the system that Metropolitan has offered to fix.