California’s Water Supply

Your editorial “Change Those Water Ways” (June 26) states the water situation in California quite concisely.

However, the last paragraph says that the recent drought years “demonstrated that the cities of the north are living much closer to the margin than the south.” This anomaly occurred because the south was able to import more than its allocated amounts of water from the Colorado River.

When Arizona’s water projects are completed and when the Colorado River system returns to normal flow (or drought flow), and if we continue to grow at the rate of over 400,000 people per year in the MWD’s service area, we will be hard-pressed to have an adequate water supply here in the Southland, notwithstanding strong conservation programs and water management programs which are currently being pursued.

The last paragraph also says that “This is one state with one limited water supply.” Actually, California has an ample water supply, but most of it (70%) is in the northern one-third of the state and a goodly portion flows directly to the ocean. Ultimately, we need some way to capture that water.

In the meantime, we need some form of trans-delta facility which would ensure the water needs and quality of the delta as well as supplying contracted for, higher quality water to the south.

HALCYON BALL

President

Board of Water Commissioners

Long Beach Water Dept.