California’s Water Supply

A recent water quality victory for residents of the greater Oakland area, detailed in The Times editorial “Sound Decisions on Water” (June 30), illustrates that Southern Californians should be battling to maintain the purity of the water that comes out of their taps, too.

Consumers all across California are becoming increasingly concerned about the water they drink, and they deserve to receive the highest quality supplies available.

That’s why the East Bay Municipal Utility District has been fighting in Alameda Superior Court to fill its future drinking water needs with top-notch supplies drawn from the American River rather than tapping an inferior quality source, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

After 17 years of legal maneuvering, a tentative court ruling now will allow East Bay MUD to draw directly from the American River through an isolated canal and pipeline system--bypassing the delta entirely--provided environmental concerns can be met.

Southern California and south San Francisco Bay area communities which rely on delta water delivered through the State Water Project have tried to increase delta water transfer efficiency--thereby improving drinking water quality--through the construction of a peripheral canal around the delta estuary. Efforts to build the canal were dashed, however, in 1982 by an upswell of political opposition in Northern California to additional water exports from the delta. Indeed, objections were voiced loudly in the East Bay, which already taps pure water of the Sierra Nevada through a peripheral canal of its own and will do so again with its American River diversion.

Southern California holds no grudges. Instead we compliment East Bay MUD on its important water quality victory.

The Southland, however, cannot be complacent about the dependability of its future supplies or the ability of high-tech water treatment plants alone to maintain the drinking water quality that our citizens want and deserve. Ultimately, consumers here will need additional supplies of water from the State Water Project. And, as affirmed in the East Bay MUD case, they should have every confidence that that water is the best quality attainable.

CARL BORONKAY

General Manager

Metropolitan Water District