The DWP Timid? You’re Kidding

There is more than a little irony in the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s being criticized for timidity in seeking new sources of water. Ever since the city grabbed the Owens River early in this century, Los Angeles has been branded as a water pirate. Even today, the mere words Owens Valley trigger outrage and fear.

The department was faulted in an audit that the City Charter requires every 10 years. The $1.2-million study by a consulting firm also said the department has relied too much on its membership in the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California for a backup source of supply.

Everyone knows the city’s water supply has dwindled in recent years, while demand has increased because of population growth. The department has at least worked with the Environmental Defense Fund and the Mono Lake Committee to replace water the city is losing in the Mono Basin for environmental reasons.

The criticism of DWP for failing to develop major new water supplies reveals an ignorance of Southern California water development. In 1928, the city of Los Angeles became the major organizer and underwriter of the Metropolitan Water District for precisely that purpose--initially to get water from the Colorado River and later, from Northern California via the State Water Project.

MWD is short of water these days, too. So the city cannot draw unlimited water from MWD without causing considerable anxiety among other MWD customers like Orange County, and particularly San Diego County, which relies on Metropolitan for the bulk of its supplies. But Los Angeles also has invested $540 million of tax money in MWD since 1928 just so that it would have a fallback source of supply in the event of a dilemma such as it faces today.

Answers to the region’s water problems won’t be found in ill-informed finger-pointing. Southern California officials have long agreed that importing additional water should be handled by a single agency, the MWD Water District. Should the Los Angeles DWP go out now in search of a major new source of water, the department would only find itself in competition with itself.