The Only Cure for Water Woes: Desalination : Drought: What we’re going through is a taste of the future. The way to ensure an adequate supply is to purify saltwater.

Come rain or shine, we will have water shortages in Southern California. Meanwhile, water bureaucrats continue to meet and talk but accomplish little that will help us avert an economic disaster.

Experts predict that if there is a 30% water shortage in the year 2000, 1 million Southern Californians will lose their jobs. We can’t afford to gamble with 1 million jobs. The cost of desalination is insignificant compared with the economic impact of future water shortages. California-based companies will leave if they are not ensured a reliable supply of water.

We must take California’s water system into the 21st Century with desalination. It is time for Southern California to move toward water independence. The Pacific Ocean, brackish ground water and mineral-laden agricultural drainage water are all prime candidates for desalination.

Desalination is not a new technology. Florida has dozens of desalination facilities that, combined, recover more than 100 million gallons of water each day. Desalination has a 20-year track record of producing high quality, reliable water at a reasonable price in dozens of countries around the world.

We should take the steps to purify 400 million gallons of reliable water a day for California--enough water to meet the residential needs of a city the size of San Diego or Los Angeles.

Three months ago, the Los Angeles Times conducted a poll asking Californians to identify “the most important future goal to ensure a water supply.” More people chose desalination and reclamation of waste water than any other option. In fact, Southern Californians prefered desalination over new dams by a 2-1 margin.

Desalination was preferred almost 5-1 over building a Peripheral Canal. Desalination is California’s preferred option.

My constituents are telling me, “We should have been doing this 10 years ago.” I wasn’t in Sacramento 10 years ago, but it is interesting to look at what the water bureaucrats were proposing back then: the peripheral canal. Now they are trying to resurrect it.

The water bureaucrats claim that there are ample supplies of cheaper water. I don’t believe that. The Metropolitan Water District is hoarding nearly $1 billion of ratepayers’ money in reserve. If ample quantities of “cheap” water were really available, we wouldn’t be rationing. They have known for the last 15 years that significant water shortages were coming, yet they failed to ensure a reliable water supply for California.

Economist E. Phillip LeVeen recently stated that “the drought really is a dress rehearsal for the future.” He is right, and something has to be done. While I believe conservation is essential, we cannot possibly hope to conserve 500 billion gallons, which is the projected shortfall for the year 2000.

The bottom line is that we must conserve all we can, but we must also create more water. It’s time we quit running around in circles. It’s time to desalt.