MWD Shifts Policy on Purchases

In a major policy change aimed at vastly expanding the future water supply for Southern California, directors of the Metropolitan Water District on Tuesday agreed to break their traditional alliance with the state’s powerful agricultural interests and pursue a free-market policy of buying water wherever they can.

Directors said the action signals the agency’s new strategy for meeting the increasing demand of its 17 million customers and assuring adequate supplies for several more decades of population growth and development.

Board chairwoman Lois Krieger said the agreement was the most significant statement of policy since adoption of the so-called Laguna Declaration--the agency’s 1952 statement of purpose which promised all the water needed to develop MWD’s huge six-county service area.

“It’s a watershed,” said Mike Gage, president of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power Commission and an MWD director.

MWD General Manager Carl Boronkay said, however, that legislation will be necessary to allow the district to pursue its new strategy and purchase water directly from farmers, which currently is prohibited by state law. Lobbying, he said, will be this year’s top priority of the MWD, whose 27 member agencies serve more than 300 communities.

The MWD is expected to be a potent lobbying force. “They have the capacity of going to every Chamber of Commerce and city from San Diego to Santa Barbara,” said one legislative aide who specializes in water legislation and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The MWD has historically teamed with agricultural interests to push new water projects through the state Capitol. And in recent years, the Peripheral Canal--which would divert water from Northern California, around the Sacramento River Delta and directly to Southern California--was the top priority.

The MWD’s shift in policy Tuesday represents an acknowledgement that the agency’s hopes for the canal are fading. “So long as we worked with agricultural (interests) to get legislation passed we were united,” Boronkay said.

“It’s clear in these last several years that there is no . . . new water development.”

Boronkay said the MWD is left with no alternative but to purchase water now being used in agriculture.

John Fraser, director of the Assn. of California Water Agencies, a trade association dominated by agricultural water districts, said the MWD’s new policy is significant and is likely to be opposed by the state’s farming interests.

The surprise development came as the 51-member MWD board gathered in a resort hotel at Lake Arrowhead for its semiannual retreat. During the opening day of the three-day meeting, the board discussed building a “free market” in California where water will go to the highest bidder.

“Even without the drought we have a serious water problem,” Boronkay told the directors. “We have to go where the water is. . . . The future isn’t going to wait.”

After a consensus developed, Gage asked if there were any dissenting opinions among the 37 directors present. There were none. The board then ordered staff to prepare a written resolution for formal adoption at a later date.

Asked why the MWD would break its longstanding alliance with agriculture, MWD Chairwoman Krieger pointed to the state’s five-year drought and population growth that have caused many communities to resort to rationing and place limits on development. “We weren’t on the edge before,” she said. “Now we’re on the edge.”

Christine Reed, who represents Santa Monica on the MWD board, said that buying water wherever it is available may be the MWD’s best hope for the future. “In the short run, this may be the only pursuit we have,” Reed said. “And in the long run too.”

About 80% of the state’s water resources are used by agriculture, with the remaining 20% supporting industry and residential uses.

Urban water districts are currently prohibited by state law from buying water directly from farmers. Under the 77-year-old state law, the powerful water districts in the Central Valley and other agricultural areas of the state control the water and the right to sell it.

These districts have been reluctant to sell their supplies to cities because of the adverse effect it could have on farm-area economies and the viability of the water districts themselves.

But many farmers have said they would rather sell their water than continue farming marginal land or unprofitable crops--and MWD officials say they want to seize the opportunity.

A hint of the MWD’s new direction came in May, when the agency board quietly voted to support a bill authored by Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar) that would have eased the rules on direct water purchases from farmers.

The bill was defeated but is expected to up for reconsideration in the coming Assembly session.

Boronkay said the MWD plans to draft its own legislation, rather than seek to amend the Katz bill to its complete satisfaction.

Boronkay said that if legislation is passed, the MWD and other urban water agencies would seek about 15% of the water currently being used by agriculture. “That would take us several decades,” said Boronkay.

Directors said Tuesday that they wanted a clear statement of safeguards for the environment and farm economies written into their formal policy statement.

“If we don’t recognize concerns from the environmentalists . . . they’ll shut it down,” said Reed.

Farmers around the state still blame the city of Los Angeles’ purchase of water rights in the Owens Valley for destruction of the area’s environment and economy.

“What happened 90 years ago isn’t what will happen today,” said Gage. “We’ll be far more concerned with the environment.”