MWD Voices Greater Environmental Concern : Utilities: Board forms consensus on a ‘major new direction’ and moves toward adoption of a revised statement of purpose.

Reflecting its changing membership, the Metropolitan Water District board on Wednesday took a major step toward adopting a new statement of purpose that would stress greater concern for the environment and water purity in seeking additional water for Southern California.

“What we heard today was a significant statement about how we will operate in the future,” said Mike Gage, president of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power commissioners and an MWD board member.

“It’s a major step forward,” said Christine Reed, who represents the city of Santa Monica on the MWD’s 51-member board.

For an agency that is often accused of pursuing new water sources without regard for the environment, “it will be a major new direction,” said Reed.

The board, meeting in the second day of a three-day retreat at Lake Arrowhead, debated whether to scrap, revise or reaffirm its 1952 Laguna Declaration--the historic policy that brought water to the Southland’s vast suburbs.

That declaration simply said that the MWD “is prepared . . . to provide its service area with adequate supplies of water to meet expanding and increasing needs in the years ahead.”

On Wednesday, the board stopped short of writing a new statement of mission, but in a series of drafts prepared by five working groups, a clear consensus developed on several fronts.

One key element that appeared to have broad support was that environmental considerations would need to become part of the giant agency’s mission, officials said.

“The consensus is there; it’s a historic change,” said Alf Brandt, a director representing Los Angeles.

“It’s a recognition that you can’t look narrowly at the water supply,” said MWD General Manager Carl Boronkay. “We don’t any longer have the luxury to just dam a river or stream” in the pursuit of more water.

Some directors, including Gage of Los Angeles, wanted to move for preliminary adoption of a new statement of purpose incorporating environmental themes. But MWD Chairwoman Lois Krieger urged caution and more study before making such an important change.

Boronkay said he is sure that the directors will formally adopt such a statement within the next several months and it will skew the MWD’s focus toward “cost, (water) quality and the environment.”

But Krieger said later, “It’s only discussion at this point. We haven’t done it yet.”

Over the past several years, some MWD directors have cautioned that demands on the state’s water supply will make it difficult for the agency to pursue its traditional pro-growth policies in the future. These directors have urged their colleagues to exercise more restraint and more sensitivity toward the environment.

Earlier this year, in response to those directors’ concerns and the effects of a five-year drought, the board placed a temporary moratorium on annexing new territory to its huge six-county service area.

While the board appeared intent on giving greater consideration to the environment, it also indicated continuing support for the essential element of the Laguna Declaration: that the MWD will be the ultimate provider of water for a thirsty and growing six-county region that incorporates more than 300 communities.

On Tuesday, the board tentatively agreed to a major policy change aimed at vastly expanding its potential water supply by buying all the water it can from farmers and relying less on new, expensive and potentially environmentally damaging projects, such as the proposed Peripheral Canal to route water from Northern California around the Sacramento River Delta.