Water Bank’s Buying Went Overboard
Despite water shortages that idled farmland and withered lawns, California’s emergency water bank ended up buying about $45 million more in water than it could sell, state and local officials told lawmakers Monday.
Bob Potter, deputy director of the state Water Resources Department, said the State Water Project will buy the water for reserves in case the drought continues into a sixth year this winter.
“It will help us to make it through 1992,” Potter told the state Senate Subcommittee on Water Marketing.
But local agencies that contract with the State Water Project, especially those that got by without using the bank, complained about having to pick up the tab. The cost presumably will be passed on to farm and urban customers.
The state water bank was created hastily in February as part of Gov. Pete Wilson’s $100-million drought-fighting plan.
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