Water Supply and the Environment

* Recent articles outline proposed new protections by the Environmental Protection Agency for fisheries in the Sacramento/San Joaquin River Delta (Dec. 15-16). These regulations will result in significant cutbacks in water allocations to Southern California. The Department of Water Resources recently released a water plan for California that predicts chronic shortages due to a population growth in Southern California that will create a demand for water far in excess of what the existing water infrastructure can provide.

Southern California’s economic well-being and the quality of life of its residents depend on reliable, affordable and quality water supplies. The Southern California Water Committee recognizes the need to develop consistent water reliability standards and goals; the necessity of improvements to the State Water Project; voluntary water transfers from agricultural to urban areas as an important ingredient in sound water management, and that conservation and reclamation will add more usable water to available supplies. But what is missing is strong leadership to unravel the political mess and the institutional gridlock.

Who is willing to put good science to work along with good common sense and willing to put a lid on the rhetoric? Our water system is in trouble and the stakes are too high to continue without someone willing to lead us out of the present abyss.

DONALD L. HANLEY, Chairman

Southern California Water Committee Inc.

Irvine

* Your story about the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power agreeing to reduce by one-third its rights to water from the Mono Basin (Dec. 14), quotes environmentalists as hailing the agreement as a great step forward.

Instead, the event causes me to doubt my support of environmentalism.

Mono Lake is not a “lake” in any traditional sense. It has no outlet, and in plain fact, it is a saline sink, and has been for thousands of years. There are no fish in this “lake.” People cannot swim in it. The only life in it is a species of brine shrimp on which birds feed, and which have been mined for a limited commercial use.

The water is pretty, in its austere environment adjacent to the Mono craters. But the thought of all that pristine, fresh mountain water pouring into this saline cesspool from Rush Creek and Lee Vining Creek is very depressing.

M. LEWIS THOMPSON

Yucca Valley

* In a 1988 policy statement, the DWP publicly acknowledged that Mono Lake was an environmental resource of significant value. It also committed that the DWP would do what it reasonably could to keep the lake in a healthy condition while still providing a reliable supply of water to the city. The statement went on to say, “The department also recognizes that to do so will, at some point in time, require a reduction in the city’s authorized diversions which must be replaced.”

Although funding for replacement water existed from AB 444, the DWP and the Mono Lake Committee could not reach consensus on jointly filing for funds for reclamation projects due to a long history of mutual distrust. However, a recent breakthrough agreement between the DWP and the Mono Lake Committee was achieved primarily through the leadership and patient but insistent mediation of Councilwoman Ruth Galanter.

Funding from AB 444 and the ambitious East Valley Water Reclamation project provide the means and the mechanism for accomplishing the best for both the city and Mono Lake. Using state funds, the city will be able to reduce diversions of Mono Basin water, while an equal replacement supply for Los Angeles consumers will be provided by reclamation projects, as they become operational.

DANIEL W. WATERS

General Manager and Chief Engineer

DWP, Los Angeles

* Finally, after two decades, the great Mono Lake controversy is over. We find it disheartening that so much credit has been given to the DWP on breaking this impasse. In fact, the DWP has virtually held water reclamation and reuse hostage in this city since the onset of litigation over the lake levels. The East Valley Reclamation Project has been laboring for years and is merely a step in the right direction toward a major reuse effort. Currently, the city dumps over 80 million gallons per day of reusable water into the L.A. River, worth an estimated $45 million per year.

It’s time for the mayor’s office and the City Council to start putting pressure on the DWP to develop and implement large-scale reclaimed water reuse projects. Reclaimed water is the cheapest, most reliable, new source of water for Southern California.

MARK GOLD

Staff Scientist

ROGER GORKE

Science and Policy Analyst

Heal the Bay, Santa Monica