Domenigoni Reservoir

Dorothy Green’s Aug. 15 commentary on the Metropolitan Water District’s reservoir project in southwestern Riverside County contends that Southern California doesn’t need it. We must respectfully disagree.

The Southland faces water shortages in both the near and long term due to rising demands and reductions in the reliability of imported supplies resulting from regulatory decisions and increased public awareness of environmental values. Metropolitan and its member agencies have embarked on an integrated resource planning process that has involved local retail and ground-water agencies, consumers, agricultural users, the environmental community, business groups and others.

The process findings, in which Green participated, echo her call for additional investments in developing additional local water resources by aggressively pursuing conservation, waste-water reclamation, ground-water recovery and desalination efforts. The findings also reiterate the importance of maintaining and securing imported supplies from the State Water Project and the Colorado River.

However, a common thread throughout the planning process was the need for additional ground-water and surface-water storage, which must work together. Even with the expected tripling of conservation and water recycling efforts by the year 2010, the Southland will fall short of meeting water demands without adequate storage.

Metropolitan’s reservoir project will help right that imbalance; and contrary to Green’s assertion, we anticipate the monthly cost to ratepayers to be very modest for the benefits received. The reservoir provides the critical storage capacity needed to take advantage of the opportunities when there is surplus water runoff from snow and rain in Northern California or along the Colorado River. Had the reservoir been completed in 1993, it could have been half-filled by the year’s storms, providing enough water for about a million families for a year.

The reservoir also meets our critical needs for additional emergency reserves. Without action, Southern California could be isolated from a major portion of its water in the event of an emergency, such as an earthquake.

With the memories of the state’s recent six-year drought lingering, Green is to be commended for reminding your readers of the importance of Southern California’s water resources. However, those memories and the promise of future droughts also confirm the need for Metropolitan’s Domenigoni Valley reservoir project as well as ground-water storage.

JOHN R. WODRASKA

General Manager

Metropolitan Water District

Los Angeles

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Green’s article was in the right church, but it was in the wrong pew. The Domenigoni Reservoir project is symptomatic of a larger disease.

The real problem is that of unaccountable and unresponsive political leadership in the water community and on the MWD board specifically. The MWD Board of Directors must be held accountable for this billion-dollar blunder. The 52 men and women on this board voted for Domenigoni, knowing that water to fill it would be “unreliable” under the best of circumstances. Compounding this travesty is the fact that the MWD board refused to consider any of the innovative and cost-effective approaches to water storage and supply augmentation that Green articulated.

Time is running out; we have a serious water problem. Our population continues to grow while we are experiencing a net decrease in our imported water supplies. It is time for us to stop examining the symptoms and start curing the disease.

MARK S. DYMALLY

Inglewood