Southland Water Quality

* The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California has long shared the concerns expressed by Carla Bard, former chairwoman of the State Water Resources Control Board, about the impact of agricultural drainage on the Southland’s State Water Project supplies (“Nasty Plans for Our Drinking Water,” Commentary, Oct. 30). She detailed specific objections to the Grasslands Bypass Project. The Grasslands project would allow California’s Central Valley Grasslands Basin to receive much-needed fresh water through channels that currently carry unusable agricultural drainage to the San Joaquin River. The two-year project would reroute the drainage to the river through the inactive San Luis Drain.

In addition to the project’s environmental benefits, State Water Project water quality would be protected by a requirement that selenium levels of the drainage water entering the river not exceed current amounts. Further, if the program is extended, selenium levels must be reduced by 5% annually.

Nevertheless, Metropolitan seeks additional safeguards. We have insisted that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which has authority over the San Luis Drain, thoroughly analyze potential impacts of the project on our State Water Project supplies. We also have requested that the bureau require an aggressive water quality monitoring program be implemented, making information available to all interested parties.

Protecting the quality of the Southland’s drinking water--60% of which is provided by Metropolitan--is one of this agency’s highest priorities. The district’s water meets and, in many cases, is better than all state and federal water quality standards. More than 300,000 laboratory analyses are done each year to protect our product’s purity. Additionally, Metropolitan is the major funding source for the California Department of Water Resources’ $1.7-million-per-year program, which regularly monitors state project water for selenium and numerous other constituents.

To provide further protection of our region’s imported water supplies, Metropolitan continues to press for source protection in legislation reauthorizing the nation’s Safe Drinking Water Act.

JOHN V. FOLEY

Chairman of the Board

MWD