Water Supply

It is Metropolitan Water District’s responsibility to secure a reliable, low-cost water supply for urban Southern California. A critical source of that water is the federally allocated supplies from the Colorado River.

With that understood, the MWD would like to address two of the issues raised by your March 6 editorial, “Clouds Over the Water.” First, the MWD has never left the negotiating table on Colorado River issues, and we continue to pursue a consensus resolution of the policy regarding the use of river water.

Second, your statement, “If there is waste, it must be stopped,” explains the impetus for much of the MWD board’s recent action on Colorado River water-use issues. There is waste, and it needs to be stopped.

Urban Southern California only expects the rules of the game to be fair and that all the state’s Colorado River water users be held to the same efficiency standards as everyone else. This will allow the state’s finite sources of Colorado River water to be used more equitably in our cities and farms.

PHILLIP J. PACE

Board Chairman

MWD, Los Angeles