Desert Water

* Re “Desert Water Entrepreneur Closely Tied to Governor,” April 16: There are sane environmental and practical alternatives to handing Keith Brackpool’s company $50 million in taxpayer money to draw from the Mojave aquifer. Brackpool’s scheme would wreak on the Mojave desert the same environmental devastation Mulholland wrought on Owens Valley, the only difference being that dried-up springs, withered habitat and resultant animal dieback would initially be less blatant than was the disappearance of Owens Lake. Haven’t Californians and their officials learned the historical lessons from the tragic misuse of aquifers in the West?

Brackpool proposes to extract 13.6 billion gallons per year from the Mojave aquifer. Instead of drawing from the aquifer, we should build more projects like the East Valley Water Recycling Project, which by 2010 will recycle about 10.8 billion gallons per year. And given that low-flush toilets save 8 billion gallons of water per year in the city of L.A., why not expend water bond money to create residential recycling of gray water for home garden needs? Such projects could easily equal Brackpool’s projected optimistic yields without the environmental devastation.

LISA NOVICK

Los Angeles

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Brackpool and Cadiz Inc.’s water plan should be rejected by the Metropolitan Water District and Gov. Davis because there are underutilized sources much closer to the intended consumers in Southern California. The same millions should be spent to restore tainted ground water in the San Gabriel Valley. Cleanup is underway but could proceed more rapidly with greater support.

In addition, several recent studies illustrate how the Los Angeles region can develop systems to retain and use a greater portion of the millions of gallons of runoff currently shunted to the ocean during rainstorms. Why spend money to import distant water and threaten the economy and ecology of the Mojave National Preserve and areas surrounding the Cadiz Valley when abundant resources are available locally?

TERENCE YOUNG

South Pasadena