Water First, Before the Bulldozers

Decades ago, a growing Denver slapped a moratorium on new residential water hookups because there wasn’t enough to spare. In the 1970s, Arizona passed a law requiring every big new housing tract to demonstrate proof of a 50-year water supply before ground could be broken. In the burgeoning suburbs of Atlanta today, homeowners are under severe rationing because of drought.

But in semiarid California, where the need of water is historical, the Legislature is quarreling over a bill to require new developments of 200 houses or more to demonstrate that they have a “sufficient, reliable” water supply to meet project needs. Common sense says this should be a minimum consideration when cities and counties approve new housing tracts. No longer can Californians build and assume the necessary water will be found somewhere.

Incredibly, the water bill, AB 1219, authored by Assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica), is in jeopardy as it comes up for a critical hearing in the Senate Agriculture and Water Resources Committee in Sacramento Tuesday. The California building industry has fought the measure at every step and now has been joined by the Assn. of California Water Agencies.

The Kuehl bill would replace a law enacted in the mid-1990s that vaguely calls on builders to identify a water supply in their environmental documents as a condition of winning local government approval. This statute was the subject of a stunning ruling on May 31 by Kern County Superior Court Judge Roger D. Randall, who temporarily blocked the 22,000-home Newhall Ranch development near Santa Clarita primarily for the lack of a demonstrated water supply. But the old law has been the subject of conflicting court interpretations in recent years, and Randall’s decision sets no legal precedent.

The ruling, however, dramatizes the need for developers to meet a clear, specific water requirement early in the planning process. That is what the Kuehl bill does. Supporters of AB 1219 are derided as “no-growthers” standing in the way of progress and a strong economy. That is wrong. It is irresponsible to build willy-nilly without being certain these new tracts and towns can weather a drought without unacceptable shortages and hardship. AB 1219 offers California smart growth and a measure of drought insurance. It should be passed into law.