Water Marketing
* Re “Water Delivery: Trickle of Fairness,” editorial, May 11: The biggest water problem in California is not how to move it around so that private citizens can make a profit by “selling” a public resource. For that is what water marketing is all about. Our biggest problem is the inefficient use of a public resource because of the way California water rights law evolved.
Agriculture uses about half of all the developed water in the state. And about half of that is used on four low-value, water-intensive crops that are also subsidized: cotton, alfalfa, rice and irrigated pasture. These crops represent a very small percentage of our agricultural production and a very large percentage of its water use.
Water marketing is politically expedient. But it does not eliminate these inefficiencies. It has not worked in the past because of all of the third-party impacts that result when water is moved from where it is to where the demand is. This is a much more serious problem than how to price the use of existing aqueducts to “wheel” the water.
DOROTHY GREEN
Former L.A. Department of
Water and Power Commissioner
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