As a kid, I was terrified that drought-prone cities were about to run out of water. I have this fever-dream memory of a sketch on Sesame Street in which one of the puppets left a tap on and a poor...
As a kid, I was terrified that drought-prone cities were about to run out of water. I have this fever-dream memory of a sketch on Sesame Street in which one of the puppets left a tap on and a poor fish ran out of water in its fishbowl.
So it's very encouraging to hear that improvements in technology, efficiency, smart policy, and general futurism is helping solve this problem.
“It’s not a silver bullet but several pieces of silver buckshot,” said John Entsminger, general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority. He intends to sign an exploratory agreement with San Diego, along with his counterpart at Arizona’s Department of Water Resources.
Pending federal and other approvals, Arizona, Nevada and other Colorado River users could strike water-transfer deals with the San Diego utility. No water is literally shipped; rather, the parties would trade access rights to water sources. States would fund much of the estimated 56,000 acre-feet of water that the desalination plant produces annually in exchange for San Diego’s share of the Colorado River. The agreement could supply enough water for some 500,000 people.
So-called water transfers increasingly offset local shortages, and more of these deals are crossing state lines. Water agencies are also creating new supplies for trade, including by recycling sewage water or desalinating ocean water.
San Diego became a water broker by necessity. During a five-year drought that ended in 1992, the San Diego County Water Authority lost a third of its allocation, which came almost entirely from imported shipments.
“The cry was ‘never again,’” said Bob Yamada, the agency’s former head of water resources, as he reminisced over lunch recently at a mall in La Jolla.
Over the next three decades, the authority invested billions to achieve water independence. It raised the height of a dam to double its storage, built the desalination plant and acquired rights to a trove of conserved Colorado River water from a desert farming district. In doing so, San Diego slashed its water imports from 95% to 10%.
In fact, as supplies grew, San Diegans have cut their water use nearly 50% over the past quarter-century—leaving the city with water to spare. When Nick Serrano joined the water authority board in 2021, the deputy chief of staff to San Diego’s mayor saw potential revenue in the unused water.
“My North Star is about affordability, and the way we can achieve that is we have an excess of water,” said Serrano, now board chair of the authority.
The city of San Diego and others are recycling sewage, which will free up still more water.
The city’s recycled water, branded as “Pure Water San Diego,” is already a hit with local craft breweries that like its low mineral content. AleSmith Brewing Co. used it in its sold-out Re:Beer, “a crisp, dry-hopped lager.”
So this is just buying water rights (already a common practice out here in the west) with better PR and extra steps? I don't know why they're acting like this is novel, or as if it's going to help...
No water is literally shipped; rather, the parties would trade access rights to water sources. States would fund much of the estimated 56,000 acre-feet of water that the desalination plant produces annually in exchange for San Diego’s share of the Colorado River.
So this is just buying water rights (already a common practice out here in the west) with better PR and extra steps? I don't know why they're acting like this is novel, or as if it's going to help save the Colorado. Color me unimpressed until they're actually desalinating water and pumping it to other places. Shifting the demand to another state in the basin does nothing to alleviate the demand on the river itself.
I think you're underselling how big a deal it is. Yes, it's a rights transfer, but it also means that you don't have to deal with the large losses of water due to evaporation and absorption before...
I think you're underselling how big a deal it is. Yes, it's a rights transfer, but it also means that you don't have to deal with the large losses of water due to evaporation and absorption before they even get to San Diego. That's a lot of water! And if the funding from the other states can shore up San Diego's desal infrastructure, that's fantastic. I remember how it was in the '90s, and it makes me genuinely happy to see infrastructure moving forward.
As a kid, I was terrified that drought-prone cities were about to run out of water. I have this fever-dream memory of a sketch on Sesame Street in which one of the puppets left a tap on and a poor fish ran out of water in its fishbowl.
So it's very encouraging to hear that improvements in technology, efficiency, smart policy, and general futurism is helping solve this problem.
So this is just buying water rights (already a common practice out here in the west) with better PR and extra steps? I don't know why they're acting like this is novel, or as if it's going to help save the Colorado. Color me unimpressed until they're actually desalinating water and pumping it to other places. Shifting the demand to another state in the basin does nothing to alleviate the demand on the river itself.
I think you're underselling how big a deal it is. Yes, it's a rights transfer, but it also means that you don't have to deal with the large losses of water due to evaporation and absorption before they even get to San Diego. That's a lot of water! And if the funding from the other states can shore up San Diego's desal infrastructure, that's fantastic. I remember how it was in the '90s, and it makes me genuinely happy to see infrastructure moving forward.