Take a `silver buckshot' approach to water reliability
Water is the sharp edge of climate change, the place where people are experiencing climate impacts most acutely.
Last month, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order directly connecting California's ongoing drought to climate change and calling for a 15% voluntary cutback in water use. While we are fortunate that Marin's local reservoirs are currently at 90% of capacity, prudent management dictates that we assume more dry years on the horizon.
Because of climate change, the past is no longer prologue in the water industry. Our solutions must evolve to meet that dryer future.
I have long maintained that Marin's water supply security requires a diverse and robust portfolio of options rather than reliance on a single silver bullet. Let's call this multifaceted approach the “silver buckshot” strategy.
The centerpiece of this strategy will be water technology, which is advancing at an extraordinary rate. Newer technologies are increasing efficiencies at system and consumer levels, while bringing costs down. Just as technology revolutionized energy use and our ability to do more with far less, water tech will be the new path to successful water management, from reuse to grey water to energy capture to real time information.
It's not about having less, but wasting less.
Making the most efficient use of our water supply is the obvious and most affordable foundation for a multilayered strategy that should also include new supply options. Indeed, increasing water efficiency is far from the only thing that the Marin Municipal Water District is doing, or has done, to ensure a reliable and resilient water supply for the future.
In addition to diligently upgrading local water infrastructure, protecting our watershed and limiting the risk of debilitating fire, the district has, in recent years, invested substantially in supplemental water supply, primarily by stabilizing and expanding access to water from Sonoma County.
Today, Marin Water is in the midst of a supply assessment, which will determine our direction forward. Indeed, the findings of the assessment will be central to successfully navigating our increasingly water-constrained future. The most promising options are those that lean into innovative water technology.
Advanced water purification facilities would enable Marin Water to include highly purified recycled water in our system. Automated meter-reading technology allows for tracking water use at the ratepayer level in real time, improving water management and leak detection.
Groundwater banking in Sonoma County, known as “aquifer storage and recovery,” now appears to be a serious future option to store water underground, avoiding evaporation losses. Regional desalination, and versions of Marin-only desalination are on the table, as are connections or interties to Bay Area partner water agencies that would provide the district with multiple opportunities for water transfers.
The most expensive options are those that pretend we are not living in a world of tradeoffs that require us to make the best use of our existing water resources in addition to developing supplemental supplies.
The key to the silver buckshot portfolio will be balancing the cost of supply options to local ratepayers. Any set of solutions will have a price tag, but some will be higher than others. Under state law (Proposition 218), all local ratepayers will have to pay for these investments regardless of how much water they use. The result is that the low water users who stay within Tier 1 — more than 60% of district consumers — will shoulder most of this burden.
For low income ratepayers, this can quickly become unsustainable. It will be essential, therefore, that the mix of water supply augmentation, efficiency and conservation options ultimately selected is not only cost effective, but also equitable in terms of who benefits and who will bear the costs.
The assessment is the next step in Marin Water's ongoing efforts to enhance drought resilience while maintaining rate affordability and access to safe, healthy water for everyone. This process is an opportunity to engage, be heard and learn more about these complex issues. While the changing climate is bringing new water challenges for the region, we have the ability to choose a path forward that is reliable, secure and sustainable for the long term.