San Diego remains afloat amid grim water stories

Some of San Diego’s neighbors to the north are facing tough water restrictions. Others are in dispute over whether to move forward with a big, expensive water project. Meanwhile, levels at some huge reservoirs have never been so low.

The impacts of the yearslong drought on water supplies are growing across the state, as is the dilemma about how to address them.

But not in the San Diego region. That’s been the case for years, but it’s becoming more apparent as the state appears to be taking a more nuanced approach toward water restrictions. Rather than statewide mandatory cuts, California leaders are considering taking into account the status of local supplies.

San Diego, as seemingly everybody knows by now, is well stocked — so much so that the long-lauded foresight of water managers and elected officials to prepare for such times has become subject to some secondguessing. Creating a reliable supply has come at a big cost, resulting in high water rates and questions about whether the region needs all the water it has.

Price aside, the San Diego County Water Authority has become the envy of other water districts for its diverse supply from recycling projects, a desalination plant, a Colorado River water deal and conservation efforts. Lisa LienMager, spokesperson for the California Natural Resources Agency, early last month told the UnionTribune’s Joshua Emerson Smith that the San Diego region is a “poster child for resilience.”

That’s a good position to be in, but it does make messaging a bit tricky for the authority. There’s no real need locally to cut back on water for now, but even normal use could be seen as profligate as other areas face restrictions.

On its website, the San Diego County Water Authority assures customers that water is “Always There For You” while urging them to follow a “WaterSmart Lifestyle,” providing tips, classes and rebates aimed at saving water.

The drought has brought a number of firsts in California and the West.

The Los Angeles-based Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, an umbrella agency for numerous water districts, last week announced for the first time it would be restricting millions of customers to one day a week of outdoor watering.

The affected member agencies are those that get supplies from the State Water Project, which delivers water from Northern California. Though a Metropolitan member, the San Diego County Water Authority doesn’t get water from the state project and is not affected.

In March, the state announced it would be allocating only 5 percent of the normal amount of water from the State Water Project this year.

“This is a crisis. This is unprecedented,” said Adel Hagekhalil, general manager of Metropolitan, according to CNN. “We have never done anything like this before ... because we haven’t seen this situation happen like this before.”

Also last week, photos showed that a 1971 intake valve at Lake Mead, which stores Colorado River water, was exposed for the first time and can no longer draw

water because of the historic low reservoir level. This week, a body in a barrel dumped in Lake Mead about 40 years ago was discovered. Authorities expect more grisly findings.

“The barrel was likely dropped hundreds of yards off the shore back then,” said Ray Spencer, a Las Vegas Metropolitan Police homicide lieutenant, “but that area is now considered the shoreline.”

That’s an unexpected result of the drought, but water shortages are not. Last year, in another first, the federal government declared a water shortage on the Colorado River.

In 1991, San Diego was in a position similar to agencies in Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Ventura counties now facing cuts from Metropolitan. The umbrella agency cut San Diego’s water delivery by 31 percent and threatened more drought reductions.

Over the ensuing decades, the county water authority spent billions of dollars to diversify its supplies and become less dependent on Metropolitan. In 1990, San Diego relied on Metropolitan for 95 percent of its water; now it’s 11 percent. Other districts are working to build more resilient water supplies, and will experience increased costs to do that.

As for the Colorado River, the federal action underscored that the river, which supplies water to some 40 million people across the West, is a threatened resource. However, the county water authority’s deal to get river water outside of Metropolitan is through a contract with the Imperial Irrigation District, which has priority water rights and would be one of the last agencies to face cuts of river water.

Even the San Diego region’s dependence on the river could be eased in the near future as sizable recycling systems come online with plants in San Diego, Oceanside and East County that will purify wastewater into drinking water.

The region also has the Poseidon desalination plant in Carlsbad, which has been controversial since its planning stages for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the cost of the water it produces.

Poseidon is proposing another plant to turn ocean water into drinking water in Huntington Beach, though that project was just dealt a major setback. The California Coastal Commission staff recommended the plant not be built, citing economic, social and environmental factors, according to the Orange County Register. Opponents say water officials should ditch the project and focus on more recycling and conservation.

However, Gov. Gavin Newsom is urging the commission to overrule its staff and approve the plant at its May 12 meeting.

“We need more tools in the damn tool kit,” Newsom told the Bay Area News Group editorial board when asked about the project. “We are as dumb as we want to be. What more evidence do you need that you need to have more tools in the tool kit than what we’ve experienced? Seven out of the last 10 years have been severe drought.”

The future of desalination in California could hinge on the fate of the Huntington Beach project. If this plant fails after 22 years in development during what a recent study said is the driest spell in the American West in 1,200 years, would any other agency risk moving ahead with one?

San Diego points to the Carlsbad desalination plant and other sources in arguing for local flexibility from the state to determine whether cutbacks are needed locally. Water officials are hopeful, based on the governor’s actions, but the final determination will be made by the State Water Resources Control Board at a meeting later this month.

San Diego officials were stung in 2015 when thenGov. Jerry Brown ordered water cuts amounting to a 25 percent statewide reduction, noting the region invested heavily in preparing for dry years while others did not. The cuts later were eased for San Diego and some other areas.

Still, it was the first statemandated water reduction in California history.