MWD, San Diego Water Conflict

Rep. George Brown Jr.’s (D-San Bernardino) characterization of the Metropolitan Water District as a water monopoly is false (Commentary, Oct. 6). The MWD is a cooperative made up of member agencies in six counties who have delegated to Met the responsibility for providing the area’s 16 million residents with a reliable, safe water supply at a reasonable cost.

The San Diego County Water Authority, one of the Met member agencies, has chosen to break ranks and to seek to purchase an independent supply of conserved agricultural water from the Imperial Irrigation District. The Partnership for Regional Water Reliability, made up of Met member agencies, does not oppose San Diego’s quest, insofar that it does not diminish the supply reliability or push off costs on its sister agencies.

Brown is correct in acknowledging that the MWD owns the aqueduct that San Diego proposes to use to transport its “independent” supply. What he describes as an “exorbitant charge” for San Diego’s proposed exclusive use of the aqueduct is not the case. Met has developed a formula that would avoid a cost shift, and has entered negotiations to modify that formula, based on the benefit of the San Diego transfer to the entire region.

Brown fails to acknowledge that any transfer of agricultural water would diminish the flow to the Salton Sea. On the one hand, desalting and taking pollutants from the agricultural runoff would help improve the quality of water going to the Salton Sea. On the other hand, on-farm conservation would also diminish the flow but would not help solve the water quality problem.

WAYNE A. CLARK, Chairman

Partnership for Regional Water

Reliability, Fountain Valley