U.S. Water News Online
LOS ANGELES -- Buoying developers but sinking the hopes of slow-growth advocates, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California has concluded the region has enough water to accommodate growth expected over the next 20 years.
The recently-released report was prompted by new laws requiring that a water supply be secured before large-scale subdivisions can be approved.
It says that if all the water projects proposed by the MWD and local agencies are implemented, the reliability of the water supply "could be assured beyond 20 years."
Environmentalists criticized the report, saying it relies on controversial proposals to drain water from the Mojave Desert and agricultural areas.
MWD Chief Executive Ron Gastelum said the agency is not seeking to influence land-use decisions. But, he added, "For us to deny that there is water denies our mandate" to provide water.
The MWD is the largest wholesale supplier of water in the nation and serves a 5,200-square-mile area with 17 million residents.
Steve Zimmer, vice president of Valencia-based Newhall Ranch and Farming Co., developer of the largest residential project in the history of Los Angeles County, does not expect the report to end fights waged over growth.
It could, however, remove water as the "trump card" used by slow-growth advocates, he said.
"This report goes a long way toward proving that there is water to help us meet our housing needs," said Don Kendall, general manager of the Calleguas Municipal Water District in Ventura County, where several large developments are planned.
However, Elden Hughes, a Sierra Club official, said the MWD report relies on projects that are environmentally damaging. Among them is one that would pump water from an aquifer beneath the Mojave Desert.
"You shouldn't bet your future on the dead bodies of endangered species," he said.
The MWD wants to "shift water from alfalfa to urban sprawl" in banking on the proposed sale of water from Imperial County to San Diego, said Daniel Patterson, a biologist with the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity.
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