PUB00022

• Year: 2000
• Title: Layperson's Guide to California Water
• CWCB Section: Interstate & Federal
• Author: California Water Education Foundation
• Description: Layperson's Guide to California Water
• Publications - Doc Type: Other

Stretchin

The state's population is growing by approximately
750,000 people a year and by 2020 is expected to
reach nearly 48 million. The sunny, arid southland
will account for half this growth. And this area faces
decreased entitlements to imported water from the
Colorado River and the Eastern Sierra. California
now has a firm annual supply of about 35 million
acre-feet of developed water. According to DWR's
1998 update of Bulletin 160, The California Water
Plan, without additional facilities and improved water
management. the average annual shortfall by 2020
could be from 2.4 million acre-feet in normal years

WATER MARKETING

Water marketing is the transfer or sale of water or
water rights from one user to another. The Idea that
water could be sold as a cash crop emerged in the
late 1970s. But water transfers did not come to the
forefront until push came to shove during the 1987-
1992 drought. Out of necessity, in 1991, Individual
water agencies arranged many short-term water
transfers - exchanges of water for one year or less.
That same year, the state became a water broker
when it created the Drought Water Bank. DWR
bought mostly surface water from agricultural users
and sold it to water-strapped urban, agriculture and
environmental interests.

Legislation has been enacted to remove some
institutional and regulatory constraints on water
transters both at the state and federal level. The
CVPIA allowed water rights holders to sell CVP water
for a profit to other entities, including those outside
the CVP service area.

Reallocating the available water on a supply and
demand basis is viewed by proponents as the best
financial, political and environmental means of
accommodating an increase in population. Water
transfers can occur among farmers, who use the bulk
of the developed water supply, and between agricul-
ture and urban users. The latter is encouraged by
high prices cities are willing to pay for water. The
buying and transferring of water from the poorer rural
areas to wealthier cities raises fear in some that other
regions could meet the same fate as the Owens
Valley. After the eastern Sierra region's surface and
groundwater were bought up by Los Angeles to feed
the booming population 250 miles away, Owens
Valley's agricultural economy nearly dried up.

The first large scale water transfer programs between
agriculture and urban agencies involve the Colorado
River and MWD, the state's largest urban water

the Su

to as much as 6.2 million acre-feet in critically dry
years. Urban growth will make up the bulk of the
expected gap between future supply and demand.

The dire predictions about the ever-growing demand
for water and unpredictable and diminishing supply
have forced water managers throughout the state to
look at alternative water supply options. These
include water marketing, water banking and conjunc-
tive use, water conservation, sea water desalination
and the retirement of agricultural lands with poor
drainage.

supplier. In 1988, MWD and liD - the largest user of
Colorado River water - agreed that MWD would pay
$233 million for conservation measures to improve
liD's water distribution system. The primary conser-
vation measure involves extensive lining of the
district's irrigation canals to eliminate seepage. In
turn, MWD is to receive the water conserved, which
is more than 100,000 acre-feet of Colorado River
water annually, for a minimum of 35 years following
completion of the project.

In 1996, San Diego County Water Authority
(SDCWA) proposed buying conserved water from
liD to meet the demands of the rapidly growing
region. The plan calls for transferring 200,000 acre-
feet of conserved Colorado River water annually for
up to 75 years. Though initial concerns were raised
by Coachella Valley Water District over IID's right to
transfer the water and the ability of liD to "wheel"
water to San Diego through MWD's Colorado River
Aqueduct, those issues appear to be resolved. In
1998, San Diego signed agreements with both liD
and MWD to facilitate the transfer. A draft EIR/EIS
on the transfer is expected for release some time in
2000. When the transter occurs, it will become the
largest ag-to-urban water transfer in California
history.

The drawbacks of market transfers include potential
adverse impacts on third parties from the selling of
surface water and fallowing of land. Farm workers,
agricultural suppliers and retail businesses are
impacted. There also are associated ramifications
in the rural communities from the rise in unemploy-
ment. Others fear that long-term water transfers
- more than one year - from farms to cities will
increase the paving over of farmland for suburbs.
Another problem can arise when farmers sell their
surface water and continue to grow crops by subsll-
tuting groundwater.

Tramferring I\'mer from
agricultural to urban Wie
may open lip nell' supplies
for gro\\';llg cities. The
proposed transfer of
200.000 ocrefeet ofl1'arer
from Imperiallrrigmioll
D;strictto the city of
Sail Diego (abore) could
hecome the largest such
tramler in the slate's
history.

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