Water in California
California water history
Water problems in California became part of mainstream discourse as a result of Roman Polanski’s 1974 acclaimed film Chinatown and Marc Reisner’s wildly popular 1986 book Cadillac Desert. These works remain the primary narratives about the Los Angeles Aqueduct and water in the West. Through them, audiences learned how water issues in the western United States involve bureaucratic battles between utility companies, farmers, and federal agencies like the Bureau of Reclamation and the Army Corps of Engineers, and how balancing urban and agricultural water needs presents legislative, economic, and social challenges. The stories also expose a darker side of water resource management, where stakeholders can be ruthless in their quest to gain control of precious water resources and dams at the expense of ecosystem health and Native American Indian tribal lands.
California’s controversial history of water resource management, as dramatized in Chinatown and Cadillac Desert, has left a toxic legacy that now costs the state billions of dollars. California’s water story intertwines narratives about economic opportunity, variable climatic conditions, competing interests, environmental injustice, and climate change. Since the nineteenth century Gold Rush, California has been a water policy leader having made profound impacts on the political framework for water management in the western United States. For instance, an 1855 court ruling that established the doctrine of prior appropriation remains the governing water law in seventeen states. Furthermore, beginning in 1913, complex systems of aqueducts were engineered to carry water hundreds of miles to support the growth of major cities in arid regions that seem to have unquenchable thirst. These aqueducts set a precedent for using technology to facilitate the unsustainable growth of cities located in areas highly vulnerable to drought, like Los Angeles.
Los Angeles’ dependency on imported water has become its Achilles’ heel. Up until the 1980s, the city imported a majority of its water supply from the Owens Valley in the Eastern Sierras via the Los Angeles Aqueduct. Transporting water from the Eastern Sierra Nevada caused immeasurable harm by transforming indigenous tribal lands into a desert with dried up lake beds and some of the worst air quality in our nation (from particulate matter exposed by receding lake shorelines). Consequently, battles between the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and local communities in the Owens Valley have become a long litigious struggle resulting in a number of environmental mitigation projects that ultimately reduced the amount of water transferred to Los Angeles via the Los Angeles Aqueduct.
Decreasing the amount of water transferred from the Los Angeles Aqueduct meant that the City of Los Angeles needed to purchase more water from another source to offset the loss in supply. This situation provided an opportunity for the city to diversify its water supply and be more resilient to drought conditions and climate threats. The city, however, simply purchased a larger quantity from the Metropolitan Water District, which imports water from the Colorado, San Joaquin, and Sacramento River deltas, thus maintaining its dependency on the snowfall in the Sierra Nevadas. Furthermore, in drought years the city must pay even more for imported water from the Metropolitan Water District because the Los Angeles Aqueduct delivers less water when snowfall levels are low in the Eastern Sierra.
Water Security, & Why Your Use Matters
Our current system of water management is costly, and the costs will only increase over time as California receives less snow, environmental problems worsen, and the current water infrastructure ages. The State Water Resources Control Board’s climate and conservation manager reported that the price of water in California has already increased at a rate six times higher than the rate of inflation. This raises valid environmental justice concerns regarding California’s Human Right to Water law, which prompted some utilities (including the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power) to create low income discount programs. In addition to addressing access concerns, utilities have altered their pricing structure and created financial benefits to incentivize less use for commercial and residential customers.
In order to protect water security in the face of sharp cost increases, several city governments have created initiatives that prioritize sustainable water management. A collaborative initiative called the One Water LA 2040 Plan was recently developed by the City of Los Angeles to increase climate resilience. The initiative is still in development, but provides a framework for sustainable water management. One Water LA prioritizes the improvement of watershed health and diversification of water supply by incorporating direct potable reuse and indirect potable reuse into its water footprint. The plan outlines strategies to update the current infrastructure (sewer treatment plants, greywater treatment plants, etc.), preserve the LA river systems, increase rainwater capture through green infrastructure (green roofs, permeable pavement, etc.), and increase the use of recycled water. The City of San Francisco developed Resilient San Francisco that includes protecting the city’s water supply in its mission. Resilient San Francisco outlines methods to improve infrastructure for the water supply for forest fires and also encourages investments more green and water recycling infrastructure (greywater tunnels, pumps, and conveyance pipes).
State policymakers have also developed sustainable water management strategies. The California Water Code requires that the state outline its strategies for sustainable water management every five years in the California Water Plan. The most recent update, from 2018, outlines major challenges and provides strategic recommendations. These include strengthening state support for regional water management and vulnerable communities, promoting sustainable groundwater management practices, improving infrastructure, restoring critical ecosystem functions, expanding tribal involvement in regional planning efforts (which is incredible for many inclusivity reasons, but also because of the traditional Native American reciprocity principle that demands protection of the environment), incorporating ecosystem needs into water management infrastructure planning, facilitating comprehensive water resource data collection management, and expanding water resource education.
The state has also enacted important sustainable water policies that are helping increase California’s water security. They include:
2012 Human Right to Water law (AB 685) that aims to ensure universal access to water;
Sustainable Groundwater Management Act of 2014 that prohibits the overdrawing of groundwater resources in vulnerable areas;
2015 California EcoRestore that is aiming to restore 30,000 acres of delta habitat by 2020;
Updates to the 2006 Water Quality Control Plan for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Estuary that developed flow requirements and water quality control measures; and
Proposition 68 (California Drought, Water, Parks, Climate, Coastal Protection, and Access for All Act of 2018) which designates $4 billion for parks, environmental protections and restoration, water infrastructure projects, and flood protection
While these efforts by our state and local governments are both necessary and commendable, the implementation of policies and programs is often where the greatest challenges lie. Policy implementation is not an exact science because there is so much uncertainty about how to best implement a particular policy, especially without precedent examples in other jurisdictions. National and state governments are challenged with implementing policies consistently across a target group, while local governments with limited resources don’t always have the human and financial capacity to monitor performance, problem-solve unintended obstacles, create routine progress reports, and handle violations of the laws. Observed violations of environmental laws like water rights and water quality regulations do not always result in action. Additionally, there tends to be a lag between the time a policy is implemented and when its desired outcomes are evident, which can make designing good policy difficult in a society that typically acts more on short term economic gains than on long term impacts on the environment.
Controversial and prominent issues like climate change pose even more challenges because they are both intellectually disputed and politically contentious. These leading policy topics may result in bigger policies, programs, and projects (for political leverage or because the issues are highly complex) that are more costly and time consuming to implement and have several unanticipated side effects. Thus, the onus for building water secure and climate resilient communities, cities, states, nations, and the planet is also on individuals. At a time when California’s population is growing and its water security is decreasing, residents must also get involved and take action.
Ways to take action
Vote (!) for local, state, and federal political leaders that support sustainable water management, climate resilience, and environmental remediation.
Get involved in local planning. Social cohesion and political engagement enables city officials and residents to collaborate to identify actions and stakeholders that can address sustainable urban water management and climate resilience.
Vote with your dollars by eating less meat. Meat production is highly consumptive of water resources, which further stresses the water supply.
Vote with your dollars by supporting local farmers who use water efficient technology and climate-friendly practices. California’s agriculture industry is highly consumptive - 40% of our state’s water is used for agriculture. Farmers should be using water-efficient technologies to minimize their water waste. Water use research shows that more efficient use of water can increase crop yields. More sustainable livestock management (e.g., rotating livestock herds, using manure fertilizer, managing crop residues for livestock feed, choosing climate-appropriate animals, etc.) can also improve the livelihoods of farmers. Do your research and support farmers who make sustainable choices.
Be more mindful of your energy consumption. Water supply is important for our energy grid. Whenever you turn on a light, think of it like turning on a faucet, because millions of gallons of water per year are used for solar thermal with wet cooling, coal, nuclear, and natural gas power. You’ll save money too!
Say no to bottled water. Aside from the energy used to produce bottled water and the huge quantity of plastic waste, the bottled water industry is highly consumptive of water resources. Many companies bottle water in California, which routinely suffers from drought. Nestle opened a bottled water facility in Arizona, which also faces drought conditions regularly. Many bottled water facilities bottle from municipal sources, but companies that bottle from springs tend to dry springs up because the springs can’t replenish at the rate water is withdrawn.
Ask questions about how you can change your consumption patterns. Approximately 70% of potable water in Los Angeles is used for consumption. Can you change your home’s landscaping to include more drought-tolerant plants? Can you ask your landlord to change the landscaping at your residence? Can you install greywater systems or capture rainwater? Look into incentive programs in your local area. For example, California’s Friendly Landscape Incentive Program.
