The San Diego region appears well-positioned to weather sharp cuts to California\u2019s share of Colorado River water.<\/p>\n
The U.S. Department of Interior<\/a> on Friday announced California, Arizona and Nevada need to reduce their water usage by 1.25 million acre-feet annually between 2027-2028, as climate change and overuse push the Colorado River watershed further into crisis. California is absorbing the second-largest cut, at 440,000 acre-feet of water.<\/p>\n But Felicia Marcus, former chair of the California State Water Resources Control Board, said in an interview that local leaders have spent \u201csmart money\u201d bolstering the water supply here.<\/p>\n \u201cThe folks in San Diego have recognized their vulnerability and invested. Which, frankly, as much as people complain about the cost \u2014 the cost is a pittance compared to the cost of inaction when the taps run dry,\u201d said Marcus, who\u2019s a visiting fellow with Stanford University\u2019s Water in the West program.<\/p>\n A seawater desalination plant in Carlsbad supplies roughly 10% of the region\u2019s drinking water<\/a> (though some environmentalists say the process is too expensive and energy intensive). Additionally, the city of San Diego and other municipalities have pursued large-scale water recycling projects, like Pure Water<\/a>, in recent years.<\/p>\n Marcus says the San Diego area also has a strong conservation ethos. She was the public face of mandatory water use restrictions during the worst California drought on record, which started in 2012. Back then, she found nonfunctional green lawns particularly distasteful.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was amazing to fly into San Diego \u2014 it was a sea of brown,\u201d she said. \u201cSo San Diego is actually one of the more efficient urban areas in the entire state, probably trailing only San Francisco and Santa Cruz as major cities.\u201d<\/p>\n The San Diego Water Authority also inked a 2003 conservation agreement<\/a> that provides nearly 280,000 acre-feet of water annually.<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s water that’s been saved through smart agricultural management practices. And as a result of that, we’re able to use that water in the San Diego region, which really gives us an amazing drought resiliency portfolio,\u201d said Jim Madaffer, who sits on the Water Authority\u2019s board of directors. \u201cI think we’re in fairly good shape no matter what the federal government ends up doing.\u201d<\/p>\n Those factors have contributed to a supply glut for the Water Authority, which allows the utility to sell water<\/a> to other California agencies. The Water Authority is also exploring how to sell water to other thirsty Western states, which has never been done.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat that means is we, in San Diego and in California, would not take some of our share of Colorado River water, therefore leaving that for places like Nevada and Arizona, who could much more desperately use it,\u201d Madaffer said.<\/p>\n