Water-The Third Rail Part V

Breaking News: San Diego Developers have apparently invented a way to make
water.similar to Charlie Reagan in Water Shock who, commercially found using
xanantite, he could combine hydrogen and oxygen in a continuous process.

The above must be true since today’s UT announced 1700 new homes, a new
hospital and a downtown mixed use facility will all become a reality in the
near future. But if it isn’t true, then where do these developers plan to
get thousands of acre-feet of new water necessary to sustain these new
structures?

A family of four uses over one hundred and sixty thousand gallons of water a
year, half an acre-foot. Do the math. We are like 16th century medical
people sucking the life out of the patient by bleeding them. This patient is
the ever-diminishing Colorado River where we get 63% of our water. Figure it
out. There is only so much water to go around. Does anyone pay any attention
to what water pipe they are going to hook onto for the 1700 homes, hospital
and new downtown high rises? The article about the 1700 homes in the UT
mentions overtaxing the wastewater system. Only one problem, to get
wastewater, the incoming water has to come from somewhere.

These are all noble projects, but unsustainable unless there is water.

Oh, what’s the big deal? We just have to take shorter showers and stop
washing our cars in the street, and maybe take out a few lawns. Wrong. We
cannot conserve our way out of this.

Here is an idea. In the proforma calculations for these new developments,
add a substantial “Water Fee” for directed funds to provide indirect (IPR)
and/or direct potable (DPR) recycling. Whoa! The reverberations from the
developers would shake the foundations of City Hall. How could these
bureaucrats increase the cost of building by demanding outrageous fees? It’s
easy, if you want to build in San Diego, you must provide a way to get water
to the projects. What better way than to help pay for the cost of the water
bonds necessary to fund a billion plus dollars to recycle our wastewater.

Here is another idea. Put a moratorium on any new construction in San Diego
until IPR/DPR systems are up and running. Does anyone think this might
possibly get the water policy makers and implementers off their collective
derrieres? I think so.

We know the drill. ” If a USEPA waiver is successfully negotiated with the Feds,
we can push off spending money on recycling our sewage.  Unfair accusation?
What’s unfair is playing fast and loose with life-giving water availability for the
average San Diego County resident.

Milt Burgess