Water-The Third Rail Part XIV

Lake Mead is at its lowest level since 1937. That’s when it was filling for
the first time. As the drought deepens with no end in sight, San Diego
relies on Lake Mead (the Colorado River) for sixty percent of its imported
water. Does this bother anyone at City Hall or the San Diego County Water
Authority {SDCWA}? Apparently not. No mandatory rationing. No cutting back
of agriculture that uses 80% of all the water that flows out of Lake Mead.
No potable recycling.

All of our politicians are focused on the November elections. One thing is
for sure. The immigration problems and similar issues will vanish in San
Diego when the faucets go dry and the toilets don’t flush. No one will want
to live where there is little or no water. And who or what will they blame?
Climate change, of course! What else! Never mind they could be working on
recycling the hundreds of millions of gallons of wastewater that are dumped
into the ocean every day, 365 days a year.

At an elevation above sea level of 1081.8 Lake Mead is just under seven
feet above a threshold (1075 feet) that forces cuts in water deliveries to
Arizona and Nevada, states at the head of the line for rationing. And what
state is next?

Suppose this drought drags on for two more years, maybe five. Do you think
there will be some attention paid by City Hall and the SDCWA then? If past
experience is any guide, what is likely to happen will be cries for help
from Washington DC, grants, Federal funds and FEMA will get involved when
Governor Brown declares certain segments of California disaster areas.

Could the politicians be doing something now? Of course, but water and water
rates are the third rail. In case that phrase doesn’t mean anything for
those who have never ridden the subway, that’s where the electrical energy
comes from to drive the trains…..the third rail. Touch it and you’re dead!

That is what politicians think when anyone mentions, God forbid, raising the
price of water to assure a reliable water supply and economic stability.
When the SDCWA says “we have plenty of storage, don’t worry!” That’s the
time to worry, just as when the captain of the Titanic said, “No worry, this
ship is unsinkable.”

Milt Burgess

PS: A blog reader has commented that in “1986 when Lake Mead was overflowing,

they thought it would continue forever and promptly

installed 30% larger generators. We know how that worked out.”