Water-The Third Rail Part XXII

Floyd Kellman writing in the Letters of the 7/27/2014 UT San Diego is right,
desalination is a way to reduce the 80% imported water into San Diego, but
those comments are falling on deaf ears as San Diego again will delay, for
five years at least, potable recycling and/or desalination when the City
receives yet another waiver to allow the City to dump over 200 million
gallons per day of partially treated sewage into the ocean.The Mayor and Councilcommitted to that in Resolution R308906 that passed with little media coverage on May 15, 2014, unless the Feds (USEPA) deny the waiver request. The current one expires 7/31/2015.  Despite the deepening drought,solid scientific evidence of the failing Colorado River and forecasted dry years ahead, the City leadership has “kicked the can down the road” again. The program called “Pure Water San Diego”, if you hear about it, is pure lip service to quiet the great unwashed, which may come true if the drought lasts another three years.

San Diego is blessed with an inordinately large reservoir of engineering and
financial talent that could point the way to successfully reducing our 80%
reliance on imported water. It is a mystery to this writer why our leaders,
the San Diego County Water Authority, twenty-four water districts, sixteen
water managers, twelve members on the City Council, and the mayor seem to
steadfastly refuse to take any meaningful action. A prior blog places some
of the fault for this on self-interest, i.e., job preservation however at
some point as the drought deepens, common sense has to prevail.

We know the costs. Right now treated water (per SDCWA website) charges the
twenty-four water districts an “all-in” rate of $1,029 for raw water and
$1,303 for treated water. We also have an idea of how much the various ways
we have of sourcing our water costs. ‘They vary widely is the caveat in the
Department of Water Resources (DWR) diagram used for reference here. DWR
quotes a range. The high end of the range is listed below per acre-foot:

Urban Water Conservation $522
Agricultural Water Conservation $67
Brackish Ground water Desalination $900
Recycled Waste Water $1100
New Dams and Reservoirs $1300
Ocean Desalination $2257

What is most striking about comparing these water costs is the cost of
recycled wastewater is nearly equal to what SDCWA is charging their
twenty-four members, $1,029 per acre foot compared to $1,100 for recycled
wastewater, assuming raw water in both instances so further treatment is
necessary.

The mayor and the city council have “kicked the can down the road” again. It
is a mystery of mind-numbing proportions why we aren’t proceeding, as Orange
County has in years past, to reduce our reliance on imported water, which
even if there was no drought, would make sense. But we are in a drought, and
the risks and cost/benefit analyses are changing rapidly. If anyone is
reading this who would challenge the numbers above, a discussion of any
errors that could have crept into the costs and logic is most welcome.

Milt Burgess