“Some communities are 100% dependent on imported water, such as Palo Verdes peninsula where there’s not a groundwater basin. The same in Malibu, Topanga and Marina Del Rey,” said West Basin Municipal Water District Board Director Scott Houston, explaining that his district draws water from both the Colorado River and the SWP. “We have diversified our portfolio with recycled water, but we’re still 60% dependent on imported water. There will not be a day that we are not dependent on imported water.” Two recycling projects in development, Pure Water Southern California and Pure Water Los Angeles, would supply some areas with millions of gallons of purified water daily, but it would benefit the entire region, state, and even Continue Resiliency, Page 4
of that, we need drought-proof supplies to complement that when it’s not available,” said Shivaji Deshmukh, General Manager of the Inland Empire Utilities Agency (IEUA). “So, in a perfect situation, we would take as much imported water as we can and store that, and then in the dry years, shift to that either stored water or access that local supply, that’s independent of the hydrologic cycle.” Deshmukh was named Metropolitan’s next general manager on Oct.14 and is transitioning into that role that begins Jan. 1, 2026. The Inland Empire, San Gabriel Valley and north Orange County have groundwater basins for storage. West Los Angeles County, Ventura and south Orange County lack groundwater storage and rely more heavily on imported water.
OUR WATER: COST AND RELIABILITY
Water Resiliency Drives Economy comes from. In focus groups, many folks just point to their faucet,” said Charley Wilson, Executive Director of the nonprofit Southern California Water Coalition (SCWC). “The actual answer to where our water comes from is much more complex. We must invest in both local, regional and state infrastructure to ensure resiliency not just for us but for the Southwestern U.S.”
By Elizabeth Smilor A coalition of business, labor, local community groups, and water leaders has united with one message: Water, the lifeblood of the Southern California economy, is worth the investment. “Climate adaptation is important, but we have to be 100% reliable now, before we can adapt to the future. It’s a value proposition,” said Board Chair Adán Ortega Jr. of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (Metropolitan). “I believe that what consumers are telling us is not that our rates are too high, but that they don’t think what we provide is worth what they pay. So, our burden is to tell them it’s worth it, because without it your property values will tank and it will compromise health and safety in the region.” Ortega was a keynote speaker at a recent BizFed Institute Water Resiliency Summit at the headquarters of the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts (LACSD). The September event highlighted the importance of both local and imported water supplies. LACSD Chief Engineer and General Manager Robert Ferrante spoke about the agency’s joint recycling project with Metropolitan, Pure Water Southern California. One panel addressed local supply projects, such as stormwater capture and recycling. A second focused on the proposed Delta Conveyance Project (DCP) to modernize that portion of the State Water Project (SWP). “First, people need to understand where their water
For the whole of Southern California, about 30% of water is from Northern California via the State Water Project (SWP) and 20% is from the Colorado River via the Colorado River Aqueduct. The SWP supplies water to 27 million people and 750,000 acres of irrigated farmland. If its service area were a nation it would rank as the world’s eighth-largest economy. The City of Los Angeles draws water, in part, from the Owens River Mono Lake Basin in the Eastern Sierras via the Los Angeles Aqueduct. Local water supplies are primarily from groundwater basins filled with a combination of imported water, stormwater capture and recycled water. Each subregion’s supply is unique, but all are developing projects from storage to recycling to desalination to bolster local supply and resiliency. “Local and imported water supplies each come with a different reliability factor. Imported water is important because it’s still is an affordable source of water, but the supply source is based on the hydrologic cycle. And because
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