WATER: Balancing Supplies Against Competing Demands
Voters are likely to be faced with more large water expenditures in the coming years. Making informed decisions on these investments in managing California’s water resources is difficult given unclear answers to key questions such as:
- How should limited and unpredictable supplies be allocated among competing demands?
- Who is responsible and accountable for managing water supplies and quality?
- How much will it cost to ensure safe and reliable supplies for the public and environment?
- Who should pay?
Where does our water it come from?
How much is available
Water use; how much do we use?
Californians have long struggled to allocate limited resources of fresh water among competing uses:residential,commercial, industrial, recreational, energy production, institutional, and agricultural.
Balancing these demands against limited supplies became harder when recent court rulings recognized the legitimate public trust demands of another user: the ecosystem. And the challenge to meet all the demands is intensifying as California’s rights to divert water from the Colorado River are being reduced.
Challenges in Balancing Supplies Against Demands
- Greater Drought Impacts
- Increasing Flood Risks
- Declining Ecosystems and Impaired Water Bodies
- Aging Infrastructure
How are California’s water resources managed?
Background:
Since 1976, California's voters have passed 10 state-level bond measures totaling $7.67 billion. These bonds have funded projects intended to ensure stable supplies of drinking water, control floods, and protect the environment.
While many of these projects have met specific narrow goals, broader efforts to manage the state’s water resources have been less successful.
The ability of public and private water suppliers to provide safe and reliable water supplies remains a key concern. Little progress has been made by the state and by local governments in repairing or replacing aging flood control infrastructure.
And despite decades of effort, no agreement has yet been reached to restore collapsing ecosystems in critical areas such as the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and the San Francisco Bay Estuary and in many inland watersheds.
Water rights
Land use:
Purveyors; why water costs vary
Local
State/federal; the water projects
IRWM and strategies for sustainable management
Who Pays for California’s Water Resources?
What happened to Prop 18, the 2010 Water Bond
At the close of a special legislative session at the end of 2009, the governor and legislature announced their intention to ask voters to approve $11.14 billion in additional funding for water projects.
In the summer of 2010, faced with mounting opposition and the poor economic outlook for the state, the governor and legislature withdrew the bond measure, known as Prop 18, from November 2010 ballot.
Voters will likely be asked to vote for a similar bond measure in the November 2012 election. Key questions to ask about another statewide water bond measure:
- How should supplies be allocated among competing demands?
- Who is responsible and accountable for managing water supplies and quality?
- How much will it cost to ensure safe and reliable supplies for the public and environment?
- Who should pay?
