William J. Kelly Sure, Our Water Use is Down a Bit as a City, But...
Letter to the Editor: While communities throughout California and the Southwest are doing their part to become more water efficient for the long-haul, we here in South Pasadena are doing very little as a city. Sure, our water use may be down a bit as the city rides the coattails of Los Angeles, MWD, and other local government public education campaigns urging people to conserve, but other cities are taking concrete steps to create permanent water savings, including water rates that charge customers increasingly more as water use increases. From Long Beach and Los Angeles to Pasadena, Irvine, and now Colton, cities are coupling these tiered rates with programs to replace green lawns with drought tolerant landscaping and help residents and businesses install water efficient fixtures and appliances. Throughout the region, cities are enforcing water conservation ordinances that limit use. Meanwhile, South Pasadena has no effective water conservation or efficiency programs, even in the face of state laws requiring cities to permanently cut per capita water use 20 percent by 2020 and to adopt water conservation landscape policies. We may not accept the laws of man, but we can’t continue to deny the laws of nature. That’s because the water situation in California and the Southwest has fundamentally changed forever, come rain or shine. In short, our wells are running dry. South Pasadena gets most of its water from wells in San Gabriel and San Marino that draw on the Main San Gabriel Water Basin. Scores of cities and entities pump water from this aquifer, which is managed by the Main San Gabriel Basin Watermaster to make sure there is enough water for all. The watermaster also must make sure that downstream basins get a certain flow of water from our valley to meet their needs. By longstanding legal agreement, each Main San Gabriel Basin entity is entitled to pump a fixed percentage of the total amount of water the watermaster determines each year can be withdrawn from the aquifer without depleting it. The watermaster bases that annual decision on weather and hydrological conditions. South Pasadena’s share of this annual total is 1.8 percent. When the city pumps more, it must pay some $450 an acre foot to help purchase “replacement” water to inject into the aquifer to keep its level up. That cost is up over recent years and city officials say it will climb higher in the years ahead. Last year the city’s pumping right, as set by the watermaster, was 3,249 acre feet, but the city withdrew an additional 1,648 acre feet from its wells at a cost of more than $740,000. Indeed, South Pasadena overdrafts its wells more than but a handful of all users of the aquifer. If the city uses water at the same rate throughout the remainder of this year, overdraft charges could climb toward $900,000. That’s because the watermaster reduced the amount of water that can be pumped from the aquifer overall due to the falling water level. This reduced South Pasadena’s share to 3,068 acre feet. The increasing cost of overdrafts has effectively erased a surplus traditionally generated by the city’s water rates that have helped support crucial local services. For instance, according to the city’s adopted budget, water rates brought in $4.2 million of revenue in fiscal year 2005-06 and operating the system cost $3.5 million, providing a surplus of $700,000. Last year that surplus narrowed to less than $300,000. This year, the water rates are projected to bring in $4.8 million and the system is projected to cost $4.8 million to operate. Without improved water efficiency in the city, eventually the city’s general fund will be subsidizing the water system, particularly as overdraft rates rise. This will mean either cuts in services or increases in fees. Indeed, the situation is so serious that the watermaster is ordering all who draw water from the aquifer to cut use by 20 percent because the water level recently fell to an all-time low		since records have been kept of 185 feet above sea level. To make sure the aquifer is not drained and all can continue to draw from their wells, the watermaster strives to keep the level between 200 and 250 feet above sea level. Recent rains will help, but will not begin to make up for years of overuse and growing population. Some may say, so what, South Pasadena pays for the water. However, water wholesalers that provide replacement water have had trouble purchasing it at any price, with offers as high as thousands of dollars an acre foot from farms in the Central Valley. To the extent that replacement water is available at all in the years ahead, water agencies say the price will only go up. This is because Colorado River water that Arizona is entitled to—but for years allowed California to take—now is needed there to supply the growing populations of Phoenix, Tucson, and other cities. In addition, the river has been in a dry condition for almost a decade, with the level of Lake Mead falling. To the north, dry conditions, coupled with the need to pump less water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to restore fisheries, have constrained the availability of water to points south through the State Water Project. The net result is that in Southern California we will have to rely more on local water to meet our needs in the future, rather than on imported water. This marks a fundamental and long-term change, not solely driven by drought. To cope, we have to join other cities and public agencies to go beyond conservation and march into an era of water efficiency, from major public works projects to the faucet on your sink and shower. We have to change the landscaping around our homes and businesses from English gardens to drought tolerant native vegetation. We have to shift to water recycling, rainwater harvesting, and use of gray water. Other cities are pursuing these changes rapidly, but not South Pasadena. What other cities are finding is that the fundamental key to encouraging wise use of water is to restructure city water rates to make them usage sensitive, a strategy commonly known as tiered rates. Under tiered rates, each water user gets a baseline amount of water each month at a low base price. This amount should provide for basic needs, particularly when used efficiently. The next increment of usage is billed at a higher rate to encourage conservation and as consumption continues through a series of usage tiers the rates climb higher. Tiered rates are helping cities meet a new state requirement to cut water use 20 percent by 2020 on a permanent basis. That’s because they incentivize people to invest in the new appliances, plumbing fixtures, irrigation systems, and landscaping that save water year after year, not just when we think to turn the faucet off while we’re brushing our teeth. Permanent efficiency is now necessary because the Southwest is inherently dry and its population gradually has grown to the point where it is outstripping the natural water supply unless efficient new water use technologies, behaviors, landscapes, and aesthetics are employed. That’s why the South Pasadena Water Council March 2 recommended that the city immediately hire a consultant to develop a fair and effective tiered rate structure that will put our community into the mainstream of water policy, rather than continuing to deny the reality that water is a scarce and precious resource. William J. Kelly Chair, South Pasadena Natural Resources & Environmental Commission Member, South Pasadena Water Council On Behalf of the Water Council’s Water Rate Review Committee and Its Members: Sam Chandra Dave Czmanske William J. Kelly Don Nichols Charles Trevino