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By Thomas K. Arnold
(page 1 of 6)
How Dry I Am
With a meager 3.02 inches of rainfall for the season that ended June 30, San Diego is suffering through its worst drought since recordkeeping began back in 1850. But while previous dry periods were accompanied by widespread calls for conservation—and in some parts of the county, limitations on water use—the alarms have yet to be sounded. There have been no pleas for people to stop watering their lawns, or put bricks in their toilet tanks, or turn off the shower while they soap down. And city officials haven’t even floated the concept of water rationing.Critics such as Kelly Redmond, a drought expert with the Western Regional Climate Center in Reno, Nevada, are dumbfounded by this silence, particularly since the drought is being felt not just in San Diego but throughout the entire Southwest. “This is a pretty widespread drought,” he says. “It’s pretty much centered on top of the Colorado River system, which is where a good deal of water that San Diego uses is coming from.
“And yet I haven’t heard a lot of rattling about at water management agencies, saying, ‘Gee, should we be starting to conserve?’” He attributes the silence to shortsightedness at public agencies, as well as human nature.
“Most water agencies are in a position to get through a single year,” Redmond says. “And as long as citizens feel they are getting enough water, and the prospects for getting enough water are good—even if they are surrounded by complete aridity—they wouldn’t consider themselves to be in a drought. People don’t worry about problems until they become acute.”
Kurt Kidman, the city of San Diego Water Department’s public information officer, says there’s no cause for worry, at least not yet.
“About 90 percent of our water comes from the Colorado River, and we’re told to expect normal deliveries—that is, everything is normal or near normal in those areas where we normally get our water,” Kidman says. “So while I don’t mean to trivialize the local drought, it’s not as pressing as it was in the early 1990s.” In the aftermath of that earlier drought, he points out, San Diego did implement various water-conservation mechanisms, including a mandate for low-flush toilets and a water-reclamation program.
Redmond, however, notes that the inflow into the Colorado River is dangerously low, just 25 percent of average, and says San Diego officials had better be prepared to take more aggressive steps. “It takes thinking outside of your own neighborhood,” he says. “A good part of the western United States participates in the provision of water to San Diego, and you’ve got to take that into account.”
Kidman maintains San Diego water officials are already “doing whatever we can to reduce our dependence on imported water. We’re looking at groundwater and desalination plants, and lots and lots of other things, so that if the flow lessens from the Colorado River, we’re ready to make that up.”
Some say our failure to build sufficient reservoirs contributes to the problem. But Kidman says building more reservoirs—often opposed by environmentalists—is not an option.
He notes that the city already owns and operates nine reservoirs, and “the ones we have aren’t full.” Some, he says, are filled to only about 19 percent capacity. Still, not to worry, says Kidman: By city council decree, San Diego keeps a reserve supply that would last city residents six-tenths of a year, “so we have enough local water to go quite a while.”
Redmond, however, believes more should be done. The public needs to gain a better understanding of the urgency of the problem, he says, and city officials might want to revisit growth-management policies.
“It should be something that’s always being talked about, and never let go of, regardless of whether it’s wet or dry,” he says. “It’s a question not just of supply but also of demand. There are issues of limits to growth, which is not always a popular subject in economic terms, but there needs to be a better understanding of the constraints imposed by nature, so we don’t take ourselves too close to the edge of the cliff and maybe, once in a while, fall over the side.”
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