The Grand Water Bargain

For the last few decades in California, the conventional wisdom has been that farmers and urban water consumers have to improve efficiency and reduce consumption. To the fullest extent possible, rain and snow falling on watersheds must proceed unimpaired from the mountains to the ocean, and if water is reserved in reservoirs, releases of the stored water must prioritize maintaining flow in the rivers over diversions for agriculture or urban consumption.

This conventional wisdom is reflected in most water policies and water infrastructure investments. It is reflected in a new slogan adopted by the California Department of Water Resources, “Making Conservation a Way of Life.” That slogan is the rhetorical centerpiece of recent legislation that will restrict indoor water use by urban consumers to 42 gallons per person per day, and set budgets for outdoor water use. As for California’s farmers, it is estimated that approximately one million acres is expected to be taken out of production in order to maximize the unimpaired flow of water through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and out to the Pacific ocean.

Meanwhile, grabbing the attention of political moderates, most specifically moderate Democrats that want their party to be defined with less polarizing themes, is the concept of “abundance.” California is now home to “The Abundance Network,” with chapters in San Francisco, Oakland, and Santa Monica. Earlier this year, Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson co-authored the book “Abundance,” which became an instant best seller.

And on the topic of water, all the way back in 2022, Governor Newsom took issue with “conservation as a way of life,” stating “We can’t just talk about conservation, that is a scarcity mindset. Conservation is a relatively small component of our strategy today. Now we are focusing on creating more water.”

It’s too soon to tell what the abundance movement will accomplish. Much of its momentum comes from YIMBY developers who are specifically focused on infill. But in their book, Klein and Thompson ask a lot of good questions and expose the paralysis that grips any project, especially in California. And at least Governor Newsom is saying some of the things we need to hear as a first step toward change.

With a focus on water projects and water policy, here are a few of the principles that might govern an abundance movement that is serious about outcomes.

• Abundant water is feasible and sustainable.
• Reasonable environmentalism is compatible with abundance.
• An all-of-the-above approach to water supply projects ensures resilience.
• State and federal funds, along with private sector funds, are needed to upgrade and expand water supply infrastructure; the local rate base is not enough.
• To win politically, urban and rural water interests must unite behind a common policy and project agenda.

These principles, while a good start, are probably not enough to move California from chronic water scarcity to reliable water abundance. To form irresistible pressure on the governor, the state legislature, and California’s inordinately powerful, quasi-independent, borderline rogue state agencies, it is necessary to earn the support of the environmentalist community. With their endorsement, major trade unions would be more likely to join as well. Only then would the movement for water abundance become an unstoppable juggernaut.

To do all this, a grand bargain is necessary.

To begin with, then, what would create water abundance in California, impervious to multi-year droughts? This is described in more detail in WC#90, but can be summarized as follows:  Complete the following new water supply projects and policy revisions in order to deliver the following amounts of additional water per year: forest thinning, 2 MAF/year; dredging delta channels and tributaries, 1 MAF/year; restructured delta pumping rules and new facilities to safely divert flood runoff from the delta, 3 MAF/year; expanded surface storage, 1 MAF/year (of yield); additional runoff harvesting from Sierra tributaries, 1 MAF/year; urban runoff harvesting, wastewater reuse, and desalination, 2 MAF/year.

Those projects, altogether, would yield 10 million acre feet of additional water per year, more than enough to ensure California’s cities and farms are well watered, while in most years, millions of acre feet of surplus water are banked in the capacious aquifers in the San Joaquin Valley and elsewhere. So what’s in it for the environmentalists?

As it turns out, plenty. If 10 million acre feet per year of additional water was available, there would be so much water left over after diversions for cities and farms that projects environmentalists dream of move from fantasy to reality. Restoring Hetch Hetchy Valley, refilling Mono Lake, and saving the Salton Sea would just be the beginning. Restoring wetlands, saving the delta, and greening our cities would all become politically achievable and have universal support, because they would not have to come at the cost of reduced farming or urban rationing. To not see the environmental upside of hyper-abundant water through implementing an even more ambitious 21st-century version of the State Water Project is not just a failure of imagination. It is entirely feasible.

Perhaps farmers and urban water agencies who have had enough of conservation should emphasize the environmental upside of true water abundance. Forest thinningto historically normal levels restores the health of forest ecosystems. Dredging delta channelshelps salmon avoid predators and find cooler depths. Fish-friendly delta diversions enable the “big gulp” during winter without compromising delta ecosystems. A few offstream reservoirs – mostly expansions of existing ones – have minimal environmental footprint and reserve water to maintain flow. Runoff harvesting – rural or in cities – prevents flooding and recharges aquifers. Wastewater needs to be reused; inadequately treated wastewater is creating unacceptable nutrient loads in the San Francisco Bay and elsewhere. As for desalination, new technologies promise to minimize its footprint and deliver PFAS-free fresh water with absolute reliability.

“Conservation as a way of life” is rationing by any other name. It is enforced scarcity, with implementation costs that rival what it would take to simply invest in more water supply infrastructure.

A grand bargain to create abundant water for everyone is a solution whose time has come. Bringing back the Hetch Hetchy Valley along with a host of other ecosystems that only need more water is a win for everyone. More jobs. More protected species and pristine places. Let’s do it.

Edward Ring is the director of water and energy policy for the California Policy Center, which he co-founded in 2013 and served as its first president. He is also a senior fellow with the Center for American Greatness, and a regular contributor to the California Globe. His work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Economist, National Review, City Journal, and other media outlets.