What would you do if you learned the business you worked for had their revenue drop by 20% every month for the past year? If nothing else, you’d probably be concerned about your job and if the company was going to stay in business. Then, what if you learned your company was asking customers not to buy their product? Outrageous! What bone head company would ever do that? Water districts.
Water district drought dilemma
Does one neighbor’s water conservation efforts enable another to over water?
The irony of our current drought is that water districts encourage us conserve water and then turn around and have to raise rates to make up for the lost revenue. The budgets of water districts are developed on past consumption with the expectation that future water sales will be similar…unless there is a drought. As Northern California urban water users are being urged to embrace the “new normal” of drought tolerant landscapes with little to no turf grass, water districts will be facing their own new normal of decreasing water sales.
Is there a moral obligation to conserve water?
The California governor has declared a drought and we have all been asked to reduce our water consumption by 20% from 2013 levels. On average, the consumers in the San Juan Water District (SJWD) retail operations have either come close or exceeded the 20% conservation every month through August, 2014. While we have an ethical obligation to obey the requested conservation goals and mandated Stage 3 drought declaration watering restrictions, do we have a moral obligation to conserve water?
Less than 8 miles apart, one school has let turf die while another school has lush green playing field during the drought.
Who benefits from our conservation?
More specifically, do we have a moral obligation to sacrifice our own water use when the consequence will be that it benefits someone else? In Granite Bay, many home owners have let their yards go brown as they just shut off the sprinkler system to conserve water. Their sacrifice of a green yard has helped the San Juan Water District (SJWD) meet the 20% reduction in water consumption. By reducing their landscape irrigation until their turf grass dies or goes dormant, they have more than likely exceeded a 20% reduction in water consumption.
May neighbor still has green grass
The sacrifice of a few takes the pressure off other homeowners, schools, parks and commercial water consumers from having to make, in some instances, any sacrifice at all. The pressure in this case is that the SJWD Board doesn’t have to entertain additional water restrictions to force people to reduce watering their landscapes. Unfortunately, the lack of uniform sacrifice on the part of the whole group will lead to a lessening of adherence of conservation from those who have gone above and beyond the call of duty at some point.
Conserved water just gets sent south
In other words, the moral imperative to conserve water is diluted as one witness’s their sacrifice is just a means of benefiting another party. The rejection of a moral obligation to conserve water is even more prominent when the conservation effort is shown to benefit people, places or industries for which the water consumer has no affection. Within the contrived battle of Northern versus Southern California water diversions, many Northern California residents completely reject the notion they are under any obligation to conserve water that will ultimately be sent south.
Placer County sells water to southern water district
Has this pasture stopped irrigating so the home owners association can over water during a drought?
Of course, how will Northern Californians who subscribe to the theory that Southern California is on a relentless crusade to steal Northern California react to the news that our very own Placer County Water Agency (PCWA) has sold 35,000 acre of water to the Westlands Water District in the San Joaquin Valley? To put this volume of water in perspective, 35,000 acre feet is 3.5% of the total capacity of Folsom Lake and 2,000 acre feet more than the original contracted water amount for the San Juan Water District from the Bureau of Reclamation.
Westlands supports the twin tunnels
This sale of Northern California water to Westland Water District, the largest agricultural water district in the U.S. and a major supporter of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan Twin Tunnels conveyance structure, will yield PCWA $11.4 million or $325 per acre foot according to The Sentinel in Hanford.
Westlands estimates that it will only be able to buy 60,000 acre-feet of water this year. The bulk of the difference will likely be made up by groundwater pumping.
Westlands is paying Placer County $325 an acre-foot for the transfer, according to Einar Maisch, director of strategic affairs for Placer County Water Agency. That comes out to $11.4 million. – Westlands buying water from Placer County, 15 July 2014, The Sentinel
This sale is of surplus water. This water transfer will flow down the Middle Fork of the American River, into Folsom Lake, through the Delta and finally be pumped into the California Aqueduct to reach the Westlands Water District.
A new pool installation has water running down the gutter for days in early September, 2014.
I should get paid for conserving water
Do homeowners, parks, schools and businesses in Granite Bay, Citrus Heights, Fair Oaks, Folsom, or Orangevale, all of whom either rely solely or in part on Folsom Lake water, have a moral obligation to conserve when water in the American River Watershed that feeds Folsom Lake is sold down river? This water sale puts a very real price on raw American River water. Should not those of us who conserve this precious resource be similarly compensated? If I save an acre foot of water by reducing my landscape irrigation shouldn’t I be paid $325?
The less you use, the more it costs
In reality, the opposite is true. If consumers conserve too much water, the water districts make them pay more for future water to balance their budget. SJWD has considered it and other water districts have implemented the drought rates. The distorted market forces of urban water supply and demand work to destroy any moral obligation to conserve water.
Waste helps keeps prices low
I knew that the homeowner up the street where I live was putting in a new pool. At the end of the construction project, water has just flowed for days down the drive way, into the gutter and ultimately into Linda Creek. Normally I would call SJWD and report this possible blatant waste of water. But that wasted water is also revenue for SJWD. I figured in a very twisted fashion that if the homeowner could waste enough water and create a huge water bill before getting caught, that might help SJWD meet their revenue projections and not vote to raise my water rates.
Water market is nonsensical
This is the state of water economics in California. Homeowners are encouraged to conserve which makes their water rates go up. Placer County Water Agency can transfer water for $325 per acre foot right passed the dying lawns and parks of Placer and Sacramento county communities and people conserving water that allows the surplus water to be sold are not compensated. We have Home Owners Associations and School Districts watering like there is no drought. Yet other community members have shut down irrigation systems leaving children to play on dead grass.
Profits before conservation
For my part, I do feel I have a moral obligation to conserve water even though my neighbors, school district and other water districts act as if they are immune from the conservation imperative. But my moral obligation stops at my property line. If you want to waste water go ahead, I’m not calling the water cops on you. Do you think anyone would answer my phone call if I reported that the PCWA was wasting water? No. Because, under our current system, making money from water trumps conserving it for our neighbors and state.