The news about the region’s water supply seems to get worse every day. The latest shoe to drop was recent long-range forecasts that predict a La Nina condition this winter. Typically this weather condition pushes the storm track north, leading to more rain in the Pacific Northwest and less snow in the Southern Sierra Nevada. Add to the mix the multi-year drought in the Colorado River watershed and a recent court ruling that could significantly reduce the amount of water Southern California can draw from the Sacramento Delta, and San Diego could be faced with the most severe water crisis seen in California since the early 1990s.
The good news is that most San Diegans understand the importance of water availability and the critical nature of water conservation. In the most recent SDI/CERC Barometer of Public Opinion, 66.2% of county residents surveyed believe that water availability is an extremely serious or very serious issue. Those attitudes, and the dry conditions facing the region, are impacting behavior. 59.3% of respondents said that they were making efforts to conserve. When queried for specifics, reducing outdoor water use (41%) and taking shorter showers (15%) were the steps most commonly reported.
In this era of multiple media sources and information overload, we found that the San Diego County Water Authority’s specific call for conserving 20 gallons a day was reaching only some 48% of county residents. We found that those participants who identify themselves as Asian/Pacific Islanders had heard noticeably less than other demographic groups. This may indicate a “hole” in CWA’s media plan that should be addressed so as to ensure that messages about water conservation reach every segment of the County’s population.
But cutting back on water use, while critical, is not enough if San Diego is entering a prolonged period where the amount of water coming from the Delta and the Colorado River will be severely reduced. In addition to conservation, San Diego must continue to diversify its water supply.
The Barometer found that most San Diegans are strongly in favor of desalination, the process whereby seawater is treated to potable standards. 78.5% of survey participants support that option and also find arguments made by proponents of desalination more compelling than arguments proffered by those in opposition to desalination.
We also found that public opinion remains deeply divided over “toilet to tap,” the most controversial of policies, whereby wastewater is treated to potable standards and then used to augment our region’s reservoirs. While 44% support the position, 49.4% are opposed. Moreover, 35% of the public is strongly opposed to the proposal, with the most intense opposition voiced among those that are long time residents of the county and those identifying themselves as African-American. When presented with a battery of arguments for and against, opinion did not noticeably shift. If proponents can take solace from our survey, it is in the fact that when those fence-sitters were told that 400 million gallons of treated wastewater is discharged into the Colorado River already, 61.3% of survey participants found the message convincing.
Taken together, the results of the poll stress the importance of local leadership on this issue. San Diegans understand the importance of water availability, but more could be done to cut through the media clutter and reach beyond those reading the newspaper every day and attuned to local current affairs. Moreover, leadership on the issue of water reclamation and recycling requires engagement, conservation, and winning over the trust of skeptics. The Barometer indicates that San Diegans are ready to embrace additional efforts at conservation and are ready to hear their public officials offer innovative policies.
The flip side of having our wonderful sunny weather and temperate climate is that rainfall is scarce. As the builders of the old Spanish dam in Mission Trails would remind us, water in such an environment is a precious resource. San Diegans understand that water scarcity goes part and parcel with living here and are ready to take the necessary steps to protect this precious resource and ensure we have water for our future.
Reader Feedback
Dale Busch Says:
Many people with foresight have long argued that water is too cheap in Southern California - an area that is essentially a desert. We are really quite vulnerable. Is there a way to raise rates to pay for a string of desalination plants along the coast? The vision some of us had in the late 1960s was to site more nuclear power plants at selected locations on the coast and use waste heat and/or reverse osmosis to produce potable water. (We need electrical power as well and to burn less oil and gas in producing that power.) D. D. Busch
October 6, 2007 at 11:13 AM
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Many people with foresight have long argued that water is too cheap in Southern California - an area that is essentially a desert. We are really quite vulnerable. Is there a way to raise rates to pay for a string of desalination plants along the coast? The vision some of us had in the late 1960s was to site more nuclear power plants at selected locations on the coast and use waste heat and/or reverse osmosis to produce potable water. (We need electrical power as well and to burn less oil and gas in producing that power.)
D. D. Busch