I want to alert the community to the fact that the city of San Diego has sued the Sweetwater Authority over the taking of groundwater. This suit is both parochial and frivolous but represents a real danger to the economic well-being of our community. The suit is meant to stop Sweetwater from expanding the Richard A. Reynolds groundwater desalination plant. As a life- long resident of Chula Vista, I appreciate the leadership Sweetwater has shown in pursuing alternate sources of water. This proactive approach to water protects the citizens and businesses in National City, Bonita and Chula Vista from natural disasters and environmental restrictions that would curb the flow of water from Northern California to us.
I have lived through the changes in our communities over the past 45 years, when I was a kid Chula Vista had fewer than 24,000 residents and there was nothing but rolling hills in the east. The land to the west and south were primarily farms and orchards. Our bayfront was a dumping ground and largely ignored. A lack of water constrained our growth until the advent of the aqueduct system bringing water from the north and the Colorado River. Now we have three regional shopping centers, a population seven times larger, and all the benefits and problems that such growth brings. As a businessman and builder who has made a living as a result of that change, I can assure you that growth is the major component which sustains and nurtures a community. When a community stops moving forward (growth and progress) it begins to die. With no growth there are no jobs, infrastructure needs are ignored, roads go to disrepair, and communities lose their sense of identity and pride. People lose their jobs and leave putting a greater burden on those who remain. The present economic condition and foreclosure rates in the region give us a sense of that economic malaise. We used to feel that that couldn’t happen here, that dying communities were an East Coast and Mid West phenomenon. This lawsuit by San Diego is a threat to all that I hold dear in my community.
Imagine that a major levee in the Delta were to fail through lack of maintenance or an earthquake. The result would be the mixing of millions of gallons of water with the peat in the delta. This is where water from the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers join up and head for Southern California. The whole of the distribution system that brings that water down to us will be fouled within hours. There will be no way to move water to the south until the levees are fixed at a cost of billions of dollars that California does not have., and it may take years.
We would then be forced to rely on the water from the Colorado River, local storage and other sources. The water from the Colorado River is already fully allocated to all the states through which it runs including Mexico. Additionally, there are valid claims by Indian Nations for Colorado River water that are not yet provided for in the current allocations. To rely on the Colorado River to make up for the loss of water from the Delta is shortsighted and unreasonable. This is made even more unlikely by the current chronic drought conditions in the West.
Even without a loss of Delta water, we cannot rely solely on our local supplies. Water is destined to become the new crisis in our lives. There is not a single water agency that hasn’t had to raise their rates to the displeasure of their customers. Sweetwater does have two reservoirs that will help but they rely upon uncertain rainfall for their water. Water rates will be driven up in a shortage situation both because water is one of the most important commodities and as the water agencies sell less water, their fixed costs remain the same.
I go back to pre aqueduct days in Chula Vista and remember water rationing. In a worst case scenario we could have a moratorium on new meters. Our economy will suffer if you can’t open a restaurant unless one is closed. Could our businesses survive an extended period of increasing water rates and shortage? I recall what the electricity crisis and escalating rates did to them a few years back. Think this can’t happen, go to Lake Tahoe or Santa Fe, New Mexico where access to water is rationed.
Sweetwater Authority is an agency that has been far ahead of the curve in good stewardship for its customers. By developing well systems and the desalinization plant Sweetwater customers will have more control over the cost of their water as well as less dependence on distant sources. Sweetwater has two reservoirs that, when full, can meet customer demands for two years. It has fresh water wells that currently supply 9 percent and a desal plant that provides 16 percent of its daily needs. The expansion would double that amount. Sweetwater customers are at the top State wide in conserving water with out mandatory restrictions and Sweetwater Authority rarely has a pipe burst with an industry low 4% unexplained water loss rate.
Contrast that with San Diego. It was only a few years ago that we watched a news crew shadow the water dept. trucks as they did anything but work. The department annually hands out bonuses to the employees for doing the job they were hired to do. They routinely suffer from burst pipes leading to an unexplained loss rate twice that of Sweetwater and they charge themselves the equivalent of a franchise fee. This is all to the detriment of their rate payers.
The City of San Diego claims “Pueblo Rights” to the water coming from the San Diego river watershed. That may be true, where they go wrong is claiming that the water under Chula Vista is part of that aquifer. San Diego has known about the Sweetwater Authority use of ground water for years, in fact they have been invited down to learn from us. They now want to stop us from using our groundwater because they think they might want to use it for themselves some time in the future. I suggest that they get their own house in order before inserting themselves into the business of the customers of the Sweetwater Authority. In this matter, San Diego is not our friend nor is it acting as a good neighbor should.
O’Neill is a Chula Vista resident and a candidate for South Bay Irrigation District.
