BizFed Institute: CLEAN WATER FOR LIFE AND BUSINESS – Critical Intelligence on Water Issues for Business Leaders and Decision Makers

• What specific mix of resources can we rely on (e.g., imported, recycled, local groundwater, and conservation), taking into account cost, regulatory hurdles, public acceptance, potential drought, climate change, and environmental restrictions on existing and planned water supply sources?
• What specific near term decisions need to be made by the City of Los Angeles, other local water suppliers, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the State of California, and the Federal Government in order for your vision of water supply reliability for Southern California to be realized?
• How do you propose the water supplies in your vision of water supply reliability be paid for, and what would be the water and property tax rate impacts in the Los Angeles County area?

• There is a finite amount of water and competing demands for this scarce resource
• Water use for landscaping must change; more than half of water used in Los Angeles is used outside the home
• Recycled water is a good thing and should not be feared

• While it’s important to embrace a statewide plan for water issues, Southern California must make its voice heard, particularly on priorities for a water bond
• 80% of water is used for agriculture, a practice that must change by creating new efficiencies
• Business leaders, citizens, government agencies, and others in Southern California need to say what they care about

• Conservation
• Local resource development
• Sustained, imported water supplies

Additionally, Pestrella noted that California needs federal dollars to help solve water woes.

• Organize, not only as municipalties, but as business and resident stakeholders as well
• Cities should work together to create regional plans to meet quality standards related to watershed management
• Recognize that there is no single source of funding to cover costs related to water

• Southern Californians use an average of 180 gallons of water per person, per day
• The global average for similar climates is 60 gallons per person, per day (Click here to download more details.)
• Long Beach has trimmed its average daily consumption to 100 gallons of water per person, per day and may offer lessons on how to make cutbacks in consumption

Additionally, Antos urged us to reframe the conversation about costs, arguing that money is being spent on landscaping and streets and other infrastructure that causes, rather than alleviates water problems.

• Solutions to California’s water woes will require money—in the form of water rates and possibly taxes
• “A cash-strapped water agency isn’t going to get a lot done”
• Greater efficiency and recycling of water must occur

Additionally, Upadhyay argued that the Bay Delta needs to be shored up before a crisis, such as an earthquake, diminishes Southern California’s water supply.

• Wildfires at the beginning of the year instead of the typical fall fire season
• Record-low water levels in lakes and rivers that threatens the ability to make environmentally-friendly hydroelectric power that the West needs to power homes and businesses

• Storm water is not a threat; it’s an asset
• Rain and storm water should be used, reused, and recovered
• Use of storm water will localize water supplies, making cities less dependent on imported water

• Put nature first and manage water on common interests, rather than on jurisdictional or sectoral based views
• Eliminate subsidies so users pay for infrastructure
• Let markets function by removing barriers to water trading