Jeff Kightlinger
General Manager, Metropolitan Water District
Western water agencies face increasingly difficult and mounting challenges. Over the past eight years we have endured record drought on the Colorado River, reducing the river’s major reservoirs by almost half. As a result of the drought, Metropolitan lost access to surplus water—about 600,000 acre feet a year since 2003.
Southern California weathered this blow because of investments in storage programs, conservation and cooperative transfers. However, 2007 brought a record-breaking dry year to Southern California and the lowest snow pack in nearly 20 years to Northern California. These events have greatly reduced Metropolitan’s flexibility in dealing with shortages and drought.
This unprecedented dry period means we must place an even greater reliance on cooperative programs with agricultural areas and local projects in our service area. Our program with the Palo Verde Irrigation District is a great example of an agriculture-to-urban transfer that is a “win-win” for both sides. Metropolitan has helped provide economic support to PVID farmers while the senior water rights of PVID help Metropolitan stay reliable in dry years.
Even with all the challenges we face, it is notable to look at the accomplishments over the past five years on the Colorado River. We completed the Quantification Settlement Agreement that sets the stage for lining the Coachella and All-American canals, the transfer of water from the Imperial Irrigation District to the San Diego County Water Authority and the PVID-Metropolitan transfer. We completed the country’s largest habitat conservation plan. And now we are on the verge of completing a process to establish new operating criteria for the reservoirs that will help forestall shortages and provide incentives for the creation and storage of new water supplies on the river.
Crisis creates opportunities and this recent period of Colorado River drought has brought an unprecedented degree of cooperation among all the entities that share this remarkable resource.
