Recycling Bill Would Boost Water Supply
Congressman David Dreier wasted no time reviving a bill that would give a big boost to Inland Valley water-recycling efforts.
On the first day of the 110th Congress, Dreier, R-Glendora, reintroduced the Inland Empire Regional Water Recycling Initiative, which passed the House in July but failed to make it through the Senate. His measure is cosponsored by local Reps. Ken Calvert, R-Riverside; Gary Miller, R-Brea, and Grace Napolitano, D-Santa Fe Springs.
House Resolution 122 would authorize the U.S. Interior Department to spend $30 million to help build two local water-recycling projects. The Inland Empire Utilities Agency plans a project that would produce 90,000 acre-feet of recycled water annually; a Cucamonga Valley Water District project would produce another 5,000 acre-feet each year.
The projects would produce enough water to meet the needs of some 300,000 new residents in fast-growing San Bernardino County. That doesn't mean those new residents, or any of us "old" residents, would have to drink recycled water, of course. But it does mean that enough fresh drinking water would be replaced by recycled water for landscaping, agriculture, construction and industrial purposes that those 300,000 newcomers will be able to quench their thirst and water their plants without cutting into our existing supplies.
Without conservation, recycling and desalination of ground water, our supplies will shrink, not grow. California has long pulled more than its share from the Colorado River, but our allocations are shrinking as the populations of Nevada and Arizona skyrocket and those states draw more water from the river.
And if there are failures of the levees that surround Sacramento River Delta farmlands - and, increasingly and unwisely, housing developments - Southern California could lose its supply of water from Northern California for months or even years. (That's why we support the concept of a Delta bypass, which was once infamously known as the Peripheral Canal.)
Clearly, it's crucial that Southern California, and especially the fast-growing Inland Empire, make the most of every drop of water it can get its hands on.
To that end, the Inland Empire Utilities Agency and Cucamonga Water District are leaders in water recycling. Farsighted developers are laying recycled-water pipes for landscaping in their new home communities, and cities and other public agencies are laying the pipes when they build or revamp. (Upland, for example, recently installed the pipe for its Euclid Avenue meridian landscaping.)
It is in the federal government's interest to promote recycling here and throughout the West, especially considering the interstate nature of the Colorado River. Dreier points out that the Bureau of Reclamation has already recognized the Inland Empire Water Recycling Initiative as one of the most cost-effective water reuse projects around.
We expect Dreier's bill to pass the House again this year and - especially now that California's two Democratic senators have new clout as part of the majority party - the Senate as well.
