by Greg Walcher, E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow
The Daily Sentinel
One month after proposing to put a man on the moon, JFK said getting drinking water from the ocean would be “one of the great breakthroughs of history” that would “dwarf any other scientific accomplishments.”
Californians have worried about water for decades. The Colorado River, upon which the entire Southwest depends, is dying. The region’s only major water source is drying up, the climate is changing, the globe warming, the snow no longer falling, the reservoirs shrinking, and there is no end in sight. Everyone must use less water, especially those upstream from California (which is everyone else). Forget new development — there is no more water. All the legal agreements must be rewritten because the river simply cannot continue to supply all the people who once relied on it.
California has pushed this narrative for years, presumably based on genuine worry, and spent billions on water planning. So, now that San Diego has finally broken the technology barrier that for so long precluded using the ocean water that is so abundant and so close, can you imagine the relief its citizens must feel? The Carlsbad desalination plant, for a cost of $1 billion, has successfully launched and can produce 50 million gallons of fresh drinkable water every day, roughly 56,000 acre-feet a year. The Wall Street Journal and New York Times both hyped the fact that San Diego now has so much water it can sell it to others.
How excited must Californians be? How must their leaders feel, who have spent so many years searching for solutions to a seemingly unsolvable water dilemma? I’m sure not all Californians agree, but the reaction of many of that state’s politicians, bloggers, columnists, activists, and even some water leaders has been: Disaster! One of the worst things that has ever happened to the state’s taxpayers! A colossal waste! An affront to nature! And they are serious — bound and determined to make sure it never happens again.
