An agreement between San Diego’s major water agency and two others in Southern California is expected to save millions of dollars and conserve millions of gallons of water in the Colorado River, which has been threatened by years of overuse and drought.
The deal recently announced by the San Diego County Water Authority, the Los Angeles-based Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and the Imperial Irrigation District underscores a more collaborative approach after decades of combative relations.
The pact is among a series conservation agreements including four other agencies that is scheduled to be ceremoniously signed Wednesday during the annual meeting of the Colorado River Water s Association in Las Vegas.
The San Diego-Met-IID component is an outgrowth of a 20-year-old agreement under which San Diego purchases river water from Imperial. Though the new agreement is only for one year, the arrangement is considered a building block for future interaction among the three agencies.
In a broader context, the pact is viewed by water managers as a possible template that could help usher in a more long-term river-sharing accord among seven Western states, tribes and Mexico before current agreements expire at the end of 2026.
But that optimism is tempered by this reality: The interim agreements were very difficult to negotiate despite what might be considered optimum conditions. This wouldn’t have happened but for a sudden bountiful water supply and hundreds of millions in federal dollars.
Years of drought have depleted water supplies across the West and reduced Colorado River reservoirs to record low levels, particularly Lake Mead. The federal government was gearing up to drop the hammer on river s.
But the surprising and at times overwhelming rain and snowfall last winter gave all parties some breathing room to negotiate. Substantial cuts in river use were mandated, but a potentially more onerous second shoe was deferred for a while.
The talks, which involved the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, also were greased by some of the $4 billion approved by the Biden istration and Congress in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 for the Colorado River and drought resiliency projects elsewhere.
Of course, wet winters and federal money won’t always be there, but, ideally, the interim agreements may lead to better water management agreements for drier times.
Here’s how the three-agency agreement will work: Currently, the San Diego County Water Authority buys 200,000 acre-feet of water annually from the Imperial Irrigation District through the 2003 Quantification Settlement Agreement, or QSA. (An acre-foot is 325,900 gallons of water, or enough to supply 2.5 average families of four for a year, according to the water authority.)
The agreement helped pay for installing efficiency technology on farms across the IID and other water-saving projects.
This year, San Diego will reduce its take by 50,000 acre-feet, which the federal government will pay Imperial to leave in the river, thereby incrementally raising the level of Lake Mead. Imperial will reimburse San Diego. In all, IID will receive more than $77 million to conserve 100,000 acre-feet, according to the Desert Sun.
San Diego, in turn, will buy 50,000 acre-feet from Metropolitan, but for less money. Metropolitan has plenty of water from California sources, diminishing its need to tap the river.
San Diego officials estimate the savings will be between $15 million and $20 million. That’s not going to lower rates for consumers, but may help spread out increases.
San Diego has faced pressure to raise rates to pay off borrowing for big water projects and diversifying supplies, such as increased reservoir storage, construction of the desalination plant in Carlsbad and water purchased from Imperial.
Separate projects to recycle wastewater, such as the city of San Diego’s Pure Water program, will cause rates to go up more when they come online.
The San Diego authority also got hammered by unexpected high energy costs and lower water sales, because of conservation and reduced demand because of an abundance of water. Anticipated declining sales present substantial, long-term budget challenges for the water agency — a problem Metropolitan also faces.
The agreement also helps Imperial start replenishing the Salton Sea.
Part of the overarching goal is to encourage flexibility in water transfers and bank more water during the wet years as a buffer for the dry ones. Despite record rain and snow in much of the West, the Colorado River has not recovered.
The race is on to figure out how to take greater advantage of the wet spells. In much of California, the vast majority of water runs off into the ocean.
Long-term weather patterns influenced by climate change are difficult to predict. Scientists expect California will face extended periods of drought broken up by brief deluges fueled by atmospheric rivers.
Gauging what might happen in the short term isn’t easy either. Last year was supposed to be part of a drier La Niña stretch, yet record precipitation fell in California. Meanwhile, the current El Niño has failed to live up to a wet-season expectation, but it’s early.
How the future plays out when it comes to the water supply — or water negotiations — is rarely certain.
Yet the collaboration taking place is a far cry from the acrimonious history among the players. Many years ago, various interests were aggressively angling to take Imperial’s water, but eventually the QSA emerged through hard-fought negotiations. Before then, San Diego received a large share of its water from Metropolitian, but the two agencies were engaged in litigation for years over how much Met charged.
The county water authority launched its building and diversification program so it wouldn’t have to rely so much on Metropolitan, which not only controlled costs but, to a large degree, water allocations. The agencies have been winding down the litigation, but a lawsuit is still pending.
All the parties suggest they’ve turned the page. In doing that, there’s a bit of irony in San Diego becoming more reliant on Metropolitan.
