It’s Finally Time to Celebrate

The deal seemed so simple and mutually advantageous that no one thought it would take more than five years for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and the Imperial Irrigation District to negotiate their major water-exchange agreement. But the job finally is done and the landmark pact will be formally celebrated in ceremonies on Tuesday. Both districts deserve commendation for refusing to give up on the plan.

The Imperial board had to deal with anxiety among Imperial Valley farmers that striking the agreement would jeopardize their vital Colorado River water rights. They feared becoming another Owens Valley. But Imperial also was under mandate from the State Water Resources Control Board to conserve water. The agreement gets the district out of a sticky legal jam.

During the coming five years, Metropolitan will pay Imperial nearly $100 million to build conservation facilities including reservoirs, the lining of canals and the automation of water diversion control structures. In return, MWD will receive the use of 106,000 acre-feet of water annually, enough to meet the residential needs of more than 200,000 families for a year, only a fraction of what Metropolitan will need in the years ahead.

MWD General Manager Carl Boronkay has noted that the agency’s wholesale water deliveries nearly doubled during the 1980s, but no new water supply facilities were built. Planned improvements in the state Water Project, of which Met is the biggest customer, were thwarted by political and environmental opposition in Sacramento.

In addition to the Imperial deal, Met has launched innovative programs to stretch its supplies, including ambitious ground-water storage projects, the lining of the All-America and Coachella canals to conserve lost water and the offering of substantial price reductions to its retail customers to buy water in the winter for storage and use in the dry summer months. With Met’s service area growing by an estimated 1,000 persons a day, the agency will need all the innovation and creativity it can muster to keep up with demand.