New Sources of Water

By Ann L. Peay

Olivenhain Municipal Water District will always have to buy its water but the future may have more choices.

The more achievable approach is to use the existing distribution network more efficiently. While the demand for water is locally somewhat inflexible, the availability of imported water from other areas often fluctuates significantly. When the demand is high and the availability is low then the potential exists for mandated conservation and rationing measures. The construction of the Emergency Storage Project dam and resulting reservoir will allow Olivenhain Municipal Water District new flexibility to buy water from existing municipal suppliers. For the first time significant storage capacity will exist to allow excess purchases when water is plentiful and available.

In addition, there is a trend to make water into a commodity. That is to set the price on a gallon of water as a function of market demand and not have it constrained by actual cost. This brings in private suppliers attempting to sell their water allotments. While the pros and cons of this trend are debatable on many levels, it would be imprudent to ignore the trend. Into this discussion a new concept arises - wheeling. Wheeling is the delivery of water by a third party between a seller and a buyer through an existing delivery system. Clearly, without the advantage of significant storage capability the District would be at a disadvantage in the seasonal competition for water.

It is this uncharted future that experience will be most beneficial. As President of OMWD I have participated in discussions on wheeling and OMWD was one of the first agencies in San Diego County to execute a wheeling agreement with a private supplier. I fully support a Water Market concept but not full deregulation without regard to the Public's Trust. Safeguards and protection must be mandated or else water could become another expensive deregulated catastrophe. This is definitely not a job that you want to trust to amateurs and the inexperienced. I will continue to aggressively pursue all reasonable sources of economical water but I will never gamble my customer's trust.