Judge orders 30% water cut for Southern California
While Mayor Villaraigosa and city policies under him have added 14,000 new housing units thus raising demand for water by 1% this year alone, U.S. District Judge Oliver W. Wanger on December 14th, ordered cuts of up to 1/3 normal deliveries to Southern California beginning as early as late December.
A 1% increase might not be such a big deal if it were not for the cities urgent plea that we cut our consumption by 10%. While housing inventories are on the increase the question is.. cut our consumption, for who and why? Is it our own quality of life or the benefit of elected officials and developers who envision a city growing to 5.6 million residents?
Under this new scenario we may see the City of Los Angeles’s water supplies drop 100,000 acre feet to 570,000 next year unless (a) the MWD can cajole the agricultural sector into fallowing more of their industry thus crimping the supply of more agricultural products going to stores (and lowering California’s gross income) and (b) the Los Angeles Aqueduct can miraculously deliver record new yields. Last year the LAA only delivered 278,000 acre feet.
The 100,000 acre feet loss is enough to supply 570,000 people for one year at today’s rate of consumption.
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