Making Los Angeles completely water self-sufficient won't be easy or cheap. But it can be done

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WB Staff
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Making Los Angeles completely water self-sufficient won't be easy or cheap. But it can be done

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Shared by Restore The Delta

Making Los Angeles completely water self-sufficient won't be easy or cheap. But it can be done

Despite another hot and dry year with less than four inches of rain in the Los Angeles area, we are back to our water-wasting ways. Two years ago, Californians were using 24% less water compared with 2013. This year, we're hardly conserving at all — just 1%.

Clearly, our earlier successes were more behavioral than structural. If lawn removal and new efficient fixtures and appliances had saved all that water, we wouldn't be seeing this momentous backslide. Meanwhile, our sources of imported water — from the Delta, the Colorado River, and the Los Angeles aqueduct — have all been revealed as vulnerable to politics, drought, climate change and crumbling concrete in recent years.

Los Angeles sorely needs to transform its water infrastructure. In a proactive move, Mayor Eric Garcetti and the city of Los Angeles this month released the Resilient Los Angeles plan, which outlines 96 steps to strengthen the city. Among the smartest moves: reduce our reliance on imported water from the current 85% to less than 50% by 2035.

Right now, if an earthquake severed our connection to the L.A. Aqueduct, the State Water Project or the Colorado River Aqueduct, we would quickly be in dire straits. With a local supply portfolio — balanced between recycled water, captured stormwater, and groundwater — the city will survive catastrophes. Pumping less water from faraway sources has environmental benefits too. Moving water across the state uses huge amounts of energy. Leaving more water in the Delta, Owens Valley and the Colorado River watershed would reduce ecological impacts and the carbon footprint of our water supplies.

Read the rest:http://www.latimes.com/opinion/livable- ... story.html
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