Speak Up Today About Water

by Gary Toebben

In two weeks, on Tuesday, July 29, state and federal officials will officially close the comment period on a water infrastructure project that will impact Southern California forever. The Chamber submitted its letter on May 6 and we need all of our members to send their comments as well.    

The Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) is a 50-year plan to upgrade California’s water conveyance system and restore 150,000 acres of habitat in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (Delta). The Delta is the backbone of California’s water supply and is in danger of failing. The Delta provides water to more than 25 million Californians and is essential to the vibrant economies of the San Francisco Bay Area, the Central Valley and Southern California. 

BDCP is the culmination of seven years of collaboration, scientific analysis, policy review and public input to address the deterioration of the Delta’s ecosystem and capacity to serve the water needs of our state. The plan lays out several alternatives for restoring the Delta and improving the State's water conveyance system, which was constructed more than 50 years ago for a population half of California's current size.

Of the alternatives proposed in the BDCP, the L.A. Area Chamber and a coalition of L.A. business organizations specifically support Alternative #4. This alternative will best meet California’s co-equal goals of improving water supply reliability and revitalizing the Delta’s environmental ecosystem. It calls for three new intakes in the northern Delta and a new tunnel system beneath the Delta to better convey water to the existing State Water Project. Alternative #4 would protect the State’s water supplies from the threat of an earthquake near the Delta.    

The cost of implementing the BDCP is estimated to cost Angelenos an average of $2-3 per household per month according to analysis conducted by the L.A. Department of Water and Power’s Ratepayer Advocate. The Chamber believes this rate increase would be the best investment our region could make in its future.

We cannot sit idly by while policymakers from other parts of the State decide the fate of a project that will significantly impact the economy of Southern California over the next century. Submit your comments on the BDCP by July 29 and make sure the voice of L.A.’s business community is heard loud and clear on this crucial issue. 

And that's The Business Perspective.