State needs massive
water financing plan

Re: “California lays out position for meeting state water needs” (Opinion, Opinion section, Nov. 24):

I appreciate the positive spirit stated by the California secretaries of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection.

But their approach does not satisfy their own criteria: “strategy and tactics that are pragmatic and feasible.”

The only way to meet California’s water needs is to invest $50 billion or more in facilities that upgrade lower quality water (e.g., sewage, urban runoff, brackish groundwater, seawater) to usable standards, in appliances and techniques that use water more efficiently, and in benign storage (usually underground).

Any other approach is like asking the passengers on the Titanic to voluntarily decide who gets a seat on a lifeboat while the rest die. We’ve overpromised water to everyone for a century or more. The only way out is for the secretaries to develop a massive water financing plan that has broad political support.

Gary Wolff
Former vice chair
California State Water Resources Control Board
Castro Valley

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