Q&A: Does Sacramento face a future of water shortages?

As California weathers a third year of drought, debates have intensified over how to balance competing water needs: urban vs. rural; people vs. fish; north state vs. south. Against that backdrop, The Sacramento Bee spoke with a local water expert about what the drought means for the Sacramento metro area and how the region should adapt and respond.

John Woodling is executive director of the Sacramento Regional Water Authority, a joint powers agency that represents 25 water providers in Sacramento, Placer and El Dorado counties. Its primary mission is to serve regional supply interests and assist members with protecting and enhancing the reliability, availability, affordability and quality of water resources.

Are water shortages going to become more common in the Sacramento region?

Water shortages do not have to be our future – not if we make the right decisions and implement them. As a foundation, we need to continue to use water more efficiently. Over the long term, and especially in response to the drought, Sacramento-area water users are significantly reducing their water use. But conservation alone can’t ensure reliable water supplies.

Preventing future water shortages will require a three-pronged approach that includes:

What needs to be done to make water supplies more reliable for the region?

We need to expand all the elements of our toolbox. This includes continuing the progress we’ve made in water conservation, as well as increasing the use of recycled water and alternative supplies. However, groundwater may offer our greatest insurance against future water shortages. The groundwater basin is the Sacramento region’s reservoir, and we are uniquely positioned to maximize this resource to meet local needs, while benefiting the environment and other parts of the state.

Our region committed to sustainably managing groundwater in the late 1990s, and has invested in infrastructure needed to recharge, store, extract and move groundwater around our community. We contribute to our groundwater savings account in wet years so it’s available in dry years. The improvements we’ve made in this regard are helping to meet the region’s needs during the current drought.

We must further expand our region’s ability to use surface water in wet years and groundwater in dry times – through new points of diversion, inter-ties between communities, new surface storage, as well as groundwater recharge and pumping facilities. This system will make water supplies more secure for people, and for the fish and wildlife that also depend on our local waterways.

What is the primary political issue that Sacramento-area leaders need to focus on in regard to water?

Water is critical to our region’s economy, environment and quality of life. We must find a way to solve California’s water challenges that doesn’t take the problems of one part of the state and lay them at the feet of another. To accomplish this, Northern California must be included in a comprehensive plan for statewide water supply reliability. Unfortunately, the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, as currently proposed, leaves too much uncertainty and potential redirected impact to be a part of a statewide solution. Solutions focused on a single part of the state just lead to more gridlock and controversy. California can’t afford that any longer. The Brown administration has developed a statewide plan at a conceptual level – the California Water Action Plan – but commitment and the appropriate level of effort must follow.

This story was originally published September 1, 2014 at 10:41 PM.