What's In this Report?
Transition Initiatives focus on building a local community’s resilience --- the ability to adapt to stress and thrive. Part of that resilience is fostering community participation in the big decisions that we face. Only through gathering our collective creativity and effort will we thrive in a future of declining energy supplies and a changed climate.
Our local water situation is stressed. In Mid-County, salt water is threatening to pollute our aquifers because of over-pumping. In Santa Cruz, our drought reserve at Loch Lomond diminishes with new growth. Left unchecked, growth in water demand will eventually reduce the amount of reservoir water available during the second year of a critical drought to a meager 200 million gallons. Moreover, the National Marine Fisheries Service is going to require the City to reduce its diversion of water from North Coast Streams and San Lorenzo River in order to better provide habitat for native fish. In the face of these stressors, Santa Cruz and the Soquel Creek Water District (Mid-County) have proposed building a desalination plant.
Desalination plants are problematic because they require a large amount of energy to operate. The energy costs, coupled with the capital expenditures and filter replacement costs, make desalinated water many times more costly than our current water sources. And impact of marine life is not well understood.
This draft report examines sustainable water solutions. “Sustainable” means reducing our reliance on fossil-fuel energy, reducing our emission of greenhouse gases, and protecting local ecosystems.
The principal strategy considered in this report is conservation, which has a great deal of untapped potential if we approach it with insight into how people change habits. We also consider regional collaboration between water agencies that take advantage of the complementary features of each agency. For example, Santa Cruz could share water in bountiful winters with Soquel Creek District in exchange for well water from Soquel Creek District during droughts. We hope to include articles that discuss the potential of graywater systems and rainwater catchment. And we discuss the need for watershed restoration to protect the forest ecosystem that sustains our water supply.
New water supply strategies should only be implemented when we recognize that we can't grow forever --- that nature sets limits on how much water we can use. In the article, Accomodating and Limiting Growth, we make recommendations for a policy on water and growth.
Finally we include resources for taking action.
Join us in circulating this draft, commenting on it, and advocating for sustainable water supply strategies.
- Rick Longinotti, editor
Return to Water Group page or continue to Introduction