RESOLUTION
Passed by Angeles Chapter Ex-Comm August 24, 2008

The Water Committee of the Angeles Chapter recommends that the Angeles Chapter support beneficial uses for conserved water in our communities. 

Water conservation should not primarily benefit new development.  Conserved water should be available for the enhancement of urban areas, for local farmers who produce food for the region, and for residents to grow their own food.  Water savings should also remain in the natural environment, ensuring the long term health of those unique ecosystems.

BACKGROUND
Water supplies in Southern California are dwindling. A smaller Sierra snow pack, environmental diversions of the Delta and Owens’s Valley, growing claims on the Colorado River, and lower aquifer levels because of reduced rainfall are not just current problems, but are predicted to persist.

Historically, the water Southern Californians have saved has not gone to the environment, but to development. The Metropolitan Water District (MWD) is Southern California’s water wholesaler and receives the bulk of the water savings. MWD has enormous influence in determining where water savings go.

Over the last twenty years the policy of funneling water savings to development has had a widespread and measurable impact, much of which the Sierra Club stands against. Open space is declining. The quality of our air and ocean are deteriorating. Food production is moving further from the cities. Rising water rates hurts the poorest the hardest. And in the face of dwindling supplies, development has endangered Southern California’s water security.

The State’s constitutional mandate states that water be put to beneficial use to the maximum possible extent and waste or unreasonable use should be prevented.

Arguments For:
Preservation of open space, local food production, improved regional air quality, and congestion held at current levels are the primary benefits of this resolution. We want to improve the lives of the people living here. If this resolution has an effect, then it may also slow urban exodus.

Potential allies: Air Quality Districts, hospitals, community associations, tourists groups, wildlife societies, turf and landscape industries, marginal and/or impoverished communities.

Arguments Against:
By a variety of means, MWD is trying to free and secure enough water for 5 million new residents in the next 7 years. If any of that water is diverted to ecological uses, then new development will suffer. Building starts are seen as an important part of Southern California’s economic health. Undermining the rate or direction of development, especially during a recession, will be viewed as an economy killer.

This resolution may also affect the rights of property owners; not all owners will be able to build.

Potential opponents: The building industry, chamber of commerces, property right advocates, the real estate industry, marginal and/or impoverished communities.