City must count on snow

NATURAL PERSPECTIVES

In a recent column, we wrote about the Orange County groundwater

basin, how it is currently over-drafted and how Huntington Beach is

likely to face cuts in the amount of water we can draw from it.

The backup supply for Huntington Beach is the Metropolitan Water

District, which gets water from Northern California and from the

Colorado River. Well, it turns out that the Metropolitan Water

District may not be such a reliable source, either. The Department of

the Interior has just cut the district’s allocation of Colorado River

water by about half. What’s left? Water from Northern California.

To do some first-hand investigating, Lou and I visited the Sierra

Nevada Mountains over the holidays, putting in some time at Yosemite

and Kings Canyon national parks. The man-made splendor of the

Ahwahnee Hotel, and the natural grandeur of the giant sequoias were

both enhanced by the beauty of the snow that lay on and around them.

I tested the depth of the snow pack by building a snowman. Lou

tested its water content by building snowballs and throwing them at

animate objects (me). Dry snow makes for light, fluffy, harmless

snowballs. Wet snow makes for killer snowballs that really hurt. Lou

was delighted to discover that this was very wet snow, indeed.

The depth of the snow, and its water content, varies greatly from

place to place and from winter to winter. The amount of snow the

mountains get is actually more important to us than the amount of

rain that falls right here.

Rainfall can only be stored in reservoirs. In a rainy winter, if

we get more rain than we can use, it fills up the reservoirs and the

excess has to be allowed to flow on out to sea.

But snow allows water storage that lasts for months at high

elevation, releasing precious water as it gradually melts through the

summer.

So the snow of the Sierras is the real backup water supply that

Huntington Beach is counting on. So far, this year has seen average

snowfall, but not great. What are the prospects for more snow the

rest of this winter? Well, like so many things in the world today, it

depends on global warming. Higher overall temperatures will mean more

precipitation as rain and less as snow. And for water supply, that

would be bad.

The Metropolitan Water District is taking the situation coolly. It

has numerous local reservoirs that are reasonably full and should

provide water enough to last for two years. But the Colorado River

will never again give us as much water as in the past, so within

those two years, something has to change. What needs to change is the

extravagant way in which many Californians use water.

The water district has always encouraged water conservation. In

the past, they have exhorted us to get water-conserving toilets and

other appliances. But now they seem to be getting serious. Water used

inside the home is just a small fraction of what Southern

Californians use to water their landscaping. Landscaping is the new

frontier of water conservation. The Metropolitan Water District is

coming out with a line of public service announcements encouraging

people to landscape with drought-tolerant plant species. The host for

these announcements will be actress/environmentalist Rene Russo.

I’d love to go play in the snow without having to think about

those beautiful crystals winding up coming out of my faucet. Knowing

that Californians were taking serious steps to conserve water would

even make me feel better about taking a snowball in the face.

* VIC LEIPZIG and LOU MURRAY are Huntington Beach residents and

environmentalists. They can be reached at [email protected].