California Water News Daily Your Source For Water News in California
With the 2021-22 water year off to a dry start and storage at historic lows, agencies are on the lookout for ways to increase water supplies.
Mesa Water District in Costa Mesa, CA is no different.
At their board meeting last week, Mesa’s Board of Directors voted to adopt a resolution in support of the proposed Water Infrastructure Funding Act of 2022 (Act), an initiative meant to prioritize spending to increase California’s storage and supply of clean, safe drinking water.
“Pure, plentiful and affordable water is fundamental to our quality of life, and key to the economic development of our community. We are charged with the responsibility to provide it,” says Shawn Dewane, Mesa Water Board Vice President. “The time is now and this is a watershed moment. Mesa Water’s support of this imperative ballot initiative is a reflection of our dedication to providing an abundance of local, reliable, clean, safe water, for our customers.”
Mesa Water is also completing the construction of two news wells and will soon begin construction of a pipeline to connect the wells to Mesa Water’s main distribution system to increase local groundwater production capacity.
“This initiative would increase our state’s water supply by five million acre-feet, improve aging infrastructure, and construct new means to capture and deliver water to all parts of the state. This is the kind of innovation and planning that our state needs to address recurring drought,” explains Marice H. DePasquale, Mesa Water Board President. “California residents have frequently voted for billion-dollar water bonds to create new reservoirs and water supplies to help drought-proof the state; however, these water projects either move very slowly through the regulatory process or not at all.”
The Water Infrastructure Funding Act of 2022 is intended to qualify for the November 2022 state ballot and would accomplish these objectives: conservation programs that will result in up to one million acre feet of water saved; remove and replace lead pipes at urban schools; allocate two percent of the state’s general fund revenues for water supply construction projects such as aquifer storage, wastewater recycling, conveyance, surface storage, desalination, and water treatment to increase the annual sustainable supply of water to California’s cities and farms, among other objectives.
