Bruce Babbitt and State Water Cutbacks

* The Metropolitan Water District welcomes Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt’s challenge for California to live within its Colorado River supply allotment (“Water Dole Is About to Dry Up,” editorial, Dec. 25). At its heart, we believe what Babbitt proposes is a sensible balance between near-term access to inexpensive surplus supplies and a long-term commitment to reduce California’s total use of Colorado River water.

Meeting this long-term challenge will require significant change in the agricultural areas that use the bulk of California’s allotted Colorado River water.

It is important to note that the largest users of river water in California are the agricultural interests in the southeast portion of the state--primarily in the Imperial Valley--and not the urbanized south coastal region. In fact, although the Southland generates about half of the state’s economy, it has a right to less than 15% of California’s allotment of Colorado River water.

Massive investments in urban water management programs, such as conservation and reclamation, have helped to reduce cities’ dependence on imported water supplies in the past decade. By contrast, Imperial Valley water diversions are increasing due, in large part, to irrigation practices that the Bureau of Reclamation has found wasteful.

The challenge to reduce Colorado River water usage should be a wake-up call to Imperial Valley water users to realize that they will be expected to do their share.

JOHN R. WODRASKA

General Manager, MWD

* The article “Babbitt Warns of Water Cutbacks” (Dec. 20) is long overdue. Anyone flying over L.A. and observing the thousands of swimming pools, brimming with water, cannot but feel a sense of impending justice. As each pool represents at least 10,000 gallons of water, water that is used for only one purpose, is there any real argument as to the need for L.A. to initiate water conservation?

Permits to build additional swimming pools must be curtailed and the refilling of existing pools should be heavily taxed. And farmers who misuse water, wasting it because it is relatively cheap, must bear a similar responsibility. If the Owens Lake situation as well as Secretary Babbitt’s warning go unheeded, as they surely will, then the water users in all of Southern California will pay a heavy price.

JAMES R. PRATLEY

Rancho Bernardo