Negotiating the Cost of A “Water Divorce”
Now that water is more scarce due to climate change, water demand is rising. This means water prices are rising and water sourcing agreements and compacts are less stable. In San Diego two small North County farming communities want to stop buying water from the San Diego Authority.
When communities decide to go their separate ways on water sourcing, it often has price and sourcing impacts that hit everyone. What is the story behind the San Diego water dispute?
If anything, San Diego has been a water success story. After a historic drought in the 1990s, the city modernized and diversified its water supply. It built a desalination plant and got water from the Colorado river instead of relying on the Metropolitan water district. Unfortunately its success had costs that were passed on to the consumer. People needed to buy less water because the water supply was managed more efficiently. To accommodate for this, the water authority charged more for water. Now, two rural communities want to leave and it has thrown the system into turmoil. It has even had impacts beyond San Diego.
Who Pays for Water?
The problem lies in water usage and who is using high volumes of water. The rural communities are farming communities and farmers use more water. Fallbrook Public Utility District and Rainbow Municipal Water District communities want to go elsewhere to get a better price for their consumers.
Unfortunately this will affect prices for everyone else, so the authority has asked them to pay an exit fee. The authorities considered blocking their exit but decided to put the decision to a vote by ratepayers, allowing the districts to leave for a fee. Other ratepayers have expressed their frustration that they will have to pay more because of the two water districts’ decision to leave. As water becomes more scarce during climate change, water prices could rise, and more reshuffles like this could start to happen.
Resolving Water Conflicts with Water Mediation
Water conflicts come in many forms. It’s difficult to anticipate every conflict that could break out because resource management rests on so many variables. In 2023, water supply is often affected by unpredictable climate change caused-weather, such as droughts.
Water rights mediation and climate change mediation should be responsive to urgent conflicts to prevent deadlocked conflict and litigation. At the same time it needs to broker long-term agreements that are equipped for the pressures of resource depletion and environmental change. At Boileau Conflict Solutions we blend research and insight into environmental science, math, psychoanalysis and conflict resolution with high level mediation and legal expertise. Our water mediation services are approached from a thorough, systems-oriented standpoint that seeks to get the best possible outcome for all parties, taking a forward thinking, innovative approach to problem-solving.
We work with communities and parties who are facing resource scarcity which may involve a dispute about the cost of resources and who pays for these resources. People’s livelihoods could be on the line, or people might be struggling to afford the daily necessities for their families. Water authorities and land-owners could be bound by historic compacts and laws. In short, water conflicts are complex. They can become much more complex and slow-moving when litigation enters the picture. They also end up costing everyone more.
If your community is facing a water or climate-change dispute you need to act quickly to prevent further resource depletion, conflict and the costs of litigation. Water mediation can help communities to find solutions that are democratic, efficient and cost effective. Most importantly these solutions engage the cooperation of all parties, making agreements long-lasting. At Boileau Conflict Solutions we mediate climate change and water disputes both nationally and internationally. These disputes often revolve around environmental, climate-change and resource based conflicts. We have offices in San Diego, CA, Silicon Valley, Berkeley, CA, Bozeman, MT, and Michigan. We can mediate with you remotely or in person. All mediations are confidential and conducted by secure private server. Please contact us to learn more.
https://voiceofsandiego.org/2023/06/02/what-san-diegos-water-divorce-might-cost-you/
https://voiceofsandiego.org/2023/06/07/los-angeles-steps-into-san-diegos-water-divorce/
https://apnews.com/article/california-droughts-environment-san-diego-81ab84fafe94a0c5c298ede24fd2f7f1