The MET Water District Explained
Photo: Al Seib/LAT
Overview
The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD or Met) is the largest distributor of treated water in the United States. It serves 14 cities, 11 municipal water agencies and one county water authority in a region encompassing 5,200 square miles over portions of Los Angeles County, San Diego County, Orange County, San Bernadino County, Riverside County and Ventura County. About 19 million Californians receive their water through MWD.
MWD obtains its water from two primary sources: the State Water Project, which delivers water from the Sacramento River / San Joaquin River Delta and from the Colorado River.
The district is the largest contractor for the massive State Water Project (SWP), accounting for 44% of total SWP deliveries. MWD delivers water to its subscribing agencies through a sprawling infrastructure complex that incorporates three primary reservoirs, six smaller reservoirs, five water treatment plants, and almost 850 miles of piping. The district also runs 16 hydroelectric facilities. MWD’s headquarters are in downtown Los Angeles.
History
The California Legislature established MWD in 1928 in response to the rapid population growth of the Los Angeles metropolitan area and the corresponding overpumping of local groundwater basins. Secured by a bond passed by Southern California residents, the enabling legislation authorized the construction of a 242-mile aqueduct to deliver water from the Colorado River to the South State’s coastal regions. MWD’s service area and regional importance grew in lockstep with Southern California’s population boom following World War II. A severe drought from 1947 through 1950 also accelerated MWD’s reach, importance — and power.
In 1952, MWD initiated the expansion of the Colorado River Aqueduct, adding six additional pumps to each of its three pumping stations. This allowed the district to deliver about 1,030,000 acre-feet of water in 1960, up from 16,500 acre-feet in 1950.
In 1960, MWD led thirty other public agencies in endorsing a contract authorizing construction of the State Water Project (SWP): with 21 dams, eight power plants and more than 700 miles of aqueducts and canals, it is now one of the world’s largest water conveyance systems. The footprint of the SWP extends from Lake Oroville in the far North State (which is backed up by the highest dam in the United States) to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, where water is collected and pumped south to the sprawling croplands of the San Joaquin Valley and the great metropolises of the South State. The SWP could not have been built without the express support of MWD.
Governance
MWD is governed by a 38-member board of directors whose functions are described in the 1927 legislation authorizing the district. The board is responsible for issuing bonds, which are typically repaid through water sales to subscribing members. Early water sales generated insufficient revenues, so MWD also is authorized to collect property taxes that range from 0.25 to 0.50 percent of assessed value. About 90% of the Colorado River Aqueduct has been repaid through these taxes.
Colorado River
Pressures afflicting the American Southwest — including accelerating climate change-induced droughts, multiple and increasing demands from agriculture, and rapidly growing populations — have cast the existing Colorado River allocations into turmoil. MWD is in a tenuous position because its water rights are junior to the Imperial Irrigation District, which is run by massively wealthy and powerful families.
The Delta
The Delta is facing a social and ecological crisis due to water diversions to the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California. The current SWP operations are subject to significant litigation and highly contested regulatory processes. C-WIN is one of many tribal, fishing, community, and environmental organizations working to restore the ecosystem by reducing exports by the SWP and its federal analogue, the Central Valley Project. MWD’s future Delta supplies will depend on the outcome of these fights, along with other key variables, including residential and business demand, local water supply development, and modifications to SWP allocations.
Currently, MWD’s board is in conflict over Governor Gavin Newsom’s proposed Delta Tunnel, a project that would shunt water from the Sacramento River around the Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta. While the Tunnel would expedite water deliveries to the south at a cost of more than $20 billion, it is hobbled by some ineluctable geophysical challenges — mainly, it would create no new water. It could only deliver — or more accurately, not deliver — water that is both diminishing in supply due to climate change and is already oversubscribed by a factor of five. The Delta Tunnel would also penalize ratepayers, taxpayers, tribal communities, small farmers and fisheries for the benefit of a handful of corporate San Joaquin Valley growers.
A Cloudy Fiscal Future
MWD also faces profound budgetary problems. C-WIN’s report on MWD fiscal challenges documents the need for a new fiscal model. The fundamental ethos of California water managers has always been to secure more water and build more infrastructure to deliver it. Now that we have begun an era of decreasing demand and decreasing supply, MWD is faced with an existential threat and must reimagine its fiscal model.