ENERGY DOWN THE DRAIN
The Hidden Costs of California’s Water Supply
NRDC Authors Pacific Institute Author Ronnie Cohen Gary Wolff Barry Nelson
Natural Resources Defense Council Pacific Institute, Oakland, California August 2004 Natural Resources Defense Council
ABOUT NRDC The Natural Resources Defense Council is a national nonprofit environmental organization with more than 1 million members and online activists. Since 1970, our lawyers, scientists, and other environmental specialists have worked to protect the world’s natural resources, public health, and the environment. NRDC has offices ENERGY in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Visit us at DOWN www.nrdc.org. THE DRAIN The Hidden Costs ABOUT PACIFIC INSTITUTE of California’s The Pacific Institute is dedicated to protecting our natural world, encouraging Water Supply sustainable development and improving global security. Founded in 1987 and based in Oakland, California, we provide independent research and policy analysis August 2004 on issues at the intersection of development, environment, and security. Our aim is to find real-world solutions to problems like water shortages, habitat destruction, global warming, and environmental terrorism.
PRODUCTION Editor NRDC President Emily Cousins John Adams
NRDC Reports Manager NRDC Executive Director Alexandra Kennaugh Frances Beinecke
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Copyright 2004 by the Natural Resources Defense Council.
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ii CONTENTS
Acknowledgments iv
Executive Summary v ENERGY Chapter 1: The High Cost of Energy Use in Western Water Systems 1 DOWN THE DRAIN Chapter 2: The Connections Between Water and Energy 7 The Hidden Costs of California’s Water Supply Chapter 3: San Diego County—Energy and Urban Water 28 August 2004
Chapter 4: Westlands Water District—Energy and Agricultural Water 37
Chapter 5: The Columbia River Basin—Energy and Hydropower 46
Chapter 6: Recommendations for Water Policy 55
Appendices 63 Appendix A: Urban Model Description 63 Appendix B: San Diego Case Study Data Sources and Assumptions 70 Appendix C: Agricultural Model Description 73
Endnotes 75
iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
RDC would like to thank The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and Nthe Compton Foundation, Inc. for funding this report. We thank Ruth and Ben Hammett, the David L. Klein, Jr. Foundation, George A. Miller, Faye and Sandor Straus, and two anonymous donors for their ongoing support of NRDC’s Western Water Project, which laid the foundation for this report. We also thank our ENERGY members, without whom none of our work would be possible. Pacific Institute would DOWN like to thank the New Land Foundation. This report reflects the contributions of many individuals. The authors would first THE DRAIN and foremost like to thank Professor Robert Wilkinson of the University of California, The Hidden Costs Santa Barbara, School of Environmental Science and Management, on whose excellent of California’s earlier work this report is based. Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development Environment and Security, provided helpful guidance and Water Supply insight. Michael Matz conducted excellent preliminary research and interviews. August 2004 Jeannine Larabee helped develop the spreadsheet model used in the case studies. The staffs of the San Diego County Water Authority and the Westlands Water District were tremendously helpful in compiling data needed for our case studies, and they provided useful comments on early drafts. We would also like to thank the following individuals, who graciously gave their time to be interviewed in the course of our research: Dave Christy, Western Area Power Administration, Public Affairs Office; Mary Ann Dickinson, executive director, California Urban Water Conservation Council; Lisa Maddaus, technical adviser, California Urban Water Conservation Council; Kamyar Guivetchi, manager, Statewide Water Planning, Department of Water Resources; Barry Mortimeyer, chief, Central Valley Operations Division, United States Bureau of Reclamation; Steve Macaulay, executive director, California Urban Water Agencies; and Stephen Kashiwada, chief, Division of Operations and Main- tenance, Department of Water Resources. For their assistance regarding Columbia River issues, we thank Dale Hellewell, Grant County Public Utility District (Washington); Bill Griffin, Pacificorp; Dick Watson, Northwest Power and Conservation Council; Charles Plummer, United States Department of Agriculture; Karen Russell, Water Watch (Oregon); John Taves, Bonneville Power Administration; Bert Bowler, Idaho Rivers United; Steve Weiss, Northwest Energy Coalition; Mike Beus, Bureau of Reclamation (Pacific Northwest); Ron Carlson; Rick Wells; Ron Rodewald, Bonneville Power Administration; Jim Blanchard, Bureau of Reclamation; and Ric Gale, Idaho Power. We are also grateful for the insightful comments on earlier drafts provided by Dr. Jay Lund, Karen Garrison, Andrew Englander, Laura Bodie, John Fazio, Ken Weinberg, Jeff Stephenson, Russ Freeman, Steve Malloch, Sheryl Carter, and several anonymous reviewers.
iv EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
alifornia has been through its share of scorching droughts and energy shortages, Cbut many residents of the western United States may not realize the close con- nections between water and power resources. Water utilities use large amounts of energy to treat and deliver water. Even after utilities deliver water, consumers burn more energy to heat, cool, and use the water. ENERGY The California State Water Project is the largest single user of energy in California. In the process of delivering water from the San Francisco Bay-Delta to Southern DOWN California, the project uses 2 to 3 percent of all electricity consumed in the state. THE DRAIN The State Water Project burns energy pumping water 2,000 feet over the Tehachapi The Hidden Costs Mountains—the highest lift of any water system in the world. The amount of energy of California’s used to deliver that water to residential customers in Southern California is equivalent Water Supply to approximately one-third of the total average household electric use in the region.