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Enough Water for Growth?

Andy Cohen, East Bay MUD

"We're never going to have a healthy estuary unless we have healthy cities and healthy development processes as well. That means taking into account all the factors involved in approving a development, including the need for a reliable water supply.

"I don't think it's a water agency like EBMUD's place to be making land use decisions. Our role is to assess what kind of water supply we have, whether we have the ability to meet our existing customers'needs, and whether we can fulfill our environmental responsibilities and future demand. We did a two year study and found that given increasing demands, both upstream and within our existing service district and for fish, we don't have excess water for new developments, and we let the county know.

"The resource limitations are real. If county land use agencies refuse to take them into account, there'll be conflict like we're having over the Dougherty Valley development. But we don't need a new intermediate agency to deal with this. What we need is more cooperation and more exchange of information.

"We also need some kind of independent resolution process where there are disputes about the facts, and Dougherty Valley is a good test case for new forums for resolution. First we tried the courts, which Senator Boatwright tried to prevent with his bill. Then we decided the state water board would be an appropriate arbiter, and recommended that the bill, with some kind of reasonable arbitration amendment in it, be made effective statewide. If we're able to come up with a good solution, then we should be able to apply it to all such situations, and not have other water agencies go through the mugging we had to..."

Andy Cohen is on EBMUD's Board of Directors.

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