Opinion: Deferring Maintenance on Our Water System Is a Risk We Can’t Afford to Take

Most San Diegans don’t often think about the journey that water takes before reaching our faucets. It involves hundreds of miles of pipes, multiple treatment plants and countless moving parts to deliver a reliable water supply to our region, which has nowhere near enough natural water sources to sustain us.

Any disruption along the way could have serious implications for local families and businesses. As a result, regular maintenance isn’t just a good idea, it’s an absolute necessity.

The San Diego County Water Authority and its member agencies are responsible for securing this reliable water supply for our region’s 3 million residents and businesses and delivering it to our taps every day without fail.

It’s a big job, supported by a highly trained staff and dedicated board of directors, who wake up each day solely focused on ensuring our region’s water system works properly now and into the future. As stewards of your water needs, we have a responsibility to maintain our 80-year-old system in the most cost-efficient manner possible and balance your expectation for reliable service with demands to keep bills low.

As it stands today, San Diego County has one of the most reliable water supplies in the arid southwest, and our water bills continue to be the lowest among all other utilities in the region. A gallon of water here costs just a few pennies. That’s quite a bargain.

And it’s not hard to find examples in our region where deferred maintenance of our region’s other infrastructure has led to larger problems down the road. Crumbling roads, clogged storm drains and closed beaches all tell a story that we can’t afford to let happen to our critical water system.

That brings us to the current discussion by the Water Authority’s board of directors aimed at setting wholesale water rates for the coming year. By all accounts, this is shaping up to be a much more challenging decision than in recent years when rate increases typically were just a few percent.

Costs are rising all around us, and our water agencies are not immune from inflation. Plus, we’re facing the disruptive and costly realities of lower water sales due in part to two agencies leaving the regional system without fully covering their bills.

Difficult decisions will have to be made by our peers on the Water Authority Board. Ones that reflect our priorities and look to the future, not just our present. It would be easy for us to defer maintenance on our water infrastructure to temporarily blunt the sticker shock of rising rates.

Important preventative maintenance projects are planned for the coming years to make sure our water continues to flow when and where we need it. These include seismic retrofits to a vital aqueduct and upgrades to aging facilities that suffer daily wear and tear. Putting off these critical projects is a big risk. The cost of emergency repairs is many times greater than proactive work. If water deliveries are cut as a result, the impacts could be massive.

Simply put, we can’t afford to defer maintenance on our region’s water system.

These capital projects will maximize the useful lifespan of prior investments and avoid major costs down the road. They ensure our 3 million residents and $300 billion economy continue to have the resources we need to thrive.

Nobody likes paying more for water or other vital services. And, along with our other Board members, we take every step possible before asking the public to do more. But we must continue to maintain our region’s water supplies. It might not be fun, but it’s definitely good governance. The alternative is a risk we can’t afford to take.

Jim Madaffer is a member and past chair of the Water Authority board of directors representing the city of San Diego. Gary Arant is also a member of the board and general manager of the Valley Center Water District.