California IN BRIEF : SACRAMENTO : Panel Would Order Desalted Water Use

Despite objections from the Metropolitan Water District and other water agencies, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted 7-1 to approve a measure requiring the agencies to buy up to 8% of their future supply in desalinated water. The measure, sponsored by Assemblyman Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles), goes to the Senate floor later this week for what could be a nasty fight. Polanco’s bill requires local agencies to figure their “actual costs” in finding additional water supplies, and then to pay that price to entrepreneurs who build energy-intensive plants that purify seawater for drinking purposes. Polanco says the measure is necessary to create economic incentive for the costly plants. But MWD and other water agencies say the bill will force expensive desalted water on the public and pave the way for higher costs on other sources of cheap water.