Weekend Waterlines: updates, previews & sustainable streams of thought
Alleged anti-Muslim remarks by MWD directors, dirty leaks, news unfit to print, desal solutions, encouraging SoCal water board election results and not so...
Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (in reverse chronological order):
MWD response to accusations of Racial ‘animus’ by MWD board members toward Muslim GM alleged in letter
Update: I received the following response from the MWD Press Manager: “Metropolitan takes all accusations of discrimination, harassment and retaliation seriously. The allegations of EEO-based discrimination, harassment and retaliation in the letter you reference [see PDF file below] were referred by Chair Ortega in accordance with Metropolitan’s EEO policies, practices and procedures.”
Socal Water Wars Preview: more to come on this matter soon.
Adel Hagekhalil. MWD photo A three-day delay: my report of MWD leaks will appear [las] Thursday morning.
Update: I apologize, but publication of my story revealing the names of individuals who leaked confidential documentation and information, which potentially affects the due process rights involved in the administrative case of Assistant General Manager Katano Kasaine v. General Manager Adel Hagekhalil, will be delayed until later this week. This delay is necessary to allow me to reach out to additional key stakeholders and to take more time to put the facts in context for my ongoing investigation and analysis.
SoCal Water Wars conflict of interest and bias preview:
I have obtained additional information indicating bias and a clear ethical conflict of interest among various MWD member agencies, who will decide the future employment status of General Manager Adel Hagekhalil. This situation defies the State Audit’s recommendations and the often-proclaimed, but routinely ignored, universal standard of avoiding 'even the appearance of a conflict of interest.' My goal is to present that report next week.
Who leaked ‘confidential’ complaint against MWD GM to Politico? Preview: I wrote: “Clearly, the complaint against GM Hagekhalil was handled outside of regular procedures, as I will explain in detail in my next related post.” Follow up preview: MWD Chair Adán Ortega, who lashed out at unnamed leakers, disagrees.
SoCal Water Wars preview: CityWatch Los Angeles: a look at all the water-news innuendo that’s unfit to print but got printed anyway.
SoCal 2024 election water district results: the good, the bad and the really bad. Including a review of three of the best elected water buffaloes in Southern California. Hint: no, they aren’t all “liberals” like me, but some of the most disappointing ones are. And a special profile feature that should have been revealed before Halloween.
My series of stories on the financial effects of the Carlsbad ocean desalination plant on San Diego County ratepayers will continue soon, concluding in an in-depth interview with Jeremy Crutchfield, the Water Resources Manager for San Diego County Water Authority. The mutually agreed upon idea for the interview arose from a constructive and enlightening conversation last summer with Crutchfield and another high level staffer. Prior to that conversation, the staffer opined, my reporting on CWA issues had been accurate but lacked CWA’s viewpoint in its own words. I always welcome constructive criticism and other feedback, and I take it seriously. Her criticism made sense.This newsletter is written from a progressive perspective, and I have no problem with being honest about my own biases. There is no such thing as an unbiased journalist or even unbiased human being. Every thinking, caring, person has a bias and it’s always dishonest or pure fantasy to deny it. It’s also bad journalism—after all, if you don’t care about the issues you report on, what use are you as a journalist? I am progressive but I am not partisan in my reporting. And I don't see life through conceptual absolutes. I believe in presenting all sides of an issue factually and with honest context. This approach not only helps to ensure fairness but also forces me to examine and reexamine my own views as well as others’. It's not about being contrarian but avoiding the trap of an echo chamber. I look forward to a mutually challenging conversation with Jeremy about ocean desalination and related water management issues shortly after the New Year.
Carlsbad ocean desalination plant under construction. Photo: SoCal Water Wars Stream of thought: When the San Diego County Water Authority (CWA) signed a 30-year take-or-pay contract with the owner of the Carlsbad located desalination plant, Poseidon Water, to buy 48,000 acre-feet of its water annually, it accepted Poseidon’s misleading marketing narratives. These narratives were designed to attract a global network of investors by promising a reliable and locally produced source of long-term revenue for the company and its partners. However, the CWA was also driven by a legitimate but exaggerated fear of being left without water, as it had been by MWD in the 1990s, its major supplier at the time. This fear sparked a decades-long “water war” between the two agencies, resembling the infamous Hatfields and McCoys' feud. However, instead of guns, the CWA fought by seeking detachment from the MWD, creating alternative water supplies, and filing successful lawsuits for overcharging.
You can learn more about the history of that feud in the book 'Beyond Chinatown' by Steven P. Erie (2006, Stanford University Press). Although the book has a pro-MWD bias, it's still a fascinating read. Feel free to skip Chapter 2 ('Ghosts of Chinatown') if you want to focus on the CWA - MWD feud and other more relevant content.
Regrettably, CWA's legitimate pursuit of fairness and supply-sustainability morphed into a crusade-like obsession for scapegoating MWD for San Diego County’s high water rates that were due in large part to the Carlsbad desal plant’s costly water—three times more than MWD’s rates for imported water. That made the Carlsbad desal water financially untenable, leading two CWA member-agencies to cancel their membership and go to MWD for its much cheaper water. This has also sparked calls for CWA to radically change its business model, including by the “creative destruction” of its 30-year take-or-pay contract with Poseidon. Alternatively, there's an effort to offload the overpriced and largely unnecessary ocean desalination water (making about 10 percent of CWA’s supply but 20-24 percent of its total supply-costs) to water-hungry areas outside the county or state. This action dismantles the myth propagated by Poseidon and CWA over the past 24 years that Poseidon's desalinated water would someday be as affordable as imported water. Crutchfield and MWD Board Chair Adán Ortega recently confirmed to me directly that CWA and MWD staff are collaborating to find customers outside of the county for its desal water. So far, potential buyers include the Imperial Irrigation District and the Moulton-Niguel Water District in Orange County.
