Planning & Diversifying Our Water Resources

The Water Authority is working to enhance reliability of the water supply to meet the region’s growing demands and to ensure the cost effective, environmentally sensitive and safe delivery of those supplies.

The Water Authority’s Board of Directors has adopted policies and programs in the areas of supply reliability, system infrastructure, finance, and outreach to help accomplish this mission and to meet growing demands. This long-term commitment to diversify the region’s water supply portfolio, reduce the region’s reliance on imported water, and optimize facilities will provide the flexibility necessary to respond to the region’s ever-changing needs.

San Diego County's Water Supply Portfolio

Click image above to enlarge.

The charts above show the Water Authority’s progress in diversifying supplies from 1991 to 2010, and goals for 2020. By 2020 the goal is to reduce the region's reliance on the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the Water Authority's largest supplier, to about 30 percent. The Water Authority will also get about 30 percent of its supply from long-term Colorado River transfers including the water conservation and transfer agreement with the Imperial Irrigation District and water-conserving canal-lining agreements in the Imperial and Coachella Valleys. The Water Authority is also working with its member agencies to build up local supplies – groundwater, recycled, desalination, and conservation – so they can meet the remaining 40 percent of regional demands by 2020.