Overview

• Our groundwater basins are being used up and our existing surface storage can't meet future water demands, particularly in times of drought.
• The gap between California's water supply and water demand is about 2.4 million-acre feet in drought-years. That drought-year deficit will reach 6.2 million acre-feet by 2020. (An acre-foot is enough to meet the annual needs of between one and two households.) Six million feet is roughly triple the amount of water the Bay Area uses in a year. At the same time, growers, manufactures and businesses all need more reliable and better quality water.
• It can take over 20 years to develop and finance a supplemental water supply for new developments.
• Growing food for an average person's diet requires 894 gallons of water. Directly and indirectly, an average person uses 326,310 gallons of water per year.
• Some cities rely on water mains and sewers more than a century old. These old pipes can fail at any time and experts say ironically that water pressure inside the pipes is often the only thing keeping them from collapsing.
• In 2001 sewer spills and overflows forced California officials to issued over 2,000 beach closings and health advisories. Spills and overflows are generally caused by overtaxed and antiquated wastewater systems.
• As little as one-quarter inch of rain can overwhelm older sewage treatment plants. Agencies have no choice but to release storm water and untreated raw sewage, toxic industrial waste and "float-ables" such as garbage, plastic bottles, debris and syringes.
• California requires about $8.4 billion in local wastewater treatment improvements to stop these discharges.

California's water recycling program needs more investment to stave off shortages. In 1998, the last year the state Water Plan was revised, the California Department of Water Resources issued a 10-year capital improvement forecast calling for more than $1.6 billion in spending to ensure delivery of clean water. CALFED is also reworking the state's water storage and distribution system. CALFED foresees $10 billion in environmental and ecological restoration projects, new storage facilities, recycling programs, water transfer arrangements to help strike a balance California's competing water needs.