ACWA Supports Storage for Entire State

By Patrick Cavanaugh, Farm News Director

Water storage is a big issue in California. Tim Quinn, the Executive Director of the Sacramento-based Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA), which represents water agencies throughout the state, recently spoke with us about California water and the importance of water storage in the future as well as his experience working with water agencies in such diverse parts of the state.

“My association strongly supports the notion of a comprehensive plan, and they want it to work for everyone,” Quinn said. “In my world, I do not have the northern wanting to sell the southern route or the ag areas wanting to sell to urban dwellers or the reverse.”

Tim Quinn

But Quinn does describe some tension in the state. “There is a lot of east-west tension in this state. It use to be north and south water, and it’s still there, but not as much as east-west, the coastal demographic,” Quinn said. “It’s the coast versus inland and conservative agricultural California, and so we’re working on building bridges in that regard, but my association represents professional water managers and their boards of directors in the state of California, and they are united in wanting a comprehensive plan to move forward that works for everyone.”

Quinn said that one comprehensive plan that’s beneficial to everyone is water storage. The Association of California Water Agencies doesn’t necessarily promote the building of one specific dam, but instead it promotes improving water storage as a whole.

“If you look at the list, it doesn’t say Temperance Flat and doesn’t say Sites. It definitely says storage, and we strongly support the process that’s going on with the California Water Commission to find the best storage projects for California,” Quinn explained.

“I don’t think we’ll build just one or just two or three storage projects; I think will build four or five or six projects and will build below the ground projects as well,” he said. “My organization is strongly supportive of that comprehensive plan moving forward representing the entire state. I’m not going to say do Temperance Flat and don’t do this one, but projects like the Temperance Flat are part of our future, and I think you’ll see them moving forward.”