What Israel can teach California about water sustainability
Besides being beset by increasingly large shortages of electric power, California is now facing the prospect of water scarcity as well. A years-long drought, which has become so severe it threatens hydroelectric power systems, has reminded Californians that much of their state resides in a desert.
So a group of bureaucrats refusing permission to build a desalination plant near Huntington Beach because of allegations that it would harm nearby marine life by dumping brine back into the ocean is eyebrow-raising, to say the least. Arguments that damage to sea life could be mitigated fell on deaf ears. California already operates the United States’ largest desalination plant near San Diego.
The State of Israel is another part of the world that is located partly in a desert. The first Jewish immigrants approached water scarcity in a far different way than the current California governing class. They built projects that dealt with the problem instead of engaging in endless wrangles over the issue. According to Israel21C the Jewish state now produces 20 percent more water than it needs.
Israel’s system pumps water from the Sea of Galilee south, primarily to feed that country’s agricultural sector. It also uses a technology called drip irrigation that feeds water directly to the roots of plants, saving enormous amounts that otherwise would be lost to evaporation. Israel also treats and recycles 88 percent of its wastewater for agriculture with a goal of 95 percent by 2025,
Finally, while California argues whether or not to tap into enormous reserves of ocean water with desalination technology, Israel has built several desalination plants using reverse osmosis technology. Thus far, five desalination plants feed water to the Jewish state, with two more on the way. Israel seems less concerned with possible damage to marine life than with damage to human life from lack of water.
Finally, Israel, using media, encourages a culture of water conservation. The country even inserts water-saving messages in children’s programing, making the idea that water is a precious resource second nature.
Israel shares its water expertise with much of the world that suffers from water scarcity, a problem that rivals climate change in its importance.
What can California learn from Israel’s experience? First, that politicians and bureaucrats wrestling with California’s water shortage can use existing technology to address the problem. California is larger than Israel and has more people. But the solution is a matter of scale and money, the latter of which California has not been shy about spending on other priorities.
The second thing that California can learn from Israel is that when a problem like water scarcity presents itself, the state government should solve it and not argue about the side effects of proposed solutions. The Huntington Beach desalination plant was killed, not because it couldn’t deliver water to California, but because of mostly environmental objections.
Without adequate water, California is in danger of dying as a state. Without water to drink, bathe in, and cook with, people cannot live. Farmers need water to grow crops, and industries need water to build things. Without water, people and businesses will accelerate the ongoing exodus from California.
Any harm to marine life that a desalination plant might cause can be mitigated, perhaps by repurposing the brine for industrial use instead of dumping it in the ocean. MIT News has some excellent suggestions along those lines which, incidentally, would decrease the cost of desalination since special pumps to deliver the brine back into the ocean would not be needed.
However, California policymakers must change their mindset from one that rejects solutions out of hand to one that develops solutions and implements them with all due speed.
Israel has fixed its water problem. It’s time for California to do the same.
Mark Whittington, who writes frequently about space and politics, has published a political study of space exploration entitled Why is It So Hard to Go Back to the Moon? as well as The Moon, Mars and Beyond, and, most recently, Why is America Going Back to the Moon? He blogs at Curmudgeons Corner. He is published in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The Hill, USA Today, the LA Times, and the Washington Post, among other venues.
