On a sunny Friday morning in October, I’m battling a fear of heights as a tour bus creeps across the tallest dam in the United States.
I’m trying to stay calm—and look calm—because my seat mate is Burbank’s youngest vice mayor, Nikki Perez. She’s serious about her work in local government but disarmingly friendly, sharing a video of an internet-famous pygmy baby hippo named Moo Deng who is adorable. It’s a welcome distraction from the dizzying views outside the window.
Oroville Dam stands 770 feet tall—43.6 feet higher than Hoover Dam—but unlike its concrete counterpart, it’s an earthfill structure. It’s not strikingly photogenic, blending into the landscape like a natural mountain. As the bus inches along the mile-long crest of the dam, I start to relax enough to record a video of Lake Oroville, the vast reservoir it holds back.
Vice Mayor Perez and I—and about 28 other people from Burbank and the city of Long Beach—are guests of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California on one of its regular inspection trips of water infrastructure. Specifically, we’re on the State Water Project version. After flying into Sacramento, we boarded this bus headed for the Sierra Nevada foothills, east of the Sacramento Valley.
Burbank Depends on Imported Water
For Burbank, Lake Oroville represents a critical lifeline. Approximately 75-80% of the water delivered to Burbank residents originates from the State Water Project (SWP), which depends on Lake Oroville’s storage. This water is spread, stored in groundwater basins, and blended with treated water from MWD to supply the city’s needs. Without the SWP, Burbank would struggle to maintain its current water reliability.
These inspection trips aim to connect local leaders with the sources of their communities’ water. It’s easy to take water for granted when it reliably flows from the kitchen tap. But as we’re learning on this trip, the journey from the Sierra Nevada to Southern California is anything but simple.
Currently, the SWP is at the center of discussions about the Delta Conveyance Project (DCP), a major construction initiative designed to modernize the water system. The project requires funding to complete critical feasibility studies, including soil sampling. MWD is being asked to contribute $150 million toward the studies, part of an estimated $312 million total. This comes at a challenging time, as consecutive rainy winters have driven down water sales, leaving MWD to consider raising wholesale rates by 8% or more to cover the cost. So it’s a hard decision that the Metropolitan Board is set to make on December 9-10, 2024.
Beyond finances, the DCP faces opposition rooted in historic political and environmental concerns. Critics include Northern California residents, local businesses affected by construction, and Southern California environmental groups, like the Sierra Club, who argue that conservation, water recycling, and stormwater capture are better alternatives.
For me, this trip has both personal and professional significance and I was grateful for the invitation from MWD Board Director and former Burbank Mayor Marsha Ramos. Since 2018, I’ve served as the part-time communications director for the Southern California Water Coalition, a nonpartisan nonprofit that supports the DCP as part of a broader strategy for securing future water supplies. Additionally, I worked for MWD for a decade in the 2000s, where I focused on media relations and conservation outreach—and met my husband, whose career centered on the State Water Project. Finally, I’m here to report on the trip for MyBurbank.com, at the request of editor Craig Sherwood.
Historic Vision for a Statewide Water System
Proposals to move Northern California water south date back to 1919. By the 1950s, California engineered the State Water Project, creating a marvel of infrastructure to support the state’s booming population and agriculture. However, laws like the 1973 Endangered Species Act brought new complexities, requiring water projects to protect ecosystems. Today, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, home to endangered species like salmon and Delta smelt, often sees water pumps shut down to protect fish populations.
In rural Oroville, Burbank seems to be a world away. It’s hard to imagine that this fresh water will make its way from this reservoir through pumping plants, hydroelectric power plants, canals and pipelines to come out of Burbank faucets, showers, and sprinkler heads some 450 miles away. But that’s what happens.
Fish Ladders and Screens
At Oroville, we visit the Feather River Fish Hatchery, where spawning salmon are returning to their home waters to lay eggs and complete their natural life cycle. Dozens of salmon swim through a channel, visible through glass walls built for visitors to observe them. Their instinctual journey upstream is grueling, and the salmon bear the marks of their struggle—tattered fins, shredded skin. One lies dead, while the others push on, battle-worn but determined.
To support the salmon’s migration, the hatchery has a “fish ladder” and fish screens, designed to help them navigate water infrastructure and avoid being drawn into massive pumps.
Vice Mayor Perez and I take photos at the hatchery, and I’m struck by her engagement in water issues. As a social worker focused on housing, she spends part of the bus ride answering my questions about housing bond measures on the November ballot, showing how interconnected these issues truly are. People need housing and water to live, after all.
“Over 19 million people in Southern California, including all of us in Burbank, rely primarily on imported water,” Vice Mayor Perez said. “As the state faces a housing shortage we need to realize that this is also a looming water and energy shortage. It’s crucial that we support State and Metropolitan Water District efforts to build the infrastructure and negotiate policies with our neighboring states that will continue to bring water from Northern California and the Colorado River into to our community.”
Burbank’s Lack of Water Rights
Burbank’s water story is shaped by historical quirks, MWD Director Ramos tells me. The city doesn’t hold water rights to stormwater or groundwater; those belong to Los Angeles. “We don’t own the rights to the water that flows down our streets during storms or the groundwater beneath us,” she said.
The origins of this water rights arrangement trace back to a 1979 Superior Court ruling. The court determined that Los Angeles holds “pueblo rights,” a legal designation inherited from its status as the successor to a Spanish or Mexican pueblo. These rights grant the city control over all naturally occurring water in the area. This leaves Burbank entirely reliant on imported water—a dependency that underscores the importance of projects to modernize the State Water Project, like the Delta Conveyance Project.
The other Metropolitan board director on this tour is Gloria Cordero, who represents the City of Long Beach. Long Beach is much less dependent on State Water Project water than Burbank, and is uncertain in supporting the Delta Conveyance Project. Ramos tells me that she has been providing Burbank’s unique perspective to her colleague. Particularly, Burbank’s needs and the benefits of Metropolitan’s collective, where member agencies come together to support projects that may be more beneficial to one than to the other.
Ramos cites Metropolitan’s Pure Water Southern California, a large water recycling project that aims to purify wastewater to such a fine degree that it can be used as human drinking water. Water wonks call this direct potable reuse or DPR. Because of geography limitations, Burbank isn’t likely to benefit directly from the Pure Water Southern California, but Ramos still sees the benefits of supporting projects that help reduce demand on Metropolitan Water District overall. She hopes other board members will be persuaded to think about the benefits of the Delta Conveyance Project in the same way.
“Metropolitan’s member agencies are at a crossroads,” said Charley Wilson, the executive director of the Southern California Water Coalition. “Are they going to continue to invest in this project or walk away from prior investments? Are we moving away from a collective approach and forcing water providers to fragment and pursue independent water resilience options?”
Those are questions the Metropolitan Board has been grappling with for some time now. People like me who livestream their monthly board meetings hear the theme in the board’s deliberations. I have my opinions, and they are based on my understanding of just how much water Southern California gets from the State Water Project. It’s a huge volume of water that would be hard to replace with other local sources. It would require other, big projects to be built—more advanced water purification plants, more desalination plants, maybe as many as eight.
Burbank Water and Power Looks Ahead
Leaving Oroville, Burbank Water & Power Assistant General Manager – Water Systems Richard Wilson takes the tour bus microphone and talks to us about Burbank’s water picture. There’s some good news in how much more water efficient Burbank has become, going from using 24 million gallons a day in the 1970s to about half that today, despite population growth.
He reiterates Ramos’ point that Burbank has no water rights, that the city of L.A. has the rights to even the stormwater that runs down Burbank streets. Some of the bus riders shake their heads at the quirks of California water that don’t seem to make common sense, like that. He also mentions initial talks he is having with other State Water Project-dependent water agencies, like Las Virgenes Municipal Water District in Calabasas, to see how they might partner on, say, a desalination project. It’s just an idea right now, but it’s a creative one born out of necessity. If the Delta Conveyance Project doesn’t move forward, the water available through that system will continue to diminish and Burbank will need to find replacement sources. The thinking is that Burbank would be able to take water supplied by a desalination project through an exchange program with another agency that has a direct connection to the desalinated water.
Looking ahead, Wilson says, Burbank will need 12 million gallons of water a day to support the city’s planned growth. “We’ll make up the difference through direct potable reuse and desalination,” he said. The city recently signed an agreement with consulting firm Woodard & Curran to begin the planning and permitting study for direct potable reuse in the city, an important step toward making the most of every drop of water Burbank buys from Metropolitan.
Water is Life for Burbank
I want to see Burbank build more housing and become more affordable for the people who work here. I want to share with more people the wonderful quality of life we have in this city. We may not think about water much, but a reliable water supply underpins Burbank’s quality of life and our economic growth.
I wish everyone could go on one of these inspection trips and see the infrastructure firsthand, like me and the vice mayor and the other 28 people who joined us. But it’s a big ask—to give up two days to dive deep into the state’s water issues, away from family and work and other obligations. But standing in a lookout over Lake Oroville, pondering the vast expanse of water in it and thinking about the marvels of engineering that bring water to Burbank from this remote perch, is to respect the vision that made this possible. And it’s a meditation on what it will take for us to think in the same visionary way about what future we want for California.
Fantastic article. More of this please!
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