Once in a while another city's council shenanigans merit mention here at the Voice. This time it's Palo Alto giving us a head-scratcher moment. Check this out from the Daily Post:
Palo Alto City Council is considering selling 1 million gallons of its daily water allocation, but environmental advocate Peter Drekmeier fears the water rights will be sold to Brisbane so a developer can build offices — worsening the region’s issues with too many jobs and not enough housing. The idea of selling some of Palo Alto’s water rights to another city was presented in a memo by Councilwoman Alison Cormack and Mayor Pat Burt. Council will discuss the idea, and whether to have a city planner spend three weeks exploring it, on Monday, Jan. 31.
Palo Alto has used between 8 and 10 million gallons per day for the past seven years, yet has the rights to up to 16 million gallons per day. Selling 1 million gallons per day in water rights could bring in tens of millions of dollars for city projects, Burt and Cormack said.
Drekmeier — a former council member, mayor and now policy director for the Tuolumne River Trust — said Palo Alto shouldn’t sell water to a project that doesn’t help the Bay Area. He pointed to Brisbane, where developer Universal Paragon Corp. is looking for 2 million gallons per day to move forward with a massive project on the shore just south of San Francisco.
That proposal drew an impassioned and informed letter to the editor from a Palo Alto resident that hit on a several points:
Did they (Burt and Comack) forget about the two new housing bills linking jobs to housing? Did they forget the Bay Area already has to accommodate almost 1 million more people, all of whom use water? Unbelievable at a time when Palo Alto residents are told to conserve water, are threatened with $500 fines if we use too much, have already been overcharged by the city utilities department every year to fund the General Fund and are now paying to appeal the judge's ruling in the case?
Remind me why we need another massive office complex. Where's the fiscal responsibility and common sense?
Answer: Missing and in short supply respectively. Let's go a bit deeper into the shallow end of water politics and recall this. A city's "water rights" are more of a suggestion than a contract these days. And when the wells run dry you can bet the SFPUC, emphasis on the SF, and the new director, Dennis Herrera, will look out for their own as the SF Chronicle posited back in November:
Demanding better water conservation from neighbors while partnering on sustainable projects will be a tough needle to thread. Thankfully, Herrera has signaled that he’s up to the challenge. San Francisco residents need him to mean it.
Smart city councils would be looking to buy water rights, not to sell them!
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