Huell Howser recently completed a 28-minute video about the water crisis in southern California. The video explains how the West Basin Municipal Water District (West Basin) is responding to decreasing, less reliable imported water supplies resulting from population growth, environmental restoration, and long-term impacts like climate change through its Water Reliability 2020 (WR2020) program. The WR2020 DVDs are available to the public on a first-come, first-served basis to those who live or work in the West Basin service area.
"Huell Howser is an expert at taking complex issues and bringing them forward so that anyone can understand them," said Gloria D. Gray, President of the West Basin Board of Directors. "From his famous 'California Gold' series on PBS, you know just how entertaining Huell is, and we are excited that he has filmed a show about West Basin's work to protect our current supplies by creating new, locally-controlled water here in the South Bay."
The current water crisis stems from complex and long-standing issues. Built in the 1970's to serve 18 million people, California's water delivery infrastructure is currently serving 37 million people. The Colorado River ecosystem has suffered several years of drought and is supplying water to expanding populations in rapidly growing cities throughout the Southwest. The Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay Delta is the hub of the state's water delivery system, is threatened by earthquakes and has significant ecosystem challenges, including declining sensitive fish species requiring protection.
The framework for the video is West Basin's Water Reliability 2020 program, the agency's plan to control most of our water supplies through local sources by the year 2020. The video includes a look at where our water in southern California comes from, West Basin's water recycling facility that manufactures five different types of usable water out of sewer water, the purification processes that make sewer water similar to bottled water in 20 minutes, water conservation programs available to residents and businesses in the West Basin service area, and information about West Basin's environmentally-responsible, ocean-water desalination project.
To learn more about Water Reliability 2020 or schedule a tour of West Basin's award-winning water recycling plant, visit www.westbasin.org. If you live or work in West Basin's service area, call 310-217-2411 or email jessican@westbasin.org for your free, first come, first served, Huell Howser Water Reliability DVD.
Contacts:
West Basin Municipal Water District
Alexis Tate, Water Reliability
2020 Chief PIO
310-660-6218
alexist@westbasin.org