The Countywide Vision’s Water Element Group met with city and town planning directors today to discuss working with city and towns to incorporate the sustainability of our water supply into planning for future population and economic growth.
Celeste Cantú, General Manager of Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority, and Bob Tincher, Manager of Engineering and Planning for the San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District described how they believe a partnership between water agencies and the County and cities and towns will help ensure we can reach the level of prosperity we envision for our county.
It is expected the County’s water needs for residents and businesses can be met through 2035, but only if water users step up conservation efforts and the whole community is willing to invest in projects that will store and protect additional water supplies.
Cantú and Tincher proposed at the monthly meeting of the San Bernardino Associated Governments Planning and Development Technical Forum to work with the County and cities and towns to identify:
• opportunities to reduce water consumption by promoting or requiring a greater use of drought-tolerant landscaping
• vacant land that can be preserved to capture rain water to recharge our groundwater basins so that the water can be stored until it is needed
The planning directors will form a subcommittee to work with water agencies on the Water Element Group’s proposals.