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WATER FROM THE DESERT: ENTREPRENEURS TAP UNLIKELY WATER SOURCES

The Property & Environment Research Center (PERC), the nation’s oldest and largest institute dedicated to improving environmental quality through property rights and markets, has published a new paper that makes a strong argument for the rapid implementation of the Cadiz Water Project, without political grandstanding.

The paper, which was not solicited by Cadiz, says of the project “exemplifies the sort of entrepreneurial vision that is necessary to maximize the value of California’s scarce water resources” – something that couldn’t be more important in this very dry year.

“Given the shortage of water in Southern California and the unlikelihood of increasing imports from other areas,” the study continues, “new and currently untapped sources are necessary to maintain the region’s economic productivity.” It adds that using “even a fraction” of the Cadiz aquifer’s capacity “would create much needed security for Southern California water users.”

The study concludes with a call to let the project be approved on its merits:

The Cadiz project has the potential to capture otherwise wasted water and send it to Southern California municipalities who are desperately in need of more reliable water supplies. … The fate of the Cadiz project should depend on economic and environmental considerations, not back-alley politics and favoritism.

We certainly agree with that!

The PERC study was authored by Reed Watson, PERC’s director of applied programs and a PERC research fellow. He holds a J.D. and an M.A. in Environmental Economics from Duke University and a B.S. in Economics from Clemson University.

To read PERC’s summary of the report, click here.

To read or download the PERC report, click here.

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