July
2008 | A Guest
Editorial by John
Kerridge
“What
is the Water
Authority's
estimate on
the limits to
growth in our
region?”
Councilmember
Henry Abarbanel
asked this question
at a recent city
council meeting.
He got no reply,
but his inquiry
cut to the heart
of a fundamental
regional issue,
and it behooves
us to ponder it
further.
First,
we need to recognize
that, with a few
honorable exceptions,
our neighboring
communities have
conspicuously
failed even to
entertain the
idea that growth
might, in fact,
have limits outside
of their control.
For many years,
most communities
in the region
have routinely
approved large-scale
development projects
without questioning
whether the infrastructure
is adequate to
support them.
“Infrastructure” here
means primarily
the availability
of water and
power, but also
provision of
appropriate
facilities for
transportation,
education,
and sewage treatment.
In principle,
the latter
issues are resolvable
by taxpayers
and their elected
representatives
having the
guts to make
budgetary decisions
that are unpopular
in the short
term but that
will reap long-term
regional benefits.
But satisfying
our needs for
water and power
will require
a whole different
kind of community
commitment,
and a whole
different degree
of tax-payer
angst.
For
both water and
power, the financial
and societal costs
of adequately
increasing supply
are enormous,
verging on prohibitive.
Water supply to
our area is controlled
by climatic and
geographical factors
that do not favor
us. It would be
insane to assume
that sometime
soon they will
change for the
better. The limits
on power supply
are more subtle,
dominated by its
side effects,
ranging from undesirable
to lethal, but
all of them expensive.
These
limits, natural,
technical and
political, are
sufficiently complex
and uncertain
that only a fool
would assume that
by ignoring them
they would disappear.
Unfortunately,
foolish decisions
are not uncommon,
and most of them
have the effect
of increasing
demand without
guaranteeing supply.
This is a sure-fire
formula for disaster.
We
will only avoid
that disaster
if communities
throughout the
region get together
at a grass-roots
level to apply
unremitting pressure
on elected bodies
that otherwise
are only too happy
to dismiss the
concerns of neighboring
jurisdictions.
But they must
be made to face
the fact that
a development
approval in one
jurisdiction can
negatively impact
its neighbors'
infrastructure
as well as its
own.
We
live in an era
of limits. Ignoring
them will not
make them go away;
what will certainly
go away is our
much-vaunted quality
of life.
John
Kerridge is Editor
Emeritus of the
Sandpiper.
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Del Mar
Community
Alliance,
Inc. All
rights reserved. |
