David Ablett: Desalinated water a bargain by some standards

Re “Water crisis: Making sea brine fresh carries a high price” (Page 3A, Dec. 13): Maybe, but you really shouldn’t let the numbers fool you. Water always comes with big numbers. It’s amazing how stupid and short-sighted our elected officials can be when it comes to numbers.

Yes, the water for the new desalination plant in San Diego will be expensive. But, you know what’s really expensive? A bottle of water from the convenience store.

How much are you willing to pay for a bottle of water? I picked some up at Costco last night, the expensive stuff. Cost me 12.5 cents per bottle. Sounds cheap? Look at it this way. It takes eight of those bottles, costing $1, to make a gallon. There are 326,000 gallons in an acre foot of water. That means that you, me and all those tight-fisted politicians just paid $326,000 for an acre foot of bottled water. Go to a convenience store, where the price is a $1.50 or more per pint, and it really starts to add up – $3.9 million per acre foot.

You really have to ask why valley water agencies are willing to sell water so cheap. San Diego has set the standard, at least $2,100 an acre foot. And even that’s a bargain.

This story was originally published December 21, 2015 at 4:08 PM with the headline "David Ablett: Desalinated water a bargain by some standards."