Page 10 - Yucaipa Valley Water District
P. 10
Workshop Memorandum 18-031
Date: January 30, 2018
From: Joseph Zoba, General Manager
Subject: Overview of a New Methodology for Achieving Future Water Conservation Goals
To control pollution, government
regulators: (1) limit the amount of
pollution that can be emitted; and
(2) set a penalty for violating the
pollution limit.
Recently, government regulators
have implemented trading
systems that are intended to
establish a market price for
emissions. This system is
commonly referred to as a Cap
and Trade system.
While some believe this system
fairly distributes the costs for
polluting, others argue that the
flaw of the Cap and Trade
system is whether the
government has set the correct
pollution limit, or Cap. In some
cases, achieving the “ideal”
pollution cap requires
government regulators to tighten
pollution limits until a perceived social optimization has been achieved between the cost of
polluting and the cost for implementing pollution reduction methods.
The methodology described above for controlling pollution is now being considered for achieving
water conservation goals. If this policy were to advance, the District should be prepared to
participate in the discussions to ensure the poorly devised implementation strategy that resulted
in a 36% conservation goal for Yucaipa Valley Water District during the last drought is not
replicated under this new methodology.
Yucaipa Valley Water District - January 30, 2018 - Page 10 of 210
