Breaking up Southern California's Love Affair With Imported Water

MWD will lose 5 percent of its hydro-generated electricity from Hoover Dam under new a contract that will take effect after the current one expires in 2017. Combined with higher-priced energy alternatives, and -- as a result of California's upcoming cap-and-trade program -- buying pollution allowances for the new energy source, agency officials predict the Colorado River Aqueduct's cost will increase by 80 percent over the next decade. Last year's aqueduct energy cost was $49 million, reports Bettina Boxall for the Los Angeles Times.

"It will further encourage retail water suppliers to use less imported water," said Edward Osann, a former federal water official who is a policy analyst for the Natural Resources Defense Council. "It's that simple."