… These days, the focus is less on San Diego’s access to water — the envy of water managers everywhere — but on its astronomical costs. Further, what some of the visionaries didn’t foresee is the region would be stuck with way more water than it needs. Unloading it has proved a vexing problem. And a lot more is coming with the city of San Diego’s Pure Water recycling project — which could produce the region’s costliest water yet — and other emerging water reuse programs, such as one in East County. … One glimmer of hope to take the edge off the increases: emerging changes in the byzantine legal and political dynamics of California’s water world, which could open up markets for San Diego water. Oddly enough, some local officials are hoping a prime customer will be their former nemesis, the Los Angeles-based Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.
–Written by San Diego Union-Tribune columnist Michael Smolens.