Mr. Chairman, members of the Subcommittee, ladies and gentlemen, we appreciate the opportunity to be here today to share some of our concerns we have regarding the Sierra Club and the Glen Canyon Institute's
proposal to drain Lake Powell.
My name is Mark Whitlock. And I serve as a minister of First A.M.E. Church led by Dr. Cecil L. Murray. We have some 14,000 members. And we are all on one accord with this
issue.
We believe that water is important. We believe it sustains life, offers new life, provides a preservation of life. Thus, we believe we must retain Lake Powell. Certainly, as the city of Los Angeles
grows by some 210,000 people per year, and possibly by the year 2020, we will have some 21.5 million people in the city of Los Angeles, State of California.
We're concerned that if there is not enough water
available, then we will have to go out and spend an enormous amount of money finding the supplies for them. Clearly, Lake Powell provides that surplus, that water needed to sustain life.
If we have to spend
more money on new water supplies, then there will be a cost incurred for that research, that new project. And that cost, unfortunately, reflects back on our ratepayers or our community, our constituents, whose water
bills will increase.
Well, that's where the rubber meets the road for us. Clearly, in south central Los Angeles, where we suffer from the poverty of money, an unemployment rate of anywhere from 16 percent,
in some areas of our community as high as 50 percent, a poverty rate in our community of 25 percent. So any increase in water, any increase in bills takes food out of the mouths of our children. So we—we clearly believe
water is important. Thus, Lake Powell is important.
Why not look at another program? Why not look at another way to provide resources to continue working within the system? We support a project that we work
closely on with the Metropolitan Water District and other agencies within the city of Los Angeles. That project, we call it a water conservation program.
Most toilets, shower heads in the city of Los
Angeles are rather antiquated. One flush could result in a loss of 9 to as much as 16 gallons of water. Clearly, if you take a piece of tissue and put it down the drain, 16 gallons of water gone.
Well, a
partnership with the Metropolitan Water District results in a savings of water. Five years ago, they offered us the opportunity to exchange the old guzzler, 9 to 16 gallons per flush for a new guzzler, 1.6 gallons of
water per flush.
We thought it was a bit strange to offer that program to First A.M.E. Church, an organization that has allowed certainly minister—allowed Martin Luther King to come over our pulpit,
Mandela, even President Clinton has offered a few words over our pulpit. We thought it a bit strange to talk about toilets over the pulpit at First A.M.E. Church.
Well, we did support the program. And they
paid a small fee for that program. And out of that program, we were able to hire men, women who were unemployed or underemployed, some 30 of them, to be exact. And they started exchanging toilets.
The
agency wanted just 100 a week. These men, women started exchanging toilets to the tune of a thousand a week. And within a 2 1/2-year period, we exchanged some 84,000 toilets, resulting in a savings of 68,710 acre feet
of water. They saved some billions of gallons of water. A program that works, a program that works within the system, certainly not the extreme of eliminating Lake Powell.
So, today, we support the
retention of Lake Powell for all the right reasons. And we challenge, certainly, other agencies to develop a partnership, a partnership that saves water, a partnership that creates jobs, lowers water bills, and at the
same time, preserves the Colorado River and certainly supports the continuation of Lake Powell.
We thank you for the opportunity to be here today. We certainly welcome any questions that you may have,
Shelia Reed and I. I'm Mark Whitlock. Thank you so much.
