Water and energy are interconnected. A frequent term to describe
this relationship is the “water-energy nexus.”
Energy for Water: Energy is needed to store water, get it where
it is needed and also treat it to be used:
* Extracting water from rivers and streams or pumping it
from aquifers, and then conveying it over hills and into storage
facilities is a highly energy intensive process. The State Water
Project (SWP) pumps water 700 miles, including up nearly 2,000
feet over the Tehachapi Mountains. The SWP is the largest single
user of energy in California. It consumes an average of 5 billion
kWh per year. That’s about 2 to 3 percent of all electricity
consumed in California
* Water treatment facilities use energy to pump and process
water for use in homes, businesses and industry
* Consumers use energy to treat water with softeners or
filters, to circulate and pressurize water and to heat and cool
water
* Wastewater plants use energy to pump wastewater to
treatment plants, and also to aerate and filter it at the plant.
Different end uses require more electricity for delivery than
others. Water for residential, commercial and industrial end-use
needs the most energy (11 percent), followed by agricultural
end-use (3 percent), residential, commercial and industrial
supply and treatment (3 percent), agricultural water supply and
treatment (1 percent) and wastewater treatment (1 percent),
according to the California Energy Commission.
Water for Energy: Water is used to generate electricity
* Water is needed either to process raw materials used in a
facility or maintaining a plant,or to just generate electricity
itself.
Overall, the electricity industry is second only to agriculture
as the largest user of water in the United States. Electricity
production from fossil fuels and nuclear energy requires 190,000
million gallons of water per day, accounting for 39 percent of
all freshwater withdrawals in the nation. Coal, the most abundant
fossil fuel, currently accounts for 52 percent of U.S.
electricity generation, and each kWh generated from coal requires
withdrawal of 25 gallons of water.
The Butte County Water Commission will discuss what the process
would be if there was a proposal to build an AI data center in
Butte County at its meeting Wednesday afternoon. The
agenda item has sparked controversy on social media over the
last couple of days, with some urging public participation to
express opposition. The county responded with a statement
clarifying that it has not received an application or
development proposal for a center. The county said the
commission requested a general discussion to better understand
the process for what would happen if a proposal was submitted.
… Butte County says the commission’s discussion
will provide an overview of how AI data centers would
impact water usage.
Modesto officials have received initial contact from NorthPoint
Development, a leading developer of data centers in the nation.
NorthPoint’s name is associated with the former FMC plant site
in Modesto and the company has inquired about putting a data
center at that location. … According to Facebook posts
last week by Modesto Councilman Chris Ricci, NorthPoint, based
in Kansas City, proposed talks with council members about a
small data center here. … Ricci said in a text he has
serious concerns about the impacts of data centers on the
community, ranging from high-volume water use for
cooling operations and energy consumption, which could
lead to higher electric rates for residents. According MOST
Policy Institute, citing an EPA study, data centers
used 17.4 billion gallons of water in 2023.
The Park County commissioners are taking a hard line with data
centers, in large part after hearing overwhelming public
sentiment in opposition and due to simply not knowing enough
about potential issues. … While Gov. Mark Gordon recently
came out opposed to a moratorium at the state level, a number
of primary election candidates have expressed opposition to any
more data centers being built. … “At this time, based on
public input and just the unknown, the recommendation [from the
consultant] is to more widely prohibit them as opposed
to allow,” Planning Director Joy Hill told
commissioners during a work session last week. … “I don’t
know how much water they need and how often. I
could not tell you. I do not have enough factual information
about data centers generally to feel comfortable even advising
you.”
As a data center developer moves its project forward on federal
land in Boulder City using an unusual
regulatory mechanism, a heated land use debate has sparked
appeals and a resolution in Congress that would ban data
centers on federal land. On Monday, the Center for Biological
Diversity and the Sierra Club jointly filed a petition for a
stay to the Interior Board of Land Appeals, asking a judge to
halt construction while an appeal is processed. … While
building the solar project would have required the use of
25 acre-feet of water, building the data center would
need 560 acre-feet. … That water might come from
Boulder City’s wastewater treatment plant —
the only one in the Southern Nevada Water Authority’s purview
that doesn’t send treated water back into Lake Mead.
But if no deal is reached with the city, questions remain about
where that water may come from.
… Stratos developers say the project would bring an initial
$30 million to the county and a permanent 2,000 skilled jobs,
higher than the 50 jobs data centers typically provide,
according to a 2024 Virginia legislative audit of the industry
in that state. In terms of water, backers say the
project wouldn’t draw directly from the Great Salt
Lake and would use two kinds of cooling systems to
keep servers from overheating: a closed-loop system circulating
liquid and air-based cooling. They’re also seeking
water rights for more than 13,000 acre-feet — enough
to supply 26,000 households per year — saying those rights are
attached to the land they’re buying. But they contend the data
center would use less water than the ranchers
there do now.
The developer behind a proposed $10 billion data center has
filed a lawsuit asserting his rights to Colorado River
water in California’s Imperial Valley. Sebastian Rucci
is a Huntington Beach lawyer and businessman pushing the plan
in a region already known as a big water user. The Imperial
Valley sprouted as an agricultural center that’s the largest
user of Colorado River water in the seven states that rely on
the river. Farmers use about 80% of the state’s full
allocation. As managing member of Imperial Valley Computer
Manufacturing, Rucci filed his lawsuit June 5 in California
Superior Court in Imperial County. After two cities — El Centro
and Imperial — snubbed Rucci’s bid to get recycled wastewater
to cool the proposed data center, the developer went
back on a statement that he had no intention of using water
from the over-allocated Colorado River.
Imperial Valley Computer Manufacturing (IVCM) is suing the
Imperial Irrigation District (IID) after the utility denied the
company’s request for about 260 million gallons of Colorado
River water per year, or roughly 750,000 gallons per day, to
cool a planned 330 MW AI data center in Imperial County. The
case tests whether water historically used for agriculture can
be redirected to industrial projects envisioned in the county’s
emerging Lithium Valley plan. … To support future
growth, Imperial County’s plan proposes a regional backbone
water conveyance system, 12 water storage facilities, and a
special district to build and manage new infrastructure.
… Recently, a data center under construction in Cheyenne,
Wyoming, was found to have contaminated the sewer system with a
rare bacterium. The water utility took swift action. The
Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities fined the project developer,
revoked its wastewater permit and announced that it would not
accept certain types of wastewater from data centers
citywide. The developer of the project — which is backed
by Meta — is appealing the $10,000 fine and disputes the
utility’s conclusion tracing the bacterium to its project. But
the incident highlights what engineers view as an
emerging challenge for the data center industry that is already
under scrutiny over its environmental footprint.
California’s Central Valley is one of the country’s richest
farming regions, blessed with fertile soils, sunny days and a
massive man-made system of irrigation canals and reservoirs.
But as climate change intensifies, droughts deepen, and water
restrictions kick in, growers in much of the valley are
getting less water for their fields.They also face new
limits on how much they can pump from underground, forcing them
to leave hundreds of thousands of acres dry in the coming
years. Some are turning to an answer they never thought
they’d embrace: solar. … Farmers’ desperation
coincides with California’s solar dreams. The state is legally
mandated to reach 100% clean electricity by 2045. That will
require an additional 10 gigawatts of clean energy a year and
between 0.5 and 1.3 million acres of in-state solar
development.
A community nonprofit opposed to the development of a lithium
mine and geothermal power plant in California’s arid Imperial
County asked a state Court of Appeal panel on Thursday to
reconsider their petition aimed at halting the development of
the project. Comite Civico del Valle argued to the panel the
Imperial County Board of Supervisors violated the California
Environmental Quality Act after it approved the project based
on a flawed and inadequate analysis of the project’s
environmental impacts in 2024. Attorney Doug Carstens
argued to the three-justice panel the project’s environmental
impact report overstated the water availability in Imperial
County and did not fully appreciate the impact the project
would have on an agricultural region that already suffers from
strained water resources.
… As lake levels decline, Hoover Dam’s power generation
capacity decreases. Federal officials plan to cut the dam’s
output by up to 40 percent. Analysts warn that the reduction
will result in higher electric bills for families in the Las
Vegas Valley, compounding long-term concerns about the region’s
water supply. The declining lake levels formed the backdrop of
a more than four-hour Boulder City Council meeting Tuesday
night, where members debated the potential impact of a proposed
data center on the city’s water and power infrastructure. The
data center was approved at the federal level for Bureau of
Land Management-owned land within the city’s
jurisdiction. The council voted unanimously to appeal the
BLM’s approval of the data center, citing concerns that the
project could require the city’s local utilities and emergency
services.
The contamination of a Cheyenne water system by a Meta data
center underscores the worries residents have about more than
two-dozen data centers that are and could be consuming
Wyoming’s energy, water and landscape. Water
officials announced in June that they had traced an unusual and
dangerous bacterium called Cupriavidus gilardii, which can
sicken people, to an industrial user first identified by the
Wyoming Tribune Eagle as a contractor for a Meta data center.
Pinpointing the source of contamination came months after the
discovery of the bacterium in late February. … As
Wyoming communities grapple with a surge of rural zoning
changes to enable construction of data center computer
warehouses and offices, the pollution raises questions about
developers’ and tech companies’ assurances.
As artificial intelligence fuels a new wave of data center
development across California, lawmakers are grappling with how
to support the growing industry while protecting the
state’s limited water supplies. Two bills moving
through the Legislature would give state and local officials
a more complete picture of data centers’ water
demands. AB 2469 would require developers to disclose
projected water use before local governments approve new
facilities, while AB 2619 would require operators to report
actual water use annually once the facilities open.
The U.S. Forest Service has approved a fast-tracked critical
minerals mine in Southern Arizona despite years of pushback
from nearby communities The $3 billion South 32 Hermosa project
will unearth deposits of zinc, manganese, lead and silver.
… Already, discharged water from the mine has been
flagged by the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality for
exceeding allowable levels of heavy metals. … Each year,
it’s expected to remove 2,790 acre-feet of water from the
aquifer, amounting to 195,000 acre-feet over the course of its
operations. Though some water will be recharged, the final
environmental impact statement notes that net water loss from
the aquifer will be 34,000 acre-feet, equivalent to over 1
billion gallons. Nearby residents in the project’s 50-mile cone
of depression worry that groundwater pumping could cause their
wells to run dry and that the overall dewatering could affect
the surrounding ecosystem.
Facing legal challenges and growing industrial pressures, the
Imperial County Board of Supervisors will vote Tuesday
on whether to freeze new data center developments
across all unincorporated lands for nearly another year. The
proposed 10-month and 15-day extension of an urgency moratorium
underscores a deepening regulatory anxiety over how these
power-hungry facilities will affect the region’s strained
electric grid and vital water resources. Beyond the data center
freeze, Chairwoman Peggy Price will advance the framework for
a new data center advisory committee. The
group will attempt to bring order to the gold rush by
appointing an 11-member advisory panel representing a
cross-section of conflicting interests.
Artificial intelligence has a real heat problem. Cooling
next-generation computer chips for AI requires either
millions of gallons of water or huge amounts of
electricity. Both have ignited sharp opposition from
the public. The industry’s heat trade-off threatens to
deepen its unpopularity in communities where concern is growing
about the financial and environmental toll of data centers. If
a company chooses to save water when cooling a facility, its
power needs surge. If it reduces electricity, its water use
climbs. … Politico spoke with four of the biggest
technology companies about how they choose to use
either water or energy to cool their facilities —
knowing that either one will tax resources and drive public
backlash.
Just northwest of Rifle, the Roan Plateau rises 3,000 feet
above the Colorado River Valley, a towering wall of sandstone
cliffs. … [A] fight has been reignited as the Bureau of Land
Management considers several new oil and gas leases atop the
Roan in its upcoming sale in December. … The BLM first
proposed leasing on the 73,600-acre Roan Plateau in 2007 —
spurring thousands of protests and a lawsuit that took until
2014 to settle, resulting in the cancellation of 17 leases on
the plateau. … The basis of the groups’ argument then — and
now — is that oil and gas development on the plateau would
impact watersheds that support a rare, genetically pure
trout species, wildlife habitat that’s crucial to elk,
mule deer and greater sage grouse and well-established hunting,
fishing and backcountry recreation.
Officials in Wyoming said a contractor for Mark Zuckerberg’s
tech company, Meta, flushed bacteria-contaminated water into
public sewers during construction of a controversial new AI
datacenter. The incident prompted water authorities in Cheyenne
to implement strict safety regulations on how wastewater from
such projects is disposed of. … The company, however,
noted that contamination by the rare but naturally occurring
Cupriavidus gilardii bacterium did not affect drinking
water supplies. … The incident comes amid growing
nationwide backlash to the construction of resource-hungry
datacenters, which opponents say place unbearable demands on
local water and energy supplies.
Clark County commissioners heard from residents Tuesday calling
for a pause ondata center development in Southern
Nevada, as concerns grow over water use, energy
consumption and land use. Commissioners discussed the issue
during the meeting but did not articulate a clear path forward
for next steps. … The pause gives time for officials to
evaluate the water, energy and land use impacts of data
centers. … According to the Desert Research Institute,
data centers used 22% of Nevada’s electricity generation in
2024, a figure that could top 35% by 2030. Meanwhile, 12 of
Nevada’s more than 60 data centers are projected to use
11.9 billion liters of water per year by 2033.
Cheyenne’s Board of Public Utilities isn’t accepting industrial
wastewater associated with data center systems until further
notice after a contractor for Meta Platforms
contaminated the city’s wastewater system, prompting
months of cleanup. The announcement was made by the
Board of Public Utilities (BOPU) on Thursday in conjunction
with naming the Meta company as the source of the initial
contamination. It also comes more than four months after the
Meta company — which is building a huge $800 million data
center in south Cheyenne — disrupted the city’s reclaimed
wastewater system with a rare bacterial contaminant. Goat
Systems LLC was in “significant noncompliance” with the city’s
industrial pretreatment regulations after discharging
wastewater contaminated with Cupriavidus gilardii.
La Guía para el Público en General sobre el Agua en California,
de 24 páginas, ofrece una visión integral de la historia del
desarrollo de los recursos hídricos en California y de la gestión
de los numerosos desafíos que enfrenta el estado en la
actualidad.
As data centers continue to be a regional and national
hot-button issue over their use of resources compared to the
benefits they can provide to residents, Brentwood leaders are
looking for ways to ban such facilities from coming to their
city. In a joint request, Councilmembers Faye Maloney and
Jovita Mendoza are seeking to place on a future agenda an
ordinance that would prohibit the “establishment, construction,
expansion, or operation of any new data center facilities”
within the city’s limits, said Maloney. … Aside from
potential water, noise, and environmental impacts, Mendoza said
there should be better use of land to generate more jobs for
residents.
A Kern County conservation district has announced it is
opposing the potential data center slated to be built in the
Ridgecrest and Inyokern area, citing low water levels. The
Eastern Kern County Resource Conservation District submitted a
letter of opposition to the California Energy Commission saying
the project would create “significant environmental impacts”
and would “undermine decades of local and state efforts to
achieve groundwater sustainability” in the area if built.
… If approved, the project — formally named the Inyokern
RB Data Center — would pull water from the Indian Wells
Valley Groundwater Basin to support its cooling
towers.
Every morning Marisol Winfrey Herrera’s
three-and-a-half-year-old daughter Jo reminds her to turn off
the tap while washing her hands and brushing her teeth.
… It is what prompted Herrera to join No Desert Data
Center, a residents’ group that opposes two large data centres
coming up on either side of Tucson – the $3.6bn project on the
city’s southeast edge and a $5bn project on its northwest side
in the town of Marana, together known as Project Blue. The
group believes these would consume more water and power
than the city set in the Sonoran Desert can afford.
… “Water was a unifying theme in our campaign. The
Colorado River cuts are looming, and this project would take
water away,” Herrera told Al Jazeera.
The House Science, Space and Technology Committee approved
legislation Thursday that would standardize how the federal
government studies data centers and their energy and
water use. The committee passed H.R. 9372, the
Data Infrastructure Energy Measurement and Standards Act, 34-1.
Rep. Daniel Webster (R-Fla.) was the lone no vote. The bill,
led by Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-Va.), would direct the
Department of Energy and the National Institute of Standards
and Technology to draw up standards and best practices
for reporting the energy and water use of artificial
intelligence data centers.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to California Water provides a
comprehensive overview of the history of water development in
California and management of its many challenges today.
This tour explored the lower Colorado River firsthand where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to some 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states, 30 tribal nations and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
Hilton Garden Inn Las Vegas Strip South
7830 S Las Vegas Blvd
Las Vegas, NV 89123
On this first-ever Foundation water tourwe examined water issues along the 263-mile Klamath River, from its spring-fed headwaters in south-central Oregon to its redwood-lined estuary on the Pacific Ocean in California.
Running Y Resort
5500 Running Y Rd
Klamath Falls, OR 97601
This tour explored the lower Colorado River firsthand where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to some 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states, 30 tribal nations and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
Hilton Garden Inn Las Vegas Strip South
7830 S Las Vegas Blvd
Las Vegas, NV 89123
Learn the history and challenges facing the West’s most dramatic
and developed river.
The Layperson’s Guide to the Colorado River Basin introduces the
1,450-mile river that sustains 40 million people and millions of
acres of farmland spanning seven states and parts of northern
Mexico.
The 28-page primer explains how the river’s water is shared and
managed as the Southwest transitions to a hotter and drier
climate.
This tour explored the lower Colorado River firsthand where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to some 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states, 30 tribal nations and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
Hilton Garden Inn Las Vegas Strip South
7830 S Las Vegas Blvd
Las Vegas, NV 89123
This special Foundation water tour journeyed along the Eastern Sierra from the Truckee River to Mono Lake, through the Owens Valley and into the Mojave Desert to explore a major source of water for Southern California, this year’s snowpack and challenges for towns, farms and the environment.
This tour explored the lower Colorado River firsthand where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to some 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states, 30 tribal nations and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
Hyatt Place Las Vegas At Silverton Village
8380 Dean Martin Drive
Las Vegas, NV 89139
The majestic beauty of the Sierra
Nevada forest is awe-inspiring, but beneath the dazzling blue
sky, there is a problem: A century of fire suppression and
logging practices have left trees too close together. Millions of
trees have died, stricken by drought and beetle infestation.
Combined with a forest floor cluttered with dry brush and debris,
it’s a wildfire waiting to happen.
Fires devastate the Sierra watersheds upon which millions of
Californians depend — scorching the ground, unleashing a
battering ram of debris and turning hillsides into gelatinous,
stream-choking mudflows.
We explored the lower Colorado River where virtually every drop
of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad
sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and
climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in
the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin
states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this
water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial
needs was the focus of this tour.
Hampton Inn Tropicana
4975 Dean Martin Drive, Las Vegas, NV 89118
This 30-minute documentary-style DVD on the history and current
state of the San Joaquin River Restoration Program includes an
overview of the geography and history of the river, historical
and current water delivery and uses, the genesis and timeline of
the 1988 lawsuit, how the settlement was reached and what was
agreed to.
This 25-minute documentary-style DVD, developed in partnership
with the California Department of Water Resources, provides an
excellent overview of climate change and how it is already
affecting California. The DVD also explains what scientists
anticipate in the future related to sea level rise and
precipitation/runoff changes and explores the efforts that are
underway to plan and adapt to climate.
20-minute DVD that explains the problem with polluted stormwater,
and steps that can be taken to help prevent such pollution and
turn what is often viewed as a “nuisance” into a water resource
through various activities.
Many Californians don’t realize that when they turn on the
faucet, the water that flows out could come from a source close
to home or one hundreds of miles away. Most people take their
water for granted; not thinking about the elaborate systems and
testing that go into delivering clean, plentiful water to
households throughout the state. Where drinking water comes from,
how it’s treated, and what people can do to protect its quality
are highlighted in this 2007 PBS documentary narrated by actress
Wendie Malick.
A 30-minute version of the 2007 PBS documentary Drinking Water:
Quenching the Public Thirst. This DVD is ideal for showing at
community forums and speaking engagements to help the public
understand the complex issues surrounding the elaborate systems
and testing that go into delivering clean, plentiful water to
households throughout the state.
Water truly has shaped California into the great state it is
today. And if it is water that made California great, it’s the
fight over – and with – water that also makes it so critically
important. In efforts to remap California’s circulatory system,
there have been some critical events that had a profound impact
on California’s water history. These turning points not only
forced a re-evaluation of water, but continue to impact the lives
of every Californian. This 2005 PBS documentary offers a
historical and current look at the major water issues that shaped
the state we know today. Includes a 12-page viewer’s guide with
background information, historic timeline and a teacher’s lesson.
This beautiful 24×36-inch poster, suitable for framing, displays
the rivers, lakes and reservoirs, irrigated farmland, urban areas
and Indian reservations within the Klamath River Watershed. The
map text explains the many issues facing this vast,
15,000-square-mile watershed, including fish restoration;
agricultural water use; and wetlands. Also included are
descriptions of the separate, but linked, Klamath Basin
Restoration Agreement and the Klamath Hydroelectric Agreement,
and the next steps associated with those agreements. Development
of the map was funded by a grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service.
A companion to the Truckee River Basin Map poster, this
24×36-inch poster, suitable for framing, explores the Carson
River, and its link to the Truckee River. The map includes the
Lahontan Dam and reservoir, the Carson Sink, and the farming
areas in the basin. Map text discusses the region’s hydrology and
geography, the Newlands Project, land and water use within the
basin and wetlands. Development of the map was funded by a grant
from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Mid-Pacific Region, Lahontan
Basin Area Office.
Redesigned in 2017, this beautiful map depicts the seven
Western states that share the Colorado River with Mexico. The
Colorado River supplies water to nearly 40 million people in
Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming
and Mexico. Text on this beautiful, 24×36-inch map, which is
suitable for framing, explains the river’s apportionment, history
and the need to adapt its management for urban growth and
expected climate change impacts.
The Water Education Foundation’s second edition of
the Layperson’s Guide to The Klamath River Basin is
hot off the press and available for purchase.
Updated and redesigned, the easy-to-read overview covers the
history of the region’s tribal, agricultural and environmental
relationships with one of the West’s largest rivers — and a
vast watershed that hosts one of the nation’s oldest and
largest reclamation projects.
The construction of Glen Canyon Dam
in 1964 created Lake Powell. Both are located in north-central
Arizona near the Utah border. Lake Powell acts as a holding tank
for outflow from the Colorado River Upper Basin States: Colorado,
New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.
The water stored in Lake Powell is used for recreation, power
generation and delivering water to the Lower Basin states of
California, Arizona, and Nevada.
Every five years the California Department of Water Resources
updates its strategic plan for managing the state’s water
resources, as required by state law.
The California Water Plan, or Bulletin 160, projects the
status and trends of the state’s water supplies and demands
under a range of future scenarios.
This printed issue of Western Water looks at hydraulic
fracturing, or “fracking,” in California. Much of the information
in the article was presented at a conference hosted by the
Groundwater Resources Association of California.
The connection between water and energy is more relevant than
ever. After existing in separate realms for years, the maxim that
it takes water to produce energy and energy to produce water has
prompted a re-thinking of management strategies, including an
emphasis on renewable energy use by water agencies.
This printed issue of Western Water looks at the energy
requirements associated with water use and the means by which
state and local agencies are working to increase their knowledge
and improve the management of both resources.
This printed issue of Western Water examines
desalination – an issue that is marked by great optimism and
controversy – and the expected role it might play as an
alternative water supply strategy.
This printed copy of Western Water examines climate change –
what’s known about it, the remaining uncertainty and what steps
water agencies are talking to prepare for its impact. Much of the
information comes from the October 2007 California Climate Change
and Water Adaptation Summit sponsored by the Water Education
Foundation and DWR and the November 2007 California Water Policy
Conference sponsored by Public Officials for Water and
Environmental Reform.
Hydropower generation is prevalent in the West, where rapidly
flowing river systems have been tapped for generations to produce
electricity. Hydropower is a clean, steady and reliable energy
source, but the damming of rivers has exacted a toll on the
environment, affecting, among other things, the migration of fish
to vestigial spawning grounds. Many of those projects are due to
be relicensed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
The California power crisis has made international headlines. But
what is the link between water and power in California? How is
the state’s dry spell affecting its hydropower generation? How
has the electric crisis affected water users in the state? These
questions and others are addressed in this issue of Western
Water.
