Despite droughts, the recession and natural disasters,
California’s urban population continues to grow.
This population growth means increasing demand for water by urban
areas—home to most of California’s population [see also
Agricultural Conservation]. As of 2012, seven of the most
populated urbanized areas in the United States are in California.
Over the next two decades, Los Angeles County will collect
billions more gallons in water from local sources, especially
storm and reclaimed water, shifting from its reliance on other
region’s water supplies as the effects of climate change make
such efforts less reliable and more expensive. The L.A. County
Board of Supervisors on Tuesday adopted the county’s first
water plan, which outlines how America’s largest county must
stop importing 60% of its water and pivot over the next two
decades to sourcing 80% of its water locally by 2045. The plan
calls for increasing local water supply by 580,000 acre-feet
per year by 2045 through more effective stormwater capture,
water recycling and conservation. The increase would be roughly
equivalent to 162 billion gallons, or enough water for 5
million additional county residents, county leaders said.
According to the US Drought Monitor, 28.8% of the lower 48
states are in drought. At one point in 2022, almost half of the
country was in a drought condition. The lack of precipitation
plays havoc on the groundwater supply which is the basic water
supply for most Americans. Because of unpredictable weather
events and patterns, many states have revisited their Water
Laws to ensure their populations, animals and farming are
provided adequate sources of groundwater for the years to come.
These changes in regulations will impact industrial, commercial
and residential development, as well as farming for those
relying on groundwater usage. This is especially important in
the sunbelt states from Texas to California where most
populations and water demand are on the rise.
Outbursts, accusations and disdain for provided answers
crackled across an emotionally charged town hall about a
company’s plan to build a new city in eastern Solano County.
California Forever hosted its first public forum about the
proposed project Wednesday night at the Vallejo Naval and
Historical Museum in an attempt to provide residents with more
information and answer their concerns. … [A]nger at
California Forever and its approach to public outreach added
fuel to many attendees’ doubts about the company’s promises of
economic growth and fears about the harm the project might
cause the county. … Melissa Mendoza asked how the new
city will get water without depleting the county’s current
water supply. … [California Forever CEO Jan
Sramek] reiterated that his company has access to its own
water resources and insisted that Vallejo and the rest of the
county would only stand to gain from new development.
Given the 2022-23 winter and the filling of northern California
reservoirs, millions in California falsely think the state
water scarcity situation is over. But two-thirds of the people
in the state live in Southern California which has no large
reservoir. Lake Mead and Lake Powell (both on the northern
Arizona border) are the two largest reservoirs in North
America. Lake Mead’s water capacity is 7.5 times larger than
the capacity of Lake Oroville, the largest reservoir in
California. … We can be near 100 percent certain
[Colorado River] states will increase in population,
interstate solutions will be delayed by litigation, and global
warming will intensify. Global warming was well established
late in the 20th century. -Written by Mark Bird, a retired sociology
professor and author of the book “800 Laws in
Sociology.”
The minds behind a proposed new community in Solano County –
known as California Forever — held the first in a series of
community town halls Wednesday in Vallejo. Attendees, largely,
were unenthusiastic. A group of Silicon Valley investors
have purchased more than 50,000 acres of land in Solano County
with the goal of converting much of the agriculturally zoned
land into a new city. The land is located between Fairfield and
Rio Vista. … residents who attended Wednesday’s
townhall, however, voiced concerns about myriad issues with the
proposal, ranging from what some described as secrecy about the
land purchases, to how the town will obtain water …
Millions of Southern Californians who were required to
dramatically reduce their water use last year will have
increased access to water under two projects recently announced
by the Metropolitan Water District. Metropolitan—a water
wholesaler and the sole water provider to the local Las
Virgenes and Calleguas municipal water districts— approved a
$9.8-million contract for the Sepulveda Feeder Pump Stations
Project that will bring additional water from the Colorado
River as well as water stored at Diamond Valley Lake in
Riverside County to the two local districts. … SoCal
communities, home to some 7 million people, heavily depend on
water delivered through the State Water Project in Northern
California. When supplies from the north were severely limited
during the 2020- 22 drought, residents faced mandatory water
reduction of more than 35%.
A state water policy council on Wednesday recommended
legislation intended to prevent “wildcat” subdivisions from
springing up without providing home purchasers an assured water
supply. The measure is intended to prevent a repeat of Rio
Verde Foothills, a desert community neighboring Scottsdale that
garnered national media attention when the city stopped
allowing residents to collect water from a pipe tapping its
municipal supply. Most developments in the Phoenix area are
covered by the state’s Groundwater Management Act, which
requires a certificate of 100-year supply availability before
construction. When landowners split property into five or fewer
contiguous lots, however, they are exempt and can sell those
lots without an assured supply.
Every Bitcoin transaction uses, on average, enough water to
fill “a back yard swimming pool”, a new study suggests. That’s
around six million times more than is used in a typical credit
card swipe, Alex de Vries of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam,
calculates. The figure is due to the water used to power and
cool the millions of computers worldwide Bitcoin relies on. It
comes as many regions struggle with fresh water shortages. Up
to three billion people worldwide already experience water
shortages, a situation which is expected to worsen in the
coming decades, the study notes. “This is happening in Central
Asia, but it’s also happening in the US, especially around
California. And that’s only going to get worse as climate
change gets worse,” Mr de Vries told the BBC.
The Arizona Corporation Commission will consider green lighting
a long-term solution Wednesday for residents of the
unincorporated Rio Verde Foothills community who lost access to
their water supply earlier this year. After the city of
Scottsdale cut Rio Verde residents off from a city-owned
standpipe in January, state legislators passed a law that
temporarily restored water through an agreement that ends in
2025. At the same time, private utility EPCOR has been in
discussions to provide long term water service to the area, but
the utility first needs approval from the Corporation
Commission.
Valle de Guadalupe is a semi-arid wine-making subregion in Baja
California, which is a desert where the land is freckled with
agave, cactus and chaparral alongside grapevines and olive
trees. It lies a two-hour drive south of San Diego.
… Water woes are another looming factor. Rain has always
been scarce here, and signs are growing that the valley’s
demand for water is overwhelming its
infrastructure. Unlike many wine regions in California
that are able to rely on varying sources of water, Valle de
Guadalupe has the Guadalupe Aquifer, a body of porous
ground or sediment that holds groundwater, as its only source
of water. Depending on the rainfall each year, the water table
rises and falls. But since 1995, the general trend has
been more water being sucked out of the aquifer than going in
…
The Oceano Community Services District (OCSD) and Lucia Mar
Unified School District teamed up for a construction project
that aims to help recharge the Santa Maria Valley Groundwater
Basin and reduce flooding. Will Clemens, OCSD general
manager, said that the stormwater capture and groundwater
recharge project is crucial for environmental and safety
reasons because once the project is completed, flooding won’t
overwhelm Oceano’s streets and residents.
Arizona’s Senate president said he does not plan to introduce
legislation to alter water supply requirements for new
development despite his criticism of the historic 1980 law that
created them. Sen. Warren Petersen said his comments, given
last week to the Arizona Tax Research Association where he was
asked to preview his legislative priorities, were meant to
emphasize that the mandate to show an assured source of water
will be available for 100 years was “arbitrary.’’ … He
complained about the Arizona Department of Water Resources
halting new construction in two areas on the edges of Phoenix
earlier this year. He said that would not have happened if the
standard here were something less, like California’s.
Projections of water shortages have halted development on the
fringes of the Phoenix metro area. And Arizona Senate President
Warren Petersen, who is also a real estate broker, is no fan of
a regulation at the heart of those projected shortages, a
requirement for residential developers in urban areas to show
they have a 100-year-water supply. “You have to have a 100-year
water certificate for your house. Why wasn’t it 105 years? Why
wasn’t it 95 years? Do you know what the highest water supply
requirement in the nation is outside of Arizona? It’s
California. And it’s 25 years,” Petersen said. But Sarah Porter
with the Kyl Center for Water Policy at Arizona State
University says there’s a good reason the 100-year requirement
was included in Arizona’s 1980 Groundwater Management Act.
Climate activists are pushing back on a contentious shoreline
housing project in the South Bay city of Newark. By building
there, the activists believe, the city will miss an opportunity
to restore sensitive wetlands and areas for them to migrate to
as seas rise. Marshes are the region’s first line of defense
against rising seas, and the Bay Area has just 15% of its
wetlands left. Environmental advocates want these ecosystems
protected. … Scientists project seas could rise by at
least 1 foot by 2050 and as much as 7 feet by 2100 because
global emissions are still increasing. A recent study by
researchers with the British Antarctic Survey suggests
that rising sea levels will speed up this century no matter if
the world curbs emissions.
When Leigh Harris and her husband Franck Avril moved into their
dream home, Leigh said she felt like the luckiest person in the
world. The home is in Rio Verde Foothills, Arizona, near
Scottsdale in unincorporated Maricopa County. … There was
just one downside. Their home was built on a dry lot, which
means there were no pipes connected to a city water supply.
… Leigh and Franck’s experience is an extreme version of
the kind of trade-offs we all may have to consider in the
future. Under the growing threats from drought, extreme heat,
wildfire and floods, what are we willing to endure to keep
living in the places we love? And who will have a choice?.
Goleta plans to be on track to add 1,837 new homes over the
next eight years, part of the city’s effort to satisfy
California’s push to reach the building of 180,000 homes
annually. Goleta’s Planning Commission takes its turn to attack
the problem at the local level during a series of rezoning
discussions and votes on Monday evening concerning 11
properties on the city’s much-debated rezoning list. … Creeks
have been flowing since California’s good winter of rains, too
good at times for some flooded areas. But it means the aquifer
below Goleta is filling, which the Goleta Water District
anticipates will allow it to lift the moratorium on new water
meters sometime this year.
The Solano County Water Agency Board of Directors told its
staff not to continue discussions with California Forever
regarding their proposed development project in eastern Solano
County. At a regular meeting of the board Thursday evening,
over 90 attendees and public commenters filled the meeting
room, spilling out into the hallway as the zoom room exceeded
its capacity of 100 throughout most of the evening, leaving
some citizens unable to access the meeting in real-time.
… Friday morning, California Forever released a
statement to their website which indicated they will seek other
water sources. “Regrettably, under pressure from a vocal group
of opponents of the project, the board declined staff’s
recommendation to continue discussions with us,” the statement
reads, “so we are proceeding with other water supply options we
have been considering.”
California’s state government began drawing up plans for Sites
Reservoir in the Sacramento Valley 70 years ago. And it still
only exists on paper. So, kudos to Gov. Gavin Newsom for
deciding that it’s finally time to put this tardy project on
the fast track. Fast track means there’ll be limited time for
any opponent to contest the project in court on environmental
grounds. Newsom used a new law he pushed through the
Legislature in June aimed at making it easier to build
transportation, clean energy and water infrastructure by
expediting lawsuits under the California Environmental Quality
Act. -Written by LA Times columnist George Skelton.
California Forever sent a letter on Monday to Solano County,
the City of Fairfield and the Solano County Water Agency
proposing a land exchange of thousands of acres near Travis Air
Force Base. The company has offered to swap 1,573 acres of high
habitat value land on Jepson Prairie near Travis Air Force
Base, for 1,403 acres of pasture with medium agricultural value
six to 10 miles away from the base, mostly east of Rio Dixon
Road. … The letter says that California Forever is
offering the exchange because it learned the parcels it
purchased on the Jepson Prairie are included under the
Department of Defense’s Readiness and Environmental Protection
Integration program, and that its ownership of them could also
pose a threat to the goals of the Solano County Habitat
Conservation Plan.
In a dry state like Utah, there’s not always enough water to go
around. But when there is extra water, how exactly do you
spread it around? Over the past three years, the state’s water
banking program has been testing the processes for doing just
that. The program provides avenues for a water rights holder
with extra water to lease it to someone else in their area
without losing the right to that water. It started with the
Utah Water Banking Act, which the Legislature approved in 2020
to promote voluntary, temporary, local water transfers. The
state is now starting to see positive results from the four
pilot projects that put the idea into practice, as well as
working out any bugs.
Nestled southwest of Fremont, Calif., the city of Newark can
only be described as a familiar beauty. Home to miles and miles
of some of the last remaining salt marshes in San Francisco,
these coastal wetlands are vital to preserving Bay Area
ecosystems and protecting them from climate change. And now,
developers plan to fill them with over 1 million cubic yards of
landfill and cement. The Bay Area once consisted of over
190,000 acres of wetlands but has since lost over 90% of them
to human development and impacts, according to a Baylands
Ecosystem report. The few wetlands that remain are home to
species such as the endangered salt marsh harvest mouse and the
Ridgway’s rail.
California has just seen a first for nearly 50 years: plans to
begin construction of a new reservoir that, when completed,
will add 1.5 million acre-feet to the state’s water storage
capacities per year. On November 6, Governor Gavin Newsom
fast-tracked the Sites Reservoir Project. It will be located in
Glenn and Colusa counties, in California’s Sacramento River
Valley, the northern half of the state’s great Central
Valley. Future beneficiaries include 22 storage
partners that represent water delivery agencies, serving
over 24.5 million people, and over 500,000 acres of
farmland. Newsom was able to fast-track the
project … -Written by contributing editor Richard Smoley.
After decades of unrestricted pumping in the rain-starved
northwestern corner of the Mojave Desert, the Indian Wells
Valley Groundwater Basin Authority has the distinction of
managing one of the most critically overdrawn aquifers in
California. Now, the region is in an uproar over a proposal
that the authority sees as a way out of its groundwater crisis,
one that critics say would give priority to urban consumers in
the city of Ridgecrest and the adjacent Naval Air Weapons
Station China Lake over farmers and mining operations. It’s a
$200-million, 50-mile-long pipeline system that would move
water from the California Aqueduct in California City — over
arid desert mountains — to a storage tank in the urban center
of Ridgecrest. … The pipeline plan has also sparked
challenges from environmentalists and the California Department
of Fish and Wildlife.
Craig Elmore’s family history is the stuff of Westerns. …
Thanks to [Elmore's grandfather's] marriage to a citrus
magnate’s daughter, reputed good fortune as a gambler and
business acumen, he amassed the Elmore Desert Ranch, part of
roughly 12,000 acres that two branches of the family still
farm. All that land in the blazing-hot southeastern corner
of California came with a huge bonanza: water from the Colorado
River. In 2022, the present-day Elmores consumed an estimated
22.5 billion gallons … That’s almost as much as the entire
city of Scottsdale, Arizona, is allotted. That puts the
Elmores in exclusive company. They are one of 20 extended
families who receive fully one-seventh of the river’s flow
through its lower half — a whopping 1,186,200 acre-feet, or
about 386.5 billion gallons, the analysis showed.
It has been just over two years since Valley Water broke ground
at Anderson Dam with the promise to protect the public and
secure Santa Clara County’s water supply. Since then, our
agency has made tremendous progress on this vital public safety
and water supply project. Currently our work at the site
is focused on building a new, larger outlet tunnel next to the
dam. As of mid-October, contractors excavated more than 1,000
feet of the 1,736-foot-long tunnel, which will provide greater
control over reservoir water levels. -Written by John L. Varela, Chair of the Valley
Water Board of Directors. He also represents the board’s
District 1, which includes South County.
Desert cities around Phoenix are constantly facing questions of
water supply — not just at water management agencies but also
at city councils considering where to develop. That’s because
Arizona has one of the most powerful laws in the country
linking water with the decision to build. State law limits
growth where water is in short supply, requiring new
subdivisions to show they have 100 years of water for their
customers. … Developers have found a profitable workaround.
Arizona’s water law applies only when lots are subdivided into
smaller lots for six or more homes and those houses are either
sold or made available for long-term rentals. Instead,
developers have turned to building short-term rentals on a
single large piece of land.
It started life near the end of the last Ice Age, nestled
between two boulders on a rise in the Jurupa Hills of Riverside
County — a shrubby oak tree estimated to be 13,000 years old,
making it one of the oldest living organisms on Earth. Devoid
of other members of its species – Quercus palmeri or Palmer’s
oak — to pollinate it, it is infertile and grows clonally, with
new shoots and root systems that tap rainwater collected in
cracks in the rocks beneath the surface.
The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality is seeking
public comment on expanded plans to reuse wastewater for
drinking. The department released a roadmap for its Advanced
Water Purification Program last week. ADEQ says the move comes
amid increased water scarcity due to persistent drought.
Its roadmap would provide guidelines for municipal and private
utilities to treat sewage and send the recycled water directly
to homes. As it stands, treated effluent is filtered through
the ground before the water is ready for consumption. ADEQ
Deputy Director Randy Matas says specific treatment techniques
will be left up to local communities, as the map is solely
seeking to provide standards.
Commercializing the production of synthetic dietary fats could
relieve pressure on a global agricultural sector that is
struggling to decarbonize, a new study has found. The
widespread manufacture of farm-free food could yield numerous
environmental and societal benefits — enabling people to “eat
our way” out of a burgeoning climate crisis, according to the
study authors, who published their findings Monday
in Nature Sustainability. Some benefits would include
reductions in water use and pollution, greater local control
over food production and decreases in weather-related shortage
risks, per the study. Such a shift could also lessen the need
for low-paying and physically taxing labor, while returning
farmlands to their natural state and enhancing biodiversity.
State lawmakers are advancing a bill that would prohibit the
planting of new, nonfunctional turf. If the bill passes next
year, it would prohibit local and state governments and unit
owners associations from allowing the planting of nonfunctional
turf or nonnative plants or installing artificial turf in
commercial, institutional or industrial properties beginning in
2025. Although new bluegrass could still be planted around
homes, homeowners associations and others would be prohibited
from planting such grass for ornamental purposes in medians or
areas fronting streets, sidewalks or driveways. The bill is not
intended to be retroactive and would not affect already
existing nonfunctional turf.
Living the good life has often meant finding ways to allow for
growth and construction while ostensibly protecting the natural
environment on which we depend. Want to build a housing
development, but there’s a wetland in the way? Mitigate the
harm by building a new one somewhere else. Want to dam a river,
but there’s a salmon run in the way? Build fish passage around
the dam. If that’s not feasible, build a hatchery instead.
… Unfortunately, these creative approaches often fail.
Constructed wetlands fail to reproduce the essential
hydrologic or biodiversity or other functions of natural
wetlands. Fish passage fails to get enough fish up
and down stream to keep populations viable.
Hatcheries can’t sustain fisheries over the long term
in the same way that habitat can.
With climate-fueled disasters killing hundreds of Americans
annually and costing communities billions of dollars, a growing
number of local governments are asking a basic question: Are
there some places where people shouldn’t build homes? It’s one
of the most difficult choices a community can make.
… But with often deadly extreme-weather disasters on the
rise, the problem can no longer be ignored. In the last five
years, floods, wildfires, severe storms and droughts have
caused more than $580 billion in damage and killed
hundreds of people. And some states are passing laws that put
conditions on future growth.
More than two-thirds of Californians rely on a water delivery
system that was constructed more than 60 years ago to deliver
water from the Sierra Nevada Mountains through the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to homes, farms and businesses
throughout the state. Here in Fontana, as much as 25% of our
water supply relies on this outdated infrastructure that is
vulnerable to earthquakes and floods. For the broader Inland
Empire, that figure rises to nearly 30%. That’s why we need to
rally behind the Governor’s Delta Conveyance Project, an
initiative aimed at modernizing our aging water supply
infrastructure. Modernizing this infrastructure will improve
California’s ability to move and store water when it’s
plentiful in preparation for when it is not. -Written by Acquanetta Warren, mayor of
Fontana.
Pleasanton is moving forward with a plan to build two new
drinking-water wells to replace its wells found to be
contaminated. The new wells would be drilled away from the ones
contaminated with the potentially harmful per- and
polyfluoroalkyl substances — known as PFAS — that caused
the city to stop using the three wells it currently operates.
The City Council this month approved moving forward with the
project, which will take about four years to complete and cost
an estimated $23 million to $43 million, according to city
figures. However, city officials have not decided how to pay
for the entire project. The City Council only committed
$500,000 from the city’s water fund to cover planning and
development costs.
One of the largest rivers in the world struggles to reach the
ocean. Spread across a huge slice of a continent, its basin
supports millions. Yet the weight of its work to irrigate and
power booming farms and cities in an increasingly arid zone is
straining the river to a breaking point. For many working in
the western water space, this describes the Colorado. A river
whose over-work and over-allocation, despite its fundamental
role in sustaining life for half a continent, seems in many
ways singular. Yet this is also the Yellow River. A river
thousands of miles away that sustains a population four times
that of the Colorado Basin is also confronting foundational
issues of overuse and growing water scarcity. Even though they
are an ocean apart, with different climates, physical, and
institutional settings, water users in both basins are
grappling with the realities of less fresh water compounded by
accelerating climate impacts and unrelenting urban
growth.
An Arizona state water agency has dropped a controversial
arrangement it made with an Israeli firm to negotiate terms for
building a $5.5 billion water desalination plant in Mexico.
Instead, the Water Infrastructure Finance Authority of Arizona
will seek competitive bids for a company or other entity to
build a water importation project — which may or may not be a
desalination plant. … The authority, commonly known as
WIFA, changed its stance in the face of stinging criticism of
its board’s December vote from a wide variety of people and
interest groups. Legislators of both parties,
environmentalists, Sonoran officials and other “public
interest” organizations had decried they felt was a rush to
judgment on the IDE proposal.
Rare photos show the transformation of Hetch Hetchy Valley from
untouched paradise to home of the O’Shaughnessy Dam, which
supplies some of the country’s cleanest water to 2 million
people in San Francisco and beyond.
It’s been a year since two devastating wildfires on opposite ends
of California underscored the harsh new realities facing water
districts and cities serving communities in or adjacent to the
state’s fire-prone wildlands. Fire doesn’t just level homes, it
can contaminate water, scorch watersheds, damage delivery systems
and upend an agency’s finances.
We have an unknown distance yet to run, an unknown river to explore. What falls there are, we know not; what rocks beset the channel, we know not; what walls ride over the river, we know not. Ah, well! We may conjecture many things.
~John Wesley Powell
Powell scrawled those words in his journal as he and his expedition paddled their way into the deep walls of the Grand Canyon on a stretch of the Colorado River in August 1869. Three months earlier, the 10-man group had set out on their exploration of the iconic Southwest river by hauling their wooden boats into a major tributary of the Colorado, the Green River in Wyoming, for their trip into the “great unknown,” as Powell described it.
In the universe of California water, Tim Quinn is a professor emeritus. Quinn has seen — and been a key player in — a lot of major California water issues since he began his water career 40 years ago as a young economist with the Rand Corporation, then later as deputy general manager with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, and finally as executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies. In December, the 66-year-old will retire from ACWA.
Owens Lake is a dry lake at the terminus of the Owens River
just west of Death Valley and on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada. For at least
800,000 years, the lake had a continuous flow of water, until
1913 when the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power
(LADWP) completed the 233-mile Los Angeles
Aqueduct to supplement the budding metropolis’
increasing water demands.
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.
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.
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 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.
As the state’s population continues to grow and traditional water
supplies grow tighter, there is increased interest in reusing
treated wastewater for a variety of activities, including
irrigation of crops, parks and golf courses, groundwater recharge
and industrial uses.
The 20-page Layperson’s Guide to Water Marketing provides
background information on water rights, types of transfers and
critical policy issues surrounding this topic. First published in
1996, the 2005 version offers expanded information on
groundwater banking and conjunctive use, Colorado River
transfers and the role of private companies in California’s
developing water market.
Order in bulk (25 or more copies of the same guide) for a reduced
fee. Contact the Foundation, 916-444-6240, for details.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to Integrated Regional Water
Management (IRWM) is an in-depth, easy-to-understand publication
that provides background information on the principles of IRWM,
its funding history and how it differs from the traditional water
management approach.
Despite droughts, recession and natural disasters, California’s
urban population continues to grow.
This population growth means increasing demand for water by urban
areas—home to most of California’s population [see also Agricultural
Conservation]. As of 2021, three of the nation’s 10 most
populated cities are in California.
This printed issue of Western Water features a
roundtable discussion with Anthony Saracino, a water resources
consultant; Martha Davis, executive manager of policy development
with the Inland Empire Utilities Agency and senior policy advisor
to the Delta Stewardship Council; Stuart Leavenworth, editorial
page editor of The Sacramento Bee and Ellen Hanak, co-director of
research and senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of
California.
This printed issue of Western Water discusses low
impact development and stormwater capture – two areas of emerging
interest that are viewed as important components of California’s
future water supply and management scenario.
This printed issue of Western Water examines the
changed nature of the California Water Plan, some aspects of the
2009 update (including the recommendation for a water finance
plan) and the reaction by certain stakeholders.
This printed issue of Western Water explores some of the major
challenges facing Colorado River stakeholders: preparing for
climate change, forging U.S.-Mexico water supply solutions and
dealing with continued growth in the basins states. Much of the
content for this issue of Western Water came from the in-depth
panel discussions at the September 2009 Colorado River Symposium.
This issue of Western Water asks whether a groundwater
compact is needed to manage this shared resource today. In the
water-stressed West, there will need to be a recognition of
sharing water resources or a line will need to be drawn in the
sand against future growth.
This issue of Western Water examines the continuing practice of
smart water use in the urban sector and its many facets, from
improved consumer appliances to improved agency planning to the
improvements in water recycling and desalination. Many in the
water community say conserving water is not merely a response to
drought conditions, but a permanent ethic in an era in which
every drop of water is a valuable commodity not to be wasted.
When water and growth was featured in the May/June 1995 Western
Water, the debate in the California Legislature was about whether
a local water district should have any say when it came to
providing water to new developments. Of the four bills before
state lawmakers, it was Sen. Jim Costa’s SB 901 that cleared the
Legislature and was signed into law. The bill established a
voluntary link between water and land-use planning by requiring
planning departments to consult with local water purveyors about
the availability of new supplies.
