Tag: water conservation
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Urban water conservation for the birds
By Jay Lund People who save water like to know their conserving is doing some good, such as sustaining economic growth, building municipal reserves for longer droughts or supporting the environment. But many urban residents are concerned their water savings will go to uses they value less — such as supplying more wasteful customers, new…
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Why utilities shy from mandatory water saving during a drought
By Jay Lund The State Water Board’s recent decision to outlaw some water-wasting activities under penalty of $500 fines helps alert urban residents and businesses to the seriousness of the drought. These water conservation actions, though, are fairly mild compared with the water rationing and other mandatory restrictions that Santa Cruz and a few other…
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Challenging myth and mirage in California’s drought
In a July 6, 2014 op-ed for The Sacramento Bee, three prominent California water experts challenge some claims that they say are hindering the search for solutions to California’s water shortages. We reprint the commentary here with a sidebar on some of the calculations supporting the article. By Jay Lund, Jeffrey Mount and Ellen Hanak As the effects…
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Beyond bonds: Funding the governor’s Water Action Plan
Ellen Hanak, Brian Gray, Jay Lund, David Mitchell, Caitrin Chappelle, Emma Freeman, Dean Misczynski, James Nachbaur In late January, Gov. Jerry Brown released the California Water Action Plan, which outlines 10 strategic priorities for putting the state on a more sustainable water management path. The plan – intended to guide state water policy for the…
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Virtual Water vs. Real Water in California
By Jay Lund There has been considerable kvetching during this drought about California exporting agricultural products overseas, with some saying that this implies we are virtually exporting water that we should be using in California. Those concerned should take comfort with California’s major imports of virtual water. Much of the food consumed here comes from…
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California droughts precipitate innovation
Percentage of average precipitation, Oct. 1, 2013 – Jan. 19, 2014. Source: National Weather Service “A crisis is a terrible thing to waste” – Paul Romer, Stanford University economist By Jay Lund The 2013 calendar year was the driest on record for much of California. There is almost no snow in the Sierra Nevada or…
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Can solid flood planning improve all California water planning?
Jay R. Lund, The Ray B. Krone Chair of Environmental Engineering, University of California – Davis “No single raindrop believes it is to blame for the flood.” E.L. Kersten The best time to prepare for floods is during a drought. In December, the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) released their new Central Valley flood…
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Insights for California water policy from computer modeling
“All models are wrong, but some are useful.” G.E.P. Box By Jay R. Lund California has a very complex water system which is important to many often competing interests and purposes. Because of this, California’s water system will always be controversial. Nevertheless, decisions about managing California’s water system will be made. How can we understand…
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Has human water use peaked in California?
Jay R. Lund, The Ray B. Krone Chair of Environmental Engineering, University of California – Davis Ellen Hanak, Senior Policy Fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California, San Francisco For over a century, water planning and policy in California assumed perpetual increases in water demands for agricultural and urban uses. Of course, nothing can…
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Conserving fish, conserving water, conserving California
Peter Moyle, Professor of Fish Biology, UC Davis California has a remarkable collection of native freshwater fishes, many of them found only in the state. To me, these native fishes define the unique regions of the California mosaic. Southern steelhead persist in the face of extreme urbanization in southern California. Various pupfish species thrive in…
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Adaptive management means never having to say you’re sorry
Jay R. Lund, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California – Davis Ellen Hanak, Public Policy Institute of California Brian Gray, University of California – Hastings, College of the Law The words “adaptive management” appear in almost every planning and policy document for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Indeed, under state law, habitat…
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Can California further reduce urban water use?
Jay Lund, the Ray B. Krone Professor of Environmental Engineering, UC Davis Ryan Cahill, graduate student, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, UC Davis Reducing urban water use has become a major long-term policy goal. In 2009, California adopted a policy of further reducing urban water use by 20 percent per capita by 2020. …
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Taking agricultural conservation seriously
Jay Lund1, Ellen Hanak2, Richard Howitt3, Ariel Dinar4, Brian Gray5, Jeffrey Mount6, Peter Moyle7, Barton “Buzz” Thompson8 For decades, people have observed that human water use in California is largely devoted to irrigating farmland, and they have therefore assumed that farms are the obvious places to save water. Our recent book, Managing California’s…