The work of Ellen Hanak and her colleagues at the Public Policy Institute of California’s water project is a model for provision of a crucial public good in water policy processes: independent information to help build a shared understanding of the resource and its use. You can sign up here to get on their mailing …
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I’ve had my head down the last ten days reading and writing about 1940s and ’50s-era Los Angeles water management, and I look up to see that Lake Mead last week dropped below elevation 1,075, a level freighted with meaning. But what meaning, exactly? Drew Beckwith at Western Resource Advocates, in Caitlin McGlade’s story, wins for …
Continue reading ‘Some thoughts on the bathtub ring and Lake Mead’s historic drop below 1,075’ »
In your latest reminder that California agriculture has shown some remarkable capacity to adapt to that state’s crushing drought, Todd Fitchette in Western Farm Press reports that total agricultural farm gate receipts in Kings County, in California’s drought-devastated southern Central Valley, were up 9 percent last year: Kings County agricultural values advanced 9 percent from …
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Los Angeles water, management, circa 1952: There are many reasons for the diminishing underground water supply. Foremost among them, probably, is the vastly increased demand created by an unprecedented population influx and the constant press of industrial expansion. But there are important contributory reasons. Prolonged dry spells of little or no rain leave water-bearing aquifers …
Continue reading ‘Your 1952 Aquifer Queen of Central Water Basin’ »
In this morning’s Arizona Star, Tucson journalist Tony Davis asks, “Is California trying to take our water?” In journalism, there’s a joke known as “Betteridge’s Law“: “Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no.” As Tony’s story strongly suggests, the notion making the rounds these days in some Arizona political …
This Alex Breitler story reminds how running out of water is almost invariably as much a problem of governance as much as it is of drought: MOUNTAIN HOUSE — Years before the first shovelful of earth was turned on this master-plan community near Tracy, developers and county officials knew that its sole source of water could …
Continue reading ‘Running out water – again with the governance’ »
You can’t supply unlimited amounts of water to every person for every purpose. – Phil Isenberg, vice chairman of California’s Delta Stewardship Council, in today’s New York Times.
Crystal: “I’m not even going to the pool.” Cop: “What’s with the noodle, then.” Also, a dude busted for eating almonds.
Andrea Costillo in the weekend Fresno Bee: East Porterville’s poverty and education shortcomings stand out in a state analysis of communities with the highest health risks. The analysis from the California Environmental Protection Agency shows the town’s poverty level is among the highest 10% in the state. In education, the community ranks worse than 91% …
Continue reading ‘When the drought story is really a poverty story’ »
Living near the ocean, in terms of water supply, is a blessing, but maybe an expensive one? The Santa Barbara, Calif., city council yesterday (Tues. 6/16/2015) voted to spend the $$$ to restart its old desalination project: The City Council agreed to spend $3.7 million in the design phase of the project. However, this is …
Continue reading ‘Santa Barbara starting back down desal path’ »