Archive of posts filed under the water category.

Mike Taugher tells us what’s really going on with Sacramento Delta diversions

Posted by on

A group with one set of interests in California water has tried to frame the discussion over how much water can be diverted from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in the classic “farmers vs. fish” framework. Others disagree. Traditional “view from nowhere” journalism quotes one from Column A and one from Column B and calls it …

Continue reading ‘Mike Taugher tells us what’s really going on with Sacramento Delta diversions’ »

Irony defined: Barnett’s “Blue Revolution” at the office pond

Posted by on

Irony defined: sitting in the shaded courtyard at work yesterday at lunch, next to a lovely fountain/pond flanked by lush lawn, reading the opening chapter of Cynthia Barnett’s Blue Revolution: Sacramento landscape architect Ronald Allison tells of a two-and-a-half-acre residential design in Granite Bay with a waterfall, a grotto, a cave, six fountains, a pool …

Continue reading ‘Irony defined: Barnett’s “Blue Revolution” at the office pond’ »

The international implications of U.S. water subsidies

Posted by on

While we all understand the market distortions caused in the United States by government subsidies for irrigation water, Michael Campana raises an interesting question about the international implications. Quoting a talk at the XIV World Water Congress by Paul Stanton Kibel of the Center on Urban Environmental Law (“CVP” is the Central Valley Project in …

Continue reading ‘The international implications of U.S. water subsidies’ »

We’re in trouble when we’re arguing about the numbers

Posted by on

John Bass made a great point in a recent comment thread at Delta National Park that highlights one of my frustrations about California water discussions: [I]f basic facts are contentious, then the problem isn’t facts. The comment was triggered by a point the California Farm Water Coalition’s Mike Wade made regarding an editorial that ran …

Continue reading ‘We’re in trouble when we’re arguing about the numbers’ »

Climate change and California water: a bad situation likely to get worse

Posted by on

If you think California’s water problems look bad now, just wait. That seems to be the message of a new study by a team from the USGS, Scripps, Berkeley and elsewhere who ran detailed simulations of climate change scenarios on the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta/San Francisco Bay system. The project provides a useful exercise, not in …

Continue reading ‘Climate change and California water: a bad situation likely to get worse’ »

Water: Why “the Rubik’s Cube of public policy” misses the point

Posted by on

In an interview with Sacramento’s Capital Report, California resources secretary John Laird got off the water wonks’ quip of a lifetime: Water is the Rubik’s Cube of public policy. It will be quoted for all eternity. But really, it’s a lousy metaphor. Here’s the meat of what he said: The thing that probably works to …

Continue reading ‘Water: Why “the Rubik’s Cube of public policy” misses the point’ »

Unpacking the water storage question

Posted by on

Great job by Jay Lund in unpacking the issue of California water storage – how much it has, how it’s used and what role it might play going forward: Climate warming is reducing the ability of California’s snowpack to store water seasonally. Fortunately, downstream reservoirs on many streams are already large compared to seasonal changes …

Continue reading ‘Unpacking the water storage question’ »