June 26, 2009

Questions and answers about climate bill
Cap-and-trade? Offsets? Pollution credits? The climate bill under consideration in the House tackles global warming with new limits on pollution and a market-based approach to encourage more environmentally friendly business practices. But what exactly do the proposed rules mean, and how would they work? The Associated Press offers some questions and answers about the bill — a top legislative priority for President Barack Obama.

June 25, 2009

Water Leaders class studies water conservation
I'm Lisa Skutecki (Brown and Caldwell San Diego), and I am currently participating in the William R. Gianelli Water Leaders Class, a one-year program that identifies young community leaders from diverse backgrounds and educates them about water issues. The program enhances individual leadership skills and prepares participants to take an active, cooperative approach to decision-making about water resource issues. Leading stakeholders and top policymakers serve as mentors to class members.

As part of the class, I recently attended two foundation water tours (the Lower Colorado River Tour and the Bay-Delta tour). The Lower Colorado River tour follows the course of the lower Colorado River through Nevada, Arizona and California. Issues discussed include Colorado River drought management options, the Central Arizona Project, southern Nevada's water needs, border issues, endangered species and tribal water rights. The Bay-Delta tour took participants to the heart of California water policy — San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Issues discussed included Delta Planning initiatives, water project operations, fish passage, ecosystem restoration, levees and flood management, Delta agriculture, drinking water quality and water supply reliability. I also spent a day “shadowing” a major water leader mentor, Mark Weston of the Helix Water District.

The Water Leaders Class has been assigned a timely topic to research throughout the year — water conservation. The Water Leaders spend time on the tours, with their mentors, and with each other researching the topic and will attend the Foundation's Winter Board meeting to present a PowerPoint presentation with their findings.

I will be updating The Water Cooler with information from the Water Tours and from the research project that the Water Leaders are currently working on.

June 16, 2009

Call to action at AWWA conference
Is the water industry doing enough to respond to climate change? If not, what more could the industry be doing in the near term? The AWWA national conference in San Diego runs through Thursday, and there seem to be a lot of folks here (AWWA says this event is better attended than they anticipated with the economy, with only a 3 percent drop over the previous year). Much of the buzz is centered around climate change, reuse, and energy conservation/GHG reduction.

Pete Silva, the nominee to lead EPA's Office of Water (and currently representing Metropolitan Water District), gave the opening session keynote and noted that EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson's top priority is climate change. He talked about how climate change will affect how we manage new and existing water resources, driving us to consider alternative supplies like reclaimed water (and even indirect potable reuse). He also talked about the need for regional solutions, using the Colorado River as a great example and highlighting the need for something similar on the California Bay Delta.

Peter Gleick of the Pacific Institute gave a blistering keynote address later in the day where he characterized actions taken to date by water managers to deal with climate change as "marginal, passive, incremental and weak." Gleick acknowledged that he was giving his "grumpy old man speech" but went on to give a thorough summary of why he's feeling very pessimistic about the ability of the water industry to respond effectively to climate change.

He provided two reasons for the lack of progress to date: 1) "climate deniers" who don't acknowledge anthropogenic causes (in fact he suggested that AWWA President Mike Leonard had it all wrong in his opening speech when he qualified his statements "whether you believe in climate change or not"), and 2) those who think it will "ruin our economy" to fix climate change (though Gleick argues that it will cost a lot more later if we don't act quickly). Gleick referred to a 2007 international climate change panel report that identified two major areas for action: 1) mitigation measures to slow climate change, and 2) adaptation measures. He went on to summarize it as "avoiding the unmanageable and managing the unavoidable".

Gleick told a standing-room-only crowd of water professionals that the days of thinking they can adapt to any climate changes are over, that we're currently underestimating the impacts, that they'll happen more quickly, produce unexpected results, and that we're overestimating our abilities to adapt. Then he went on to highlight several steps water managers can take, including minimizing GHG emissions (every utility should do an assessment of emissions and make a plan to reduce) and managing their responses (managing their systems differently, being more aggressive with pricing, and even restructuring water rights). Quite the call to action.

What do you think? Is the water industry is doing enough to respond to climate change?  If not, what more could the industry be doing in the near term?

Official: China key in climate change debate
Orville Schell, former dean of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and current director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations at the Asia Society, says it is not possible to effectively address climate change without the help of China:

June 12, 2009

Is blue the new green?
On World Oceans Day 2009, data from a new national environmental survey reveal that Americans are concerned about the health of the ocean and are ready to take personal action to make a difference.

Water, from oceans to kitchens and everywhere in between, is becoming a bigger and bigger issue. Homeowners, farmers, ranchers, politicians, corporations, conservationists and environmentalists are realizing there is much at stake in accessing and protecting water supplies and habitat.

For the sake of our industry and our client communities, we hope it’s the former — that a spotlight on the fragile condition of our water supplies will lead to real, positive, lasting changes. There are glimmers of hope. The economic stimulus legislation enacted in January is allowing communities to upgrade treatment plants, distribution systems, reclamation projects and conservation programs. Rather than mandating solutions, federal, state and local agencies are allowing many communities to move forward with targeted projects that had stalled by lack of funds.

On the other hand, from the California Delta to the tri-state conflict in the Southeast, some critical resources seem destined to be trapped in courts while economies and ecosystems struggle to survive.

June 10, 2009

Sacramento strengthens conservation measures
Once considered by Southern Californians as a water waster, the city of Sacramento has changed its attitude, rules and restrictions regarding water use. The city has launched an aggressive water metering program and beginning June 10 is implementing stronger water use regulations.

New warnings on severity of hurricanes
June marks the beginning of hurricane season, and a study released by Texas A&M University and sponsored by the National Commission on Energy Policy states that a warming climate will make hurricanes more and more destructive.

Storms will be more severe, and rising sea levels will exacerbate the problem, reducing coastal protections and making severe flooding a threat from previously manageable weather events.

Some are calling for higher standards for flood protection — meaning building barriers to 1,000-year or even 10,000-year standards. Others suggest ceasing development in flood-prone areas, or even relocating neighborhoods to eliminate the risk of a catastrophe. And then there are those who refuse to listen to any claim that the climate is changing and view the mounting evidence as political trickery by environmental propagandists.

Unfortunately, it is often the case that hurricanes, like droughts and floods, don’t get the public’s attention until it’s too late — after lives and property have been destroyed. Few deny that greater protection is needed when their homes are under water.

We need to get beyond the tired arguments about the politics of climate change and deal with the fact that our infrastructure is inadequate for the reality we face. Fiercer storms, harsher droughts, surging demand, and shifting weather patterns are making “business as usual” impossible. Are there solutions? Yes. Does every coastal city need a 1,000-year flood wall? Probably not.

But every city does need a plan — whether in New Orleans or New Mexico. Water experts, policy makers and citizens need to get together and make realistic plans to protect communities and their water supplies.

June 9, 2009

Is stimulus funding working?
Is the $797 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act truly creating jobs? In a June 2 speech, Vice President Joe Biden told a Pace University forum in New York City that “People are at work in every state of the nation that would not be at work if not for the act.” That’s 150,000 jobs to date, according to the White House. Later in his remarks, Biden said that job growth will accelerate in the next few months.

What do you think? Is your agency hiring? Are workers sidelined by the recession getting back on the job? Employment is arguably the most important measurement of the Recovery Act’s success.

For water professionals, another question is whether the nation’s water infrastructure is getting the attention it needs, especially in light of growing shortages blamed on everything from population growth to climate change. After decades of neglect, it has taken a downturn of historic proportions to get funds directed at water supplies, wastewater systems, flood control and drought management. Is it happening?

Most of us know what’s going on in our own communities and regions. Use this forum to tell us what you’re seeing, and together we can create a national snapshot of the impact of the Recovery Act on local and regional economies and water issues.

June 8, 2009

Everyone's talking about the weather
Over the past few days California has been experiencing weather that newscasters keep calling "unusual."

The rainfall, crashing thunder and major lightning shows remind me of the storms of my childhood in Florida. These storms are creating stormwater challenges in Southern California and moving up and across the state leaving weather and water professionals scratching their heads and putting on lightweight jackets.

Could this be a down-to-earth expression of the nuances of climate change, or just a blip of no consequence? May be hard to say for sure, but that uncertainty wreaks havoc with those who are charged with managing public water utilities. For water managers the lack of predictability leads to concerns over risk and unreliability.

A view from the flip side is that perhaps with more and more incidents of "unusual" weather patterns we will redefine what "usual" is. At some point, hopefully in the near future, sustainable water plans will help provide brackets of actions to enhance certainty and improve supply concerns.

As debate continues over the causes and impacts of climate change, the reality of unpredictable supplies will need to be faced head-on by responsible-minded water resource professionals. Let's hope we have good timing and will take positive steps to do something about 'unusual' weather patterns to lessen predictable impacts on people, natural systems and economic activities fueled by water.

June 5, 2009

Water rights, rain catchment, property rights
Colorado just made it legal — with many restrictions — for some homeowners to reuse water they capture in their backyards. Most probably didn’t even know that the rain and snow on their property, technically, doesn’t belong to them. NPR reports on a Colorado man who, until the law was changed, had been illegally diverting snow and raining into a cistern to supply water for his home. He argues that after he uses the water, it goes back into the ground through his garden and leach lines, so he’s really only borrowing it.

Although the method of conservation and implementation in this case may be disputed, it is recognized that as the nation faces more restricted water supplies due to changing climates and growing populations, conservation planning statewide will become more critical.

June 3, 2009

Report says climate change 'catastrophic'
Is climate change killing people? A report by the United Nations’ Global Humanitarian Forum says it is — more than 300,000 people per year, mostly due to malnutrition caused by rising temperatures and shrinking water supplies. The findings were confirmed by Rajendra Pachauri of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Jeffrey Sachs of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and Barbara Stocking of Oxfam.

Does this make the industrialized world more responsible for reducing greenhouse gases? Does it add a sense of urgency to the community of water professionals to do our part to cut energy use and advocate more strongly for sustainable water supplies? Even if the suffering of people in distant nations does not move us, the idea that rising temperatures and shrinking water supplies are taking a severe human toll elsewhere should get our attention. It can happen anywhere.

What can we do about it? First, we can directly help those suffering the most by supporting Water For People, an organization that helps people in developing countries improve their quality of life by supporting the development of locally sustainable drinking water resources, sanitation facilities and health and hygiene education programs. Second, we can advocate for sustainable water resources at the national, state and local level. Governments will to come together in Copenhagen later this year to try and forge a global treaty on cutting greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, local communities need to seriously assess the risks of inaction. Less water ultimately means less food. Both conditions are matters of not just quality of life, but of public health and sustainability. Water conservation, energy conservation, reuse, recycling and investment in renewable resources has to happen sooner, not later.