You’ll forgive this native Californian for feeling like she’s stuck in a time warp. When the local news is not advising customers to conserve water or reporting on stringent water use regulations being implemented throughout southern California, the November elections are littering the airwaves with political ads involving Jerry Brown. For the uninitiated, in 1977, Brown served as California’s governor during a time when National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Richard E. Felch warned, “If the drought continues for merely another 30 days, we’ve got a good chance of another Dust Bowl” read article.
So what’s the situation in California 33 years later? According to California Water Crisis, “For the first time in the state’s history, the water supply and delivery system may not be able to meet our growing needs.” This supply shortage is the result of the deteriorating Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, water supply cutbacks, aging infrastructure, record drought, and climate change. CalWaterCrisis.org is the brainchild of The Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA), a coalition of 450 public water agencies which launched a statewide effort, entitled “California’s Water: A Crisis We Can’t Ignore,” to “educate Californians about critical challenges now confronting the state’s water supply and delivery system.”
The ACWA sums up the situation in California by breaking down the elements of the crisis:
* The Delta, a key natural estuary and the pathway through which more than 25 million Californians and 2.5 million acres of productive farmland receive their water, is in an ecological crisis that threatens people as well as the environment.
* California’s water supply has been drastically reduced, impacting people, businesses, and farms in northern, central, and southern California. In late August, a federal court cut water supplies from the state’s two largest water delivery systems by up to one-third to protect an endangered fish—potentially the largest court-ordered water supply reduction in California history.
* California’s population is growing rapidly, but our statewide water storage and delivery system has not been significantly improved in 30 years.
* Statewide water reserves are extremely low and would not be able to meet public demand during a major disruption to the state’s water delivery system.
* Aging Delta levees are at risk of a natural disaster that could cripple water deliveries for an extended period of time.
* California is facing severe drought conditions, with 2007 ranking as a record dry-year in some regions. If the current drought continues, mandatory water rationing may be imposed in many areas.
* Significantly reduced supplies and growing water uncertainties already are causing some California farmers to fallow prime agricultural lands, hurting one of our state’s most important industries.
* Climate change is reducing our mountain snow pack—a critical source of natural water storage—and may usher in longer droughts and more severe floods.
We all know the old adage—those who do not history are doomed to repeat it. So what are we doing right (and wrong) not only in California, but across the country? Are there lessons to be learned from previous watertight eras? Are we looking down the barrel of an entirely new (and unprecedented) future in terms of water resource management? Will the new tools and technologies unavailable to our predecessors make the difference? Is everything that’s old new again, or can me bank on different approaches providing different—and longer lasting—solutions?