Resources

This report examines the combined impact of emerging trends on California’s water (including population growth, climate change, and policies to promote water efficiency and alternative water supplies) and electricity (including generation decarbonization) on the state’s water-related energy and GHG footprints from 2015 to 2035. It finds that without urgent water efficiency measures, carbon emissions associated with water usage in California are likely to spike in coming years, as changing sources of water supply and population growth drive up energy-intensive urban and agricultural water needs. The report identifies specific water policies that could play an important role in helping the state meet energy and greenhouse gas emissions goals. The report was produced by Next 10, in collaboration with the Pacific Institute.

This report examines public drinking water supply well vulnerability under California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. It focuses on wells and water systems in the San Joaquin Valley due to the area’s social and economic significance, high concentration of water-related challenges, and availability of developed groundwater sustainability plans. The report finds that 503 of the 1,200 public supply wells in the region, or 42%, are likely to be partially or fully dry at the minimum thresholds established in the region’s sustainability plans. It includes recommendations to support small water systems and domestic wells and improve the resilience of groundwater sustainability Plans, in line with the state’s Human Right to Water.

This report analyzes 41 groundwater sustainability plans in 19 critical priority water subbasins in California to assess monitoring network coverage and the vulnerability of domestic wells to minimum water thresholds, which indicate the lowest groundwater level considered sustainable. The report finds that at least 1,000 to 6,000 wells are at risk of failure in critical priority water basins under proposed minimum water thresholds, and includes recommendations to achieve sustainable groundwater management in California compatible with the state’s efforts to achieve the human right to water.

This report shows that strategies developed and mistakes made during Australia’s decade-long millennium drought provide a powerful resource for California, as the state enters its fifth year of severe drought.

This analysis, published in the journal Environmental Research Communications, evaluates the costs of four groups of alternatives for urban supply and demand based on data and analysis in the California context: stormwater capture; water recycling and reuse; brackish and seawater desalination; and a range of water conservation and efficiency measures. It also describes some important co-benefits or avoided costs, such as reducing water withdrawals from surface water bodies or polluted runoff in coastal waterways.

The study finds that there are significant opportunities for the business community in California’s Santa Ana River Watershed to contribute to shared watershed goals through investments in sustainable landscape practices on their properties. These landscapes can improve surface water quality, flood management, and water supply reliability, while also reducing energy usage and associated greenhouse gas emissions, sequestering carbon, improving ecosystem and human health, promoting economic activity, and enhancing community resilience. This project is a collaboration between the Pacific Institute, California Forward, and the Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority.

This comprehensive assessment of the costs to California of lost hydroelectricity during the five-year California drought (from October 2011 to the end of September 2016; the official California “water year” runs from October 1 to September 30) reveals an increase in electricity costs of approximately $2.45 billion, as well as a 10 percent increase in the release of carbon dioxide from California power plants due to the additional combustion of fossil fuels for electricity generation.

This report finds that low-income families, communities burdened with environmental pollution, and those dependent on salmon for their livelihood and traditions are highly vulnerable to problems of water supply shortages, rising unaffordability, and insufficient stream flows during drought. The report offers a range of solutions, from changing the way drought water surcharges are calculated to consolidating small water systems.

This study is the first comparative analysis of the costs of alternative water supply and efficiency options in drought-stricken California, from seawater desalination to recycled water and water efficiency measures. The report will help communities prioritize cost-effective water solutions.

This study examines the impacts of the California drought on disadvantaged communities in the San Francisco Bay Area, and finds that affordability issues and water infrastructure conditions are key concerns for these communities, as well as the inequitable use of water.

This report documents practical solutions for California’s urban water challenges put forth by a diverse group of stakeholders. The results are a set of recommendations for policymakers, municipal water managers, businesses, and community groups with the potential for broad support.

This update to the 2015 report includes a comprehensive assessment of the costs to California of lost hydroelectricity during the four years of drought from October 2011 to the end of September 2015 (the official California “water year” runs from October 1 to September 30).

This study is the first comprehensive analysis of the actual impacts of the drought on California agricultural revenue and employment through 2014 – the last year for which data are available.

This report that reveals that diminished river flows have resulted in less hydroelectricity, more expensive electricity, and increased production of greenhouse gas emissions.

California could be saving up to 14 million acre-feet of untapped water – providing more than the amount of water used in all of California’s cities in one year – with an aggressive statewide effort to use water-saving practices, reuse water, and capture lost stormwater. Find the reports, infographic, and factsheets here.

This report examines the information available in 1991 for a wide variety of sectors on the impacts and economic costs of the California drought that began in 1987. The assessment includes what the current drought at that time was telling us about California’s vulnerability to global climate change.

Highly modified ecosystems like so many in California are more likely to suffer permanent changes during extended dry periods. Although California’s plant and animal populations have weathered severe droughts in the past, there are factors now that prevent wild populations from rebounding as they once might have.

Analysis of state and federal data finds that contrary to much of the media reporting, California’s agricultural community proved flexible and resilient, generating agricultural revenues in 2007, 2008, and 2009 that were the highest on record.