Think of the Delta floodplain as a giant bathtub. Now imagine you’ve got a plug that you can insert or take out at will, allowing you to control the amount of water that fills up the plain, creating ideal conditions to grow the aquatic plant life that supports salmon and other fish species. Finally, imagine that you can do all this without causing any harm to Central Valley farmers.
Year: 2016
What Falling Water Conservation Numbers Mean for California
California’s drought may not be over, but a troubling number of residents – and the suppliers that deliver water to them – appear to be acting like it is. Last week, the State Water Resources Control Board announced that, compared to 2013 numbers, urban water conservation dropped from 27 percent in August 2015 to 17.7 percent this past August. It’s a clear sign that voluntary reduction targets aren’t having the same effect as the 25 percent statewide mandatory cuts issued by Gov. Jerry Brown a year and half ago, which were lifted in June.
Why California May Ban New Small Water Agencies
California’s goal of ensuring universal access to safe drinking water, as mandated in the 2012 Human Right to Water Bill, will come a step closer to being met if Gov. Jerry Brown signs a new measure into law that halts the creation of new small, unsustainable – and in many cases dangerous – water districts in the state.
Plan to Save Delta Smelt Faces Tough Road
When a coalition of California and federal agencies announced a new Delta Smelt Resiliency Strategy last week, the ambitious plan to save the region’s nearly extinct fish grabbed headlines. But whether most, or even parts, of the comprehensive program can realistically put in place the changes needed to rescue this endangered native species is another question.
Scientists: Culling Predator Fish Won’t Save Salmon
The struggle between endangered fish and thirsty California farmers requires an urgent answer. But for many, the Save Our Salmon (SOS) Act just passed by the U.S. House of Representatives isn’t it.
New UCLA-based Manufacturing Institute Puts Academia on Economic Map
President Obama last week awarded $70 million to the University of California, Los Angeles, to launch a Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute that will spur digitized, energy-efficient, sensor-driven manufacturing in five regional hubs, promising academic institutions a robust new role in the U.S. economic landscape.
What Lake Mead’s Record Low Means for California
Published in WATER DEEPLY
When the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced last month that the country’s largest reservoir, Lake Mead, had fallen to its lowest-ever level at 1,074ft (327m), the question many asked was: How will it affect one of California’s primary drinking sources? After all, some 19 million Californians, nearly half the state’s population, receive some part of their water from the Colorado River, which flows into the 80-year-old reservoir created by Hoover Dam outside Las Vegas.
Israeli Scholar Advocates for Class-based Affirmative Action
SAN FRANCISCO – Class-based affirmative action programs can do more to increase socioeconomic mobility than race-based programs alone, according to sociology professor Sigal Alon of Tel-Aviv University, speaking recently at the University of California, Berkeley’s Center for Studies in Higher Education where she presented her book Race, Class, and Affirmative Action.
San Jose State Scrambling to Address Racial Tensions
SAN FRANCISCO — Last week’s campus protest, following a verdict that handed three White, former San Jose State University (SJSU) students reduced jail sentences for what many perceived to be a hate crime, has put new pressure on administrators to hire a chief diversity officer to handle festering racial tensions at the Bay Area college.