Announcements – Page 2 – Pacific Institute

Announcement – Page 2 – Pacific Institute

June 2022 Newsletter

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This month’s newsletter features a prestigious sustainability award granted to a Pacific Institute-led project, new WASH4Work initiatives, and More.

Pacific Institute-Led Water Efficiency Project Featuring Remote Toilet Leak Detection in Low-Income Housing Wins Los Angeles Better Buildings Challenge Award

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Los Angeles, California — June 10, 2022 — A Pacific Institute-led water efficiency project that uses remote sensors to detect toilet leaks in low-income housing has been awarded the Water Industry Leader Award by the Los Angeles Better Buildings Challenge (LABBC). The LABBC’s “Best Buildings” Innovation Awards program identifies organizations demonstrating exceptional ingenuity in energy and water efficiency. The water prize was one of six LABBC prizes awarded this week.

The Pacific Institute project, entitled “Advancing Water Efficiency through Leak Detection for Low-Income Housing in Southern California,” was highlighted as an urban water efficiency best practice for conserving water during historic drought in the US West. The 2021 multi-sector initiative installed 1,200 remote sensors to detect toilet leaks and send alerts in real time. Since installation, one low-income senior housing community west of downtown Los Angeles has saved more than 1 million gallons of water, reduced water use by more than 25%, and saved an estimated $10,000 in water bills. The water prize was formally awarded to the Retirement Housing Foundation, which owns and operates the 183-unit MacArthur Park Tower site.

“Collaboration across sectors is critical to advance solutions at the pace and scale needed to meet the current water crisis,” said project lead Cora Kammeyer, Senior Researcher at the Pacific Institute. “This project is a great example of how bringing together diverse sectors adds up in terms of impact.”

The project is a collaboration between the Pacific Institute, Sensor Industries, and Bonneville Environmental Foundation, with support from members of the California Water Action Collaborative, a network of stakeholders pursuing collective action projects to improve water security in California.

In 2022, the project will be replicated throughout California with additional leak detection installations and expanded water efficiency solutions. The project is also pursuing scaling opportunities through public policies and programs, such as California’s state-funded low-income weatherization programs.

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Founded in 1987, the Pacific Institute is a global nonpartisan water think tank that combines science-based thought leadership with active outreach to influence local, national, and international efforts in developing sustainable water policies. Its mission is to create and advance solutions to the world’s most pressing water challenges.

May 2022 Newsletter

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This month’s newsletter features World Economic Forum and the Water Resilience Coalition, Salton Sea Summit Recap, Drought Solutions in California and Beyond, and More.

New Case Studies: A Call for Action on Water in Response to California’s Changing Climate

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April 27, San Francisco, California — Today SPUR, along with the Pacific Institute and Greenbelt Alliance, released Watershed Moments: Case studies in Water Management for California’s Changing Climate.

The state’s severe drought — following close on the heels of the 2012-2017 drought — is a call for action. Climate scientists predict that California will experience longer, more frequent droughts, punctuated by periods of heavy rain and flooding as the climate warms. Yet other places in the world flourish with much drier climates than our state.

There are solutions available to adapt to a changing climate – but they require managing water differently. The six case studies featured show how local leaders can shift from an old system that relied mainly on importing massive amounts of snowmelt from the Sierra to relying on more local, sustainable water supplies.

SPUR, Greenbelt Alliance, and Pacific Institute teamed up to highlight six examples of what water management could look like in the 21st century.

Valley Water in Santa Clara County is scaling up its recycled water efforts faster than other water districts in the Bay Area. The district aims to more than double its supply of recycled water by 2040.
Orange Memorial Park in South San Francisco is being retrofitted to capture, treat and use the water that falls as rain in its watershed, reducing water pollution and flood risk while providing water supply.
Google’s planned Bay View campus will use onsite water reuse and water efficiency measures to become a net-positive water development, meaning the building will generate more non-potable water than it uses.
Conservationists fought – and won – to preserve Coyote Valley in Santa Clara County as agriculture and open space. Their efforts will also protect South Bay drinking water from contamination and reduce flooding risk in San José.
Soquel Creek Water District in Santa Cruz County implemented a water-neutral development policy, where new developers pay a fee to offset their water demand with efficiency improvements elsewhere in the system.
Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Commission, a nonprofit affordable housing developer in San Francisco, is piloting programs to decrease water use by 20%.

Read the case studies and related 2021 report “Water for a Growing Bay Area: How the Region Can Grow Without Increasing Water Demand” here.

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Founded in 1987, the Pacific Institute is a global water think tank that combines science-based thought leadership with active outreach to influence local, national, and international efforts in developing sustainable water policies. Its mission is to create and advance solutions to the world’s most pressing water challenges. From working with Fortune 500 companies to disenfranchised communities, the Pacific Institute leads local, national, and international efforts in developing sustainable water policies and delivering meaningful results.

April 2022 Newsletter

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This month’s newsletter features New Release: The Untapped Potential of California’s Urban Water Supply, The Pacific Institute Welcomes New Board Members, Pacific Institute Director of Research Heather Cooley Joins U.S. Water Alliance Imagination Team, and More.

Pacific Institute Study Finds Dramatic Potential for California Drought Relief Through Innovative Urban Water Approaches

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Study Reveals California Could Reduce Urban Water Use by More than 30% Through Efficiency Efforts, More than Triple Water Reuse,
Boost Stormwater Capture

April 12, 2022, Oakland, California – Today, as California faces its third year of severe drought, the Pacific Institute released new research quantifying dramatic opportunities for innovative urban water strategies to provide drought relief and longer-term water resilience. “The Untapped Potential of California’s Urban Water Supply: Water Efficiency, Water Reuse, and Stormwater Capture” reveals the state could reduce urban water use by 30%-48% through investments in water efficiency measures. The analysis also highlights the potential to boost local water supplies by more than tripling municipal water reuse and significantly increasing stormwater capture across the state. While the findings are specific to California, they can inform water resilience strategies across the United States and beyond.

Urban water use in California is estimated at 6.6 million acre-feet per year. The report finds these urban water strategies to be technologically feasible and cost effective. It also outlines co-benefits, including decreasing reliance on imported water, protecting threatened ecosystems, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

“In the face of severe drought intensifying due to climate change, California and other drought-prone areas must abandon outdated 20th century approaches overly reliant on unsustainable surface water and groundwater withdrawals,” said Heather Cooley, Director of Research at the Pacific Institute. “We must transition to a 21st century model that builds water resilience. The good news is that many communities across California are already successfully implementing these innovative water strategies. This report shows that by rapidly scaling these strategies across the state, millions more Californians could see short-term drought relief and longer-term improvements in their water supply reliability.”

Findings of the analysis include:

Water efficiency potential: Further implementation of water efficiency measures, including replacing inefficient clothes washers and other appliances with high-efficiency models, replacing lawns with climate-appropriate plants, and reducing losses in water distribution systems, could reduce California’s urban water use by 2.0 million to 3.1 million acre-feet per year, representing a 30% to 48% statewide urban water-use savings.
Water reuse potential: Municipal water reuse could be more than tripled in California, significantly adding to local water supplies. As estimated 728,000 acre-feet of municipal wastewater is currently reused annually for groundwater recharge, landscape irrigation, and other beneficial use across the state. This new assessment identifies the potential to increase water reuse in California by 1.8 million to 2.1 million acre-feet annually. This would bring total statewide reuse to 2.5 million to 2.8 million acre-feet per year.
Stormwater capture potential: Urban stormwater capture potential in the state ranges from 580,000 acre-feet in a dry year to 3 million acre-feet in a wet year in urban areas overlying public supply aquifers. There is no statewide estimate of current stormwater capture volume.

The study’s regional findings quantify the potential for these urban water strategies in specific hydrologic regions, with the most significant potential by volume in the South Coast, San Francisco Bay, and Sacramento River hydrologic regions. California’s South Coast hydrologic region, which includes major cities like Los Angeles and San Diego, has the greatest potential for all three strategies. The analysis finds the region could save an additional 1.1 million to 1.7 million acre-feet of water annually through efficiency measures. The region could also boost local water supplies with up to 1.1 million acre-feet of additional reused water and 370,000 acre-feet (dry year) to 1.9 million acre-feet (wet year) using stormwater capture.

The study includes detailed policy and practice recommendations for water utilities and suppliers, as well as local, regional, state, and federal agencies and policymakers. These recommendations include:

Water efficiency: Increase state and federal funding; expand local water agencies’ customer incentive programs, including through partnerships with energy utilities; increase accessibility of customer programs for low-income and multi-family households; and provide technical support for achieving water efficiency standards under SB 555 and AB 1668/SB 606.
Water reuse: Increase state and federal funding, including from the bipartisan infrastructure legislation; continue development of regulations supporting potable and onsite water reuse; and re-evaluate water recycling regulatory frameworks to ensure they protect public health and the environment while not imposing unnecessary costs.
Stormwater Capture: Create a framework to help urban communities identify the optimal mix of centralized and decentralized stormwater capture projects; pursue ordinances and permitting provisions that strongly promote or require the use of low-impact development and stormwater and greywater; and develop state and/or regional funding and coordination policies and programs that facilitate public-private stormwater projects.

Read the full report here.

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March 2022 Newsletter

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This month’s newsletter features Pacific Institute Releases Water Conflict Chronology Update, Briefing on the Untapped Potential of California’s Water Supply, An Eye to Groundwater Resilience on World Water Day, and More.

Water Conflicts Worsen: New Pacific Institute Analysis Identifies Hundreds of New Instances of Violence over Water Resources

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March 17, 2022, Oakland, California — Last week, a few days into the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russian forces destroyed a dam blocking a water canal from Ukraine to Crimea, restoring flow that had been cut when Russia annexed Crimea in 2014. The cut off of water at that time deprived Crimea of a critical source of irrigation water for agricultural production. These water conflicts are just the latest in a long history of violence associated with freshwater resources, tracked by the Pacific Institute for over three decades.

Three hundred new instances of violence over freshwater resources have been identified in a new assessment by the Pacific Institute. The Institute today released a major update and expansion of the Water Conflict Chronology, the most comprehensive, open-source database on water conflicts around the world.

Created during the 1980s by Dr. Peter Gleick and the Pacific Institute, the Chronology tracks and categorizes events related to water and conflict in the form of a database and an interactive map. It provides information on events where water or water systems are a trigger, weapon, or casualty of conflicts when there is violence or threats of violence. The Chronology extends back over 4,500 years to the first known water conflicts in the ancient Middle East and includes over 1,300 entries with the new update. The numbers of events have grown dramatically since 2000 (see the figure below).

The updated Chronology finds the past few years have seen growing numbers of drought-related conflicts over access and control of water in places like Iran and India, attacks on water infrastructure in Crimea and Ukraine as tensions between Russia and Ukraine have exploded, ongoing violence in Central Asia over disputed rivers, continued ethnic violence between pastoralists and farmers in Africa, a growing number of disputes over mining and water contamination in Latin America, and several instances of attempted cyberattacks on urban water systems.

The Chronology also highlights how intensifying climate changes are worsening pressures on water resources around the world. These pressures are contributing to water scarcity, floods, and droughts – among the key causes of water-related violence.

“Violence associated with competition and disputes over freshwater resources has continued to worsen in recent years,” Dr. Gleick said. “These events highlight both worsening competition for fresh water and the growing consequences of human-caused climate change in the form of droughts and floods. Of special concern is civil unrest over water scarcity and the control of local water resources, and a growing number of attacks on civilian water infrastructure during conflicts and war around the world.”

“Efforts to reduce tensions over fresh water must include accelerated action to provide basic safe water and sanitation to the billions of people that still lack these water services, diplomatic efforts to enforce international laws of war protecting civilians, and more cooperative management over rivers and aquifers that are shared internationally,” Gleick said.

The new revision includes a substantial increase in the total number of entries. These additions come from news reports, published accounts, and databases that track violence and conflicts globally. Examples from the new entries include small-scale violence in communities where water is scarce or control of water is disputed, as well as large-scale international disputes over shared rivers and waters.

The information provided for each entry includes the year(s), a description and summary of the event, the location, geographic region (using United Nations Geographic Regions definitions), the type of conflict (trigger, weapon, casualty), and a source for the information.

The data may be found here.

An interactive map of all water conflicts may be found here.

Figure 1: The number of water-conflict events since 2000, worldwide.

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February 2022 Newsletter

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This month’s newsletter features A Call for Bold Action on Climate and Water, The Water-Energy-Climate Nexus: Reducing Carbon Through Water Efficiency, and More.

January 2022 Newsletter

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This month’s newsletter features Climate Change is Water Change, Update from the CEO Water Mandate: Raising Our Ambition to Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Resilience, Spotlight on Nature-Based Solutions, and More.