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Pacific Institute Presents Inaugural Farm Water Steward Award to John Stephens |
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John Stephens, with his daughter Marcy Stephens holding his award, and Dr. Juliet Christian-Smith.
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CEO Water Mandate Discusses Key Corporate Water Stewardship Issues at 6th World Water Forum
In hopes of stimulating discussion and garnering feedback to inform the initiative’s work, the CEO Water Mandate* convened several sessions during the 6th World Water Forum in Marseille, France. At these meetings, representatives from Mandate-endorsing companies, NGOs, government agencies, the investment community, and other sectors explored four major Mandate projects:
The Mandate Secretariat and project partners provided progress updates on all of these projects, while soliciting targeted feedback from meeting participants on how the Mandate can best move forward with them. Key discussion topics included: how the Mandate can scope, grow, and maintain use of the Water Action Hub over the long term; what range of information can and should be included in corporate water disclosure; what types of engagement constitute the “taxonomy” of collective action; and how companies can adhere to the UN’s “Protect, Respect, and Remedy” framework with regard to the human right to water and sanitation and whether there are situations in which they should go beyond these responsibilities. The CEO Water Mandate will once again discuss and advance these focus areas at its annual multi-stakeholder working conference to be held during Rio+20 in June 2012.
*The CEO Water Mandate is a United Nations Global Compact initiative aimed at driving corporate water stewardship. The Pacific Institute currently serves on the Mandate Secretariat and acts as the initiative’s operational arm.
Read more about the CEO Water Mandate. |
Pacific Institute Launches Its First Open-Source Project — for River-Friendly Landscaping
The River-Friendly Landscape Benefits Calculator launched last month. The easy-to-use tool walks the user through some simple steps to describe their landscape and maintenance practices. At the end, the calculator estimates the amount of water a user landscape needs, as well as green waste and greenhouse gas emissions it produces, and the cost and labor required to maintain it. It compares benefits of a user’s landscape to a conventional landscape and a river-friendly one.
In the spirit of making the grant-funded activities easy and inexpensive for other cities to replicate, we have made the entire project open-source. The text and photos on the website are
licensed under Creative Commons, and the site has been released under MIT free software license. Download the source code here. Check out the River-Friendly Landscape Benefits Calculator at riverfriendly.com.
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Cadiz Groundwater Pumping Called Unsustainable
The Cadiz Valley Groundwater Recovery and Storage Project is a private venture (owned by Cadiz, Inc.) in the Mohave Desert in San Bernardino County, Calif. Back in 2001, the Pacific Institute was among the voices finding serious problems with the project, which was subsequently halted over economic and environmental concerns — but it has been revived. To help provide more transparency about the situation, the Pacific Institute posted on our website our economic analysis prepared in 2001 and the final draft environmental impact statement. The project is highly controversial for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the private use and gain from a public resource — our groundwater — and the impacts on aquifers dependent on that same groundwater. The Pacific Institute reviewed the Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) released in December 2011, finding, as we did a decade ago, several critical flaws and limitations. Among them are the project’s reliance on unsustainable overdrafting of the groundwater basin, with highly uncertain recovery times, and the DEIR’s failure to adequately demonstrate that the springs and groundwater basin are not connected. Under the proposed project, Cadiz will make its profit for 50 years mining groundwater, a public good, for short-term private gain, and the public will be left to handle possible negative environmental and ecological consequences of this project for years to come. In March, Dr. Newsha Ajami, senior research associate at the Pacific Institute, submitted public comments on the project’s Draft Environmental Impact Report, concluding that “the project is clearly unsustainable from a hydrological and ecological perspective.” The Sacramento Bee ran an Op Ed by Dr. Ajami and Dr. John Bredehoeft of the Hydrodynamics Group which raises the point: “We question that mining groundwater for short-term private gain is what an informed public would like to do with precious groundwater stored in the desert.” The Pacific Institute continues to bring this important California water policy issue forward — as stated in the Op Ed: “Cadiz…would set a precedent for future privatization of groundwater in other desert basins. This calls for a broader public policy debate and discussion of state groundwater policy — or lack thereof.” Read the full Op Ed here.
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In Brief
Pacific Institute staff members gave talks and lectures, conducted workshops, and participated on panels far and wide this month. Here are some of the places we’ve been: Dr. Newsha Ajami, Senior Research Associate:
Heather Cooley, Water Program Co-Director: Catalina Garzón, Community Strategies Program Co-Director: – participated in the 2012 California Equity Summit entitled “California’s Tomorrow: Equity is the Superior Growth Model” on April 10, sponsored by the Coalition on Regional Equity.
Matthew Heberger, Research Associate:
– presented “Is Water Enough?” at the Engineers Without Borders 2012 International Conference. He discussed some of the latest developments in the WASH sector, the importance of including sanitation and hygiene in water projects, and how traditional assistance to build water systems in the developing world has not always led to improved health and well-being. View his presentation here.
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Upcoming Events – On April 26, Catalina Garzón will participate in the 2012 State of the Region event sponsored by Urban Habitat. The all-day event, which will take place at the California Endowment’s Oakland Conference Center at 1111 Broadway, 7th Floor, is open to the public. Register online here.
– On April 27, Dr. Juliet Christian-Smith will address the American Water Works Association’s Colorado section, presenting “Drought Impacts: Learning from the Past, Preparing for the Future.”
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In the News
– Senior Research Associate Michael Cohen spoke with the Albuquerque Journal’s John Fleck about Western water, noting that despite the dry climate and dwindling water supplies, it is possible for cities in the western United States to learn to live within their means. Read more about how Albuquerque was able to cut its per capita demand by 40% from 1994 to 2011, so that Albuquerque now uses 25% less water than it did in 1994 despite population growth of almost 200,000 people. – Marc Dadigan from Redding.com writes about the Pacific Institute’s collaborative project with the Winnemem Wintu tribe and DataCenter to use GPS mapping to teach future generations of Winnemem Wintus and protect their sacred sites from the proposed Shasta Dam raise. Read more. – Central Valley Business Times covers the Pacific Institute inaugural Farm Water Steward Award, given to John Stephens for improving the water quality, drainage, and wildlife habitat on his property by restoring Willow Slough, which runs through his Oakdale Ranch. Read more. – The Sacramento Bee published an Op Ed by Senior Research Associate Dr. Newsha Ajami and Dr. John Bredehoeft of the Hydrodynamics Group on the critical flaws and limitations of the Cadiz groundwater project and the importance of the state having groundwater policy to protect this public resource. Read more.
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