Metering in California – Need to Know Fact sheet

The new “Need to Know” white paper Metering in California finds water meters an essential element of effective water management, particularly during the drought.

As more Californians take a closer look at the use and management of water resources during the drought, water meters have come under increased scrutiny. Water meters have been in use for decades in most California communities, but they are not yet universal; more than 219,000 urban water connections in the state remain unmetered.

Hazard’s Toll: The Costs of Inaction at the Salton Sea

The declining Salton Sea will impose massive public health and environmental costs on local residents and Californians generally, as described in the Pacific Institute report Hazard’s Toll. The continued failure to protect and preserve the Salton Sea, worsening air quality and the loss of valuable ecological

Exploring the Business Case for Corporate Action on Sanitation

The CEO Water Mandate released a study – with a supporting foreword by the UN Deputy Secretary-General – that makes the case that action on sanitation is a moral imperative for companies around the world, and shows the business risks from lack of sanitation, as well as the opportunities and benefits offered by sanitation interventions.

The Multiple Benefits of Water Conservation and Efficiency for California Agriculture – Need to Know

California farmers have made progress in updating and modernizing irrigation practices, but despite past efforts, great untapped potential remains to use water more efficiently. Water efficiency – defined as measures that reduce water use while maintaining the benefits water provides – has been shown to be a cost-effective and flexible tool to adapt to drought as well as to address longstanding water challenges in California. Moreover, today’s investments in efficiency will provide a competitive advantage in the future and ensure the ongoing strength of the agriculture sector in California.

Forgotten Voices: A Youth Vision for Oakland

Living in neighborhoods compounded by violence and simultaneous gentrification, Oakland youth – with the support of the Pacific Institute and Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice (CURYJ) – have released the “foto-novela” Forgotten Voices to share their experiences and vision for creating opportunities for men of color.

Bridging Concern with Action: Are US Companies Prepared for Looming Water Challenges?

A new survey of major U.S. corporations released by the Pacific Institute and VOX Global, titled Bridging Concern with Action: Are US Companies Prepared for Looming Water Challenges?, reveals that most companies believe water challenges will significantly worsen in the next five years. However, the majority of companies surveyed do not appear to be planning corollary increases in the breadth and scale of their water risk management practices. In fact, nearly 70 percent of responding companies said their current level of investment in water management is sufficient.

What to Do About California’s Drought

As California’s severe drought has worsened, there has been persistent debate about the links between drought and climate change (or indeed any extreme weather event). Three key, but very different, questions are often confused: Has climate change caused the current drought? Is it already influencing or affecting the drought (no matter its cause)? And how will climate change affect future droughts?

Peter Gleick Testifies on Urban Water Use Efficiency for State Water Resources Control Board

Dr. Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute and one of the world’s leading experts on freshwater issues, testified on February 26, 2014 on strategies for addressing the California drought to the California State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB). Recognizing that the drought is having far-reaching effects that are likely to intensify if dry conditions persist, Gleick offered key recommendations from the Pacific Institute for changes in strategy, policy, and approach to greatly expand the efficiency of urban water use in California.

The World’s Water, Volume 8

The newest volume in this highly regarded series, The World’s Water, vol. 8 features chapters on hydraulic fracturing (fracking), water footprints, sustainable water jobs, and desalination financing, among other timely issues. Water briefs provide concise updates on topics including the Dead Sea and the role of water in the Syrian conflict. Pacific Institute President Peter Gleick is series editor, with coauthors Newsha Ajami, Juliet Christian-Smith, Heather Cooley, Kristina Donnelly, Julian Fulton, Mai-Lan Ha, Matthew Heberger, Eli Moore, Jason Morrison, Stuart Orr, Peter Schulte, and Veena Srinivasan.

Energizing Water Efficiency in California: Applying Energy Efficiency Strategies to Water

As a dry December accentuates the stress on California’s limited water supplies, the success of the state’s energy sector in implementing efficiency programs offers valuable lessons to the water sector. A new report from the Pacific Institute examines the rules, regulations, and policies that promote energy efficiency and finds models for water management in drivers like the energy sector’s appliance standards, building codes, pricing policies, and utility-sponsored efficiency programs.

Key Issues in Seawater Desalination in California: Marine Impacts

Desalination, like other major industrial processes, has environmental impacts that must be understood and mitigated. A new report from the Pacific Institute examines effects on the marine environment associated with the construction and long-term operation of seawater desalination plants, including withdrawing water from the ocean and discharging the highly concentrated brine.

Beyond Water Pricing: An Overview of Water Financing Options in California

California’s social and economic well-being is directly tied to financing for reliable, sustainable water. A new study from the Pacific Institute explores stable and sustainable sources of funding for water projects as a key to long-term solutions, and finds California’s increased dependence on general obligation (GO) bonds in funding water systems is unreliable and costly to both the state and taxpayers.

Guide to Water-Related Collective Action

The UN Global Compact’s CEO Water Mandate initiative has released the Guide to Water-Related Collective Action, which provides a step-by-step approach to water-resource-related collective action. The Guide, finalized after a year of testing and research on a beta version, helps businesses develop strategy focused on effective, sustainable, and equitable external engagements related to water.

Pricing Practices in the Electricity Sector to Promote Conservation and Efficiency: Lessons for the Water Sector

Because water utilities are dependent on the sale of water to recoup costs, reduced sales can result in deficits – and per capita water demand in California has been stagnant or decreasing for the past several decades. Over the coming years, California municipal water utilities are required to reduce water use by 20%. Thus, the “new normal” or an era of declining demand and rising costs is a trend that is likely to continue. Water utilities can learn from a number of electricity pricing practices to help adapt to this “new normal” while staying fiscally solvent and providing fair prices.

Water-Energy Synergies: Coordinating Efficiency Programs in California

All forms of energy – from hydropower to solar panels – use water to extract and process the fuels, construct the processing facilities, or generate the electricity. Likewise, water supply, treatment, use, and disposal use considerable amounts of energy. Coordinating water-energy efficiency efforts provides a significant opportunity to achieve greater savings for both water and energy utilities and for their customers, according to a new study from the Pacific Institute: Water-Energy Synergies: Coordinating Efficiency Programs in California.

Implementation of the Agricultural Water Management Planning Act: A Review of Agricultural Water Management Plans

Twenty-four of California’s agricultural water districts have submitted agricultural water management plans, leaving 55 districts out of compliance with the requirement of the Water Conservation Act of 2009, according to a new joint analysis issued today by the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Pacific Institute. This represents a 30% compliance rate, meaning there is much work to be done to ensure sustainable water management for the state.

Improving Understanding of the Global Hydrologic Cycle: Observation and Analysis of the Climate System: The Global Water Cycle

This chapter from the book Climate Science for Serving Society: Research, Modeling and Prediction Priorities addresses how understanding the complexity of the hydrological cycle is central to understanding a wide range of other planetary geological, atmospheric, chemical, and physical processes. Water is also central to other core economic, social, and political issues such as poverty, health, hunger, environmental sustainability, conflict, and economic prosperity. As society seeks to meet demands for goods and services for a growing population, we must improve our understanding of the fundamental science of the hydrological cycle, its links with related global processes, and the role it plays in ecological and societal well-being. At the same time, human influences on the character and dynamics of the water cycle are growing rapidly. Central to solving these challenges is the need to improve our systems for managing, sharing, and analyzing all kinds of water data, and our ability to model and forecast aspects of both the hydrological cycle and the systems we put in place to manage human demands for water. We need to improve our understanding of each of the components of the hydrological water balance at all scales, and to understand the spatial and temporal variability in the components of the water cycle. This chapter provides a short summary of current World Climate Research Program (WCRP) efforts and addresses four primary research challenges:

Assessing Water Affordability: A Pilot Study in Two Regions of California

A new pilot study in California shows many households, even within affluent communities, routinely spend over the affordability threshold of 2 percent of their household income on their water bill. The number of water systems with “unaffordable” rates varies by region and measure used – which has important implications for policy makers.

Community Reintegration and Employment in Contra Costa County

The Safe Return Project – a participatory action research process in Richmond, California involving formerly incarcerated residents in carrying out research and organizing to increase opportunities for community reintegration – released the report Employment and Community Reintegration in Contra Costa County. The publication, produced in collaboration with the Pacific Institute and CCISCO, presents original research, including survey findings that 78% of formerly incarcerated Richmond residents are unemployed, and two out of three have not held a single job since their release.

Global Water Governance in the 21st Century

Growing pressure on global water resources is having major impacts on our social, economic, and environmental well-being. But despite growing recognition that the world’s water-related challenges extend beyond national and regional boundaries, there has been little-to-no discussion about global water governance that looks more holistically at shared water challenges. A new report from the Pacific Institute examines structures and approaches needed to meet the challenge of sustainable water management in an interconnected world.

Gearing Up for Action: A Curriculum Guide for Freight Transport Justice

The Pacific Institute’s revised Gearing Up for Action: A Curriculum Guide for Freight Transport Justice (en español, Preparándose para la Acción) is an important advocacy tool to build the power and capacity of communities to participate in decision making around freight transport issues. The activities have been designed to help community leaders engage groups of community members to learn more about freight transport and connect it to their own lives. The goal of our freight transport justice work is to reduce the adverse health impacts of freight transportation on low-income neighborhoods of color closest to freight transport hubs, and to increase the share of the benefits that residents of these communities enjoy.

Preparándose para la Acción

Preparándose para la Acción: Una Guía Curricular para Lograr Justicia en el Transporte de Carga del Pacific Institute ha sido revisada siendo una importante herramienta de abogacía para construir el poder y la capacidad de comunidades para participar en la toma de decisiones en cuanto a temas del transporte de carga. Las actividades han sido diseñadas para ayudar a los líderes comunitarios en involucrar a grupos de miembros de la comunidad para aprender sobre el transporte de carga conectándolo a sus propias vidas. La meta de nuestro trabajo de justicia del transporte de carga es reducir los impactos adversos a la salud que el transporte de carga tiene en vecindarios de bajo recursos y de color que están cerca de centros de transporte de carga, y para aumentar los beneficios que residentes de estas comunidades pueden disfrutar.

An Overview of the “New Normal” and Water Rate Basics

Water service providers are facing new challenges in forecasting and preparing for future water demand, staying fiscally solvent while providing fair prices, incorporating conservation and efficiency, and communicating clearly to customers about rates and service. Beginning in 2012, the Pacific Institute conducted an extensive survey and series of workshops on water rates and finances to better understand how water is priced by more than a thousand different water providers in California, both public and private – and to help agencies identify effective rate-making strategies.

Dinámica del Agua Subterránea en el Tramo Limítrofe del Río Colorado

El Río Colorado, derivado y canalizado, así como intensivamente controlado, sólo en raras ocasiones (<10 por ciento de los días) lleva suficiente agua para fluir al menos 32 km más allá de la Presa Morelos, la última presa sobre el río, cerca de la frontera California/Arizona/Baja California. El corredor limítrofe del río – el tramo de aproximadamente 36 km de Andrade a San Luis que separa Baja California de Arizona – es generalmente considerado la parte más alta del remanente del delta del Río Colorado, con algunas de las zonas más extensas de álamos y sauces nativos que quedan en el bajo Río Colorado y una de las pocas áreas donde el río aún tiene, ocasionalmente, agua suficiente para sobrepasar sus márgenes y alcanzar su planicie aluvial. Por este motivo, durante más de una década, se ha generado un enorme interés en la restauración del tramo limítrofe. En años recientes, sin embargo, ha habido una creciente preocupación de que el deterioro en las condiciones del agua subterránea en la parte baja del tramo limítrofe, coarte el éxito de los esfuerzos de restauración.

Groundwater Dynamics in the Colorado River Limitrophe

The Colorado River, diverted and channelized and intensively managed, only rarely has enough water to flow even 20 miles past Morelos Dam, the last dam on the river, near the California/Arizona/Baja California border. The river’s limitrophe reach – the roughly 22.5 mile stretch from Andrade to San Luis that separates Baja California from Arizona – is generally considered the uppermost extent of the remnant Colorado River delta, with some of the most extensive stands of native cottonwoods and willows left on the lower Colorado River and one of the few areas where the river still occasionally has enough water to exceed its banks and reach its floodplain. Because of this, there has been intense restoration interest in the limitrophe reach for more than a decade. In recent years, however, concern has grown that deteriorating groundwater conditions in the lower portion of the limitrophe will limit the success of restoration efforts.

Testimony of Dr. Peter H. Gleick Before the California Assembly Select Committee on Sea Level Rise and the California Economy

Chair and members of the Assembly Select Committee: thank you for inviting me to offer testimony today on the economic risks facing the State of California from accelerating sea-level rise. The reality of climate change will affect California in many ways, from rising temperatures to changes in fire frequency, drought and flood risks, threats to agricultural production and our water resources, and especially, growing damage and destruction along our extensive coastline from rising sea levels.

Water to Supply the Land: Irrigated Agriculture in the Colorado River Basin

The Colorado River, recently named America’s most endangered river, supports millions of people in the American Southwest and northwest Mexico and helps irrigate millions of acres of land. Yet demands on the river already exceed the river’s average supply, a situation that is projected to get worse in coming years as climate change reduces runoff at the same time that fast-growing southwest cities demand more water. Irrigated agriculture currently consumes more than 70% of the water supply within the Colorado River basin, making it critical for more efficient water use.

Key Issues in Seawater Desalination in California: Energy and Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Interest in seawater desalination in California is high, with 17 plants proposed along the California coast and two in Mexico. But removing the salt from seawater is an energy-intensive process that consumes more energy per gallon than most other water supply and treatment options. A new report from the Pacific Institute series Key Issues for Seawater Desalination in California describes the energy requirements and associated greenhouse gas emissions for desalinated water and evaluates the impact of short- and long-term energy price variability on the cost of desalinated water.

Community Resilience Fact Sheets Help Communities Prepare for Climate Change Impacts

As Hurricanes Sandy and Katrina have taught us, climate change is a global process with very localized impacts that can profoundly affect community health and quality of life. These localized impacts, ranging from extreme temperatures to rising sea levels, will disproportionately affect vulnerable populations such as the elderly, renters, low-income residents, limited English speakers, those with pre-existing medical conditions, and those without health or home insurance. Yet the same communities considered most vulnerable to climate change also contain a wealth of knowledge about how to creatively marshal social networks, culturally-based practices and skills, and limited resources to weather hard times.

Climate Change Survivor Workbook with Games

Oakland residents can take steps to protect their communities in the face of climate change impacts. Are You a Climate Change Survivor? is the fun new activity workbook, game, and handy fact sheets from the Pacific Institute and Oakland Climate Action Coalition (OCAC) that provide engaging activities to raise awareness about climate change impacts like heat waves, flooding, and poor air quality – and the tools that community members can use to build safety and resilience.

Sustainable Water Jobs: A National Assessment of Water-Related Green Job Opportunities

The Pacific Institute released a comprehensive study, Sustainable Water Jobs: A National Assessment of Water-Related Green Job Opportunities. The report finds that proactive investments increasing efficient water use and re-use will both address growing problems associated with drought, flooding, and contamination and create jobs in a wide range of professions. The study identifies 136 different kinds of jobs involved in implementing sustainable water strategies, from plumbers to landscapers, engineers to irrigation specialists. Thirty-seven of these job types are also projected to have high growth in the overall economy, with each projected to have more than 100,000 job openings across industries by 2020.

California’s Water Footprint

The Pacific Institute has released the first comprehensive assessment of California’s water footprint, providing an important perspective on the interconnections between everyday activities and impacts to water resources – both at home and around the world.

Key Issues in Seawater Desalination in California: Costs and Financing

Economics – including both the cost of the water produced and the complex financial arrangements needed to develop a project – are key factors that will determine the ultimate success and extent of desalination in California. New research from the Pacific Institute, Key Issues for Seawater Desalination in California: Cost and Financing, assesses desalination costs, financing, and risks associated with desalination projects. The Pacific Institute analysis finds that the cost to produce water from a desalination plant is high but subject to significant variability, with recent estimates for plants proposed in the state ranging from $1,900 to more than $3,000 per acre-foot.“Seawater desalination remains among the most expensive water-supply options available, although the public and decision-makers must exercise caution when comparing costs among different projects,” said Heather Cooley, co-director of the Pacific Institute Water Program and lead author of the report. “In some cases, costs are reported in ways that are not directly comparable. For example, some report the cost of the desalination plant alone, while others include the cost for additional infrastructure needed to integrate the desalination plant into the rest of the water system. Some estimates include costs to finance the project, while others don’t. Even when there is an apples-to-apples comparison, there are a number of site- and project-specific factors that make cost comparisons difficult, such as energy, land, and labor costs and the availability of visible and hidden subsidies.”

Sustainability Standards and Public Governance

An emerging theme of the framing project from its inception in 2009 was the growing awareness of the significance and complexity of the interactions between voluntary, non-governmental sustainability standards and national and international governance, raising fundamental questions about standards development, use, legitimacy and sustainability.

From Storage to Retention: Expanding California’s Options for Meeting its Water Needs

The California Roundtable on Water and Food Supply (CRWFS) released its latest report, From Storage to Retention: Expanding California’s Options for Meeting Its Water Needs. Pacific Institute’s agriculture and water expert Dr. Juliet Christian-Smith, also a member of the CRWFS, contributed to the newest report which builds on earlier work focused on agricultural water stewardship, and argues for an expansion of approaches to storing water that increase supply reliability for specialty crop agricultural production and other beneficial uses while protecting ecosystem health.

Guide to Water-Related Collective Action and Water Action Hub

The global Water Action Hub from the UN Global Compact CEO Water Mandate is the world’s first on-line platform to unite companies, governments, NGOs, and other stakeholders on a range of critical water projects in specific river basins around the planet. With the launch of the Water Action Hub is the release of a beta version of the CEO Water Mandate’s publication Guide to Water-Related Collective Action, which provides a step-by-step approach to water-resource-related collective action.

Urban Water Demand in California to 2100: Incorporating Climate Change

Climate change will have significant impacts in California not just on water supply, but also on water demand. A new, free tool from the Pacific Institute* helps water managers to forecast urban water demand with four global climate change models and compare different possible futures to the year 2100 by altering greenhouse gas emissions, population projections, conservation and efficiency measures, and more. The research shows climate change will cause increased water use in California’s cities and suburbs, even as water supply is expected to diminish.

Scroll to Top