Published: May 2020
The global coronavirus pandemic has brought renewed interest and focus on scientific models as we try to get a handle on what the future will bring, how many people will fall sick and die, what the economic impacts will be, and what actions politicians should take.
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Published: May 2020
In California, drought and a reduction in natural water availability in recent decades have led to a search for alternative water sources for agriculture. One controversial potential source is oilfield produced water, a byproduct of oil extraction.
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Published: April 2020
Nationally, we export about $40 billion of agricultural products annually. There is nothing wrong with importing or exporting food; we live in a global economy, which is extremely important to California’s prosperity.
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Published: April 2020
What cannot be measured cannot be managed. Poor water management poses major risks to agriculture, industry, and local communities. However, there is a critical lack of information available about local water conditions, making better management difficult.
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Published: April 2020
The Colorado River Basin states face significant water challenges, including the overallocation of water, long-term drought, and climate change. This report, commissioned by the Walton Family Foundation, explores the potential for corporate water stewardship to help solve these challenges.
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Published: March 2020
Urban stormwater is becoming an increasingly important alternative water supply in California. However, current economic analyses do not adequately evaluate co-benefits provided by different stormwater investments. As a result, urban stormwater capture is undervalued.
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Published: March 2020
The coronavirus pandemic is shining a spotlight on the weaknesses of social, economic and health safety nets we’ve long taken for granted, including our water system.
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Published: March 2020
Around the world, businesses are experiencing adverse physical effects of climate change, from increased operational costs and disrupted production to social unrest in communities in which they operate. These impacts are most prominently expressed through changes in the water cycle, including precipitation shifts and extreme drought.
Learn More Published: February 2020
This comment letter focuses on how the California Water Resilience Portfolio can incorporate multiple benefits when prioritizing and funding water management strategies throughout the state.
Learn More Published: February 2020
This comment letter conveys summary comments and suggestions on the draft Water Resilience Portfolio released by California state agencies, drawing on the considerable experience Pacific Institute has around themes of water efficiency, stormwater management, and the Salton Sea.
Learn More Published: February 2020
On December 20, 2019, President Trump signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act (Public Law 116-92), including the Intelligence Authorization Act of FY2020. Section 6722 of that law required a report be prepared on the national security effects of “global water insecurity” and be submitted within 180 days (by late June 2020) to “the congressional intelligence committees, the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives, and the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate.”
Learn More Published: January 2020
This comment letter expresses comments and suggestions in response to proposed regulation under the California Code of Regulations around reporting urban water conservation information for water utilities.
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Published: December 2019
We can continue our costly, 100-year-old pattern of trying to find new water supplies, or we can choose instead to focus on smarter ways of using – and reusing – what we already have.
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Published: December 2019
It’s almost biblical: Apocalyptic images of fires sweeping through communities. The worst droughts in recorded history, followed by floods overwhelming dams and levees. Homeless encampments. Power outages for millions of people.
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Published: November 2019
Agricultural workers are expected to be some of the worst affected from the projected impacts of climate change, resulting in sixty percent of work hours lost due to heat stress in 2030. Climate change will also significantly the water cycle, introducing greater uncertainty into agricultural supply chain operations.
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Published: September 2019
The failure to meet basic needs for safe water and sanitation worldwide is one of the great tragedies of our age, with billions of people paying the price in illness and poverty.
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Published: September 2019
War is a miserable thing. It kills and maims soldiers and civilians. It destroys infrastructure, cultures, and communities. It worsens poverty and development challenges. And it damages and cripples vital ecological and environmental resources.
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Published: August 2019
The world’s water resources are under growing pressure from rising water consumption, pollution, weak governance, and climate change, exposing businesses to increased water-related risks caused not only by their own water use and discharge, but also by the catchment context in which they operate.
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Published: August 2019
By setting water targets that are informed by the local catchment context, companies can maximize impact and improve water security by addressing the key water challenges in the region and aligning their strategies with public sector goals, including the local water management goals and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
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Published: July 2019
California’s Human Right to Water law states that “every human being has the right to safe, clean, affordable, and accessible water adequate for human consumption, cooking, and sanitary purposes.”
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Published: July 2019
This presentation on the Salton Sea presented by Michael Cohen at the 2019 GWC Summer Conference covers progress at the sea, the Colorado River and the sea, new bargains, and potential solutions.
Learn More Published: May 2019
Urban communities, farms, businesses, and natural ecosystems depend upon adequate, reliable, and affordable supplies of clean water.
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Published: April 2019
There is broad recognition that adapting to climate change, coupled with the need to address aging infrastructure, population growth, and degraded ecosystems, will require rethinking programs and policies and investing in our natural and built water systems.
Learn More Published: March 2019
Comment letter on the progress of Phase 1 of the Salton Sea Management Program sent to the California State Water Resources Control Board by Alianza Coachella Valley, Audubon California, Defenders of Wildlife, Environmental Defense Fund, KDI, the Pacific Institute, and the Sierra Club.
Learn More Published: February 2019
This comment letter provides feedback and recommendations on the draft report “Options for Implementation of a Statewide Low-Income Water Rate Assistance Program.”
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Published: February 2019
Pressures on water resources are intensifying due to aging infrastructure, population growth, and climate change, among other factors. With vast expanses of water-intensive turf grass and large impervious surfaces, most urbanized communities are ill-adapted to these pressures.
Learn More Published: January 2019
This comment letter sent to Phil Rosentrater, Executive Director of the Salton Sea Authority, on behalf of Alianza Coachella Valley, Audubon California, Defenders of Wildlife, Environmental Defense Fund, Kounkuey Design Initiative, the Pacific Institute, and Sierra Club California discusses the proposed North Lake Project at the Salton Sea.
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Published: October 2018
When a person fails to pay their water utility bill, their water service can be disconnected. Lack of water in the home compromises health, and renders housing legally uninhabitable and untenantable. Shutoffs also pose a financial burden; in addition to the original debt, there are usually fees associated with late payment, notice of an impending shutoff, and service reconnection.
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Published: September 2018
In 2012, California’s Human Right to Water was passed, calling for safe, clean, affordable, and accessible water for all citizens. Yet while this statute has served as the touchstone for drinking water and sanitation efforts in the state, access to this basic right remains unrealized in many California communities.
Published: August 2018
This issue brief summarizes the current understanding of water and security threats and their links to conflict, migration, and food insecurity.
Learn More Published: August 2018
Per capita water use in the United States has fallen by more than 40% since the 1970s. In some areas, reductions in per capita water use have offset continued population and economic growth, such that total water use has remained constant or even declined.
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Published: June 2018
Stormwater has traditionally been managed to mitigate flooding and protect water quality. However, its potential as a local water supply has gained recent attention in water-stressed areas. As climate change increases the risk of both floods and droughts in California, urban stormwater capture also offers a significant opportunity to enhance community resilience.
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Published: April 2018
In 2010, the United Nations General Assembly recognized the human right to water and sanitation. Two years later, in 2012, California became the first state in the nation to enact legislation recognizing the human right to water for consumption, cooking, and sanitary purposes.
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Published: February 2018
The newest volume in this highly regarded series, The World’s Water, Volume 9 continues to offer insights into critical global water problems, overviews of data and analysis around water use and management, and case studies of some of the greatest water challenges around the world.
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Published: February 2018
Cape Town is parched. Severe drought and high water use have collided in South Africa’s second largest city, and unless the drought breaks, residents may run out of water in the next few months when there simply isn’t enough water left to supply the drinking water taps.
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Published: February 2018
After more than three years of severe drought, Cape Town, a city of nearly 4 million people, is running out of water. “Day Zero”—the day city officials estimate the water system will be unable to provide drinking water for the taps—is less than three months away, and substantial rains are not expected before then.
Learn More Published: August 2017
This comment letter to the California State Water Resources Control Board (Water Board) was sent in response to the proposed Low Income Rate Assistance (LIRA) program implementation scenarios prepared pursuant to AB 401 (Dodd, 2015).
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Published: August 2017
This report recognizes the need for successful corporate water stewardship to encompass sustainable access to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) for workers in company supply chains, and offers steps for companies to take to help end the global water and sanitation crisis.
Learn More Published: June 2017
While winter rains have refilled California reservoirs and dumped near-record snow on the mountains, communities across the state are wisely seeking ways reduce their vulnerability to future droughts. One option some are considering is seawater desalination.
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Published: April 2017
The severe five-year drought afflicting California from 2012 to 2016 was the driest and hottest in the instrumental record. This report is a comprehensive assessment of the costs to California of lost hydroelectricity during the five years of drought.
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Published: April 2017
As of 2017, more companies than ever before were setting water targets, yet global water stress continued to rise. How can companies ensure that their water targets align with meaningful outcomes? This report calls for a new approach for setting meaningful corporate water targets that take into account the unique local contexts of the basins in which companies operate.
Published: February 2017
Concerns over drinking water quality and possible disease transmission, as well as widely-publicized water contamination incidents, have contributed to a decline in the number of publicly available water fountains.
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Published: January 2017
California’s Salton Sea is an ecosystem facing large systemic changes in the near future.
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Published: January 2017
California’s climate is prone to prolonged periods of drought that are exacerbated by the effects of climate change.
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Published: November 2016
This document identifies major water-related challenges facing the United States and offers explicit recommendations for strategies the next administration and Congress should pursue, domestically and internationally.
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Published: October 2016
This report is the first comparative analysis of water supply and demand management strategies for localities in the State of California.
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Published: October 2016
Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS) have emerged in the past two decades as standards specifying requirements relating to a wide range of sustainability metrics, including respect for human rights, workers’ health and safety, decent income, environmental degradation, and others.
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Published: September 2016
Despite being the United States’ most arid region, the US Southwest – Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah – is one of the most productive agricultural regions in the world. Yet nearly 75% of total cropland in the region, and an even higher percentage of total agricultural productivity, depends on supplemental irrigation.
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Published: August 2016
A Community Guide for Evaluating Future Urban Water Demand provides communities, environmental groups, ratepayer advocates, and anyone interested in sustainable water supply planning with the knowledge and tools they need to understand water demand forecasts.
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Published: June 2016
The most severe drought in California on the instrumental record stretched from 2012-2016. The drought was highly publicized, with particular attention paid towards impacts on agriculture, urban areas, and ecosystems. Little attention, however, was paid to the drought’s impacts on California’s low-income communities.
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