WaterCalif. business leaders: State’s worsening water situation threatens economic havoc
California’s drought outlook is alarming to the point that Governor Jerry Brown recently announced the first-ever mandatory restrictions on water usage, aimed at reducing the state’s urban water use by 25 percent. For much of its history, California has measured up to its challenges while maintaining a healthy economy. Business leaders in the state say that the time has come for California once again to take bold actions to ensure a sustainable future. “We have a choice between protecting our economy by protecting our environment — or allowing environmental havoc to create economic havoc,” said former U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, who now co-chairs the Risky Business Project.Driscoll’s CEO Miles Reiter agrees: “The state of California has to deal with groundwater, or we’re going to ruin this state,” he said.
California’s drought outlook is alarming to the point that Governor Jerry Brown recently announced the first-ever mandatory restrictions on water usage, aimed at reducing the state’s urban water use by 25 percent (see“California imposes first mandatory water restrictions in state history,” HSNW, 2 April 201). The Risky Business Project also released a new report forecasting a troubled future for California’s climate. Temperatures are expected to get hotter, crop yields may decline, and sea levels will rise quicker due to escalating climate change.
Eco Watch points out that for much of its history, California has measured up to its challenges, whether it is preserving water resources or curbing carbon pollution — all while maintaining a healthy economy. The time has come for the state once again to take bold actions to ensure a sustainable future.
“We have a choice between protecting our economy by protecting our environment — or allowing environmental havoc to create economic havoc,” said former U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, a Risky Business Project co-chair who announced the Climate Risk in the Golden State report.
California has already made commitments to a sustainable future. Strong climate policies include the state’s AB32 law, which requires California to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 — a reduction of 15 percent below emissions expected under a “business as usual” scenario. Then there is the growing rate of clean energy jobs, rooftop solar installations, and electric car sales. Earlier this year, Applecommitted to an $848 million twenty-five-year project to purchase 130 megawatts of solar power from First Solar.
California’s water scarcity challenges will require the same public-private sector commitment. The state’s groundwater law, signed last September, will require local land authorities and agencies in fast-depleting basins to draw up sustainability plans by 2020. Those plans should then put groundwater basins on a path to sustainability by 2040. California, however, cannot wait until 2020 or 2040 to have local communities adopt sustainable groundwater management plans.
State Senator Fran Pavley (D-Calabasas) has introduced a bill this year to make well logs public. “After four years of a continuous drought, it is about time we get this information … to better protect California’s precious groundwater,” said Pavley in a statement. “Groundwater levels are dropping precipitously, especially in San Joaquin Valley,” said Heather Cooley, director of the Pacific Institute’s water program. “Yet we don’t have good data on how much groundwater is being pumped.”
Berry grower Driscoll’s is requiring its growers in Pajaro Valley, which gets almost all of its water from groundwater, to collect and track water usage data using remote sensing from groundwater pumps. Eco Watch reports that the company is also leading a public-private effort, the Community Water Dialogue, to develop local, watershed-based solutions to the valley’s water challenges.
“The state of California has to deal with groundwater, or we’re going to ruin this state,” said Driscoll’s CEO Miles Reiter, during a recent grower’s tour in Pajaro Valley. “Everybody is worried about this, whether they admit it or not,” he said. “And it’s really sort of liberating to just quit arguing about if there’s a problem and (start tackling it).”
