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ISBN 978-0-8157-2784-2 (pbk : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-8157-2786-6 (ebook)
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Foreword
BRUCE BABBITT
As this book goes to press, the great California drought continues to dominate news from the West. The stories proliferate: crops withering, fish dying, wells going dry, lakes turning to dust, fires on the land, and water rationingall prompting some commentators to suggest that California has seen its best days and now enters an era of economic decline.
Visions of an impending hydrologic apocalypse make for good copy. The reality, however, is not so much an absolute lack of water, as a deficit of planning and good management and political leadership.
California, like most of the West, has a long history of profligate water use, fragmented efforts to build and manage water infrastructure, and an absence of integrated planning. To make matters worse, we all too often assume that water is free, that we can consume it without limit, and if we need more, someone else will pay for it.
Our faltering efforts at water management are also blighted by a legalistic, adversarial political culture that tends to define water rights as absolute entitlements to be used or misused at will, ignoring impacts on neighbors and downstream users.
My state of Arizona exemplifies the tradition of adversarial water politics. I recall one controversy in which our governor sent the 158th Infantry Regiment of the Arizona National Guard to the Colorado River in a futile attempt to block construction of a dam that would divert water to Los Angeles.
Old-style water wars are by no means a thing of the past. The state of Colorado still divides east versus west over transmountain diversions. California continues to quarrel over a critical tunnel project to divert more water from the Sacramento River to southern California. Georgia, Alabama, and Florida are escalating their fight over the waters of the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee River Basin up to the Supreme Court.
Notwithstanding this history of contention, there are encouraging signs that a new era of cooperation is at last beginning to emerge. This transition toward a future of cooperation is what unites the essays and underlines the importance of this book. While treating distinct issues in varied regions, these essays all point in new directions, challenging us to consider working together as a better pathway into the future.
This emerging spirit is now evident even on the much disputed and litigated Colorado River. Nevada is pioneering water banking behind Hoover Dam and recharging water into ground water basins across the state line in Arizona. The Lower Basin states have joined together to deliver water to Mexico to restore the fabled wetlands of the Colorado River Delta. Nevada and California share water saved through investments in efficiency.
Spurred to action by the drought emergency, California is beginning to lead in innovation. Governor Jerry Brown has announced a California Water Action Plan that touches on many of the issues discussed in this book. An organizing theme is the urgent need for intergovernmental collaboration to replace conflicting and piecemeal efforts. And a related theme running through the California plan is the imperative to address all sides of the water equation by both increasing supply and reducing demand.
On the supply side, the most neglected issue is management of groundwater. This resource, out of sight and mostly out of mind, supplies nearly 40 percent of the water used in California (and 20 percent in the United States). The Ogallala aquifer, extending beneath eight states in the high plains, is surely an appropriate place to begin thinking anew about the management and replenishment of aquifers that should not be left to disappear in an unconstrained race to the bottom.
We must also utilize and integrate all potential water sources, including recycling, groundwater recharge, storm water capture, and desalination. Conservation and efficient use are still the low-hanging fruits to be harvested. California, for example, has in 2015 reduced urban water consumption by more than 20 percent in response to the drought. Our task now is to embed these conservation measures into regular daily life, not just in times of extreme drought.
The proper pricing of water, including tiered water rates, remains an underutilized tool for water management. Water markets can provide an effective method to price and allocate water.
The onset of climate changebringing droughts, extreme storm events, and sea-level risewill call for more and better data, more robust science, and integrated planning. The imperative to protect endangered species and manage entire watersheds and ecosystems for their environmental values will add to the challenges we face.
In the old days of adversary, zero-sum water management lawyers were the dominant players among the insider water buffaloes who fought and made water policy, mostly out of public view. In the new world envisioned in this work, the making of water policy will expand to include many more hydrologists, agronomists, biologists, engineers, and economists. And the circle must also widen to include a lot more public understanding and attention to the issues discussed in this excellent book.
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