Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
strategy. Going forward, it recommends a long-term sustainable policy that
incorporates water scarcity into water planning and management, such as
pricing water to rel ect its long-term scarcity and improving water conserva-
tion, ei ciency, and productivity. h e California legislature set new water con-
servation standards in 2009, mandating a 20 percent decrease in water usage
per person by the end of 2020 in the urban sector. h ere are numerous ways
of achieving this goal, including more water-ei cient appliances, drought-
tolerant landscaping, water recycling, and rainwater harvesting. However,
agricultural water usage accounts for 77 percent of water usage in the state,
yet it has not been held to a similar standard of water reduction. Many water-
ei ciency approaches that are now available to agriculture were discussed in
the NRC report, such as using a tiered pricing structure, adjusting the timing
and amount of irrigation to maintain specii c soil moisture requirements of
crops, replacing irrigation systems with closed-conduit systems (particularly
drip or trickle systems), and recycling excess irrigation water.
h e PPIC has further insights in its report, which notes that water is both
a public good, providing critical environmental services, and a commodity,
with a market value, and ultimately must be managed in a way that fuli lls
both of these roles. A balance must be struck between environmental and
human needs in the West, and both water scarcity and environmental costs
should be rel ected in its price. Increasing water rates, for instance, by using
tiered rates that increase with greater water usage would lead to greater con-
servation and increased water ei ciency by urban and agricultural consumers.
Higher-priced water would also encourage a shit from wasteful, lower-value,
water-intensive uses (including the growing of crops such as cotton, rice, and
alfalfa) to higher-value agricultural, urban, and environmental uses. Another
strategy suggested by the report is the enactment of a “public goods” charge
for major water users to generate funding for water management, infrastruc-
ture improvement, and environmental protection and restoration.
In addition to conservation of water through pricing, the PPIC report
considers water supply sources and proposes using many dif erent sources
of water as a key strategy. h is “portfolio approach” includes nontraditional
sources like recycled wastewater for urban use and recycled irrigation water
for agricultural use. Another key strategy discussed in the report is massive
water storage in underground aquifers, which could serve as a water bank for
drought years, particularly during multiyear droughts when surface reservoirs
shrink. Groundwater storage would also buf er future shit s in the water sup-
ply when winter l oods, caused by the shit from snow to rain, become larger
