Monthly Archives: August 2022

Water Isn’t Just a Local Issue: We Need a National Water Policy Now

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While this blog is mostly focussed on LA, it would be foolish to think that Angelenos live in a magic bubble that isn’t affected by what’s happening in the rest of the world.  (Thought we often act that way.)  Crucially, we need to understand that the water shortages affecting this area aren’t just local, they’re global.  In order to understand LA’s water problems, we have to look at the larger context. 

This morning I read an interview with Jay Famiglietti that lays the situation out in the starkest terms.  It’s a disturbing message, but one we all need to hear.  Famiglietti is Executive Director of the Global Institute for Water Security at the University of Saskatchewan, and formerly lead researcher at NASA’s water science program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.  He’s spent years studying the water landscape and he knows what he’s talking about.

First, please take a look at the graphic above from the U.S. Drought Monitor.  It shows that all of LA County is in severe or extreme drought.  Looking at the rest of the state, you’ll see that almost all of California is experiencing conditions ranging from severe drought to exceptional drought.  My only problem with this map is that they use the word “drought”, which doesn’t describe the situation any more.  “Drought” implies we’re in a dry period, and that things will eventually go back to normal.  That’s no longer true.  Because of climate change, scientists agree that our fresh water resources will continue to decline for the foreseeable future.  This is the new normal.

This isn’t just a problem for LA or California, this is a problem that the whole country needs to deal with.  Famiglietti talks about how we need a national water policy and we need it now.  We can’t afford to wait while cities and states bicker over what they can and can’t do, while lawsuits are filed and politicians posture.  We need to take action as a nation now.

Famiglietti isn’t the only one saying this.  Back in 2009 the Clean Water America Alliance published a paper explaining the need for a national water policy.  Here’s a brief excerpt….

Each day, more and more Americans are confronting an unsettling fact of life in the 21st Century – our supplies of clean, dependable, economical water are more fragile than at any time in our recent history. Population growth, economic development, changing weather patterns, new energy supply strategies, and the needs of endangered ecosystems are threatening to overwhelm both the physical infrastructure and management systems that have previously provided for our water needs.

What have we done since then?  Not much.  And we can’t afford to wait.  Things have gotten much worse over the last decade, and many scientists believe that climate change is accelerating. 

Here’s the Famiglietti interview.  Read it and weep.  No, seriously, don’t weep.  Take action.  Contact your representatives in the House and Senate and ask them what they’re doing about creating a national water policy.  If their answer isn’t good enough, keep after them. 

As Colorado River Dries, the U.S. Teeters on the Brink of Larger Water Crisis

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LA’s Water Resources: It’s Getting Scary

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Graphic from NASA Earth Observatory

The water situation just keeps getting more dire.  A brief recap: Last August the US Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) declared a Tier 1 shortage on the Colorado River, the first time it had ever taken this step.  This was not good news for Southern California, which relies heavily on water from the Colorado.  Then, in March of this year, California water officials announced that they’d be cutting allocations for the State Water Project (SWP) to 5% of requested supplies.  Another blow to Southern California, which also gets much of its water from the SWP.    

Things got even worse today, when USBR announced the first-ever Tier 2 shortage on the Colorado River.  This will not affect California immediately, since the State has senior water rights, but the way things are going it’s likely that we’ll be impacted in the next couple of years.  Scientists are predicting that the Western US will continue to get hotter and drier for the foreseeable future. 

The City of LA is in especially bad shape.  While some cities in Southern California have significant groundwater resources, Los Angeles’ supply is relatively small.  In recent years, groundwater has made up about 10% of what we use annually.  We do get water from the LA Aqueduct, but that’s not as reliable as it used to be, since snowpacks in the Sierra Nevadas have continued to decline in recent years.

Recycled water?  LADWP has been talking about that for years.  While there are big plans to reuse more of our water, right now recycling only accounts for about 2% of our supply.  It will be years before that number grows much.  Then what about desalination?  It’s very costly, very energy intensive, and causes significant environmental impacts.  There are other experimental processes out there, but nothing we can scale up quickly to replace what we’re losing from the SWP and the Colorado.

There are no easy answers.  Scientists do not see a turning point in the near future.  We’re going to have to learn to live with less water.  This isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  Over the past few decades, the City of LA has already cut its per capita water usage by quite a bit, and there’s still more we can do.  But remember, we don’t know how far this trend is going.  It’s likely we could learn to live with the level of water deliveries we’re getting now, but scientists predict that our snowpacks will continue to decline and our climate will continue to get warmer.  We haven’t seen the worst yet.

I have to say, the older I get, the more I question the wisdom of building a city of 4 million people in a place with such limited water resources.  People talk about how Hoover Dam and the State Water Project were great accomplishments, and yeah, in a way they were.  But as the water level in Hoover Dam continues to decline, as the State Water Project continues to suck the life out of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, I have to wonder where this is all going.

Right now, it doesn’t look good.

Here’s an excellent breakdown of the current situation from CalMatters.

Four Things to Know about Colorado River Water in California