Spreck Rosekrans is an Economic Analyst at EDF.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s recent support of building a $1 billion water recycling project is only his most recent effort to pursue sustainable water policies for California’s largest city. Earlier this year, he took a historic canoe trip as Los Angeles rewatered a dry portion of the Owens River in Inyo County after agreeing it could take the water further downstream. And in August, he doubled fines for those who violated the city’s ban on daytime lawn watering.

The Mayor clearly understands that reform is needed if we are to ensure reliable supplies for California’s growing cities and world-class farms without devastating the environment. We appreciate his bold leadership and urge other elected leaders to take similar actions.

Spreck Rosekrans is an Economic Analyst at EDF.

Everyone seems to agree that aggressive water conservation in California must be pursued. Last winter, our Governor targeted a 20% per capita reduction in urban use by 2020. But since about 4/5 of all our developed water is used on farms, it seemed strange that Schwarzenegger did not mention agricultural use of water.

The newly-released Pacific Institute report “More with Less: Agricultural Water Conservation and Efficiency in California – A Focus on the Delta” suggests that up to 3.4 million acre-feet of water each year could be conserved without harming agriculture and producing more. Institute President Peter Gleick puts the volume in context, by explaining that it is enough to fill Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite National Park 10 times.

Farmer opinions about the report are varied. Read more »

Spreck Rosekrans is an Economic Analyst at EDF.

Even if you do not like all of the Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force’s recommendations (and we don’t), you gotta appreciate their style. They tell it like it is, or at least how they think it should be.

The Task Force apparently does not want to write a report that sits on a shelf gathering dust. Read more »

Spreck Rosekrans is an Economic Analyst at EDF.

Yesterday, Lester Snow, California’s Director of Water Resources, announced the formation of the “2009 Drought Water Bank” that would facilitate market transactions of our limited water supplies in the event that 2009 is California’s third consecutive dry year.

The initiative makes a lot of sense to us. If we do not have a decent snowpack next year, at least we will have the Snow Bank, which will provide communities and businesses an opportunity to purchase needed supplies. The market will, in turn, encourage potential sellers to use their supplies as efficiently as possible.

We wonder why we do not do this every year. Read more »