Jennifer Witherspoon is the California Communications Director at EDF.

I was thrilled to learn from the most recent Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) survey, Californians and the Environment that half of the Californians polled prefer that the state focus on conservation and efficient use of current water supply, while only 43 percent favor building storage systems and increasing water supply. Remarkably, the poll also found that nearly one out of five Californians named water supply and drought as the most important environmental issue, a nearly four-fold percentage increase from last year's poll.

To me, these numbers are an indication that an environmental ethic is still running strong in the Golden State. Voters intrinsically understand that we can meet our current water supply needs for farms, urban areas, and protect our precious natural resources like the unique estuary known as the Bay-Delta and the fisheries and fishermen that depend upon it.

The timing of this poll is impeccable—in the coming weeks the State Legislature is expected to turn its attention to water. It is likely that the Senate Natural Resources Committee and the Assembly Water, Parks & Wildlife Committee will hold a joint informational session on Tuesday, August 18 on a package of Bay-Delta water-related measures. This hearing may be the first of several intended to set the stage for legislation this session. At least five bills are expected though details on the legislation remain to be seen.

Let’s hope the legislators are willing to think outside the box on how we use water in California, creating savings by using water more efficiently. Hopefully they’ll take heed of the new PPIC survey and see that half of Californians are ready to “flex their power” and “Save Our H20.”

Spreck Rosekrans is an Economic Analyst at EDF.

The urban Bay Area’s historically derived “patchwork water supply”, reported in today's San Francisco Chronicle, is one example of many in California demonstrating how our antiquated water system is so often imbalanced and unfair. Another significant example lies in the agricultural sector in the San Joaquin Valley. As is often reported, agriculture uses upwards of 80 percent of California’s developed water supply, so attention to water use in that sector is crucial to finding a solution to the State’s water woes.

During this recent drought some farms with plentiful supplies (and senior water rights) pay as little at $8 per acre-foot for water while neighboring farms with more junior water rights and thus more limited supplies must pay up to $600 per acre-foot to keep orchards alive. The results of this inequity are many: (1) farms with cheap supplies have insufficient incentives to adopt modern state-of-the art irrigation technologies, (2) farms where water is not cheap and abundant must often fallow their fields, putting people out of work and providing less food for our kitchen tables, and (3) water shortages put additional pressure to extract unsustainable supplies from the natural environment, where extinction of some fish species is a real possibility.

As we struggle to protect our rivers and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, it is essential that we manage our developed water efficiently. All business people respond to price signals. Allowing and indeed encouraging those farmers with superior water rights to market a larger portion of their supplies will provide incentives to irrigate as efficiently as possible, producing more food and reducing the conflict with our rivers and streams.

Kathryn Phillips is Director, California Transportation and Air Initiative.

Four years ago, when the economy was strong and building was booming, the Congressional Research Service (PDF) confirmed what a quick drive on rural roads suggested: there’s too much poverty in the San Joaquin Valley. At that point, the report noted, by nearly every typical measure—per capita income, unemployment rates, household income, poverty rates—socioeconomic conditions in the Valley fell “significantly below national and California averages.”

Today things are even worse for a lot of reasons: housing construction jobs are gone; farm labor demand has not grown, and in some places has fallen as farmers respond to drought; and the cost of transportation to jobs has become prohibitive. The nation’s down economy is even downer in the Valley.

People in power have been responding to this emergency with valuable help in the last few weeks. And so we send kudos to:

• Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, who have weighed in with the Obama Administration to request assistance for Fresno County, where some of the worst poverty is located. Their letter to President Obama is notable for its laser-like focus on drought impacts, long-term solutions, and the need for immediate assistance to those most in need.
• Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for sending $4 million of emergency assistance to the worst-hit parts of the Valley, and also for requesting more emergency aide from the Obama Administration.
• Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar and the Obama Administration for unleashing hundreds of millions in recovery funds to California, including $40 million for water conservation (most of which will be directed to the Valley).

This help reaches beyond the high-pitched rhetoric of California’s ages-long water debate in the Valley. It focuses on getting food and jobs to communities that have long suffered.

Laura Harnish is the California Regional Director.
That was essentially the message brought by Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar to a standing room only crowd in Fresno.

He addressed a crowd of about 800 people, primarily farmworkers, farmers and residents of the Central Valley (and a smattering of fishermen and environmentalists) who have been clamoring for federal action in the face of rising unemployment and third year of drought.

Salazar carefully walked a tightrope throughout the town hall meeting. On the one side, he appealed to farmworkers, farmers, as well as local and federal politicians representing the area by enumerating a number of short-term measures expected to bring relief both in terms of disaster dollars and water supply projects. On the other side, he expressed commitment to fishermen and environmentalists by embracing the Governor’s Delta Vision which puts the ecosystem health of the Delta on equal footing with water supply reliability. He also put to rest notions that the so-called “God Squad”  could be called to nullify Biological Opinions that are constraining water supplies under Endangered Species Act provisions.

Salazar told the locals that dollars would be coming for drought supply relief and that come July 1, the pumps would be turned back on. This statement was received with yelps of joy. However, it’s important to clarify a couple of things. Read more »