On the Water Front

Here’s how land repurposing is beginning to transform strained communities and ecosystems in California

By Anna Schiller / Published: April 2, 2024

Satellite image of California's Central Valley

California’s sprawling Central Valley is confronting declining groundwater levels and increasing ‘climate whiplash’ between drought and flood.

Next time you find yourself looking up driving directions on your phone, scroll over to central California and zoom out a bit. Turn on the satellite layer. What you’ll see is a mindboggling patchwork. A massive brown and green checkerboard, cut up in rectangles, sliced by highways, besieged by a ring of arid foothills. This is California’s famed and troubled Central Valley — an agricultural powerhouse that’s increasingly associated with headlines about disappearing groundwater and growing waves of flood and drought. Filled with sharp lines, it’s not a landscape one would immediately associate with collaboration and transformation. Read More »

Posted in Agriculture, California, Community, Drought, Groundwater, Land Repurposing, Uncategorized / Tagged agriculture, california drought, california land repurposing, california water, california water funding, california water manager, community resilience, drought, groundwater, groundwater management, land repurposing, SGMA, water conservation, water use | Authors: aschiller / Leave a comment

Rosa learned how to help her community get reliable, clean water. You can too.

By Mariana Rivera-Torres and afajardoanstine / Published: February 12, 2024

Aerial view shows algae at O’Neill Forebay, a joint Federal-State facility and part of the State Water Project in Merced County, California. Algal blooms may contain toxins that can be harmful to people and pets. Photo taken May 25, 2022.
Florence Low / California Department of Water Resources, FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY

In 2022, Rosa applied for the Water Leadership Institute. Her motivation? To actively address severe water challenges impacting her family in El Nido in Merced County. Located in California’s breadbasket, Merced County is a scene of abundance with lush fields, orchards, and prospering dairy farms. Yet, beneath this scene lies a harsh reality. Rosa’s family and neighbors grappled with the consequences of water contamination, a pervasive issue with a grasp on daily life.

For years, Rosa made the bi-weekly trek to purchase clean water for her family’s ranch. Routinely, she stocked up on large quantities of jugs and bottled water to ensure her family had safe water to cook, clean, and drink. When this water ran low, they reluctantly turned to their domestic well for cleaning and personal care. Her family was aware that the well was not clean, but that was the best alternative available. Oftentimes, when they turned on the faucet, the water was foamy, had a strange smell, and ran white, the same color as the milk from the nearby dairy farms. She and her neighbors even began noticing their hair would fall out when they used the faucet water for bathing.

Posted in Agriculture, California, Community, Drought, Groundwater, Groundwater Recharge / Tagged agriculture, california drought, california land repurposing, california water, california water funding, california water manager, groundwater, groundwater management, SGMA, water conservation, water leadership institute, water security, water use | Authors: mriveratorres, afajardoanstine / Leave a comment

Fields of Innovation: A Trip Showcasing Multi-Benefit Land Repurposing

By José M. Rodriquez-Flores / Published: January 30, 2024

Embarking on a field trip can often feel like stepping into a storybook, especially when the narrative and scenery revolve around transforming landscapes. This feeling was palpable last November when the Environmental Defense Fund organized a trip to Merced and Stanislaus Counties in California. The journey wasn’t just a tour; it was a vivid illustration of how multi-benefit land repurposing (MLRP) is bolstering groundwater sustainability in areas hardest hit by climate change. Read More »

Posted in Agriculture, California, Community, Drought, Groundwater / Tagged california drought, california land repurposing, california water, california water funding, california water manager, colorado river, community resilience, groundwater, SGMA, water conservation, water security, water use | Authors: jrodriguez / Leave a comment

Revisiting a centuries-old approach to farming that embraces water scarcity.

By afajardoanstine / Published: December 7, 2023

As discussions at COP28 wrestle with climate impacts on global food and water security, we hear from a Hopi farmer on his thriving practice of dry farming and his hopes for shared learning in Dubai.

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The arid climate of the Hopi reservation in northeastern Arizona receives a mere 8.5 inches of annual rainfall. For perspective, the yearly United States average is 30 inches. Despite this severe aridity, for over 3,000 years, the Hopi people have stewarded an extraordinary agricultural tradition centered on dry farming.

Dr. Michael Kotutwa Johnson is an Indigenous Resiliency Specialist at the University of Arizona and a leading practitioner of Hopi dry farming — a form of agriculture that eschews irrigation in regions with limited water moisture. As a 250th-generation Hopi dry farmer, his ongoing traditional practices are a testament to the power of cultural values and the potential of climate-adaptive farming. These ongoing Hopi farming practices defy modern notions of crop needs and vulnerability in areas with limited irrigation and water supply. Read More »

Posted in Agriculture, Arizona, Colorado River, Community / Tagged agriculture, Arizona, arizona drought, arizona groundwater, colorado river, community resilience, drought, Dry Farming, groundwater, Indigenous, water conservation, water use | Authors: afajardoanstine / Leave a comment

Water is a high-level priority at COP 28, we need to look to ground-level users for solutions

By Ann Hayden / Published: November 30, 2023

Water has finally reached the highest levels of global climate negotiations. The path to a sustainable freshwater future, however, lies with ground-level users. At COP 28, EDF is elevating their voices, their needs and the approaches they find most useful.

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While greenhouse gases drive climate change, many of its impacts are inherently liquid. Whether through drought, flood, sea-level rise, or contamination, water increasingly forms the turbulent core of the climate crisis.

Over the past year, this basic reality was finally acknowledged at the global planning table. Thanks to a strong push from its Egyptian hosts, last year’s edition of the main UN climate conference, COP 27, made water a central theme. The cover decision — the summation of the conference’s key agreements — featured water and food for the first time. The decision acknowledged the central role of water in countering climate impacts and called for water-related targets in national climate planning.

Posted in Agriculture, Community, COP, Drought, Groundwater, Land Repurposing / Tagged agriculture, colorado river, COP, COP28, drought, Food Systems, groundwater, groundwater management, water conservation, water security, water use | Authors: ahayden / Leave a comment

Learning from shared scarcity: the Colorado River, the Yellow River and the world

By Brian Jackson and Yiwei Gan / Published: October 30, 2023

One of the largest rivers in the world struggles to reach the ocean. Spread across a huge slice of a continent, its basin supports millions. Yet the weight of its work to irrigate and power booming farms and cities in an increasingly arid zone is straining the river to a breaking point. For many working in the western water space, this describes the Colorado. A river whose over-work and over-allocation, despite its fundamental role in sustaining life for half a continent, seems in many ways singular.

Posted in Agriculture, Colorado River, Community, Drought, Groundwater / Tagged china yellow river, colorado river, drought, groundwater, water security, water use, yellow river | Authors: bjackson, ygan / Leave a comment