California's Extreme Percipitation this Winter Will Not Solve Water Problems

Oroville Dam, California

Amazing rain and snow in California this winter have made people think the drought is finished and everything can go back to normal.

California gets it water from three sources, about a third each from: precipitation, snowpack, and aquifers (groundwater). In many areas of the state, groundwater systems have been depleted for long periods - even between droughts - from which they have not recovered.

Excessive, long-term groundwater over-use resulting in groundwater depletion can cause subsidence and permanent loss of groundwater storage as well as water quality degradation and seawater intrusion. These long-term impacts on groundwater have not been remedied by the recent weather. If recovery is possible, it will likely take several to many years to accomplish.

Why is water scarcity intensifying?

The following is excerpted from an investment web site that focuses on sustainability. One of its portfolios is devoted to water and all its "connective tissue," including acquisition, purification, transportation, and consumption. Why is water a good investment? Because it's scarce and getting scarcer. Why?

Population growth. Within the past century, the world population has tripled from 1.8 billion in 1900 to over 6 billion in 2000, and in slightly more than 10 years, we have added another billion, reaching the 7 billion mark in October 2011. Although growth rates have begun to level off, the world’s population is expected to reach 9 billion people by 2050.

Changing consumption patterns. Historically, there has been a positive correlation between disposable income and meat consumption. The global middle class is expected to grow from about 1.8 billion people today to 4.8 billion people by 2030. A larger middle class – most of which will be located in the emerging markets – will consume more meat. Producing one calorie equivalent of meat requires 10x more water than producing one calorie equivalent of corn or wheat.

Increasing industrial production will require higher volumes of high quality water, adapted to the industrial application where it is needed. Many of the recently built or upgraded industrial production plants are located in water-stressed emerging markets.

Climate change will have a significant impact on the distribution of precipitation and the availability of water. For instance, in India, Pakistan, China and other Asian countries, about 1 billion people rely on run-off from the Himalayas as their main water source. As a result of global warming, glaciers that supply most of the freshwater to the region during the dry season are expected to deliver up to 50 % less water within the next few decades. In addition, rising sea levels and floods will have a dramatic impact on coastal fresh water sources, causing them to become brackish or salty.
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Founded in 1995, RobecoSAM is an investment specialist focused exclusively on Sustainability Investing.

The Blueberry Blues

Washington is 4th among states in total U.S. blueberry production. But Mexico’s blueberry industry, already the world’s 3rd largest exporter, is “surging north." Anti-immigrant policies and water shortages due to prolonged droughts are encouraging growers, like Driscoll’s, to move south of the border.

Blueberries aren’t the only Washington ‘crop’ moving to more favorable climes. CO2-produced ocean acidification caused oysters to start dying by the billions along the Northwest coast in 2005, and the industry has been struggling ever since. Some oyster hatcheries have already moved to Hawaii. Washington’s shellfish industry is hurting.

The snowpack at many locations in the Cascades is as low as people at USDA have seen for this time of year. That spells trouble for Washington growers in the summer when farms, fish, and people are all competing for an increasingly scarce water resource.

There are real impacts from a warming planet and they affect real people. Studies have shown unequivocally that we can reduce CO2 emissions and boost the economy (e.g., see REMI, June 9, 2014). Get on board! Support Gov. Inslee’s Carbon Pollution Accountability Act, and other efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The West's Water Woes -- Wealthy Californians Water Their Golf Courses and Polo Grounds

Water, water, not everywhere, but if you're wealthy, you'll find it somewhere.

Tri-City Herald Editorial Talks About the Changing Climate and Water

Our Voice: Water storage projects still vital for Mid-Columbia

June 27, 2014

New water storage in the Yakima Basin is something Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., has been working on for years. In February, Hastings proposed a portion of the funding Congress approves for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation be set aside to pay for new and expanded capacity for water storage in the Yakima Basin.

This week, a bipartisan vote of the U.S. House Appropriations Committee approved a bill including language that encourages the Bureau of Reclamation to join its funding with the state for projects we can't do on our own. The new bill eventually will go to a full House vote.

This week's step is a small one, but it's an important project for the future of Eastern Washington. And Doc won't be there to carry the banner in the future. Our next representative from the 4th Congressional District must take up the charge. So must our two senators.

This year, we narrowly avoided a water shortage. Thanks to a significant late-season snowfall in the Cascades, we have enough water for all stakeholders to get what they need. But without those big storms, we would be feeling the effects of a drought. We have had, and will continue to have, dry years.

Users with junior water rights come out on the losing end of that proposition every time. But nobody really wins. Water is vital for the Yakima Basin for everything from agriculture to fish.

The Bureau of Reclamation is the arm of federal government charged with overseeing the delivery of water. In some ways, the hands of the bureau are tied by history and legislative red tape. Water needs and methods of storage and delivery continue to evolve, yet the bureau is not free to adopt new strategies at will. Even ideas that seem to be obvious improvements need congressional approval. For example, Hastings also introduced legislation that would allow irrigation districts to voluntarily repay federal obligations early. He added the stipulation that the money would be put into a new account to be used only to build new water storage or to expand existing water storage reservoirs. Currently, to repay money early, a water district must get a bill signed into federal law. Five water districts have done that in the past decade.

We are a mecca for crops and agriculture. Without water storage and reclamation projects, we revert to dusty desert. Our climate is changing, and we can no longer count on winter snowfall to see us through the summer. Water storage is important to us now and will be even more so in the future.
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COMMENT
The Washington Department of Ecology addresses declining water resources due to global warming on its web page, where they point out that, "Warmer temperatures mean more precipitation will fall as rain, not snow, and more snow will melt earlier in the spring. Much of Washington’s water supply is stored in snow pack and glaciers that melt into rivers. As this stored snow recedes to higher elevations, less will be available to feed rivers. Too much water runoff (melted snow) through early spring when it's not needed will not help in summer when it is needed." Establishing additional capacity for water storage is a good idea. However, Hastings, like most of his Republican colleagues isn't addressing the root cause of the problem, i.e., climate change. Many conservatives are joining with Democrats to urge Congress to implement a revenue neutral carbon tax, such as that proposed by the Citizens' Climate Lobby, in order to move our economy away from fossil fuels and reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that are contributing to global warming (see Hank Paulson's op-ed in the WSJ, for example). Hastings needs to get on board with that proposal.

Global Warming Vignette

The drought had lasted for years, water was rationed and tanker trucks were set up at strategic locations where men and women queued in long lines holding containers whose capacity was regulated by the water authority. Armed men walked up and down the line checking the containers and the ID of their bearers. Cattle lay dead in the fields, or pirouetted wildly in their thirst-driven madness. Brush fires burst out spontaneously; entire hillsides were blackened and smoldering, and the air was acrid with smoke and ash that burned throats and reddened eyes. The people in lines looked like bandits, wearing dampened handkerchiefs and cloths over their mouths. Some collapsed and lay where they fell, like the cattle in the fields. The states bordering Texas had set up road blocks to prevent people abandoning the Lone Star state and potentially overwhelming the water and other resources of their states. Pitched battles broke out between unofficial militias and the national guards of several states. Thirty-six states had declared disasters. The United States was threatening war with Canada over its curtailing of Columbia River water.

Drought

A combination of record-high heat and record-low rainfall has pushed south and central Texas into the region's deepest drought in a half century, with $3.6 billion of crop and livestock losses piling up during the past nine months. The heat wave has drastically reduced reservoirs and forced about 230 public water systems to declare mandatory water restrictions.

As Texas aquifers and reservoirs dip to record lows, threatening municipal water supplies, the biggest cities; Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, and 230 others have implemented water restrictions on residents.

Across the nation, California is facing what some predict will be the worst drought in California's water challenged history. In fact, the entire West is seeing abnormal to severe drought conditions and has been suffering under these conditions for some time.