Impacts & Natural Solutions: Water & the West
Climate Change Impacts in Western Basins, U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Reclamation
Document here: http://www.usbr.gov/climate/SECURE/docs/illustration.pdf
Storing Water for a Dry Day Leads to Suits
July 26, 2011, By FELICITY BARRINGER, he New York Times
from the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/27/science/earth/27waterbank.html?src=recg
Water banking has been widely embraced as a tool for making water supplies reliable, sustainable and marketable. Groups traditionally at odds — environmentalists seeking full rivers for fish and farmers tending pistachio or pomegranate trees — agree that water banking is a useful strategy for managing a vital resource. A consulting group based in Idaho, WestWater Research, estimates there are up to 30 working water banks in the West.
As climate change produces earlier snowmelts, sending too much of the water into reservoirs in the spring and too little in summer, the need for storage grows.
“Water banking is a way of dealing with the volatility,” said Bruce Aylward, an expert in water economics who founded Ecosystem Economics in Orego n.
The economic concept is simple. Farmers, through the water districts that they control, have acquired land entitling them to use water, or have contracted for water supplies flowing to their region. Municipal and industrial water users also have rights.
While some districts limit sal es to distant urban areas, others allow them. One Kern County district, Berrenda Mesa, sold part of its state entitlement for a one-shot payment of $3,000 an acre-foot — about 90 percent higher than its costs. The buyers were water districts supplying homes and golf courses in Palm Springs.
The value in banking lies in the certainty that water will be available when it is needed. In wet years, excess water recharges the depleted aquifer, a hedge against a prolonged drought.
The porous soil below the gravel and sand here, which are carried here from the Sierra Nevada by the Kern River, is ideal for the purpose. “It’s a huge bucket,” said Florn Core, the former water resources manager for the City of Bakersfield, which is located in a natural desert where rainfall averages 5.7 inches annually.
. . .
-
Posted by Anne Wallach Thomas on Friday, September 16, 201111:39PM
Opinions expressed on any workspace blog in ConserveOnline and in any corresponding comments are the personal opinions of the original authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Nature Conservancy.
Terms of UseLast updated: June 16, 2009
Please read these legal terms carefully before using this blog.
We’re delighted that you’re considering posting a comment on a workspace blog in ConserveOnline. Here are some things you should know and guidelines we need you to follow as you craft your comment:
- We welcome and encourage vigorous debate in the comment section of its blog. We will not discriminate against comments that express views different from the official stated position of the organization or of its individual bloggers simply on the basis of that difference.
- However, all comments submitted to this blog are moderated, which means that they will be reviewed by Conservancy staff and/or workspace owners prior to their publication on the blog. We have final edit and approval of any comment submitted to the blog for publication.
- We reserve the right to reject a comment for publication if we feel the comment violates our guidelines or is otherwise inappropriate for the blog. We also reserve the right to edit comments for style, length or other considerations.
- Comments containing obvious factual inaccuracies, unattributed facts and quotes, insulting comments, or libelous/unlawful statements will not be published. While vigorous debate is welcome, all remarks should generally be directed at issues, positions, events, and statements, rather than at individuals.
- We will not publish comments that it deems to be abusive, defamatory, embarrassing, harassing, hateful, obscene, profane, or threatening to another person or entity, including the Conservancy.
- In addition, we reserve the right to not publish blog comments that it deems for any other reason to be unsuitable, unlawful, or objectionable, such as but not limited to the content of the posting/material (for example, the usage of inappropriate language), the subject matter, the timeliness or relevance of the material/posting, or reasons related to intellectual property, among others. We may employ technical tools to identify postings that may contain objectionable material.
- Comments that link to web pages that violate any of the above guidelines will not be published.
- By submitting a comment to the this blog, you are granting us a royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive right and license to use, reproduce, modify, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, transmit, perform, and display the comment (in whole or in part) worldwide and/or to incorporate into other works in any form, media, or technology now known or later developed for the full term of any rights that may exist in such content or information. You also acknowledge that such submissions are non-confidential for all purposes.
All questions or comments should be addressed to conserveonline@tnc.org
