blog post A Look Back at 2023’s Volatile Year in Water By Letitia Grenier Jan 9, 2024 Volatility was the name of the game in 2023, as drought-weary California suddenly found itself inundated by atmospheric rivers—and the changes kept coming. We look back on California’s weird (and sometimes wonderful) year in water.
blog post Addressing Groundwater Overdraft in the Sacramento Valley By Spencer Cole, Kyle Greenspan, Andrew Ayres Dec 11, 2023 As the Sacramento Valley seeks to bring its groundwater basins into balance under SGMA, the valley’s groundwater sustainability agencies recently submitted plans to manage overdraft. Do the numbers add up? Our researchers take a look.
data set PPIC Urban Water Use Standards Analysis Nov 28, 2023 This spreadsheet includes data on reported water uses, calculated water use objectives, and estimated compliance costs of meeting new urban water use standards to comply with the 2018 Making Conservation a California Way of Life legislation for 398 retail urban water suppliers across California. It accompanies the November 2023 blog post “A Better Way to Promote Urban Water Conservation.”
blog post Video: Stewarding California’s Wet Years By Sarah Bardeen Nov 20, 2023 Wet weather brought relief to our parched state last winter. And while full reservoirs are great, is there room to improve California’s wet year management? At our fall conference last week, three panels of experts gave a resounding yes—and then offered insights on how to improve. Read our recap!
blog post Measuring Groundwater Overdraft in the Sacramento Valley By Spencer Cole, Kyle Greenspan, Andrew Ayres Nov 7, 2023 As the Sacramento Valley works to bring its groundwater basins into balance, we review the valley’s groundwater sustainability plans to understand how they’re estimating overdraft in their basins—and to see just how much overpumping they found.
data set PPIC Sacramento Valley GSP Water Budgets Nov 7, 2023 This spreadsheet includes water budget data collected from 16 groundwater sustainability plans from the 16 Sacramento Valley groundwater basins, submitted to the Department of Water Resources in January 2022.
Report Priorities for California’s Water By Jeffrey Mount, Letitia Grenier, Ellen Hanak, Caitlin Peterson ... Nov 1, 2023 California has made great strides in preparing for a drier, hotter future, but it remains a challenge to harness the bounty of wet years while also reducing flood risk. How did California’s water sector manage the unusually wet 2023 water year—and what lessons can we glean for the future?
blog post How to Keep Buildings Cool in California’s Warming Climate By Sarah Bardeen Oct 23, 2023 California is getting warmer—and that’s putting strain on residents who are struggling to stay cool. Could better architectural design help? This week, we speak with an expert in passive cooling and carbon-neutral design to learn more.
blog post Navigating the Hope (and Hype) around Solar Canals By Sarah Bardeen, Gokce Sencan Oct 11, 2023 Placing solar panels over canals is attracting attention in California. But will solar canals live up to the hype—and will they work in California? Turlock Irrigation District’s general manager, Michelle Reimers, tells us about a new pilot project that could answer some of these questions.
video Drought and Floods in California By Ashlyn Perri Oct 10, 2023 “Weather whiplash,” “atmospheric rivers,” “severe drought”—if you live in California, this is probably not the first time you’ve seen these phrases. But why are these wild weather swings happening, and what do they mean for California?
