blog post A Balancing Act for the Colorado River By Lori Pottinger Jun 20, 2018 The Colorado basin has been in drought for nearly two decades. We talked with Bonnie Colby on how to improve shared management of the river.
blog post Forging Connections to Provide Safe Drinking Water By Lori Pottinger Jul 27, 2020 Providing reliable drinking water is a challenge for many small systems in the San Joaquin Valley. We talked to Laura Ramos and Sarge Green of Fresno State about an effort to connect a dozen at-risk systems to the City of Fresno’s water supply.
blog post Consolidating Small Water Systems Is a Springboard to Water Justice By Sarah Bardeen Nov 15, 2021 California’s State Water Board has embarked on an ambitious program to encourage struggling small water systems to join forces with larger, neighboring water systems. We spoke with two experts to find out how it’s going.
blog post How California’s Water Bond Is Being Spent By Jelena Jezdimirovic, Ellen Hanak Dec 13, 2017 Looking at how the 2014 water bond is being spent gives insights into how bonds are turned into projects on the ground.
blog post Linking Land Use and Water Decisions By Lori Pottinger Feb 24, 2016 The state recently held workshops on aligning land and water planning in rural California. We talked with Debbie Franco of the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research about this process.
blog post Testimony: Upgrading California’s Water Grid to Meet 21st Century Needs By Ellen Hanak Apr 2, 2019 Ellen Hanak, director of the PPIC Water Policy Center, describes how modernizing California’s water grid will help the state prepare for a changing climate, and ways the federal government can help.
blog post Maximizing Benefits of Solar Development in the San Joaquin Valley By Annabelle Rosser, Mitchelle De Leon May 9, 2022 Solar development offers one promising way to soften the economic blow as more irrigated farmland comes out of production in the San Joaquin Valley. We met with a diverse range of stakeholders to discuss how to maximize benefits—and mitigate potential harm.
blog post Video: Let’s Pull Together to Solve the Groundwater Crisis By Lori Pottinger Jun 11, 2015 The Central Valley is ground zero for groundwater issues. At a recent event, local leaders talked about solutions.
blog post Commentary: Water-use Challenges Affecting Farmers Means Reinventing the San Joaquin Valley By Ellen Hanak, Caitlin Peterson Sep 26, 2023 To ensure the San Joaquin Valley’s future, groundwater overpumping has to end—and some 500,000 acres of farmland will likely need to come out of intensively irrigated production. But unplanned, haphazard fallowing would harm the valley. In our Fresno Bee commentary, we share insights on how to protect the valley’s residents, agriculture, and environment, drawing on over seven years of research.
blog post Commentary: Californians Need to Do More to Prepare for Wet Years By Letitia Grenier, Ellen Hanak Jan 16, 2024 Climate change is supercharging the extremes of drought and flood in California. But our infrastructure and institutions remain woefully underprepared for rising flood risk and increasingly erratic rainfall. It’s time to take this threat—and this opportunity—seriously and accelerate preparations.
