Water Resources

Looking to conserve water? Curious about what government is doing? Get started by exploring the resources below.

Information

• 100+ Ways to Conserve Water, from Water Use It Wisely.
• Bewaterwise.com, run by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, provides a watering calculator, as well as water saving incentive programs and water conservation tips for homeowners.
• Saveourwater.com hosts a number of resources for homeowners looking to reduce their water usage. In addition to news and history about the drought, the site has pages dedicated to efficient toilets, sprinkler systems, and landscaping—the areas that often provide the biggest opportunities for water savings for homeowners.
• The American Water Works Association’s free software allows firms to perform a water audit, providing a baseline for implementing water use management systems.
• If your Low Impact Development (LID) efforts include rainwater harvesting, remember mosquito vector control in water storage design. The World Health Organization has more info here.
• The EPA offers support to local governments looking to expand their vegetation-based stormwater management systems.
• Can California further reduce urban water use? A post in The California Water Blog compares California’s current drought to a drought in Australia and provides useful takeaways for policymakers. The Australian example suggests that the most successful water-saving techniques were outdoor water use restrictions, dual flush toilets, and higher water prices.
• The major water supply shift underway in California is the subject of a factsheet by The Union of Concerned Scientists—The Big Water Supply Shift: Groundwater Key to Water Security in California’s Changing Climate. The fact sheet takes a close look at the current impacts and future risks of climate change on the state’s water resources—including increased floods and droughts—and recommends how to plan for a different water future.

Reports

• Managing water remains one of the great challenges for California. Population growth, a shifting climate, and declining ecosystem health are putting pressure on the state’s water supply and flood management systems. New policies are needed to address these challenges. This briefing kit from the Public Policy Institute of California highlights some of the most pressing issues—Climate Change and Water; The Colorado River; Energy and Water; Managing Droughts; Paying for Water; Preparing for Floods; Protecting Headwaters; The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta; Storing Water; Water for Cities; Water for the Environment; Water for Farms.
• In “Impacts of Urban Water Conservation Strategies on Energy, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, and Health: Southern California as a Case Study,” published in the American Journal of Public Health, the authors, Sharona Sokolow, et al, “demonstrate that expanded use of recycled water in California, on top of being an effective water conservation strategy, would result in significant health benefits.”
• Despite quite a few advances over the last few years on how Californians capture, use, and think about water, California still has a lot of problems to solve and more to learn in terms handling and planning for drought. A new report, “Managing Drought: Learning from Australia,” may help boost that knowledge. The report is a primer to show Californians what Australia did right and wrong during its Millennium Drought, which lasted from 1997 to 2012. “Managing Drought” was a collective effort between the Alliance for Water Efficiency in Chicago, the Institute for Sustainable Futures in Sydney, and the Pacific Institute in Oakland.
• In September 2015, The Union of Concerned Scientists released a report related to implementation of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA)—Measuring What Matters: Setting Measurable Objectives to Achieve Sustainable Groundwater Management in California. SGMA requires local groundwater sustainability agencies to develop groundwater sustainability plans by 2020, but does not define how to set measurable objectives. This report is designed to inform state regulators about how to measure sustainability so that we know when we are making progress and when we are off track.
• The Senate Office of Research has released its second of two installments of a report on California’s drinking water. The first installment reported on what the state does to ensure its drinking water is safe. This second installment focuses on the challenges to providing safe and clean drinking water that is affordable to disadvantaged communities in California.
• The US Department of Agriculture and the US Forestry Service led a 2008 assessment of tree canopy coverage in Los Angeles, in conjunction with then-Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s Million Trees LA initiative.
• Residential Water Consumption in Los Angeles: What are the Drivers and are Conservation Measures Working?: A policy report by UCLA graduate students examining the influence of socio-economic, climate, vegetation greenness, and pricing variables on single family residential water consumption over ten years of monthly residential water use data provided by the LADWP.

Storm Water

• In “A behind-the-scenes battle to divert LA’s stormwater from going to waste,” the LA Times explains how engineers work to capture as much rainwater as possible to recharge our area aquifers. Money quote: “While the L.A. River’s water was already roaring to the sea at more than 7,200 cubic feet every second, the San Gabriel’s was meandering down the riverbed and into spreading grounds far upstream, percolating as nature intended.”
• The US EPA has released a new video, Green Streets: The Road to Clean Water. Green streets are natural and engineered methods for controlling stormwater that would otherwise gather pollutants and rush them from hard streets into storm drains and out into local waterways. This short video highlights green streets as a technique for managing stormwater and providing other economic and community benefits.
• Congresswoman Grace Napolitano hosted a Stormwater Roundtable on February 2016 to discuss stormwater and EPA-mandated MS4 permits in Los Angeles County. Topics include Stormwater 101, MS4/NPDES permit specifics, Integrated Planning and Financial Capability Frameworks, Collaborations (between water districts, Leagues of Cities, COGs, LA County, sanitation districts, Caltrans, US Army Corps of Engineers), Affordability and Cost to Meet Permits, and Legislative update from Rep. Napolitano’s office. You can download the presentations from the event website.
• With the current drought, communities and residents across California are looking for ways to conserve water. The Institute for Local Government has a collection of water and wastewater best practices that local governments can implement to conserve water, save energy, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help secure water resources for the future.
• The EPA offers support to local governments looking to expand their vegetation-based stormwater management systems.