Some curious things about water management

Chicken photo courtesy of Jose Maria Plazaola, Wikimedia Commons user.

Water management is often very different from what we think intuitively, or what we have been taught. Here are some examples.

1. Most water decisions are local. Water policy and management discussions often seem to assume that state and federal government decisions and funding are the most important aspects of water management. This is not nearly true. Historically, culturally, and practically, most water management in California and the U.S. is local. There might be a dozen or more state and federal agencies, but there are thousands of local water, drainage, sanitation, and irrigation districts and millions of households and businesses. Local demand, supply, and operating decisions are the most important parts of water management, and where most innovations in water management originate. Due to the substantial build-out of large water projects, lack of water policy consensus, and debilitating state and federal budget deficits, local decisions, funding, innovations, and leadership are likely to become still more important in California and the U.S. Table 1 below illustrates this situation well.

Studies forever, are sometimes cheaper and more politically convenient than action…

2. Changes in technology change optimal management institutions. In early times, it became clear that local institutions were needed to construct and maintain local water management systems (Pisani 1984; Kelley 1989). In the late 1800s, irrigation districts, reclamation districts, and local water utilities emerged to fill these functions more efficiently than individuals or private firms. When larger regional and statewide water systems involving major reservoirs and conveyance systems spanning the state became needed (or at least desired) in the early 1900s, state and federal agencies were developed to manage the planning, construction, and operation of such systems. Today, major storage and conveyance systems are largely built, and innovative water management is dominated by, water conservation, water markets, conjunctive use, water recycling, and other techniques where local agencies have comparative advantages, and state and federal agencies have different and largely diminished roles (Hanak et al. 2011). Institutions should change to make best use of the most economical and appropriate mix of technologies for managing a system. In California, this means that local agency efforts need incentives to be better coordinated and better serve some regional and statewide objectives. Outside of this, state and federal agencies have diminishing roles following the age of large-scale infrastructure construction.

3. Studies forever, are sometimes cheaper and more politically convenient than action or technically serious work. For example, there is a common and political perception that new reservoirs are needed. Most elected and business officials grew up in an era when if you needed more water, you went to the nearest watershed, built a dam, and diverted water to where you wanted it. Today, most of the technical community is lukewarm on the idea of expanding reservoirs, for economic, technical, and environmental reasons. Constructing new reservoirs also taps an immense reserve of controversy. So consider the choices:

A) Build a reservoir costing $2 billion, or $100 million/year for a long time at 5% annual interest
B) Study building a reservoir, costing $1 million/year, perhaps for a very long time

The least controversial and most politic and economical choice here is […]

Full article: californiawaterblog.com