Bay Area Science Forum Part 1 - Water Quantity and Quality
March 17th, 2008 by Kishore
Part one of the Bay Area Science Forum, a collaboration between the Cal Academy, UC Berkeley, & Stanford, launched last Thursday.
In the part one, Peter Gleick of the Pacific Institute & Ellen Hanak of the Public Policy Institute of California spoke on water quantity and quality here in California, focusing on where our water comes from, the rough breakdown of us, and the economics of efficiency/conservation. The podcast should be available online shortly.
I was especially impressed with Peter Gleick (I had been chasing him as a speaker for DtaS). He had an astounding breadth of knowledge of the water industry, which is a gigantic field.
I’m definitely going to part 2 on the Delta, April 3rd @ UC Berkeley. I encourage other to attend as well.
He mentioned a couple reports by Pacific Institute on Water issues…links to the articles can be found below.
I’ll summarize my thoughts on one particle article: The SFPUC’s request to divert an additional 25 MGal/day from the Tuolumne.
Currently, the SFPUC draws 85% of its water from the Tuloumne. 80% of the projected increase will be sold to other agencies (Alameda, Hayward, Milpitas, Santa Clara). The SFPUC project most of that increase comes from commercial and industrial users. The Pac Institutes refutes that growth projection for commercial users, expecting an economic growth of 17 percent.
The Pac Institute also indicates that the PUC underestimates water recycling and reuse (PUC projects 3% of increased demand met with recycling/reuse programs).
More Info
Tuolumne Analysis Paper
Desalination Report
The Human Right to Water
Report on Water Resources
Category: General, Water | No Comments »