By Professor David Zilberman, Agricultural and Resource Economics
As the world is preparing for a big environmental summit in Copenhagen, knowing that an agreement is very unlikely, it’s become apparent how difficult it is to reach an environmental agreement that can stick and change the course of history. People that can bring about such agreement are really rare, and last week we lost one of them, Tom Graff.
Tom was an environmental lawyer who opened the west coast office of the Environmental Defense.
Water is the most precious resource of the west. The west was built by the diversion of water from wild lands to mine gold, build cities, and irrigate farmland. Some were cheering these activities that “make the desert bloom,” but in the meantime many regions, like Owens Valley, were ravaged. The legal establishment provided tools, like the prior appropriation doctrine, that enabled these diversions. This legal doctrine allowed diversions as long as the water provides “beneficial use,” was based on the principles of “first in time, first in right,” and “use it or lose it,” and restricted trading in water.
Continue reading "Tom Graff: A practical environmental visionary" »
Tom Graff, 65, died yesterday, November 11, 2009, after a two-and-a-half year battle with cancer.
In 1971, Tom opened the first California Office of the Environmental Defense Fund and went on to be one of the most influential environmentalists in California water policy during the proceeding 30 years.
In 2008, to honor Tom’s work, as well as a long-standing professional association and friendship, George A. Miller and his wife, Janet A. McKinley, funded the Thomas J. Graff Chair in the College of Natural Resources.
For more information on Tom and his life’s work please see:
CNR student David Dinh is helping rural Ugandans to have access to safe drinking water.
"In every home in Uganda, drinking water is traditionally stored in a clay pot and culturally, there is a tremendous preference for this method of water storage. Unfortunately, water stored through this method can become quickly contaminated from repeated hand contact," Dinh writes. Because of the need for safe water storage, Dinh has helped to create improved clay pots with plastic spigots. They are "an affordable, accessible, and culturally appropriate safe water storage approach for rural Ugandan communities, " says Dinh.
Working in conjunction with Uganda Village Project and with support from the Strauss Foundation, Dinh has established social enterprise in the Ugandan villages. The distribution of the modified pots is subsidized for disadvantaged families in rural Uganda through the profits generated from the sale of modified pots in major urban areas.
Continue reading "CNR Student Helps Keep Water Fresh in Uganda" »
The Groundwater Resources Association of California has awarded Professor T.N. Narasimhan with its Lifetime Achievement Award for 2009 for his contributions in the field of groundwater hydrology.
"This award is presented annually to individuals for their exemplary contributions to the groundwater industry and for contributions that have been in the spirit of the Groundwater Resources Association's mission and organization objectives. Individuals who receive the Lifetime Achievement Award have dedicated their lives to the groundwater industry and have been pioneers in their field of expertise," the citation reads.
The honor will be conferred on October 7, 2009 at Sacramento during the 18th Annual Conference of GRA and the concurrent 27th Biennial Groundwater Conference of the Center for Water Resources, University of California.
Previous recipients of this award from UC Berkeley include David K. Todd of Civil Engineering, and Luna B. Leopold of Earth and Planetary Sciences.
A study prepared by Berkeley Economic Consulting, under the direction of David Sunding, professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics, outlines the statewide economic and water supply implications of ongoing water pumping restrictions imposed by federal courts in California to protect the Delta smelt. In early December, 2008, environmental and sport-fishing groups filed suit to force the complete and total shutdown of delta water pumping operations.
According to the study, statewide economic impacts can exceed $1 billion per year during drought years such as those currently facing the state, and may well exceed $3 billion should the state enter a prolonged dry period. Additionally, the report documents the severe water supply implications of the Court's orders. Even during average and wet periods the Court imposed restrictions exacerbate ongoing drought conditions by limiting the ability of water managers to replenish water storage facilities and groundwater reserves. The net result is a significant additional blow to the state economy and a greatly reduced ability to respond to severe drought and other emergencies.
"The export restrictions imposed in a effort to conserve the Delta smelt clearly add significant new risks to California's water supply system," said Sunding. "The water pumping restrictions not only worsen the current drought, they also ensure that water rationing, fallowed farm land and economic dislocation will be the norm. The study highlights the unsustainable nature of the state's current water system. Rather than a series of court-imposed restrictions aimed at individual species, California would benefit from a more comprehensive fix for the delta."
