This post is part 6 of my Best of 2009 Series, inspired by Gwen Bell.
December 6: Workshop or conference.
Was there a conference or workshop you attended that was especially beneficial? Where was it? What did you learn?
This is a kind of big year for California water managers. It's the third consecutive year of drought, with major reservoirs at historic lows. Regulatory restrictions on diversions from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay-Delta greatly reduced diversion capabilities, exacerbating conditions by inducing a so-called "regulatory drought". Each spring, the Water Education Foundation holds an Executive Briefing in Sacramento. Speakers run the gamut of "water celebrities", including members of legislature, the Director of the Department of Water Resources, and a host of other wonky folk.
Water managers were viewing 2009 as The Year that Something Had to Happen, the thought being that only in times of crisis do politicians and the public focus enough energy on water to make the tough decisions. There are no easy answers in California Water. Everything is ridiculously expensive; capital projects are measured in the billions. Every option raises a battalion of NIMBYs. But the status quo is untenable. The consequences of inaction are continued ecosystem decline, adverse impacts to agricultural producers, unreliable supplies for urban users.
The workshop highlights included quippy remarks by John Leshy, a key figure on Obama's transition team; an outrageous diatribe by a Berkley water blogger who has a myopic, urbanist, laissez-faire sense of water economics; and a panel on water conservation. The level of commitment that several key members of the legislature demonstrated was also heartening.
The result of this year of debate is a Water Bond, up for vote in 2010, and the formation of a Delta Commission. I have a feeling that in 2010, the public at large will be talking about water far more than they have in recent years. At least I hope so.
When one man drinks while another can only watch, Doomsday follows. ~ Turkish proverb
I love that you described Zetland the way you did!!! Crazy man.