Water Commission Workshop Speakers Stress Creativity in Water Storage Approach

Speaker after speaker at a California Water Commission workshop today in Sacramento reiterated for commissioners the importance of thinking creatively in solving the state’s water storage issues.

Today’s task for speakers was to provide commissioners with a historical perspective on water storage projects, an overview of past, present and future projects, and a look at what’s ahead with changing conditions and uncertainties in planning, developing and funding.

“We have to change our way of thinking,” said ACWA Executive Director Timothy Quinn in opening remarks that set the stage for the first of two workshops on “The Future of Water Storage in California.”

“To echo Tim, we need to think proactively,” said Maurice Hall of The Nature Conservancy.

“Business as usual won’t suffice,” said Paul Robershotte of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Panelists, in addition to Robershotte, who offered up a wikipedia of water lore, included longtime water experts Don Glaser, the Bureau of Reclamation’s Mid-Pacific regional director; Mark Cowin, director, California Department of Water Resources; and Jeffrey Kightlinger, general manager, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.

“It’s no longer a state-federal issue,” Glaser said. “It’s a federal-state-regional-local solution we have to find.”

After the morning programs, UC Davis Professor Jay Lund, director of the Center for Watershed Sciences, keynoted the luncheon followed by an afternoon panel, “Overview of Storage Projects.”

The second in the series of California Water Storage workshops will be 9:30 a.m.-4:45 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 25, in Sacramento.

Quinn’s presentation, titled “Water Storage in California: From Extraction to Sustainability,” is available here.