Category Archives: Economic Impact

SGMA Gone Awry in Indian Wells Valley

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The California Supreme Court can protect incentives for responsible groundwater management by agreeing to review an appellate court decision (Mojave Pistachios v. Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Agency) challenging Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Sustainability Plan (“GSP”).  The dispute is over whether the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (“SGMA”) allows Indian Wells Valley to eviscerate a landowner’s (Mojave Pistachios LLC) groundwater rights without due process and impose unreasonable “fees” for a speculative GSP.  The future of reasonable groundwater management hangs in the balance. 

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COVID-19 Will Change the Water Industry, a Trilogy: Engage in Strategic Planning, Risk Assessment and Learning

COVID-19 has destroyed the water industry’s economic model (see COVID-19 Will Change the Water Industry, a Trilogy: The Industry’s Economic Model Is Dead) and provides a natural experiment of the impact of economic activity on the environment requiring an enhanced role for improved science (see COVID-19 Will Change the Water Industry, a Trilogy: Enhanced Role for Improved Science). What does all this mean for planning and decision-making?

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COVID-19 Will Change the Water Industry, a Trilogy: Enhanced Role for Improved Science

Look at the skies.  Are you enjoying the best air quality of your life?  Hydrowonk is.

COVID-19 is a natural experiment of the impact of economic activity on the environment.  Will the water industry take advantage of this generational opportunity?  If so, how?

It is time to abandon how science is used in the water industry today and embrace science using 21st century technology.  By integrating improved science into regulatory structures, our industry can improve the management of water resources and the environment.

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COVID-19 Will Change the Water Industry, a Trilogy: The Industry’s Economic Model Is Dead

The COVID-19 pandemic is (hopefully) once in a lifetime disrupter of our lives.  The public health establishment has been shattered and is being rebuilt on the fly.  The economy is in shambles.  We are learning about supply chains and interconnectedness of economic activity.  Who is immune?  No one.

Hydrowonk’s COVID-19 trilogy shares reflections on the pandemic’s implications for the water industry’s historic economic model, the role of science, and planning.  I confess that very few of these ideas were constantly on my mind until recently, although some were simmering.

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