California’s history includes development of water storage reservoirs, dams and impoundments. Economic development included the quest to store and transport water from a convinent source (i. e. rivers) to agriculture, industrial and municipal centers. Construction of mega engineered facilities during the first half of the 20th century created a complex water delivery system. Concerns about the environmental consequences caused debate and slowed further development in the second half. Now developed water resources are inadequate to provide reliable service to various areas of the state. So a renewal of the water storage-delivery strategy is on the policy table again.
Our guest will be Barry Nelson, Western Water Strategies. Mr. Nelson is a long-term policy advocate about California water issues. Previously he was with the NRDC as a policy director. He has been known as an “environmentalist”, but pragmatic about certain solutions. He is now an independent consultant about overall water policy direction.