Becerra Urged To Plan For Floods, Droughts & Water Shortages

California’s governor-elect, Xavier Becerra, should make flood and drought preparedness a top priority while protecting aging water infrastructure and replenishing depleted groundwater supplies, according to a new report co-authored by a UC Riverside water expert.

The report, “Priorities for California’s Water: Advice for the Incoming Governor,” warns that California’s water system is increasingly vulnerable to extreme weather from climate change, excessive groundwater pumping, and decades of deferred infrastructure improvements.

Prepared by the Public Policy Institute of California’s Water Policy Center, the report recommends better disaster preparedness, stronger groundwater protections, and long-term investments in water storage and delivery systems.

UCR public policy professor Kurt Schwabe, a report co-author, said California must prepare for more intense storms while addressing problems that threaten water deliveries to farms and cities.

“Our conveyance system is set up for 19th-century floods. So, both our storage and our conveyance is undersized right now,” Schwabe said. “Our storage system isn’t set up to mitigate the increased chances of floods, nor to mitigate the increased chances of drought.”

An immediate priority is preventing further damage to the State Water Project’s canals from sinking land in the Central Valley caused by excessive groundwater pumping.

“When the land subsides, these conveyance systems break, and so you don't have that water from the Bay Delta coming down and getting to where it needs to get, or it’s at a very reduced capacity,” he said. “Right now, and in the short run, though, we really want to keep the infrastructure from being broken.”

California’s water challenges are complicated by geography. About 75% of its water supply originates north of Sacramento, while roughly 75% of demand lies to the south.

The state relies on nearly 1,500 dams and an extensive network of canals and aqueducts to capture and transport water.

Much of that infrastructure was built decades ago, when Sierra Nevada snowfall provided a more dependable water supply during spring and summer.

Climate change is disrupting that system by bringing more rain instead of snow, along with more extreme swings between wet and dry conditions.

The report identifies three broad priorities for the next governor: disaster preparedness, stronger groundwater protections, and long-term investments in water storage and delivery systems.

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About UC Riverside

The University of California, Riverside is a doctoral research university, a living laboratory for groundbreaking exploration of issues critical to Inland Southern California, the state and communities around the world. Reflecting California's diverse culture, UCR's enrollment is more than 27,000 students. The campus opened a medical school in 2013 and has reached the heart of the Coachella Valley by way of the UCR Palm Desert Center. The campus has an annual impact of more than $2.7 billion on the U.S. economy. To learn more, visit www.ucr.edu.