Water Resiliency Summit Recap

I spent two days this week at the San Joaquin Valley Water Resiliency Summit at Fresno State. I was on a panel on day one talking about the Water Blueprint’s Unified Valley Water Plan and how it might fit into the State of California’s Water Plan 2028. 

Laura Ramos, California Water Institute Director, summed up things very well when she said:

“You cannot save groundwater without thinking about surface water. We can’t think of flood management without thinking about recharge. We can’t think about conveyance without thinking about subsidence, land use and long-term investment. And we cannot think about long-term resilience without considering communities, agriculture, ecosystems and economic stability.”  

She added that what we do in the next 5 years really, really matters. 

There was a hopeful spirit in the room. The Department of Water Resources (DWR) is fully committed to fulfilling the mandate given to them by the Legislature, which unanimously passed SB72 last year directing DWR to create 9 million acre-feet of additional water supply by 2040. It is a very significant goal, and progress cannot come soon enough for the San Joaquin Valley. 

Geoff Vanden Heuvel

Director of Regulatory and Economic Affairs