Posts Tagged: Richard Howitt

Experts recommend a change in California water policy

Authors of a newly published water policy book say a new approach is needed to manage California’s aquatic ecosystems, according to a Public Policy Institute of California news release about the publication.

Recommendations include moving away from the current strategy, which aims to save one species at a time under the federal and state Endangered Species Acts. Instead, a broader approach would create better conditions for many species and address the multiple causes of ecosystem decline.

Wide-ranging water policy reforms are detailed in Managing California’s Water: From Conflict to Reconciliation, an in-depth look at the state’s water management challenges. The authors include Richard Howitt, professor and chair of agricultural and resource economics at UC Davis, Jay Lund, director of the Center for Watershed Sciences at UC Davis, and Peter Moyle, associate director of the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences.

The authors say that today’s system of water management, developed in previous times for past conditions, is leading the state down a path of environmental and economic deterioration.

"We’re waiting for the next drought, flood, or lawsuit to bring catastrophe,” the news release quotes co-author Ellen Hanak, senior fellow at PPIC. "But if we take bold steps now, we can move from an era of conflict to one of reconciliation, where water is managed more flexibly and comprehensively, to benefit both the economy and the environment.”

The publication makes water policy recommendations involving:

• Urban conservation
• Goundwater banking
• Water transfers
• Pollution management
• Flood management

The report's suggestions were not met with unanimous support. The Association of California Water Agencies issued a statement yesterday complimenting the authors for bringing attention to the issue, but adding that the report contains "plenty to agree with and plenty to debate."

Release of the report was widely covered by the news media, including:

• Report on state water seeks balance - Modesto Bee
• PPIC takes a crack at California's water stalemate - Sacramento Bee
• Smelt may pay price for healthy estuary - Inside Bay Area
• As $11B water bond looms, book recommends sweeping reform - California Watch

The 503-page PPIC water report.

Farm revenues down just 3 percent due to water losses

The most recent estimates of job losses due to cuts in water allocations from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta are far lower than was first predicted, according to an article published last week in the Contra Costa Times.

In early 2009, UC Davis economist Richard Howitt predicted the drought and new restrictions on Delta pumping would cost 95,000 jobs, but he revised the figure downward a number of times. Even though, the old number is still sometimes used, recently by Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman and Republican U.S. Senate candidate Carly Fiorina, the article said.

"Yes, it's a problem when candidates don't use the most recent and accurate figures," Howitt said in an e-mail to reporter Mike Taugher. "I have tried to correct this, but this combined report should help put some of the outdated values to rest."

Current estimates of lost farm revenue in agriculture because of water shortages are $340 million (by Jeffrey Michael, director of the Business Forecasting Center at the University of Pacific) and $370 million (by Howitt). In both cases, that represents a less than 3 percent decline in San Joaquin Valley farm revenues. Job losses are estimated to be between 5,500 and 7,500 jobs.

Farm economy not as bad as reported

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein fanned a controversy earlier this month when she said she would propose legislation urging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to raise the valley's water deliveries. Her idea was hailed by West Side growers and farmworkers - who say they are suffering economically because of short water supplies - and criticized by environmentalists and many of her fellow democrats - who believe the water is needed to protect delta smelt and salmon.

Yesterday, the Los Angeles Times bolstered the environmentalists' position with an article that said agriculture's reported economic difficulties have been exaggerated.

Times reporter Bettina Boxall wrote that crop and labor statistics for 2009 contradict the image of a withering farm economy teetering on the edge of collapse.

"People make a lot of claims, but the data you see is showing growth. We're just not seeing the job loss," the story quoted Paul Wessen, an economist with the California Employment Development Department.

Boxall also spoke to UC Davis agricultural economist Richard Howitt, who in early 2009 predicted that water cutbacks could cost the valley 80,000 jobs and up to $2.2 billion in revenue. He later revised those numbers to 21,100 farm-related jobs and $703 million in agricultural revenue.

Howitt said farm advocates keep repeating the higher estimates and blame most of the delivery cuts on environmental protections, when they can be more accurately explained by the drought.

Furthermore, the projected economic losses, Howitt said, are "not big" compared to the state's $36 billion farm economy

"But the story is not the aggregate. It's the concentration," Howitt was quoted.

Howitt's report on water supply and demand is available on the UC Agricultural Issues Center Web site.

Delta farmland.