I saw an ad in a magazine for a bank touting that they had helped a small city in a third-world country build water treatment facilities. The intention of the ad was clearly to show the bank as a positive contributor to society with a philanthropic mindset. But the text of the ad revealed that […]
Archives for February 2015
Think Small to Conserve Big
Often when reading about the drought I wish that individuals were empowered to do more. There are the standard tips to conserve water – turn off the faucet when brushing teeth, run the dishwasher less, etc. – but I already do all these things. They feel minor and ineffective, and it’s difficult to know how […]
Groundwater Depletion
During the drought, California has increasingly turned to groundwater to fill the deficit. Up until last year, groundwater was unregulated in CA – if anyone owned land and drilled a borehole, they could use as much of the water they found as they liked. It made sense during a time of abundance and made it […]
Water Rights in California Influenced by Gold Rush
California’s laws about water rights is an interestingly mixed system, largely influenced by the gold rush era. The eastern seaboard primarily uses a riparian system based on English common law, in which a person owning land with water flowing through it, may use a correlative portion of that water. But with the influx of gold […]