Three Ways the West Can Adapt to Drought

The current Washington [state] drought could help the West learn to adapt to one of the most profound effects that climate change is projected to bring to the region. Scientists warn that climate change could deliver “megadroughts” to the West, the likes of which haven’t been experienced in more than a millenium.  “I’m seeing this year as a dress rehearsal for the future,” Amy Snover, director of the University of Washington’s Climate Impacts Group, said.

Snover divides the potential adaptation strategies into three categories — increasing water supply, decreasing water demand, and increasing flexibility.
...
“The best option for new storage is not surface storage, but groundwater storage,” Peter Gleick, a water expert and president of the California-based nonprofit Pacific Institute, said. “It’s sort of like surface reservoirs — you’re storing water, but you don’t have to build a dam, you don’t have to destroy another river, and you don’t have to worry about evaporative losses.”

Such an approach is being tested southwest of the city of Bakersfield, Calif., where the Kern Water Bank is capturing surplus water supplies beneath the ground.
...
The drought in California has become so dire that Gov. Jerry Brown (D) recently announced the first mandatory water restrictions affecting cities and towns in the state’s history.  Farms had already seen their water supplies from state and federal reservoirs severely curtailed.

Such regulations can help reduce demand for water — but there are other ways.  Pacific Institute research suggests that farms, which consume most of the water used in California, could reduce their water use in the state by a fifth just by modernizing their irrigation practices. A report published last year by the Pacific Institute and NRDC showed that businesses and homes could reduce their water use by more than half by installing efficient bathroom and kitchen fittings, fixing leaks and replacing lawns with hardy native plants.
...
“There’s a lot of rigidity in the way we manage our water systems,” the University of Washington’s Snover said.

Changing such systems would involve changing entire legal frameworks in place in Western states.  Brown recently hinted that California might attempt such reforms, and Idaho has already instituted some such changes.  Idaho’s water resources board describes its Water Supply Bank as a “water exchange market” designed to “encourage the highest beneficial use of water” while raising new sources of revenue.

Read more at Three Ways the West Can Adapt to Drought