Drought
David Zilberman
George W. and Elsie M. Robinson Chair in Food and Agricultural Resources Economics
Phone: (510) 642-6570 (office) or (510) 290-9515 (cell)
E-mail: zilber@are.berkeley.edu
Media Relations contact: Sarah Yang, (510) 643-7741 or scyang@berkeley.edu
Expertise: Zilberman's research interests are agricultural policy, water quality and conservation, economics of technological change and natural resources, and micro-economic theory. He has studied the adoption of modern irrigation technologies in California, and the economics of water markets and water rights. A study he led on how California responded to the drought of 1987-1991 showed the importance of having reservoirs that allow for slowing the impact of drought. The study also demonstrated the capacity of California agriculture to adjust to shortages by increased reliance of groundwater and adoption of conservation tools.
Zilberman says this year's drought is more challenging because protecting threatened smelt limits water transfers from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. "Water prices in the Central Valley are expected to reach several hundred dollars per acre-foot, and some farmers will be forced to curtail their operations, possibly with some permanent damage to tree crops," says Zilberman. "The current drought also emphasizes some of the potential gains that might have happened if we had some peripheral canal or any other environmentally sound arrangement to transfer water south of the Delta."
Richard Walker
Professor of geography and chair of the campus's California Studies Center
Phone: 510) 642-3901 (office), (510) 525-1969 (home office) or
E-mail: walker@berkeley.edu
Media relations contact: Robert Sanders, (510) 643-6998 or rsanders@berkeley.edu
Expertise: Walker is an economic geographer who has written about California agribusiness as well as about the state's large urban areas. A leading figure in contemporary geography, Walker says that California has a lot of water, even in low rainfall years. "But it also has an enormous thirst, which is not easily quenched," he says. "The problem is rarely too little water alone, but who gets it and how we use it. Agribusiness dominates consumption, cities can pay the most, and the environment takes the hindmost. There's very little on the horizon in the way of leadership toward a more balanced demand for water."
David Sunding
Professor of agricultural and resource economics and co-director of the Berkeley Water Center
Phone: (510) 642-8229
E-mail: sunding@are.berkeley.edu
Media relations contact: Sarah Yang, (510) 643-7741, scyang@berkeley.edu
Expertise: Sunding is an authority on water supply, pricing and efficiency, and can speak about the relationship of endangered species protection and climate change to water policy. He served as a senior economist with President Clinton's Council of Economic Advisers, advising on natural resource, agricultural and environmental policy. He currently sits on the advisory board of the national Water Policy Institute.
Sunding says the combination of a federal court ruling in December 2007 restricting the diversion of water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to protect threatened fish populations and the lack of sufficient rainfall has produced a "double whammy" for California. "There is going to be a lot of pain this year," says Sunding. "Agricultural contractors who will only get 20 percent of the water they're entitled to from the Delta are abandoning crops, which will be reflected in higher food prices for consumers. This situation highlights the need for longer term solutions to water management in this state, including the decentralization of supplies so there is less pressure on the Delta."
Richard Walker (see above)
David Zilberman (see above)
Mark Stacey
Associate professor of civil and environmental engineering
Phone: (510) 642-6776
E-mail: mstacey@berkeley.edu
Media relations contact: Sarah Yang, (510) 643-7741, scyang@berkeley.edu
Expertise: Stacey's research focuses on estuary and coastal fluid mechanics, including application to salt and sediment transport, marsh restoration and biological productivity. He can discuss how the hydrodynamics of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta relate to river flows and exports of water from the Delta.
Mark Stacey (see above)
David Sunding (see above)
Joseph L. Sax
James H. House and Hiram H. Hurd Professor of Environmental Regulation, emeritus
Phone: (510) 642-1831
E-mail: jsax@law.berkeley.edu
Berkeley Law media relations contact: Susan Gluss, (510) 642-6936 or sgluss@law.berkeley.edu
Expertise: Sax has written extensively about issues of environmental law, including water law, conservation and public land use. He is the author of five books on environmental law issues, including "Mountains Without Handrails"and "Defending the Environment." From 1994 to 1996, he served in President Clinton's administration as the counselor to the Department of the Interior secretary and deputy assistant secretary for policy at the U.S. Department of the Interior. In 2007, Sax was a co-recipient of the Blue Planet Prize , an international environmental award.
Matt Kondolf
Associate professor of environmental planning and geography, and landscape architecture and environmental planning
E-mail: kondolf@berkeley.edu (Kondolf is only reachable by e-mail until early July).
Media Relations contact: Kathleen Maclay, (510) 643-5651 or kmaclay@berkeley.edu
Expertise: Kondolf is an authority on California's Delta region and on river restoration, which in the United States has accounted for more than 40,000 projects and expenditures of more than $17 billion since 1990. He is an author of a 2007 report, "Re-envisioning the Delta," which assessed the threats of uncontrolled urbanization on the Delta, and proposed alternatives for long-term Delta security.
Mark Stacey (see above)
David Sunding (see above)
Joseph L. Sax (see above)
David Zilberman (see above)
David Sedlak
Professor of civil and environmental engineering
Phone: (510) 643-0256
E-mail: sedlak@ce.berkeley.edu
Media relations contact: Sarah Yang, (510) 643-7741, scyang@berkeley.edu
Expertise: Sedlak is an expert on environmental chemistry, water quality engineering and ecological engineering. He can discuss the options of water reuse, or augmenting water supplies with municipal wastewater effluent.
"Water reuse is a drought-proof source of water that is becoming an increasingly important part of California's water supply," says Sedlak. "However, concerns about the presence in wastewater of chemical contaminants, such as pharmaceuticals and carcinogenic disinfection byproducts, have raised questions about the widespread application of this practice. With appropriate treatment systems, these contaminants can be removed, but concerns still linger among consumers who are uncomfortable with the thought that sewage can be used as a source of drinking water."
David Zilberman (see above)
CAMPUS RESOURCES
Berkeley Water Center
Carolyn Remick, executive director, (510) 642-5322
The Berkeley Water Center brings together more than 70 researchers with water-related expertise from numerous UC Berkeley colleges and departments. The center takes a comprehensive approach to water resources research and management that reflects variable and uncertain supply, increasing demand and inadequate structural and institutional infrastructure. Its goal is to develop and demonstrate the application of new concepts, information and engineering technology and computational tools that serve diverse water interests.
Regional Oral History Office
Several interviews with major players in California's water history have been conducted and recorded by the Bancroft Library's Regional Oral History Office. The office is located in Room 251 of Evans Hall duringt the Bancroft's seismic retrofit.
Water Resources Center Archives
410 O'Brien Hall
(510) 642-2666
Hours through Aug. 24, 2008: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday
California's water library contains historical and contemporary materials relating to water primarily in California and the West. Under the direction of Linda Vida, the Water Resources Center Archives serve University of California students, faculty and staff as well as professionals and members of the general public. Reporters are welcome.
The library features technical reports, specialized newsletters, detailed maps, journals, some books, videos and photos of incredible major water projects like the construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct that brings water from the Mono Lake basin to Los Angeles, and dredging of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Information on the archives' packed shelves relates to California history and water wars; freshwater quality, supply, and development; wastewater treatment; dams; wetlands and estuaries; climate; and coastal zone management.
It also has unique items in more than 130 manuscript collections, dating back to around 1900. There are 25,000 black-and-white photographs and more than 45,000 coastal aerial photographs.
(Directions: The archives are located in O'Brien Hall on the north side of the UC Berkeley campus, near the North Gate entrance at Hearst and Euclid avenues. Enter on the east entrance to the breezeway connecting O'Brien and McLaughlin halls. Once inside, O'Brien Hall is to the right. The archives are on the fourth floor.)