Guidebook to Assist Urban Water Suppliers to Prepare a 2010 Urban Water Management Plan

California Department of Water Resources (DWR) | March 17th, 2011

Guidebook to Assist Urban Water Suppliers to Prepare a 2010 Urban Water Management Plan (Guidebook) has been developed by the California Department of Water Resources (

Guidebook to Assist Urban Water Suppliers to Prepare a 2010 Urban Water Management Plan (Guidebook) has been developed by the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) to assist urban water suppliers in complying with requirements of the Urban Water Management Planning Act (the UWMP Act) and the Water Conservation Bill of 2009. It is meant to help suppliers better understand UWMP Act requirements, but water suppliers are solely responsible for ensuring they’ve complied with the requirements of the UWMP Act or applicable laws. For the purposes of this Guidebook and the UWMP Act, urban water suppliers with 3,000 or more service connections or supplying 3,000 or more acre-feet of water per year are to prepare a UWMP every five years.

Hidden Oasis: Water Conservation and Efficiency in Las Vegas

Pacific Institute | November 20th, 2007

Two of the West’s preeminent water organizations report Las Vegas Valley is sitting on an oasis of water and money savings. In their new report, the Pacific Institute a

Two of the West’s preeminent water organizations report Las Vegas Valley is sitting on an oasis of water and money savings. In their new report, the Pacific Institute and Western Resource Advocates find up to 40% of water could be saved in some sectors through improvements to indoor and outdoor water efficiency. They also found that through improving indoor water efficiency in particular, Las Vegas residents and businesses can cut water-related energy use and greenhouse gases. These findings are contained in Hidden Oasis: Water Conservation and Efficiency in Las Vegas available for download below. “Ninety percent of Las Vegas’ water efficiency money is spent on one program—turf removal. This program is important, but participation has waned and it is far from the only tool at their disposal,” said Heather Cooley, report co-author and Pacific Institute Senior Associate. “Las Vegas should capitalize on strategies that other Western cities have proven to be effective.” Hidden Oasis reveals that the Southern Nevada Water Authority, which provides water to Las Vegas and surrounding communities, can tap a number of tested, cost-effective efficiency measures to cut current water waste by up to 86,000 acre-feet. Single-family homes in Las Vegas use 100 gallons of water outside, per person, per day—almost entirely for landscaping. This use is substantially higher than in Los Angeles, Tucson, or Albuquerque. Reducing Las Vegas’ outdoor water use to more reasonable levels could cut Nevada’s total Colorado River withdrawals by 10 percent. Researchers found that by improving and expanding existing programs, and adding programs proven elsewhere in the West, the SNWA can cut Las Vegas homeowners’ indoor water waste by 40% and hotel and casino water waste by 30%. These indoor efficiency gains come from upgrading fixtures and appliances, not changing behavior. Improving total water efficiency not only saves significant water and energy expenses, it also better insulates the region from drought. “Improving indoor and outdoor water efficiency makes Las Vegas less vulnerable to current and future droughts,” said Taryn Hutchins-Cabibi, report coauthor and Water Policy Analyst at WRA. “Given the scarcity of fresh water, rising energy prices, and the looming threat of climate change, Las Vegas’ water customers need the SNWA’s help to curb unnecessary water waste and save money.”

How much potable water is saved by wastewater recycling? Quasi-experimental evidence from California

Resources, Conservation & Recycling (Elsevier) | October 6th, 2021

Recently, California has made large investments in wastewater recycling to replace applications that use potable water. It may be expected that the use of recycled water

Recently, California has made large investments in wastewater recycling to replace applications that use potable water. It may be expected that the use of recycled water reduces potable water use, but such an equivalency is not assured. The addition of recycled water infrastructure in a large Californian water district creates a natural experiment where this work tests how recycled water usage affects primary potable water. This is done using econometric methods for causal inference in an observational setting that mirror a randomized control trial (RCT). From 2001 to 2014, a number of public parks were given recycled water infrastructure, while others in those regions remained exclusively on potable supply. A two-way fixed effects regression is used to produce a difference-in-differences estimate of the average treatment effect of recycled water on total and potable water usage. The results indicate that potable water usage is reduced significantly when a park is connected to the recycled water supply. The estimated rate of displacement in the study period is 81.7%, meaning each unit of recycled water use avoided 0.817 units of potable water usage, which implies the connection of parks to recycled water supply increases total water use. The analysis provides, to the best of our knowledge, the first empirical estimate of the water savings claimed by urban water recycling programs, and the first empirical estimate of displacement using quasi-experimental methods. The methodology can be utilized to evaluate the effectiveness of recycling programs around the world.

Identifying American climate change free riders and motivating sustainable behavior

Nature Portfolio (Springer Nature) | March 19th, 2024

Identifying the Amount of Wastewater that is Available and Feasible to Recycle in California

Water Research Foundation (WRF) | July 24th, 2023

Irrigated Agriculture Technologies, Practices, and Implications for Water Scarcity

U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) | November 12th, 2019

Demand for freshwater surpasses the amount naturally available in some areas of the United States. The agriculture sector competes for this limited resource, and withdraw

Demand for freshwater surpasses the amount naturally available in some areas of the United States. The agriculture sector competes for this limited resource, and withdraws and consumes the most freshwater of any user in the nation. GAO was asked to conduct a technology assessment around agricultural water use. This report provides an overview of irrigation technologies and on-farm water conservation practices, factors influencing the adoption of these technologies, and implications of their use for water scarcity. In conducting this assessment, GAO reviewed scientific literature; convened an expert meeting with the assistance of the National Academies; visited farmers, academics, and industry representatives; interviewed officials from federal agencies; modeled water use in an illustrative watershed; and performed a regression analysis on U.S. Department of Agriculture irrigation, crop, and technology data. GAO describes two policy options that federal policymakers could consider relating to irrigation technology and discusses their benefits and challenges.

Irrigation in the Earth system

Nature Portfolio (Springer Nature) | June 20th, 2023

James Groundwater Sustainability Agency Groundwater Sustainability Plan (Revised)

James Groundwater Sustainability Agency (JGSA) | July 22nd, 2022

*Submitted to the Department of Water Resources on July 22, 2022. No date or signature accompany the seal from the preparer at Provost and Pritchard.

*Submitted to the Department of Water Resources on July 22, 2022. No date or signature accompany the seal from the preparer at Provost and Pritchard.

Joining Forces: Innovative Co-Funding to Enhance Corporate Water Stewardship Impact in the Colorado River Basin

Pacific Institute | May 16th, 2023

The premise of this paper is that co-funding with existing and emerging funding mechanisms can help corporations tackle more complex problems at more meaningful scales in

The premise of this paper is that co-funding with existing and emerging funding mechanisms can help corporations tackle more complex problems at more meaningful scales in the Colorado River Basin and beyond. Corporations often have more flexibility than other funders, particularly federal and state agencies, in deciding how to spend their water stewardship budgets. This flexibility is an important asset, allowing funding to be deployed strategically. This white paper defines innovative co-funding as the intentional and focused use of corporate water stewardship funding alongside other funders and funding sources in new ways that expand the impact of corporate spending.

LA Sustainable Water Project: Los Angeles City-Wide Overview

University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) | February 1st, 2018

This report assesses the potential to improve water quality standards while integrating complementary One Water Management practices that can increase potential local wat

This report assesses the potential to improve water quality standards while integrating complementary One Water Management practices that can increase potential local water supplies for the City of Los Angeles (the City).  This final report summarizes the current practices and future opportunities at the City-owned Water Reclamation Plants and underlying groundwater basins and highlights the importance of considering all aspects of integrated water management even when dealing with water quality or supply-focused projects. Implementing watershed-scale best management practice programs to meet stormwater permit requirements will significantly improve water quality in all watersheds.  However, additional mechanisms such as increasing Low Impact Development implementation and comprehensive source tracking and source control mechanisms will be required to potentially eliminate water quality exceedances.  There are multiple efforts occurring in the City and the region to increase the recharge of recycled water into the ground and the volumes of remediated groundwater extracted. This research further assessed the impacts of potential water supply portfolios, with greater volumes of locally-supplied water, on GHG emissions and energy needs of supplying LA’s water.  Conservation will be another powerful tool to decrease our dependence on imported water.  This research demonstrates the complex interrelationships between all aspects of urban water management, including, for example, stormwater management and local water supply.