Dear Deeply Readers,

Welcome to the archives of Water Deeply. While we paused regular publication of the site on November 1, 2018, we are happy to serve as an ongoing public resource on water resilience. We hope you’ll enjoy the reporting and analysis that was produced by our dedicated community of editors and contributors.

We continue to produce events and special projects while we explore where the on-site journalism goes next. If you’d like to reach us with feedback or ideas for collaboration you can do so at [email protected].

BROWSE THE WATER DEEPLY ARCHIVES

Deeply Talks: Water Conservation and Efficiency Challenges

Statewide regulations and local innovations are contributing to making water conservation a ‘California way of life.’ Listen to two experts explain the implications of new water efficiency laws and highlight promising trends in conservation throughout the state.

Written by Lindsay Abrams Published on Read time Approx. 1 minutes
A sprinkler waters a lawn in April 2015 in Walnut Creek, California.Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

In this month’s episode of Deeply Talks, Water Deeply managing editor Tara Lohan discussed California’s statewide and local conservation and efficiency efforts with Cynthia Koehler, cofounder and executive director at WaterNow Alliance, and Erik Porse, a research engineer in the Office of Water Programs at California State University, Sacramento.

California’s recent statewide regulations, Senate Bill 606 and Assembly Bill 1668, which aim to boost California’s water efficiency, are often misunderstood. Despite what you may have heard, it is not illegal to shower and do laundry on the same day. Koehler provided some historical context for the regulations, which are part of Governor Jerry Brown’s executive order aimed at making water conservation “a California way of life.”

Both experts agreed that the state did a good job of involving local water agencies in the drafting of the legislation. But they emphasized that these new regulations are far from the only driver of efficiency gains.

“Really, the action is on the ground, with these individual water agencies,” said Koehler, highlighting innovations such as turf replacement programs and consumer-oriented water technology. “We’re seeing a trend toward a growing outreach and partnership between utilities and their consumers.”

Just as important, added Porse, is “becoming familiar not only with the technology, but with the ecology.” Cities and suburbs throughout the state are moving toward a greater understanding of how to manage low-water landscapes.

Still, California has a long way to go. Porse shared some insight from his experience in energy management: Homes, he noted, may be becoming more efficient in their energy usage, but they’re also getting bigger and therefore using more energy overall. The same principle applies to water management. “Ultimately, what we’re trying to do is maintain or reduce the amount of water we’re using through conservation,” Porse said. “Promoting efficiency alone doesn’t get you there.”

For advance notice of upcoming Deeply Talks and other Water Deeply events, subscribe to our weekly newsletter.

california conservation efficiency

Republish this article

Our mission is to empower stakeholders and the wider public with high quality information, insights, and analysis on critical global issues. To help achieve this, we encourage you to republish the text of any article that contains a Republish button on your own news outlet.

By copying the HTML below, you agree to adhere to our republishing guidelines.

By copying the HTML below, you agree to adhere to our republishing guidelines. Click to expand

  1. In republishing any of our articles:

    Ensure that you include a line of our HTML tracking code on every article you republish. This is a lightweight, efficient way for us to see the number of page views of each specific article published on our partners’ websites. This does not affect page layout, nor does it provide any information about your users, other web pages on your site, or any further data. By copying and pasting the HTML code in the box below, the tracking code is automatically included.

    If, for any reason, you do not copy the code prepared for you, you must paste this code snippet into the end of the article in your CMS: 

    <img src="http://ping.newsdeeply.com/pixel.gif?key=134411&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newsdeeply.com%2Fwater%2Fcommunity%2F2018%2F08%2F02%2Fdeeply-talks-water-conservation-and-efficiency-challenges" alt="" />

  2. Adhere to the guidelines below:
    • Edit our stories only to reflect references to time (e.g. "today" to "yesterday"), location (e.g. "New York" to "here") or editorial style; do not edit the wording of our articles.
    • Include all the links within the story.
    • Credit our authors and partner institutions — ideally in the byline. We prefer “Author Name, Institution”
    • Note at the top and/or bottom of the story that it originally appeared on Water Deeply. This note should include a direct link to the original article and a sentence that offers the reader the opportunity to join the Water’s mailing list. Our recommended example is:
      • This should read : “This article originally appeared on Water Deeply. You can find the original here. For important news about water issues and the American West, you can sign up to the Water email list.”
    • Do not republish a photo without our written permission. Some sources don't allow their images to be republished without permission.
    • Do not translate a story into another language without our written permission.
    • We often republish pieces from our partners. If you want to republish a partner’s story, you must credit the original partner and include a “via News Deeply” link.
    • Note that News Deeply considers the publication date to be the date marked on the story, and is not responsible for any content that you choose to repost.
    • After republication on the partner website, if you make an accompanying post on social media referencing the republished article, you must include the relevant Deeply social media handle in such post. For example, (i) for Twitter posts this means adding the appropriate @Deeply tag such as @SyriaDeeply, @WaterDeeply, or @WomensGirlsHub and (ii) for Facebook this means tagging the appropriate Deeply page in your Facebook post.
    • News Deeply material may not to be provided, in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, to third parties or affiliates for redistribution through those entities, unless you have received prior written approval from News Deeply.
    • You may not automatically or systematically republish any material from our sites; all stories must be chosen individually for republishing.
    • You may not sell our content or republish it for commercial purposes without our prior written consent.
    • We reserve the right to request that any partner ceases republication of our content, including but not limited to if the guidelines listed above not being followed.
    • If you have any questions or concerns please contact [email protected]

Suggest your story or issue.

Send

Share Your Story.

Have a story idea? Interested in adding your voice to our growing community?

Learn more
× Dismiss
We have updated our Privacy Policy with a few important changes specific to General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and our use of cookies. If you continue to use this site, you consent to our use of cookies. Read our full Privacy Policy here.
Accept