Report Comparing Futures for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta By Ellen Hanak, Jay Lund, William Fleenor, Jeffrey Mount ... Jul 17, 2008 For over 50 years, California has been pumping water through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta for extensive urban and agricultural uses around the state. Today, the Delta is ailing and in urgent need of a new management strategy. This report concludes that building a peripheral canal to carry water around the Delta is the most promising way to balance two critical policy goals: reviving a threatened ecosystem and ensuring a reliable, high-quality water supply for California.
blog post Commentary: Competing Narratives on Delta Outflow Fuel Water Conflict By Jeffrey Mount, Greg Gartrell Jun 2, 2020 The federal government’s efforts to increase water supplied to farms and cities, and a breakdown in cooperation between the state and federal government, have escalated conflict over the Delta. What are they really fighting over?
Report A New Approach to Accounting for Environmental Water: Insights from the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta By Greg Gartrell, Jeffrey Mount, Ellen Hanak, Brian Gray Nov 12, 2017 How water is apportioned to California’s cities, farms, and the environment can lead to conflict and competition in times of drought. Allocation of water to the environment in particular is poorly accounted for and poorly understood—shortcomings that can affect water policy, decision making, and public perception. This report reviews the state’s long-standing methods for defining and accounting for environmental water and proposes reforms to improve the timeliness, transparency, and detail in the accounting of environmental water allocation.
blog post New Strategy, New Challenges for the Delta By Ellen Hanak, Jay Lund, Jeffrey Mount, Brian Gray May 8, 2015 Governor Brown’s new approach to managing the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta brings new challenges.
Fact Sheet The Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta By Jeffrey Mount, Ellen Hanak, Greg Gartrell May 18, 2022 The Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta is California’s largest estuary and a vital hub in the state’s water supply system. Three interlinked issues currently face the Delta: an increasingly unreliable water supply, a decline in ecosystem health, and a fragile system of levees. Learn more about this key watershed in our new fact sheet.
blog post Solutions for the Delta By Caitrin Chappelle Nov 22, 2016 Decision makers need actionable science to address the many difficult challenges facing the Delta.
Policy Brief Policy Brief: Tracking Where Water Goes in a Changing Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta By Greg Gartrell, Jeffrey Mount, Ellen Hanak May 16, 2022 The Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta supplies water to roughly 30 million Californians, over 6 million acres of farmland, and countless ecosystems. But the watershed’s climate is changing: recent decades have seen record warmth, higher evaporation, and declining snowpack. We track where the water is going—and how to adapt.
blog post Commentary: Delta Interests Should Seize the Opportunity to Cease Water Fights By Ellen Hanak, Jeffrey Mount Feb 21, 2019 The governor has proposed a single tunnel rather than two for the Sacramento‒San Joaquin Delta—and approach that could help reduce conflict over this important water body.
