blog post Governor’s Budget Seeks to Build Water Resilience By Ellen Hanak, Gokce Sencan Jan 21, 2020 A look at the water and climate priorities laid out in two new documents: the state’s draft Water Resilience Portfolio and the governor’s proposed budget.
blog post New Progress in California Water Rights Reform By Sarah Bardeen Dec 5, 2023 Many have argued that California’s water rights laws are sorely in need of modernization. Is recent legislation taking a step in that direction? We spoke with two legal experts to find out.
blog post Got Surface Water? Groundwater-Only Lands in the San Joaquin Valley By Jelena Jezdimirovic, Ellen Hanak, Alvar Escriva-Bou Jul 8, 2019 Twenty percent of the San Joaquin Valley’s irrigated farmland doesn’t have access to surface water. This creates complications for sustainable groundwater management planning.
press release If Drought Continues: Environment and Poor Rural Communities Most Likely to Suffer Aug 19, 2015
blog post New Opportunities for Trading Surface Water in the Sacramento Valley under SGMA By Alex Ehrens, Joy Collins, Andrew Ayres Sep 14, 2021 Successful groundwater stewardship under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) demands good information—not only about groundwater conditions, but also about surface water availability. We produced a new dataset of how access to this vital resource varies across irrigated farmland in the Sacramento Valley and the Delta, so it’s now possible to assess surface water conditions across the entire Central Valley.
blog post Banking on Groundwater By Lori Pottinger Mar 21, 2017 An expert interview on efforts to recharge California’s depleted groundwater basins to help bring them back into balance.
blog post Californians and Climate Change By Mark Baldassare Aug 10, 2015 California likely voters’ strong support of AB 32—the 2006 law requiring reductions in greenhouse gas emissions—has barely budged, through good times and bad. Why?
Fact Sheet Access to Safe Drinking Water in California By Caitrin Chappelle, Joy Collins, Ellen Hanak Apr 2, 2021 Not every Californian has access to safe and reliable drinking water. Small communities relying on groundwater are most likely to have chronic water quality problems.
blog post Commentary: What Did We Learn from the Drought? By Ellen Hanak, Jeffrey Mount Apr 17, 2017 A review of policy changes that can help California weather the next drought—and prepare us for a hotter, drier future.
Statewide Survey PPIC Statewide Survey: Special Survey of Orange County By Mark Baldassare Dec 1, 2004 Some findings of the survey Orange County residents are overwhelmingly upbeat about the county’s quality of life: Most (90%) say things are going well today. Majorities say their parks and beaches (84%), freeways and roads (64%), and schools (64%) are excellent or good. Over two-thirds of the county’s residents (69%) rate the local economy as excellent or good. Virtually all county homeowners (98%) say they are satisfied with the homes they live in, and most (80%) are very satisfied. In the recent presidential election, heavily Republican Orange County gave the nod to Bush (60%) over Kerry (39%). County residents give the Republican governor sky-high marks: 68% say they approve of Schwarzenegger’s job performance (7 points higher than his statewide standing). Orange County residents (62%) are also substantially more likely than Californians as a whole (44%) to say the state is going in the right direction. This survey is a special edition of the PPIC Statewide Survey, which periodically includes regional and special-theme surveys. The intent of the current survey is to provide timely, accurate, and objective information about policy preferences and economic, social, and political trends in Orange County.
