Water Management Projects
Los Angeles—long known for its high water consumption—has recently become a “leader in sustainable water management” thanks to a host of new conservation, collection, and reuse policies. The city now uses “less water than it did in 1970 while its population has grown by more than a third.”
In a new blog post, RFF’s Yusuke Kuwayama comments on a recent US Geological Survey report indicating that water withdrawals nationwide have dropped by 13 percent between 2005 and 2010. He writes: “Instead of taking these latest withdrawal estimates as an indication to ease up on water management activities, we should interpret them as evidence that our policies are starting to work, and that further analysis is needed to ensure that these policies to continue to protect out water sources in a cost-effective manner.”
Debris Brings Invasive Species
More debris from the 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami is expected to wash ashore in the Pacific Northwest this winter, bringing a number of potentially invasive species into the area. Researchers are concerned that organisms native to Asia traveling with this debris will “introduce new diseases and compete with, displace, or otherwise affect” species along the coasts of Washington and Oregon.
In a recent Resources article, Rebecca Epanchin-Niell notes that the key to reducing damages from invasive species is to detect them early, when it is “less costly to contain or eradicate” establishing populations. Because “even the best-designed inspection strategy” will not offer a region full protection against bioinvaders, Epanchin-Niell writes that policymakers should focus on using surveillance strategies as cost-effective policy tools.
