Tag Archive for: Stanford University

Sweetwater Authority hosted a group of students and faculty from Stanford University for a tour and discussion of issues related to climate change and water in California. Photo: Sweetwater Authority

Sweetwater Authority Hosts Stanford University Students and Faculty

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Sweetwater Authority (Authority) recently welcomed fifteen students and faculty from Stanford University’s The Bill Lane Center for the American West. Group members are part of the university’s multidisciplinary course of study on “Coastal Resilience: Problems and Solutions to Extreme Weather Challenges on the West Coast.”

The Bill Lane Center for the American West is dedicated to advancing scholarly and public understanding of the past, present, and future of western North America. The Center supports research, teaching, and reporting about Western land and life in the United States.

The Stanford University group visited the Robert A. Perdue Water Treatment Plant and Sweetwater Reservoir, as well as the Richard A. Reynolds Groundwater Desalination Facility in Chula Vista. Photo: Sweetwater Authority

The Stanford University group visited the Robert A. Perdue Water Treatment Plant and Sweetwater Reservoir, as well as the Richard A. Reynolds Groundwater Desalination Facility in Chula Vista. Photo: Sweetwater Authority

The students and faculty first toured the Robert A. Perdue Water Treatment Plant and Sweetwater Reservoir, where they learned how the Authority secures and treats local water, maintains a historic dam, and manages watershed activities for the beneficial use of agency operations and the protection of environmental resources.

The group then visited the Richard A. Reynolds Groundwater Desalination Facility in Chula Vista. There, the students and Authority representatives discussed challenges facing groundwater supplies due to climate change before touring the award-winning facility.

Collaboration Addresses Challenges of Climate Change

“It was our honor to host the Stanford group and engage in these important discussions with the next generation of leaders," said Board Chair Paulina Martinez-Perez. Photo: Sweetwater Authority

“It was our honor to host the Stanford group and engage in these important discussions with the next generation of leaders,” said Board Chair Paulina Martinez-Perez. Photo: Sweetwater Authority

“The challenges presented by climate change as it relates to providing a sustainable and drought-proof water supply are great, and we need the brightest minds working to ensure long-term resilience for the western region,” said Authority Board Chair Paulina Martinez-Perez.

In its vision to become a leader in sustainability and the fight against climate change, the Authority’s Governing Board sets objectives within the agency’s Strategic Plan to work toward achieving carbon neutrality.

Current fiscal year objectives include implementing a Green Fleet Plan, installing EV stations at its facilities, and exploring green energy solutions like a proposed floating solar project at Sweetwater Reservoir to reduce costs and offset carbon generated as part of water agency operations. For more information, visit www.sweetwater.org/workplan.

 

An Idea That Could Help Replenish California’s Groundwater Supplies

/in , , /by /Yale Climate Connections

When drought strikes, California farmers often pump water from underground aquifers to water their crops. But increasingly dry conditions are straining that resource. “On average, over time, we have been extracting more water from the subsurface than has been recharged,” says David Freyberg of Stanford University. He says many people are looking at ways to replenish the state’s dwindling groundwater supplies.

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Climate Change Causing One-Third of Flood Damage in United States, Stanford Study Finds

/in , , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Kurtis Alexander

Increasingly strong storms are responsible for more than a third of the nation’s flood costs, swelling the tab by billions of dollars a year as climate change continues to fuel more extreme weather, according to new research at Stanford University.

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Skyrocketing Coronavirus Levels in California Sewage Point to Rapid Spread of Virus

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby By Rong-Gong Lin II and Luke Money

Sewage data analyzed in Silicon Valley wastewater treatment plants confirms that the latest wave of coronavirus infections is sharply worse than the ones in the spring and summer.

Officials in Santa Clara County have been routinely testing solid waste samples in sewage to detect levels of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 as part of a project funded by Stanford University.

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The Past, Present and Future of California’s Groundwater

/in , , /by /Water in the West (Stanford University)by Michelle Horton

A century after the state began overseeing surface water, the California legislature enacted a set of three laws regulating water below the surface. The passage of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) in 2014, granted the state official oversight authority of groundwater. However, its involvement existed long before SGMA and continues to influence current policies and regulation of the resource. A new paper published in Society and Natural Resources, examines how the state’s ongoing involvement helped shape current policies by looking at the 120-year history of California’s role in groundwater management and policy development.

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Building Effective Water Data Platforms

/in , , /by /Stanford Water in the Westby Megan Glatzel

Much like solving a mystery, making informed water management decisions in California involves finding and investigating all necessary information. With data scattered across multiple locations, the process of accessing and analyzing the information can be an arduous task.

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Researchers Look to Improve Leak Detection for the World’s Aging Water Pipes

/in , , /by /Inside Scienceby Catherine Meyers

Across the United States, underground labyrinths of leaky pipes lose more than a trillion gallons of water a year — and the problem is mirrored around the world.

“It’s a huge problem, especially in the cities,” said Daniel Tartakovsky, a professor of energy resources engineering at Stanford University in California. Tartakovsky and his former student Abdulrahman Alawadhi from the University of California, San Diego have proposed a way to improve a traditional method of detecting these leaks.

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Putting A Tempest into A Teapot: Can California Better Use Winter Storms To Refill Its Aquifers?

/in , /by /Stanford Universityby Felicity Barringer

This bipolar weather will have profound implications for the state’s $50 billion agriculture industry and the elaborate network of reservoirs, canals, and aqueducts that store and distribute water. A system built for irrigation and flood protection must adapt to accommodate more conservation. “The effects of climate change are necessitating wholesale changes in how water is managed in California,” the state Department of Water Resources wrote in a June, 2018 white paper.During droughts, farmers and municipalities pumped groundwater to augment sparse surface supplies. After nearly a century of heavy use, many aquifers are badly depleted.

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