Distinguished Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering Jay Lund on the State of Water in California
When it comes to California water issues, Jay Lund is the foremost expert who is often contacted to provide context and meaning to one of the more complex issues facing the state. With numerous periods of heavy rain over the winter, Lund was called in to provide expert context and perspective on a near-daily basis. With all of that water now sitting or on its way to reservoirs and waterways across the state, catch up on everything you need to know about California’s ever-shifting water landscape.
On the state of California’s levees given this unprecedented amount of water, Lund says...
“These levees were built at very different times over the last more than 100 years — in some cases, about 150c years. Some of the early levees, which are still around, were made basically by farmers and landowners piling up dirt between them and the river. On some occasions, those have been formalized, and certainly for the major levees that are protecting large cities, we now have, you know, pretty well-engineered, pretty well-maintained levees that all provide finite amounts of protection.” [NPR, 1/17/23]
On the outlook for California’s native fish species that have suffered through droughts, Lund says...
“They've been depleted for quite some time and over several droughts. They never seem to recover during the wet years as much as they decline during the dry years.” [Cap Radio, 3/7/23]
On whether the state can capture all of that water from the winter storms, Lund says...
“In some places, almost all that water will be absorbed into groundwater because there's no other place for it to run off. And other places close to the ocean, there's fewer opportunities for it to be intercepted and recharged to groundwater, or to make it into streams before it makes it to the ocean.” [KCRW, 1/4/23]
On what California’s wet winter did for its water crisis, Lund says...
“There's two kinds of water emergencies...when you have too much and when you have too little. And sometimes we have to worry about both in the same year. And this is one of those years.” [CBS News, 3/9/23]