Preparing for Climate Change: Water Agencies TIM 155 Spring 2017

Three Goals of Adaptation to Climate Change Resilience of existing systems Resilience involves the restoration of systems after a damaging climate-related event to their previous state Lifeline services during and immediately after an event Risk awareness for private (individuals/businesses) preparations

Adaptive Capacity the ability to adjust to changes in environmental conditions.

Water agencies are always planning for environmental change: o flood o drought o heat wave o ice storm o spread of water-related infectious disease o sea level rise infiltration of coastal groundwater resources flooding of coastal water facilities, especially wastewater treatment. o long-term shifts in a weather pattern providing a region more or less water

California water agencies are planning for all of these except the last (long term shifts). But additional agencies are also beginning to plan for climate change. Planning for climate change means reconsidering an agency’s investments in adaptive capacity.

Agencies already have adaptive capacity based on their expectations of extreme weather events.

Preparing for climate change costs money -acquiring new water supplies -moving water facilities inland away from the coast (sea level rise; seawater intrusion into coastal aquifers) -purchasing, holding in inventory additional spare parts -waterproofing pumps and SCADA systems -increasing public awareness regarding climate-related risks

Reacting to a major climate event also costs money - emergency response and life line services - damages to homes and properties

Who pays for climate change? - Water agencies can add these costs to their rates. - Individuals and businesses can purchase. insurance, which means the cost is shared among all the company’s policy holders. - The people who are impacted pay (loss of home, health care costs). - Other government agencies pay. o Public health o Fire, Rescue o Open space/natural resources

Role of Markets If people take climate change seriously, and If reliable data emerges on climate change risks o Property values will adjust down or up as people choose to move away from at-risk areas to safer areas o Companies will emerge that offer a wide range of climate-related products and services (emergency water supplies, emergency water treatment systems, insurance products). These things already exist in markets, but will be adapted as supply and demand change.

Role of Government - pay for research - inform the public act to secure government services actions to reduce risks to the public and economy, such as forecasting and education

Role of Citizens - be informed - (hopefully) take actions they deem are appropriate in light of the information available from all sources on climate change. o Otherwise suffer the consequences

Climate Change Mitigation “Mitigation” means reducing the loading of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. Cities are attempting to become carbon-neutral, and are expecting water agencies to do so as well. - direct mitigation by making a water agency’s atmospheric carbon emissions zero is currently impossible. Agencies depend on the electric grid for steady, reliable power and the grid is fueled in large part by fossil fuels.

But agencies can have a net-zero mitigation record by offsetting their fossil energy use with renewable energy additions to the grid. -having a net-zero GHG policy could have a wide range of costs o cheapest are buying emission reduction credits o more expensive is to do local projects that generate renewable energy - These activities take water agencies away from their core mission of treating and providing water…known as mission creep!

But agencies can have a net-zero mitigation record by offsetting their fossil energy use with renewable energy additions to the grid. It is getting easier to put solar panels on the roofs of water supply and treatment facilities, and this is becoming more common. The City of Santa Cruz Water Department does this.

Conclusions: Water agencies have always planned for extreme climate events so they will be able to plan for climate change without much change to current practices. A KEY measure of success will be how well they can coordinate with other public agencies since impacts will affect multiple systems at once and large regions. Examples include: fire department, parks and recreation, and emergency services.