A week doesn’t go by without someone saying there are water wars underway or about to kick off in California. How we manage and govern water is critically important to people, the environment, and the economy. But, are we really at war? Really? Do we believe there are always victors and vanquished? What is the impact of telling ourselves and others this is warfare, when in reality it is simply the messiness of working together in community?
So, we’ve gathered a panel to answer the question: Water wars, what are they good for?
Panel:
Tim Quinn, former Executive Director of ACWA
John Fleck, author of ‘Water is for Fighting Over: and other Myths About Water in the West’
Tracy Quinn, Director, California Urban Water Policy, Healthy People & Thriving Communities Program at the NRDC
Moderator: Lisa Beutler, Executive Facilitator with Stantec
RESOURCES SHARED IN THE CHAT
- Tim Quinn: 40 years of California water policy report: https://qhj126.p3cdn2.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Forty-Years-of-California-Water-Policy_Timothy-Quinn-Final.pdf
- Tim Quinn: San Joaquin Valley Collaborative Action Prospectus: https://tinyurl.com/ranst5zt
- Lisa Beutler’s article, Wicked Is a Special Kind of Problem: What It Is and What to Do about It: https://mavensnotebook.com/2021/03/15/guest-article-wicked-is-a-special-kind-of-problem-what-it-is-and-what-to-do-about-it/
- Collaborative policymaking: governance through dialog (discusses Sacramento Water Forum): https://www.csus.edu/indiv/s/shulockn/executive%20fellows%20pdf%20reading/innes%20and%20booher%20collaborative%20policymaking.pdf
- Conditions needed to sustain a successful policy collaboration (1 page) via Lisa Beutler: https://qhj126.p3cdn2.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/CONDITIONS-NEEDED-TO-SUSTAIN-A-SUCCESSFUL.pdf
- Cited by Lisa Beutler: The Reasons for Wars – an Updated Survey, by Matthew O. Jackson and Massimo Morelli 2009: https://web.stanford.edu/~jacksonm/war-overview.pdf
- John Fleck writes the Inkstain blog which you can find here: http://www.inkstain.net/fleck/
- John Fleck books: Water is for Fighting Over and Other Myths about Water in the West: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781642830118?aff=jfleck and Science Be Dammed: How Ignoring Inconvenient Science Drained the Colorado River https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780816540051?aff=jfleck
- More information on Tracy Quinn here: https://www.nrdc.org/experts/tracy-quinn
- The story behind the water wars picture: https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2013/02/18/discussing-water-rights-a-western-pastime/
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