11 Dangerous Ideas in Water Management

Jay Lund, professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California – Davis, and director of the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences, pens an op-ed for the California WaterBlog that lists eight of the most "dangerous" ideas in water management, specific to California's situation.

The list builds from a fundamental premise that water policy requires a broad consensus. In California, however, "people often seem to group themselves into communities of interests and ideology, which see complex water problems differently." Those groups each have their own, non-scientific ideas about water management, and Lund argues that such self interest can "ultimately become dangerous even to their advocates…"

Lund's eight "dangerous ideas" are as follows, with more detail in the article:

1. There is a silver bullet solution.
2. I win if you lose.
3. We can "Solve or "fix" water problems.
4. Someone else should pay.
5. Regulation will protect the environment.
6. We were promised.
7. We need trust.
8. It will work as planned.

An additional post for the On the Public Record blog piggybacked on Lund's list, adding a few of its own. Three additional items, in fact, include more detail in the source post:

1. That conventional growth predictions are immutable and will pose new demand that we must meet. 
2. That water markets are a neutral, non-coercive way to reallocate water supplies.
3. That California should grow all profitable foodstuffs.