Episode 01: Pilot episode
“We are trying to have more interdisciplinary water conversations and engage with a broader group of people”
Dr. Faith Kearns
Welcome to Water Talk, a new University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources podcast about all things California Water hosted by Drs. Mallika Nocco, Faith Kearns, and Sam Sandoval! Listen to our pilot episode to learn more about us, our goals for this first season, and the conversations that you can expect from us.
Transcript
Mallika Nocco
Welcome to Water Talk from the University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources. I'm Dr. Mallika Nocco, a cooperative extension specialist in soil plant water relations and irrigation management.
Sam Sandoval
I am Sam Sandoval. I'm faculty and an extension specialist in water resources.
Faith Kearns
And I'm Faith Kearns, the academic coordinator for the California Institute for Water Resources.
Mallika Nocco
We are here today to have a conversation about water and all of the issues that pertain to water throughout the state of California. Faith, why don't you tell us a little bit about your work in this area.
Faith Kearns
I've been working in the Water Institute for about seven years and I write and talk pretty extensively about water, but also wildfire and climate change in California. And I'm looking forward to this Water Talk program with Sam and Mallika.
Mallika Nocco
How about you, Sam?
Sam Sandoval
I do research in water, water resources management, mostly in how you get the water that arrives to your house and how to get the water for your foods. And for the places and rivers that you enjoy. I'm also really looking forward for this podcast.
Mallika Nocco
All right, well, thank you so much to my co hosts for introducing yourselves. A little bit about myself. I study as I said, soil plant water relations, and I really focus my work on irrigation management, and I love working with farmers. But I also want to talk a little bit about what this program is going to be and what my aspirations are for it. Many folks may not be as familiar with the extension component of the University of California system. And it's this idea that the knowledge that's created at any of the UCs throughout the state, it doesn't stop at the university boundaries, it's supposed to extend throughout the whole state. And that's really what we're trying to do here. Regarding the topic of water, sheltering in place, I was just thinking a lot about how we can extend knowledge about water right now. We really invite feedback from anyone who'd like to suggest topics or speakers that we can touch base and have conversations with. And we'd like to invite all of you join us.
Sam Sandoval
As I've been driving throughout the state, I think some of these podcasts might be some good audio when you're driving to get some of these scientific contexts or specific themes that we are interested, also to bring the personal aspect as we're doing all these interviews that can be communicated through the podcast because sometimes when you're reading something or when you're a listening to something, it doesn't come, so this will also bring that personal account.
Faith Kearns
And on that note, I would just add, I've been writing about California water for many years now. And some of the most interesting things that I've worked on have been trying to broaden the water conversation beyond what we typically think of, particularly in the university setting, when it comes to really engineering focused or physical sciences focused conversations into what are more interdisciplinary conversations with people who are looking at water from an anthropological or sociological perspective. And that's been a super fascinating thing. I'm looking forward to bringing some of those conversations to life a little bit more than they can be on a written page. And at the same time, I'm also looking forward to being in conversation with a broader set of people outside of the university. So that's also a really exciting aspect as it's just a huge field and super interesting topics.
Mallika Nocco
The other thing that we really wanted to talk about today is to really acknowledge what's happening, and ways that people in our community are thinking about water and COVID related to each other. And Faith, I know that you took some time and put together several resources about these issues. Can you talk about that a little bit?
Faith Kearns
Sure. So it's been really interesting thinking about how water interfaces with COVID-19. At first, I would say, like everyone, there was just scrambling to get set up working again and all of that kind of stuff, but with a little bit of time to take a look at the water issues that are already arising, and they're certainly going to be more of them. But I think they can broadly be binned into issues related to water safety. You know, people have been concerned about the safety of their tap water, the availability of their tap water, and that's something that people have reassured is not something to be worried about. Public Policy Institute of California Water program had an interview with the head of the of ACWA about water treatment and its resilience in the face of coronavirus and the fact that we don't all need to run out and buy bottled water.
Mallika Nocco
Just a quick question for those who don't know what ACWA is, can you?
Faith Kearns
The Association of California Water Agencies, which is a group that covers the professional branch of water in California. So, as we all know, one of the key tools that we have in terms of coronavirus right now is hand washing. That's a very fundamental piece of this whole thing. And so because that's being pushed so broadly as a key public health intervention, really ensuring that people have access to water has also been a very important issue across the United States. In California last week, Governor Newsom assigned an executive order preventing water safety shut offs due to inability to pay and also reinstating some of those that had been shut off. So that's available to read. There's a lot of advice for people from the Community Water Center and others about how to ensure ongoing water access during this pandemic. And the other big thing that at least right now people are really talking a lot about because there's been such a shortage of toilet paper, is that people are flushing things like paper towels — and what are often advertised as flushable wipes but generally are are not flushable — down toilets and ending up already with sewer overflows, which is just something you don't want during the coronavirus. You don't want that coincidence of public health issues. And so people are really asking that we only flush bodily waste and toilet paper. The preliminary stuff that I put together is on the website of the California Institute for Water Resources, which is ciwr.ucanr.edu. And there's a link right on the front page.
Sam Sandoval
What is the importance of water in this pandemic? I mean, water is one of the key ingredients to keep it down. And that's why we want to talk about these and have these this type of informal conversation where all of us can get informed.
Mallika Nocco
We're really excited to have Leslie Roche and Dan Macon join us as our guests. And they're going to talk about drought and ranching and sheep.
Sam Sandoval
I mean, right now, it may be scarcity. This is same thing that you're mentioning in terms of how agriculture and food production in general is becoming key at this moment. And I think that's part of natural resources and that's part of what we're trying to do here. Make sure that we can provide useful information. And I think everything that I'm thinking of…California's climate to me is kind of a bipolar behavior, because it's sometimes very dry, and then extremely wet, and then dry again, and then wet. And then here we are back, again, is drought. And I mean, we have large or important a storm event, passing April 1. We're really in uncharted territory.
Mallika Nocco
Are we still considered to be in a drought because we were so dry? Did we officially have a miracle March? Or was the March that we had not quite miraculous enough?
Sam Sandoval
Maybe it hasn't been miraculous enough? Because this year before, I would say on Monday, we were half of the precipitation in the north part of the state where Sacramento should be 50 inches, then a 40 inches size San Joaquin, and then 30 inches in Tulare. In Sacramento we were about 25 to 26 inches of water. And I think that even though we have this week, some good storms, good rain events, we're not going to make it to the 15th. It didn't rain 25 inches. And again, I think we're going back to drought in terms of the water reservoirs in this data. I think we will be in good condition, so nothing to worry for this year. The really difficult issue will be if we have a second year of a drought.
Faith Kearns
I would just add on to that to say that I think one of the interesting things I always look for in any given year is to see how what's happening with our precipitation is affecting the ranching community, because they are often the first hit by any water shortages that we might have, because there is so much non-irrigated pasture in California. So what you're really looking for in drought indicators. Leslie and Dan are some of the first people that ended up seeing that because ranchers get so hard hit by any shortages in precipitation. And so there's also this challenge of the ongoing drought and how our wildfire season is going to go, which is very related to precipitation as well. So all of these are big issues.
Sam Sandoval
Also, just to add to what you're saying, Faith. Yeah, the other problem of these late rains is that we have already some of our tree crops flowering and if it comes to heavy rain, I mean it may actually drop the flowers which will become the fruit. And then the second one is that it makes it way more difficult to do some of the agricultural practices, a finishing cover cropping or just getting into the fields. It's making it more difficult at a time where, right now we were kind of gearing towards just doing the regular practices. So it's been challenging.
Mallika Nocco
We just really want to emphasize that we want to hear from all of you if you're able to join us during your lunch on Tuesday, and we don't mind if there are children in the background. And that's why we are trying the format that we're trying is to hear from multiple perspectives and people throughout this state. So please do join us if you can, and if you're unavailable. Please give us a listen. If you want to hear more about drought and ranching and sheep which I am particularly excited to hear about.
Sam Sandoval
So Faith, Mallika, can you tell us a fun activity, any hobby that you have that you want to share with the audience?
Mallika Nocco
So I feel really fortunate in that I am going to be able to garden this year, I should share with everyone that I'm a Midwestern transplant. So I just moved here from Wisconsin. And to those of you out there who are gardeners, I was in the USDA hardiness zone 3A, and now I'm in the USDA hardiness zone 9 and I am so excited.
Sam Sandoval
Faith, what about you?
Faith Kearns
I would say mostly I've been really grateful to have a little bit of time in the house, I suppose to catch up on a lot of reading. So there's a lot of fiction and literary nonfiction books that have been sitting for a while. And I finally find myself able to get through a few of those at least. So it's a good time for reading.
Sam Sandoval
And in my case, I mean two things that are very good. I've been able to have a more frequent lunch with my wife. So that's good. The other thing, I've been doing some yoga and pilates. So basically, I have a huge problem with flexibility. I'm not sure if I'm going to get better or not.
Mallika Nocco
That's fantastic. Thanks for listening and join us next time on Water Talk.