Massive Water Storage Infrastructure to Combat Drought

California Secretary of Agriculture Karen Ross joins us in Sacramento at the Agri-Pulse Food and Ag Issues Summit West to talk all things agriculture… a leading priority for Ross is the future of water storage in the very dry, but golden state.

Ross says the California Department of Water Resources strategy “Flood-MAR” is a leading resource management opportunity.

“The real hope there is that when we get these intermittent but very dramatic precipitation events, we have the ability to quickly capture it, store it underground, which has multiple benefits, and then bring that back up for use. That’s the part of the infrastructure that we need to do significant investment in, as well as stormwater capture. The other part of our infrastructure, in addition to above-ground storage where that makes sense where we can get the permitting processes done.”

In addition to capturing water from future rainfall, Ross says reusing what we have is also important.

“But the other really important one is going forward on water recycling. Especially in urban areas where they might have a broader population base to help recover some of those costs. People are now looking at, that’s the only new water that we could potentially have in massive amounts. So the investments in that are going to drive significant change.”

Once again that is California Ag Secretary Karen Ross with us at the Agri-Pulse Food and Ag Issues Summit West in Sacramento.