USC SPPD 2010 Urban Growth Seminar

California has a complex, highly interconnected, and decentralized water system. Although local operations draw on considerable expertise and analysis, broad public policy and planning discussions about water often involve a variety of misperceptions—or myths—about how the system works and the options available for improving its performance.

The prevalence of myth and folklore makes for lively rhetoric but hinders the development of effective policy and raises environmental and economic costs. Moving beyond myth toward a water policy based on facts and science is essential if California is to meet the multiple, sometimes competing, goals for sustainable management in the 21st century: satisfying agricultural, environmental, and urban demands for water supply and quality and ensuring adequate protection from floods.

In December 2009, PPIC issued report entitled "California Water Myths" (attached), which focused on eight common water myths, involving water supply, ecosystems, and the legal and political aspects of governing Californias water system which the people of PPIC find to be particularly distracting and disruptive to public policy discussions.

Often, myths serve the rhetorical purposes of particular stakeholders. And they persist because our public policy debates are not sufficiently grounded in solid technical and scientific information about how we use and manage water. In combating these myths, the people of PPIC hope to set the stage for a more rational and informed approach to water policy and management in the state.
Ellen Hanak is currently the Director of Research, a Senior Fellow and the Thomas C. Sutton Chair in Policy Research at the Public Policy Institute of California. Prior to working there, she worked at the Center for Cooperation in International Research for Agricultural Development (CIRAD) in Paris, France; the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC; the Executive Offices of the President of the United States and the World Bank.
Ms. Hanak is a prolific academic author, frequently publishing works in both English and French on topics such as infrastructure, water issues, developing countries and economics. Her most recent journal articles were Climate Change and Housing Prices: Hedonic Estimates for Ski Resorts in Western North America, Land Economics (forthcoming, February 2011) (with V. Butsic and R. Valletta) (available as working paper 2008-12, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, October 2009); Myths of California Water: Implications and Reality, West-Northwest Journal of Environmental Law and Policy, Vol. 16 (1), Winter 2010 (with J. Lund, A. Dinar, B. Gray, R. Howitt, J. Mount, P. Moyle, B. Thompson) and State Infrastructure Spending and the Federal Stimulus Package, National Tax Journal, Vol. LXII (3), September 2009.
Her most recent book, Comparing Futures for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, (co-written with J. Lund, W. Fleenor, W. Bennett, R. Howitt, J. Mount, and P. Moyle), was republished by the University of California Press and Public Policy Institute of California in February 2010.
Ms. Hanak received her B.A. in History from Swarthmore College, her M.A. in Economics from the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, where she was also a Fulbright-Hays Scholar, and her Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Maryland.

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