Paper: ‘How Transaction Costs Obstruct Collective Action: Evidence from California’s Groundwater’.
Abstract Collective action to remedy the losses of open access to common-pool resources often is late and incomplete, extending rent dissipation.
Examples include persistent over-exploitation of oil fields and ocean fisheries, despite general agreement that production constraints are needed.
Transaction costs encountered in assigning property rights are an explanation, but analysis of their role is limited by a lack of systematic data.
We examine governance institutions in California’s 445 groundwater basins using a new dataset to identify factors that influence the adoption of extraction controls.
In 309 basins, institutions allow unconstrained pumping, while an additional 105 basins have weak management plans.
This research adds to the literatures on open access, transaction costs, bargaining, and property rights.
Enjoy!
"If a man’s wit be wandering, let him study the mathematics."
– Francis Bacon

California tortoises died trying to reproduce during drought.
Scientists examining the deaths of female desert tortoises in Southern California said it appears the animals died while exhausting their water and energy to lay eggs during California’s historic drought.
Researchers want to know why female tortoises are dying in greater numbers than males in the Joshua Tree National Park.
U.S. Geological Survey biologist Jeffrey Lovich said he believes the tortoises died during a desperate attempt to fight extinction.
"They’ll do it during a drought, when they can’t find the water they need, to have a chance to win at the game of life."
A team led by Lovich was surveying a study area of several square miles when it discovered the remains of 14 female and three male tortoises — and 15 live animals, most of them males.
But Lovich said the risk to tortoises could remain throughout desert areas as temperatures rise and forage diminishes because of global climate change.
Over the past three decades, Joshua Tree’s tortoise population has plummeted from about 30,000 to an all-time low of roughly 3,000.
Desert tortoises are a threatened species that typically have 50-year lifespans in the wild, with some living 80 years.
——— Follow Christopher Weber at https://twitter.com/WeberCM

You could fill Shasta Lake 7 times with farm groundwater pumped during state drought.
Central Valley farmers pumped enough groundwater to fill an empty Shasta Lake seven times in order to keep their profitable orchards alive during California’s epic five-year drought.
Wade said they’re also diligently preparing to comply with the state’s pending groundwater laws when they start to take effect three years from now.
To estimate pumping rates during the two droughts that struck the state in the past decade, the researchers used NASA satellite data and “water-balance estimates,” which take into account how much water crops need during at temperatures, as well as rainfall, snowmelt and soil-moisture capacity.
In the first drought, the researchers estimated farmers pumped 16.5 cubic kilometers of water.
In the more severe drought, they pumped 40 cubic kilometers, according to the study published in Geophysical Research Letters.
Much of the the past 17 years has been dry with only a few wet winters in between, so the wet winter California just experienced only goes so far to recharge the state’s groundwater deficit, said Thomas Harter, a groundwater expert with the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences.
We would need many more above average to wet winters to make up what we’ve lost.” Meanwhile, an increase in pumping has exacerbated a number of problems in the Central Valley.
The findings come on the heels of a Sacramento Bee investigation published last summer that revealed new wells were going in faster and deeper than ever during the drought in California’s southern Central Valley farmbelt.
By one estimate, about 30 percent of the communities in Tulare County had problems with failing wells during the drought.

Now that most of our region is out of a drought, local river outfitters are anticipating a successful summer.
Last summer’s drought made playing on the French Broad River difficult.
"We were able to stay open, but it was close — real, real close," Zen Tubing’s Heath White.
"And, then after we closed, it got super low then."
"We have a nesting pair of bald eagles on the stretch of river.
We also have a family of river otters on this stretch of river, and there’s osprey," he said.
"I think we are going to have a great summer.
We have good water levels," White said.
"Unlike last year, when we were dealing with a lot of drought conditions, the river is moving right along now.
It’s at a perfect level, not too high or too low.

UCLA-led researchers track groundwater loss during drought in California’s Central Valley.
Crops like almonds cannot be left fallow during dry years without jeopardizing the trees, which during droughts require extensive irrigation in the California Central Valley.
“So, we’re talking about 40 times that amount in the recent drought.” During droughts Central Valley farmers are forced to use wells to replace water that would typically come from the Colorado River basin and the Sierra Nevada mountains.
Higher temperatures during the more recent drought period and the transition from row to tree crops, accounted for most of the increase in groundwater loss between the two droughts, and more than offset the effects of a reduction in irrigated land, Lettenmaier said.
Groundwater usage for crop irrigation in the Central Valley is a well-documented and hot-button issue in California.
Researchers used two methods to track groundwater levels, traditional water balance estimates —which take into account surface water inflow like rainfall and snow melt, soil moisture capacity and evapotranspiration — and data from NASA’s twin satellite system called GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment).
GRACE estimates align with the water balance estimates, with some variance.
GRACE data estimates that groundwater loss from 2012 to 2016 was 11.2 cubic kilometers per year, compared to water balance estimates of 10 cubic kilometers per year.
“Although both water balance-based and GRACE-based groundwater volume estimates are subject to errors, the relatively small area of the Central Valley in the eyes of GRACE might also be responsible for that recovery discrepancy,” Lee said.
Researchers hope future studies will address how much actual recovery happened between droughts and whether recovery from the most recent drought is on track to replenish the system.

SACRAMENTO, CA, May 12, 2017 – Governor Brown’s May revision of the California Budget released Thursday slashed over $100 million in funds designated for drought response. With the drought officially declared “over” in April, the remaining $63 million intended for the state’s drought package will go to CalFire. The San Jose Mercury News reported on these changes Thursday noting: “In January, before heavy winter rains came, the governor proposed increasing the state budget by $179 million to address the five-year drought. Now, having declared it over in April, he proposes to reduce that increase to $63 million, with much of the remaining money to go for increased firefighting — from more fire engines to longer hours at CalFire stations — to deal with the risk from 100 million dead trees in the Sierra Nevada and to help with emergency water supplies…

Water conservation still lags in Jacksonville.
Unlike in Arizona, this wasn’t a dry heat.
The heat is one thing, but the lack of meaningful rainfall is another.
The district likes to blame that low flow on years of drought rather than forcing the big users to conserve.
I do agree, however, that “all hands on deck” are needed to conserve water now.
Earlier this month, JEA said there has been a substantial increase in water usage during the past two years, with a “staggering 8.1 percent increase” over last year.
Most of that, JEA said, is due to irrigating landscaping because of the drought.
That has been the approach for years, and it’s clearly not working.
To save Florida’s water supply and to return health to our springs, rivers and lakes, it’s time to consider tougher medicine for individuals and the big users who are sucking the aquifer dry.
If I sound irritable, blame it on the face gnats and the yellow flies and the long, hot summer ahead.

A call to limit water use during drought conditions.
From Ann B. Shortelle, Ph.D. Executive Director of the St. Johns River Water Management District Neon green grass might be the ideal landscape for many, but current drought conditions are making that difficult to achieve.
In May, the St. Johns River Water Management District expanded a Water Shortage Warning that spans Florida’s Space Coast up to Florida’s First Coast and includes all of central Florida.
Knowing that many homeowner associations address irrigation and landscaping within their Deed Restrictions and Covenants, their support is critical to promoting water conservation, especially outdoors where more than half of water is for irrigation of lawns and landscapes.
As we prepare for the potential of prolonged drought, we are asking homeowner associations and residents to ensure the most efficient use of water until summer rains return.
This includes postponing activities like installing new sod or conducting extensive pressure washing, which use significant amounts of water.
Year-round watering restrictions are in place to ensure water used for irrigation is used efficiently.
Yet some utilities recently reported increased residential use, most likely due to extra irrigation to compensate for the dry weather.
Our lawns will be green again, but for now, saving water is the simplest and least expensive way to protect our water resources.
She holds a doctorate degree in limnology from the University of Notre Dame and a bachelor of science degree in biology from Mercer University.

THIS JUST IN … New Report Shows 74 Percent of California’s Native Salmon, Steelhead and Trout Likely to Be Extinct in 100 Years, 45 Percent in 50 Years if Trends Continue.
From Cal Trout: Fish and watershed advocacy group California Trout (CalTrout) and University of California Davis, Center for Watershed Sciences, provided key results from an in-depth report today detailing the status of 32 types of salmon, steelhead, and trout that are native to California.
SOS II: Fish in Hot Water is the second such report released by CalTrout and the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences.
“Declining fish populations indicate degraded waters, which threaten the health and economic well-being of all Californians.” If present trends continue, 74 percent of California’s native salmon, steelhead, and trout species are likely to be extinct in 100 years.
Thanks to ongoing scientific research, we now know what to do – and where – to improve the plight of native fish.” The report includes an analysis of key threats to the survival of each species, starting with the overarching threat of climate change, which is likely to reduce the availability of cold water habitat that salmon, steelhead, and trout all depend on for survival.
Restoring function to once productive – but now highly altered – habitats can greatly improve rearing conditions for juvenile fish, especially floodplains, coastal lagoons, estuaries, and spring-fed rivers.
Additionally, SOS II: Fish in Hot Water identifies three science-based strategies to support a return to abundance for California’s native salmonids: First, focus on opportunities to mimic natural processes within altered landscapes.
The UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences has been conducting problem-solving research on conservation and water management issues since 1998.
Key Facts from State of the Salmonids II: Fish in Hot Water 45 percent of California’s salmon, steelhead and trout are likely to be extinct in the next 50 years if present trends continue.
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@ledgercity BARTOW — Polk County officials on Monday urged residents in Southwest Polk County to stick to watering their lawns no more than twice a week after its 3,400 customers used twice as much reclaimed water last week in the drought-stricken area as the previous one.
“If we don’t get rain and don’t get compliance voluntarily, we may have to go to mandatory one-day-per-week watering,” County Manager Jim Freeman said during an agenda study.
“We’re trying to get rid of this water normally,” Craig said.
Subdivisions affected include Christina, Hallam Preserve and ImperiaLakes.
Craig said county officials have contacted bulk users, such as homeowner associations and golf courses at Eaglebrooke and ImperiaLakes.
Officials from the two courses could not be reached for comment.
If water restrictions occur, then residents and businesses could be fined if they break the watering rules.
Commissioner John Hall asked who was responsible for enforcement.
Craig said code-enforcement officers typically patrol the area.
The shortage was augmented by potable water.