California faces complex water management challenges.  Using the best available science to guide water management discussions is one of the keys to developing workable solutions.  For example, the projections that California’s rivers, particularly the Colorado, are likely to be significantly drier in the future as a result of climate change highlight the need to maximize supplies from the virtual river.  Integrating science into policy-making is also a key to restoring California’s fisheries and to addressing the complex threats to the stability of the Delta. 

In the past decade, all too often, the results of scientific investigations have been ignored.  Worse still, at times, deeply flawed and biased science has been used as advocacy tools.  Professor Jeff Mount has referred to this as “combat science”.  Directing state agencies to renew their focus on science is a key to moving forward.

Executive Order on Scientific Integrity:  Issue an executive order, modeled on the Department of Interior’s recent Secretarial Order to Ensure Integrity of Scientific Process in Departmental Decision-Making,  directing the Resources Agency, CalEPA, and other agencies working on water issues, to ensure that their planning processes and regulatory efforts are carefully based on the best available science.  This ...

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