Part 2 - Widening the Lens On the West Marin Drought: Northern California & the US West

On this week's show, we interview two guests on the broader picture of drought in Northern California and the U.S. West. First, Stephanie Castle of the Center for Hydrologic Modeling at U.C. Irvine will tell us about her new findings concerning groundwater depletion in the Colorado River Basin, which supplies seven western states including California. Then we hear from Ann Maurice of the Ad Hoc Committee for Clean Water in Occidental, a 30-year veteran activist on water issues in Northern California. Ann will discuss the natural relationship of groundwater to surface flows, the engineered connections across county lines between source waters and our farms, taps, wells, vineyards and wildlife, and some of the political struggles she anticipates as California moves rapidly to regulate groundwater statewide. KWMR has been covering the drought all year on a series of shows about water sources, supplies, scarcity, storage and strategies, including five shows on Amanda Eichstaedt's "Swimming Upstream." Two weeks ago on this show, we interviewed Brock Dolman about the California Drought. All these shows are downloadable at wmpostcarbon.com and we encourage you to listen to them for more detail on West Marin’s situation in particular, and that of coastal California more generally. This week’s show is hosted by Karen Nyhus. Karen is a long-time activist on environmental, peace and social justice issues. Originally from Maine, she has lived in the bay area for over 30 years. With an undergraduate degree in Feminist Studies from Stanford and a Master's in Environmental Science and Policy from San Francisco State, she is also a technologist and writer who consults to the nonprofit sector. Karen and I met four years ago at the People’s Climate Conference in Bolivia. We’re both pleased to be collaborating on KWMR Post Carbon Radio about the converging crises of climate, economy, and war.