Illustration by Christine Hipp.

The student-led conservation project “Drop Your Own Drip” (DYOD) has been going strong since last year. A student competition that delivers water usage data to on-campus residents, DYOD offers prizes to apartments able to significantly reduce their consumption.

Third-year Sarah Angulo facilitates the project, which was created as part of the Education for Sustainable Living program. She said the project holds lasting attention of the school’s Student Environmental Center, receiving funding and support.

“UCSC has taken a lot of steps against waste in general but not enough emphasis has been put on saving water,” she said.

If UCSC is able to stand out against other universities in water conservation, the campus could see more funding for its sustainability efforts. Still, Angulo said, there are some big issues to tackle.

“Since the beginning [of DYOD], student water consumption has actually gone up,” Angulo said. “I don’t know why this is so but I hope this project raises awareness.”

DYOD could also affect the Long Range Development Plan, a long-debated plan to enroll more students and develop the currently forested upper campus.

“We have to practice better water conservation for this to happen,” Angulo said. “We want to use the exact same amount of water we’re using now but with thousands more people.”

While the future effect of DYOD on LRDP is not known, water conservation will always be important for California and the campus.

UC Santa Cruz Professor of ocean sciences Dr. Raphael Kudela encourages citizens to be “informed, engaged and heard” regarding their water quality. Photo by Daniel Green.

Few resources are as important as water. From oceans to fresh lakes, humans have been using this invaluable resource for thousands of years.

Raphael Kudela, a professor of ocean sciences at UC Santa Cruz, gave a lecture at the Seymour Marine Discovery Center Nov. 18 on water quality in the Monterey Bay and greater California Coast. The lecture was called, “How’s the Water Today? Changes in Water Quality at the Land-Sea Interface.” His lecture touched on both the factors that affect water quality as well as the implications of that water quality on those that depend on it.

Kudela’s talk was part of a running series of science lectures called Science Sundays, given at the Seymour Center every third Sunday of the month, that attract viewers of all ages.

“It was a great opportunity to listen to Dr. Kudela speak,” said Elena Pagter, a marine biology major at UCSC.

In his talk, Kudela said that because people have both indirect and direct impacts on water quality, it is important to discuss exactly what human practices are impacting water.

“The ocean is quite literally our backyard,” Kudela said. “We all learn about this starting in grade school. Our ocean ecosystem and land ecosystem are all connected — we are all part of the same system.”

The Monterey Bay Area, primarily because of its prominence in industrial agriculture and proximity to local farms, is a major source of nutrients that seep into local waters. These nutrients, Kudela said, can cause major issues for the local environment.

“We are feeding the nation, and feeding the world, and to do that we need lots and lots of nutrients,” Kudela said. “More nutrients in water leads to more problems.”

The nutrients in the water that surrounds Monterey Bay affect the amount of nitrogen in the bay’s water, Kudela said. In areas where freshwater flows into the ocean, known as watersheds, 200–500 kilograms of nutrients per square kilometer flows into the ocean annually. In fact, the output of nitrogen in the Monterey Bay Area is increasing at an exponential rate.

This rise in nitrogen can cause a number of issues along coastal waters, Kudela said, one of the most significant being red tides. Red tides occur when concentrations of phytoplankton are so high in the water that they cause red discoloration. They are often associated with natural toxins, causing marine mammals, birds and even humans to become sick, sometimes dangerously so.

“Those who live in the ocean can’t avoid it, and are thus exposed to it,” Kudela said.

These red tides are driven primarily by bacteria and are particularly common around the Santa Cruz Wharf.

Kudela said that urea, an organic compund that can be found in the urine of mammals, is found around the Santa Cruz Wharf all the time, a good indicator that humans are having an influence on the system. Despite trends of increasing problems in our water, he said humans are still capable of avoiding bigger issues.

“We’re not nearly as bad off as we could be and there’s plenty of opportunity to change that trajectory of getting worse to getting better,” Kudela said. “Our water quality is only going to stay good if we listen to what the environment is telling us. We should pay attention to the small issues before they get bigger.”

After educating the audience on the current quality of water in the Monterey Bay Area, Kudela laid out some concrete ways in which local citizens can reverse the local damage that’s been done and continue to lead the nation in advances in water quality. However, he said this may be difficult because water quality is a global, multi-faceted problem.

“As global increases in human population, in fertilizer use, in oil consumption happen, there has to be consequences,” Kudela said. “There is inevitable degradation of the environment.”

As a state, Kudela said California is the leader in the nation in terms of water quality. As a community, Monterey Bay continues to make incredible advances in science, management and policy.

Kudela said citizens can be “informed, engaged and heard” about local water issues by using local resources like the Seymour Center. Suzanne Hebert, the Youth Programs Manager at the Seymour Center said Science Sundays were a great way to get involved.

“We have a lot of great topics that are pertinent to what students are working on,” Hebert said.

Kudela also said that by engaging in programs with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), using websites such as his ocean data center and voting, individuals can continue to make a difference.

“The information is there for you if you choose to get it,” Kudela said.

Science Sundays will be resumed in January 2013. 

Information for the next lecture can be found at: 

http://seymourcenter.ucsc.edu/calendar.html 

Professor Kudela’s data website: 

http://oceandatacenter.ucsc.edu/home/ 

Santa Cruz mayor Don Lane explains the possibility of a desalination plant in Santa Cruz's future. The project is still in the planning phase, but it could solve the area's water shortage problem. Photo by Sal Ingram.

The Santa Cruz City Council approved the continuation of a contract with an environmental impact desalination consultant last week. Desalination has been in the works for decades now, and for Santa Cruz County it may serve as a feasible source of water in a city that just experienced its second driest December in history.

The plant is projected to produce 2.5 million gallons a day, and comes with a price tag of nearly $100 million. The cost will be split between Santa Cruz and Soquel County water districts, with Santa Cruz paying 59 percent of the bill. Cost aside, it will take some time for a desalination plant to become a reality in Santa Cruz, as controversies come with its construction.

The final decision on whether to construct the plant will likely be voters’. For now, the plant’s construction is still being negotiated by environmentalists and city council members.

“We’re in the development stage,” said Heidi Luckenbach, Santa Cruz desalination program coordinator.

This stage includes determining all the effects and consequences the plant will have on the community and the environment.

“Part of the process is thinking through how to make it the most environmentally sound project it can be,” said Santa Cruz mayor Don Lane.

Several environmental concerns arise out of the plant’s use.

“It would take a lot of energy to operate,” Lane said.

It is possible, however, the high use of energy can be offset by renewable energy, said Brent Haddad, UC Santa Cruz professor of environmental studies.

Other concerns include the pollution the desalination plant would produce and the negative effect it may have on marine life.

“Forcing water through tightly meshed membranes produces greenhouse gasses,” Haddad said. “There are also risks it will create a zone that it is hard for sea lions to live in.”

A test was conducted by the city of Santa Cruz several years ago in which a small-scale desalination plant was examined to test its effects on marine life.

“The test was enormously successful in eliminating any negative effects on marine life,” Lane said.

Due to the county’s drought, a new source of water — whether it be a desalination plant or an alternative to it — is something that deserves attention, Lane said.

“We have a water problem,” he said. “It seems pretty clear that we need an additional supply and this is the most obtainable and feasible supply opportunity that I’ve seen.”

If the drought were to continue, Santa Cruz would face some tough decisions about water use. Businesses would have a hard time operating at full capacity and the community may have to begin rationing water, Lane said.

“We’d have to start cutting back in severe ways,” he said. “That’s one of the main reasons desal is being considered. If this year continues to be as dry as it is, and next year is similarly dry, we could be in a world of trouble.”

Directives from both the state and federal government require less water be taken from local Santa Cruz rivers and streams in hopes of sustaining the salmon population. Reducing water levels is harmful to the salmon indigenous to the San Lorenzo River and surrounding local streams.

A large reservoir and the San Lorenzo River make up most of the water supply to Santa Cruz, and with the addition of a desalination plant, the depletion of both these sources would be about 25 to 33 percent lower.

“[The desalination plant] is supplemental to Santa Cruz,” Luckenbach said.

The reservoir and the streams will always be a source of water for Santa Cruz. Proponents of construction say the intent of the plant is not to provide for the total water supply, but to give the county a back-up plan in times of drought.

“Having a desal plant is like buying insurance,” Lane said. “It’s going to cost a lot of money to build the desal, but the question is, what is the cost if we don’t build it?”