Freshwater

Finding answers to the world’s pressing water supply and access challenges requires crossing disciplines and exploring a wide range of approaches. Stanford researchers are working together on sustainable solutions ranging from a low-cost water pump chlorinator to a high-tech, multi-million-dollar wastewater resource recovery center. They also are looking at water supply issues from a law and public policy standpoint, providing guidance to decision-makers through knowledge-based tools such as an interactive website illustrating California’s major groundwater challenges and potential solutions. To advance these and other innovative freshwater solutions, Woods supports the Global Freshwater Initiative, which develops strategies to promote the long-term viability of freshwater supplies; the Water, Health & Development Program, which identifies ways to improve and increase the sustainability of water supply and sanitation service delivery; and the Water in the West Program, which addresses multiple dimensions of realistic, integrated solutions to the American West’s water challenges. Read on for examples of work Woods-affiliated researchers are doing to ensure adequate supply and access to safe water for billions of people.

In The News

California drought: Storm gives bump to state water supplies

Stanford doctoral student Daniel Swain (Environmental Earth System Science), a 2013 Rising Environmental Leadership Program participant,...
December 14, 2014 - By Kurtis Alexander, SF Gate

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How California’s Water Rights Make It Tough to Manage Drought

Woods Co-Director and Senior Fellow Buzz Thompson discusses the intricacies of California water rights.
December 8, 2014 - By Lauren Sommer, KQED Science

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Reopen Barnett Shale Water Probe

Op-ed by Senior Fellow Robert Jackson on contamination of drinking water by oil and gas drilling
December 1, 2014 - By Robert Jackson, Texas Tribune

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'How Long Will It Last, and How Do We Plan?' California Drought Foreshadows Crisis for Rest of West

Quotes Leon Szeptycki, executive director of the Water in the West, on California's record-breaking drought
November 29, 2014 - By Brett French, Billings Gazette

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