In Depth: Water and School Greening

LOS ANGELES - In our first segment, Hal Eisner is joined by Robin Mark of the Trust for Public Land to talk about a recent grant which will allow them to turn a local elementary school into a "green" school. By that, they mean taking schools that are basically asphalt and concrete jungles and turning them into spaces full of plants, nature, and water-permeable surfaces to allow rain runoff to seep back into the water table.

Mark tells us about the other projects that Trust for Public Land has been implementing, including the transformation of a park in Oakland, and other projects to benefit schools in the LA area by creating green spaces where there weren’t any before.

In our second and third segments, Hal speaks with Adel Hagekhalil, the General Manager for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, and Anselmo Colling, the Senior Assistant General Manager of the LA Department of Water and Power.

The water officials discuss our recent water surplus, but remind us that there is no permanent solution to the drought. They discuss the climate "whiplash" that we will continue to experience with wet years followed by dry ones.

They emphasize the need for improving infrastructure and storage and transit for water to meet needs in the future.

They say that the federal government’s plan to reduce the amount of water available from the Colorado River won’t address the long-term problem of water shortages.