Join Southern California Water Coalition Executive Director Charley Wilson’s eye-opening conversation with California Department of Water Resources Director Karla Nemeth as she reveals California’s stark water reality: 9 million acre-feet short by 2040, snowpack peaking in February, and why desalination alone can’t save us.
In this candid 50-minute discussion, Director Nemeth doesn’t hold back about the “hard realities” facing California’s water future. From atmospheric rivers that kept her awake worrying about levee failures to the impossible math of replacing the State Water Project (hint: it would require a Carlsbad-sized desalination plant every four miles along the coast), this conversation cuts through the politics to reveal what’s really at stake.
Nemeth explains why California’s snowpack peaked in February instead of April this year and what that shift means for our long-term water security. She discusses the critical importance of underground storage in depleted aquifers, the role of the Delta Conveyance Project, and why flexibility must replace finger-pointing between local and state agencies. Throughout the conversation, she emphasizes that these challenges aren’t future problems to plan for—they’re happening right now, requiring immediate action and uncomfortable conversations about cost, value, and priorities.
“We are going to have to get comfortable with the uncertainty,” Nemeth warns. “I think we know enough to move forward and faster than what we’re able to do right now.” Her final one-word prediction for California’s water future might surprise you.