Top Ten Reasons Why Environmental Agencies Should Address Water Quantity Issues

1) When water moves, the stuff in the water moves, too.  (Link to TMDLs)

2) Modelers can’t predict where the stuff will go without knowing where the water goes, when it goes there, and in what quantity. (Link to forecasting)

3) When the amount of water changes, concentrations of stuff in the water can change, too. (Link to reference conditions for water quality, and water quality standards)

4) When the amount of water changes, temperatures can change, too. (Link to habitat requirements)

5) When the amount of water changes, the spatial extent of certain habitats can change, as can the biogeochemistry of soils. (Link to water quality constituents' concentrations and habitat requirements)

6) Water quantity is needed for urban, industrial, agricultural, domestic, energy-producing, and environmental uses.  It’s a zero-sum game requiring astute tradeoffs and reliable tools. (Link to sustainability and environmental valuation)

7) Landscape changes affect water retention, runoff, ground water flow and recharge, evapotranspiration, and precipitation patterns and amounts.  As these components of water budgets change, water quality constituents' concentrations and loads change, affecting receiving water quality. (Link to TMDLs, habitat requirements)

8) Protection of ecosystems and maintenance of water quality may require the development of multi-objective tradeoff tools.  (Surely water quantity will be considered one of many objectives!)

9) Environmental agencies' missions are to protect human health and safeguard the natural environment.  Both of these aspects need clean water and appropriate quantities of it.  Not considering water quantity in the mission would be like taking a bath with only soap. (Link to sustainability and appeal to common sense!)

10) Who is asking the question, "What are the water quantity needs of the future, what tools will be available to allocate the water, and how are allocations made for the greatest good over time and space?"

Bonus reason #11:

11) Because I said so.

So what am I getting at? We need to consider water quality, water quantity, and ecosystems  together. Maybe even managed/allocated/regulated by a single agency at the state level.

Throw in land use planning, too.

I got most of these from a colleague. Enjoy!

"You can fool some of the people all of the time, and those are the ones you want to concentrate on." -- President George W. Bush

Comments

[DW]

Michael,

Change some dynamic of the river and someone is not happy about it. Consider all interested parties as stake holders.

Release water to satisfy the requirements of the Endangered Species Act and see the reaction from farmers (Ref: Klamath Basin). Impound water and anger several special interest groups (Ref: Glen Canyon Dam).

Unified operation and standards? At the State level??? I don't think so. Each state has it's own set of water laws and doctrine. The water laws in California alone are different from the adjoining states.

My take at this is that this will fall under Federal jurisdiction due to the fact that Water is considered a National resource. Agencies like the USACOE, USGS, BOR, NOAA, USDA are all involved in water issues. Lets just hope that the matter does not get handed over to DHS.

DW