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anyone on the list able to download the staff draft watersheds bill ? if
so, I'd appreciate your shooting me a copy. Thanx Bill
Kier<br><br>
At 09:34 AM 8/7/2009, Byron Leydecker wrote:<br>
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<a href="http://www.eedaily.com/">
<img src="cid:7.1.0.9.2.20090807102317.0238a1d8@suddenlink.net.1" width=530 height=65 alt="E&E Daily">
</a><br>
<div align="right"><b>An E&E Publishing Service <br>
</b></div>
<br>
<h3><b>WATER: T&I panel floats bill to form resource management
council (Friday, August 7, 2009)</b></h3><br><br>
<br>
<h5><b>Taryn Luntz, E&E reporter</b></h5><br><br>
<b>Congressional aides, conservation advocates and water stakeholders are
gearing up to tackle the increasingly thorny issue of water management,
seeking to transform a system of piecemeal project approvals into one
that plans comprehensively for all aspects of watersheds.<br>
With water conflicts surfacing throughout the country, House
Transportation and Infrastructure Committee staffers are working on a
water planning bill that they have circulated among stakeholders over the
past two months.<br>
A June 12 draft of the legislation would create a Cabinet-level council
and a president-appointed director charged with "carrying out the
policies and programs of the federal government affecting sustainable
water resources management."<br>
The bill also would establish regional watershed planning boards that
would produce five-year plans for water use and conservation, targeting
"increased water efficiency, increased water quality and improved
ecological health and resiliency for federal, interstate, state, tribal
and local governmental and non-governmental stakeholder actions with
regard to water resource decisions across the watershed."<br>
The legislation seeks to overcome one of the most significant challenges
facing water managers. Currently, water management is split among local,
state, regional and federal agencies, often with several bodies dividing
responsibility for different aspects -- and sections -- of watersheds.
This approach can lead to unfortunate consequences, advocates say, as
projects planned for one area can fail to account for downstream effects
or wider regional issues.<br>
Lawmakers on the Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee noted the
need for broad-level water planning at a hearing on the issue in June
2008.<br>
"At present, several regions of the country face significant water
resource challenges ranging from droughts in the Southeast and Southwest
to the recent flooding in the Midwest," Chairwoman Eddie Bernice
Johnson (D-Texas) said. "Watershed planning and management can be an
important tool to help make better decisions in resolving these water
resource needs."<br>
Ranking member John Boozman (R-Ark.) said Congress should consider
devising a way for the federal government to provide technical assistance
and guidance to state and local water planning efforts.<br>
"More and more often we are seeing growing cities' needs for
municipal and industrial water supplies at odds with similar needs for
that same water downstream," Boozman said. "It conflicts with
environmental, recreation, navigation or flood control needs elsewhere in
the watershed. What has been missing in most cases is a comprehensive
watershed plan against which more focused local feasibility plans can be
measured."<br>
The
"<a href="http://www.eenews.net/features/documents/2009/08/06/document_daily_01.pdf">
Sustainable Watershed Planning Act</a>" aims to address these varied
concerns with water management. The bill was scheduled for a committee
markup June 4 but was pulled from the schedule to allow staff to gather
more feedback, a T&I legislative aide said. The draft is a work in
progress with no firm date set for completion, he said.<br>
Under the draft legislation, the sustainable watershed planning council
would consist of the U.S. EPA administrator; the secretaries of
Agriculture, Commerce, Energy, Housing and Urban Development,
Transportation, Interior and U.S. Army; the chiefs of the Federal
Emergency Management Agency and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission;
and state and tribal leaders.<br>
Regional watershed planning boards, based on the boundaries of Army Corps
of Engineers civil works districts, would have federal, state, local and
stakeholder representatives.<br>
States would be eligible for grants of up to $1.5 million a year to set
up their own water planning boards or to support existing planning
efforts.<br>
</b><br>
<h3><b>Questions, concerns raised</b></h3><br><br>
<b>Water experts agree some type of planning fix is necessary.<br>
"At this stage, progress on water resources at the federal level is
frustrating just about everybody," said David Conrad, senior water
resources specialist for the National Wildlife Federation. "There's
definitely a need for better planning and better coordination, both among
federal agencies working on water resources and with states and regional
interests -- especially to sort out roles and needs at all different
levels."<br>
On the federal level, agencies frequently fail to coordinate with each
other, and Congress approves water projects on a project-by-project
basis.<br>
"The Congress has been dealing with water projects by approving them
in 'eaches,'" said Gerald Galloway, a civil engineering professor at
the University of Maryland and former Army Corps member. "As a
result, there is no coordination among projects and the priority system
is not based on any analysis of how they impact each other."<br>
The draft bill says it would not interfere with interstate water compacts
or state management of groundwater resources, but stakeholders and state
water planners are fretting about what exactly the bill would
affect.<br>
"What it appears to do is create an infrastructure for watershed
planning, but it is unclear what type of watershed planning is
intended," said Marcia Willhite, chief of the Illinois Environmental
Protection Agency's water bureau.<br>
"You can plan to manage water quality, to manage water quantity, to
make sure you have intact ecosystems, you can plan for wildlife habitat,
even appropriate navigation," Willhite said. "But it's unclear
from the bill that I've seen what the focus of the planning is to
be."<br>
Water industry groups also are hoping subsequent drafts will clarify the
reach of the proposed watershed council.<br>
"We understand that the draft legislation does not give the federal
government ultimate power to accept or reject specific watershed plans or
projects," the American Shore & Beach Preservation Association
wrote in its analysis of the draft. "Ours is a federal system of
government in which states have the paramount role to implement watershed
policies. We are concerned that the structure established in the draft
legislation may actually be too cumbersome to achieve the desired
result."<br>
Water experts agree that for legislation to be successful, it must foster
collaboration among the various planning bodies, encourage
consensus-building, and give private stakeholders an incentive to buy in
to the plan.<br>
"Collaboration in planning for water projects is critical,"
Galloway said. "Collaboration means you start together and work
together. You don't have one party write a plan and give it to the others
when you're finished."<br>
</b><br>
<h3><b>White House dips into water management</b></h3><br><br>
<b>The push to improve water management has gained considerable steam
this year, with the Obama administration tackling two new
initiatives.<br>
The White House is rewriting standards for federal water projects,
expanding the scope of 26-year-old rules that guide the Army Corps of
Engineers in an effort to consider environmental and social goals as well
as economic ones. The broader scope represents a shift from the economic
emphasis in the current Army Corps principles and guidelines. In
addition, the administration is considering expanding the scope of the
principles and guidelines to cover all federal agencies that undertake
water resource projects
(<a href="http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/2009/07/14/archive/3?"><i>
Greenwire</a></i>, July 14).<br>
The administration also is crafting an executive order aimed at
toughening federal policies restricting the construction of dams, levees,
roads and other structures in flood-prone areas.<br>
President Obama's draft order would direct agencies to use nonstructural
approaches -- typically, building codes, planning laws and education
campaigns -- to manage floodplains and protect public safety, wetlands
and other natural resources
(<a href="http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/2009/07/21/archive/2?"><i>
Greenwire</a></i>, July 21).<br>
<br>
<br>
</b><i>Byron Leydecker, JcT<br>
Chair, Friends of Trinity River<br>
PO Box 2327<br>
Mill Valley, CA 94942-2327<br>
415 383 4810 land<br>
415 519 4810 cell<br>
<b><a href="mailto:bwl3@comcast.net">bwl3@comcast.net</a><br>
<a href="mailto:bleydecker@stanfordalumni.org">
bleydecker@stanfordalumni.org</a> </b>(secondary)<br>
<b><a href="http://fotr.org/">http://www.fotr.org</a> <br>
</i></b> <br>
<br>
<br><br>
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<font face="Garamond" size=4>Kier Associates, <i>Fisheries and Watershed
Professionals<br>
</i>P.O. Box 915<br>
Blue Lake, CA 95525<br>
707.668.1822 <br>
mobile: 498.7847 <br>
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http://www.kierassociates.net<br>
</a>GSA Advantage Contractor GS-10F-0124U<br>
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