Download WATERSHED MANAGEMENT AND CUMULATIVE EFFECTS

WATERSHED MANAGEMENT AND CUMULATIVE
EFFECTS – AMERICAN
STYLE
Lauren J. Caster
Fennemore Craig, P.C.
Phoenix, Arizona
“Watershed Management”:
The centralized, comprehensive control of land
and water resources within a watershed to
achieve a goal or goals established by a
governing authority
“Cumulative Effects”:
The hydrologic effects resulting from multiple
land use activities over time within a watershed
Most of America’s major rivers have
been developed for water supply, flood
control, shipping or hydroelectric power
purposes, or some combination of these.
The Federal Government plays a critical role in
management of major river systems:
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
–
–
operates 380 major dams and reservoirs
across the Nation
approximately 56 million acre feet of storage
in 48 projects in the West
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
– operates in the 17 contiguous western States
– constructed more than 600 dams and reservoirs
– largest wholesaler of water in the Nation
– supplies water to 31 million people
– provides water to irrigate 10 million acres of land
– second largest producer of hydroelectric power
in the Nation
The Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission
– regulates more than 1,600
hydroelectric power projects
that utilize approximately
2,600 dams
Water Availability for the Western United States – Key Scientific Challenges, U.S. Geological
Survey Circular 1261 at 38, Figure 28 (2005)
Water Availability for the Western United States – Key Scientific Challenges,
U.S. Geological Survey Circular 1261 at 15, Table 1 (2005)
The sheer scale of major watersheds makes
effective watershed management complex
and difficult.
Mississippi River Basin
http://www.epa.gov/owow_keep/msbasin/marb.htm
Colorado River Basin
Colorado River Water Users Association;
http://www.crwua.org/ColoradoRiver/RiverMap.aspx
Columbia River Basin
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Columbia River Basin Toxics Reduction Action Plan at 2 (Sept. 2010)
Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River Basin
http://www.sam.usace.army.mil/pa/acfwcm/pdf/acf_map.pdf
The future may make effective
management even more
problematic.
Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States, A State of Knowledge Report from the U.S. Global Change
Research Program at 28 (Cambridge Univ. Press 2009)
Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States, A State of Knowledge Report
from the U.S. Global Change Research Program at 29 (Cambridge Univ. Press 2009)
Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States, A State of Knowledge Report
from the U.S. Global Change Research Program at 30 (Cambridge Univ. Press 2009)
Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States, A State of Knowledge Report from
the U.S. Global Change Research Program at 30 (Cambridge Univ. Press 2009)
The Effects of Climate Change on Agriculture, Land Resources, Water Resources, and Biodiversity in
the United States, Report by the U.S. Climate Change Science Program and the Subcommittee on
Global Change Research, Synthesis and Assessment Product 4.3 at 131 (2008)
http://2010.census.gov/2010census/#/panel-2
Nationwide, water withdrawals for cooling of
thermoelectric power plants and for irrigation
accounted for about 80% of all water
withdrawals in 2005.
Estimated Use of Water in the
United States in 2005, U.S.
Geological Survey Circular
1344 at 5, Figure 1 (2009).
The basic science needed to predict when
ecological thresholds will be crossed and to
manage the consequences of those events is
not well developed.
Federal environmental laws generally
depend on the “predecision assessment”
strategy for predicting cumulative effects
and taking them into account when
making agency decisions.
This strategy
– is vulnerable to difficulties in predicting
future cumulative effects
– provides the regulated community with
a degree of certainty.
Enforcement of the Endangered Species
Act and the Clean Water Act is
compelling a reevaluation of historic
practices that resulted in the dewatering
of streams.
Some good news – nationwide and in the
West the per capita use of water delivered by
public water supply systems has been
declining since about 1985.
Water Availability for the Western United States –
Key Scientific Challenges, U.S. Geological Survey
Circular 1261 at 26, Figure 19 (2005)