Thursday, June 30, 2011

Mississippi River Basin Water Resource News for the Week - Holiday Weekend Early Edition

Fiscal Year 2012 Appropriations and the Federal Debt
Three separate, environmental and conservation-related, Fiscal Year 2012 spending bills are currently in various stages of making their way through the U.S. House.  They include the Water and Energy, Agriculture, and Interior and Environment appropriations measures.  An overview of each bill's status and spending levels proposed for key conservation and environmental programs can be found here.
As the House continues its appropriations bill work, the Senate for its part has been more "deliberative," waiting for the resolution of two prequels to its spending bill efforts: the development of a Fiscal Year 2012 Budget Resolution, and conclusion of ongoing long-term deficit reduction negotiations between the Obama Administration and Congressional leaders.  
Regarding the latter debt and budget negotiation issue, this week in very quick succession (belying the notion that nothing moves rapidly inside the Washington beltway):
  • House Speaker Boehner called the Treasury Department's August 2 debt-ceiling deadline "artificial"
  • President Obama said "is not" and berated Congress for planning to recess next week while the debt ceiling deadline looms (see "Last Word," below)
  • Senate Majority Leader Reid cancelled the Senate's recess in response to the Presidential scolding, assuring Capitol Hill fireworks well beyond the July Fourth spectacular on the Mall
  • Senate Republican Leader McConnell invited the President to meet with Senate Republicans Thursday afternoon about the debt, and
  • the President declined.
With respect to the former issue, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-ND) announced on June 29 that Democrats had reached agreement on a Fiscal Year 2012 budget plan, and that the plan may be announced sometime during the week of July 4. Conrad’s proposal would reportedly cut more than $4 trillion from the Federal deficit over the next ten years. 

Notable @UpperMiss Twitter Postings for the Week:

Agriculture -
  • Mississippi River's floodway farmers in MO race to salvage a growing season http://bit.ly/jzeDuf
  • USDA: number of acres planted for corn this spring rose 5 % this spring to 92.3 M acres http://bit.ly/l3buaj
  • House Ag Committee holds 1st of 6 farm bill hearings to determine spending trends & how programs work together http://1.usa.gov/m29q5H
  • Editorial: Does "slash-and-burn budget cutting" put farm bill "mutual back-scratching" formula at risk? http://bit.ly/ku5akX
  • Senators Grassley (IA) & Cantwell (WA) introduce bill to extend domestic biodiesel production tax incentive http://1.usa.gov/muooBf
  • Midwestern Governors Association releases "mythbusters" fact sheet: "Setting the Ethanol Record Straight" http://bit.ly/kprzP7 (PDF file)
  • Food & Agricultural Policy Research Institute at U of MO releases report on direct farm payment elimination impact http://bit.ly/mdwvDo
Floodplains, Dams and Navigation -
  • Army Corps' Maj. Gen. Walsh: another floodway could be needed to relieve pressure on levees along Mississippi River http://bit.ly/m1mUVD
  • American Rivers: floodplain Easements are a Wise Investment & Bring Multiple Benefits  http://bit.ly/iJ9K3u
  • EPA News Release: Birds Point Floodway Chemical/Pesticide Contamination below Levels of Health Concern http://tinyurl.com/4264y2e
  • Army Corps of Engineers forms task force to help restore Mississippi River Basin flood control system damage http://tinyurl.com/434v93b
  • Army Corps seeking public feedback about possible Kaskaskia River lock & dam operations cuts (IL) http://bit.ly/kN66ll & http://bit.ly/mGqjHK
  • Barge traffic limited in Mississippi River as silt begins to clog passes at River's mouth  http://bit.ly/khWf0f
  • Feinstein introduces bill to amend National Flood Insurance Act; requires FEMA flood protection system consideration http://1.usa.gov/ltMOrT
Current Flooding-
Water Quality-
  • EPA extends comment period on definition of "Waters of the United States" guidance until July 31 http://1.usa.gov/ltTUrg
  • Agenda/presentations; 2011 Stakeholder Meeting; EPA Development of New or Revised Recreational H2O Quality Criteria: http://1.usa.gov/jEEYHB 
  • EPA approves Iowa DNR list of impaired waters: removes 56 waters from list & adds 103 waters http://1.usa.gov/lyNOms
In the States -
Biodiversity, Wildlife and Invasives -
Federal Budget -
  • Sen Majority Leader Reid cancels Senate July 4 week recess to continue budget-deficit talks http://bit.ly/mcOP6A
  • Senate Budget Committee Chair Conrad: Democrats have reached agreement on 2012 budget plan http://bit.ly/mHTwmP (will release next week)
  • Sen McConnell challenges President to meet with Senate Republicans on debt issues; Obama declines http://bit.ly/jHizjP
Gulf Coastal Area-
  • Senate Environment & Public Works subcommittee holds hearing on Gulf BP spill natural resource damage assessment http://1.usa.gov/jJJ255
Events -
  • The Horinko Group Annual Water Resources Summit, October 25; 9 AM-5 PM, U of MD at College Park http://t.co/X2YhuAD
Other news-
  • EPA & Interior Dept announce new federal urban waters initiative to increase cooperation among federal & local agencies http://bit.ly/mlhRKi
  • Scientists develop model to help manage agroforestry systems http://tinyurl.com/3z56rw6
  • Army Corps of Engineers completes new Upper Mississippi Systemic Forest Management Plan http://bit.ly/l3Uuub
  • FOIA Lawsuit Seeks Release of Dept of Energy’s ‘Water-Energy Roadmap’ http://tinyurl.com/4yzh8wh
  • The June Mississippi River Basin Newsletter (PDF file) is now available from the Northeast-Midwest Institute http://bit.ly/kF5LV
Last Word -
"Malia and Sasha generally finish their homework a day ahead of time. Malia is 13, Sasha is 10.  They don't wait until the night before. They're not pulling all-nighters. Congress can do the same thing. If you know you've got to do something, just do it." - President Obama chiding Congress for not moving in a timely manner on debt reduction and budget issues during June 29 press conference
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Fiscal Year 2012 Federal Appropriations Bill Update

Three separate, environmental and conservation-related, Fiscal Year 2012 spending bills are currently in various stages of making their way through the U.S. House. They include the Water and Energy, Agriculture, and Interior and Environment appropriations measures (see more detail below).  As the House continues its appropriations bill work, the Senate has been more deliberative on its end, waiting for the conclusion of two overarching prequels to its spending bill efforts: the development of a Fiscal Year 2012 Budget Resolution, and resolution of ongoing long-term deficit reduction negotiations between the Obama Administration and Congressional leaders.

With respect to the former issue, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-ND) announced on June 29 that Democrats had reached agreement on a Fiscal Year 2012 budget plan, and that the plan may be announced sometime during the week of July 4.   Conrad’s proposal would reportedly cut more than $4 trillion from the Federal deficit over the next ten years.

Here is an update on the status of each House measure:

Water and Energy Spending Bill
On June 15 the full House Appropriations Committee approved a Fiscal Year 2012, $30.6 billion energy and water spending bill for the Department of Energy, Army Corps of Engineers and Department of Interior water programs. The measure, expected to be considered (and passed) by the full House in July, includes over $1 billion to fund flood response activities and to restore flood protection structures (such as levees) related to this spring's Mississippi and Missouri River flooding. The bill also contains a controversial rider restricting Army Corps of Engineers' implementation of a new Administration Clean Water Act guidance.

The Committee approved the measure by a vote of 26-20, largely along party lines, following three-and-a-half-hours of discussion and amendment consideration. Only Republican Rep. Jeff Flake (AZ-6) joined with 19 Democrats in voting against the measure. The bill would cut $5.9 billion from the President's 2012 budget proposal and would cut around $1 billion from the Fiscal Year 2011 spending levels for the agencies. Under the bill's provisions the Department of Energy would receive $24.7 billion, the Army Corps $4.8 billion, and Department of Interior (Bureau of Reclamation) $934 million. The Army Corps funding level is actually slightly more than the $4.63 billion requested by the President in his 2012 budget proposal; not an unexpected outcome, given a Congressional history of adding spending for particular flood control, navigation and ecosystem restoration projects.

Among the amendments considered by the Committee was one offered Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA-8), which would have removed from the bill a provision that blocks funding for the new Obama administration policy aimed at better-defining Clean Water Act protections over wetlands and streams. Rep. Moran's amendment failed to pass (on a vote of 21-27). The rider remains in the bill despite the urging of 15 major national outdoors and conservation groups that the provision be dropped (see the groups' June 13 letter to appropriators here - PDF file).

To view the Appropriations Committee (majority office) media release and summary of the bill, please see here. The Committee-passed version of the legislation is posted here. And the Committee report accompanying the legislation can be seen here (as a PDF file).

Agriculture Spending Bill
On June 16 the House narrowly passed the Fiscal Year 2012 Agriculture, Rural Development, FDA spending bill (H.R. 2112) by a vote of 217-201, with 19 Republicans joining every Democrat in opposing the bill. The bill provides for $125.5 billion in both discretionary and mandatory funding for the Department of Agriculture (except for the US Forest Service), Farm Credit Administration, Farm Credit System Financial Assistance Corporation, Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Food and Drug Administration.

The House-passed measure cuts $2.7 billion overall from USDA's Fiscal Year 2011 spending levels. Several key conservation programs would be cut below current spending levels or Farm Bill-authorized levels, including cuts of $171 million to the Conservation Stewardship Program and $350 million to the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, and reductions in eligible acreage for sign up to the Wetlands Reserve Program and Grasslands Reserve Program (by 64,200 acres and 96,000 acres, respectively). One of the biggest concerns for Democrats was the bill's $685 million in cuts to the Women, Infants and Children (or "WIC") nutrition program.

A Committee press release on the passed spending measure summarizes 21 amendments to the bill that were approved by the House during its two and one-half days of floor consideration. Some of the more notable amendments, from conservation and farm sustainability perspectives, include those that:
  • cut the USDA general administration account by 10% ($2.4 million) 
  • prohibit funds in the bill from being used for the USDA "know your farmer, know your food" initiative 
  • add $2 million to Agriculture Research Service 
  • prohibit funding for USDA regulations titled "Policy Statement on Climate Change Adaption" and 
  • transfer $3 million to the Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention Program.
Several contentious amendment proposals were voted down during the bill debate, including a proposal to cut discretionary spending by five percent or more, and several proposed amendments that would have limited direct farm subsidy payments. Those included an amendment that would have set the farm subsidy-payment cap at $125,000, along with another one that would have lowered income subsidy payment eligibility to $250,000 adjusted gross income.

Interior and Environment Appropriations Bill
The 2012 Interior and Environment appropriations bill should be considered during a House Appropriation Committee’s Interior and Environment Subcommittee mark up meeting shortly after the House returns from its July 4 recess. Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA-8) (Subcommittee Ranking Member) has indicated that the Interior and Environment Appropriations bill will make deep cuts to the land and water conservation fund and municipal water project (State Revolving Loan Funds) spending levels, based on Moran’s reading of a draft presented to him recently by Interior and Environment Subcommittee Chair Mike Simpson (R-ID-2).

The latest news on Fiscal Year 2012 appropriations efforts in Congress can be tracked on the respective House and Senate Appropriations Committee web pages, and at this Library of Congress web page.
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June Northeast-Midwest Institute on Mississippi River Basin Update

Here is the link to the June Update (PDF file) from the Northeast-Midwest Institute on Mississippi River Basin issues.  The June Update contains these news items:

RIVER BASIN NEWS AND NOTES-
  • Largest Gulf of Mexico Hypoxic Zone Likely in Wake of Spring Mississippi River Basin Flooding
  • Mekong River Commission Sets Visionary Example of System-wide Watershed Management
  • NRCS Holds Second Partner Forum on Initiative to Increase the Adoption of the Management of Agricultural Drainage Water for Conservation Benefits
  • Obama Administration Extends Deadline for Comments on Clean Water Act Interpretation Guidance 
  • Upcoming Conferences, Events and Workshops
LEGISLATION-
  • Clean Water Cooperative Federalism Act Moves on to Full House 
  • National Flood Insurance Program Reauthorization and Reform
  • Farm Bill Hearings
BUDGET AND APPROPRIATIONS-
Fiscal Year 2012 Appropriations:
  • Water and Energy
  • Agriculture
  • Interior and Environment
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Friday, June 24, 2011

Mississippi River Basin Water Resource News for the Week

House Committee Passes Bill That Would Limit EPA's Water Quality Regulatory Capabilities
The Clean Water Cooperative Federalism Act (HR 2018) was passed by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on June 22 on a vote of 39-19 that crossed party line (links to the bill and the Committee's bill mark-up meeting activity and roll call vote are on this Committee web page). The bill, which next will likely proceed to the House floor for consideration, would restrict EPA's ability to issue revised or new water quality standards without a state's permission, according to Committee Chair Mica's press release accompanying the introduction of the legislation.

In a June 21, US Environmental Protection Agency four-page legal analysis of the bill, the EPA warned that the bill would “overturn” clean water law (this is a PDF file).

Notable @UpperMiss Twitter Postings for the Week:

Agriculture -
  • USDA Sec Vilsack meets with flooded farmers, relating his budgetary powerlessness in the face of deficit reduction cuts http://bit.ly/jyJqjZ
  • American Farm Bureau launches web site celebrating contributions and heritage of US century farms http://bit.ly/jq08m5
  • Agriculture ministers from Group of 20 nations meet to address growing problem: Demand for food outpacing supply http://bit.ly/kpn97i
  • New bipartisan House bill mirrors Senate-passed ethanol subsidy reform measure http://1.usa.gov/iU0cRk
  • Concerns over record flooding & crop insurance take center stage at Senate Ag Committee Farm Bill hearing http://bit.ly/ijZgHD
Floodplains, Dams and Navigation -
  • Coalition urges Floor Protection Insurance Program reform before Senate Committee http://bit.ly/kAnokI (link) http://1.usa.gov/iAj9Jf (PDF)
  • 1994 report: “Floodplain Management Into the 21st Century” holds many answer to Mississippi's 2011 flood issues http://bloom.bg/jZJygq
  • SW IL Flood Prevention District Council proposes $161 million upgrades to Mississippi River levee system http://buswk.co/lcXJt6
  • Rural bankers in 10 Midwest & Plains states worry Missouri River flooding will hurt region's economy http://bit.ly/iv7eMI
  • Missouri River flooding: Water flows over tops of MO levees as flooding alert issued for NE nuclear plant http://bit.ly/ih4SUC
  • Op-ed: Nature, not the Corps of Engineers, driving Missouri River flooding http://bit.ly/k09aYd
  • 'Perfect Storm' Along Missouri River Puts Army Corps Policies in Cross Hairs; Congressional hearings likely http://nyti.ms/liu9tb
  • Vicksburg drying out as Mississippi River level drops; Army Corps: flood protections worked http://bit.ly/lKH1y3
  • Birds Point levee breach effectively doomed African-American community of Pinhook MO http://bit.ly/iNDpbh
  • 1000s of acres of Illinois River bottom farmland flood as levee fails http://bit.ly/iAtFm7
  • USGS national maps show sharp contrasts between current water "haves" (flooding) & "have-nots" (drought) http://bit.ly/j54aL2
Water Quality-
  • Omaha, NE forced to discharge raw sewage into swollen Missouri River (NPR audio) http://n.pr/mTHiJ2
  • NY Times editorial: House attack on clean water rules http://nyti.ms/knNbwP
  • U of Dubuque receives grant to research "Nutrient Cycling in Two Rehabilitated Mississippi River Backwater Lakes" http://bit.ly/kuuDw6
  • EPA extends comment deadline on draft stormwater rule for construction site discharges till July 11 http://1.usa.gov/kNakf5 (PDF file)
  • US House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to vote tomorrow on EPA-limiting clean water legislation http://bit.ly/lEAUkQ
  • House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee passes bill that would limit EPA's water quality regulatory abilities http://bit.ly/kHqGdX
  • Minnesota Pollution Control Agency calls for major reductions of nutrients in Elk River watershed http://bit.ly/jqiefm
  • Blue-green algal toxins (microcystins) accumulate in fish & can pass on to fish-consumers http://bit.ly/mnDyfg
In the States -
Biodiversity, Wildlife and Invasives -
  • Sen Lieberman (D-CT) introduces National Fish Habitat Conservation Act to encourage habitat protection/restoration http://bit.ly/m3xrad
  • Invasive Emerald Ash Borer moving about 40x faster through Midwest than several years ago http://bit.ly/mvWoPK
  • Help protect Missouri from devastating aquatic invaders via @ktvo http://bit.ly/kEcCOB
Federal Budget -
  • LaCrosse Tribune Editorial: Cuts in federal spending absolutely necessary, agriculture spending is ripe for the picking http://bit.ly/lbgxUQ
  • >400 groups' letter to Biden budget negotiators urges funding for farm natural resource conservation programs http://bit.ly/iQmgcR (PDF)
  • Congressional Budget Office analysis: worsening scenario for growth of the federal debt http://bit.ly/kUvrlJ
  • House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) pulls out of VP Biden-led debt talks http://bit.ly/lQsP5j
  • Debt limit discussions come down to President Obama and House Speaker Boehner as Rep. Cantor abdicates http://bit.ly/kUBNMp
Gulf Coastal Area-
Events -
  • St. Croix River Association's 100th anniversary paddling event; join July 6 & 9-22 as non-registered Day Tripper http://bit.ly/iwPQ8L
  • Horinko Group's Water Division to host its Second Annual Water Resources Summit on October 25; info & registration: http://bit.ly/kPiTwx
  • Workshop: Fundamentals of Stream Restoration: Applied Geomorphology & Ecology; July 25 - 29, Fergus Falls MN http://bit.ly/j1mxhh (PDF)
  • Workshop: The Science of Healthy Waters: The Ditching Dilemma; $300; August 15 - 17, Fergus Falls MN http://bit.ly/kiJVdM (PDF)
Other news-
  • St. Francis Xavier University study: planting trees offers only marginal benefits in climate change fight http://bit.ly/k8BnUh
  • House Subcommittee passes bill preventing EPA from regulating coal ash as hazardous http://1.usa.gov/mo7oiv moves on to full committee
Political Scene -
Last Word -
"A political calculation among the munchkins in the White House." - Former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, describing a decision by the Obama Administration to acquiesce to GOP budget resolution demands restricting funding for the Bureau of Land Management's order to protect national roadless areas (quoted in the Las Vegas Journal-Review)
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Thursday, June 23, 2011

House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Passes Clean Water Cooperative Federalism Act That Would Limit EPA's Water Quality Regulatory Capabilities

The Clean Water Cooperative Federalism Act (HR 2018) was passed by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee yesterday (June 22) on a vote of 39-19 that crossed party line (links to the bill and yesterday’s Committee activity and vote roll call are on this Committee web page: http://1.usa.gov/lALA28). In this June 21 US EPA four-page legal analysis of the bill, EPA warns that the bill would “overturn” clean water law: http://bit.ly/kf8CJR (this is a PDF file).

The bill, which next will likely proceed to the House floor for consideration, would restrict EPA's ability to issue revised or new water quality standards without a state's permission. According to Chairman Mica's press release accompanying the introduction of the legislation, the bill would:

  • Restrict EPA’s ability to issue a revised or new water quality standard for a pollutant whenever a state has adopted – and EPA has already approved – a standard, unless the state concurs.
  • Prohibit EPA from superseding a water quality certification (that a discharge will comply with applicable water quality requirements) granted by a state under Clean Water Act ("CWA") section 401.
  • Prohibit EPA from withdrawing approval of a state water quality permitting program under CWA section 402 (regarding the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, or "NPDES")), or from limiting federal financial assistance for the state program, on the basis that EPA disagrees with the state regarding a (i) water quality standard that a state has adopted and EPA has approved, or (ii) the implementation of any federal guidance that directs a re-interpretation of the state’s approved water quality standards.
  • Prohibit EPA from objecting to a state’s issuance of an NPDES permit on the basis of (i) EPA’s differing interpretation of an approved state water quality standard, or (ii) the implementation of any federal guidance that directs a re-interpretation of the state’s approved water quality standards.
  • Limit EPA’s ability to veto dredge and fill permits issued by the Army Corps of Engineers and "gives states more flexibility to administer these permitting programs."
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Tuesday, June 21, 2011

House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to Vote on EPA-Limiting Legislation

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee announced yesterday that it will hold a markup session tomorrow (June 22) of “The Clean Water Cooperative Federalism Act of 2011” (HR 2018 - a bill "to amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to preserve the authority of each State to make determinations relating to the State's water quality standards, and for other purposes.").  The markup is scheduled for 9:30 AM in room 2167 Rayburn House Office Building. Here is the link to the Committee web site, where streaming video of the markup session can be viewed: http://1.usa.gov/lALA28 .

The bill, which has 28 co-sponsors, would restrict EPA's ability to issue revised or new water quality standards without a state's permission. Here is Chairman Mica's press release accompanying the introduction of the legislation According to that release, the bill would:
  • Restrict EPA’s ability to issue a revised or new water quality standard for a pollutant whenever a state has adopted – and EPA has already approved – a standard, unless the state concurs.
  • Prohibit EPA from superseding a water quality certification (that a discharge will comply with applicable water quality requirements) granted by a state under Clean Water Act ("CWA") section 401.
  • Prohibit EPA from withdrawing approval of a state water quality permitting program under CWA section 402 (regarding the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, or "NPDES")), or from limiting federal financial assistance for the state program, on the basis that EPA disagrees with the state regarding a (i) water quality standard that a state has adopted and EPA has approved, or (ii) the implementation of any federal guidance that directs a re-interpretation of the state’s approved water quality standards.
  • Prohibit EPA from objecting to a state’s issuance of an NPDES permit on the basis of (i) EPA’s differing interpretation of an approved state water quality standard, or (ii) the implementation of any federal guidance that directs a re-interpretation of the state’s approved water quality standards.
The release also notes that the bill would limit EPA’s ability to veto dredge and fill permits issued by the Army Corps of Engineers and "gives states more flexibility to administer these permitting programs."

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Monday, June 20, 2011

UPDATED: Mississippi River-Basin Relevant Congressional Hearings and Meetings for the Week

Here are the US Congressional hearings and meetings scheduled for this week that are particularly relevant to Mississippi River Basin water resource issues (along with links to the relevant Committee hearing or meeting web site):
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Friday, June 17, 2011

Mississippi River Basin Water Resource News for the Week

Appropriations Committee Passes Water and Energy Spending Bill
On June 15 the full House Appropriations Committee approved a Fiscal Year 2102, $30.6 billion energy and water spending bill for the Department of Energy, Army Corps of Engineers and Department of Interior water programs.  The measure, expected to be considered (and passed) by the full House in July, includes over $1 billion to fund flood response activities and to restore flood protection structures (such as levees) related to this spring's Mississippi and Missouri River flooding.  The bill also contains a controversial rider restricting Army Corps of Engineers' implementation of a new Administration Clean Water Act guidance; a provision several Committee Democrats (and numerous environmental and conservation organizations) sought to have removed.  Read more detail here. 

House Narrowly Passes Fiscal Year 2012 Agriculture Spending Bill, Cutting Conservation and WIC but Sparing Subsidies
On June 16 the House yesterday narrowly passed the Fiscal Year 2012 Agriculture, Rural Development, FDA spending bill (H.R. 2112) by a vote of 217-201, with 19 Republicans joining every Democrat in opposing the bill.   The bill provides for $125.5 billion in both discretionary and mandatory funding for the Department of Agriculture (except for the US Forest Service), Farm Credit Administration, Farm Credit System Financial Assistance Corporation, Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Food and Drug Administration.  A link to the full text of the bill as approved by the House is available here.  Under provisions of the House-passed measure, several key conservation programs would be cut below current spending levels or Farm Bill-authorized levels, including the Conservation Stewardship Program, Environmental Quality Incentives Program, Wetlands Reserve Program and Grasslands Reserve Program. An overview of the bill and proposed amendments (both passed and defeated by the House) is available here.

Mississippi River Flooding Likely to Contribute to Record Gulf of Mexico "Dead" Zone
In a news release issued on June 14, the USGS, in conjunction with NOAA, estimated that the Gulf of Mexico hypoxic ("dead") zone may end up being the largest ever, due in large part to excessive nitrogen contamination entering the Gulf accompanying this spring's Mississippi River flooding.  Here is a copy of the USGS news release with more detail.  A copy of the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium and Louisiana State University report  that in part underlies the USGS analysis (entitled "2011 Forecast: Summer Hypoxic Zone Size, Northern Gulf of Mexico," prepared with support from the NOAA Center for Sponsored Coastal Ocean Research, Coastal Ocean Program) can be viewed or downloaded here (PDF file).

NRCS Holds Second Partner Forum on Initiative to Increase the Adoption of the Management of Agricultural Drainage Water for Conservation Benefits
On June 15 the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) held a second "Ag and Conservation Partner Forum" in Washington, DC on a developing initiative designed to foster greater voluntary adoption of the management of agricultural drainage water by producers, especially in the Upper Mississippi River Basin (see the NRCS web site on the work to date - and upcoming activities - here). The meeting - on the topic of “Increasing the Adoption of the Management of Ag Drainage Water for Conservation Benefits” - followed an initial partner meeting held on March 23, 2011, and covered issues raised at the March meeting and recent NRCS developments since then.  You can read an overview of the June 15 meeting (with links to additional materials) here.

Notable @UpperMiss Twitter Postings for the Week: 

Agriculture -
  • Oxfam International report: Climate change affecting crop harvests; food prices http://reut.rs/mqyOlY
  • USDA: upcoming US corn crop in better-than-expected shape due to improving growing conditions http://on.wsj.com/j5wsgN
  • Supporters fear pending Federal budget cuts could stop cellulosic ethanol biofuel efforts http://bit.ly/m7eTsj
  • USDA awards $20 million in grants to spur production of hybrid grass for biomass-based energy in AR, MO, OH & PA http://1.usa.gov/keKPJS
  • Senate votes 73-27 to kill major tax break that benefits ethanol industry http://bit.ly/lZhMVX
  • Republicans use rules maneuver on House floor to prevent USDA spending bill cuts to federal farm subsidies http://wapo.st/kzdyQu
  • White House attacks the GOP's House USDA spending bill over its USDA and FDA cuts http://bit.ly/m8sMb0
  • 133 ag organizations sign letter opposing deficit cuts disproportionately impacting farmers, ranchers & rural US http://bit.ly/md055g (pdf)
  • Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Stabenow: Senate will not support House's budget cuts to agriculture & nutrition http://bit.ly/iywRIf
  • Sen. Mike Johanns (R-NE) to farmers in Op-Ed: don't trust EPA's promise of farm non-regulation http://bit.ly/lnIZM3
  • House Agriculture Committee Chair Lucas (R-OK) accelerates plans for drafting new farm bill as USDA approps bill passes http://bit.ly/jKGskt
Floodplains, Dams and Navigation -
  • La. may pull support for spending federal-state matched wetland funds on projects to protect navigation channel edges http://bit.ly/lGUE2a
  • Sen DeMint (R-SC) bill package proposes to overhaul how Army Corps manages backlog of water infrastructure projects http://1.usa.gov/lMzF8f
  • Army Corps hopes temporary levee will save Iowa town from flooding Missouri River http://bit.ly/j7FOuY & http://bit.ly/kf2XGL
  • Army Corps options for New Orleans area Mississippi River levee armor include dense grass, fabric turf, concrete blocks http://bit.ly/lKu1Be
  • Missouri River towns face worst flooding in decades & longest-lasting high waters on record http://on.wsj.com/iJ3SxC
  • IA Farm Bureau: 100,000 acres of Iowa farmland will be impacted by rising Missouri River flood waters http://bit.ly/kmuipk
  • Map of latest flood stages on Upper Mississippi, Illinois and lower Missouri Rivers: http://on.wsj.com/jTJhi4
  • Army Corps to begin closing 30 bays in  Bonnet Carre Spillway in Louisiana on Saturday http://bit.ly/mk2uHk
  • Army Corps: cost of repairing Mississippi River levees damaged by this year's flooding could reach $1 billion http://bit.ly/lZgM61
  • Army Corps to repair Birds Point, MO (Mississippi River) levee it intentionally breached http://bit.ly/jAu4dm
Water Quality-
  • White House nominates Ken Kopocis to become Assistant Administrator for EPA's Office of Water http://1.usa.gov/mfFYCz
  • 33 environmental organizations call on Congress to fund great waters restoration http://bit.ly/l11GPr (pdf file)
  • Comprehensive National Mercury Monitoring Network bill introduced in Senate (re: air, rain, soil, water, wildlife) http://1.usa.gov/ishpyq 
  • Texas A&M University oceanographers will launch study of size and intensity of Gulf "dead" zone next week http://bit.ly/lBX2Nq
  • EPA releases "significant upgrade" to its Nonpoint Source Outreach Toolbox with new content & features http://1.usa.gov/joeFro
  • Pollution a worry as Missouri River floods http://bit.ly/iXMIIH
  • EPA redesigns EnviroMapper for Water: GIS-based display of water quality & other information about US water bodies http://1.usa.gov/mvJCwn
In the States -
  • AK Steel’s restoration efforts of Dicks Creek (OH) expected to begin next month with PCB cleanup http://bit.ly/m7kaI6
  • MN AG starts legal shutdown preparations if lingering budget stalemate forces July 1 shutdown http://bit.ly/j4tURj
  • Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear (D) wants federal regulators off the back of coal http://bit.ly/kWgGzn
  • Op-ed: WI state legislation to delay implementing state water phosphorus reductions would be bad idea http://bit.ly/iZtMSf
  • The Economist has created an interactive map graphic displaying state-level economic, political, and demographic data http://econ.st/kYFfVv
  • St. Paul unveils river revival plan in effort to invigorate city's 17-mile Mississippi Riverfront http://bit.ly/lAGD4R
  • 4 Arkansas water quality improvement projects get total of $1 million from USDA http://bit.ly/k01yPP
Biodiversity, Wildlife and Invasives -
  • Battle of the invasives: Chinese wasps introduced by MN Dept. of Agriculture to combat Emerald Ash Borer http://bit.ly/lncoIQ
  • Spring floods along the Mississippi River may be spreading Asian carp downstream http://bit.ly/l73CJa
  • Macalester University Ecologist: Time to end "Invasive-Species Persecution" http://bit.ly/mxhtAD
  • Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) calls for maintaining Invasive Species funding for states http://bit.ly/jMabCj
  • Invasive Purple Loosestrife newly discovered in Wisconsin's Eagle River basin http://bit.ly/j1BPuO
  • New USDA APHIS rule will help stop invasive species importation http://prn.to/kU1HIV; while House votes today to cut $73M from APHIS budget
  • Listing of where to see rare or interesting birds and mammals throughout Minnesota by season http://bit.ly/jdzpI9
Federal Budget -
Gulf Coastal Area-
  • Louisiana DEQ ordered by appellate court to analyze possible contamination from dumping drilling fluids in coastal seas http://bit.ly/iq2Ae6
  • Research to determine how Mississippi River discharges water & deposits sediment could help delta restoration efforts http://bit.ly/k8O1Zb
  • Challenges of keeping Mississippi River "in check" discussed at Louisiana coastal authority meeting http://bit.ly/iu1Hkv
Events -
  • Washington DC free briefing on "Transatlantic Perspectives on Shale Gas Development;" June 21 http://bit.ly/lOZcx4
  • Free Upcoming Webinar – "Clean Water Act Regulation Following Rapanos: Clear As Mud?" July 27 http://bit.ly/iEmApW 
  • Clean Water America Alliance Urban Waters Sustainability Leadership Conference; October 3-5; Milwaukee http://conta.cc/k6aiUb
  • Participatory workshop: Improving the Cost-effectiveness of Farm Bill Conservation Programs; Washington, DC July 20-21 http://bit.ly/ivklpC
e-Newsletters -
  • Horinko Group monthly newsletter includes water resources, climate change, Mississippi River & Farm Bill articles http://bit.ly/lpu3uS
Other news-
Political Scene -
  • Farm supports test some GOP freshmen-will they slash farm subsidies that they received themselves?  http://politi.co/iDRMOh 
  • Illinois state Sen. Mike Frerichs (D) has decided not to run for US Congress in redrawn 13th district http://bit.ly/lntSmw
Last Word -
"This is not speculation; this is high school science.” - Paul Gilding, Australian environmentalist and entrepreneur, speaking of factors contributing to climate change in a new book entitled “The Great Disruption: Why the Climate Crisis Will Bring On the End of Shopping and the Birth of a New World.”
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Thursday, June 16, 2011

House Narrowly Passes Fiscal Year 2012 Agriculture Spending Bill, Cutting Conservation and WIC but Sparing Subsidies

The House today (June 16) narrowly passed the Fiscal Year 2012 Agriculture, Rural Development, FDA spending bill (H.R. 2112) by a vote of 217-201, with 19 Republicans joining all of the Democrats in opposing the bill (roll call here).   The bill provides for $125.5 billion in both discretionary and mandatory funding for the Department of Agriculture (except for the US Forest Service), Farm Credit Administration, Farm Credit System Financial Assistance Corporation, Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Food and Drug Administration.  A link to the full text of the bill as approved by the House is available here.

The House-passed measure overall cuts $2.7 billion from USDA's Fiscal Year 2011 spending levels.  Several major conservation programs are cut below those current spending levels or Farm Bill-authorized levels.  These include a cuts of $171 million to the Conservation Stewardship Program and $350 million to the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, and reductions in eligible acreage for sign up to the Wetlands Reserve Program and Grasslands Reserve Program by 64,200 acres and 96,000 acres, respectively. One of the biggest concerns for Democrats was the bill's $685 million in cuts to the Women, Infants and Children (or "WIC") nutrition program.

A Committee press release on the passed spending measure summarizes the 21 amendments to the bill that were approved by the House during the two and one-half days of floor consideration.  Some of the more notable amendments, from a conservation and farm sustainability perspective, include those that:
  • cut the USDA general administration account by 10% ($2.4 million)
  • prohibit funds in the bill from being used for the USDA "know your farmer, know your food" imitative
  • add $2 million to Agriculture Research Service
  • prohibit funding for USDA Regulations titled "Policy Statement on Climate Change Adaption" and
  • transfer $3 million to the Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention Program
Several contentious amendment proposals were voted down during the bill debate, including a proposal to cut discretionary spending by five percent or more, and several proposed amendments that would have limited direct farm subsidy payments.  Those included an amendment that would have set the farm subsidy-payment cap at $125,000, along with another one that would have lowered income subsidy payment eligibility to $250,000 adjusted gross income.

In related news, Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Stabenow (D-MI)  has stated that the Senate would not be supportive of House budget cuts to agriculture and nutrition programs, noting during a meeting with Vice President Joe Biden earlier this week that she is concerned about how agriculture and rural America are being treated during ongoing budget discussions.  Stabenow said budget negotiators led by the Vice President are using the House-passed budget resolution as a starting point for budget-cutting discussions.  That budget includes $48 billion in cuts to commodity and conservation programs over 10 years.  The Senator stressed that "These cuts are extreme and they are not the place to start on negotiations."
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NRCS Holds Second Partner Forum on Initiative to Increase the Adoption of the Management of Agricultural Drainage Water for Conservation Benefits

On June 15 the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) held a second "Ag and Conservation Partner Forum" in Washington, DC on a developing initiative designed to foster greater voluntary adoption of the management of agricultural drainage water by producers, especially in the Upper Mississippi River Basin (you can visit the NRCS web site on the work to date - and upcoming activities - here).

The meeting - on the topic of “Increasing the Adoption of the Management of Ag Drainage Water for Conservation Benefits” - followed an initial partner meeting held on March 23, 2011, and covered issued raised at the March meeting and recent NRCS developments since then.

Much of the June 15 meeting focused on the results of a suite of recently-completed pilot projects in 20 row crop fields across five Midwestern states (Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio).  The Agricultural Drainage Management Coalition-sponsored projects were funded under the NRCS Conservation Innovative Grants (CIG) program. NRCS concludes based on the CIG report findings that "very substantial environmental impacts" can be realized (including reductions in nitrate outflow through utilization of drainage water management from 20 to 60%), with "negligible impacts on yield."  The full report, "Drainage Water Management for Midwestern Row Crop Agriculture (very large PDF file) and its Executive Summary (smaller PDF file) have been made available by NRCS for review.

Other topics discussed at the June 15 forum included:
  • A summary of a Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP) supported analysis of the projected effects of drainage water management on nitrogen loss in the Mississippi River Basin (including the Ohio, Tennessee, Missouri and Arkansas River subbasins);
  • A National Drainage Water Management Summit being planned for October 11-13 in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul region (to assess the state of drainage water management science and technology, to develop and foster partnerships and to identify barriers to the adoption of the technology);
  • An overview of drainage water management practice applications to date (over the past decade) across the US; and
  • A very preliminary draft Drainage Water Management Team Action Plan.
NRCS will post information from the June 15 meeting, including the meeting agenda, PowerPoint presentations, the draft Drainage Water Management Team Action Plan, and additional information about the October National Summit, on its drainage water management initiative web site soon.
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Appropriations Committee Passes Water and Energy Spending Bill on to Full House

On Wednesday (June 15) the full House Appropriations Committee approved a Fiscal Year 2102, $30.6 billion energy and water spending bill for the Department of Energy, Army Corps of Engineers and Department of Interior water programs.  The measure, expected to be considered (and passed) by the full House in July, includes over $1 billion to fund flood response activities and to restore flood protection structures (such as levees) related to this spring's Mississippi and Missouri River flooding.  The bill also contains a controversial rider restricting Army Corps of Engineers' implementation of a new Administration Clean Water Act guidance; a provision several Committee Democrats (and numerous environmental and conservation organizations) sought to have removed.

The Committee approved the measure by a vote of 26-20, largely along party lines, following three-and-a-half-hours of discussion and amendment consideration.  Only Republican Rep. Jeff Flake (AZ-6) joined with 19 Democrats in voting against the measure.  The bill would cut $5.9 billion from the President's 2012 budget proposal and would cut around $1 billion from the Fiscal Year 2011 spending levels for the agencies.  Under the bill's provisions the Department of Energy would receive $24.7 billion, the Army Corps $4.8 billion, and Department of Interior (Bureau of Reclamation) $934 million.  The Army Corps funding level is actually slightly more than the $4.63 billion requested by the President in his 2012 budget proposal; not an unexpected outcome, given a Congressional history of adding spending for particular flood control, navigation and ecosystem restoration projects.

Among the amendments considered was one offered Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA-8), which would have removed from the bill a provision that blocks funding for the new Obama administration policy aimed at better-defining Clean Water Act protections over wetlands and streams.  On April 27 the Obama administration released a national clean water framework, entitled "Clean Water: Foundation of Healthy Communities and a Healthy Environment."  The Framework release was accompanied by the release of draft guidance from the US EPA and Army Corps of Engineers that updates Federal guidance regarding where the Clean Water Act applies nationwide (see a complete article on the framework and guidance here).  Section 109 of the spending bill seeks to prevent the Corps of Engineers from completing and implementing that guidance.  Rep. Moran's amendment failed to pass (on a vote of 21-27).  The Section 109 rider remains in the bill despite the urging of 15 major national outdoors and conservation groups that the provision be dropped (see the groups' June 13 letter to appropriators here - PDF file).

The bill would also cut  $32.7 million from the Administration's 2012, $162 million request for Everglades restoration, providing $130 million for the initiative (expected overall to cost $12.5 billion over 10 years).

To view the Appropriations Committee (majority office) media release and summary of the bill, see here.  The full text of legislation (as considered by the Committee prior to its June 15 vote) can be viewed here (as a PDF file).  And the Committee report accompanying the legislation can be seen here (also as a PDF file).  The Committee-passed version of the legislation will be posted on this Library of Congress appropriations' status web site shortly.
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Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Mississippi River Flooding Likely to Contribute to Record Gulf of Mexico "Dead" Zone

In a news release issued on June 14, the USGS, in conjunction with NOAA, estimated that the Gulf of Mexico hypoxic ("dead") zone may end up being the largest ever, due in large part to excessive nitrogen contamination entering the Gulf accompanying this spring's Mississippi River flooding. The release states, in part, "The Gulf of Mexico's hypoxic zone is predicted to be larger than average this year, due to extreme flooding of the Mississippi River this spring, according to an annual forecast by a team of NOAA-supported scientists from the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, Louisiana State University and the University of Michigan. The forecast is based on Mississippi River nutrient inputs compiled annually by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

"Scientists are predicting the area could measure between 8,500 and 9,421 square miles, or an area roughly the size of New Hampshire. The largest hypoxic zone measured to date occurred in 2002 and encompassed more than 8,400 square miles."

A copy of the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium and Louisiana State University report (PDF file) that underlies the USGS news release (entitled "2011 Forecast: Summer Hypoxic Zone Size, Northern Gulf of Mexico," prepared with support from the NOAA Center for Sponsored Coastal Ocean Research, Coastal Ocean Program) can be viewed or downloaded here.
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Monday, June 13, 2011

UPDATED: Mississippi River-Basin Relevant Congressional Hearings and Meetings for the Week

Here are the US Congressional hearings and meetings scheduled for this week that are particularly relevant to Mississippi River Basin water resource issues (along with links to the relevant Committee hearing or meeting web site):
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Friday, June 10, 2011

Mekong River Commission Sets a Visionary Example of System-wide Watershed Management

Earlier this week, 14 delegates from the four member countries of the Mekong River Commission (MRC) visited the Mississippi River Basin and some of the people and organizations working on Mississippi River water resource issues.  Later in the week they traveled to Washington, DC, where they will meet into next week with water resource experts from various agencies and organizations.

On Monday, I was privileged to meet with the visiting MRC delegates at the National Great Rivers Research and Education Center in Alton, Illinois.  There, and throughout the day at other places in the Alton area, we came to better know each other; discussing ideas on water resource management approaches in large aquatic systems such as the Mekong and Mississippi River watersheds.

As we listened to one another, and grew to better understand the MRC and its delegates, the issues they face and the comprehensive, systemic approach they are embracing, two things became strikingly apparent.  First, the people in both river systems are facing many of the same problems and issues and concerns, and have much to learn from each other.  Second, it is the people of the Mekong River valley who have most to teach and the communities of the Mississippi River basin the most to learn from this exchange.  I offer this overview of the MRC, its issues and its visionary, comprehensive approach as a brief introduction into that learning process.

The MRC was formed in April 1995 when the governments of Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand and Viet Nam signed an "Agreement on the Cooperation for the Sustainable Development of the Mekong River Basin," in which they consented to jointly manage their shared water resources and the development of the Mekong River's resources.  In 1996 China and Myanmar, the two other Mekong River countries, became "Dialogue Partners" with the four MRC member countries, and now work together with those countries within a cooperative framework.

The MRC has as its mission to "promote and coordinate sustainable management and development of water and related resources for the countries’ mutual benefit and the people’s well-being," working toward a vision of a Mekong River Basin that is "economically prosperous, socially just and environmentally sound."

Because of economic and environmental concerns over large dams, until recently mainstream Mekong River dam planning had effectively been tabled in Southeast Asia.  However, MRC-member states became concerned over the impacts of in-place and planned dams in China within the upper Mekong River basin (specifically the recently-completed Xiaowan Dam and approved-for-construction Nuozhadu Dam).  During flooding in 2008 and a 2010 drought, many in Thailand, and some in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, blamed flooding and drought impacts on China’s upstream water management actions.

In part because of those upstream dams, lower Mekong dam proposals are now moving forward.  There are currently plans in various stages of development for up to eleven dams on the lower main stem of the Mekong River (the section of the Mekong River downstream of China). The proposed dams would be placed in sections of the River bordering or within three of the four MRC-member countries. 

The impacts of both the upstream dams, outside of the MRC's direct purview, and the proposed lower Mekong River dams are now the central issues with which the MRC must contend.  It has done so by putting into place a very ambitious, robust and comprehensive strategic plan (available here as a pdf file), which "suggests its role will be promoting the harmonisation of benefits shared among the Member Countries, monitoring the environmental health, and undertaking environmental and social impact assessments, and, where needed, strategic impact assessments."

The MRC strategic plan lays out two main goals for 2011-2015 period.  Those goals are to:
  1. Support the implementation of an Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM)-based Basin Development Strategy to address the urgent needs and priorities for the integrated management of water and related resources of the Mekong River Basin towards 2030; and
  2. Transition toward implementation of the MRC four core functions and increased Member Country contributions to the delivery of these tasks.
The "four core functions" mentioned in goal two set the framework for the future work of the MRC, and are:
1. Secretariat Administrative and Management Functions
2. River Basin Management Functions:
  • Data acquisition, exchange and monitoring
  • Analysis, modelling and assessment
  • Planning support
  • Forecasting, warning and emergency response
  • Implementing MRC Procedures
  • Promoting dialogue and communication
  • Reporting and dissemination
3. Capacity Building and Tools Development Functions
4. Consulting and Advisory Services

Underlying the strategic plan and all of MRC's work are the truly visionary aspects of their plan.  They are ten key values and principles of sustainable development that will guide all of MRC's work and they include:
  1. Continuing the comprehensive implementation of IWRM so that transboundary water governance becomes more integrated and responsive thus ensuring equitable sharing of benefits and minimizing risks associated with any development interventions.
  2. Stimulating pro-poor development.
  3. Protecting the environment.
  4. Dealing with climate change effects.
  5. Closing the different development levels and capacity gaps among the Member Countries by prioritizing funding and capacity building.
  6. Taking a “Whole of basin” approach.
  7. Enhancing stakeholder participation and gender mainstreaming, with inputs from and equal participation of both men and women at all levels, ensuring that MRC programs benefit both men and women equally.
  8. Promoting transparency and openness.
  9. Encouraging aid effectiveness and donor harmonization, and
  10. Building strategic partnerships with other regional initiatives and other international river basin organizations.
Under terms of an agreement between the MRC and Mississippi River Commission formalized in July 2009, this month's US State Department-sponsored visit is part of an initiative to help "determine how best to adapt to climate change as it affects the Mekong river system . . . and promote the sustainability of hydropower development, address water and food security, manage and cope with floods and droughts better, and increase navigation and trade on their inland waterways" (see this media release regarding the agreement).

The 2009 agreement was crafted based upon a hope that both the MRC and Mississippi River Commission would "profit from a closer partnership" and "sharing." After listening to and learning from our Mekong River colleagues, I couldn't agree more.
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Mississippi River Basin Water Resource News for the Week

Federal Budget Negotiations Inch Forward

Negotiations led by Vice President Joe Biden continued during a two-hour meeting in the US Capitol on Thursday afternoon, where Congressional Republicans and Democrats discussed taxes and entitlements with White House representatives and Treasury Department officials.  The sixth round of talks designed to reach a deal to raise the debt ceiling were reported to have been "constructive and positive," and explored potential new revenue sources that Democrats say will be central to winning their support for any debt ceiling Congressional measure.

With about two to three more weeks of true negotiating time left before a looming August 2 debt ceiling deadline, the White House has said it wants three meetings a week with lawmakers for the remainder of the month to settle upon a deficit-reduction agreement before Congress recesses for a week over the July 4 holiday.  That end-of-June target would allow time for President Barack Obama and Congressional GOP leaders, including House Speaker John Boehner to settle on any agreement that the negotiators hammer out, and would leave the remainder of July for Congress to write the complex bill raising the federal debt ceiling.

The Biden bipartisan negotiation sessions are set to resume next Tuesday. Republicans have said they want the deal to include spending cuts equal in size to the increase in the debt limit, and the Treasury Department has indicated that it would need a debt-ceiling increase of at least $2 trillion to allow the Federal government to operate through the end of the next Fiscal Year.  A smaller debt-ceiling agreement allowing for a shorter spending time extension also remains a possibility, however, and Republicans are rumored to have signaled that they would agree to $1 trillion in spending cuts.

While the House has begun work on its Fiscal Year 2012 appropriations bills, similar activity on the Senate side has effectively been put on hold, as Senate leaders wait for a resolution of the debt-ceiling issue.  The nature of that deal will undoubtedly influence the levels of spending that would be allowed under any Fiscal Year 2012 spending bills.

Notable @UpperMiss Twitter Postings for the Week: 

Floodplains, Dams and Navigation -
Water Quality-
  • Chemicals in Farm Runoff Rattle States on the Mississippi River http://tinyurl.com/4xuf82j
  • USDA announces "Watershed Condition Framework" for watershed evaluation, prioritization & protection http://1.usa.gov/m0VMyF
  • 2011 Floods Raise a Question: What's in all that Flood Water? - U of MN River Life Blog http://bit.ly/iCGtrO
  • CEQ Releases Draft Plan to Protect Water Quality & Availability from Climate Change Impacts ; comments due July 15 http://1.usa.gov/iVp23W
  • Chicago Metropolitan Water Reclamation District approves stricter water quality standards for Chicago River & tribs http://trib.in/kBR4Sa 
  • Slides and audio of briefing on Managing Nutrients to Protect Water Quality posted at http://bit.ly/luCJzc
Agriculture -
In the States -
  • Illinois Pollution Control Board order: Chicago river cleanup required http://tinyurl.com/4295hoh
  • Democratic chairman of the KY state House Natural Resources & Environment Committee: Feds declaring war on coal http://tinyurl.com/3temcp5
  • US Office of Surface Mining Reclamation & Enforcement:  KY coal industry compliance drops http://bit.ly/jOSGCA
  • Louisiana Land and Water Co. owner sentenced to 21 months jail time; fined $310,000 for Clean Water Act violations http://bit.ly/jCZ9CJ
  • IA bill 'streamlining' DNR permit process for projects near streams draws criticism http://bit.ly/mftmZl
  • IA state committee votes to cut land preservation fund by $26M a year http://bit.ly/j1ljLL
Biodiversity, Wildlife and Invasives -
  • MN DNR to fund Asian Carp eDNA testing this summer in upper Mississippi River http://bit.ly/kuETD6
  • Biodiversity loss does not get the attention the problem deserves http://ow.ly/59a0p
  • Protected and endangered fish & birds may benefit from flooding Missouri River http://yhoo.it/kyhsxT
  • WI Asian carp harvesting/angling rules questioned as invasive enters state waters http://bit.ly/l2SaAB
  • Opening Morganza & Bonnet Carre spillways may move Asian carp from Mississippi River into other Louisiana waters http://bit.ly/mOfGpL
Federal Budget -
Gulf Coastal Area-
Events -
  • Minnesota River basin documentary to be aired statewide Sunday (6 pm CDT) http://bit.ly/lyL6Oz
  • June 21 webinar: Adaptation in a Changing Climate and its impact on National Security  http://bit.ly/mNBsJV
  • “America’s Grasslands: Status, Threats, & Opportunities” conference, Sioux Falls, SD; August 15-17 http://bit.ly/kmHLXV
  • CIG Showcase in conjunction with Soil & Water Conservation Society International Conference; Washington, DC, July 17-20 http://bit.ly/lmsY2Z
Other news-
  • Mississippi River and Mekong River stakeholders exchange river conservation ideas and views http://bit.ly/jE6Iwv
  • Essay on growth, development, sustainability, water resources & climate change http://bit.ly/iYQ7WX
  • Acting Assistant Administrator for EPA’s Office of Water blogs on "Waters of the US" jurisdiction issue http://1.usa.gov/kCvQAH
  • President will create advisory council to recommend ways to boost US rural economy & quality of life http://wapo.st/mDyd0B
Political Scene -
  • Former Sen. Russ Feingold (D) will decide whether to enter WI US Senate contest by Labor Day http://tinyurl.com/4xty9el
  • Poll: Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) would beat her only declared Republican opponent in 2012 US Senate run http://bit.ly/lYDSJk
  • House seat redistricting case in Louisiana seen as crucial test of Voting Rights Act http://tinyurl.com/44s5acf
  • Republicans targeting Rep. Jerry Costello with TV ad set to air in newly redistricted IL House district http://bit.ly/imSZAP
  • Unions occupy middle political ground on environmental policy issues http://nyti.ms/jaRBCY
  • New poll: In KY governor race Gov. Beshear (D) has 21-point lead over Republican state Sen. Williams http://bit.ly/mQQTjJ
Last word - "I never did give them hell. I just told the truth, and they thought it was hell." - former US President Harry S. Truman, quoted in Look magazine, April 3, 1956.
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Friday, June 3, 2011

Essay on growth, development, sustainability, water resources and climate change

This essay on growth, development, sustainability and climate change was published in the May issue of the India Economy Review.

Last summer, as twenty percent of Pakistan lay beneath what once was a tamed Indus River, I recall reading a story of the plight of 40-year-old taxi driver Bakht Zada, who wondered aloud as he watched his livelihood, history and culture being washed downstream toward the Indian Ocean, "If this is not God’s wrath, what is?" The River he was watching flow through his town had, until then, been largely held in check by miles of levees and an upstream dam system that rivaled other modern engineering marvels around the world; in check, that is, until what United Nations officials are calling the worst natural disaster attributable to climate change drove the River beyond its banks, rendering the dams and levees meaningless, forcing thousands to flee and adding their desperation to the plight of millions in the region already in need of relief.



What we now know all too well is that the flooding, misery and desolation in Pakistan were not the wrath of a vengeful God but the direct result of frequently well-intentioned but typically misguided attempts to tame a River, and to put it to more “productive” use by exploiting its natural and human resources, and developing within its floodplains — all hampering the River valley’s natural resiliency and thwarting an innate human capacity to adapt and survive. And all perversely compounded by a climate run amuck at our own hands.

Pakistan was not alone in its misery while a fifth of its land drowned. At the same time, Russia’s drought-ridden landscape burned (and 700 people died there each day), China saw its worst flooding in decades, ice loss from Greenland’s ice sheet was expanding rapidly up its northwest coast, and Iowa in the United States was soaked by its wettest 36-month period in nearly 130 years of record-keeping. Climatologists are now openly saying what laypeople have been wondering aloud for years. Last summer’s Pakistani flooding and Russian heat wave, and the other extreme weather events occurring to this day around the globe are linked to and exacerbated by climate change. As the Indus River overflowed, sixteen of Australia’s leading scientists, speaking through the Australian Academy of Science and across a range of disciplines, pointedly confronted climate change deniers in an effort to set the record straight on climate science in the middle of a national election in which the validity of climate change had been hotly contested. At the same time that Russian farms, prairies and forests were aflame, scientists at the World Meteorological Organization reported that “the sequence of current events matches . . . projections of more frequent and more intense extreme weather events due to global warming.”

Researcher, writer and university professor Wolfgang Sachs once noted that “Nothing is ultimately as irrational as rushing with maximum efficiency in the wrong direction.” From where I sit, Professor Sachs has captured the human condition very well, as we heedlessly stroll down a road toward catastrophe at an all-too-efficient pace; wanting more, producing more and consuming more along the way. And all the while — as we want, produce and consume — the tempo at which we constrain and exploit nature ecosystems while pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere continues to increase, while evidence mounts daily that following such a path is folly.

The degree to which the Pakistani flooding and other extreme weather events are due to climate change layered upon more typical climatic cycles (or, even as Mr. Zada suggests, the wrath of God) is certainly debatable. However, that climate change is occurring at all can no longer be questioned by people of good conscious. Nor can we continue to rationally deny humanity’s historic and continued contributions to climate change. Yet, some still question and debate the latter point and still deny the former; fiddling, in effect, while the world — sometimes all too literally — burns.

The Idol of Productivity
That some still question (or concede but ignore) the human influence on climate change is ironic, to say the least, since the underlying cultural basis for rising greenhouse gas production — the perceived need for continuous economic growth built upon an ethos of ever-increasing production and ever-improving efficiency — goes largely unquestioned. In fact, the need for continuous growth and increased productivity is not only an unchallenged truism, but growth and productivity have been deified, particularly in western culture, where people take sophomoric pride in being proficiently productive. The more productive and efficient a people are, the cultural myth goes, the more likely we are to prosper as a nation, to survive as a culture and to be individually comfortable while doing so. We reach, yearn and strive for higher productivity; trying our utmost to do more, make more and consume more with less effort, less money, less guilt. And all the while we never even deign to question the precept that doing, producing and consuming more for less — all iconic measures of efficiency — are undoubtedly virtuous.

Many of our parents in Western society used to teach us as children that “cleanliness is next to godliness.” Today, we can add “productive” and “efficient” to the list of qualities that raise us closer to the divine.
  And while we continue to bow to the god of economic growth, scientists warn that the entire ice mass of Greenland will disappear if the earth's temperature rises by as little as two degrees Celsius; a group of nine Nobel laureates announce that unless the world starts reducing greenhouse gas emissions within six years, we face devastation; the U.S. Geological Survey reports that many of Asia’s glaciers are retreating as a result of climate change; China's state news agency declares that rising sea levels caused by climate change contribute to a growing number of coastal disasters; climate legislation has been officially pronounced “dead” in the United States; Canada has decided that it will delay greenhouse gas emission reduction efforts for at least another five years; officials in India assert that the nation will not agree to binding commitments to reduce carbon emissions; and Chinese analysts conclude that Western carbon dioxide emission reduction plans are inadequate and inconsequential.

Rachel Carson once observed that we live in a time “in which the right to make a dollar at whatever cost is seldom challenged;” seldom challenged, because we have elevated efficiency and productivity to a godlike status. Increasing factory productivity goes unquestioned, even if it means sacking workers who have dedicated themselves to a company for decades. Efficiently producing and employing ever-improved weapons of destruction go unquestioned, even when it results in shifting all-to-limited resources from life-giving endeavors to the killing of tens of thousands of fellow humans; civilian and military alike. Proficiently pumping pollutants into the air we breathe and water we drink is rewarded, so long as we are comfortable while productively poisoning the planet and one other.

“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent,” Albert Einstein warned, “It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.” What we need now is a little less intelligent foolishness and a lot more people of courage to question our blind devotion to the god of productivity: to ask “why,” when output is deemed sacrosanct; to question power, when the idol of unbridled growth goes unchallenged; and to speak truth in the face of torrents of misinformation. As we look forward toward a potential future steeped in growth and productivity, I humbly suggest that we reframe the ingrained perspectives and policy and preferences that suck our economies, cultures and lives down that untenable path toward oblivion; that we envision and then follow a different, sustainable course.

A Path Forward
Here’s what I believe is happening that directly and increasingly contributes to catastrophes like those in Pakistan and elsewhere around the world; while at the same time making it increasingly difficult to find a path forward toward economic and environmental sustainability — happening not just in the Indus River valley, but everywhere. We are divided into two camps. Put most simply, they are “yours” and “mine.” You may have heard them referred to in other terms: east and west, urban and rural, farm and city, business and environmental, young or elderly, immigrant or resident, liberal and conservative, rich and poor. The specific labels matter little, really; because, in the end, this vision of the world always comes down to “yours” and “mine.” That perspective must change before we can ever hope to let go of our need for control based on a principle of limitless production and growth. Before moving on to transform our deification of growth at the expense of others, in other words, we must ultimately transform our very notion of “otherness.”

Radical transformation is never easy; and change appears most threatening to those in institutional power; however, speaking from the figurative epicenter of global power in Washington, DC, I would offer that such reframing is necessary if we are to collectively move from an invalid model of infinite growth within a finite world, and toward a balanced, sustainable and equitable paradigm of society and its connections with the natural world.

The Bakiga people inhabit the mountains and valleys around Lake Victoria in what is today Uganda — at the very headwaters of another river as great as the Indus — the Nile. Over hundreds of generations, their ties to the land and water and each other have informed an ancient wisdom strikingly opposed to the “yours and mine” mentality sweeping much of the world: “united jaws crush the bone.” That wisdom teaches that it has never really been a world of “yours and mine.” There’s is not a world vision based upon “you and me;” but upon “ours” and “us.” The Bakiga teach that all are connected. Everything is connected. Everywhere there are connections.

This wisdom from the Bakiga is a lesson for us all. What the people of the Nile River valley learned so many generations ago is that neither you nor I are right or wrong; good or bad; evil or moral; friend or enemy. We are simply different. In each place we speak different languages, hold to different customs, connect differently, interact with government differently, relate to nature differently. This is just who we are and what we do as blessedly assorted human beings. And the solutions that may work very well in one river town or on one farm or in one city might not work so well in another. And the only way to really determine how to live sustainably together — to determine what will work and what might not — is to listen to people where they live and work and play: along the banks of the Indus River; in the steppes of Eurasia; within the cities of Europe; among the islands of Micronesia; and in every home and shop and hamlet around the world. What we will discover if we truly listen to one another is that we have everything to learn and nothing to fear from each other. We will find that diversity of opinion, when embraced honestly, is what animates thinking and provokes imagination. We will discover that the irrational fears keeping us apart — keeping us from solving difficult but very solvable problems — are, in the end, simply fear of losing control — control over things we really cannot control to begin with. Just ask the people of Pakistan who tried in vain to hold back the rising waters of the Indus River.

To solve what seem to be intractable problems allied with the unrealistic vision of perpetual growth, we will need to provide the room and carve out the time desperately needed to listen to each other. To listen to store owners who cannot maintain their businesses; listen to city officials whose tax bases are eroding and to farmers whose soils and livelihoods are washing away; listen to the scientists who tell us the earth’s natural places are unique treasures; listen to the workers and their families who can’t make ends meet; meet with artists, talk to politicians, speak to industry leaders, join with teachers, pay attention to the children and the poor and our elders, because everyone is a member of the economic and ecological quilt that forms our rich human tapestry, and all have a part to play in its protection.

All of us, together — not “you;” not “I” — had better make sure that this listening and understanding and cooperation and innovation come to pass; before 40-year-old taxi drivers and 22-year-old mothers and five-year-old children and 60-year-old shopkeepers, just like Bakht Zada, watch as our livelihoods, and histories and cultures wash figuratively, if not literally, downstream.

If we do not — if we fail to cooperate as a global community; if we do not move from glorifying the mythic god of growth to bowing toward and respecting one another — then I fear that Pakistani taxi driver Bakht Zada will have been correct all along. And that humanity’s demise, in the end, will be the result of a god’s wrath, albeit a god of our own making. If that is not God’s wrath, what is? 

(The views expressed in the article are personal and do not reflect the official policy or position of the organisation.)
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