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1994-05-02
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<text>
<title>
Overview of Water Issues
</title>
<article>
<hdr>
CRS Review, December 1991
Water Issues: Overview
</hdr>
<body>
<p>Claudia Copeland, the coordinator in this forum, is a
specialist in environmental policy with the CRS Environment and
Natural Resources Policy Division.
</p>
<p> Magazine headlines in recent years paint a picture of
enormous crisis in terms of the Nation's water resources--headlines such as "Don't Go Near the Water, Our Polluted
Oceans," Newsweek, August 1988; "The U.S.: No Water to Waste,"
Time, August 1990. Water quality problems affect surface water
and groundwater in all regions of the country: nearly 30
percent of U.S. waters do not meet water quality standards or
support the uses (such as drinking water supply or recreation)
for which they were designated.
</p>
<p> At the same time, water supply problems are widespread. For
example, large parts of the West that have been undergoing
rapid growth and development have also experienced extreme,
prolonged drought; resulting water shortages have affected
people, the economy (particularly agriculture), and vital
ecosystems. Other areas normally considered water-rich, such as
the East and Northeast, are experiencing problems due to supply
limitations, periodic droughts, and aging delivery systems.
</p>
<p> Is there really a "water crisis" as these and a number of
other recent articles and periodicals seem to suggest? Do these
limitations and constraints on quantity and desired quality of
water constitute a crisis for which national or other policy
responses are appropriate? Experts generally dispute the notion
that a national crisis exists, although regional and local
problems are quite real.
</p>
<p>Water: The Renewable Resource
</p>
<p> Nationally, renewable supplies of water greatly exceed
amounts needed by users. The United States averages nearly 30
inches of annual precipitation over the conterminous 48 states.
Although two-thirds evaporates, the remainder provides a
potential renewable water supply that is nearly four times the
amounts withdrawn for use by all major sectors (public supply,
agriculture, etc.) Beyond annual precipitation, stocks of fresh
water stored on the surface or in accessible aquifers are
equivalent to more than 50 years' cumulative renewable supply.
</p>
<p> Participation is one element of the hydrologic cycle that
provides the world's supply of water through continual
interchange between the atmosphere, oceans and other surface
water, and land surface. Solar radiation evaporates water from
the oceans. In the atmosphere this water becomes water vapor,
which later condenses and falls back to earth as rain, snow, or
sleet. Precipitation may percolate through soil to groundwater
in underground aquifers or move across land surface to streams,
rivers, lakes, and estuaries. Interchange also occurs between
ground water and surface water through lateral connections.
Eventually most of the water reaches the ocean, and the cycle is
complete. Throughout the cycle, water picks up materials--minerals, other natural substances, and pollutants--that are
transported through subsequent phases of the cycle. Surface
runoff carries with it sediment, for example, that is deposited
in the ocean or stream and river beds.
</p>
<p>Regional Variation
</p>
<p> Globally and nationally, water is still available in amounts
that are needed for man and commerce, and the quality of the
supply is generally suitable for desired purposes. Still,
national or average statistics mask regional variations and
uneven distribution of precipitation (both long-term and
seasonal) that greatly affect water use and management. In the
31 Eastern states precipitation averages 43 inches annually,
while in the far West, precipitation averages 13 inches a year.
Seasonal variations in many states mean that streams dry up
during some months and flood their banks at other times of the
year, necessitating reservoirs to regulate flow and provide
reliable supplies.
</p>
<p>Water Quality
</p>
<p> Quality is as important as quantity to assessing the
adequacy of water supplies, since the utility and value of the
resource is diminished as levels of contaminants such as toxics,
metals, bacteria, nutrients, sediment, and oxygen-demanding
material increase. Approximately 70 percent of the Nation's
rivers, streams, lakes, and estuaries assessed by states for
achievement of water quality goals are clean enough to support
their designated uses. As with water quantity data, national
statistics that describe overall water quality do not reflect
regional or local problems. For example, EPA reports that 73
percent of shoreline miles around the Great Lakes are
threatened by water pollution or do not support designated uses.
Hundreds of individual stream segments nationwide are known to
violate water quality standards due to contamination by metals,
pesticides, and other toxic elements.
</p>
<p>Water Management Today
</p>
<p> These data underscore the general theme of the articles in
this CRS Review: because water management problems and concerns
are increasingly localized and complex, the focus of policy
decision making is now shifting to non-Federal levels. Where
nationally consistent policies were appropriate to water
quality or resource management in the past, today's problems
require more finely tuned responses. These may take the form of
supplementing national policies with flexibility to address
local considerations or even of defining what is "national" in
terms of diverse regional or local solutions to a particular
water management problem.
</p>
<p> The Federal role concerning water resources for nearly a
century focused on planning, support and encouragement for
resource development, and coordination of development
activities. Within the framework of Federal development,
however, decisions on allocating water resources and setting
priorities among potential user groups have traditionally been
and still are matters reserved to states (particularly in the
West), not the Federal Government. Recently the traditional
Federal role has been changing--as budgetary resources for
development projects have been limited and the need for large-
scale projects has decreased, and as the need for federally
coordinated planning has been overtaken by regional and local
decision on allocation, distribution, and pricing of water.
</p>
<p> Concerning water quality, the Federal role has been to
provide nationally consistent objectives, standards, and
regulatory guidance. Many believe that current water quality
problems are more diverse now than in the past, requiring
policies targeted to specific regional needs and conditions.
</p>
</body>
</article>
</text>