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Says
no additional study group
needed on water resources
By George William Sherk
George Washington University
Special to GwinnettForum.com
(Editor's note: after Congressman John
Linder wrote in Gwinnettforum about water resources, a professor
at The George Washington University, who is an authority on water
policy and a trial attorney with the Environmental and Natural Resources
Division of the Department of Justice, responded. Here are his comments.--eeb)
APRIL 16, 2002 -- Let me express my concern about HR 3561, the 21st
Century Water Policy Commission Establishment Act. Simply stated,
we do not need another study of federal water policy problems. What
we need are solutions to those problems.
HR 3561 fails in three major ways.
1. It is a needless duplication of work that has already been done.
The National Water Commission Act of 1968 established the National
Water Commission (NWC). Five million dollars ($25.5 million in today's
dollars) were appropriated for the NWC to review national water
resource problems.
Twenty-two background studies were undertaken, 251 witnesses heard
and more than 60 documents were published. "Water Policies
for the Future," the final NWC report, was prepared over the
course of five years by the NWC staff and by contract researchers
and consultants.
In addition, the Western Water Policy Review Act of 1992 established
the Western Water Policy Review Advisory Commission (WWPRAC) which
was chartered to review water resource problems in the 19 Western
states.
Congress authorized $2 million ($2.6 million in today's dollars)
for this report, which took two and a half years to complete even
with a paid staff and contract
researchers and consultants. The final report of the WWPRAC, "Water
in the West: Challenges for the Next Century," contains 30
documents and is 3,134 pages in length.
Section 3 of HR 3561 requires the Twenty-First Century Water Policy
Commission (the Commission) to study all aspects of Federal, State,
local and private sector water management and to make water policy
recommendations.
These recommendations are intended to ensure an adequate supply
of water for the next 50 years, to eliminate duplication and conflict
among government agencies, to consider technologies for increasing
water supply while safeguarding the environment, to recommend means
of capturing excess flows for use during droughts and to suggest
financing options, including the implementation of user fees.
Every one of these issues was addressed by either the NWC or the
WWPRAC or both. To suggest that this earlier work be ignored is
as ludicrous as to suggest that it needs to be duplicated.
2. There is an existing institution already authorized to conduct
the anticipated study. In 1965, Congress established the Water Resources
Council (WRC) to coordinate water-related policies and programs
of different federal agencies. Though the statutory authority remains
in effect, the WRC has not been funded for several years.
If both funding and leadership were provided, the WRC has the authority
to undertake the studies anticipated by HR 3561, if they should
ever prove to be necessary. More importantly, the WRC may be a mechanism
to address the lack of interagency coordination that prompted the
introduction of HR 3561.
3. The limitless scope of HR 3561 combined with budget and time
constraints would lead inevitably to a shallow, simplistic treatment
of exceptionally complex issues. HR 3561 requires the Commission
to produce a final report within one year. The Commission would
consist of 17 members representing different governmental entities
who are expected to serve without pay and without the authorization
to contract with researchers or consultants.
The mandates contained in HR 3561, when combined with the one-year
time limitation and the absence of a professional staff, would lead
inevitably to a final report so superficial as to be both useless
and a waste of the taxpayers' money.
The water policy problems that motivated the introduction of HR
3561 require solutions, not the waste of public resources on useless
reports. The issues demand leadership, not posturing.
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Number
2.02, April 16, 2002
