Once again, friend and colleague G. Tracy Mehan III, Executive Director for Government Affairs at the American Water Works Association, just sent me and others something very worthwhile - an article from the AWWA journal, Collaborate to Protect Vital Source Waters and Mitigate Climate Change
Here is the message he included in his email:
Dave White, former chief of USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service and AWWA consultant, and my colleague Adam Carpenter authored the attached article for Journal AWWA on how protection of source water protection and mitigation of climate change can be furthered in partnership with agriculture utilizing resources from the Conservation Title of the new Farm Bill.
The first few paragraphs:
From the environment to our forests, to agriculture, and the water we drink, climate change continues to adversely affect many sectors of our lives. Once rare and extreme weather events are becoming commonplace. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) tracks natural disasters, and since 1980 the United States has experienced 291 weather and climate disasters that each exceeded $1 billion (NOAA NCEI 2021). The cumulative cost is staggering: more than 14,000 lives lost and in excess of $1.9 trillion to pay for disaster relief. Between 2016 and 2020, there were 81 severe disasters that caused nearly 4,000 deaths and whose total cost was more than $600 billion. Figure 1 shows the billion-dollar disasters that occurred just in 2020.
Climate Change and Source Waters
In the western United States, wildfires are happening with increasing frequency and severity as well (Photo 1). The National Association of State Foresters documents that the fire season today is 78 days longer than it was in the 1970s and projects that fire seasons will become hotter, more unpredictable, and more expensive (NASF n.d.). The amount dedicated to fire suppression in the Forest Service budget has grown from 20% of the total to more than 50%, and in 2018 the US government spent more than $3 billion fighting wildfires.
Agriculture and Water
In addition to these many challenges is the uneven increase in world population. The United Nations projects that there will be 9.7 billion humans on Earth by 2050, many of whom will be in water-poor areas (UN DESA 2019). To feed this many people, worldwide food production will need to substantially increase. In 2012, the World Wildlife Fund’s 2050 Criteria report stated that in the next 40 years, humanity would have to produce more food than we have in the last 8,000 years combined (WWF 2012).At the same time, agricultural issues increasingly affect drinking water. A 2021 study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Thaler et al. 2021) found that over the years, some one-third of the cropland in the US Corn Belt has lost its carbon-rich topsoil to erosion (Photo 2, parts A and B). While farm production has kept up with the loss of topsoil through advanced genetics and additional fertilizer, agricultural runoff has accelerated water quality problems in many US lakes and waterways.
For example, the City of Toledo had to issue a “do not drink” order for three days in 2014 because of a harmful algal bloom in Lake Erie caused by phosphorus runoff, primarily from agricultural lands. Today, harmful algal blooms commonly occur around the world, and excessive nutrients and chemicals often increase costs to water utilities to ensure safe drinking water for their customers.
The challenge is clear—the world must find a way to work together to increase food production to meet all human needs while also safeguarding our environment, addressing climate change, and ensuring overall economic vitality. And we must do that in the face of increasingly erratic weather patterns.
More to read - see the PDF - go to page 37:
Download Journal AWWA - 2022 - White - Collaborate to Protect Vital Source Waters and Mitigate Climate Change
Key Takeaways
Climate-friendly agricultural conservation practices can protect and restore drinking water sources.As US water utilities consider how to better protect their source waters, working with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and agricultural producers offers great promise.
Collaboration between water utilities and USDA can also strike a blow against climate change effects—and maybe even save some money in the process.
Enjoy!
“Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil, and you’re a thousand miles from the corn field.” - Dwight D. Eisenhower
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