WaterWired

CRS Report: 'Bureau of Reclamation: History, Authorities, and Issues for Congress'

This looks like a great CRS report from Charles V. Stern and Anna E. Normand on the U.S. Bureau of Geclamation, the foremost Federal water agency in the Western USA: 'Bureau of Reclamation: History, Authorities, and Issues for Congress'.

Click on the graphics to enlarge them.

Download CRS_USBR_History_Congress_3April2020

Summary

The Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation), an agency within the Department of the Interior (DOI), is responsible for the management and development of many of the large federal dams and water diversion structures in the 17 conterminous states west of the Mississippi River. Reclamation is the country’s largest wholesaler of water and the country’s second-largest producer of hydropower (behind the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers). Reclamation facilities store up to 140 million acre-feet of water, which serves more than 10 million acres of farmland and 31 million municipal and industrial customers. In addition to water supplies, Reclamation facilities provide flood control, recreation, and fish and wildlife benefits in many parts of the West.

Congress created Reclamation in the Reclamation Act of 1902. The act authorized the Secretary of the Interior to construct irrigation works in western states to “reclaim” arid lands for agricultural purposes. Subsequent laws have built on and in some cases altered Reclamation’s authorities, and Congress has authorized more than 180 individual Reclamation projects. Reclamation projects are unique in a number of ways. Among other things, these projects operate according to a beneficiary pays principle in which project beneficiaries must reimburse the government for their allocated share of project costs (some costs are considered federal in nature, with no reimbursement required). Reclamation projects also must obtain state water rights and operate according to state water law. As a result, state law and related considerations play a relatively large role in Reclamation project operations and management.

The earliest Reclamation projects were single purpose and focused primarily on irrigation development. Later projects were larger and more complex, and they operated for multiple authorized purposes. Reclamation constructed its largest and most well-known projects (such as the California Central Valley Project, Hoover Dam, and Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River and Grand Coulee Dam and the Columbia River Basin Project in Washington) after the beginning of the Great Depression. Congress chose to fund most of these large projects through the General Fund of the Treasury rather than the Reclamation Fund, which Congress had established under the 1902 act to finance most Reclamation projects. A number of events precipitated the gradual slowdown of Reclamation’s construction program beginning in the 1970s, and the bureau has constructed few new Reclamation projects (most of them smaller in scale) since that time.

Reclamation has evolved considerably since its creation, and it remains an agency in transition. At Congress’s direction, Reclamation has increasingly been involved in projects whose primary purpose is not reclaiming land for agricultural irrigation purposes. Some of Reclamation’s new authorities include financial support for water reuse and recycling projects (i.e., the Title XVI Program), grants for water and energy conservation efforts (i.e., the WaterSMART Grants Program), and funding for rural water projects and water infrastructure associated with congressionally authorized Indian water rights settlements. How to balance new priorities with the upkeep of existing federal projects, and whether to facilitate new project development (and, if so, how), is a major consideration in discussions related to the bureau’s future. These questions are particularly significant given Reclamation’s nexus with state and local water resources development.

Congress regularly considers legislation related to individual Reclamation projects, as well as broader questions related to Reclamation and its mission. Persistent and recurring drought in the West, along with the 2016 enactment of Reclamation’s first significant new authority in decades for water storage project construction (Section 4007 of the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act [WIIN Act; P.L. 114-322]), has increased attention on the bureau’s future direction. Congress may consider a number of issues related to Reclamation, such as how (or if) the bureau should be involved in new water resource project construction, how to address aging federal water facilities, and the status of proposed and ongoing Indian water rights settlements, among other things.

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"The worst of all deceptions is self-deception." - Plato

CRS Report: 'Bureau of Reclamation: FY2021 Appropriations'

From Charles V. Stern: a CRS InFocus 2-pager (17 March 2020):Bureau of Reclamation: FY2021 Appropriations

Download CRS_InFocus_USBR_FY2021_Appropriations_17March2020

Overview
Most of the large dams and water diversion structures in the 17 states west of the Mississippi River were built by, or with the assistance of, the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation), part of the Department of the Interior.Reclamation’s original mission was to develop watersupplies, primarily for irrigation to reclaim arid lands in the West. Today, its mission includes management, development, and protection of water and related resources.Reclamation’s mission areas and geographic scope aregenerally narrower than those of the other principal federal water resource agency, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Reclamation manages hundreds of water storage and conveyance projects. These projects provide water to approximately 10 million acres of farmland and 31 million people. Reclamation is the largest wholesale supplier of water in the 17 states west of the Mississippi River and the second-largest hydroelectric power producer in the nation. Reclamation facilities’ operations can be controversial, particularly in relation to effects on fish and wildlife species and conflicts among competing water users.

Reclamation’s role has evolved, and its focus has gradually shifted from construction of new water storage projects to operation and maintenance of existing projects. Reclamation also has expanded into new areas, including funding for water supply projects on tribal lands and in rural areas under congressionally authorized Indian water rights settlements and rural water supply projects, respectively. In addition, Congress has authorized Reclamation grants to nonfederal projects, including those for water reuse and recycling, conservation and efficiency, and desalination.

Reclamation’s Water and Related Resources account fundsmost agency activities, including construction, operation and maintenance, dam safety, and ecosystem restoration. It also funds Indian water rights settlements and most Reclamation programmatic and grant authorities. Reclamation typically also requests funding for three smaller accounts: California Bay-Delta Restoration, the Central Valley Project Restoration Fund (which is offset by customer receipts), and the Policy and Administration account.

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GAO Report: 'International Boundary and Water Commission - Opportunities Exist to Address Water Quality Problems'

This report was released to the public on 5 February: International Boundary and Water Commission: Opportunities to Address Water Quality Problems.

Download GAO_IBWC_Water_Quality_Highlights_5Feb2020

Download GAO_IBWC_Water_Quality_FullReport_5Feb2020

Fast Facts

The U.S. Section of the International Boundary and Water Commission manages two wastewater treatment plants along the U.S.-Mexico border that treat raw sewage, mostly from Mexico. But population growth and aging plant infrastructure allow stormwater to bring bacteria, trash, and sediment from Mexico into the U.S.—affecting public health and the environment in Arizona and California.

The Commission has not taken comprehensive steps to resolve the problem, so we recommended that Congress consider directing the Commission to identify alternatives—including cost estimates and funding sources—to help resolve continuing water quality problems.

Corrosion of the International Outfall Interceptor (IOI) Pipe in Arizona

What GAO Found

A 1944 treaty designated the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) and authorized it to resolve water and boundary issues along the U.S.-Mexico border, including providing wastewater treatment. IBWC's two sections—the U.S. Section (USIBWC) and the Mexican Section, negotiated agreements to construct, manage, and operate two wastewater plants in Nogales, Arizona, and San Ysidro (South Bay), California, to resolve ongoing water quality problems stemming from sewage flowing downhill from Mexico into the United States (see figure). Several of these agreements describe each country's roles, such as sharing costs for the operation and maintenance of each plant.

International Wastewater Plants in Arizona and California

Several factors can affect the plants' operations, including deteriorating infrastructure in Mexico and the United States that results in raw sewage spills around the plants. USIBWC has taken steps to resolve some of these factors. For example, USIBWC proposed a binational rapid response team to address broken pipes and failing pumps that can send sewage from Mexico into the United States; however, the team has not been formalized to ensure its long-term operation. By taking steps to formalize the team, USIBWC would have assurance it can more effectively address recurring infrastructure failures contributing to sewage spills.

USIBWC and others have taken some actions to address stormwater problems, such as studying stormwater flows in the Tijuana River Valley watershed and building some retention basins. However, USIBWC has not taken action, in coordination with federal, state, and local partners, to identify alternatives, cost estimates, funding sources, and time frames for implementing solutions in either watershed. USIBWC officials said without direction from Congress, it does not have specific authorization for stormwater management in the watersheds because the 1944 treaty and accompanying legislation did not authorize it to carry out such projects. The long-standing stormwater quality problems and their associated environmental and health effects suggest congressional direction is needed to authorize USIBWC to take action. Such action would include identifying alternatives, cost estimates, funding sources, and time frames.

Why GAO Did This Study

Ongoing sewage spills and stormwater runoff carrying trash, sediment, and other pollutants in the Santa Cruz River Basin and Tijuana River Valley watersheds along the U.S.-Mexico border have affected public health, the environment, and local economies. Under the 1944 treaty, the United States and Mexico agreed to work together through IBWC to address these water quality problems. As part of this effort, USIBWC manages two wastewater treatment plants in Arizona and California. In 2018, the plants treated more than 14 billion gallons of sewage from Mexico.

This report (1) describes the authorities and roles for developing and managing the plants and sharing their costs; (2) examines factors affecting the operation of each plant and steps taken to address them; and (3) examines the extent to which USIBWC has taken actions to address water quality problems in the watersheds. GAO reviewed U.S-Mexico treaties, IBWC minutes and permits, and planning and budget data for USIBWC. GAO also interviewed officials from IBWC and other federal agencies, local and state governments, and non-governmental groups.

What GAO Recommends

GAO believes that Congress should consider providing direction and specific authorization to USIBWC to take action to resolve stormwater quality problems in the Santa Cruz River Basin and Tijuana River Valley watersheds. GAO is also making two recommendations to USIBWC, including that it formalize the rapid response team. USIBWC concurred with that recommendation and partly concurred with the other.

Recommendation 1: The U.S. Commissioner of the IBWC should work with the Mexican Commissioner to formalize a binational rapid response team to address sewage infrastructure failures along the U.S.-Mexico border, including the Nogales and South Bay wastewater treatment plants. (Recommendation 1)

Agency Affected: International Boundary and Water Commission, United States and Mexico

Recommendation 2: The U.S. Commissioner of the IBWC should direct USIBWC staff to conduct long-term capital planning for the Santa Cruz River Basin and Tijuana River Valley watersheds, following the principles in OMB Circular A-11. (Recommendation 2)

Agency Affected: International Boundary and Water Commission, United States and Mexico 

For more information, contact J. Alfredo Gómez at (202) 512-3841 or gomezj@gao.gov.

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Report: 'The Sustainable Water Management (SWM) Profile: An Assessment Tool to Advance Water Supply Sustainability'

John Wells, a friend and charter member of the IWRM Intelligentsia got this from the Water Foundation website. 

Download The-Sustainable-Water-Management-Profile_An-Assessment-Tool-to-Advance-Water-Supply-Sustainability

Summary

The Sustainable Water Management (SWM) Profile is an assessment tool to advance longterm water supply resilience and water resource stewardship at a regional scale. The Water Foundation completed extensive research within and outside the water supply community while designing this evaluation framework. The tool focuses on management actions that water supply agencies can take internally, with agency partners, and across their regions to improve the sustainability of water supplies. The profile provides standards for assessing stressors that cause water supply vulnerability, and for evaluating the responses of water supply agencies to these vulnerabilities.

This article explains how the SWM Profile was designed by the Water Foundation to meet the needs of the water community and makes recommendations for improving the effectiveness of the profile and similar assessment tools.

As the challenges facing water supply managers grow, standards that track progress toward sustainability become more important. The Water Foundation provides this article to share the lessons learned from the SWM Profile, in hopes that it will contribute to the work of other professionals in the field of water supply management.

Here is the SWM Profile from the Foundation's site (I have added the graphics):

Sustainable water management means using water in a way that meets current, ecological, social, and economic needs without compromising the ability to meet those needs in the future. It requires water managers to look beyond jurisdictional boundaries and their immediate supply operations, managing water collaboratively while seeking resilient regional solutions that minimize risks.

In 2012, the Water Foundation and its partners, including The Bay Institute, Environmental Science Associates, and Sonoma Ecology Center set out to create a tool – called the Sustainable Water Management (SWM) Profile – that helps water agencies measure water stress conditions on the ground and assess their progress towards sustainable water management by evaluating their management responses to these conditions. The group focused on developing a tool that can aid public utilities, residential and business customers, land use planning agencies, financial analysts, and state and federal agencies. Each of these stakeholders plays an important role ensuring sound water management, and the SWM Profile seeks to incentivize these stakeholders to work together to sustainably manage the waters of a region.

To develop and test the SWM Profile, the group:

• convened a team of experts to develop the tool, supported by an advisory committee;
• launched a pilot project in 2014 with Sonoma County Water Agency to develop and test the first version of the tool;
• used lessons from the pilot to engage a wide variety of stakeholders, including representatives from water agencies, the business and financial sector, state and federal government, NGOs, and academia, to get feedback and make improvements and resulting in a second version of the tool; and
• with the revised tool, launched a second pilot project in 2016 with Inland Empire Utilities Agency.

The resulting tool examines the water supplies an agency directly or indirectly relies upon. Using simple metrics, the SWM Profile identifies the vulnerability of water systems to key stressors (also known as risks or threats) in the areas of environment, supply, demand, and finance.

Based on this analysis, the SWM Profile then evaluates management responses to these stressors by the water agency and the broader region. Utilizing an objective points-based system, the SWM Profile determines where an agency and its surrounding region currently stand on the path to sustainability. The water supply agency and its region are assigned one of five ratings based on points earned for management responses to stressors. Ratings include: not rated, bronze, silver, gold, and platinum.

SWM Profile Lessons and Next Steps

In December 2019, the Water Foundation and its partners released a paper summarizing the SWM Profile’s application through two pilot projects and lessons learned over the course of its development and testing.

These lessons are gathered to help inform the development of SWM Profile-informed efforts, as well as other types of assessment efforts by water agencies and managers. For example, the Pacific Institute is leading several efforts that key off the SWM Profile, including a guidebook for elected leaders of water agency boards and municipalities and a SWM-based tool for retail water supply agencies. Additionally, Environmental Science Associates and the Bay Institute worked with the Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority’s One Water, One Watershed (OWOW) Plan to develop a SWM-informed assessment of implementation of this sustainability plan, funded by the California Department of Water Resources as part of the California Water Plan Update 2018.

Read the full paper: The Sustainable Water Management Profile: An Assessment Tool to Advance Water Supply Sustainability

Additional Information: 2016 Inland Empire Utilities Agency Pilot
In 2016, Inland Empire Utilities Agency worked with the Water Foundation to conduct a pilot assessment of its water stress vulnerabilities and management responses. The agency received a gold rating.

Read a summary of Inland Empire Utilities Agency pilot.

Read the Inland Empire Utilities Agency’s full SWM Profile report.

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CRS InFocus Report: 'Bureau of Reclamation: FY2020 Appropriations' (Updated: 3 February 2020)

Count on Charles V. Stern for natural resources policy! Here is his latest (updated: 3 February 2020) CRS report: 'Bureau of Reclamation: FY2020 Appropriations' .

Download CRS_InFocus_FY2020_Appropriations_3Feb2020

Overview
Most of the large dams and water diversion structures in the 17 states west of the Mississippi River were built by, or with the assistance of, the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation), part of the Department of the Interior.Reclamation’s original mission was to develop watersupplies, primarily for irrigation to reclaim arid lands in the West. Today, its mission includes management, development, and protection of water and related resources.Reclamation’s mission areas and geographic scope aregenerally narrower than those of the other principal federal water resource agency, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Reclamation manages hundreds of water storage and conveyance projects. These projects provide water to approximately 10 million acres of farmland and 31 million people. Reclamation is the largest wholesale supplier of water in these 17 western states and the second-largest hydroelectric power producer in the nation. Operations of Reclamation facilities can be controversial, particularly in relation to effects on fish and wildlife species and conflicts among competing water users.

Reclamation’s role has evolved, and its focus has gradually shifted from construction of new water storage projects to operation and maintenance of existing projects. Reclamation has also expanded into new areas, including funding for water supply projects on tribal lands and in rural areas under congressionally authorized Indian water rights settlements and rural water supply projects, respectively. Congress has also authorized Reclamation grants to nonfederal projects, including those for water reuse and recycling, conservation and efficiency, and desalination.

Reclamation’s Water and Related Resources account funds most agency activities, including construction, operation and maintenance, dam safety, and ecosystem restoration. It also funds Indian water rights settlements and most Reclamation programmatic and grant authorities. Reclamation also typically requests funding for three smaller accounts: California Bay-Delta Restoration, the Central Valley Project Restoration Fund (the latter of which is offset by customer receipts), and the Policy and Administration account.

Enjoy!

"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." - Richard Feynman (quoted in @nytimes via @TheWeek)