A Water Preparedness Guide for State Action a Water Preparedness Guide for State Action
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A JOINT EFFORT BY American Rivers Natural Resources Defense Council A Water Preparedness Guide for State Action A Water Preparedness Guide for State Action Authors Fay Augustyn, American Rivers Ben Chou, Natural Resources Defense Council Project Development Christopher E. Williams, American Rivers Steve Fleischli, Natural Resources Defense Council To download the report, please visit www.AmericanRivers.org/ClimateSmart or www.nrdc.org/water/climatesmart 2 SMART About American Rivers American Rivers is the leading organization working ment of Natural Resources), Darcy Nonemacher and to protect and restore the nation’s rivers and streams. Jeff Weber (Oregon Department of Land Conserva- Rivers connect us to each other, nature, and future tion and Development). generations. Since 1973, American Rivers has fought to preserve these connections, helping protect and We also would like to thank the following individuals restore more than 150,000 miles of rivers through ad- at American Rivers and NRDC for their expert guid- vocacy efforts, on-the-ground projects, and the annual ance and input during the development of this report: release of America’s Most Endangered Rivers®. Naveen Adusumilli, Claire Althouse, Seth Atkinson, Katherine Baer, Alison Chase, Stacey Detwiler, Jon About NRDC Devine, David Doniger, Devin Dotson, Mike Fiebig, The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) Eileen Fretz, Emmanuel Hector, Karen Hobbs, Jenny is an international nonprofit environmental organiza- Hoffner, Justin Horner, Alex Kennaugh, Kim Knowlton, tion with more than 1.3 million members and online Amy Kober, Larry Levine, Deron Lovaas, Serena Mc- activists. Since 1970, our lawyers, scientists, and other Clain, Barry Nelson, Matt Nimerski, Ed Osann, Monty environmental specialists have worked to protect the Schmitt, John Seebach, Brian Siu, Theo Spencer, John world’s natural resources, public health, and the envi- Steelman, Sara Strassman, Lisa Suatoni and Jackie ronment. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washing- Wei. ton, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Mon- tana, and Beijing. Finally, we would like to thank our peer reviewers for their invaluable feedback: John Andrew and Acknowledgments Andrew Schwarz at the California Department of American Rivers would like to acknowledge the Water Resources, Kathy Baskin at the Massachusetts generous support of the Kresge Foundation, and Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, NRDC would like to acknowledge the generous Andrew Fahlund at Stanford University’s Water in the support of the TOSA Foundation and the Pisces West Program, Nate Mantua at the NOAA Southwest Foundation. Fisheries Science Center, Miriam Rotkin-Ellman at NRDC and Amy Trice at American Rivers. We would like to thank the following individuals for sharing with us information about their state climate preparedness planning and implementation experi- Disclaimer ences: John Andrew (California Department of Water This report and its recommendations are solely Resources), Kathy Baskin (Massachusetts Executive attributable to American Rivers and NRDC and Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs), Michael do not necessarily represent the views of the Garrity, Will Hewes, Zoë Johnson (Maryland Depart- abovementioned individuals. 1101 14th Street NW, Suite 1400 40 West 20th Street Washington, DC 20005 New York, NY 10011 (202) 347-7550 (212) 727-2700 www.AmericanRivers.org www.nrdc.org 3 Table of Contents Glossary 6 Foreword 7 Executive Summary 8 Introduction 13 The Planning Process Step 1: Getting Started 17 1.1 Recognizing the Threats and Building Support 17 1.2 Committing to Preparedness Planning 17 1.3 Allocating Initial Resources for the Planning Process 18 Step 2: Establishing Coordinating Groups and Goals 20 2.1 Building the Climate Preparedness Team 20 2.2 Building the Sector Work Groups 22 2.3 Setting Overarching Goals and Guiding Principles 25 2.4 Promoting Cross-Sector Collaboration 27 Step 3: Assessing Climate Impacts, Risks and Vulnerabilities 28 3.1 Scoping Climate Impacts and Risks 28 3.2 Assessing Sector Vulnerability 36 3.3 Prioritizing Vulnerable Planning Systems and Areas 38 Step 4: Determining Preparedness Strategies 39 4.1a Selecting and Evaluating a Strategy 39 4.1b Determining the Implementation Mechanism and Process 42 Top 10 No-Regret Strategies 48 Step 5: Finalizing the Plan 56 Step 6. Implementing and Updating the Plan 57 6.1 Implementation Mechanisms and Funding Sources 57 6.2 Tracking Progress 58 6.3 Updating the Plan Regularly 59 4 GETTING Climate Smart: taBLE OF COntents Implementation Case Studies Philadelphia—Green City, Clean Waters 60 Preparing for Sea Level Rise in California 61 Relocating Out of Harm’s Way—Soldiers Grove and Gays Mills, Wisconsin 62 Conclusion 64 Strategy Toolbox 65 Agriculture 66 Energy, Transportation and Urban Infrastructure 71 Fisheries and Aquatic Ecosystems 78 Oceans and Coastal Resources 82 Public Health and Safety 86 Tourism and Recreation 90 Water Management 92 Endnotes 102 Appendices Appendix I—Types and Examples of State Commitments to Preparedness Planning 108 Executive Order, State of California 110 Senate Bill, State of Texas 113 House Bill, State of North Carolina 116 Appendix II—Funding for Plan Development and Implementation 122 Federal Funding Sources for Plan Development 122 Examples of Federal and Regional-Level Funding for Implementation 124 Examples of State Funding Sources for Implementation 140 Appendix III—Additional Resources 144 5 Glossary Climate Change Adaptation: The process of No-Regret Strategies: Cost-effective, flexible responding to and preparing for the impacts of approaches that are beneficial to communities to- climate change. day and even more beneficial with future climate impacts. Climate Change Mitigation: The process of reducing the amount of greenhouse gas pollution Resilience: The ability of a system to respond released into the atmosphere. and adjust to climate impacts. Climate Preparedness: The process of helping Risk Occurrence: The likelihood of a particular risk communities, businesses and policy-makers occurring under a climate change scenario. anticipate the likely harmful effects of global climate change and take proactive steps to reduce Sector Work group (Work group): A group estab- or eliminate their vulnerability to those changes. lished to identify climate risks and vulnerabilities and to determine appropriate preparedness strate- Climate Preparedness Team: The group of gies in a specific area of interest (e.g., water man- senior-level state agency staff and external agement, urban infrastructure, agriculture, fisher- stakeholders responsible for the overarching ies). development and coordination of the state climate preparedness plan. Vulnerability: The degree to which a system is susceptible to, and unable to cope with, adverse Low-Regret Strategies: Approaches that require effects of climate change, including climate investments at a minimal cost over no-regret variability and extremes. strategies to prepare for and respond to future climate impacts. They may be “low-regret” if investments ultimately are not needed under future climatic changes. 6 Foreword In 2012, in southeastern Montana, floods and superstorms that climate change will a cattle rancher stood in a pasture blackened by bring, let alone the less dramatic but no less impor- wildfire. Looking out over his herd, he said, “That is tant challenges to water supply and quality, public 500 mouths to feed with nothing to eat in sight.” In health and environmental protection that climate Duluth, Minnesota, a woman was forced from her change will present. home of 69 years by floodwaters higher than any she had ever seen before. In Colorado, a scientist Our hope is that a single volume that brings togeth- pored over the year’s snowpack data and observed, er practical guidance, planning tools, case studies “The situation is pretty grim right now. It’s going and information resources will encourage state of- to be another dry year.” In central Kansas, a farmer ficials to take on climate change preparedness. No anxiously contemplated planting a new crop in the one needs to start from scratch. There is knowledge midst of a record drought: “We’ll just keep praying and experience on which to draw; there are models that the next storm’s on its way.” In stark contrast, a on which to build. financial analyst in Union City, New Jersey, watched the wind and rain of a superstorm ravage his home- While the federal government has an important town and pleaded, “Please let it end.” part to play, it is state and local governments that take the lead roles in water resources management. Drought and flood, wildfire and torrential rain, too They must lead the way on climate preparedness much water and not nearly enough: These are the as well. American Rivers, NRDC and other nongov- harbingers of a swiftly changing climate, and we are ernmental organizations, academic institutions and seeing their impacts on people and communities in stakeholders of all kinds are ready to help, as this the news almost every day. Patterns of rainfall and guide will attest. snowfall; annual flows of rivers and streams; the usual seasons, intensity and range of storm events So let’s get to it. that have been familiar and largely unchanged for centuries—all are increasingly unpredictable. Highs are higher, lows are lower, extremes are more extreme. Climate change is not coming. It’s already Peter Lehner here. And we need to be prepared. Executive Director Natural Resources Defense Council It is this imperative to prepare for a swiftly changing climate that motivated American Rivers and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) to develop this blueprint for water and climate Wm. Robert Irvin preparedness action. Too few states are moving President with dispatch to prepare for the inevitable droughts, American Rivers 7 Executive Summary SUPER STORM SANDY FLOODING, HOWARD BEACH, NY | PAMELA ANDRADE Both 2011 and 2012 produced a record number of extreme weather events including floods, heat waves, droughts, fires and snowstorms. In 2011, 14 different extreme weather events resulted in damages of more than $1 billion each.1 That trend has shown no signs of abating.