Domestic and Global Water Suppy Issues Hearing Committee on Energy and Natural Resources United States Senate
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S. HRG. 112–268 DOMESTIC AND GLOBAL WATER SUPPY ISSUES HEARING BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON WATER AND POWER OF THE COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND NATURAL RESOURCES UNITED STATES SENATE ONE HUNDRED TWELFTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION TO HEAR TESTIMONY ON OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES TO ADDRESS DOMESTIC AND GLOBAL WATER SUPPLY ISSUES DECEMBER 8, 2011 ( Printed for the use of the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 72–894 PDF WASHINGTON : 2012 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20402–0001 COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND NATURAL RESOURCES JEFF BINGAMAN, New Mexico, Chairman RON WYDEN, Oregon LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska TIM JOHNSON, South Dakota JOHN BARRASSO, Wyoming MARY L. LANDRIEU, Louisiana JAMES E. RISCH, Idaho MARIA CANTWELL, Washington MIKE LEE, Utah BERNARD SANDERS, Vermont RAND PAUL, Kentucky DEBBIE STABENOW, Michigan DANIEL COATS, Indiana MARK UDALL, Colorado ROB PORTMAN, Ohio JEANNE SHAHEEN, New Hampshire JOHN HOEVEN, North Dakota AL FRANKEN, Minnesota DEAN HELLER, Nevada JOE MANCHIN, III, West Virginia BOB CORKER, Tennessee CHRISTOPHER A. COONS, Delaware ROBERT M. SIMON, Staff Director SAM E. FOWLER, Chief Counsel MCKIE CAMPBELL, Republican Staff Director KAREN K. BILLUPS, Republican Chief Counsel SUBCOMMITTEE ON WATER AND POWER JEANNE SHAHEEN, New Hampshire, Chairman RON WYDEN, Oregon MIKE LEE, Utah, Ranking TIM JOHNSON, South Dakota JAMES E. RISCH, Idaho MARIA CANTWELL, Washington DANIEL COATS, Indiana BERNARD SANDERS, Vermont JOHN HOEVEN, North Dakota DEBBIE STABENOW, Michigan DEAN HELLER, Nevada JOE MANCHIN, III, West Virginia BOB CORKER, Tennessee JEFF BINGAMAN and LISA MURKOWSKI are Ex Officio Members of the Subcommittee (II) C O N T E N T S STATEMENTS Page Castle, Anne, Assistant Secretary of Water and Science, Department of the Interior .................................................................................................................. 4 Gleick, Peter H., President, Pacific Institute, Oakland, CA ................................ 26 Hansen, L. Jerry, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Installations, En- ergy, and Environment, U.S. Army .................................................................... 11 Keppen, Dan, Executive Director, Family Farm Alliance .................................... 66 Lee, Hon. Mike, U.S. Senator From Utah ............................................................. 1 Meeker, Melissa L., Executive Director, South Florida Water Management District, West Palm Beach, FL ........................................................................... 49 Salzberg, Aaron, Special Coordinator on Water Resources, Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, Department of State ...................................................................................................................... 16 Shaheen, Hon. Jeanne, U.S. Senator From New Hampshire .............................. 1 Stanley, Thomas, Chief Technology Officer, GE Power and Water, Water and Process Technologies, Trevose, PA .............................................................. 38 Stewart, Harry T., Director, Water Division, New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services, Concord, NH ........................................................... 55 Willardson, Anthony, Executive Director, Western States Water Council, Mur- ray, UT .................................................................................................................. 42 APPENDIX I Responses to additional questions .......................................................................... 67 (III) DOMESTIC AND GLOBAL WATER SUPPY ISSUES THURSDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2011 U.S. SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE ON WATER AND POWER, COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND NATURAL RESOURCES, Washington, DC. The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 3:10 p.m. in room SD–366, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Jeanne Shaheen presiding. OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JEANNE SHAHEEN, U.S. SENATOR FROM NEW HAMPSHIRE Senator SHAHEEN. Good afternoon, everyone. I apologize for starting late. I knew if we had a subcommittee hearing today, we would have both at the same time. So, I should have expected that. Let me begin by thanking our panelists for being here. I’m going to also recognize Senator Bingaman, who chairs the full Energy and Natural Resources Committee. We’re delighted to have him here for however long he can stay. Senator Lee has another en- gagement and has to leave. So, what I would like to do, Senator Lee, is ask you to go ahead and make your opening remarks, and then I will make mine, and introduce the panelists. So, if the panelists are OK with that, Senator Lee. STATEMENT OF HON. MIKE LEE, U.S. SENATOR FROM UTAH Senator LEE. Thank you so much, Senator Shaheen. I appreciate your accommodating my schedule. I also want to thank our wit- nesses for joining us today. I’ve been looking forward to this hearing and the different per- spectives and opportunities before us as we look at our domestic and our global water supplies. I’m encouraged that our committee’s looking at opportunities to further ensure that we have continued access to clean and reliable sources of water. It’s my intent, it has been my intent, as we’ve been approaching this meeting, to address a myriad of issues in connection with this hearing, to ensure that we’ve got these water resources for the next century, and to ensure that we respect the primacy of the States and their role, their historic and constitutional role in the alloca- tion of water. Although the allocation of water is and long has been a State- driven process, the Federal Government has been involved in the development of water for more than a century, particularly in the West. Projects have been built to store and to manage water, to (1) 2 produce power, and reduce the impacts of floods, provide for navi- gation, and to help develop irrigation. Most of these Federal projects were built with the support of local communities under the prevailing State water laws. The regu- lation and appropriation of water resources are and should remain within the purview of a State-driven process. As we proceed with this hearing, I want to be clear, the allocation of water is a State responsibility, fundamentally, and not a Federal one. I believe every State in this Nation faces similar challenges relating to the supply and the quality of water resources. First, with limited fresh water supplies, how can we assure and ensure that we have an adequate and safe water supply for urban and rural communities? How do we develop affordable options to treat and further develop our finite supplies of water? I hope that our witnesses today can describe some options that are available to address these 2 questions. Water, as it has served for the last century, will continue to be the backbone of our economy in many respects. Safe, reliable, and cost-effective supplies for water will continue to be a critical driver of all sectors of the American economy, including agriculture, in- dustry, recreation, and that water that’s used for domestic and cul- inary purposes. I encourage our witnesses today to think outside the box on op- tions to expand our water supply through new resources and through conservation efforts. In so doing, I’d also encourage our witnesses to think outside the box on how the Federal Government can best assist the States with meeting their water supply chal- lenges. So, I look forward to the extent that I’m able to remain for the next few minutes to hearing some of these, and—and will follow- up with my own questions in—in writing inasmuch as I’ll be un- able to remain for the duration of the meeting. I want to recognize and thank Tony Willardson, who is the Exec- utive Director of the Western States Water Council. He’s from my home State of Utah, from Salt Lake City. I want to thank him es- pecially for being here. Finally, in closing, I want to acknowledge that—I understand that the EPA is embarking on the preparation of a report to ad- dress the value of water to the U.S. economy. I’ll be following up with some questions in writing on—on how various entities that we’ll be discussing today may have contributed to this study or be involved in it, and how we can follow up on that. So, with that, I’ll turn it back to you, Senator Shaheen. Thank you again for accom- modating my schedule. Senator SHAHEEN. Thank you very much, Senator Lee. As Senator Lee suggested, we’re here today to explore the oppor- tunities and challenges facing domestic and global water supplies. It is a very broad topic, but it’s also one that deserves our ongoing attention, because water is critical. Yet, most of us really don’t pay very much attention to the water that we use, where it comes from, where it goes after we finish using it. Many of us in the United States take water for granted, but glob- ally, 800 million people do not have access to safe drinking water. The figures on water use are astounding. The U.S. Geological Sur- 3 vey estimates that Americans use about 100 gallons of water per day. The majority of our daily water use helps generate electricity at our country’s power plants, with over 200 billion gallons of water used in this sector alone. Globally, agricultural water use accounts for nearly 70 percent of all water withdrawals. When we consider that the world’s popu- lation is expected to grow from 7 billion to 10 billion people