World Water Day — March 22, 2017
Celebrating World Water Day and the rivers and streams that sustain our trout and salmon.
Today is World Water Day, an annual event celebrating the importance of universal access to clean water and advocating for the sustainable management of freshwater resources. The day provides a reminder to reflect on the importance of clean water — to the world, to the US and to fish, wildlife and people.
In the U.S., we face many challenges related to clean water, including management and response to floods, droughts; as well as ensuring the regulatory and voluntary programs and partnerships to keep clean water sources protected from contamination or degradation.
Last year on this day, TU participated in the White House Water Summit, a discussion organized to shine a spotlight on the importance of cross-cutting, creative solutions to solving the water problems of today, as well as to highlight the innovative strategies that will catalyze change in how we use, conserve, protect, and think about water in the years to come.
The White House Water Summit highlighted the need for continued work to create more drought-resilient water supplies and improved water infrastructure in order to meet our fundamental need for water. The Summit was also a powerful demonstration of the success of collaborative partnerships and innovation charting the path forward for secure water supplies that meet the needs of communities, agriculture, and rivers and streams. Without secure water supplies for all three legs of the stool — communities, agriculture, and watersheds — no one’s water is truly secure.
The Year Ahead — Threats…
Much has changed in the year since that promising discussion at the White House. We face many of the same challenges to ensuring reliable water quality and supply that we did a year ago, but several recent actions create cause for new concern:
Elimination of Regulations Protecting Clean Water
Elimination of regulations protecting clean waters — including rollback of the Clean Water Rule and Stream Protection Rule:
Budget Cuts to Key Agencies and Programs
Budget cuts announced for key agencies and programs that support clean waters — this is concerning for specific line items and programs, but also for what the proposal represents in overall tone/message/direction.
…and Opportunities:
Despite these setbacks, there is still room to hope and believe that our ingenuity and collaborative spirit will help lead to new solutions for water quality and quantity in the coming year.
Infrastructure Investments:
Every aging, century-‐old piece of irrigation and water delivery infrastructure in the West is an opportunity to build flood and drought resilience through improved water storage and delivery and improved river health. Every obsolete culvert on Eastern highways, and pollutant-‐leaching abandoned mine across the nation, offers opportunities to improve water quality and watershed health.
The Trump Administration and new Congress are focused on developing a comprehensive infrastructure package in the coming year. This interest provides an opportunity to invest in infrastructure to support healthy waters in the US. In a Senate hearing on this topic yesterday, Chris Treese, manager of external affairs at the Colorado River Water Conservation District, made the following observation:
“Water infrastructure is perhaps the most important, yet overlooked, form of infrastructure in our nation…Access to a sustainable supply of water is a fundamental necessity for all economic development. Conversely, adverse economic consequences are certain if we do not invest and reinvest in our water infrastructure.” — Chris Treese, quoted by E&E News (full testimony, here)
We couldn’t agree more. A truly comprehensive infrastructure package should focus on reinvesting in water infrastructure while prioritizing investments that provide multiple benefits. These projects both upgrade existing infrastructure, but at the same time restore natural riverine processes that provide flood mitigation services through intact floodplains. Other projects will relieve water delivery bottlenecks by improving natural flows that provide drought resiliency while upgrading water delivery infrastructure.
In particular, TU hopes that this discussion will include the following:
- Investment in upgrades to aging infrastructure to support more reliable water supply for farms and communities;
- Investment in natural infrastructure such as floodplains, wetlands and river systems to support long-term resiliency of our watersheds, which will in turn minimize ecological and economic damage from floods, increase groundwater recharge and improve water health.
- Focus on repairing, removing or replacing connectivity barriers in streams and waterways — including failing culverts, dams and bridges that cause damage to waterways related to erosion, runoff, sediment alteration and blocked fish passage.
Volunteer Engagement and Community Investment
Despite some of the recent setbacks in clean water protections, there are a few things that we can have faith in here at Trout Unlimited. Most notably the dogged commitment of our volunteers and staff who — no matter the circumstance — will keep putting one foot in front of the other in the march toward better habitat in local watersheds across the country.
In the face of a rapidly changing natural environment, chapter are creatively working together to come up with solutions to ensure the long term sustainability of native and wild trout, salmon and steelhead. On any given day that might look like speaking up at the local, state or federal level to secure protections for important public lands, removing culverts or building fish ladders to allow upstream and downstream migration of fish, or simply a stream cleanup. TU members through their chapters and councils are accomplishing our mission in over 400 communities across this country every day.
Local investment and engagement is the essential driver that keeps us moving forward toward healthy waters.
Thanks to volunteers like TU members and partners we are able to accomplish so much with so little; now we need to protect those accomplishments and work to expand the impact.
A Toast to Clean Water!
So this evening, I encourage you to raise a glass — whether a pint of your favorite beer, which was filtered and crafted thanks to healthy water; a glass of wine, likely grown in vineyards irrigated with fresh river water; or simply a tall glass of the good stuff: water straight from the tap — and toast to clean water. Every person, every job, everyone depends on and deserves clean water. Thanks to all of you who work to keep it clear and keep it clean.
Additional news related to World Water Day and TU’s work related to water and drought more generally:
- Mike Connor, former deputy secretary of the Interior and commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation, Opinion piece in The Hill: World Water Day reminds us why we can’t cut infrastructure funding
- To read more of TU’s key suggestions for promoting drought resiliency, check out our letter and drought resiliency suggestions, submitted as part of the CEQ Drought Symposium, hosted last August.
What Next & What You Can Do:
TU will continue our work to improve management and conservation practices on our public lands and waters. To learn more about current priorities and opportunities for engagement, check out the following resources and opportunities:
Take Action:
Write a letter to President Trump and to your Congressional delegation, letting them know how important clean water and healthy watersheds are to you.
Reach out — get in touch and get engaged
- Contact your local chapter to help plan or join a restoration project in a watershed near you, reach out to your state council to find out ways you might engage with state-level advocacy on topics important to trout and salmon, or reach out to TU Volunteer Operations Staff for help connecting with your local or state TU resources or locating other tools to help you engage locally;
- Check out TU’s new “Project Finder” to see what might be underway in your area.
- Contact the TU Government Affairs team to see what’s cooking in Congress or in the Budget planning process.
Stand Up — Take Action with TU
- Check out TU’s Advocacy Center at standup.tu.org to see what current campaigns are underway or to learn more about getting involved in advocacy work on behalf of Trout Unlimited.
Consider a Donation to TU Advocacy Efforts
