Water (session II)

Discussion Leaders: Jeff Carmichael and Betty Connor, notes by Jeff Carmichael

1: "What did you learn from the report?"

• A surprise was that the ski industry is the second largest user of water.

2: What was problematic in the report?

• Clarify/define consumptive and non-consumptive use.
• Need consumptive use, by sector.
• Integrate the recretional fishing section better.
• Missing socio-economic impacts and issues.
• Use more graphics, clearer graphics, focus more on the case studies.
• Water quality aspects:
• Not addressed well or at all: acid mine drainage, thermal pollution, sedimentation, atmospheric deposition, biological indicators, impact of concentrated farming operations, preserving sinks as well as cutting back on pollution souces.
• Drought: impact on EPA low flow pollution discharge permitted levels, thus water quality also.
• Use approach of examining whether sub-regions are net importers or exporters of, say, nitrogen.
• Some practices (e.g., sludge disposal containing low level pollutants that slide under regulated levels) affect water quality but aren't captured in modeling framework.
• The section says "enforce the laws" but needs much more illumination than this, too simplistic./li>
• Consider other adaptation options.
• Need unified presentation of combined population, climate, etc impacts, to see big picture all at once.
• Use historical extreme events as guide to potential vulnerabilities in future, but recognize that land use will be much different in the next century than the last.

3. What more is needed for future reports? (Long term issues)

• Flooding:
• incentives to reduce people's presence/exposure in flood plains
• - establishing priority Superfund cleanups based on flood zone risk and downstream municipal use
• Incorporate potential climate change impacts into dam licensing renewal procedure.
• Ecosystem connections -- not only focusing on reduced pollution loads, but maintaining wetlands that act as natural filters/sinks.
• Land use impacts

4. Other suggestions:

• Each sector should have a small summary like water does.

• Consider placing extended versions of case studies in appendices, and only a small box in the main body of the report.

• Start the report with ecosystems chapter, where ecosystems include humans. Point to detail on water etc. in later chapters. Follow with health chapter, then water, ag, etc, coastal, moving (loosely speaking) downstream.

• On page 110: reword section on inability of ecosystems to filter and purify water. Impacts are more uncertain than this section seems to portray.

• Suggest nested hierarchy of papers, esp. on web site. Executive summary of whole report, then summaries of each chapter, then more detailed look into each chapter, then the fine detail.

• Write the report at the level of the reader: WHO are we targeting? This is unclear and should be resolved.