Water Resource Planning  Brian Atkins, P.E., Division Director, Alabama Office  of Water Resources Dr. Gail Cowie, Assistant Branch Chief, Georgia  Environmental Protection Division‐Watershed  Protection Branch  Jon Steverson, J.D., Executive Director, Northwest  Florida Water Management District

Water Planning: Nothing Has  Changed Since Roman Times “We need more water, go and get it-and by the way, you cannot have any more money.” Mandate from Nero to Sextius Frontinius, Rome’s Water Commissioner First Century A.D.

Water Resource Planning Strategies for achieving a desired  set of goals (policy definition) 

Players - individuals, agencies, businesses, communities, utilities, NGOs, state and federal government

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Processes - identification of goals, metrics, alternatives, models, trade offs, additions

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Products - a traditional report, modeling environments, dynamic structure

The Drivers of Water Planning in the “Tri-State” Region • It is clear that water will be the natural resources science, engineering, and policy issue of the 21st century. • The habits of a profligate past are colliding with ecological and economic limits (recurring drought, megaregions, and tri-state “water wars’). • Overarching institutional framework and legal regime that treats water as a limitless resource East of the Mississippi River-myth of abundance is firmly entrenched and leading to “contested waterscapes.” • Water flows uphill toward money. • You pay for water projects with someone else’s money.

Drought

The historically low river levels of 20052007 have demonstrated that the Southeastern United States is vulnerable to water shortages resulting from extended drought, overuse, and water policies and water management plans that are not adequate to accommodate future levels of population growth.

USGS July 28, 2014: Urban Areas in the Southeastern U.S. Will Double in Size By 2060-Where Will We Get the Water?

Regional Perspective “All of the states adjacent to Tennessee except Alabama [, until recently, were] at least nominally pursuing statewide water resources planning.” (W. Viessman, Jr. and T. D. Feather, 2005, State Water

Resources Planning in the United States, ASCE, p. 28 ; D.

H. Moreau and U. Hatch, 2008,

Statutes Governing Water Allocation and Water Resource Planning in South Atlantic States, Water

Resources Institute, UNC; M. R. English and R. Arthur, 2010, Statewide Water

Resources Planning: A Nine State Study, Tennessee

Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations, p. 2).

What Makes Water Resources Planning Unique? • Significant impacts • High potential for conflict • Resource availability uncertain but coveted

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Technical and political concerns Divergent interests Established and emerging institutions Water policy and law Funding

Dual and Tri-State Planning Challenges • Interstate and intrastate conflict, exacerbating potential water • • • • •

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quantity and quality problems Uncertainty about water availability Legal dynamics replicating those played out in international (state v. state) water disputes Conjunctive management of surface water and groundwater Drought-water war couplet Planning focused on larger regulated systems that do not fully integrate all of the components necessary for effective statewide water resources management such as: complete water resources assessments, groundwater management, interbasin transfers, instream flow and stakeholder engagement Future economic development

Status Reports-AL, GA, and FL

1.What has worked well? 2.What changes are underway? 3.What would you modify in the future?

WHEN YOU LOOK AHEAD TO 2030 WHAT TRENDS DO YOU SEE IN WATER RESOURCE PLANNING?…2050?…2100?… • WHAT ARE THE TRENDS, CHALLENGES AND INNOVATIONS EMERGING WITHIN THE WATER RESOURCES PLANNING SPECTRUM… • HOW WILL WATER PLANNING BE INTERRUPTED BY OTHER SECTORS… • WHAT IMPACTS WILL OTHER SECTORS HAVE ON PLANNING AND SUPPLY… • CLIMATE CHANGE, RISING POPULATION, RAPID URBANIZATION AND CHANGING CONSUMPTION PATTERNS FOR WATER… • BRINGING TOGETHER SCIENCE, RESEARCH, TECHNOLOGY, INDUSTRY, UTILITIES, ENVIRONMENTAL PARAMETERS, POLICY AND LAW... • LATEST TRENDS, INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGIES AND PIONEERING SCIENCE… • INCREASING ROLE FOR PUBLIC POLICY DEVELOPMENT…

Water Resource Planning  Brian Atkins, P.E., Division Director, Alabama Office  of Water Resources Dr. Gail Cowie, Assistant Branch Chief, Georgia  Environmental Protection Division‐Watershed  Protection Branch  Jon Steverson, J.D., Executive Director, Northwest  Florida Water Management District