2009 Washington Roundtable

2008 Annual Meeting

2009 Washington Roundtable

2009 Washington Roundtable Meeting Program

When the ICWP convened its 2009 Washington Roundtable meeting, approximately 35 people helped celebrate the Council’s 60 years in service to America’s water resource community by meeting with top federal officials and congressional committee staff.  We learned more about them and their greatly appreciate the financial support for this meeting from the Hach Company and YSI, Inc; with friends like these we will know what’s happening and we will figure out what to do about it!

Federal officials described their efforts to streamline implementation of the “stimulus” funding legislation, to implement their FY-09 budget appropriations, to adapt their agencies and programs to the policies and priorities of the Obama Administration, and to support the President’s FY-10 budget request.  These officials included:

• Mike Shapiro, the Acting Assistant Administrator for Water at EPA;
• Matt Larson, the Associate Director for Water at USGS;
• Gary Loew, the Chief of Program Integration at the Corps;
• Steve Stockton, the Director of Civil Works at the Corps; and
• Ken Salazar, the Secretary of the Interior.

“Yes, that will help.  Also, I wanted to let you know that your meeting was the most productive I have attended in a long time.  Where else can you sit across the table from the Secretary of the Interior or the USACE Director of Civil Works, or…, or…, and communicate with them as if you have known them for years.  Credit goes to you, Peter.  I was impressed how organized and friendly the meeting was.  I just wished I could have spent more time with a group….”

We also enjoyed an extended conversation with four seasoned congressional committee staff members who presented both majority and minority viewpoints concerning the priorities and challenges facing the four authorizing committees that we give the most attention:

•  Senate Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water and Power (represented by Mike Connor, Senior Counsel and the President’s nominee to become Commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation);
• Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (represented by Rebecca Adcock with the minority staff);
• House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water and Power ( represented by Amelia Jenkins with the majority staff); and
• House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment ( represented by Ryan Seeger, Majority Staff Director).

During the reception, the ICWP expressed its appreciation to Tom Beauduy, our Immediate Past-Chair, for the intense effort he invested in our organization last year, in the revision of our bylaws and his leadership of our Interstate Committee.  The ICWP also presented its Outstanding Leadership Award to Bob Hirsch for his “intelligence and integrity in connecting science with public policy for the benefit of America.”

Before we adjourned our 2009 Washington Roundtable, 1st Vice-Chair Boris Rukovets lead us in a review of potential follow-up actions identified during the course of our discussion:

•  Review “Recommendations for a National Levee Safety Program” Report to Congress from the National Committee on Levy Safety and provide comments by April 27 to Peter Evans or Sue Lowry; that report is under review at the OMB, and this initiative ties back to the ASFPM White Paper presentation at our 2008 annual meeting in Sacramento; it also connects with the ongoing interest by our Legislative and Policy Committee in supporting ASFPM efforts with the Administration and Congress;
• Update our proposal to establish a National Water Policy Advisory Committee with a list of specific policy issues that need to be addressed;
• Develop an ICWP position statement on infrastructure needs and priorities in collaboration with other organizations, including ASIWPCA, ECOS, WEF, AWRA, NWRA, AWWA, ASCE, etc.);
• Help promote the USGS vision to create a “stable streamgage network;”
• Facilitate discussion among water officials and data users regarding the “data comparability” concern at both regional and national roundtables for the USGS cooperative water program; this may connect with the proposal (from our October 2008 meeting in Sacramento) that we promote the organization of more water monitoring councils, such as that is those existing in Maryland, New Jersey, Virginia, and West Virginia;
• Facilitate discussions aimed at identifying potential incentives for states and interstate organizations to measure and compile their water use data in ways that will be more compatible with the USGS assessment of national water use and water availability.
• Develop an ICWP position statement concerning climate change implications, our need for appropriate monitoring capabilities and our strategies for adaptation and mitigation;
• Facilitate a discussion to identify ways in which ICWP (and others) can help educate elected officials and the general public concerning the energy – water nexus;
• Support plans for a hearing concerning water data and science in the House Natural Resources Committee on Water and Power; and
• Coordinate with USGS in planning the next national CWP & NSIP roundtable. 

We are grateful for the strong support from these corporate partners; with friends like these, we will know what’s happening and we will figure out what to do about it!

2008 Annual Meeting

2008 Annual Meeting Program

Our Annual Meeting was held Tuesday, October 28 and Wednesday, October 29, in Old Sacramento on the Riverfront Promenade with panels focused on:

·         the capabilities of our national water infrastructure programs to meet current and anticipated needs;

·         USGS water data and science programs and the reaction of cost-share Cooperators to continued underfunding by the Bush Administration; and

·         an exploration of the progress that states and interstate organizations are making with their comprehensive plans for water management and the integration of water quality, ecological flows and climate change requirements.  

The INFRASTRUCTURE panel featured presentations by Larry Roth (ASCE Vice President), who described the ASCE’s Report Card for America’s Infrastructure and the growing threat that infrastructure failure poses to our economy and international capability, Gary Loew (Chief of the Corps’ Program Integration Division),

Mike Hightower (Sandia Labs) presented an engaging assessment of the WATER-ENERGY DEVELOPMENT implications and George Riedel (ASFPM Deputy Director) made a compelling argument for supporting a National Levee Policy.

Throughout these sessions, Congresswoman Grace Napolitano (a Democrat elected to represent California’s 38^th District and Chairwoman of the House Natural Resource Subcommittee on Water & Power) amplified the perspective that the time is right for water community leaders to efficiently identify water projects that are “shovel-ready” for congressional consideration, especially those that will create the best near- and intermediate-term employment benefits, and to speak with a strong voice in the national prioritization about the threats to public health and economic competiveness that the failure of water infrastructure pose.  Following an exceptional series of presentations and discussions, she continued this theme during her keynote address and demonstrated a determination to translate water community experience into national legislation that will respond to the economic crisis and infrastructure threat that America faces.

We spent Tuesday afternoon focusing on the water data and science programs at USGS.  Matt Larsen (who was appointed last summer to succeed our good friend Bob Hirsh as Associate Director for Water after many years as Chief Scientist in the USGS Water Discipline) introduced the USGS’ national program coordinators and the tenuous budgetary circumstances facing the Department of the Interior during these contentious and demanding times.  Ward Staubitz presented an overview of the engaging critique that Cooperators are providing thorough a series of regional roundtable meetings, which lead to serious discussion of the importance of assuring adequate effort and attention is given to implementing the Cooperators’ and USGS staff recommendations. 

We concluded Tuesday afternoon with a rigorous exploration of the potential value that a National Water Census could have for decision makers and the design that USGS has developed based on its Great Lakes pilot project and the comments from ICWP and many other agencies during the past six months.  Eric Evenson (the USGS national coordinator for this proposal, which Secretary Kempthorne persuaded the OMB and the White House to include in the President’s FY-09 budget request) presented an overview of USGS plans.  Ryan Mueller (Missouri DNR), Eric Kuhn (Colorado River Water Conservation District) and Joe Hoffman (Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin) described the decision making pressures they face and the variety of data collection and interpretive products they need to understand and apply in the course of their deliberations.  The extent to which agency budgets continue to constrain basic data collection and context-specific interpretive applications makes it difficult to imagine that new funding can also be secured for such a progressive inquiry, even in the face of the energy-water development implications and climate change scenarios we are accepting.

Our second day started early, with the election of new directors and officers (following the recommendations from ICWP’s Nominations Committee and its chair, Susan Sullivan).  We turned attention next to a dynamic review of policy statements developed through the work of the ICWP Legislation & Policy Committee, which has been chaired by Sue Lowry.  Four of the five position statements were endorsed and one (concerning infrastructure finance) will get additional consideration.  The details of these decisions are posted on our “ICWP Board” and “Legislation & Policy” pages.  The balance of our second day was directed toward our ongoing interest in integrated water resource management  and the capabilities of interstate water organizations.