Are we there yet? weary travelers on the long road to water policy reform

Natural Resources Journal

Volumn 50, Issue 1, 2010, Pages 139-166

  Neuman, Janet ^a  

^a LEWIS AND CLARK LAW SCHOOL   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

DROUGHT; GOVERNANCE APPROACH; LEGAL SYSTEM; POLICY IMPLEMENTATION; POLICY REFORM; TWENTY FIRST CENTURY; WATER PLANNING;

EID: 78649762692     PISSN: 00280739     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (132)

1. H.R. 135, 111th Cong. (2009).
2. This quote is attributed to Lawrence (Yogi) Berra, the well-known New York Yankees baseball player.
3. See Things People Said: Yogi Berra Quotes, http://www.rinkworks.com/said/yogiberra.shtml (last visited July 21, 2010).
4. These suggestions, too, might well be d ́eja vu, as other writers have also tried to turn the many policy reports into action agendas.
5. See generally CHARLES H.W. FOSTER & PETER P. ROGERS, FEDERAL WATER POLICY: TOWARD AN AGENDA FOR ACTION (1988);
6. Long's Peak Working Group on Nat'l Water Policy, America's Waters: A New Era of Sustainability: Report of the Long's Peak Working Group on National Water Policy, 24 ENVTL. L. 125 (1994) (describing action opportunities for the recently elected Clinton-Gore administration).
7. Others have reviewed the work of the many water commissions in greater detail, while this article only discusses a few highlights.
8. See generally WATER RESOURCES POLICY COMM'N, WATER RESOURCES LAW: THE REP. OF THE PRESIDENT'S WATER RESOURCES POLICY
9. COMM'N (1950) [hereinafter COOKE COMM'N]; FOSTER and ROGERS, supra note 4;
10. LAWRENCE J. MACDONNELL & DENISE D. FORT, A NEW WESTERN WATER AGENDA: OPPORTUNITIES FOR ACTION IN AN ERA OF GROWTH AND CLIMATE CHANGE (2008).
11. Albert Gallatin, REPORT OF THE SEC'Y OF THE TREASURY ON THE SUBJECT OF PUBLIC ROADS & CANALS (1808).
12. Gallatin's proposed waterway improvements were estimated to cost nearly $9 million (equivalent to over $200 billion in today's dollars), proposed to be paid for over a span of 10 years. Id. at 66-68. The first segments of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway-a series of protected navigation channels and canals that now stretches essentially from Boston to Key West-were authorized by Congress in 1880, several decades after Gallatin's report.
13. See H.R. Res. 465, 111th Cong. (2009) (describing the origins of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway). Another interior waterway-the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, linking Brownsville, Texas, to Carabelle, Florida-was also begun in the late 1800s.
14. See TEXAS DEP'T OF TRANSPORTATION, GULF INTRACOASTAL WATERWAY, available at http://www.texasgulfcoastonline.com/portals/0/pdfs/tx_gulfcoastwaterway.pdf. These waterways were constructed and are maintained by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps). Although the two segments were to be joined by a cross-Florida canal, that portion of the project was never completed due to its environmental impacts.
15. See FOSTER & ROGERS, supra note 4, at 35 (dis- cussing the "stiff resistance" to the Corps' plan for a cross-Florida barge canal). Some improvements discussed in Gallatin's report, such as the Erie Canal, were built by states or private companies rather than by the federal government.
16. See NOBEL E. WHITFORD HISTORY OF THE CANAL SYSTEM OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK-TOGETHER WITH BRIEF HISTORIES OF THE CANALS OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA (1906), available at http://www.history.rochester.edu/canal/bib/whitford/old1906 (last visited July 30, 2010) (follow Chronological Re sume of Important Laws and Events hyperlink) (pertaining to the history of the Erie Canal).
17. THE INLAND WATERWAYS COMM'N, PRELIMINARY REP., S. DOC. NO. 325 (1908)[hereinafter INLAND WATERWAYS COMM'N]. In his transmittal letter submitting the report to Congress, President Theodore Roosevelt said every stream should be used to the utmost. No stream can be so used unless such use is planned for in advance. When such plans are made we shall find that, instead of interfering, one use can often be made to assist another.; Id. at IV.
18. The report recommended creation of a National Waterways Commission to create waterway development plans and to coordinate efforts of the Corps of Engineers, the Reclamation Service (it became the Bureau of Reclamation in 1923), and other federal programs. Id. at 26-27.
19. The chief of engineers for the Corps, General Alexander Mackenzie, who was himself a member of the Inland Waterways Commission, expressed a dissenting view on this recommendation as part of the Commission's report. Id. at 30-31.
20. Senator Francis Newlands, the prime architect of the Reclamation Act, was also a member of the Inland Waterways Commission. He filed a Supplementary Report urging a "free hand" and "an ample fund" for an "administrative body of experts" to allow them to plan projects while avoiding indecision, delay, and "the shoals and quicksands of legislation.; Id. at 31-32.
21. The Roosevelt administration for the first time worked out the general principles and the specific elements of the multiple-purpose approach to river development that the New Deal put into practice over two decades later. WESTERN WATER POLICY REVIEW ADVISORY COMM'N, WATER IN THE WEST: CHALLENGE FOR THE NEXT CENTURY 4-21 (1998) [hereinafter WATER IN THE WEST], citing
22. S.P. HAYS, CONSERVATION AND THE GOSPEL OF EFFICIENCY: THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATION MOVEMENT, 1890-1920 (1999).
23. THE HOOVER COMM'N, REP. ON ORG. OF THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH OF THE GOV'T (1949) [hereinafter 1949 HOOVER COMM'N]; THE COMM'N ON ORG. OF THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH OF THE GOV'T, FINAL REPORT TO THE CONGRESS (1955).
24. Peter Rogers, Water Resources in the Twentieth and One-Half Century: 1950-2050, 116
25. WATER RESOURCES UPDATE 62 (2000). This publication is now known as the Journal of Contemporary Water Research and Education.
26. 1949 HOOVER COMM'N, supra note 12, at 267-73.
27. The proposed restructuring was designed to address "glaring defects" in organization, "disastrously wasteful conflict," and "great deficiencies" in data. Id. at 280-88.
28. Id. at 288-89.
29. Id. at 265-66.
30. COOKE COMM'N, supra note 5. The Cooke Commission's effort was incredibly com- prehensive, and the results were published in a three-volume report totaling more than 777 pages in Vol. 3 alone.
31. COMM. ON WATER RESOURCES POLICY, WATER RESOURCES POLICY: A REP. BY THE PRESIDENTIAL ADVISORY COMM. ON WATER RESOURCES POLICY (1955) [hereinafter WATER RESOURCES POLICY]. President Eisenhower constituted this cabinet-level group to consider the recommendations of the Cooke and Hoover Commissions.
32. FOSTER & ROGERS, supra note 4, at 24-25.
33. S. RES. 48, 86th Cong. (1961). The report accompanying the resolution noted that "[f]our Presidential commissions and a committee of Cabinet members have made major studies of water resource problems since 1949. The reports. provide much useful information, but they have not been in a form for legislative action, and they have not been accompanied by any legislative recommendations of the President." The Select Committee published its conclusions in Senate Report 29. THE SENATE SELECT COMM. ON NAT'L WATER RESOURCES, REPORT, SEN. REP. NO. 29, 87th Cong. (1961).
34. 42 U.S.C. 1961 (2000) (repealed 1978).
35. 42 U.S.C. 1962 (2006). This Act created a federal Water Resources Council and subordinate regional river basin commissions to improve coordination and basin-wide planning. The Council was never able to effectively fulfill its function and it was de-funded by the Reagan administration in the early 1980s.
36. See generally BETSY A. CODY & NICOLE T. CARTER, CONGRESSIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE, 35 YEARS OF WATER POLICY: THE 1973 NATIONAL WATER COMMISSION AND PRESENT CHALLENGES (May, 2009).
37. 42 U.S.C. 1961 (2000) (repealed 1978); 42 U.S.C. § 1962 (2006).
38. Pub. L. No. 90-515, 82 Stat. 868 (1968).
39. FOSTER & ROGERS, supra note 4, at 27; Rogers, supra note 13, at 63 (discussing the impetus for the 1968 legislation).
40. THE NATIONAL WATER COMM'N, WATER POLICIES FOR THE FUTURE: FINAL REPORT TO THE PRESIDENT AND TO THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES (1973) [hereinafter 1973 NWC REPORT]. While the National Water Commission did its work, both President Nixon and Congress were busy on water matters as well. In 1969, Nixon appointed a Task Force on Resources and the Environment, which resulted in passage of the National Environmental Policy Act and creation of the Council on Environmental Quality and the Environmental Protection Agency. Congress also passed the Clean Water Restoration Act in 1966 and the Clean Water Act in 1972.
41. See Rogers, supra note 13, at 63. 26. Rogers, supra note 13, at 63. 27. Western water issues are far more than a regional concern. Given the continued population growth in the West, the significance of western economic engines (agricultural and otherwise) to the entire country, and the amount of U.S. taxpayer money spent on western water development, the West's water is a national concern.
42. Reclamation Projects Authorization and Adjustment Act of 1992, Pub. L. No. 102-575, 106 Stat. 4600 (1998). The author was a member of this commission.
43. WATER IN THE WEST, supra note 11. 30. Id. at 4-23.
44. Id. at 4-24.
45. THE INTERAGENCY FLOODPLAIN MGMT. REVIEW COMM., SHARING THE CHALLENGE: FLOODPLAIN MANAGEMENT INTO THE 21ST CENTURY (1994).
46. THE NATIONAL DROUGHT POLICY COMM'N, PREPARING FOR DROUGHT IN THE 21ST CENTURY: REPORT (2000).
47. National Flood Insurance Reform Act of 1994, Pub. L. No. 103-325, 108 Stat. 2160. The Interagency Floodplain Management Review Committee had found that the National Flood Insurance Program created in 1968 was not working effectively.
48. THE INTERAGENCY FLOODPLAIN MGMT. REVIEW COMM., supra note 32.
49. Only about 20 to 30 percent of floodplain occupants had flood insurance, due to a lack of participation by communities, a lack of enforcement of insurance requirements by lenders, and the willingness of the federal government to provide disaster assistance after the fact even to uninsured parties. Id. at x.
50. Gerald E. Galloway, Jr., Floodplain Management: A Present & a 21st Century Imperative, 97 WATER RESOURCES UPDATE 4, 8 (1994). Criticisms of federal flood policy continue to this day.
51. See, e.g., FEMA, A Chronology of Major Events Affecting The National Flood Insurance Program (December, 2005) (report prepared by American Institutes for Research), available at www.fema.gov/library/viewRecord.do?id=2601 (last visited July 30, 2010).
52. National Drought Policy Act of 1998, Pub. L. No. 105-199, 112 Stat. 641.
53. See also DROUGHT AND WATER CRISES: SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND MANAGEMENT ISSUES 161-164 (Donald A. Wilhite ed., 2005) (describing the impetus for the 1998 Act).
54. National Drought Policy Act, Pub. L. No. 105-199, §§ 2(1), 2(5).
55. National Drought Policy Act, Pub. L. No. 105-199, § 2(2)-(3). Indeed, as of 2000, the federal government had funded at least 88 different drought-related programs spread over a number of different agencies.
56. Ray Motha, Recommendations on Drought Monitoring by the U.S. National Drought Policy Commission, in Proceedings of an Expert Group Meeting [of the World Meteorological Organization] held September 5-7, 2000, in Lisbon, Portugal 45, 49 (Donald A. Wilhite, M.V.K. Sivakumar & Deborah A. Wood, eds., 2000) available at http://www.drought.unl.edu/monitor/EWS/ch4_Motha.pdf.
57. National Drought Policy Act, Pub. L. No. 105-199, §§ 3-4.
58. Ray Motha, supra note 38. Rogers, supra note 13, at 64, identified the droughts and floods of the early 1990s as two events that "have had great impact on how water policy is carried out.
59. See, e.g., the National Drought Preparedness Acts of 2003 and 2005 (S. 1454 and S. 802, respectively). Piecemeal changes have been made, however.
60. See National Integrated Drought Information System Act of 2006, Pub. L. No. 109-430, 120 Stat. 2918.
61. See, e.g, FOSTER & ROGERS, supra note 4;
62. BRUCE DRIVER, WESTERN WATER: TUNING THE SYSTEM: THE REPORT TO THE WESTERN GOVERNORS' ASSOCIATION FROM THE WATER EFFICIENCY TASK FORCE (1986);
63. D. Craig Bell & Norman K. Johnson, State Water Laws and Federal Water Uses: The History of Conflict, the Prospects for Accommodation, 21 ENVTL. L. 1 (1991) (originally a Western States Water Council report); Long's Peak Working Group on National
64. Water Policy, supra note 4;
65. D. Craig Bell et al., Retooling Western Water Management: The Park City Principles, 31 LAND & WATER L. REV. 303 (1996);
66. NAT'L RESEARCH COUNCIL, NEW STRATEGIES FOR AMERICA'S WATERSHEDS (1999);
67. NAT'L RESEARCH COUNCIL, NEW DIRECTIONS IN WATER RESOURCES PLANNING FOR THE U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS (1999);
68. WESTERN GOVERNORS' ASSOC., WATER NEEDS & STRATEGIES FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE (2006);
69. MACDONNELL & FORT, supra note 5;
70. WESTERN STATES WATER COUNCIL, WATER LAWS & POLI- CIES FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE: A WESTERN STATES' PERSPECTIVE (June 2008). This is not a complete list, but it contains several key reports.
71. In 1988, FOSTER & ROGERS, supra note 4, at 14, listed "development, coordination, and regulation" as the "three main thrusts to federal water policy during the past twelve decades." The development thrust consisted of navigation improvements, flood control projects, irrigation development, and hydroelectric power assistance.
72. See id. at 14-31.
73. Regulation and coordination emerged much later and coordination was never embraced as strongly as the other two. See id. 44. Other consistent and important themes can also be gleaned from the many water policy studies, but doing justice to them all is beyond the scope of this article. Instead, this article focuses on three persistent criticisms of existing policy.
74. WATER RESOURCES POLICY, supra note 18, at 16. 46. 1949 HOOVER COMM'N, supra note 12, at 288. The Commission recommended the creation of Drainage Area Advisory Commissions to provide a coordinating function in major river basins.
75. Id. at 289.
76. INLAND WATERWAYS COMM'N, supra note 8, at 21. 48. 1973 NWC REPORT, supra note 25, at 19-37.
77. Id. at 63-108 (quantity/quality), 230-47 (groundwater/surface water), and 351-59 (land use/water use).
78. See, e.g., WATER IN THE WEST, supra note 11, at 6-4 to 6-7, 6-11 to 6-21.
79. See, e.g., THE INTERAGENCY FLOODPLAIN MGMT. REVIEW COMM., supra note 32, at 43-47, 93-95 (discussing the need to prepare for-rather than try to prevent-future flooding by restoring natural floodplains, among other steps);
80. THE NATIONAL DROUGHT POLICY COMM'N, supra note 33, at 2, 18-22 (discussing the need to shift drought response from ad hoc crisis management to prediction, preparedness, mitigation, and risk management).
81. 1973 NWC REPORT, supra note 25, at 247-60. 54. 1949 HOOVER COMM'N, supra note 12, at 265-66.
82. The Commission's view of what constituted an economically feasible project did not seem particularly exacting, however. The report noted that Congress had originally required farmers to pay back the costs of reclamation projects, but the farmers were not able to do so, and the projects did not pay off, but the report went on to say, "[i]t is simply accepted that the national advantage of more farm homes and more national productivity are advantages which will offset Government losses.;
83. Id. at 278.
84. See, e.g., SENATE SELECT COMM. ON NAT'L WATER RESOURCES, REPORT, SEN. REP. NO. 29, at 59, 87th Cong. (1961);
85. WATER RESOURCES POLICY, supra note 18, at 29-35. 56. 1973 NWC REPORT, supra note 25, at 406-09 (quoted phrases at 407).
86. See, e.g., DRIVER, supra note 42, at 27-28, 31-32, 49-51;
87. WESTERN GOVERNORS' AS- SOC., supra note 42.
88. This 2006 report of the Western Governors' Association raised the is- sues of conservation, efficiency, and markets again, in language that suggested little change in the 20 years since Driver's Tuning the System. "The WSWC [Western States Water Council] should explore the relative merits and obstacles related to various programs and technologies and legal and institutional means to augment existing water supplies, including water conservation and water use efficiency, demand management (including pricing structures), water and water rights transfers, [and] water banking." WESTERN GOVER NORS' ASSOC., supra note 42, at 11 (emphasis added). In fact the report notes, apparently without irony, that this very charge was given to the WSWC "in 1965, when water problems that are now growing acute were first addressed." Id.
89. THE NATIONAL DROUGHT POLICY COMM'N, supra note 33, at 16-26, 39;
90. WATER IN THE WEST, supra note 11, at 3-2 to 3-21;
91. THE INTERAGENCY FLOODPLAIN MGMT. REVIEW COMM., supra note 32, chs. 8-9.
92. INLAND WATERWAYS COMM'N, supra note 8, at 26-27.
93. 1949 HOOVER COMM'N, supra note 12, at 249. 61. Id. at 281-84.
94. Even on the rare occasions when the two agencies cooperated, it did not guarantee that the public was well-served. After describing how agencies competed for taxpayer money by duplicating surveys and then rushing to Congress with conflicting, "premature and unsound" proposals, the Commission discussed the Corps' and the Bureau's compromise proposal for developing the Missouri River Basin. Id. at 281, 283.
95. The "compromise" basically amounted to burying the hatchet and agreeing to suspend the "devastating criticism" by each agency of the other's components of the plan. Id. at 283. The Commission wondered "whether agreement between the two agencies is not more costly to the public than disagreement....;
96. Id. 62. Id. at 287. The Commission also recommended bringing the Bonneville Power Administration and the Southwestern Power Administration into Interior. Id. at 271.
97. 1973 NWC REPORT, supra note 25, at 398-406.
98. The Commission faulted lack of au- thority, lack of funding, and lack of an independent link to the White House for hampering the Council's effectiveness. Id.
99. Id. at 409-13.
100. A search for the origin of this quotation turned up a number of conflicting attributions, including seventeenth-century writer John Dryden, as well as Benjamin Franklin and Albert Einstein.
101. H.R. Res. 3561, 107th Cong. (2001); H.R. Res. 135, 108th Cong. (2003); H.R. Res. 135, 109th Cong. (2005) H.R. Res. 135, 110th Cong. (2007). The bill has even passed the House in two previous sessions. Press Release, Office of Congressman John Linder, House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee Approves Linder Water Bill, (May 8, 2008), available at http://linder.house.gov (last visited July 30, 2010).
102. Press Release, Office of Congressman John Linder, Representative Linder Re-introduces "21st Century Water Commission Act of 2007" (Jan. 4, 2007), available at http://linder.house.gov (last visited July 30, 2010).
103. In May of 2009, the Congressional Research Service prepared a report about the NWC's findings specifically to inform the debate on H.R. 135.
104. CONGRESSIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE, 35 YEARS OF WATER POLICY: THE 1973 NATIONAL WATER COMMISSION AND PRESENT CHALLENGES (2009), available at http://www.policyarchive.org/handle/10207/18517 (last visited July 30, 2010).
105. In 2000, water resources scholar Peter Rogers wrote that "we have the advice from all of the Presidential Commissions and the experience gained over the first 50 years. It seems that there is little need to spend more time and effort on new commissions. What remains is the 'political will' to pursue the blueprints already in hand." Rogers, supra note 13, at 65.
106. See, e.g., Stuart L. Somach Closing the Policy-Practice Gap in Water Resources Planning, 90 WATER RESOURCES UPDATE 19, 19 (1993), available at http://www.ucowr.siu.edu/updates/pdf/V90_A5.pdf (noting that the Bureau of Reclamation was viewed by some as being part of the water resource problem rather than part of the solution because of its resistance to change).
107. Peter Rogers, Why Are Widely Accepted Principles of Water Management So Often Not Followed in Practice? 90 WATER RESOURCES UPDATE 16, 17 (1993), available at http://www.ucowr.siu.edu/updates/pdf/V90_A4.pdf.
108. Id. Political lobbying is a form of "rent-seeking behavior," whereby interest groups pressure for public policies that will bring them economic benefits.
109. See Gordon Tullock, Rent Seeking, in THE NEW PALGRAVE DICTIONARY OF ECONOMICS (2d ed. 2008).
110. Chelsea Congdon, Bridging the Gap Between Principle and Practice in Agricultural Water Management, 90 WATER RESOURCES UPDATE 26, 26 (1993), available at http://www.ucowr.siu.edu/updates/pdf/V90_A7.pdf. Agriculture's favored status straddles both water quantity and water quality laws.
111. Id. (using California as an example).
112. Id. at 27.
113. David H. Getches, Water Reform: Ideas Whose Time Has Come, 90 WATER RESOURCES UPDATE 36, 41 (1993), available at http://www.ucowr.siu.edu/updates/pdf/V90_A9.pdf.
114. Id. The hit list was supported by yet another water policy study, the President's Water Resources Policy Study Task Force. See FOSTER & ROGERS, supra note 4, at 30. Many of President Carter's proposals for better cost-benefit analysis, increased cost-sharing, pricing reforms, and environmental review of federal projects were eventually implemented by President Reagan.
115. Id. at 34.
116. The Water Resources Development Act of 1986 curtailed the federal share of funding for water projects and steeply increased the cost-share requirements for state and local governments. Id. However, the Reagan administration sweetened the pot by including in the Act "literally something for everyone," including authorization for $16.5 billion in federal funding for over 270 water projects. Id.
117. See, e.g., WATER IN THE WEST, supra note 11, at app. B (dissenting views criticizing the level of federal involvement in western water issues).
118. Letter from Senators Frank H. Murkowski and Jon Kyl, ex officio Commission members, to Denise Fort, chair, Western Water Policy Review Advisory Commission (April 2, 1998) in WATER IN THE WEST, supra note 11, at app. B. As the chairmen of the Senate committees on Energy and Natural Resources and the Subcommittee on Water and Power, respectively, these two senators (as well as other specified congressional committee chairs and co-chairs) were made ex officio members of the Commission by its establishing legislation, and they were represented on the Commission by members of their staff. Although the legislation made the congressional representatives non-voting members, in negotiating the charter for the Commission's operation with the appointed chair, these members bargained for voting status.
119. Letter from Senator Ted Stevens and Congressman Don Young, ex officio Commission members, to Denise Fort, chair, Western Water Policy Review Advisory Commission (April 3, 1998) in WATER IN THE WEST, supra note 11, at app. B. 83. Letter from Patrick O'Toole, Citizen Appointee Commission Member, to Denise Fort, chair, Western Water Policy Review Advisory Commission (April 13, 1998) in WATER IN THE WEST, supra note 11, at app. B.
120. See, e.g., WATER IN THE WEST, supra note 11, at 2-30 to 2-33 (describing the water quality impacts of irrigated agriculture's practices and the exemptions of these activities from pollution laws), 3-6 to 3-8, 3-12 to 3-20 (describing unsustainable uses of groundwater and surface water, subsidies to agricultural water users and the need for more rational water pricing). Furthermore, this support for western agriculture has come at the expense of midwestern and eastern agriculture, which have not had access to all of the same subsidies because of the absence of Bureau of Reclamation projects. See generally, Taxpayers for Common Sense, Celebrating a Century of Subsidies (June 13, 2002), available at http://www.taxpayer.net/search_by_category.php?action=view&proj_id=482&category=Water%20Resources&type=Project (last visited July 30, 2010) (describing western agricultural subsidies from Bureau of Reclamation projects);
121. RENEE SHARP & SIMONA CARINI, ENVIRONMENTAL WORKING GROUP, SOAKING UNCLE SAM: WHY WESTLANDS WATER DISTRICT'S NEW CONTRACT IS ALL WET (Bill Walker, ed., Sept. 2005), http://www.ewg.org/reports/westlands (last visited July 30, 2010) (noting that the district "contains some of the largest and most subsidy-rich agribusinesses in California and the nation").
122. O'Toole, supra note 83 (emphasis added). However, this distinction seems to be abandoned when describing the economic contribution of agriculture; for that purpose, the net is cast widely.
123. See WESTERN IRRIGATION ECONOMIC BENEFITS REVIEW: IRRIGATED AGRICULTURE'S ROLE FOR THE 21ST CENTURY: A POLICY WHITE PAPER FOR DECISION MAKERS: PREVIEW HIGHLIGHTS AND SUMMARY SPONSORED BY THE FAMILY FARM ALLIANCE in O'Toole, supra note
124. at O'Toole app. A-1 (attached to O'Toole letter). See generally THOMAS MICHAEL POWER, LOST LANDSCAPES AND FAILED ECONOMIES: THE SEARCH FOR A VALUE OF PLACE (1996) (discussing questionable economic calculations that often overvalue the contributions of western agriculture to regional economies).
125. Stevens & Young, supra note 82. 87. Murkowski & Kyl, supra note 81. 88. Id.
126. Pub. L. No. 102-575, § 3004, 106 Stat. 4600, 43 U.S.C. § 371 (2006). The legislation had originally been adopted when control of congressional committees was in the hands of Democrats, some of whom have supported water policy reform proposals. By the time of the final report, however, the same committees were controlled by Republicans, most of whom were overtly hostile to the Commission's work.
127. See, e.g., WATER IN THE WEST, supra note 11, at 3-5, 3-7, 3-42, 5-24 (describing a number of collaborative efforts to solve water management problems).
128. A BLUEPRINT FOR EFFECTIVE WATER POLICY IN THE WEST: AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE FINAL REPORT OF THE WESTERN WATER POLICY REVIEW ADVISORY COMMISSION in O'Toole, supra note 83, at O'Toole-8 (attached to O'Toole letter). 92. O'Toole, supra note 83 (saying it is the "height of arrogance for a nation to attack its own food supply").
129. Much of Senator Paul Simon's contribution to water policy development actually came after he left the Senate, when he published TAPPED OUT (1998), a book on global water issues. Since then, others have pursued water issues in his name and as his legacy. Representative Earl Blumenauer from Oregon introduced the Senator Paul Simon Water for the Poor Act of 2005, Pub. L. No. 109-121, 119 Stat. 2533 (codified at 22 U.S.C. § 2152h (2006)), which was passed by Congress and signed by President George W. Bush. Simon's fellow senator from Illinois, Senator Dick Durbin, recently introduced the Senator Paul Simon Water for the World Act of 2009, S. 624, 111th Cong. (2009).
130. Before his untimely death from brain cancer, Congressman Mike Synar, who was from an Oklahoma ranching family, took on the issue of subsidies provided to western ranchers who grazed cattle on public lands.
131. See, e.g., Warren Viessman, Jr., The Water Management Challenge 90 WATER RESOURCES UPDATE 13, 14 (1993), available at http://www.ucowr.siu.edu/updates/pdf/V90_A3.pdf;
132. FOSTER & ROGERS, supra note 4, at 106-07.