In July of 2008, the Alabama Legislature created the Permanent Joint Legislative Committee on Water Policy and Management, and here, with the mission to “make a continuous study of the state water supply and projected future needs and availability of the state water supply and make recommendations for legislation and initiatives that will create the necessary institutional and regulatory changes to accomplish the overall goals and objectives of the Alabama Water Management Plan in a manner that benefits the state’s needs and protects the environment.” The committee, known as the PJLCWP (unfortunately this has not yet lent itself to a cool nickname), began its work last year with gumption and enthusiasm; holding hearings and gathering data from across the state, determined to craft a comprehensive water policy that would address Alabama’s future water needs while protecting our rich river heritage. The State was just coming out of a historic drought, the Water-war with Georgia was dragging on, and everyone was pulling together to put together a plan that would address the our various water needs from across the state. Groups from across the state were open to new ideas and the entrenched lines between industry, environment, agriculture, and navigation blurred in light of common goals. This was a time when people from all backgrounds were talking about environmental preservation through protection of the natural flows of streams and rivers while ensuring that conservation and efficiency measures were adopted to provide for the needs of our communities, farms and businesses. What a difference a year makes…
Since these initial movements by the PJLCWP very little has happened. The old parties are once again circling their wagons and stonewalling any talk of change. The committee has not met this summer and there is no indication that they ever intend to again. The lakes are once again full and the drought that brought everyone together is fading away like a summer breeze.
The problem, of course, is that the work of the PJLCWP is not complete and the threats which led to its creation have not gone away. Like a sleeping dragon, the drain on our water resources will come again.
As if to highlight this we came across two articles which foreshadow the next round of our water worries. The first, from California, discussed the ongoing drought which has forced the federal government and state to ration water to the detriment of both the natural ecosystems and the people of California who rely on the water for their livelihood. No matter what choice the government makes now, some important interest will lose out and both may be so impacted that neither fully recovers. The water shortages in California are especially significant to Alabama because the situation was ultimately preventable. While California is decades ahead of Alabama in terms of conservation and efficiency today, they did not embrace these ideas in time to ward off their current catastrophe. Had the state proceeded with more precaution, even at the cost of growth, the state may well have found a balance among the interests that are now desperately fighting for survival.
To add to this, the Center for Biological Diversity has compiled a sobering studyof the effects that population growth has had on this planet over the last 200 years, and, more importantly, they have projected these trends into the next century. Whether you agree with their conclusions of global population growth, there is no denying that competition for our limited water resources will certainly increase in the near future. With a projected 50% increase in population here in the United States in the next 50 years, the pressing need to continue the work of the PJLCWM is clear.
