POLICY SUMMARY
water: supply, quality, and management
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FEDERATION OF WESTERN OUTDOOR CLUBS
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General
Federal laws to control and reduce water pollution should be re-authorized on schedule without being weakened. [Res. 14, 1991] In fact, these laws need to be strengthened in various respects. New provisions are needed to better protect ground water and to prevent water mining, as well as to combat pollution by toxic chemicals. Provisions protecting wetlands must be substantially strengthened. Everyone must do more to recycle and reduce use of agents that can pollute. [Res. 7, 1994] Where federal clean water requirements are burdensome to local communities, state or federal governments should provide further financial assistance. Weakening water clean-up requirements, however, can pose a health hazard to all citizens. [Res. 20, 1995]
Agencies managing public lands should take urgent measures to protect the quality of drinking water supplies in roadless areas by building enclosures around springs and other sources of drinking water and by educating the public about the dangers of pollution and disease from degraded waters and the need for proper purification. [Res. 4, 1991]
Water diverted to irrigation should be re-allocated to restore wetland habitats and instream flows to support fish, waterfowl and other wildlife needs (as in California's Central Valley). The recovery of species endangered by water diversion, as in estuarine areas, is particularly critical. [Res. 17, 1990]
Specific Areas
The City of San Diego should not be permitted to divert water, which otherwise would flow into the Salton Sea, to support expanded development. The Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge provides important habitat to more than 380 species of birds and is an important link on the Pacific Flyway. Action is needed to address problems of salinity, pollutants such as pesticides, and protecting wildlife and recreational values there, as well preventing the diversion of water. The FWOC strongly supports the preservation of the Salton Sea. [Res. 2, 2002]Remedial action must be taken by the city of Los Angeles to deal with the severe air quality problems (blowing arsenic-laden dust from the dry lakebed) caused by diverting all of the water that used to flow into Owens Lake. The city must meet federal standards and deadlines to address this serious public health threat. [Res. 3, 1999]
The water level at Mono Lake in California should be restored year round to 6390 feet so as to restore streamside wetlands, permit optimum flows from tributary streams, keep down blowing dust, increase productivity of the primary food sources for nesting and migratory birds, and restore Negit and nearby small islands as a sanctuary for populations of the California gull. Mono Lake should be protected as an Outstanding National Water Source under California law. [Res. 15, 1993]
Action must be taken to protect the waters of Walker Lake in Nevada (an ancient Pleistocene remnant with a prized population of Lahontan cutthroat trout) from drastically reduced inflows as a result of upstream diversions on the Walker River for irrigation. [Res. 7, 1998] In the past two years (1999 and 2000), no water has reached the lake from the Walker Lake. Long-term efforts are also needed to ensure that the lake has sufficient water to maintain its ecosystem. [Res. 5, 2002]
A complete and fully-funded independent, hydrological study should be conducted of the deep, carbonate aquifer underlying eastern Nevada before any inter-basin water transfer is authorized from this rural area to Las Vegas. Special attention should be given to both the short-term and long-term effects of groundwater pumping on surface waters, such as springs and streams, and wildlife. [Res. 14, 2004]
Ground water should not be taken from White Pine County in Nevada and transferred to southern Nevada because of the adverse, long-term effects this would have on the streams and springs of this area and its wildlife, and even possibly on Great Basin National Park. The state Engineer should reject applications for this transfer, and the BLM should select the "no action" alternative in its EIS on the proposed pipelines. [Res. 13, 2005] Ground water should not be taken from the Spring and Snake valleys of eastern Nevada to facilitate growth of Las Vegas and Henderson, and applications for such diversions should be rejected. [Res. 3, 2006]
A major, long-term commitment should be made to provide funding from federal and state sources to restore the clarity of the waters of Lake Tahoe and to reverse years of degradation caused by forest loss, urbanization, and increasing levels of traffic. [Res. 10, 1997] Management decisions should be made to implement the findings of a team of top scientists who have assessed the problems of the watershed of Lake Tahoe (looking at soil erosion, air quality, and forest quality). [Res. 8, 1998] Funding might be more readily forthcoming if the area around the lake were declared as a National Scenic Forest and Recreation Area (see S. 1192, Sen. Feinstein), which should be established. [Res. 5, 1999] Meiss Meadows in the headwaters of the upper Truckee watershed should be designated as wilderness. Wilderness designation will protect the single most important inflow into the lake, thus reducing impacts on the lake's clarity. [Res. 20, 2003]
To further protect the clarity of Lake Tahoe, as well as to protect its beauty and old growth forests, intensive programs must be undertaken there to prevent fires in the surrounding areas. This will involve clearing defensible space around structures, making them more fire resistant, removing brush, thickets, and ladder trees from the urban-forest interface space, better enforcing fire regulations affecting use of machinery, off-road vehicles, and campfires, and better financing agency programs for this purpose. [Res. 16, 2007]
Too much effluent is already dumped into the Russian River in California by the city of Santa Rosa, which wants to dump overflow from its sewage treatment plant into the river. No more sewage effluent should be dumped into the Russian River, which is a valuable recreational resource and important habitat. [Res. 14, 1993]
The Klamath Basin--an ecological treasure once considered to be the "Everglades of the West" (hosting 80% of the birds on the Pacific Flyway)--has had 75% of its wetlands converted to agriculture and its hydrology radically altered. The result has been decline in water quality and habitat leading to listings under the Endangered Species Act (for the Lost River and Shortnote suckers). There is insufficient water for the national wildlife refuge there; Native American fishing rights are not honored; and water quality and temperature standards are not met. Accordingly, the federal government needs to reform management of the Klamath Irrigation Project, reduce water demand by buying out the property of willing sellers, terminate leases to farm in the wildlife refuge, improve water management and implement water conservation measures, augment water supplies, meet water quality standards, and restore fish and wildlife habitats. It also ought to do what it can to reduce economic hardships arising out of drought in the region. [Res. 10, 2001; Res. 12, 2003] The treaty rights of the Yurok and Klamath Tribes with regard to the Klamath River should be recognized. The governors of Oregon and California should take the lead in reforming water management in the Scott and Shasta valleys. [Res. 12, 2003]
Because the use of motor boats, water skis, and any gasoline powered motor craft contributes to pollution (as well as producing noise), such craft should be prohibited on lakes valued for their clarity, such as Crater Lake and Waldo Lake in Oregon, [Res. 1, 1998] and indeed on all publicly-owned lakes. [Res. 23, 1999]
Land management agencies need to control activities that can damage watersheds (such as timbering, mining, grazing and other practices) and cause rapid runoff from denuded lands or pollute rivers. They should prepare long-range plans for the optimum production of water from the aquifers and watersheds of the public domain. Water should not be removed from aquifers beyond the annual rate of re-charge. [Res. 18, 1990]
Watersheds on public lands that provide municipal water supplies should not be degraded nor contaminated further, as through use of pesticides and herbicides. Watersheds such as the McKenzie River watershed in Oregon should bed managed to produce water of high quality, with an end to use of pesticides and herbicides in the watershed, as well as the removal of old growth. [Res. 19, 2005]
Surplus roads should be removed from the Bull Run watershed in the Mt. Hood National Forest in Oregon. They pose a risk of washouts, and Congress should provide funding to pay for their removal. The Forest Service should maintain control of the basin, and the city of Portland should proceed to study the environmental damage that a third dam in the basin might cause. The Endangered Species Act should be complied with fully. [Res. 14, 2003]
Within municipal watersheds that have already been damaged by past logging, such as the Cedar River Watershed of the City of Seattle, a variety of integrated strategies should be used to restore the quality of the ecosystem. Inholdings should be acquired; ecological reserves should be set aside (where there would be no commercial logging and only limited thinning in previously disturbed areas to achieve ecological benefits, and salvage logging only to reduce unacceptable fuel loads); programs to restore fisheries (as by providing instream flows, the acquisition of riparian lands, and habitat restoration); and timber management outside of reserves would be designed to support ecosystem restoration (e.g., no clearcutting--nor removal of more than 50% of the trees or volume; no new road construction and reduction of the extent of existing roads; full riparian reserves; and an end to logging after a set period (as, e.g., 30 years). [Res. 14, 1996]
No more treated effluent should be dumped into Puget Sound from the site of the West Point sewage treatment plant (which is capped by a legal settlement), and the plant there should not be expanded. The remaining land there should instead be used for recreational purposes. [Res. 28, 1999]
Remedial action should be taken to rid the shared waters of Puget Sound and the Georgia Straight of heavy levels of industrial pollution, municipal sewage, and agricultural run off. The International Joint Commission should catalyze action by authorities in British Columbia and Washington state and conduct needed studies. [Res. 6, 1992]
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