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Infrastructure USA: New era of interbasin water transfers

Posted by: Maven on March 16, 2010 at 5:07 am

From Infrastructure USA:

“An interbasin transfer of water is the diversion of water from one water source basin to another. How many of these occur depends on the scale one considers. An interbasin water transfer can take place on the scale of a transfer of water from one small stream to another, or to a transfer from water sources draining to the Pacific Ocean to water sources draining to the Gulf of Mexico. Even if you consider only largescale transfers, trillions of gallons of water are transferred among basins each year to serve hundreds of thousands of farmers and millions of municipal residences. As noted by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in announcing its rule on the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System and water transfers (discussed below):

…

It is important to understand at the outset that climate change will not alter the total global volume of water. It will merely redistribute it on both a temporal and spatial scale. To adapt, the question will be — do we move people to water, or do we move water to people? History tells us it will be the latter. The fact that water fl ows, has allowed us to engineer interbasin water transfers to conform to where people live and work. Interbasin transfers have fueled the development of many major cities in the US. Adaptation to climate change is likely to drive greater interest in water transfers. Even now, climate change and population growth in arid regions are leading to new projects.

Efforts to develop major interbasin water transfers, however, face a growing list of state water law requirements, in addition to federal and state environmental law requirements. … “

To read more from Infrastructure USA, click here.

March 16, 2010 · Filed Under Transfers

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