Integrating Water Quality and Water Quantity for a Sustainable Future

Andy Laurenzi, Sonoran Institute land and water program director, contributed this Guest View.

Arizona has been, and will continue to be one of the fastest growing states in the United States. Rapid growth brings many challenges and when coupled with climate change forecasts that describe increased drought conditions, changes in precipitation patterns (i.e. less precipitation falling as snow), and higher annual temperatures, it suggests that intensifying water scarcity will be the rule with all water users, both human and environmental, competing for what is fundamentally a finite supply. Some would argue that the sustainable management of our water supply to meet the needs of people and nature may be the greatest environmental issue facing Arizona.

During much of the 20th century, issues related to water quality were viewed outside the impending water supply crisis. What is now becoming increasingly clear is that water quality and quantity are integrally related parts of the same sustainable water management equation. Industrial, agricultural and residential and commercial development place strains on both the supply of water as well as the quality of water. Declines in water quality will further limit future supplies exacerbating an already difficult management situation.
While policies and regulations have evolved to manage both water quantity and quality, these laws and policies have evolved along separate tracks. Quality issues driven by federal laws (principally the Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act) and subsequent state level implementation of these laws while water quantity management has developed as an outgrowth of individual state policies and laws, with significant underlying regional variations (i.e. prior appropriation vs. riparian surface water right systems), that date from the time of statehood. Water quantity management is further complicated in that groundwater and surface water systems may be managed under distinct legal doctrines, and in the West particularly, the federal government plays a significant role through the federal reserved water rights system and federal reclamation projects.

The question remains, despite the separate developments of policies and programs, why are water quality considerations not better integrated into water quantity considerations when discussing future water supply? A case in point is suggested by the recent 85th Arizona Town Hall hosted in October 2004: “Arizona’s Water Future: Challenges and Opportunities.” The plenary summary states that “Arizonans expect a safe and reliable water supply to support Arizona’s diverse and increasing population, sustain our varied economic interests and preserve our wonderful quality of life now and for future generations” and that “Through statewide leadership and local control, Arizona must address regional concerns while improving water quantity and quality.” While these statements are straightforward enough and conceptually in keeping with the point that quantity and quality are different sides of same sustainable water management coin, the session summary indicates that the discussion was largely about water quantity management. Despite the inclusion of “safe” into the goal of the convening, the summary report focused principally on meeting future water supply needs through supply side management. The Arizona Department of Water Resources was the singular agency to which the report was addressed and the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality was mentioned in passing as simply an agency with which greater coordination was needed.

One school of thought that has been articulated to me by a knowledgeable water expert is that traditionally water resource managers have viewed water quality as largely an issue of technology, its application and by extension largely a financial decision. At the point where the TCE-contaminated groundwater underlying Phoenix is needed to sustain growth, we will pay the full costs of cleanup and use it for our drinking water. One might argue given this perspective that water quality management choices within a water supply management context are simply engineering solutions driven by economic considerations independent of a larger, sustainable water resource management framework.

Looking forward, is it wise to view water quality considerations in this way? I would argue that when we consider the dismal state of our nation’s infrastructure, the cost of simply maintaining what we have, let alone investment in new infrastructure, is going to require some hard choices regarding future investment. Climate change is no longer speculative, it is occurring, and regardless of how well we respond to mitigate our burgeoning carbon footprint, lag times in the global system suggest that adaptations are necessary now. The costs to adjust will be high, making investment decisions even more challenging.

It is time we bring water quality into the water management discussions in a more substantive manner. Here in Arizona there is certainly coordination occurring at least among the principal agencies, ADWR and ADEQ at some programmatic levels (i.e. ADWR recharge program) and informally among other programs (e.g. Adequate and Assured Water). Can there be more coordination and planning:? My guess is yes. In addition, emerging watershed groups and partnerships offer significant opportunities for more holistic thinking, yet most are in an early, nascent stage of development, and the amount of state level support is limited in both technical and financial resources.

Arizona’s Groundwater Management Act of 1980 and the Aquifer Protection Program established in the mid-1980s are in many respects nationwide groundwater management models that speak to the both quantity and quality. Building on these noteworthy approaches, and given the increasing emphasis on water management in the face of rapid growth and climate change, the time may be right for a larger conversation on how we can become a leader in integrating water quality and water quantity decisions into our water management planning to put Arizona on a more secure path to a sustainable future.