Nebraska

Solving the water problems of the 21st century and beyond will require new approaches and partnerships, but it also might help to look farther back than the last century for some perspective on the challenge, speakers said at a University of Nebraska-Lincoln water conference.

"I can give a real bad water crisis talk or I can give an optimistic water talk," water expert Peter Gleick told participants April 7 at the opening day of the second annual Water Law, Policy and Science Conference, which had the theme "Water Management and Policy in the Great Plains: Implications of Drought and Climate Change."

Gleick, co-founder and president of the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment and Security, stayed mostly positive. "We're at the start of a new era. There are substantial risks facing us, but there are substantial opportunities, too."

Gleick listed several issues central to water-management policies of the future. Most importantly, he said, society must commit to meeting humans' basic water needs as a top priority. He said 1.1 billion people lack consistent access to drinking water. About 2.5 billion lack adequate sanitation services.

"The economic costs of meeting those needs are not negligible," Gleick conceded. "But they're far less than the economic costs of not meeting those needs."

Society also must focus on water as a supply and demand problem, not just a supply problem.

"The days when water policy meant simply deciding where to build the next dam are over," he said. More creative options include rainwater harvest, water reclamation and reuse, desalination and integrated uses of groundwater and surface water "something where I think Nebraska is a little farther ahead than other states."

Also, water policy must acknowledge that different water uses require different levels of quality. Americans flush their toilets, for example, with potable water, which is convenient, but wasteful.

Other factors that must be included in future water policies, Gleick said, include: Integration of policies on water quality and quantity; meeting basic ecosystem needs; understanding the impact of global warming on water; and development of new collaborations between key players in water management.

Another speaker at the two-day conference said scientists are using tree rings, lake-level changes, and core and lake-sediment samples to track the history of drought and climate change hundreds of years into the past.

What they're finding can help put modern drought and climate concerns into perspective, said Sherilyn Fritz, UNL geosciences professor. For example, a study of the Blue River in Colorado found that the historically low river levels of 2002 had been matched about a half-dozen times since 1400.

In Nebraska, scientists have studied the dunes and lakes of the Sandhills to track drought's history.

Research also has found that persistent, severe drought in the western United States has been fairly common over the centuries, Fritz said. Pre-20th century droughts often lasted a decade or longer.

"If we're going to plan for drought, we need to look at this longer term variability," Fritz said.

UNL Chancellor Harvey Perlman said the conference, which ended April 8 at UNL's Nebraska Union, displays UNL's leadership on water research.

"The best minds will be working to solve current problems and avoid future ones," Perlman said.

The conference is sponsored by the university's Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources, School of Natural Resources, College of Law, Department of Geosciences, Water Center, Water Resources Research Initiative and School of Journalism Public Policy Center.

Date: 4/20/05