Number: 2000-14
WHEREAS, the Alabama, Florida and Georgia interstate water allocation process of the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint (ACF) and the Alabama-Coosa-Tallapoosa (ACT) is one of the first such agreements in the eastern United States and could set precedents for similar agreements; and
WHEREAS, Apalachicola Bay is at the mouth of the ACF basin and is one of America’s healthiest estuaries; and
WHEREAS, the public has entrusted the states, as well as the Federal government with the management of resources in the ACF/ACT Basins; and
WHEREAS, maintenance of the ecological characteristic of the rivers in these basins is in large part dependent on flows that are similar to natural flows in terms of season, frequency, duration, magnitude, and rate-of-change; and
WHEREAS, the highly complex nature of the basins, coupled with the uncertainties created by geographic trends (e.g., demographic and climatic change), necessitates an adaptive, iterative approach to basin management that will enable managers to react to changes in the system; and
WHEREAS, the pressure on the water resources of the ACF/ACT Basins will increase in the future due to growing demand for municipal, industrial, and agricultural water supplies; and
WHEREAS, concentrations of growth in adjacent basins create a need for supplementary water supplies and/or cause pressure to move water between them; and
WHEREAS, the ability to gauge and understand the physical impacts of the allocation formula on the basins is critical for ensuring long-term viability of the resources in the ACF/ACT;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the National Wildlife Federation in its Annual Meeting assembled March 16-18, 2000, in Seattle, Washington, urges the respective state and federal agencies to institute water conservation and water management policies that maintain the long-term biological health of the Apalachicola, Chattahoochee-Flint (ACF) River Basin, including Apalachicola Bay, and the Alabama-Coosa-Tallapoosa (ACT) River Basin, specifically employing adaptive management to further assess the effectiveness of reservoir operations and the feasibility of additional water allocation for various human demands and natural resource requirements in the Basins; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that opportunities for maximizing the conservation of existing water resources be fully explored before developing additional sources that have potentially harmful consequences for the natural environment (e.g., dam/reservoir projects, increased water withdrawals, interbasin transfers); and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that comprehensive, realistic and enforceable water conservation measures be made an integral component of each state’s respective management responsibilities in the ACF/ACT Basins; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the success to which each state institutes aggressive water conservation measures be a criterion on which allocation of additional water supplies is conditioned; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that no allocation formula that requires or encourages the interbasin transfer of water be adopted for the ACF/ACT Basins, so as to discourage development that exceeds the carrying capacity of the regional resource base such as urban development in rural and agricultural land; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that provisions for basin-wide monitoring plans for water quantity and quality, and for the status of biotic assemblages be explicitly described in any allocation formula for the basins, and require a dedicated source of funding from both Federal and state entities; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that any decision affecting the status of resources in the ACF/ACT Basins, whether in the context of the allocation negotiations and/or the implementation of any subsequent agreement between the states and the Federal government, must provide for meaningful public participation as part of the decision making process.