The Free Market, Environmental Stewardship, and Rule of Law

1. The Free Market, Environmental Stewardship, and Rule of Law Lecture 1 of 3: Background Facts on Water as a Resource

2. Curriculum Module Lectures • Background on water as a resource • Policy Choices and case studies of rainwater harvesting and comprehensive river basin management • Issues of private and public choices on water resources

3. The idea of a “resource” • anything in the natural environment that may be useful to human beings is a resource • The elements of a resource are: God’s creation, earth materials, human need, the human mind, and human social, economic, & cultural systems • Resources are a factor of production in our economic models, along with labor, capital, and technology

4. Resource typology • Proved reserves of resources- quantities extracted profitably from known deposits • Renewable vs non-renewable • Renewable can be regenerated as fast or faster than they are exploited by people (but renewable resources can still be depleted) • Nonrenewable are generated in nature so slowly that they exist in finite amounts to humans (but many can be re-used) • Fleeting resources-are mobile and often cannot be limited to certain geographic boundaries (fish, air, water)

5. Water as a Resource: Inventory • 70% of earth is water covered, but 97.5% is salt water; 70% of remaining fresh water is tied up in ice • Water use- 80% of fresh water consumption is for agriculture • Heavy use for industry too (it takes 65,000 gals. of water to produce one automobile) • 1.1 billion people do not have access to safe fresh water resources

6. Water Is a Multiuse Resource • Drinking water • Agriculture • Hydropower • Food • Habitat • Climate • Industry • Recreation

7. The Hydrologic Cycle: water on earth is finite but re-useable, recyclable

8. Policy on water resource use • Private property choices are made about water use with market principles • Public choices are made by the government on behalf of citizens collectively • Policy and laws on water use in the United States occurs at a variety of geographic scales from local to federal • The U.S. has also signed some international policy statements/conventions on water resources

9. Examples of Federal Water Acts in United States • 1969 National Environmental Policy Act • 1977 Clean Water Act • Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection & Restoration Act • North American Wetlands Conservation Act

10. Examples of Regulations on Water Use at the U.S. Federal Level • 2008 Compensatory Mitigation Rule for authorized impacts to wetlands, streams, and other waters of the U.S. under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act. • EPA authority to restrict or prohibit use of an area for discharge or dredging • U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permitting process • Determination of Total Maximum Daily Load of pollutants allowed in a water body

11. E.P.A. Oversight of rivers and streams, watersheds • EPA conducts a National Aquatic Resource Survey (coastal, lakes, rivers & streams, wetlands) • EPA issues National Water Quality Inventory Reports • EPA monitors and assesses water quality • Rivers & Streams | Rivers & Streams | US EPA

12. Public Policy Is Also Determined at the State Level or Multistate Level • Colorado bills on rainwater harvesting • Delaware River Basin Commission

13. What Is the Role for Private Decisions About Water Resource Use?

14. Summary and Review • What are the various ways to describe water as a resource? • The U.S. government determines public policy on water through many agencies- the EPA through the Clean Water Act is a major authority • States and local jurisdictions also can regulate • Private citizens can make choices about water use • Coming up next in lecture 2: two case studies: rainwater harvesting and river basin management