Getting to Action for the Mississippi River
The
Water Science and Technology Board,
WSTB, announcement in July blurted out the
Mighty Mississippi was suffocating and
inertia was not an option. They're right.
But, if inertia isn't an option, what does
action look like?
The WSTB is part of the
National Research Council and they
just completed work on recommendations for
long-term solutions to conditions in the
Mississippi River Basin and the northern
Gulf of Mexico. Their study's findings
aren't altogether new but their suggestions
for action are. The WSTB suggests a Nutrient
Control Implementation Initiative. They
further suggest a new Mississippi River
Basin Water Quality Center. They want to see
nonsource point pollution curtailed by
focusing attention on the areas creating the
greatest damage. That makes sense until you
realize the targets are agricultural land,
forests, urban lawns, streets, and paved
areas. That's just about everything along
the River's edge, except wilderness.
To further complicate things, the WSTB also
observed the problem includes "numerous
watersheds and tributaries involving a huge
land mass spanning 31 states, covering
approximately 41 percent of the coterminous
land in the U.S. with multiple governmental
authorities responsible for managing the
Mississippi River Basin…."
So where would the new initiative start?
And, what would the new center address in an
effort to target its resources?
With this degree of complexity and this
number of targets to hit, creating an
initiative and a center is a little like
addressing international trouble spots with
military solutions alone. Sound familiar? A
recent book,
The Age of the Unthinkable by Joshua Ramo,
posits that complex situations take more
than military - or scientific - solutions
alone. They take multilayered and
participative approaches. The effort for a
cleaner Mississippi River Basin can be
promoted by identifying the problem and
suggesting regulation and monitoring. But
actualizing the solution requires an engaged
constituency to work and support the
suggested approaches, especially in these
harsh economic times.
Between launching an initiative and a center
with an end goal of improved water quality
for the Mississippi and the Gulf, there's a
lot of congressional, regulatory and budget
action that needs to take place. In these
cases especially, action requires informed
and organized public support if it's to see
the light of day. The report cites the
Clean Water Act as having the
authority for such initiatives, but even
within the CWA there will be groups vying
for the resources. So the question still
remains, "What does action look like?"
This is why we've proposed
A National Dialogue for the Future of
America's Waterway. Designed and
managed in partnership with
AmericaSpeaks, this process allows
for public priority setting, planning and
action steps for policy outcomes. Such a
Dialogue would allow Mississippi River
residents to join with specific interest
groups to build the public support needed to
turn policy suggestions into action on
behalf of the Mississippi River.
Watch America's Waterway for News from
National Conference
The Visions of a Sustainable Mississippi
River Conference, being held Aug. 10 -13 in
Colllinsville, Ill., promises to attract
participants with diverse interests in our
nation's largest river. Co-hosted by the National
Great Rivers Research and Education Center
and
The Nature Conservancy, it's a start
for looking at all aspects of the
Mississippi River. I will share the
conference's highlights daily via America's
Waterway's blog. Of great interest will be
the policy forum scheduled for Aug. 13. Stay
tuned at
www.americaswaterway.org for daily
updates and more.
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Hydrokinetic technology developers - like
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river currents. |
