As forward-thinking cities become increasingly adept at capturing and reusing wastewater, stormwater and greywater, essential river systems may be at risk. Ensuring One Water Delivers for Healthy Waterways recommends that deliberate, community-driven planning is urgently needed to avoid depriving Texas’ waterways of necessary water.
With this report, the National Wildlife Federation, the Meadows Center for Water and the Environment at Texas State University and the Pacific Institute provide water planners much-needed practical guidance on how to build a community-driven water vision that takes into account the needs of local residents as well as downstream cities and ecosystems that depend on a healthy flow of water. The report provides water planners with a framework that communities can use to plan for future water supply resilience while also ensuring that healthy waterways are an outcome as well.
The framework is tailored specifically to cities that have adopted or are considering the “One Water” approach to water management. One Water emphasizes an integrated planning and implementation approach that acknowledges the finite nature of water resources and prioritizes long-term resilience and reliability. Planners who wish to fully realize One Water’s commitment to sustainable communities and ecosystems need to explicitly address threats to environmental flows.
There are implicit environmental benefits to using One Water strategies because it can often lead to less need for surface water or groundwater supplies, potentially reducing draw from rivers or aquifers. But what if we explicitly include healthy waterways as a planning outcome? By doing this we can have lasting positive impacts.
The Critical Role of Healthy Waterways
Many of our communities are built along creeks, streams, rivers, springs, bays and estuaries. Within and around these resources are all kinds of ecological bounty. In addition to sustaining the species and ecosystems that make our communities unique, these waters also provide vital services to human populations and have benefits far beyond what we take from them. Maintaining water quality and ensuring that the water needed for fish, wildlife, riparian and upland habitats is a critical piece of a balanced planning effort for a community or region. A water supply plan that incorporates healthy waterway protection is a stronger plan overall.
The quantity and quality of our nation’s waters have been dramatically affected by human activities. In a 2013 national assessment, the U.S. Geological Survey noted that flow magnitude has been altered, either through an increase in high flows or a decrease in low flows (or a combination of both), in 86% of streams assessed across the country. Changes in flows, including magnitude of flow, seasonality of flow, and rate of change in flow magnitude, can have implications for the ecological health of streams and riparian areas adjacent to streams. Flow changes also can increase flood risk and diminish both recreational and amenity values of urban streams.
With increasing focus on water availability and supply, cities are prioritizing innovative technologies to create “new” water by capturing and reusing water that historically would have had a single pass through a city’s system before reentering the waterway. While One Water projects such as runoff-capture and reuse practices have the promise of decreasing other water diversions, particularly if coupled with more efficient water use, achieving the One Water goal of maintaining healthy waterways is only possible with a comprehensive consideration of the impact of water management strategies on the overall watershed.
Planning for Healthy Waterways
Good planning helps avoid unintended consequences and future uncertainty. Planning now to put in place practices that support: 1) good water quality, 2) fish and wildlife habitat and 3) recreational opportunities, will benefit your community greatly now and into the future and decrease the likelihood that water management decisions will have to be revisited due to any of these factors.
Ensuring One Water Delivers for Healthy Waterways proposes a planning framework that will help water planners incorporate the continued health of local and regional waterways into planning processes and outcomes. The framework draws on the Pacific Institute’s recent work on multi-benefits planning, adapting it to the specific needs and dynamics of urban water management.
We invite you to explore this planning framework and apply it to your water planning efforts. Reach out to our team and we will be happy to walk you through it.
Water planning is complicated and there are many factors to consider throughout the process; however, the effort is worth it. This process can bring communities together in service of a shared vision. Our communities and natural resources stand to benefit greatly
Advancing this work nationally will require developing a community of practice built on successful implementation in myriad settings and at multiple scales. With climate and population growth putting increased pressure on water supplies, we can no longer afford to address urban water supply in a vacuum, separate from water quality, healthy rivers and springs, biodiversity and other features of a sound environment. They are all connected, and One Water gives us a playbook to address these issues collectively.
Jennifer Walker is Deputy Director of the Texas Coast and Water Program at National Wildlife Federation. Ensuring One Water Delivers for Healthy Waterways was made possible through the generous support of the Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation.