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<br />Comments to SWSI, November 3,2003, by John Wiener <br /> <br />12 <br /> <br />of direct salas to consumers, at high prices and a higher proportion of the prices paid going to the <br />producers. ) <br /> <br />The point regarding small versus large facifities for water management seems to be this: with <br />important changes in agriculture, what may be best for maintaining vitaUty as welf as viability <br />could well be different from what is best for ever-growing municipal water systems. The cost- <br />benefit issues are due for review~ and the criteria should not be dictated by cities alone. <br /> <br />The SWSI set of objectives are not explicitly economic, but they invoke economic analysis, and it <br />is important that this be conducted with more detail than simpry determining the cost of an acre- <br />foot of storage without reference to where and how it is accessed and what purposes it would <br />serve if there were wet conditions, and so on. The public interest in flat-water recreation, for <br />example, is relatively easy to measure (Parks Departments are charged with keeping track of <br />use; and the amounts spent on equipment for motor-boating are measurable, for example). The <br />public interest in locaJ creeks and cansrs, and disorganized individual recreation and amenity <br />values is only indirectly measured by real-estate valuation; sales of willow sticks are uncounted, <br />and visitor-days don't count kids on bikes. Just so, a wide range of public interests in small <br />facUities are usuaUy disregarded, along with the environmental benefits of un-sold wetlands <br />services. The environmental services of weUands and riparian habitats are not chargeable to <br />anyone, so the next best measure sometimes used is cost of getting such services by a plant or <br />tacitity, which often provides some numbers for sewage treatment and fiJtrationt but does not <br />capture the non;.market benefits of avoiding problems from hitting envjronmental Umits such as <br />the endangered species act, TMDLs on water quality (salinity may be coming as a TMDL), and so <br />forth. The benefits of staying clear of limits and thresholds are likely to be much larger in the <br />future, as the stresses on water supply and water quality change with increased municipal use <br />and changed demand for other services and quaUties~ <br /> <br />A little background on the Uclimate impacts" literature <br /> <br />For background information for the participants interested in the scientific publications on climate <br />variabUity and change, perhaps the folJowing brief notes and citations will be useful. Whether one <br />agrees with these ffndings or methods of research, the controversy over global change has <br />become part of the setting of water management. The controversy resulted in an unusually <br />widely based effort to determine the credibility of craims and methods, and to insulate the process <br />from commercial or politicar influences; this was the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, <br />the IPeC, which involved efforts to recruit the best possibre scientists to serve on committees with <br />expertise in aU relevant areas. It was formally established by the United Nations Environment <br />Programme, and the World Meteorologicar Association. The most recent of theset the Third <br />Assessment Report, was pubUshed in 2001 , though there were the original assessment, and the <br />Second Assessment earlier; each is multi"volume, and there were also various special or interjm <br />reports on many subjects. The fpee volumes are published by Cambridge; the website is: <br /><http://www.ipcc.ch/> and most of the publications are available on the internet or from university <br />Ubrarles. <br /> <br />The US government also undertook some studies (e.g. the U~S. Congress Office of TechnoJogy <br />Assessment issued, Preoarina for an Uncertain Climate, 1993, for example), and undertook ies <br />own very large group process, called the US Global Change Research Program, which included a <br />large number of agency scientists as well academic and commercia' specialists. Some of these <br />reports are noted below. <br /> <br />Water managers may also be interested in Herrmann, Raymond. Ed" 1992, Managina Water <br />Resources Durina Global Chanae: An International Conference Sponsored by the American <br />Water Resources Association; this js a massive volume. Seven years later, the Associatjon held <br />another conference, Potential Conseouences of Climate Variability and Chanae to Water <br />Resources of the United Statest Edited by D. Briane Adams, 1999~ Both are published by <br />