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<br />Comments to SWSJ, November 3, 2003, by John Wiener <br /> <br />12 <br /> <br />of direct sales 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 facilities for water management seems to be this: with <br />important changes in agriculture, what may be best for maintaining vitality as well as viability <br />could well be different from what is best for ever-growing munjcipal 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 anarysis, and it <br />is important that this be conducted with more detail than simply 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 reratively 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 exampre). The <br />public interest in locat creeks and canals, 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 />facilities are usuany disregarded, along with the environmental benefits of un-sold wetlands <br />services~ The environmental services of wetlands and rjparian habitats are not phargeable to <br />anyone, so the next best measure sometimes used is cost of getting such services by a plant or <br />facility, which often provides some numbers for sewage treatment and filtration, but does not <br />capture the non-market benefits of avoiding problems from hitting environmental limits 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 crear 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 qualities. <br /> <br />A little background on the Itclimate impacts" literature <br /> <br />For background information for the participants interested in the scientific publications on climate <br />variability and change, perhaps the following brief notes and citations will be useful~ Whether one <br />agrees with these findings or methods of research, the controversy over global change has <br />become part of the setting of water management The controversy resulted in an unusuany <br />widely based effort to determine the credjbility of claims and methods, and to insulate the process <br />from commercial or political influences; this was the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, <br />the IPCC, which involved efforts to recruit the best possible 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 Meteorological Association. The most recent of theseJ the Third <br />Assessment Report, was published in 2001, though there were the original assessment and the <br />Second Assessment earlier; each is multi..vofumer and there were also various special or interim <br />reports on many subjects~ The IPCC 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 />libraries. <br /> <br />The US government arso undertook some studies (e9g. the U.S. Congress Office of Technology <br />Assessment issued; Preoarjna for an Uncertain Climate, 1993J for example), and undertook Irs <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 commercial specialists. Some of these <br />reports are noted below. <br /> <br />Water managers may also be interested in Herrmann, Raymond. Ed" 1992, Manaaina Water <br />Resources Durino Global Chanae: An International Conference Sponsored by the American <br />Water Resources Association; this is a massive volume~ Seven years later, the Association herd <br />another conference~ Potential Conseauences of Climate Variabilitv and Channe to Water <br />Resources of the United States, Edited by D. Briane Adamst 1999~ Both are published by <br />