7795

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 7795
• Author: Natural Resources Law Center.
• Title: America's Waters
• USFW Year: 1992.
• USFW - Doc Type: A New Era of Sustainability, Report of the Long's Peak Working Group on National Water Policy, Objectives and Initiatives.
• Copyright Material: NO

RECOMMENDATIONS

Our recommendations include proposals for the first
. 100 days o( the Cinton Administnlion and for the next four
ycan. Some recommendations are general in nature; others
arise more direaJy from the four national water policy
objectives we have described. AU call for refonn in the way
existing institutions govern Wiler.

FIRST 100 DAYS

(1) The President should seek congressional approval of the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a cabinet-
level agency.

Water Use Efficiencv and Conservation

(2) The President should endorse DWtet-based transfers of
federally developed water, with adequate protection of
the envirorunent and of the emnomic vitality of commu-
nities from which the water is transferred.

(3) The Secretary of the Interior should assign a high
priority to im~lementing Title 34 of Pub.L. 102-575.
relating to lh\: Central Valley Project, to effect the
specific purposes of the Act and to set an example for
managing other projects.

(4) The AdministralOr of the Environmental Protection
Agency (EP A) should allow me of state wastewater
treatment revolving funds for loans to utilities to assist in
financing WalCr' conservation efforts, especially where
long nm costs can be reduced. Measures include meter
installation. leak detection and repair. and retrofitting
homes with water-efficiency fixtures in low-income
neighborhoods, public housing, and depressed rural
areas.

(5) The President should:

<a) Direct the EPA, the Anny Corps of Engineers, and
the Department of the Interior, in consultation with
interested panies and with reference to the Califor-
nia Urban W Iter Conservation Agreement. to
identify best management practices for uIban water
conservation, to be used as baseline measures for
evaluating applications (or federal pennits (Sections
402 and 404 oflhe Clean Water Act) and federal
agency Environmental Impact Statements;

(b) Direct the EPA, the Anny Corps of Engineers. and
the Depanment of the Interior to identify integrated
resource planning procedures to be used by appli-
cants for federal financial assistance for water
supply or wastewater treattDent; and

(c) Amend and strengthen the existing Executive Order
on Energy Efficiency in Federal Facilities to assure
thal federal depanments and agencies take prompt

8

action to implement the requiremaus of the National
Energy Policy Act relating to water II1d energy
conservllion in federal1y-owned buildinp.

(6) The Secretary of the Interior should suspend all work on
the proposed uansfer of the Central.VIlley Project .
(CVP) to the Swe of California WUil the Secretary, ID
consultation with the Office of Management and Budget
and other expens and interests, promulgates rules that
require recoupment of CVP federal constIUCtion. opera-
tion, and maintenance subsidies and ensure that all
environmental obligations are met by any such CVP
transfer. This rulemaking should be used in develop-
ment of appropriate rules to gcm:m otber uansfers of
Depanmenta1 assets to non-federal emities.

(7) The Secretary of the Interior should begin aggressive
implemenwion of Title XVI o( PubL. 102-575 (Recla-
mation, WasteWaler and OroundWaler Studies), and
should seek financial commianentS from swe and local
governments as appropriare.

(8) The Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture should
direct that significant federal1and uansfers (i.e. ex-
changes, land disposals, sales) intended for residential
and commercial development shall DOt be completed
absent consultation with the re1evam state and local
governments concerning the adequacy of long-term
water supplies to sustain the proposed developmenL

Ecolo2icallnte~ty and Restoration

(9) The President should armounce his strong suppon for
reauthorization of the Endangered Species Act with
provisions to promote ecosystem protection actions.

(a) The Secretary of the Interior should act expedi-
tiously on listing d1reatened and endangered species
and pursue timely development and implementation
of ecosystem-based recovery plans. with panicular
emphasis on the Columbia and Snake River salmon.

(b) The Secretary of the Interior should develop a
program for identifying ecosystelDS in distress on the
public lands before it becomes ne~ssary to list
species as threatened or endangered.

(10) In suppon of the 25th armiversary of1he National Wild
and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968, the President should
announce his suppon for a substantial expansion of the
National Wild and Scenic River system during the
next four years.

(11) The President should issue an Executive Order estab-
lishing a policy of watershed-level aquatic ecosystem
protection and restoration. The order should direct the
EP A and the Deparunents of the Interior, Agriculture.
Defem:, and Commerce (with oversight from the
Council on Environmental Quality) to: review, revise,
and coordinate 1heir activities and operations to use all