7913 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

The Evolution of a Regional Planning Organization The goal of the Association is to maintain a cooperative forum for member states and to assist states in the comprehensive, coordinated management of their water resources. The decision-making process is based on consensus, which ensures that policies and positions reflect the membership's diverse concerns. 28 Muriel Morrisette Staff Writer Freshwater Society When the federally supported river basin commissions were abolished by executive mandate after nine years, one of them chose to remain. It continues today as a balanced, influential "partnership among states, " an example of how an organization with a regional perspective can promote wise management of a river basin. The Mississippi River is a much-used resource, and generations of Americans have depended on it for industry, transportation, power generation, recreation and - for some - drinking water. The Mississippi is divided into two systems, the Upper and Lower Mississippi. The Upper Mississippi covers a 189,000 square- mile watershed that stretches nearly 800 miles from the mouth of the Ohio River in southern Illinois almost to the Canadian border in Minnesota. Efforts were made in the past to conserve water resources as the Upper Mississippi was being developed for use by commerce, industry and power generators. These efforts created an array of managers and policymakers at federal, state and local levels - a complex cast of characters which brought to light concerns about who was doing what and, ultimately, who was really "in charge of" the Mississippi River. An Organization Is Established and Abolished . . . By 1972 it had become clear that something had to be done, and the Upper Mississippi Basin Commission, a regional water planning organization, was created under federal funding by the Water Resources Planning Act of 1965. Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois and Missouri were all represented on the Commission, as were all federal agencies with water resources responsibility. This federally supported effort to coordinate concerns about the Upper Mississippi through a regional perspective lasted nine years. In 1981, the Upper Mississippi Basin Commission was abolished as part of a reassessment of the appropriate roles for federal, state and local governments in water resources management. . . . and Established Again The governors of the five Commission member states, recognizing the ongoing necessity for coordinated resource planning, signed a resolution recommending continuation of an interstate organization. The Commission was abolished, but it was replaced by the Upper Mississippi River Basin Association, formed in December 1981. The governors of each of the five member states appointed a delegate to the Association. In 1982 the Association extended advisory membership to appropriate federal departments, including Agriculture, Army, Interior, Transportation and the U.S, Environmental Protection Agency. The goal of the Association is to maintain a cooperative forum for member states and to assist states in the comprehensive, coordinated management of their water resources. Specifically, the Association strives to 1 ) address regional conflicts in the basin; 2)serve as a regional coordinating body for federal, state, interstate and local management plans; and 3) unify state positions on water and related land issues.