Watershed Approach + Water Rights + Justice2

Ben Grumbles: Diana, that is a great question, and the more we all talk and learn about the watershed approach, the more we realize it can be a messy endeavor to try to bring together the different players within the larger watershed. There are pros and cons, and I'll touch on those based on my experiences, not just in California but throughout the United States, and also in places as different as Nicaragua, and in Asia.

Advantages of the watershed approach: one of the most obvious is, it truly is an effort towards a more holistic, inclusive way to solve problems. Every one of us knows that when you just focus in on one part of the situation, or one part of the problem, you lose sight of the bigger picture, and you also lose the opportunity to solve problems that might be occurring upstream that lead to big problems downstream.

Movie 1.1 The Surfrider Foundation Explains Watersheds 101

So a clear, obvious advantage of a watershed approach is bringing in the key players, the polluters, those who also have tools available to be problemsolvers. It also reinforces, in terms of the environment, it reinforces the interconnectedness of it all, the web of life, the fact that water is fluid, it travels between the air and the land. If you want   cleaner, safer, healthier water, don't just look at the water column, or the water body itself. You need to look at what's contributing to the land, and to the water pollution.4

Someone once said that the history of the land is written on the water. And I truly believe that, and so an advantage of a watershed approach is looking at what is happening on the land, and also looking at what is going up in the air.

And the other advantage is, is a watershed approach doesn't just look at the actions above ground, but it's striving to look at actions below ground: the groundwater, the aquifers, and the connection between groundwater and the springs and the fact that, in the U.S., so much of our nation's rivers' water is actually coming from groundwater.

The disadvantages of a watershed approach: In a perfect, pure, scientific perspective, there really are not disadvantages; it just is hard to do. But environmental law and policy is about what's practical, and how to make meaningful progress. And so, the cons or the challenges of a watershed approach are many.

One of them is the... just the undeniable fact that you have different polluters who are very far removed, sometimes, from the immediate impact or injury; they're far upstream. And between them are many miles, and many layers of government or bureaucracy. They're out of sight, out of mind. Bringing them into the picture can be very difficult, and, understandably, they can feel that it's not fair, sometimes.

And they can challenge the science... being able to trace their connection to a problem within a watershed, if they're on the edges of the watershed, or where they're not directly connected, you know, they're not necessarily so connected that they're the ones discharging the toxic pollution from the sewer pipe or the industrial outlet.

Another problem is governance. And certainly, in the United States, we often see that there are real problems in dealing holistically and from a watershed perspective, because our governments - our local governments, our state and regional governments, and definitely our federal government - is divided up into segments that aren't equipped to deal with a holistic approach. And so, the watershed challenge is: trying to get the transportation agency and the environmental agency and the water quantity agency (which is often different from the agency that's dealing with water quality) and the air pollution agency... trying to get together and work off the same page is a real big challenge, so --

Deepika Shrestha: So --

Ben Grumbles: And that's one of the greatest... is the fragmented and difficult, the piecemeal approaches in the governance that's involved in the watershed.

Deepika Shrestha:5 So it includes a wide range of stakeholders' involvement.

Ben Grumbles: And the key to any successful watershed approach, whether you're in an urbanized area or a yet-to-be-developed rural area, is to have the right organizations, agencies, people, stakeholders involved in the discussion, and that is easier said than done.

Deepika Shrestha: Exactly.

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