Month: December 2019

US Water Alliance Releases National Report on Water Access Challenges

Shishmaref, Alaska

The US Water Alliance, DigDeep and Michigan State University, recently released “Closing the Water Access Gap in the United States: A National Action Plan“, which is claimed to be the most comprehensive report to date on water access challenges in the United States.

According to the USWA, “[w]ith on the ground research and data analysis, we discovered that over two million Americans live without access to running water, indoor plumbing, and safe sanitation.” The report focuses on interviews with local residents addressing on challenges related to failing infrastructure, contamination, and high financial costs for limited amounts of water just to live in certain rural and tribal communities.

The USWA also says that the Federal government’s collection of water infrastructure data which has been cut back in recent years, has never accurately measured the lack of such infrastructure for many communities. The report states that “communities of color are more likely to lack water access than white communities, and that the disparity is particularly extreme for Native Americans” which is more likely to have trouble accessing water than any other group.

According to the report, the number of Native American households that don’t have plumbing is almost 20 times that of white households. Claiming to have conducted the most extensive research on water infrastructure in the United States, including the commissioning of experts from around the country, the authors of the report found was that race was the major factor in water and sanitation access.

Early in the 20th century, when water-borne illnesses was a leading cause of death in the U.S., the federal government modernized water and sanitation infrastructure which almost eradicated those diseases. Even in the days of ambitious government programs to improve water related sanitation, however, some tribal communities located in remote areas were passed over because it was too expensive to provide access to potable and other water. Now, with federal funding for water infrastructure fraction of what it once was, federal health agencies estimate that it would cost hundreds of millions of dollars to provide basic water and sanitation access to places like on the Navajo Nation in Southern New Mexico.

National Integrated Drought Information System Developing Pacific Northwest DEWS Priorities, Outcomes and Activities for 2020-202

As part of the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) and as a means of predicting the extent and impact of drought due to the effects of climate change, the The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) is in the process of  improving early warning of drought the Pacific Northwest Drought early warning System (PNW DEWS). The NIDISprogram was authorized by Congress in 2006 (Public Law 109-430) with an interagency mandate to coordinate and integrate drought research, building upon existing federal, tribal, state, and local partnerships in support of creating a national drought early warning information system.

A Drought Early Warning System (DEWS) utilizes new and existing partner networks to optimize the expertise of a wide range of federal, tribal, state, local and academic partners in order to make climate and drought science readily available, easily understandable and usable for decision makers; and to improve the capacity of stakeholders to better monitor, forecast, plan for and cope with the impacts of drought.

NIDIS’ goal is to improve the nation’s capacity to manage drought-related risks by providing the best available information and tools to assess the potential impacts of drought, and to prepare for and mitigate the effects of drought. Toward that end, NIDIS seeks to create a DEWS for the nation.

NIDIS’ approach to building the foundation of a national DEWS has been to develop regional DEWS, where networks of researchers, academics, resource managers, policymakers and other stakeholders share information and actions that help communities cope with drought. Learn more about NIDIS regional DEWS programs here.

About the PNW DEWS Strategic Action Plan:

On October 8, 2019 partners of the Pacific Northwest Drought Early Warning System (PNW DEWS) gathered in Portland, OR to reflect on current issues, past successes, and additional needs for the DEWS region and prioritized activities for the PNW DEWS to focus on in 2020-2022. This information will become part of the next iteration of the Regional Strategic action Plan for the PNW DEWS. The outcomes and activities are organized around the five components of drought early warning 1) Predictions and Forecasting, 2) Observations and Monitoring, 3) Communications and Outreach, 4) Planning and Preparedness, and 5) Interdisciplinary Research and Applications and are meant to address gaps and needs to strengthen drought early warning and preparedness in the PNW region.

According to NIDIS, “These priorities, outcomes and activities…would be a focus of the Pacific Northwest DEWS network over the next three years with the end goal of improving drought early warning and preparedness across the region.” Because the PNW DEWS concludes that “drought and its impacts are slow moving, multifaceted and complex,” stakeholders can combine efforts to take on this challenge using the following DEW strategies to predict stream flow and water supplies impacted by future droughts and high temperatures in the Pacific Northwest:

  • Improve predicting and forecasting around drought at the national and regional levels through EPIC, the Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act, and seasonal-to-subseasonal (S2S) forecasting;
  • Better observations and monitoring going into, during and coming out of drought including a better understanding of the most relevant metrics temporally, spatially, and by sector for the region as well as improving drought impact reporting and analysis;
  • Improve communication and public outreach regarding drought information within and outside the region;
  • Provide drought information early enough to give communities (e.g., municipalities, farmers, ranchers, tribes), sufficient time to plan for and minimize economic damage to products and services;
  • Improve communication channels between academia, researchers and end users ensure and decision makers regarding early warning, planning and response.

The New Normal of Drought Priorities, Outcomes and Activities for Alaska

 

Last summer the temperate rain forests communities of southern Alaska were shocked to find themselves experiencing a severe drought. It had been severe since last fall, a shocking turn of events for our beautiful affecting the forest canopy, salmon streams, water reservoirs, and hydropower plants in the form of winter rain, dwindling snow pack, spiking algal toxins, stranded birds, and salmon dying before they could spawn. Although the scale of drought was unprecedented, it was not the first time and it won’t be the last. Mike Brubaker, Editor of the Leo Network newsletter says that “there have been water shortages before in southern Alaska, and drought is becoming more common around the circumpolar north….As we reflect on our own water security, we may also consider the risks of relying too heavily upon past conventions when gauging the likelihood that events repeat in the future.”

Similarly, last October, the Leo Network featured a presentation by Celine van Breukelen, Senior Service Hydrologist with the National Weather Service which focused on how rising temperatures and low snow pack in Alaska, are reeking havoc on the delivery of water when both people and fish and wildlife need it most. The state’s air temperatures, for example, which are rising twice as fast as other places in the country resulted in record breaking average air temperature in 2016 and the month of July 2019.

Also, in the summer and fall of 2019, while, the Southern part of the state experienced  very active fire weather season. The Swan Lake fire on Kenai Peninsula which burned most of the summer for example, damaged the line that connects the Bradley Lake hydroelectric plant to the Raibelt cutting off it’s power supply for months.  This forced Bradly to scale back operations and will likely raise consumers monthly bills 3% to 5 or increase this winter when people use more electricity.

Similarly, while water shortages for communities and rivers and streams drying up due to drought,  the Central region of the state had so much rain that the Army Corps of Engineers had to implement Flood Control measures for the Moose Creek Dam, Chena River Lakes Flood Control Project near Fairbanks and the Army Corp of Engineers is planning to make modifications to the project in order to accommodate ever rising flood waters on the river.

Also, Alaska’s glaciers are disappearing at record levels and since 2002, 60 billion tons of Alaska glacier ice has melted, pouring waters into rising ocean waters. During the second half of September 2019, for example, due to above normal air temperatures resulting in increased glacier melt and the return of rain, the average flows of a little over 100 cubic feet per second (cfs), from the Bradly River into Bradly River dam, on Kachemak Bay located in Southcentral Alaska suddenly shot off the charts to over 500 cfs by the end of the month.

Alaska’s water year typically starts in the Fall when it’s time to start recording snowpack accumulation. The state’s snowpack, however, which has been reduced by 50% in the southern regions, compared to a decade ago, currently develops about a week later in the fall and melts almost two weeks earlier in the spring.

These sudden changes are impacting fresh water ecosystems as well. In 2019 about 22 rivers and streams throughout Alaska reported record water temperatures, as compared to 2018 in which there was just 7. As a result, in June and July 2019, thousands of salmon died as they migrated to spawning grounds in Western Alaska, because the water exceeded lethal limits for the fish. One such river, the Tubulik near Elim and Koyuk had record temperatures at the Vulcan Creek gage site 30 miles from the mouth.

Murkowski Meets with Villages on Graphite One Mine

Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, recently, visited the Alaska Native village of Brevig Mission on the Seward Peninsula to, in part, to talk about the Villages concerns regrading the proposed Graphite One mine located at the base of the Kigluak Mountain range 15 miles east of the village.

Murkowski along with the Trump administration, is an ardent supporter of developing, so-called, “critical minerals” including graphite designated in 2018 as essential to the U.S. economy and national security.

At the same time, subsistence resources upon which Alaska Natives, and who greatly assisted Murkowski’s re-election during her write-in campaign in 2010 when tea party candidate Joe Miller threatened to end her political career, be besting her in the Republican primary and, are often, severely impacted by mining and other development projects the senator is proposing.

So, during a packed community meeting at Brevig Mission, she explained that “While you need the resource, you have to avoid environmental degradation,” Graphite is a highly desired commodity that the world is interested in.

As a result, stating that “You are the ones who have the most knowledge on the ground right now,” Murkowski, encourged residents of both Brevig Mission and nearby Teller to continue to speak out about  their concerns known as the project moves forward.

She offered similar remarks later in the day while addressing the residents of Teller, another Native village that lies 7 miles down the coast and is closer to the proposed mine site, where locals also brought up the project.

While Murkowski is traditionally a powerful advocate for development of oil and gas and timber, there are indications that she is weakening her stance on mining. Regarding the controversial Pebble mine for example, due to potentially significant impacts on the sockeye salmon population in nearby Bristol Bay, Murkowski has highlighted the need for a thorough assessment of environmental impacts of the Mine,

While she maintains that Graphite One is different because it would have a lot smaller footprint, Murkowski says “You can’t treat the people that live there as just people that get in the way of your project,” Murkowski said. “This is their land. And you have to gain that permission and that social license to operate. So Graphite One is going to have some work to do.”