June 6, 2007

Restoration of Nation's Waterways Failing

CHICAGO — The country has reached an impasse in national water policy according to former Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbitt. In the spring 2007 issue of the Journal of the American Planning Association, Babbitt calls for requiring states to have a land- and water-use plan before they are eligible to receive federal money for infrastructure development.

Babbitt states that the Clean Water Act has not fulfilled its promise to restore the nation's waters. More than 60 percent of our waters remain impaired and are not what the Clean Water Act considers "fishable and swimmable." He calls the Chesapeake Bay a "disheartening" example of our failure to regulate land-use impacts on water quality.

Existing federal legislation does not address pollutants generated from land uses such as farmland pesticide and fertilizer runoff, and contaminated storm waters from city streets. States are reluctant to regulate land-use practices that cause water pollution. At the federal level, weakened enforcement of existing legislation and reduced funding for water infrastructure also contributes to the problem.

Babbitt believes the country needs to reexamine federal and state cooperation on addressing water concerns. Federal resources must be made available to help states address water pollution and preservation issues. And states need to be motivated to take responsibility for land and water planning.

The spring Journal of the American Planning Association issue focuses on the connection between planning and water resources. Guest editors G. William Page, AICP, and Lawrence Susskind, AICP, identify five important water themes that must be addressed quickly to ensure communities maintain clean and adequate water supplies. The five themes are:

• Sharing and managing scare water supplies
• Assigning responsibility for managing water resources
• Setting and enforcing water quality and quantity standards
• Addressing the cumulative impacts of local water planning decisions
• Improving water planning and evaluation techniques

The guest editors are environmental planning professors at the University at Buffalo, the State University of New York, and MIT.

JAPA and its predecessor publications date back to 1915. It has been published under the current name since 1979, when the American Institute of Planners and American Society of Planning Officials were consolidated as the American Planning Association. In 2003, JAPA was recognized with a bronze award for general excellence from the Society of National Association Publications.

Contact

Roberta Rewers, APA Public Affairs, 312-786-6395; rrewers@planning.org