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Water Lines: Creation of a water subcabinet could go a long way toward streamlining regulations that have hindered management efforts.

Dan Keppen

October 27, 2020

3 Min Read
sprinklers water alfalfa
STREAMLINING WATER RULES: Having access to water for crops and livestock in the West is a complicated process. An executive order from President Donald Trump could change all that.Pete Starman/Getty Images

In the West, anyone who has worked on water or conservation projects involving the government quickly learns what the adage “Too many cooks in the kitchen spoil the broth” really means. Over the decades, there has been a complex and uncoordinated web of federal involvement in water management, protection, use and infrastructure development. While the American West is blessed with abundant water resources, these resources must be more efficiently managed. Our water infrastructure must also be modernized and expanded.

President Donald Trump and his leadership team understand this. For much of the past three years, this administration has consistently taken actions to correct decades of uncoordinated regulatory actions that have diminished the ability of federal water infrastructure to deliver needed water to communities across the rural West.

Trump in October 2018 signed a presidential memorandum, On Promoting the Reliable Supply and Delivery of Water in the West, intended to promote reliable water access in the West. That memo kick-started a series of actions intended to reduce regulatory burdens and promote more efficient environmental reviews of Western water infrastructure projects, specifically targeting the Columbia River Basin, Klamath Basin and California’s Central Valley.

Under Trump’s directive, agencies efficiently coordinated to complete the environmental reviews of major water infrastructure projects in California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana, to meet the needs of agricultural communities and other water users within the region. The actions in the Western water presidential memorandum, which were completed in under two years, will support reliable water supplies for the American West and promote economic prosperity in the region.

Taking action

Earlier this month, Trump took yet another action demonstrating his administration’s commitment to water when he signed an executive order outlining a vision to modernize the nation’s water resources management and water infrastructure. Among other things, the executive order creates an interagency working group, the Water Subcabinet, consisting of federal agency and department heads, charged with four general tasks.

First, the subcabinet will seek to promote effective and efficient water resources management by reducing duplication among federal agencies overseeing water policy. Second, the group will develop a national water strategy to improve reliability of our water supplies, water quality, water systems and water forecasting. Third, the subcabinet will improve water infrastructure planning by advancing integrated planning and coordination for projects like water storage and delivery, and water resource management. Finally, the group will develop a strategy to recruit, train and retain water sector professionals.

An informal Water Subcabinet has been working together under the Trump administration for the past several years. In fact, several subcabinet members made the trip to Reno, Nev., in February to participate in the Family Farm Alliance annual conference.

We are already seeing improved coordination among the multiple federal agencies with jurisdiction over Western water matters. Formally establishing the Water Subcabinet with this executive order should further improve agency coordination and decision-making, necessary components to managing Western water resources and modernizing our aging water infrastructure.

Sometimes great things come out of the kitchen — if you have the right cooks in there, working together.

Keppen is executive director of the Family Farm Alliance.

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