When waterfowl began to die from selenium poisoning at Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge in California's San Joaquin Valley, considerable alarm arose among environmental and agricultural specialists. This new volume suggests that Kesterson is not a unique problem and the events there offer important lessons for the future.
Irrigation-Induced Water Quality Problems uses the San Joaquin experience to suggest how we can prepare for similar problems elsewhere. As one committee member put it, "There will be elsewheres"—trace elements and organic contaminants are being concentrated by irrigation in many river basins.
This book addresses how the Kesterson crisis developed, how irrigation can endanger water quality, and how economic, legal, and other factors impede our ability to respond to water quality problems. The committee explores how to study these problems, unraveling complex issues and clarifying the varying perspectives of farmers, environmentalists, scientists, and other key figures.
This dispassionate analysis of a controversial topic will be useful to policymakers, resource managers, and agricultural specialists and farmers, as well as specialists in hydrology, water quality, irrigation, law, and environmental quality. It will also be useful as a case study in the environmental policy classroom.
- Irrigation-Induced Water Quality Problems
- Copyright
- Preface
- Contents
- Irrigation-Induced Water Quality Problems
- Executive Summary
- KESTERSON AS AN EXAMPLE OF A BROADER PROBLEM
- UNDERSTANDING THE SCIENTIFIC DIMENSIONS OF AN ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEM
- UNDERSTANDING THE INSTITUTIONAL DIMENSIONS OF AN ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEM
- RESOLVING PROBLEMS: ESSENTIAL STUDY ELEMENTS
- RESOLVING PROBLEMS: IDENTIFYING AND EVALUATING ALTERNATIVES
- RECOMMENDATIONS
- Planning Issues :Related to Irrigation-Induced Water Quality Problems
- Policy Issues
- Responding to Irrigation-Induced Water Quality Problems: A Shared Responsibility
- 1 Introduction: Kesterson as an Example of a Broader Problem
- WESTERN U.S. AGRICULTURE
- THE SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY
- The Natural History of the San Joaquin Valley
- Differences Between the East and West Sides
- KESTERSON NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE
- STATE AND FEDERAL INVOLVEMENT
- THE SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY DRAINAGE PROGRAM
- THE NATIONAL IRRIGATION WATER QUALITY PROGRAM
- FUTURE IRRIGATION AND DRAINAGE ISSUES
- REFERENCES
- 2 Understanding the Scientific Dimensions of an Environmental Problem
- HOW IRRIGATION DRAINAGE ALTERS WATER QUALITY
- HYDROLOGY AND SOILS
- GEOLOGY AND GEOCHEMISTRY
- FISH AND WILDLIFE CONSIDERATIONS
- PUBLIC HEALTH CONSIDERATIONS
- CONCLUSIONS
- REFERENCES
- 3 Understanding the Institutional Dimensions of an Environmental Problem
- ECONOMIC FACTORS
- SOCIAL FACTORS
- AGENCIES AND ORGANIZATIONS
- LEGAL ISSUES
- POLITICAL FACTORS
- CONCLUSIONS
- REFERENCE
- 4 Resolving Problems: Essential Study Elements
- ESSENTIAL STUDY ELEMENTS
- Recognizing the Problem
- Defining the Problem
- Data Assessment and Acquisition
- Assessing the Data Base
- Acquiring Additional Data
- Interpreting the Data
- COMPLEXITY AND STUDY DESIGN
- Descriptive Complexity
- Interactive Complexity
- UNCERTAINTY
- CONCLUSIONS
- REFERENCES
- 5 Resolving Problems: Identifying and Evaluating Alternatives
- TECHNICAL OPTIONS
- Transport and Disposal of Drainage Water
- Ocean Disposal
- Deep-Well Injection
- Source Control
- Retirement of Land from Irrigated Agriculture
- Management of Irrigation
- Onsite Evaporation Ponds
- Drainage Water Treatment Technologies
- Desalinization Technologies
- Chemical and Biological Removal
- INSTITUTIONAL OPTIONS
- Price Adjustments
- Accurate Market Prices
- Taxes and Charges
- Subsidies
- Legal Changes
- Constraints on Water Transfers
- Constraints on Drainage
- Regulatory Approaches
- Organizational Changes
- Broadening and Redefining Responsibilities
- Correcting Other Institutional Impediments
- Political and Social Changes
- EVALUATING ALTERNATIVES
- Evaluation Criteria
- Technical Criteria
- Environmental Criteria
- Economic Criteria
- Other Institutional Criteria
- The Evaluation Process
- CONCLUSIONS
- REFERENCES
- 6 Recommendations
- PLANNING ISSUES RELATED TO IRRIGATION-INDUCED WATER QUALITY PROBLEMS
- POLICY ISSUES RELATED TO IRRIGATION-INDUCED WATER QUALITY PROBLEMS
- RESPONDING TO IRRIGATION-INDUCED WATER QUALITY PROBLEMS: A SHARED RESPONSIBILITY
- APPENDIXES
- Appendix A Biographical Sketches of Committee Members
- Appendix B Calendar of the Committee's Activities (May 1985 to August 1989)
- Appendix C Summary of the Committee's Letter Reports (May 1985 to August 1989)
- Index
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