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Meeting Water Needs through Investing in Nature. Water & the Future—Key Challenges. Aging and vulnerable infrastructure Degraded water quality Drought G rowing d emands for water Increased frequency of extreme events. Nature’s Services and Water Management—A Brief Sampling. - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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Meeting Water Needs through Investing in Nature
Water & the Future—Key Challenges
• Aging and vulnerable infrastructure• Degraded water quality• Drought• Growing demands for water• Increased frequency of extreme events
2
Can Nature Help?
• Wetlands purify and “store” water• Forests can enhance water collection and filtration• Forests can reduce run off and associated
sedimentation of water supplies• Wetlands, grasslands, & forests can sequester
carbon• Biodiverse systems host species that pollinate
crops
Nature’s Services and Water Management—A Brief Sampling
3
Tapping Nature’s Bounty for Clean & Secure Water Supplies
Salt Lake City• Melting snow in the Wasatch range provides water for the
city• Key challenges--Degradation of loss of forested lands• Public Utility Water Rights & Watershed Protection Fund
– Water bill surcharge of $1.50
– Used for buying watershed lands or conservation easements
• Agreement with US Forest Service to do fuels treatments to protect lands outside city limits (in place since 1981)
Selected Example—Source Water Protection
4
Tapping Nature’s Bounty for Clean and Secure Water Supplies
Tualatin Basin, Oregon• Clean Water Services—12-city water resources
utility• Water temperature in river from wastewater
discharge & other causes exceeded standards• Challenge—$60 million price tag for energy-
intensive cooling system• Alternative—Pay farmers to plant shade trees
Selected Example—Water Temperature Standards
5
Tapping Nature’s Bounty for Clean and Secure Water Supplies
Tualatin Basin, Oregon• Decision—Spent $6 million in payments to farmers
along 36 miles of rural and urban stream corridors• Farmers entered into 20-year leases to remove
invasive species & plant thousands of native trees and shrubs
• Some farmers have changed 20-year agreements to permanent enrollment
Selected Example—Water Temperature Standards
6
Tapping Nature’s Bounty for Clean and Secure Water Supplies
Denver• Strontia Springs Reservoir supplies water for 1.3 million people• Major 2002 fire resulted in erosion and sedimentation in reservoir• Clean up costs of $40 million for water utility• Response: “Forests to Faucets” agreement with US Forest Service• $33 million for 5-years of forest fuels reduction in key watersheds
on 40,000 acres• 50/50 cost-share between Denver utility and USFS
Selected Example—Reservoir Protection
7
Tapping Nature’s Bounty for Clean and Secure Water Supplies
• Santa Fe ratepayer-funded watershed protection • Eugene, Oregon Water and Electric Board payments to
farmers to enhance best-practices, resulting in reduced water treatment costs
• Delaware Common Water Fund– Landowner incentive payments for forest management practices – Purchases conservation easements
• Southern Company investment in watershed protection for its hydropower facilities
Other Examples
8
Investing in Nature’s Services
• Complexity
– Ecosystems, their components, functions, and services involve multiple interacting variables and nonlinear relationships
• E.g., purifying capacity of a wetland depends on size of the wetland, soil type, vegetative composition, seasonal variations, etc.
– The “value” of the services will depend on proximity to human settlements, current levels of water quality, demand (or preference) for cleaner water, and other considerations
– Bottom line: no single “water purification value” of a generic wetland or other natural system
Key Issues and Challenges
9
Investing in Nature’s Services
• Dynamism
– Ecosystem services are subject to dynamic interactions among system components & between natural systems and human actions
• E.g., capacity of a forest to provide source water protection can change in the wake of catastrophic forest fires or disease infestation
– Demand for services changes as demographic and
development trends change across the watershed
Key Issues and Challenges
10
Investing in Nature’s Services
• Interconnectivity
– Ecosystem functions often cannot be localized and clearly delineated in geographic space
– But linkages may be both nested and evident at different scales
– Question: “how big is big enough” to provide meaningful results from Nature’s services?
Key Issues and Challenges
11
Investing in Nature’s Services
• Uncertainty
– Complexities, dynamism, and interconnectivities at different scales result in uncertainties about the extent of services both at a single point in time and over time
Key Issues and Challenges
12
Investing in Nature’s Services
• No “silver bullet” in design of markets or programs to invest in Nature’s services
• Measurement and metrics challenges
• Like all markets, success depends on willing buyers and sellers
Issues and Challenges—Implications for Action
13
Investing in Nature’s Services
Florida Ranchland Ecosystem Services Project
• The following example reports on the work of:
– Leonard Shabman, RFF (shabman@rff.org)
– Sarah Lynch, WWF (sarah.lynch@wwfus.org)
Moving from Idea to Action—The Case of FRESP
14
FRESP: Participants
Participating Florida Ranchers
Where: The Northern Everglades
Kissimmee Region
Caloosahatchee Region St Lucie
Region
Lake Okeechobee
Region
Key Question Pumps Culverts & riser boards
Ditch networks
Impoundments
Would ranchers be willing and able to provide water management services as an additional ranch enterprise, if it offered another income opportunity?
Market Design Concept: Northern Everglades Payment for Ecosystem
Services Program
• Extensive working ranch landscapes• Relying on modification to existing water management
structures and strategies
• Enter into fixed term contracts to provide documented water related environmental services, above and beyond regulatory requirement
• Thus, creating a new profit center for ranch enterprises.
Open landscapes
Ranching as a businesses
Multiple income sources
The Program• What Environmental Service?
– Water retention & associated phosphorous load reduced
• Who? Contracts between buyer and seller – SFWMD is the agency- buyer of the service– Rancher-sellers paid when document they have retained
water
• Results? 1st solicitation chose 8 contracts from 14 proposals – Obligation of $7M over 10 years – 2nd solicitation – Awards expected summer of 2013
Technical feasibility Contract terms Payments Cost effective
verification Regulatory
compliance
FRESP Process
$ 8 million6 years10,000 acres 8 Pilot Ranches
Agree on Feasibility: Pilots
Agree on Contract Terms • Agency-Buyer is acquiring an option
– Agrees to pay rancher-seller a fixed amount per year for option to retain water
– Payment based on estimated average annual water retention offered by the rancher seller
Agree on verifying contract compliance
Annual Payment
Agree on Regulatory Processes • Streamlined permitting (CWA, Sec 404, GP and
Federal-state MOU)– T&E avoidance (FWS –USDA consultation matrix)– Section 404 –Expedited approvals– State permits
• End of Contract– T&E protections through Section 404 – Wetlands footprint (state and federal)
Investing in Nature’s Services
• Devil is in the Details
• Importance of Collaborative Engagement with Potential Sellers in Program Design
• Need to Balance Implementation Feasibility with Accountability for Real Results
Moving from Idea to Action—Key Lessons
26
Thank You!
Questions?
27
RFF Research—Operating Plans and Preparedness
28
Enhancing Preparedness and Emergency Response
• Scenario “testing” of Rapid Response• ADD--Molly
Oil Spill Containment—The Arctic Context
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