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Management of catchments for the protection of water resources: drawing on the New York City watershed experience

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Abstract

Primary purposes for catchment management are to establish a cost-effective allocation and use of its water resources and to most effectively apply measures to protect the quantity and quality of the water produced by the catchment. For the latter purpose, diffuse sources of contamination are the greatest difficulty. Diffuse (or non-point source) water pollution poses challenges for public policy and requires innovative management approaches. Solutions ultimately require behavioural change and a broad societal response, and must be flexible and adaptive to stochastic catchment conditions and to long-term trends. Internationally, new models of governance for difficult land and water resource management problems are developing. This paper reviews the characteristics of ‘wicked’ environmental management problems and the specific policy challenges posed by diffuse water pollution. A framework for action is derived and compared to the activities and outcomes of water protection in the New York City watershed. Successes to date in this case indicate that because land management and diffuse sources of pollution have a local basis, protection of water at source necessitates the fostering of local instruments for an adaptive and twin-track strategy of applied research and stakeholder deliberation, supported by multi-level partnerships and an enabling regulatory environment. Although long running, evidence from this case alone is insufficient to establish whether potential trade-offs between water protection and the economic vitality of catchment communities can be fully resolved.

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Notes

  1. The term ‘watershed’ is used here synonymously with ‘catchment’. The former is commonly used in the USA, and the latter in the UK and other English speaking countries such as Australia. Almost universally ‘watershed’ can be used to refer both to a hydrological basin draining to a given point, or the division between two such basins.

  2. In this paper the term ‘governance’ is used in a broad sense to refer to … . “The range of political, social, economic and administrative systems that are in place to develop and manage water resources, and the delivery of water services, at different levels of society” (Rogers and Hall 2003).

  3. (1) No definitive formulation; (2) no stopping rule; (3) solutions that are not true-or-false, but good-or-bad; (4) no immediate and no ultimate test of a solution; (5) every attempted solution “counts significantly”; (6) no criteria to describe all potential solutions or permissible operations; (7) uniqueness; (8) every wicked problem can be considered a symptom of another problem; (9) causes of a problem can be explained in numerous ways, the choice of explanation determining the nature of the problem’s resolution; (10) the planner has no right to be wrong (attempted solutions are not hypotheses to be tested, but practical actions for which planners are liable for the consequences) (Rittel and Webber 1973).

  4. Use by one person subtracts from the benefits available to others.

  5. Parallels can be seen in the ‘analytic-deliberative’ model for characterisation and communication of risk recommended by, for example, Stern and Fineberg (1996), Stern (2005) and Burgess et al. (2007).

  6. See Watershed Agricultural Council at: http://nycwatershed.org/index_wachistory.html (last visited 24 September, 2009).

  7. A holistic approach to farm management is used to identify and prioritize environmental issues on a farm without compromising the farm business. Potential risks to the water supply are identified and addressed through careful structural planning to reduce or avoid the transport of agricultural run-off into farm streams. A farmer signs a voluntary participation agreement with WAC and agrees to develop a Whole Farm Plan in conjunction with a Planning and Implementation Team. Each team is multidisciplinary, and may have representatives from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, Cornell Cooperative Extension and county Soil and Water Conservation Districts. Best management practices (BMPs) are selected and implemented using a multiple barrier approach.

  8. A goal of 85 per cent participation by farmers became a milestone in the EPA’s Filtration Avoidance Determination waiver for New York City Department of Environmental Protection.

  9. United States Department of Agriculture, see http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/programs/ (last visited 24 September 2009).

  10. See the annual reports of the Watershed Agricultural Council available at http://www.nycwatershed.org/downloads.html (last visited 24 September 2009).

  11. An inter-municipal body composed of the municipalities located wholly or partially within the New York City Watershed west of the Hudson River, entered into a cooperative agreement pursuant to Sect. 119-o of the New York General Municipal Law.

  12. See USEPA Region 2 NYC Watershed Memorandum of Agreement http://www.epa.gov/region2/water/nycshed/nycmoa.htm (last visited 24 September 2009).

  13. USEPA. http://www.epa.gov/region2/water/nycshed/filtad.htm (last visited 24 September 2009).

  14. The Catskill Watershed Corporation is an independent locally based and locally administered not-for-profit development corporation organised and existing under Sect. 1411 of the New York State Not-For-Profit Corporation Law, and located in Margaretville, New York. Its mission is to protect the water resources of the New York City Watershed west of the Hudson River, to preserve and strengthen communities located in the region and to increase awareness and understanding of the NYC Water System.

  15. Authority under Home Rule in New York State has Constitutional and Statutory sources. The Constitution of New York State grants substantial autonomy and prerogatives to local governments (Article IX, adopted by amendment, 1963).

  16. In New York, State counties are governed by a county legislature, a board of representatives or a board of supervisors. A county is an administrative division of the state and a board of supervisors has legislative, executive and quasi-judicial powers, enabling it to implement and, as necessary, refine the local application of state law and public policy (Wikipedia 2007).

  17. http://www.nycwatershed.org/index_wachistory.html (last visited 24 September 2009).

  18. Phosphorus is the primary contaminant of concern for DCAP and is also regarded as the ‘signature’ or indicator contaminant. If phosphorus from its various sources is well managed then it is assumed that risks of other contaminants for those sources will also be reduced.

  19. http://www.nycwatershed.org/index_wachistory.html (last visited 24 September 2009).

  20. State University of New York.

  21. Verbal communications from County Department Directors.

  22. Permanent legal agreements entered into by a landowner and state or local government, or a non-profit land trust. Easements identify the conservation values being protected and the restrictions placed on a property. The value of property rights given up under the easement is appraised and the easement is purchased (or donated). The easement is recorded with the deed and is binding on future landowners, and the state accepts the responsibility to enforce it in perpetuity (http://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/41156.html; last visited 25 September 2009).

  23. USEPA Region 2. Watershed Land Acquisition Program. http://www.epa.gov/Region2/water/nycshed/protprs.htm (last visited 25 September 2009).

  24. Verbal communications from land owners and county level officials.

  25. See the EPA rebuttal to these objections in: http://www.epa.gov/region02/water/nycshed/response_to_commentsfad2007.pdf (last visited 28 September 2009).

  26. See USEPA Region 2 NYC Watershed Memorandum of Agreement http://www.epa.gov/region2/water/nycshed/nycmoa.htm (last visited 24 September 2009).

  27. For example, the NYC watershed must meet pollutant loading targets from point and diffuse sources that do not exceed specified threshold levels set as Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs).

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Acknowledgments

Research informing this paper was undertaken under a Capacity Building Award and subsequent Research Project Award from the Rural Economy and Land Use Programme (RELU) which is a collaboration between the United Kingdom’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). Additional funding of the RELU programme is provided by the Scottish Government and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. The authors acknowledge the contributions made by Kevin Hiscock, Hadrian Cook, Alex Inman, Jon Hillman, Patricia Bishop, Dean Frazier, Mary Jane Porter, David Benson and Andrew Jordan, but bear sole responsibility for any errors or omissions.

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  1. Centre for Development, Environment and Policy, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Wye, Ashford, Kent, TN25 5AH, UK

    Laurence E. D. Smith

  2. Cornell University Law School, Ithaca, NY, 14853-4901, USA

    Keith S. Porter

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Correspondence to Laurence E. D. Smith.

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Smith, L.E.D., Porter, K.S. Management of catchments for the protection of water resources: drawing on the New York City watershed experience. Reg Environ Change 10, 311–326 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-009-0102-z

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