Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Jessica Thunberg
jessica_thunberg@jtpr.com
708‐218‐2759
David Marks
dmarks@outreachstrategies.com
202‐507‐4845
Nation Urged to Take Action to Head off Looming Freshwater Crisis
Economy, public health, ecosystems threatened without new direction in freshwater
management by public and private sectors, panel cautions
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SEPTEMBER 15, 2010
WASHINGTON – Citing a looming freshwater crisis that could affect the nation’s economy,
the livability of our communities and the health of our ecosystems, a diverse coalition of
businesses, farmers, environmental not‐for‐profits and government agencies today issued a
landmark call to action aimed at heading off a national crisis in water quality and supply.
“Charting New Waters: A Call to Action to Address U.S. Freshwater Challenges,” is the
culmination of an intensive two‐year collaboration exploring solutions to U.S. freshwater
challenges. It was presented to the Obama Administration at a meeting of federal agencies
convened by the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), and released to the
public during a noon forum at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center.
“There was broad consensus among participants that our current path will, unless changed,
lead us to a national freshwater crisis in the foreseeable future,” the Call to Action reports.
“This reality encompasses a wide array of challenges … that collectively amount to a tenuous
trajectory for the future of the nation’s freshwater resources.”
The report identifies serious challenges to the quality and supply of freshwater, such as
pollution and scarcity; competing urban, rural and ecosystem water needs; climate change;
environmental and public health impacts; and a variety of economic implications. The
document offers actions to confront these threats and a plan to ensure that our freshwater
resources are secure for the 21st century.
While a great deal of progress has been made since landmark freshwater legislation in the
1970s, many freshwater challenges persist, the report says. It sees some as acute and
obvious, such as severe droughts and broken water mains. Others are characterized as more
subtle and chronic, building quietly over the years – such as endocrine disrupting chemicals in
rivers and drinking water and the slow but steady depletion of aquifers and declining
snowpack in parts of the country.
The document is believed to be the first such comprehensive, cross‐sector examination of
U.S. freshwater challenges and solutions. It represents consensus recommendations of
diverse interests convened by The Johnson Foundation at Wingspread in Racine, Wisconsin.
Reliable freshwater supplies are an essential underpinning of U.S. economic security, with
energy generation, manufacturing, food production and many activities of daily life
dependent on access to freshwater, the report says. It notes that an estimated 41 percent of
U.S. freshwater withdrawals are for thermoelectric power generation, primarily coal, nuclear
and natural gas; 37 percent go toward irrigated agriculture.
"For too long, our society has treated water as a cheap, non‐strategic and infinitely available
resource. Not anymore. Threats to water quality and access are putting our businesses,
communities and way of life in jeopardy. The time to act is now,” said S. Curtis Johnson,
chairman of Diversey Inc., a leading global provider of cleaning and hygiene solutions to the
institutional marketplace and co‐signer of the Call to Action.
The document proposes a series of shared actions across sectors to ensure sustainable and
resilient freshwater resources so that we have the ability to absorb changes, sudden or
otherwise, through flexible water management strategies.
The Call to Action’s recommendations include a range of freshwater management strategies
to head off a potential crisis, such as streamlining and better coordinating fragmented
governance among federal, state and local jurisdictions. Another key need identified in the
report is modernizing our freshwater regulatory framework, developed in the 1970s to deal
with the acute environmental issues of that era.
"For decades, U.S. water strategy has been cobbled together from diverse, incomplete, and
sometimes conflicting policies. We can no longer afford to manage our water that way. The
good news is that smart, effective, and innovative solutions to the nation's water problems
exist and can be implemented. That's what this report recommends," said Dr. Peter Gleick,
President of the Pacific Institute, one of the nation's leading water scientists and a co‐signer
of the Call to Action.
The report also calls for better accounting of the full cost of services delivered by municipal
water and wastewater utilities and sharing this information with consumers. Revised pricing
structures that more accurately reflect the full cost of services could be one step toward
financing badly needed upgrades to U.S. water and wastewater systems.
“Freshwater is our most precious resource and the lifeblood of our economy – industry,
agriculture and energy generation all depend heavily on adequate supplies of freshwater.
Water quality in our natural and municipal freshwater systems is vital to the health and
livability of our communities,” said Helen Johnson‐Leipold, chairman of The Johnson
Foundation at Wingspread. “The Foundation and its many partners in this collaboration offer
the Call to Action as a means of bringing overdue attention to our nation’s freshwater
challenges and sparking action to address them.”
A leading representative of the agriculture community commended the process that led to
today’s announcement.
“It’s enabled a range of participants who seldom engage each other to arrive at some
potentially significant and effective recommendations, such as those regarding water quality
and the Farm Bill, guidelines for the work and composition of the proposed Freshwater
Commission, and emphasis on the importance of local and state leadership in developing co‐
beneficial solutions based on sound data in local watersheds,” said Ray Gaesser, past
president of the Iowa Soybean Association and co‐signer of the Call to Action.
In addition to signing onto the Call to Action, the parties in this groundbreaking initiative also
made commitments as individual organizations to take actions to address freshwater
challenges. For additional information about these commitments and the Call to Action, or to
learn more about The Johnson Foundation at Wingspread, please visit www.johnsonfdn.org.
* * * * *