Supervisor Fowler participates in national water policy discussion

<i>EPA photo</i><br>
A water hauling station on the Navajo Nation.

<i>EPA photo</i><br> A water hauling station on the Navajo Nation.

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. - When Navajo kindergarteners are asked where water comes from, they draw a picture of a pickup truck with blue plastic barrels in the back.

That was the message delivered to the National Water Policy event on July 28 by Coconino County District 5 Supervisor Lena Fowler. Ms. Fowler was one of 11 panelists at the event held at Capital Visitor Center in Washington, D.C. More than 300 people attended.

"In the process of the nation talking about a National Water Policy, everyone needs to remember that there are Native Americans and families still hauling water in this country," Ms. Fowler said. "Native American water rights also need to be settled. For example, the Navajo Nation is within three states but it has settled its water rights with only one state - New Mexico."

The water policy event was organized by Jim Thebaut, producer and director of the award-winning documentary "The American Southwest: Are We Running Dry?" and the Chronicles Group.

"With the reality of water scarcity, water quality issues, global climate change, drought and population growth, the United States Government must take the lead and set an example to the rest of the world on how to solve the evolving water crisis," he said. "The first step in this critical endeavor is the establishment and implementation of a comprehensive integrated water policy."

The purpose of the National Water Policy event was to bring the executive and congressional branches of the U.S. government together with public and private sectors of the water industry and others to discuss the urgent importance of the implementation of a national Comprehensive Integrated Water Policy.

Georgia Congressman John Linder, co-founder of the House Water Caucus in 2007, said he helped start the caucus in response to the growing need for Congress to address the nation's water woes because a political strategy is needed.

"My goal was to get the key players involved in water policy in one room to begin a serious discussion about the current state of our country's water resources management system," the congressman said. "On July 28, it finally happened. The best and the brightest from the water world traveled from far and wide to convene in one room to begin the process of tackling our nation's growing water problems head on."

The dialogue on Water and Energy was hosted and convened by Dr. Mark Bernstein of the University of Southern California Energy Institute. He said the amount of water used to produce energy and vice-versa - are hard to acquire.

"There is an increasing recognition among water and energy decision makers that there is a nexus between water and energy and that we need to understand it better," he said. "The water industry is one of the most energy intensive industries in the U.S. We also understand that as water becomes more difficult to supply, more energy will be needed for the industry."

But to some people, the need for water is far more simple than the energy needed by industry, municipalities and public utilities to supply it. There are some whose lands are surrounded by some of the nation's greatest rivers and some of the country's largest aquifers but who have long lacked the basic political clout to gain access to it to develop their homeland or provide drinking water to families.

Supervisor Fowler, a former Navajo Nation Water Rights Commissioner and the only Native person on the panel, said the sight of Navajos hauling their domestic water from windmills and municipal water sources is so common all across the Navajo Nation, that thousands of Navajo children are unaware that most people in the United States receive their water from a kitchen or bathroom sink inside their homes.

"Within my lifetime, a huge technological breakthrough was acquiring a pickup truck because it made water hauling so much easier," she said.

Supervisor Fowler said her mission as a panelist was to make sure the Navajo Nation and people living in rural areas of the country were not forgotten or overlooked as they have been in the past.

Among the event's sponsors were the Southern Nevada Water Authority, California Water Association, MWH Global, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, The CSIS Global Water Futures Project Imperial Irrigation District, University of Southern California Energy Institute, Water for Life Global Urban Water Research Center, University of California at Irvine, Oregon State University, Desert Research Institute, Alliance For Water Efficiency, the University of Colorado - NOAA Western Water Assessment as well as U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, Oregon Congressman Earl Blumenauer, Georgia Congressman John Linder, California Congresswoman Mary Bono Mack and California Congressman Jim Costa.

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