DINOSAUR NATIONAL MONUMENT: THE EVOLUTION OF A FEDERAL RESERVED WATER RIGHT1

ABSTRACT: Dinosaur National Monument, in northwestern Colorado, has become a test case in the establishment of a federal reserved water right to instream flows. For the first time, the Interior Department was forced to rigorously defend its claims in a watershed where the federal government did not control the upstream reaches. Inadequate quantification of minimum flow requirements, court orders, and an apparent Congressional ban on the spending of Water Resources Program funds by the Park Service to quantify its water rights have already placed the Service in a difficult position to protect instream flows for maintaining the ecological integrity of the Monument. As late as 1983, administrators of the Park Service were divided over their legal strategy, many wanting to pursue a policy of claiming “natural, historic” flows rather than “minimum” flows. The conditional right to instream flows panted to the Park Service in 1978 was subject to quantification within five years. That deadline has been extended, but it is not likely that the case will reach final settlement this decade. Until the design and conduct of federal water rights quantifications better integrate public policy and law with science, the principle lesson from Dinosaur may have to be repeated.     

EFFECTS OF SALINITY ON PREFERRED AND LETHAL TEMPERATURES OF THE BLACKCHIN TILAPIA,SARATHERODON MELANOTHERON1

Acclimation to varying salinities did not affect the preferred temperature of Saratherodon melanotheron, which had a final preferred temperature of 33.5 C. However, fish acclimated to 25 C and 0, 15, and 30 o/oo salinities had lower lethal temperatures of 15, 13, and 15 C, respectively, and an upper lethal temperature of 37 C. The thermal zone of tolerance for fish acclimated in freshwater was 17-35 C, and was not dependent upon acclimation temperatures. Data suggest this species could expand its range in North America.     

Water Resources Research Prioritization and Management-Problems and Perspectives1

ABSTRACT: At a time when productive water resources research is essential to protecting the quality of and wisely using our limited water resources, pervasive trends toward consumerism, fiscal restraint, centralized management, and using research for other social objectives threaten research productivity. The research prioritization and management structure that these trends have created was examined in the microcosm of its application at the Utah Water Research Laboratory. The result indicated that ephemeral prioritization and the failure of research users to target researchers to their own particular needs is diluting productivity. Incremental research prioritization and greater use of advisory councils in facilitating user-researcher interaction are suggested as corrective approaches, but the only firm conclusion at this point in time must be that empirical studies of the performance of alternatives in research management structure are solely needed.     

TEMPERATURE BEHAVIOR OF THE BLUESPOTTED SUNFISH ENNEACANTHUS GLORIOSUS (HOLBROOK), WITH AN EVALUATION OF THE INTERPRETATION OF THERMAL BEHAVIOR DATA1

The bluespotted sunfish, Enneacanthus gloriosus (Holbrook), had a final temperature preferendum of 31.5 C. Fish acclimated to 30 C avoided 36 C. The analysis of acute temperature preference data and the relationship between final temperature preferendum and upper avoidance temperatures are discussed.     

Addressing disputes in a coalition framework: The case of agriculture and the environment

A coalition framework is proposed to address the contentious issues facing agriculture and the environment in urbanising areas, by bringing stakeholders together in homogeneous focus groups to identify areas of common interests, and then in heterogeneous groups to validate the results of the framework. Such a framework encourages greater understanding, consensus building, the resolution of conflicts, and the establishment of coalition efforts in areas of mutual interest and agreement by allowing stakeholder groups collectively to pursue agenda-building on issues of common interests. Based on the authors' observation of the process over an 18-month period, it is encouraging that the coalition framework is an appropriate strategy for building consensus among diverse audiences.     

Concurrent Exposure Assessments of Atrazine and Metolachlor in the Mainstem, Major Tributaries and Small Streams of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed: Indicators of Ecological Risk

The goals of this study were to: (1) measure atrazine and metolachlor concentrations during both high and low use periods in the Chesapeake Bay's mainstem/major tributaries, smaller tributaries and representative small agricultural streams during 1995 and 1996; (2) compare these exposure data with toxicity benchmarks for each herbicide to predict ecological risk and (3) use in-stream fish community data collected in the streams to provide supportive data for ecological risk characterization. Spatially, atrazine (<0.10–98 g/L) and metolachlor (<0.10–68 g/L) concentrations were highest in the streams, followed by the small tributaries (<0.10–11 g/L atrazine; <0.10–8.6 g/L metolachlor) with the lowest concentration in the mainstem Bay/larger tributaries (<0.10–0.22 g/L atrazine; <0.10–0.24 g/L metolachlor). Temporally, concentrations of both herbicides were greatest in all three types of habitats in the late spring and early summer. Concentrations of atrazine and metolachlor were very low or non-detectable in all habitats sampled from early August to mid-April. Toxicity benchmarks of 20 g/L for atrazine based on an ecological No Observed Effect Concentration (NOEC) for microcosm/mesocosm studies and an acute 10th percentile of 53 g/L for metolachlor (protection of ninety % of the species) based on laboratory toxicity data were selected to assess annual and seasonal ecological risk. Both of these toxicity benchmarks were conservative estimates of ecological risk designed to protect the trophic group (plants) most sensitive to these herbicides. Based on a comparison of these toxicity benchmarks with two years of exposure data, the ecological risk from both atrazine and metolachlor exposure in the mainstem Chesapeake Bay/large tributaries, small tributaries and representative agriculturally dominated streams was generally judged to be low. During one 72-h stream rain event in 1995, the atrazine toxicity benchmark (20 g/L) was exceeded during part of the event. However, long-term permanent ecological effects are not expected based on the documented recovery potential of the most sensitive trophic group (plant communities) to the concentrations of atrazine reported and the transient nature of the atrazine pulses. Fish communities at the stream sites receiving the highest concentrations of both herbicides were judged to be healthy based on an Index of Biotic Integrity (IBI) developed for Maryland's coastal plain.     

REASSEMBLING HETCH HETCHY: WATER SUPPLY WITHOUT O'SHAUGHNESSY DAM1

The Hetch Hetchy System provides San Francisco with most of its water supply. O'Shaughnessy Dam is one component of this system, providing approximately 25 percent of water storage for the Hetch Hetchy System and none of its conveyance. Removing O'Shaughnessy Dam has gained interest for restoring Hetch Hetchy Valley. The water supply feasibility of removing O'Shaughnessy Dam is analyzed by examining alternative water storage and delivery operations for San Francisco using an economic engineering optimization model. This model ignores institutional and political constraints and has perfect hydrologic foresight to explore water supply possibilities through reoperation of other existing reservoirs. The economic benefits of O'Shaughnessy Dam and its alternatives are measured in terms of the quantity of water supplied to San Francisco and agricultural water users, water treatment costs, and hydropower generation. Results suggest there could be little water scarcity if O'Shaughnessy Dam were to be removed, although removal would be costly due to additional water treatment costs and lost hydropower generation.     

Financial viability of reforesting reclaimed surface mined lands, the burden of site conversion costs, and carbon payments as reforestation incentives

US Federal law mandates that mined land be returned by mine operators to a condition capable of supporting its pre-mining use or a higher use. Previously forested lands have commonly been reclaimed to hayland/pasture or wildlife habitat, and most of these lands have been abandoned from management and rendered non-productive. This situation has left landowners in the position of converting these reclaimed mined lands to forests at a later date, if they choose to make them economically productive. Such land-use conversion, however, comes with a substantial up-front cost to the landowner, which makes the financial viability of such a conversion questionable. We examine the financial viability of reforestation of these previously reclaimed mine lands by calculating land expectation value (LEV) under a range of conditions that include forest type, site quality, and reforestation intensity. We find that conversion to white pine is viable on higher quality sites under low to moderate interest rates with low or high timber prices, but conversion to mixed hardwoods is only profitable under the high price scenario with low interest rates, and only on higher quality sites. We also consider the implications of a shift in reforestation burden from the landowner to the mine operator, and results suggest that including costs of reforestation as part of the mining operation creates a financially viable forest enterprise for landowners under all scenarios for both white pine and mixed hardwoods. Two forms of carbon payments that could encourage reforestation of previously reclaimed mined lands also are examined: an annual payment based upon the total accumulated carbon found on-site in a given year, and an annual payment based on only the increment of carbon storage each year. Our carbon payment results indicate that annual values of up to $5.17 per ton of carbon stored in hardwoods and $9.39 per ton of carbon stored in pines would be required to make reforestation profitable under the poorest conditions (high interest rates, low prices, and poor quality site) when the payment is based on accumulated on-site carbon, although lower values are required under more favorable scenarios. Payments that are based upon the annual increment of carbon must fall in the range of $8.66–$71.88 per ton of carbon stored in hardwoods and $0–$83.29 per ton of carbon stored in pines to make reforestation financially viable.     

ESTIMATED IMPACTS OF CLIMATE WARMING ON CALIFORNIA WATER AVAILABILITY UNDER TWELVE FUTURE CLIMATE SCENARIOS1

Spatially disaggregated estimates of over 131 stream‐flow, ground water, and reservoir evaporation monthly time series in California have been created for 12 different climate warming scenarios for a 72‐year period. Such disaggregated hydrologic estimates of multiple hydrologic cycle components are important for impact and adaptation studies of California's water system. A statewide trend of increased winter and spring runoff and decreased summer runoff is identified. Without operations modeling, approximate changes in water availability are estimated for each scenario. Even most scenarios with increased precipitation result in less available water because of the current storage systems' inability to catch increased winter streamflow in compensation for reduced summer runoff. The water availability changes are then compared with estimated changes in urban and agricultural water uses in California between now and 2100. The methods used in this study are relatively simple, but the results are qualitatively consistent with other studies focusing on the hydrologies of single basins or surface water alone.     

SELECTING GROUPS OF FISH TO OPTIMIZE ACQUISITION OF INFORMATION ON THERMAL DISCHARGES1

ABSTRACT: A national trend over the last 25 years has been to require increasing amounts of biological information on industrial waste discharges. Acquisition of this essential information frequently involves complex assessments. In order to optimize the value of information gathered and to minimize the cost of this information, it is essential that analyses of redundancy be accompanied by the determination of which groups of organisms give the most information relative to a particular problem. Studies of the effect of temperature on the fishes of the New River, Glen Lyn, Virginia, provide us with the opportunity to evaluate the redundancy of information relative to the influence of temperature on fish distribution. Information of this type will be useful in selecting groups of organisms for laboratory temperature preference and avoidance tests. It was shown that the distribution of three genera (Notropis, Micropterus, and Etheostoma) had the highest correlation with the distribution of the total fish fauna and, therefore, provided the most information relative to temperature selection of the New River ichthyofauna. The final temperature preferences of the most abundant species of Notropis and Micropterus were representative of the response of the entire fish community based on the distribution of diversity indices relative to temperature.