Intensified by climate change, this "quiet crisis" threatens access to safe drinking water, the reliable supply of surface water and groundwater resources for agricultural, industrial and recreational uses, and the health of natural ecosystems, according to experts.
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That agenda will be shaped by leaders in business, government and non-governmental organizations invited to the summit at Wingspread.
"Over and over we have heard that U.S. freshwater policy has lurched from crisis to crisis over the last 30 years without a national strategy or set of clear, actionable national goals," said Roger Dower, Foundation president. "We hope the Wingspread Summit can be a catalyst for fulfilling this vital public need, and do so in a way that brings together diverse interests committing to consensus solutions."
The Foundation's decision to focus on freshwater issues is based in part on the view that earlier progress from the such 1970s legislation as the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act, may have led to complacency in the face of current environmental and economic realities.
"We no longer see pictures of rivers on fire, most point sources of pollution are treated before being discharged into our lakes and streams, and we have markedly decreased or eliminated many critical waterborne diseases," said Dower.
"But this success may have fostered a dangerous notion that we have successfully addressed the freshwater issue; that we can now 'check that box' and move on. Far from it. Quietly, a crisis has been building that has yet to capture the full attention of leading public and private policymakers or the American public. We ignore this 'quiet crisis' at our peril," Dower said.
In conjunction with the Summit, The Johnson Foundation will issue a report describing the dimensions of this crisis such as:
* Threats to human health from polluted water, with new public health risks identified regularly that were not anticipated by the Clean Water Act, such as groundwater contamination and endocrine disruptive chemicals in drinking water supplies
* Regional and local water shortages that create economic and political turmoil, along with growing competition between municipalities, agricultural users and ecosystems for increasingly scarce freshwater resources.
* Aging and inadequate water infrastructure systems that pose not only health risks, but enormous financial burdens given the projected costs of building and financing municipal drinking water and wastewater systems - at a time of tremendous stress on public budgets. Estimates from the Congressional Budget Office and the U.S. EPA have pegged those costs as ranging from $500 billion to $1.2 trillion over the 20-year period ending in 2019.
* National food security threatened by unsustainable water withdrawals and land use practices affecting surface and groundwater supplies and water quality.
* Climate change that is altering the hydrologic cycle, leading to drought, severe flooding, reduced snowpack, dwindling aquifers and other affects that may have permanently altered our environment.
* A failure to recognize the powerful linkage between water and energy and adjust public and private planning and investment accordingly. Traditional and new sources of energy use tremendous amounts of both fresh and salt water, while water treatment and movement is responsible for at least 13 percent of U.S. electrical consumption - contributing significantly to greenhouse gas emissions.Lynn Broaddus, The Foundation's director of environment programs, noted that America's ability to address the global impact of water scarcity and contamination depends in part on addressing its own water challenges.
"Our focus on water often turns, with good reason, to helping those whose very survival is threatened by scarcity or contamination of water supplies," said Broaddus. "As we continue to devote financial and humanitarian resources to this global crisis, we must recognize that our ability to help others is increasingly linked to more effective management of our own water resources.
"For example, the world's growing population depends on U.S. food exports, but if we are going to do our part to feed the world, we need to figure out how to support sustainable agricultural production here in the United States," she said.
Food and agriculture are the leading consumers of water, with an estimated 70 percent of the water taken from surface water and groundwater used for irrigation.
The Johnson Foundation Freshwater Forum is an effort to bring together experts who approach domestic freshwater issues from different vantage points: climate science, public health, protection of natural ecosystems, agriculture and food production, energy, and municipal water and wastewater management.
For more information, including conference reports, see the Freshwater Forum online.
Will the Johnson Foundation tell Mayor Dickert no to sell water to Waukesha?
ReplyDeleteHow about an anti-poverty summit to deal with the misery in this sorry city? Most of the workers I know are weary of the Waxtrash Corporate Crime Family's fixation on arcane ecological issues coupled with the cash-cadging clan's singular lack of interest in alleviating the plight of its myriad victims.
ReplyDeleteWater? Methinks the Waxies have a whole lake full of it to mix with stinkum and peddle to the public.
ReplyDeleteWhile we're on the subject of H2O, let's pray that The House of Wax may drown in a flood of lawsuits.
ReplyDeleteHere's an aquatic headline my toiling neighbors would love to read a.s.a.p.: SCJ All Washed Up.
ReplyDeleteIf the treasure tyrants would bestow one tenth of the wealth which they lavish on status symbols on suffering humanity, they'd be loved rather than loathed. I hope that Hellwitch and her unkind kin may be inundated with indictments leading to trials, convictions, confiscations and Draconian sentences.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of water...I think Racine needs a project to replace lead pipes in the city...too many commenters are showing signs of lead poisoning.
ReplyDeleteOur water is what S C Johnson sells, so you better believe they are concerned. Ka-ching.
ReplyDeleteCome on Dustin - let's get serious. You let this obviously very sick individual kill any and all discussions with his obsessive hatred of anything Johnson.
ReplyDeleteThis person needs serious help perhaps even to the point of being instituionalized before he physically hurts someone while playing out his fantisies.
What he (and we) don't need is a forum for his rage.
Wouldn't it be great if the Waxies cared about ordinary citizens' cash flow problems instead of elitist ecological ballyhoo?
ReplyDeleteIn a community where poverty and pain ravage our rank-and-file residents, hatred of the hyperprivileged Waxtrash is a sign of sanity.
ReplyDeleteIt is not up to the Johnsons to help you. It is up to you to help yourself. Enough Johnson bashing!
ReplyDeleteSave that cr-p for Emerson, Horatio Alger, Ayn Rand and the rest of the rich blight trash responsible for our misery.
ReplyDeleteMost ordinary people possess exiguous power and resources. Nobody with a heart or a sane brain should demand that they pull themselves up by their bootstraps. By contrast, the Waxies--who gouged their obscene fortunes out of the hides of myriad victims--wield clout galore and throw their financial weight around early and often. It's time that a people's government made the ceraceous swindlers disgorge their ill-gotten gains to fund social programs for the impoverished majority.
ReplyDeleteIn a moribund company town like Racine, Waxbashing is a sign of sanity. Be honest--does anyone other than a Waxie or high-echelon lackey thereof support the John-Swines?
ReplyDeleteOnly the wealthy and their well-remunerated flunkeys like the Waxtrash. If that terrible tribe were to vanish into the Federal prison system, most of us would rejoice.
ReplyDeleteCandidly speaking, Hellwitch Waxtrash Lip-Off ought to can the phony eco-babble and pay attention to her Corporate Crime Family's victims.
ReplyDeleteLooks like somebody got the keys to the PC Lab away from his/her ward attendant again today.
ReplyDeleteI love the part where he makes a comment and then adds another entry agreeing with himself.
ReplyDeleteAll the name calling in the world is not going to help your mixed up irrational mind.
Seek help Mr Hater of all things Johnson.
I agree with you!
ReplyDeleteDear 3:37PM, I've got plenty of help. Here in Racine, THOUSANDS of impecunious citizens LOATHE the JOHNSONS and their crass class. On a global scale, millions of downtrodden people hate the Waxtrash and work daily for their destruction.
ReplyDeleteBillionaires are big-buck buccaneers. As for their brand of success, it's a form of legalized a-thieve-ment. May the Waxbrats stop worrying about water and start assisting their victims for a change.
ReplyDeleteSomeday, sooner than they may think, the Waxies will be tried for their crimes against humanity. When the tribunals convene, confer and convict, the fiscal fiends will wish they'd devoted more dough to philanthropic endeavors and less cash to abstruse environmental causes, art and architecture.
ReplyDeleteOne way or another, the oligarchs shall fall from power and pay for their transgressions. For everyone's sake, let's pray that the elitists may be punished by duly-constituted courts of law ONLY.
ReplyDeleteI dunno...some of these comments are starting to be threats...perhaps it is time for the police and isp to do a little bit of ip tracing.
ReplyDeleteOn the contrary, the comments reflect respect for the LAW. Never forget that the people responsible for them want to witness the trial, conviction and sentencing hearing of each and every guilty got-loot goon. As for myself, I yearn to see a legitimate people's government smash our local business bullies--the Waxtrash!
ReplyDeleteNowhere do our Waxbashing commentators advocate vigilante violence and vandalism. May the LAW--and only the LAW--chastise the John-Swines.
ReplyDeleteI live and work for the day when the Serbonian Bog of ceraceous corruption shall be drained. Until then, the Waxies are in a poor position to yammer about aquatic purity or anyother form of cleanliness.
ReplyDeleteLet's focus on giving our rank-and-file citizens necessary economic assistance and stop playing elitist ecological games.
ReplyDeleteWaxtrash ecological games... We all know why our utility bills are rising, don't we?
ReplyDelete