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Urban Land

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1. Wild By Law: How Ideas become public policy

   

 

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How does the United States Govern Its Water?

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Taking Sides: Offshore Oil?

 

Taking Sides: Fracking?

 

 

 

 

1. Water in America

 

        Water and Economic development

   

      

        Water used for transportation, power, mining, waste disposal, and irrigation

 

 

       Water Problems:

               

                The west: water scarcity

 

                The east: water pollution

 

                Shorelines: Access

 

                Suburban development: drainage

 

2.  Water Pollution

 

• A wider range of pollutants can be carried by water than air

 

• Two sources of pollution:· Point  &  Non point
  
  
   

 

3.  The Politics of Water
 

        Access to water can be controlled more easily than access to air

 

                Water can be cleaned before people use it

 

       

         Many water projects are expensive public construction projects that have high stakes, for developers, industries, and construction interests.

 

        Dams, levees, harbors, sewers, water filtration plants

 

Water projects are local - so that elected politicians have strong incentives to seek and claim credit for them

 

        Dams, levees, harbors, sewers, water filtration plants

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4.  Water Policy
 

a.  The Conservation Era 

 

St. Louis

 

Federal responsibility

   

        1899: Rivers and Harbors Act

 

        the Reclamation Act of 1902

 

State actions: U.S. Interstate Water Compacts

 

b.  The Environmental Era 

 

         Policy succession: from information to grants and command and control

        · 1948: Republicans put forward a federal water pollution policy proposal

 

        · 1956: Water Pollution Control Act; grants to the cities
                          for wastewater treatment

        · 1965: Water Quality Act

        · 1972: Clean Water Act