Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
and a number of groups have urged the Obama administration to
appoint a national water czar, as of press time no appointment had
been made. However, the administration has made a number of
water-related appointments—mini-czars, including:
Deputy Interior Secretary David J. Hayes as the water czar for
California
Cameron Davis, then president and CEO of the Alliance for
the Great Lakes, as special adviser to the U.S. EPA overseeing
its Great Lakes restoration plan
John Tubbs, a long-time Montana water resources administra-
tor, as deputy assistant secretary for water and science
Anne Castle, prominent Denver water attorney, as assistant
secretary of the interior for water and science
(The United Nations appointed a “water czar,” Maude Barlow
of Canada, in December 2008.)
The longer answer, to the U.S. water czar question, however—
as we discussed in Chapter 5—involves politics and power as well as
personal, state, regional, and local agendas.
Policy for All
In 2007, New Mexico governor Bill Richardson—then a Democratic
presidential candidate—fl oated a proposal to develop a national
water policy and create a U.S. Department of Water that would be
headed by a cabinet-level secretary of water. That policy would
include the sharing of resources between those states with water—
including those on the Great Lakes—and those without. The out-
rage against the proposal and Richardson was immediate.
“If you want to touch off fi reworks for the next millennium,
push that concept of national control of water,” says Roger Sims,
past chair of the Florida Bar Environmental and Land Use Law
Section and member of the American Bar Association Standing
Committee on Environmental Law. “A state water board was pro-
posed in Florida, and the backlash was unbelievable. Those areas
that have water don't want anyone managing their water out from
under them. And those that don't have it obviously would like some
