What is needed is a set of policies that value natural flows and support their
restoration. To get there, we first need to encourage what I call “environmental
hydrology,” the science of the movement of water and its role in ecological
processes. To my mind, this is no different than how “environmental chemistry”
emerged in the late 1970s – when scientists began to focus on how chemicals
behave in ecological systems and think differently about chemistry as a result.
When hydrologists routinely think of water budgets in biologically relevant
time frames – hours, days, weeks and months – in addition to typical annual
water budgets, environmental hydrology will have arrived.
Environmental hydrology will need to guide how we use land and water.
The removal of dams that no longer have a useful purpose is one tangible step.
The re-operation of hydroelectric facilities is another. Freeing waterways to use
their floodplains is another flow restoration strategy. Agricultural areas can be
tapped to increase the ability of their lands to recharge aquifers and slow the
runoff of rain and snowmelt to surface waters. New residential and commercial
construction needs to be encouraged, and perhaps required, to improve
existing flow regimes.
Perhaps most importantly, the world will hold us to our own standards of
water use. The Great Lakes hold nearly one fifth of the world’s supply of fresh
water. As this becomes a scarce commodity throughout the world, increased
pressure will be brought upon the basin to meet human needs, or market
demand. International trade rules allow the governments of Canada and the
U.S. to stop the sale of water only if it is done to conserve exhaustible natural
resources and if the same rules apply to both domestic and international
consumption. As it stands, water in the Great Lakes is presently free for the
asking. If we are not able to export environmentally sensitive ways of using
water and protecting supplies, we may be forced to export the water itself.