Remarks by Cecil D. Andrus
Idaho Water Reuse Conference
‘The Native Home of Hope…”
Boise, Idaho | June 17, 2008

The great western writer Wallace Stegner called our part of the world – “the native home of hope.”  I’ve always liked that description because I continue to believe that the American West is the last, best place of opportunity.  You can still make your mark out here with grit, determination and a good idea.  Opportunity – and hope – still exists in the Great American West.

But, amid this optimism I offer some caution.  Our resources – particularly our water resources – are not unlimited.  Our potential for growth and development seems at times that it is unlimited, but as you all know so very well – water is the great equalizer in the west and water is a finite resource.

Over the last few weeks we have been enjoying the moisture of a wet spring.  It is the type of weather, following a good winter snowpack, that can cause us suspend the knowledge, at least for a moment, that we live in the desert.

Our region is – and always will be – defined by scarcity, yet too many of us continue to behave as though there are no limits, that unbridled growth and development can and should continue, and we can use and use water resources because there will always be more where this came from.

You may have noticed – we’re in an election year.  We will have a new President in January, a new administration, and I hope a new attitude in Washington that will begin to address real problems that all of us know exist and have simply been ignored for too long.

Case in point:  global climate change or as some say “global warming.”

Against all the accumulating scientific evidence and in the face of world opinion, as a nation we continue to largely play lip service to the issue.  I’m not a doomsayer about climate change, but again for anyone looking for the public interest, it is pretty hard to ignore the mounting evidence. 

I was struck recently by a news story out of Siberia to the effect that studies conducted over the last 26 years, using satellite photos, clearly indicate that lakes in northern Siberia are shrinking and disappearing at a steady rate as the Arctic climate warms and the permafrost thaws.

I quote from the article:  “Researchers found that the number of large lakes in a 220,000-square mile region had declined by 1,170 or more than 11 percent…”

It’s difficult perhaps to get very agitated about a bunch of lakes in Siberia drying up, but can anyone really doubt that human activity and the burning of fossil fuels is changing the climate?  The evidence is all around us.  An eighth grade science class knows it’s true, but not U.S. policy makers.

We haven’t even begun to understand how climate change is impacting us in the Pacific Northwest, but we know it is.  What does it mean for future water resource allocation decisions?  What happens in the American southwest when we no long have the water to come close to filling Lake Mead?  How do we manage the urban growth trades measured against traditional uses of irrigated agriculture?

Those issues must be on the political radar – now.

I would bet that if you were to ask folks across the Pacific Northwest why they live in this part of the world most would say – “it’s the quality of the lifestyle…”

A good job is critical, of course, and an opportunity for a good education for the kids is critical.  But, day-in and day-out we love the Pacific Northwest because of the lifestyle – the outdoors, the recreation, the hunting and fishing, the chance to not just think about solitude and splendor, but to actually experience it.

The poor folks who live in southern California, unfortunately, don’t have the same quality of life.  The crowd inside the Washington, D.C. beltway – well, they’re clearly in another world.  Quality is not something they think about much and practice less.

But, you get my point:  this is a special place because we have not yet, at least, screwed up the high quality of life.

We are working at it, however.

When we talk about overly rapid growth – often without much planning or thought – we don’t just talk about Las Vegas or Denver any more.  We can talk about Ada County, Idaho, or the Bitterroot Valley of Montana, or even Coeur d’Alene.

The same folks who would tell you they live here for the quality of life will also tell you, I believe, that they are very concerned that growth is driving property taxes.  Growth is causing air quality concerns and it is changing the basic character of many, many places in the West.

In many places we have not planned adequately for too many automobiles and too much farm land is being lost to urbanization.

Make no mistake, growth is very desirable in many ways – it helps fuel a strong economy, for example – but growth is also placing ever greater stress upon the west’s incredibly valuable water resources.

Water – clean, abundant and available – is the issue of the 21st Century in the American west and you folks are at the center of providing this indispensable resource, keeping it clean and available.

Thinking about coming here this morning and spending a few minutes with you caused me to go back and review some work we undertook at the Andrus Center for Public Policy a while back.  We considered our west-wide water situation and even looked at our water resources in the context of global demands for clean, abundant water.

Permit me to mention just three of the major conclusions from the work of the Andrus Center on water:

1. Our water future is increasingly dependent on collaborative processes.  Simply put, we need all the parties at the table in order to come up with good solutions that solve real problems.  This strongly suggests that we must understand and respect the various – and often competing values – that underlie our different views of water.  Only when we get this kind of agreement can we expect the politicians to get involved.
2. No surprise to all of you, the American West continues to undergo rapid demographic change.  Growth in population is going to continue.  Major urban areas will grow more and areas like Boise and Bend, Coeur d’ Alene and Kalispell will become substantially larger.  As I’ve already mentioned, these water needs of these urban areas are increasing in importance.  Coping with that change will be harder for some than others.  At the same time, ways must continue to be found to help agriculture-dependent communities as water use patterns change over time.
3. Another conclusion, as I’ve already suggest, much of the West is arid or semiarid.  As the West grows, newcomers as well as natives must understand this reality of Western living.  It will be a limiting factor at times.  The late Marc Reissner, in his provocative book – Cadillac Desert – said it well:  “the West has a desert heart.”
   So, we have some work to do.  You have some work to do.

Using and reusing water will become only more important in our part of the world.  You will devise the solutions.

You will do the planning and the engineering and the construction that will ensure that waste water is properly treated, cleaned and returned to the environment.

It is a huge responsibility.

Let me offer one final thought.  As we are forced to confront issues of water shortage, cost and use, you will need to step up and provide the innovative leadership that the west will need.  It would be a mistake to think that political leaders will get to solutions by themselves, and I say that as a fellow who spent 35 years in public life.

Politicians, more and more, respond only to crisis or chaos.  They tend not to solve problems unless folks like you present the solution…or the crisis becomes so serious that the public demands action.

So…I know you think of yourselves as implementers of policy and not policy makers, but these issues are so important and the right outcome so critical that you must be involved in creating solutions.