Economics in Regional Water Research and Policy

Abstract

The federal government has long been active in the area of water resource development. Several agencies are deeply involved in this work: the Corps of Army Engineers, the Bureau of Reclamation, the Soil Conservation Service, and the Federal Water Pollution Control Administration provide examples. In this decade, Congress has established the framework for new directions in water development throughout the nation. The passage of the Water Resources Planning Act (Public Law 89-80) and the establishment of the cabinet-level Water Resources Council has made specific the desire for coordinated and comprehensive water planning. Subsequent to the establishment of the Water Resources Council, twenty major hydrologic regions of the nation have been identified for purposes of comprehensive planning. Eleven of the regions are currently developing their comprehensive water resource development plans. The role of the economist is a demanding one in this multidisciplinary comprehensive planning effort [10]. We are viewed by administration of these programs as capable of generating ex ante the economic potentials for alternative resource development projects. This would include the summation of economic benefits for inclusion of the benefit-cost analysis outlined in Senate Document 97 [18]. Finally, we are to provide economic projections, both national and regional, to indicated future needs for resource development. This, of course, assumes that we know the relationship between levels of resource development and economic growth or vice versa. Further assumed is that the relationship is positive and highly significant.