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Show Service and National Park Service units, which yield about 96 percent of all water from public lands. It has been shown that, on the average, 58 percent of all major stream sediment loads in the 11 western states are contributed by public lands. Most of these high sediment-yielding lands are managed by the Bureau of Land Management, which reported that $298 million are presently needed to correct this condition. At the past rate of expenditure it would take 60 years to achieve that goal. Stream sediment loads reduce reservoir storage capacity, in addition to affecting fish habitat, municipal water supplies, and irrigated crops. Practically all power and irrigation storage reservoirs in the 11 western states are highly dependent upon public land water. The Water Resources Council has reported that at the present rate of silt deposition, the reduction in storage capacity of all reservoirs in the Nation totals about one million acre-feet per year.14 The 690 reservoirs in the 11 western states, with an aggregate capacity of 207.5 million acre-feet, involve an investment of some $12.5 billion. The efficiency 14 Water Resources Council. The Nation's Water Resource 5-5-4 (1968). and investment in these water storage facilities will be substantially reduced in the future if the present sedimentation rate continues. Watershed Protection Recommendation 57: Congress should require the public land management agencies to submit a comprehensive report describing: (1) the objectives of current watershed protection and management programs; (2) the actual practices carried on under these programs; and (3) the demonstrated effect of such practices on the program objectives. Based on such information, Congress should establish specific goals for watershed protection and management, provide for preference among them, and commit adequate funds to achieve them. Statutory and administrative objectives of watershed protection and management practices are generally uncertain and often conflicting; programs and practices thereunder are diverse and of unequal In the absence of erosion-control measures, water seeks its own level without hindrance, sometimes via gullies ar 150 |
