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Show 52 when they were not in drought that would hopefully reduce their long- term impacts when faced by drought. Since then, six other states in the blue color there have also either revised their drought plans or developed a new plan that also incorporates these mitigation actions into their plans. The three states in red are in some stage of drought planning right now in trying to develop a state drought plan. California and Florida actually delegate their drought planning to local authorities. And what we have seen on some of the most successes we have seen at NDMC in working with these states is when states take a two- tier approach, there's drought planning at the state level but also drought planning at the municipal and water supplier level. South Carolina and Kentucky are good examples of those, Texas as well. Rhode Island is developing their plan, are trying to incorporate this aspect into their plan. And then Utah has actually been trying to encourage counties to come up with drought mitigation plans that would coordinate with their state drought mitigation plan. We really encourage these efforts and the NDMC actually works with a lot of states that you see up there trying to collect lessons learned at each of these states as they go through drought and they plan and prepare for droughts and provide this information to other states as well as internationally. The other areas where we have seen a lot of progress made in the drought planning arena of the United States is with the Native American tribes in Southwestern Utah. Right now the Hopi, Zuni and Navajo nations are at some stage of drought planning, so are a couple of other tribes in the southwest. They are getting assistance in drought planning efforts from the Bureau of Reclamation and they are also taking specific methodologies that have been adapted, developed by the the National Drought Mitigation Center and adapting them to their specific conditions and locations in order to develop a drought mitigation plan that would reduce their long- term impact from future droughts. There are considerable challenges in trying to reduce the drought impacts in the future by taking the risk management approach. One of the biggest challenges I think that we face is making that paradigm shift from the crises management response- oriented mode in dealing with droughts to a more proactive risk management approach that emphasizes mitigation and preparedness. So I think addressing this particular challenge, which Senator Domenici of New Mexico, and his colleagues in the Senate, and Representative Hastings of Florida, and several other Congressmen in the House, have introduced the National Drought Preparedness Act of 2002, a couple of weeks ago. This bill actually addresses the concept of risk management and looking at mitigation and preparedness in the United States on a national level. So the NDMC appreciates this committee should have a keen interest in this bill. One of the concerns NDMC has with the bill is scientists need to be the key component of membership of the proposed National Drought Council and a national drought policy needs to be based on clear scientific understanding of the issues and differing regional impacts and needs associated with drought in this country. Thank you. |