The Western Drought Experience The Western Drought Coordination Council's Report to the National Drought Policy Commission May 1999

Introduction
Background
A Western Vision for Future Drought Management
Western Drought Coordination Council Experiences
Possible Future Actions Recommended by the WDCC
Additional Drought Policy Suggestions
Acknowledgments

The Western Drought Coordination Council (WDCC) was formed in February 1997 through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed by: the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), U.S. Department of Interior (DOI), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Small Business Administration (SBA), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, National Association of Counties, and the Western Governors' Association (WGA). The goal of the MOU, and subsequently the WDCC, is to improve the planning, communication, data and response with regard to the management of droughts.

Drought is a normal part of the climate for virtually all regions of the United States, but it is of particular concern in the West, where any interruption of the region's already limited water supplies over extended periods of time can produce devastating impacts. Records indicate that drought occurs somewhere in the West almost every year. However, it is multi-year drought events that are of the greatest concern to water planners, natural resource managers and government policy makers.

Water scarcity continually defines and redefines the West. The steady growth that has been characteristic for much of the West today creates increased demands for agricultural, municipal and industrial water supplies. Furthermore, such competing demands as the public's rising concern for meeting "quality of life" and environmental objectives create water supply management challenges in times of normal precipitation. Drought exasperates these challenges.

Recent examples of drought which caused damaging and costly economic and environmental impacts include the following:

• 1976-1977: The Pacific Northwest, California and adjoining areas were afflicted with an extremely intense drought. Although the drought was of relatively short duration, water supplies became stressed.

• 1986-1993: An extensive drought in California, the Pacific Northwest and the Great Basin states lasted for seven years stressing water systems and resources, and impacting water quality and supplies for agriculture, public use, recreation, fish and wildlife and other uses.

• 1995-1996: A drought gripped the southwestern and southern Great Plains states of Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas and parts of Colorado and Utah. Considered one of the worst in a century for the area, it had serious detrimental impacts to agricultural, environmental and social values. In Texas, losses to the agriculture industry exceeded $2.1 billion; statewide losses exceeded $5 billion.

• 1997-1998: A drought again struck Texas and the southern plains.

In response to the 1995-1996 drought, Governor Gary Johnson of New Mexico sponsored a WGA resolution (96-03) which states, "The western governors believe that a comprehensive, integrated response to drought emergencies is critical...It is important to work together and cooperatively with other affected entities to plan for and implement measures that will provide relief from the current drought and prepare for future drought emergencies." Implementation of the resolution led to the preparation of the report, The Western Governors' Association Drought Action Plan, which became the framework for a number of specific actions.

Concurrent to development and adoption of WGA Resolution 96-03 by the governors, President Clinton directed Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Director, James Lee Witt, to prepare a report with recommendations to improve response to the on-going drought emergency.

The FEMA report and the Western Governors' Association Drought Action Plan concluded that future drought response needed to be reevaluated in order to better integrate the preparedness, response and mitigation programs of all levels of government (federal, state, tribal, and local). To that end, these separate initiatives led to the partnership that became the WDCC.

The WDCC mission and objectives, as stated in the 1997 MOU, are shown below.

Mission

Through a balanced, open and inclusive process, develop and implement model drought policies and management/mitigation measures that reduce impacts associated with droughts and that promote economic and environmental sustainability in the West.

Objectives

• Encourage and help western states, and local and tribal governments to develop and implement drought preparedness and mitigation programs and plans by establishing and maintaining a clearinghouse of information on techniques and procedures for drought monitoring and prediction, response, planning and mitigation.
• Identify and make recommendations on drought issues, legislation and program implementation at the state, regional and national levels.
• Improve information exchange and coordination at all levels of government by facilitating the development and implementation of an efficient drought monitoring and information delivery system.
• Heighten awareness and understanding of regional drought management and policy issues and promote the efficient use of water in the West.

The strength of the WDCC is in the diversity of representation on the Council and work groups. The nine member council has four federal members (USDA, DOI, FEMA, and SBA), three states (Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas), one tribal government representative and one representative from the National Association of Counties. The council has met on several occasions and a Work Plan has been developed and approved annually by the Council.

The Work Plan is divided into four principal sections:

1. Monitoring/Assessment/Prediction
2. Preparedness and Mitigation
3. Response
4. Communications

It is important to note that the various governmental entities all had differing needs and expectations when it came to planning for and/or responding to droughts. The WDCC provides a forum for working together to coordinate and integrate governmental actions at all levels.

As the WDCC worked to address a range of drought-related issues, it became clear to WDCC members that a comprehensive vision for future drought monitoring, mitigation and response is essential.

The WDCC suggests that the following elements are critical to the development and implementation of a comprehensive national vision:

• A national policy must be enacted which provides for a comprehensive, coordinated and integrated approach to future drought, and which focuses on agreed to outcomes and provides for the following critical elements:

  Monitoring/Assessment/Prediction
  Provides for the development of a comprehensive monitoring system to collect, analyze and disseminate available data and products in a useable manner. The system should track physical impact characteristics of drought to assist others in assessing impacts on various water users, economic sectors and the environment. The monitoring system will be used to provide information that is critical for decision makers to determine the onset, severity and termination of drought and appropriate responses.

  Preparedness and Mitigation
  Provides a framework that assists states, federal agencies, tribes, local governments and water utility agencies with assessing their vulnerabilities and, therefore, enables themselves to reduce the economic, social and environmental impacts (i.e. vulnerability) of drought; provides incentives for a variety of preparedness actions, policies and mitigation options that can facilitate improved cooperation among all levels of government and promote individual responsibilities in planning for and mitigating drought impacts; provides policy to promote drought contingency planning, emphasizing a more proactive, anticipatory approach to drought management.

  Response
  Enhances the current drought response capability of federal agencies, states, localities and tribes through a variety of appropriate policies and programs; provides needed policy to promote regional drought response mutual aid; strengthens intergovernmental response partnerships; and improves overall drought response management and customer service.

  Communications
  Encourages the use of a variety of communication tools to identify and use drought-related information networks to facilitate the exchange and dissemination of drought-related information.

• The national framework must utilize appropriate risk-based analysis that provides for a greater opportunity to implement cost-effective policies which enhance the role of individuals and minimize the effects on federal, state, tribal and local budgets.
• Future policies should provide greater opportunity and incentives to proactively integrate drought planning into day-to-day business decisions, thereby reducing the effects of drought and reducing the overall response needs to all sectors including: agriculture, water allocation and planning, wildlife and the environment.
• National and regional coordination networks should be established to reduce the effects of drought and to encourage new professional networks and communication links to reduce response times and enhance planning and mitigation activities.
• While political boundaries are important in planning and responding to droughts, the geographical/regional effects of drought need to become better integrated into future drought preparedness and response.

The implementation of a comprehensive vision as outlined above should provide for the following:

• improved efficiencies (with the goal of reducing costs) for all levels of government,
• improved communications and response to the public at the national, regional and local levels,
• an atmosphere to create more individual responsibility through proactive actions, and
• a more diverse range of management options available to decision makers in the future.

MONITORING, ASSESSMENT, AND PREDICTION

Description of the Program

The Monitoring, Assessment, and Prediction (MAP) working group goals and objectives are to:

• develop a monitoring system that could provide timely recognition of the occurrence of drought to local, state, tribal, and federal officials responsible for implementing drought response measures,
• prepare guidelines pertinent to triggers and thresholds for use by decision makers at all levels, and
• provide alerts to decision makers of impending drought, drought severity, or the termination of drought.

MAP Group Experiences

Production of the "Western Climate and Water Status, Quarterly Report" proved to be an effective focal point around which to organize water and climate syntheses for the western states. This is the first large-scale, region-wide attempt to systematically link diagnostic information from both the climate and water sides.

The production of the quarterly report highlighted the disparities with respect to accessibility and uniformity between water information (difficult to obtain) and climate information (easier to obtain). Of particular note is the inability to rapidly place current water information (streamflow, reservoir storage, groundwater levels) into a long-term historical perspective. Snowpack, mountain precipitation and streamflow forecasts are readily available through existing efforts of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and the National Weather Service (NWS).

In the climate arena, one long-standing special need has been to obtain widespread input regarding local climatic conditions and impacts from state, tribal, and local entities (approximately 20-50 sites from each state - more from larger states) with the following characteristics: both urban and rural areas, lengthy and compatible pre-existing climate records, updated daily, and digitally accessible. These efforts must continue, especially if a national assessment of conditions is to be done which is linked with emergency assistance programs.

Simple web interfaces were developed to display a superior description of national drought status (the Standardized Precipitation Index is an example) than was previously available. Linkages were identified to a set of web pages to assist MAP members and interested parties in locating information accessible via the web.

Long-Lead Outlooks issued by the Climate Prediction Center provided assistance in anticipating possible future conditions that were incorporated into the quarterly report. New and better tools to interpret and utilize these outlooks need to be developed.

PREPAREDNESS AND MITIGATION

Description of the Program

The Preparedness and Mitigation working group:

• concentrates on short- and long-term national management issues that are intended to reduce the economic, social, and environmental impacts of drought;
• identifies preparedness actions and mitigation options that will facilitate this process and works cooperatively with localities, states, tribes, and federal agencies; and
• promotes drought contingency planning, and emphasizes a more proactive, anticipatory approach to drought impact management in the region.

Some general, on-going goals of the working group include:

• developing recommendations for drought planning and management alternatives to mitigate short- and long-term impacts before, during, and after drought emergencies occur;
• developing and maintaining an information clearinghouse on drought monitoring and prediction, response, mitigation, and preparedness for users throughout the region;
• developing educational resources (e.g., booklets, reports, videos, drought simulations) that promote the concepts of drought planning and mitigation to a diverse audience; and
• interacting with local, state, tribal, and federal officials in the West and in other regions to share experiences on drought planning and mitigation.

Preparedness and Mitigation Experiences

The basic concepts behind mitigation and preparedness include:

• a thoughtful analysis of why an area is subject to specific drought induced impacts;
• analysis of drought impacts that can be identified as either acceptable risks, or risks that have mitigation actions that can be taken to reduce future impacts; and
• the development of drought contingency plans that foster efficient water management, are fundamental principles universal in nature, and are applicable not only nation-wide but also internationally.

While the basic concepts are universal in nature, the application in specific details vary by geographic, economic, and social aspects. Therefore, there is a distinct applicability of the

concepts to regional levels of the country. Drought induced impacts are generally regional in occurrence (occurring over several counties, river basins, and often over several states). While the severity of impacts may vary within a region for any given drought event, the identification of risks and of appropriate mitigation actions that can lead to future impact reduction is best achieved through regional analysis and implementation.

RESPONSE

Description of the Program

The goals of the Response working group (RWG) are to:

• enhance the drought response capability of federal agencies, states, localities and tribes;
• promote regional drought response aid;
• strengthen intergovernmental response partnerships; and
• improve overall drought response management and customer service for future droughts.

Response Group Experiences

The following represents the collective experiences of the RWG group over the past two years.

'The Catalog of Federal Assistance Programs' was compiled to help individuals and governments determine what programs are available to help reduce the effects of droughts. The Catalog is categorized by the type of assistance and gives a brief description of each program including the name of the agency that administers the program, a national and local contact person, type of assistance, who is eligible, and eligibility rules.

The group completed a Historical Drought Impact Survey of a majority of the western states. The survey will provide states experiencing future droughts with a valuable resource to evaluate what worked and what did not work. The information obtained on the surveys will be made available on the WGA website. A national survey could be completed which then could be linked with emergency assistance programs.

The RWG reviewed the "Drought Response Action Plan," published by the WGA in November of 1996, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency's report, "Drought of 96." Review of existing drought reports can provide great insight into concerns about unmet needs when droughts occur and provide data that can be used to formulate more comprehensive response programs.

Posting of response products on the WDCC website was a tremendous success in making the public aware of what assistance is available. Also, linking one website to another related website is a very important way to expand the public's access to as much relevant data as possible, i.e., WDCC to NDMC.

COMMUNICATIONS

Description of Program

An important activity of the WDCC is communications. The need to keep participants informed, engaged and involved was a primary consideration in the initial organization of the working groups. Members discussed the option of including communications functions internal to each working group, and decided that having a specific, separately identified working group for communications functions would provide a number of benefits to the Council.

Some of the benefits include:

• ability to ensure consistency in the information, message and tone of the written and oral communications to a variety of audiences;
• editing of technical information for non-technical audiences;
• expanded audiences for the information prepared by the other groups;
• involvement of various stakeholder groups through outreach presentations in workshops and other publications; and
• maintaining a highly professional communications approach in all Council productions, publications and presentations.

In addition to coordinating the overall Council communications, the group was created to provide specific assistance to the other working groups for products and presentations for internal and external audiences. The assistance included:

• editing of other working group products;
• graphics to accentuate written and oral products and presentations;
• quality, cost-effective production of technical publications, public and non-technical communications;
• website establishment, maintenance and linkages;
• oral presentations on stakeholder involvement techniques in workshops; and
• state-of-the-art computer assisted presentations at annual meetings.

The group assisted the Steering Group in establishing a communications protocol, to ensure adequate review and approval occurred with all forms of communications representing the Council, prior to dissemination. This was an important early step in ensuring the integrity regarding official Council information.

Communication Group Experiences

One of the primary objectives in establishing the WDCC was to provide timely, appropriate information to a diverse audience of people and interests involved in or affected by drought. Developing useful information is important, and communicating that information appropriately to various audiences is equally important. The success of the WDCC may be attributed in large part to the effective way in which the technical working groups interacted harmoniously with the communications working group. An important criterion underlying their successful relationship is that the communications group included individuals who are experienced in technical communications and had some familiarity with the subject matter. As a result, communications from the Council were consistent, accurate, and tailored to various audiences through different communication vehicles.

In addition, the group also facilitated discussions among the steering and working group members to ensure common understanding of and agreement on definitions, goals, objectives and directions in the Council activities. These consensus-based facilitation techniques are applicable in most every situation where diverse interests are involved. Smooth and shared communications within the organization help ensure consistent and appropriate communications to others.

1. The activities initiated by the WDCC could be emulated in the remainder of the country as part of a coordinated national effort. With much of the infrastructure already begun through the WDCC's efforts, a national oversight group could provide a clear mandate, management, and resources which would ensure success for a variety of drought related activities on a national level.
2. The WDCC recommends that the National Drought Policy Commission (NDPC) consider linking the national oversight group to regional groups for program delivery. Drought and other water issues have greatly different physical characteristics, impacts, political response mechanisms, and thus informational needs, from region to region. These regional perspectives should utilize existing institutions such as the Regional Climate Centers.
3. It is critical to provide resources and designate a responsible agency or group to produce a national drought assessment report. The momentum toward improved linkages, communications and access to basic data engendered by the WDCC for the western states should also not be lost. The "Western Climate and Water Status, Quarterly Report," with its uniquely strong dependence on snowpack and topography, should be maintained--in service of both regional and national needs--and the ability to obtain the requisite basic input data should be strengthened.
4. Basic weather, water, and climate observations are the foundation of the monitoring and assessment activity which alerts the nation to impending drought. It is recommended that the NDPC support funding for maintenance and modernization of the observational networks to ensure that the data will continue to be available into the future. Additionally, it is particularly important that the local, state, and tribal interests are brought into the process to provide input on both climate/water conditions, especially on impacts, and ensure local acceptance of the resulting assessments.
5. Snowpack information is extremely important in assessing drought conditions in the West. Similarly, better and more extensive information on snow extent and water content is needed, including via the web, for the northern portions of the Midwestern and Eastern states.
6. Development of long-term soil moisture and groundwater reference networks is recommended. Reservoir storage, streamflow, ground water, and soil moisture information, both current and historical, must become more accessible, especially via the web.
7. The NDPC should provide specific ideas which Congress could consider in national legislation to encourage the incorporation of incentives for drought mitigation and preparedness at the local, state and regional levels, including educational resources that promote the concepts of drought planning. The NDPC should also provide suggestions for funding of the activities associated with mitigation and preparedness.
8. The NDPC should support the establishment of a statutorily designated lead federal agency, adequately funded, that would coordinate communication and cooperation among the various regional groups, to ensure an absence of duplication and the encouragement of complimentary actions including establishment of a clearinghouse, with possible regional subsections.
9. The NDPC may consider developing a drought situation report to determine whether the assistance programs adequately meet the needs of those adversely impacted by droughts. An approach under development by the WDCC uses the Internet to access assistance information, and provides opportunities for feedback regarding assistance effectiveness. This test procedure may be helpful to the NDPC in their efforts to assess the timeliness and effectiveness of the response programs currently in place at the federal, state and local levels. By creatively using the Internet to compile capabilities, policy makers and others would be able to quickly assess historical information and in which areas additional assistance is needed.
10. The Historical Drought Impact Survey data developed by the WDCC should be maintained and expanded to include drought experiences from other regions of the country. Some issues are intrinsic to all states while others vary based on circumstances in different regions of the country. Significant analysis and review have been done on numerous drought concerns, and reports are available that reflect valuable past experiences and recommendations. Reports should be utilized to take advantage of prior efforts and to help identify primary drought concerns.
11. The Catalog of Federal Assistance Programs applies to all states nation-wide and the NDPC should make specific recommendations noting its value and ways to ensure that the catalog be kept current as program information changes.
12. The WDCC was interested in utilizing media to raise awareness of drought issues, but without a national direction, the Council was not able to tap into national and regional media including television, large newspapers and professional association communication vehicles. The NDPC should utilize this opportunity to raise drought issues on a national level.

This section of the WDCC report is intended to serve as a location for diverse suggestions or ideas to address drought issues that are not necessarily related to the activities of the WDCC or may not have the full consensus of the WDCC, but which the WDCC encourages the NDPC to explore.

1. With increasing privatization of the utility industry, sharing of basic resource data is being impacted. In a recent example, the October issue of the "Quarterly Report" did not include reservoir data for California because utility companies would not share basic reservoir information in a timely manner. The potential for this type of unwillingness to share status information in a timely fashion may grow as a problem. It is recommended that an open data exchange policy be implemented for all federal, state, tribal, local, and private entities.
2. The NDPC should discuss the feasibility of a policy in which future responses to drought impacts provide incentives to manage resources efficiently.
3. It is recommended that the NDPC discuss the merits that some emergency drought responses reinforce the continuation of water and land management practices that lead to future impacts, continuing the cycle of recurring drought impacts.
4. The NDPC should consider the merits that some drought impacts are inevitable, and should be recognized as a risk that government should not respond to, except in the cases of public health and safety.
5. Alternatives to previously provided livestock feed assistance programs should be considered by the NDPC. This would include rangeland/pasture crop insurance programs or funding for livestock transportation from forage-deficit areas. The program should be available for private, tribally and publicly owned lands.
6. The NDPC should review the 1996 FEMA drought report and the Western Governors' Association Drought Action Plan recommendations to determine if additional suggestions or ideas to improve monitoring, response, planning and communication of drought issues should be included in the NDPC report to Congress.

Western Drought Coordination Council

James M. Souby, Executive Director
Shaun McGrath, Program Manager
Bruce Flinn, Natural Resources Consultant

Page last updated 10/10/1999