Global Water Technologies, Inc. (GWTR)

[Pro-Life]

In Digital Information Age, Water Data Is Not Always a Click Away
Congressional support and funding is dropping for U.S. water monitoring networks.

By Brett Walton
Circle of Blue

http://www.circleofblue.org/waternews/2014/world/digital-information-age-water-data-always-click-away/

Congress is inadequately funding two water monitoring programs run by the U.S. Geological Survey that independent review panels have deemed vital to the national interest – vital because the data the programs collect are used to forecast floods, design bridges and roads, and assess long-term changes in the nation’s water resources.

The data from the National Streamflow Information Program and the National Water Quality Assessment Program also act as a watchdog, helping regulators and advocates track the success and failure of the tens billions of dollars spent each year by local, state, and federal agencies to reduce pollution, revive endangered species, and restore ecosystems.

In short, say critics, Congress is being tight-fisted with an agency that provides more value per dollar than almost any other. Last year, the budget for the two programs was $US 140 million.

“It’s a sad state of affairs, and it’s shortsighted, especially given the dollar amounts involved,” Don Siegel, a Syracuse University professor who chaired a National Research Council assessment of the NAWQA program in 2012, told Circle of Blue. “The value added by the USGS is truly enormous. I can’t think of an agency where there is so little waste. It’s a tragedy that its mission is being diminished.”

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