Funding woes eroding national stream gage network
A record number of U.S. stream gages, possibly as many as 70, could stop collecting data during the next fiscal year if no funding emerges to pay for their continued operation, according to officials with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Even more significantly, some of these gages have been in operation for decades. These cuts come as climate change, growing populations, and competing priorities for water, such as the preservation and restoration of aquatic habitats, are driving a need for more streamflow data, not less, say researchers.
Currently, about 7400 USGS gages measure and record the quantity and variability of surface water flows nationwide, as well as water quality parameters, such as conductivity, temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, and total chlorophyll. The data support a wide range of activities, including flood forecasts; drinking water management; irrigation withdrawals; timing of wastewater discharges and reservoir releases; water quality standards development; legal and treaty obligations on interstate and international waters; and infrastructure designs for dams, levees, bridges, and roads.
Most of the monies for maintaining individual gages come from cost-sharing partnerships between the USGS and more than 800 state, local, tribal, and other agencies. “Every year, we lose and gain many stream gaging stations, but with state budget cuts and a tight federal budget, we may see more of a decline this year than in the past,” says Steve Blanchard, chief of the USGS Office of Surface Water. Most disturbing is that “we’re losing gages that have long periods of record, and the value of that data increases with the length of the record.” A gage costs between $12,000 and $17,000 annually to operate, Blanchard notes.
Although it is difficult to determine actual numbers, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi, and New Hampshire are slated to lose the largest number of gages in fiscal year (FY) 2005, including some that have been churning out data for 80 years. Since 1990, approximately 640 USGS stream gages with records of more than 30 years have been discontinued, according to the agency.
These historical records are particularly valuable for identifying the kinds of changes that occur with stream flows as a result of climate variation or changes in land and water use, says Sam Mabry, director of the land and water resources office within Mississippi’s Department of Environmental Quality. “We simply can’t use information that we gather during any one year as intelligently as we could otherwise with continuous historical data to compare it with.”
To curb the loss of stream gages, USGS developed in 2003 the National Streamflow Information Program (NSIP) to support a base of roughly 4400 stream gages deemed to be of such critical importance to the national network that their operation should be 100% federally funded. A 2004 review of the program by a U.S. National Research Council (NRC) panel concluded that “federal support of a base stream gaging network is recommended to ensure the long-term viability of this network for national needs and is justified because many national interests are served by providing streamflow information.” Blanchard estimates start-up costs of about $100 million to build and fully develop the NSIP infrastructure, with an additional $100 million needed annually for operations and maintenance. However, current federal funding stands at $14.2 million.
Nor is there any sign that the funding will improve. USGS has suffered from years of stagnant and declining budgets, and the federal FY ’05 budget will be no different. The omnibus appropriations bill that Congress approved in late November for the Department of the Interior, home of the USGS, contains a further 2.5% cut for the stream gage program; this lowers the fund to $13.9 million.
For more information, the NRC report, Assessing the National Streamflow Information Program, can be accessed at www.nap.edu/books/0309092108/html.
