Horizons broadening

I imagine by now that at least some of you are perhaps interested to know a little bit more about what I’m actually doing here on my Fulbright Scholarship. I promise to start including some more details in my blogs, and here is the first, albeit little, taste.

One of the things I’ve been most surprised by here in Australia is learning about all of the differences between water policy and river restoration in the US and in Australia. I certainly knew there were going to be differences, but I was surprised by what those differences were. In fact, it took me quite some time to realize some of them. I suppose it’s because I’ve been learning about water policy in the US for so long, and many things that are essentially given in the US either don’t apply at all, or are completely different here.

One of the most interesting differences for me was what environmental flows are used for in each country. For so long, I’ve thought of environmental flows as being in the river, providing habitat for fish and other creatures, and also somewhat mimicking the natural flow regime of a river, with floods and periods of lower flow. However, here in Australia, environmental flows are not really used in the river, but are really set aside for wetlands and floodplains adjacent to the river. Essentially, when these areas are flooded, birds and amphibians will breed, and also vegetation gets a good long drink, which enables it to survive through drier years. So, here, you can actually store environmental flows in a reservoir and then release them to piggy-back on a natural large flow event to either increase the duration or size of the flood.

I was having so much trouble understanding things here because I had a completely erroneous assumption about what environmental flows should be like. Once I figured it out, so many things started to make more sense. I guess the point of this blog and what I’ve realized is that it actually is really good to learn about situations different from the ones with which you’re most familiar. I think it helps you to break out with your thinking a little bit, because you can begin to see a wider world of possibilities.

Of course the differences can also mean that solutions to an issue in one country won’t work in another, but on the whole, I think differences can help all of us think more broadly about these similar threats, and brainstorm together to find better solutions.

Without going too far into the weeds, I thought I’d share a few of the other major differences between the US and Australia. First, there is a minimal NGO (non-governmental organization, usually a nonprofit) presence here, but NGOs play a major role in the US, influencing policy and increasing environmental flows by getting legal recognition for them or by purchasing water rights. Here, the Government fills that role, and people are really OK with that.

Also, there is no Endangered Species Act here, which is a major cornerstone of environmental law in the US. Most of the push for improving environmental health in Australia comes from public discontent with the current poor health of the Murray Darling Basin.

Finally, the states of the Murray Darling Basin recently decided to surrender power back to the Commonwealth so that the Federal Government could develop and implement a Basin Plan for the River that will determine environmentally-sustainable extraction limits. This is likely to result in a substantial reduction of existing water rights, and furthermore, is something that I can’t imagine ever happening in the US. States in the US are extremely protective of their power to regulate water rights, and the likelihood of several states agreeing to let Congress decide how water should be shared amongst them seems utterly impossible. This isn’t to say the Basin Plan will be a major success, but the concept of states ceding power to the federal government nearly floored me. I suppose this demonstrates again the value of studying in a different country—things you never thought possible suddenly become realities, even if they aren’t entirely adaptable to your own country.