Short- and Long-Term Solutions to Extreme Drought in the Western United States”

"Statement of, Charles V. Stern,  Specialist in Natural Resources Policy,  Before Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, U.S. Senate Hearing on
“Short- and Long-Term Solutions to Extreme Drought in the Western United States”

Chairman Manchin, Ranking Member Barrasso, and Members of the committee, thank you for inviting the Congressional Research Service (CRS) to provide testimony on short and long-term solutions to extreme drought in the western United States. My name is Charles Stern. I am a Specialist in Natural Resources Policy at CRS.

In serving Congress on a nonpartisan and objective basis, CRS takes no position on legislation and makes no recommendations. CRS remains available to assist the committee in its development and consideration of water resource and other legislation.

My comments today will largely focus on drought not in any one specific location, but as a broader policy issue. I will start by providing background and context on drought in general, including abbreviated information on the status of the current drought in the western United States and prospects for future droughts. I will then provide a broad survey of federal drought policy and authorities, along with a summary of some current proposals for new and modified approaches to address drought.

Background

Drought is a natural hazard with significant economic, social, and ecological consequences. Drought broadly refers to periods of substantially below-average moisture conditions. Generally, there four drought classifications:

 Meteorological drought is typically the degree of dryness, in comparison to a “normal” or average amount of dryness and the duration of a dry period. Meteorological drought is region-specific, because precipitation deficiency varies regionally.
 Hydrological drought reflects reduced surface and subsurface water supplies, such as streamflows, reservoir and lake levels, snowpack, and groundwater. The frequency and severity of this type of drought are measured on a watershed or river basin scale.
 Agricultural and ecological drought links characteristics of meteorological or hydrological drought to agricultural and ecological effects (such as plant-water-stress contributions to tree mortality), often using precipitation shortfalls, evapotranspiration differences, 2 soil moisture deficits, reduced groundwater or reservoir levels, and other variables.  Socioeconomic drought associates the “supply and demand of some economic goods with elements of meteorological, hydrological, and agricultural drought.”

The U.S. Drought Monitor—a partnership between federal and nonfederal entities—uses multiple indicators and indexes, together with expert opinion and stakeholder information, to estimate the intensity and effects of ongoing drought conditions. This information is illustrated weekly in maps. The U.S. Drought Monitor defines “drought” as “a moisture deficit bad enough to have social, environmental or economic effects.”3 It depicts drought intensity in five categories with increasing intensity of drought— D0 (abnormally dry), D1 (moderate), D2 (severe), D3 (extreme), and D4 (exceptional). The U.S. Drought
Monitor shows broad-scale regional drought conditions, but not necessarily drought circumstances at the local scale. The estimated drought intensity reported by the U.S. Drought Monitor can serve as a trigger for local, state, and federal responses to drought..."
Extreme Drought