Professor Callahan's group has spent the semester learning about the bill to establish the Twenty-First Century Water Commission. This Act, sponsored by Senator Johnny Isakson, aims to study and develop recommendations for a comprehensive water strategy to address future water needs. Water quantity and quality are of such concern because climate change causes droughts and flooding. Water is needed to support the four greatest human demands: electricity production, agricultural needs, industrial needs, and residential needs. The Workshop group has learned that seemingly unrelated social trends - baby-boomer retirement, relocation choices - are amplifying already problematic scenarios of climate change by increasing demand in dryer areas. Pollution can also increase in areas where flooding occurs intensified by larger, less frequent single-event rainfalls. Suburban expansion also impacts the quality and quantity of available water.
The bill proposes to establish a commission to develop a national water strategy that will address water quality and quantity issues the United States faces and will face over the next 50 years. The commission's purpose is to study and project future supply, demand of freshwater in the U.S., and produce a comprehensive water-use strategy. The group has now analyzed and discussed the Act, explored the science behind the proposed solutions, predicted issues and controversies, and tracked the program's success.