Cadmus Expert Advocates a “Symphonic” Approach to Watershed Management

For Immediate Release
For Additional Information, contact:
Melissa Saunders
The Cadmus Group, Inc.
757.897.6268
mwsaunders@cox.net

Cadmus Expert Advocates a “Symphonic” Approach to Watershed Management

Watertown, Mass. December 20, 2006 — The looming challenges of water shortages and polluted runoff from urbanization and agriculture require a “symphonic” approach to watershed management, says G. Tracy Mehan III, a principal with The Cadmus Group, Inc. (www.cadmusgroup.com), a global environmental consulting firm.

“Given a growing population and expanding urban settlements and their concomitant impacts on water quality and supply, we need to assess, monitor, and manage our water resources comprehensively rather than compartmentally,” writes Mehan in the current issue of Water Resources IMPACT, a publication of the American Water Resources Association (AWRA, www.awra.org).  

Mehan, who served as assistant administrator for water at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, views a symphonic approach to watershed management as one that can “comprehend the whole truth of a matter” and “harmonize or account for many different, but related, parts of a very complex piece.”  

“In view of the complexity of water management in the 21st century, this is a compelling, useful metaphor,” says Mehan.  

Mehan argues that “for too long we have focused on different aspects of water management in isolation of others.”  

Current law and practice views issues such as water quantity and quality, end-of-the pipe discharges (point sources) and diffused, polluted runoff (nonpoint sources), as well as supply and demand management, as separate categories to be managed independently of one another.

“Overcoming these artificial categories cries out for a holistic approach drawing upon numerous disciplines in a collaborative, integrative mode of watershed or basin management,” writes Mehan.

Mehan believes that for integrated watershed management to be successful, it “must work socially and politically, not just hydrologically.”  

“So water managers will have to engage a wide array of stakeholders with endless patience, in a spirit of civic education, on the challenges of managing the waters of the U.S. for the benefit of humanity as well as the natural world,” says Mehan.

Mehan will discuss these and other issues at AWRA’s Third National Water Resources Policy Dialogue, January 22 & 23, 2007, in Arlington, Virginia, where he will be part of a panel on “Provocateur Presentations: How I See the Issues and the Discussions.”

About The Cadmus Group

Founded in 1983, employee-owned Cadmus (www.cadmusgroup.com) helps government, nonprofit, and corporate clients address critical challenges in the environmental and energy sectors. We provide an array of research and analytical services in the United States and abroad, specializing in solving complex problems that demand innovative, multidisciplinary thinking. Among Cadmus’ major practice areas are Drinking Water and Water Quality, Communications and Social Marketing, Energy Services (including energy efficiency and renewable energy), Risk Assessment, Environmental Impact Assessment and Environmentally Sound Design, and Environmental Management.

Our staff includes scientists; engineers; statisticians; economists; MBAs; marketing, public relations, and communications professionals; attorneys; information technology specialists; and public policy analysts. Many of our senior consultants are nationally recognized experts in their fields and several serve on high-level U.S. government science advisory boards.