Building Livable Communities

Show Me the Water!

Dates: March 18-21, 2004, Yosemite National Park

Intro | Agenda

Draft Ahwahnee Principles for Water Supply, Water Quality and Watershed Integrity

Preamble

Water is essential for our communities, agricultural systems and our environment.

However, continued unsustainable patterns of population growth, development and water use are depleting our water systems, devastating natural ecosystems, impairing economic development, jeopardizing valued drinking water supplies and reducing the quality of life in our communities.

Maintenance of reliable water supplies and water quality and protection of all of the beneficial uses of these resources depends largely on the development decisions made by local governments.

We have a choice — to continue the historic patterns of inefficient land and water use or to seek a new future using resource-sensitive planning that links sustainable development to sustainable water supplies, water quality and watershed protection.

Such planning should adhere to the Ahwahnee Principles for Resource Efficient Communities in concert with the following:

• Communities should recognize and live within the limits of available water resources.
• Communities should promote a stewardship ethic to care for and sustainably manage water resources.
• Communities should maximize self -sufficiency and reliability of water resources by developing a diverse portfolio of local and regional water supplies and efficient water management practices.
• Communities should maximize available potable supplies by ensuring that the type of water being used is matched with the appropriate end use.
• Communities should support natural resources planning on a watershed basis and use whole system management approaches when evaluating development. They should encourage adjacent communities to collaborate on such efforts within their watersheds.
• Communities should protect and restore natural systems, habitats, groundwater recharge areas and watersheds as an integral part of water management and local land use planning and development.
• Communities should use natural systems wherever possible to achieve flood control, water quality and water supply goals, and should attempt to mimic and restore natural ecosystems and hydrologic functions when projects are constructed.
• Communities should encourage the design of buildings, landscapes, and land use to maximize water efficiency, water reuse, and the beneficial use of storm water including groundwater recharge and improving water quality.
• Communities should evaluate the multiple benefits of a project or program and incorporate this information into cost effectiveness analyses.
• Communities should fully engage the public and all stakeholders in water planning efforts.
• Communities should encourage the state and federal resources agencies to conduct natural resource-based planning on a watershed basis and to use whole-system management approaches.
• Communities should participate as much as possible in regional, state and federal planning for water resources.

Proposed Additional Principles

• Communities should use collaborative stakeholder processes to work together regionally and maximize the efficiency of water sources and maximize environmental benefits.
• Communities should recognize that water quality and water quantity are interdependent, and that groundwater and surface water are interconnected and need to be addressed in an integrated manner.
• Communities should work cooperatively with the water supplies or purveyor to ensure that existing and project water demands are up to date and done carefully, and on a land use basis.
• Communities should recognize the critical importance of their groundwater aquifers, maintaining sustainable yields, high water quality and water source protection.

Implementation

• Communities should identify the beneficial third party impacts from land practices that incorporate the principles and tell them.
• Communities should identify the long term savings (cost, environmental protection and reduced operations and management) of land use practices that incorporate these principles and create impact fees that reward developers.
• Groundwater should be managed in a manner to maintain its quality and its capacity to serve as cyclic long time storage.
• Local government should avoid converting agricultural land resources of food, fiber and forage to urban development.

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