Water on the Rocks

WATER is the most spectacular possession of this planet and an essential ingredient of all living things. It's amazingly that water management has taken this long to find its way into the presidential campaign.

Neither candidate, however, has stepped forward with a water policy to address this country's problems. Vice President George Bush has had a field day maligning Boston Harbor; but this is more a media ploy than a strong commitment to preserve the existence and qualityir of water resources. Gov. Michael S. Dukakis has promised to put a Secretary of the Environment in his cabinet, but water issues have certainly not been among his priorities.

A recent water policy paper from the Kennedy School of Government has highlighted the essence of the problem. Our efforts have been stalled under a fragmented and directionless Reagan administration while our water difficulties have grown. The paper was researched and mainly written prior to this summer's devastating drought. However, the dry spell makes the report's message--the need for strong leadership in federal water policy--all the more timely.

While many issues can and should be left to the states, water problems do not respect state boundaries. The federal government has a vital role to play as arbitrator, coordinator, and as the articulator of a broad national water policy that local governments can use as a guideline for the hard water choices of the next decade.

For example, water shortages may be particularly serious in the agricultural areas of the Great Plains if the dry weather continues, as many climatologists suspect. Traditionally dry--the whole area was once known as the Great American Desert--it has become enormously productive through irrigation and crop improvement. But a good deal of the water bodies there are now polluted by fertilizer nitrates and pesticides. Should the drop in the water table continue, safe drinking water may become increasingly scarce.

Drought-resistant varieties of grain and cattle will help these agricultural problems. The water problems, however, will only be corrected when commercial users in dry areas start paying the real price for their share of a precious public resource. In areas where clean water is hard to find, the public health must clearly have priority in water rationing. It is just this kind of policy decision that requires leadership and direction at the federal level.

Although Dukakis' proposal to create a Environment Department is well-intentioned, it has possible drawbacks, particularly with respect to water resources. A maze of agencies, councils, committees and departments with some authority in water issues already exists to create a poorly integrated administrative structure--one sharply criticized in the K-School report. The new cabinet level position might only add to the confusion, due to the inevitable wrangling and ambiguity over responsibility for various areas. It has the potential to sunder water quality from water quantity--almost certainly a mistake.

To make real progress, executive responsibility for overall policy should be centered in one person or group. Ultimately, that person will be the President; but it will be the official one step down who will be most important in overseeing a federal water policy. Logically, that person should be the Secretary of the interior, who already supervises the Geological Survey and who would be most likely to understand water in its broadest sense, as a limited resource, one that must be used wisely to be available for all its other functions--drinking, agriculture, industry, power, recreation and so many others.

A strengthened Interior Department, and a secretary with wide administrative responsibilities, would be a first step towards a revamped federal water policy. The ideal person to lead the reform is former Arizona Governor Bruce Babbitt, who is an expert in water resource issues, and designed a model program for his home state. This would, naturally, require a Dukakis victory and sufficient interest on the part of Mr. Babbitt. Certainly we need someone of his caliber to invigorate and take charge of the administration of America's water resources.