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A comprehensive national water policy must take into account the international aspects of freshwater, from agreements with neighboring countries on how to manage and share transboundary water resources to the role of international development assistance in helping address water challenges for humanitarian, economic, or political purposes. An international water policy must also address issues of water poverty and inequity in an integrated way. This chapter discusses how the US might better integrate national and international water-policy objectives.

This chapter draws on concepts that environmental justice (EJ) advocates and organizers from across the US have long demanded healthy, clean places to live, work, and play as a framework to explore water-specific EJ issues in federal policy and to identify needed policy changes. It explores some of the most severe and well-documented examples of water injustices and their underlying causes, with recommendations on how to better incorporate EJ into federal water policy.

US municipalities have some of the safest and most reliable water resource systems in the world, providing low-cost water and sanitation services to the vast majority of the nation's population. But even though traditional water-related diseases have largely disappeared, there are still some important, serious, and growing challenges facing the nation's towns and cities. This chapter reviews some of these challenges. It considers alternative approaches for addressing these concerns, including soft path tools and policies that may be especially valuable for moving to a more sustainable water system. It concludes with recommendations on strategies the federal government can take to facilitate these changes.

This chapter explores the connections between water and energy and identifies areas where tensions or conflicts are occurring or are expected in the coming years. It argues that developing rational twenty-first-century water and energy policies requires policy makers to integrate these connections into their decisions and develop strategies to help mitigate their negative impacts. Topics discussed include water requirements for electricity production and for thermoelectric power plants; and the impact of efforts to develop more sustainable transportation fuels on water resources.

This chapter assesses water quality regulation in the US. Topics covered include federal water quality laws; the Water Pollution Control Act of 1948 and amendments; the Clean water act; the regulation of point-source and nonpoint-source pollution; inadequate scope of water-quality regulations; challenges for enforcement; unequal distribution of safe drinking water; the economics of safe drinking water for small systems; unregulated contaminants and mixtures; and developing a twenty-fist-century water-quality policy.

This chapter discusses historic and current trends in agricultural water use and presents national data in order to understand large-scale, long-term agricultural water supply and quality trends. It considers three key twenty-first-century water challenges: growing competition over freshwater supplies, increased scrutiny of agricultural runoff or nonpoint-source pollution, and climate change. It concludes with recommendations to ensure the continued viability of the agricultural sector in the US through partnerships and policies that promote agricultural management practices that sustain and protect water resources.

This chapter examines water-related issues faced by contemporary American Indian tribes. Tribes face different circumstances compared to other ethnic and racial groups in the US, and this affects tribal water governance. Tribes have a unique political (and legal) relationship with the federal government; they are sovereign within a framework of other sovereigns who often compete with one another. The chapter considers three water challenges that many tribes face in detail: water rights and administration, energy and water, and water quality governance. It concludes with suggestions on an approach to twenty-first-century federal policy on tribal water matters.

This chapter provides ten overarching conclusions with respect to a present assessment of water policy and management, and summarizes key recommendations for improvement. These conclusions include combining and coordinating fragmented federal water agencies and programs; developing a national strategy for water resources; reviving river basin commissions and requiring river basin planning on rivers shared by two or more states; tasking a national water commission or council with guiding river basin plans and reviewing water-related budgets and priorities; and supporting an improved understanding of water supply, use, and flows.

This chapter explores the management of freshwater ecosystems in the US. It provides an overview of threats to US aquatic environments and the health of the nation's water sources; a brief review of existing legal protections; and a summary of growing efforts to protect and restore freshwater ecosystems.

This chapter examines the projected impacts of climate change on water resources. It discusses various adaptation practices, as well as the process of evaluating and implementing those practices. It concludes with a discussion of the federal government's role in promoting adaptation to climate change.