§10366 Climate Change and Water Intragovernmental Panel

Summary

Creates a federal panel, led by the Secretary and an Administrator, to study how climate change affects the amount and quality of fresh water in the United States and to make a plan to improve water monitoring, data, and models so water managers and ecosystems benefit. The panel includes top officials (the Secretary; a Director; an Administrator; the Agriculture Secretary represented by the Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment; the Commissioner; the Army Secretary represented by the Chief of Engineers; the EPA Administrator; and the Energy Secretary). The panel must work with State water agencies, an advisory committee, water utilities, researchers, and other groups to decide what measurements are needed (for example streamflow, groundwater, soil moisture, evaporation, snowpack, precipitation, flood risk, and glaciers), find gaps in current monitoring, set data standards and sharing rules, consider creating a public data portal for each nationally significant watershed and aquifer, and build models that link groundwater and surface water and help keep ecosystems resilient. A report describing the review and plan must be sent to Congress not later than 2 years after March 30, 2009 (by March 30, 2011). The Secretary may fund demonstration or research projects to carry out the plan, with a Federal share up to $1,000,000 per project and required reports on results. Congress authorized $2,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2009–2011 for the panel’s work, and $10,000,000 for fiscal years 2009–2013 for the demonstration and research projects.