Water management in the California Bay Delta is directed toward providing a more reliable water supply for California, and protecting and rehabilitating the Delta ecosystem, including five endangered and threatened populations and species of fish that live in or migrate through the Delta. However, water management in the Bay and Delta is distributed among many agencies and organizations, a structure that hinders the development and implementatio... More >>

The Environmental Protection Agency's estimate of the costs associated with implementing numeric nutrient criteria in Florida's waterways was significantly lower than many stakeholders expected. This discrepancy was due, in part, to the fact that the Environmental Protection Agency's analysis considered only the incremental cost of reducing nutrients in waters it considered "newly impaired" as a result of the new criteria—not the total cos... More >>

New research opportunities to advance hydrologic sciences promise a better understanding of the role of water in the Earth system that could help improve human welfare and the health of the environment. Reaching this understanding will require both exploratory research to better understand how the natural environment functions, and problem-driven research, to meet needs such as flood protection, supply of drinking water, irrigation, and wate... More >>

Report in Brief >> Q&A with the Chair >> Expanding water reuse—the use of treated wastewater for beneficial purposes including irrigation, industrial uses, and drinking water augmentation—could significantly increase the nation’s total available water resources, this new report finds. A portfolio of treatment options is available to mitigate water quality issues in reclaimed water, and new analysis suggests the risk of exposure to certai... More >>

The St. Johns River in Northeast Florida is under consideration as an additional water source for a large and rapidly growing segment of the state's population. In 2008, the river's Water Management District undertook a Water Supply Impact Study of the proposed water withdrawals and asked the National Research Council to review science aspects of the study as it progressed. This final report of the NRC Committee focuses on the seven ecologica... More >>