Recommendations for a Surface Water Allocation System in North Carolina: The Upper Tar River Basin Perspective
Abstract
North Carolina is a water-rich state, crisscrossed by more than 40,000 miles of rivers
and streams and fed by an average of almost 50 inches of rain a year. Competition
for the state’s water resources is increasing, however, and recent droughts and lawsuits
have highlighted the fact that there is a limit to this wealth. A more proactive
and comprehensive approach to managing water withdrawals is needed. One management
tool that has received attention at the General Assembly, but has not yet been implemented,
is a statewide allocation system for surface water. My research is a prospective
policy analysis, which explores the perspective of four groups of water professionals
(primarily) within the Upper Tar River basin, in order to predict the implications
and consequences of implementing a statewide surface water allocation policy.
Data was collected through a series of hour-long, semi-structured, in-person interviews.
Informants included managers of municipal water systems in the Upper Tar River basin,
water utility professionals from the private sector who work in the Upper Tar River
basin, staff from state resource agencies, and environmental policy experts working
on water issues in North Carolina. Data analysis, which drew from discourse analysis
and grounded theory methods, explored the text of verbatim interview transcripts to
identify the key themes in informants’ discourse related to a surface water allocation
policy. From these themes, I articulated a list of the fundamental objectives that
an allocation program must meet and then developed a set of policy recommendations
to guide development of such a program.
My analysis indicates that there is support for a statewide surface water allocation
system, within the respondent group. In order to realize the potential benefits identified
by informants and minimize their concerns, a successful surface water allocation program
should (1) provide a fair process for determining allocations, (2) apply equitably
to all user groups, (3) incorporate a comprehensive and integrated approach to understanding,
managing, and regulating surface water use, (4) provide a broad planning and decision
context, and (5) enable users to adequately plan and prepare for future water conditions.
This study provides insight to the perspectives of four stakeholder groups in the
Upper Tar River basin and could serve as the basis for larger, perhaps quantitative
studies. Future research is needed to investigate the transferability of these findings
to other river basins in the state and to explore the perspectives of other important
stakeholder groups, including agriculture and electric power generation.
Type
Master's projectSubject
surface waterallocation
North Carolina
policy recommendations
stakeholder interviews
qualitative analysis
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/3656Citation
Schieffer, Emily (2011). Recommendations for a Surface Water Allocation System in North Carolina: The Upper
Tar River Basin Perspective. Master's project, Duke University. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/3656.Collections
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