Instituting water research: the Water Resources Research Act (1964) and the Idaho Water Resources Research Institute

Water History, Feb 2017

In 1964, Congress passed the Water Resources Research Act (WRRA) and created state research institutes to pursue practical research for the nation’s growing water problems. The Idaho Water Resources Research Institute (IWRRI), initiated as part of WRRA, implemented its research program with multidisciplinary specialists across Idaho. Collaborating with public and private partners, IWRRI advanced research that reflected distinct political, economic, and environmental needs at a time when the state required more rigorous water planning. Case studies presented here include research on understanding and valuing wild and scenic rivers, tracing and mitigating water pollution from industrial mining, and improving efficiency and promoting maximization in irrigation among rural landscapes. Scientists developed new methods and advised on ways to improve water quality. Tracing IWRRI’s research demonstrates how concerns about wilderness, pollution, and efficiency developed within a research regime determined to improve water resources management. Each element reflected historical forces and social values, something only occasionally acknowledged by the researchers but nonetheless central to their efforts. In this way, IWRRI shines analytical light on state water use and the policy and scientific methods used to comprehend, mitigate, and manage water resources. The history of institutes like IWRRI provide a neglected, but useful, avenue to explore the powerful ways contemporary legal, political, and economic concerns shaped scientific research agendas, reminding us of the larger social context in which scientific research occurs.

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Instituting water research: the Water Resources Research Act (1964) and the Idaho Water Resources Research Institute

Instituting water research: the Water Resources Research Act (1964) and the Idaho Water Resources Research Institute Adam M. Sowards 0 1 Brynn M. Lacabanne 0 1 0 Idaho Department of Environmental Quality , 1410 N Hilton St., Boise, ID 83706 , USA 1 University of Idaho , 875 Perimeter Dr. MS3175, Moscow, ID 83844-3175 , USA In 1964, Congress passed the Water Resources Research Act (WRRA) and created state research institutes to pursue practical research for the nation's growing water problems. The Idaho Water Resources Research Institute (IWRRI), initiated as part of WRRA, implemented its research program with multidisciplinary specialists across Idaho. Collaborating with public and private partners, IWRRI advanced research that reflected distinct political, economic, and environmental needs at a time when the state required more rigorous water planning. Case studies presented here include research on understanding and valuing wild and scenic rivers, tracing and mitigating water pollution from industrial mining, and improving efficiency and promoting maximization in irrigation among rural landscapes. Scientists developed new methods and advised on ways to improve water quality. Tracing IWRRI's research demonstrates how concerns about wilderness, pollution, and efficiency developed within a research regime determined to improve water resources management. Each element reflected historical forces and social values, something only occasionally acknowledged by the researchers but nonetheless central to their efforts. In this way, IWRRI shines analytical light on state water use and the policy and scientific methods used to comprehend, mitigate, and manage water resources. The history of institutes like IWRRI provide a neglected, but useful, avenue to explore the powerful ways contemporary legal, political, and economic concerns shaped scientific research agendas, reminding us of the larger social context in which scientific research occurs. Idaho Water Resources Research Institute; Water Resources Research; Act (1964); Water resources research; Water resources management; History - In mid-summer 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Water Resources Research Act (WRRA) and noted the myriad needs the law addressed. Water was significant to American life, he explained: ‘‘Abundant, good water is essential to continued economic growth and progress. The Congress has found that we have entered a period in which acute water shortages are hampering our industries, our agriculture, our recreation, and our individual health and happiness’’ (Cong. Rec 1964c, p. 110, pt. 13:16,655). By century’s end, the president relayed, experts predicted half the American states would not meet their water needs if current practices continued. So, WRRA promised to ‘‘enlist the intellectual power of universities and research institutes in a nationwide effort to conserve and utilize our water resources for the common benefit’’ (Cong. Rec. 1964c, p. 110, pt. 13:16,655). When implemented, WRRA would support more coordinated, widespread, and sophisticated water research for the public interest. The law targeted a national problem and developed solutions in individual states. It has been a critical research program for water resources for more than half a century. In important ways, central concerns from the 1960s remain high priorities in water research—not because research has failed but because the issues are inherent in modern societies (e.g., National Research Council, Committee on Assessment of Water Resources Research 2004, pp. 16–23). Surprisingly, historians have neglected WRRA and the state research institutes the legislation created. In fact, water research has been almost wholly neglected by historians of science and environment (Kingsland 2005; Worster 1994). A single short history in a water resources bulletin provides historical context to this long-lasting successful program (Burton 1986). Millions of dollars have been spent and thousands of studies have been launched and coordinated from WRRA’s impetus, deepening local resource knowledge and improving water management. For historians of water—as well as historians of science, technology, and environment—the basic and applied problems these state institutes researched offer diverse sources that reveal important contours of the last half-century. No doubt each state would offer distinct and compelling histories, but Idaho’s is especially interesting as the Idaho Water Resources Research Institute (IWRRI, pronounced ‘‘eye weary’’) delved into wild, rural, and industrial waterscapes. This article aims to explain how water resources research became institutionalized through WRRA generally and IWRRI specifically. First, we explain WRRA’s aims, its underlying values, and the mechanisms by which it functioned. Next, we contextualize the research and political infrastructure in Idaho at the time WRRA passed and IWRRI started. Then, we turn to three case studies highlightin (...truncated)


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Adam M. Sowards, Brynn M. Lacabanne. Instituting water research: the Water Resources Research Act (1964) and the Idaho Water Resources Research Institute, Water History, 2017, pp. 1-22, DOI: 10.1007/s12685-016-0190-x