Water Resources

Collecting and reporting data on drought conditions in the United States is a collaborative, multilevel effort led by the federal government. State and local governments make important contributions of work and funding to this effort. Federal, state, and other users are generally satisfied with the data on drought that are collected and distributed by federal agencies. No permanent federal organization is responsible for monitoring drought conditions and planning the government's response. Instead, individual agencies carry out these activities and arrange to cooperate with one another. When drought has been severe or has had widespread geographic impact, temporary interagency committees have been set up to coordinate the response. Because of the increasingly severe effects that periodic droughts have had on the economy, however, temporary committees may no longer be able to handle the long-term planning needed for such droughts, promptly resolve policy differences among federal agencies, or coordinate the federal response to drought.

GAO found that: (1) three federal agencies have primary responsibility for collecting drought data and sharing the data among other federal, state, and local agencies; (2) most users are satisfied with the quality of the drought data, but some agencies believe that the accuracy and reliability of the data could be improved with more collection points and better technology; (3) three federal agencies are developing a drought atlas that will provide probable frequencies for droughts and give a rational basis for managing water during droughts; (4) there is no federal organization responsible for monitoring and planning for drought or coordinating the federal response to drought; (5) temporary interagency committees have coordinated the government's response to drought in the last 20 years; (6) an interagency committee is needed to coordinate the monitoring of drought conditions and resolve conflicts in water allocation decisions during severe droughts; (7) two federal agencies have been authorized to develop contingency plans for droughts; and (8) Congress has required the President, with the assistance of an advisory commission and staff, to review federal activities and policies that affect water allocation and use in 19 western states.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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