Between Perception and Reality: Water Resource Management in Maine

Maine continues to evolve a water policy that is aimed at providing safe and secure sources of water for human and ecosystem use.  While we are a water-rich state, we have areas where there are both real and perceived conflicts between uses. Real conflicts exist in coastal areas during dry years, when the summer population of our rocky coast exceeds the short-term supply of water.  Perceived conflicts mostly revolve around bulk transport of water for bottling, even though this is an exceedingly small fraction of water use.

We have developed a set of policies and laws that require coordinated action on the part of a number of state agencies to help rationalize both the natural and man made issues. This infrastructure should be useful in helping us cope with the increased variability we see in precipitation and temperature.  Although the motivation for much of this activity is based on a limited understanding of hydrologic processes, the results may serve the state in good stead.  People, at least, are no longer always taking water for granted.