Existing federal authority includes the Clean Water Act, other environmental protection statutes, federal land management statutes, and a large number of regional watershed protection or management programs. But while individual success stories abound, and other new programs show some promise, given empirical data on the state of our aquatic ecosystems it is hard to argue that these programs are succeeding on an overall basis. The design and implementation of future watershed programs must be improved if we are to meet aquatic ecosystem restoration goals. Paradoxes in Watershed Program Design and Implementation Scale Hydrologic and ecological interactions over large geographic areas suggests that watershed programs should proceed at the scale of whole river basins or other large hydrologic regions. Watershed programs of broad regional scale, however, face significant political and institutional problems.
Large watersheds cross many political boundaries, complicating intergovernmental coordination.
Large watersheds also face technical challenges such as inconsistent water quality standards. At a smaller watershed scale, cost-effective goals, methods and solutions can be designed and implemented by those closest to the problem, taking into account the conditions of the particular area. But small watershed programs by definition lack the scope necessary to address hydrological and ecological linkages over space and time. Small programs might solve local problems while ignoring, or in some cases exacerbating, conditions in other areas, resulting in geographic externalities. Dividing watersheds into smaller units could subject water body protection to the very political pressures and competition that led to the enactment of a national clean water program.