Can Common Pool Resource Theory Catalyze Stakeholder-Driven Solutions to the Freshwater Salinization Syndrome?

Abstract

Freshwater salinity is rising across many regions of the United States as well as globally, a phenomenon called the freshwater salinization syndrome (FSS). The FSS mobilizes organic carbon, nutrients, heavy metals, and other contaminants sequestered in soils and freshwater sediments, alters the structures and functions of soils, streams, and riparian ecosystems, threatens drinking water supplies, and undermines progress toward many of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. There is an urgent need to leverage the current understanding of salinization’s causes and consequences—in partnership with engineers, social scientists, policymakers, and other stakeholders—into locally tailored approaches for balancing our nation’s salt budget. In this feature, we propose that the FSS can be understood as a common pool resource problem and explore Nobel Laureate Elinor Ostrom’s social-ecological systems framework as an approach for identifying the conditions under which local actors may work collectively to manage the FSS in the absence of top-down regulatory controls. We adopt as a case study rising sodium concentrations in the Occoquan Reservoir, a critical water supply for up to one million residents in Northern Virginia (USA), to illustrate emerging impacts, underlying causes, possible solutions, and critical research needs.

Characterizing the Social-Ecological System for Inland Freshwater Salinization using Fuzzy Cognitive Maps: Implications for Collective Management

“…13 The reservoir receives 3 x 10 7 m 3 yr − 1 of highly treated wastewater from the local water reclamation facility, the Upper Occoquan Service Authority (UOSA), and approximately 5 x 10 8 m 3 yr − 1 of base ow and wet weather runoff from two local streams, Bull Run and the Occoquan River. 10,13 The primary governance system for managing water quality in the reservoir includes both federal (i.e., Clean Water Act) and state-speci c legislation (i.e., the Occoquan Policy), and the associated network of actors that formulate and implement environmental policy and planning in the Occoquan system. The Occoquan Policy, which is codi ed in the Virginia Administrative Code at 9 VAC 25-410, mandated the construction of UOSA to: (1) improve drinking-water security in the region by providing a high-quality, drought-proof source of water; and (2) reduce reservoir eutrophication, which at the time was attributed to discharges from 11 low-performance treatment plants to the Occoquan reservoir.…”

“…11 Origins of the FSS include the application of deicers and anti-icers to roads and parking lots in northern climates, salt laden discharges from sewage treatment plants, mining and energy extraction operations, and agricultural return ows, to name a few. 8,10,[12][13][14][15][16] In many countries, including the United States, existing water quality regulations are not well suited to manage the FSS, in part because of the ion-speci c, site-speci c and ecosystem-speci c nature of the problem. 6,13,17 In this paper, we focus on locally tailored bottom-up (i.e., stakeholder-driven) solutions to the FSS that serve as a complement to regulatory approaches.…”

“…[19][20][21][22] Under each rstlevel variable is a set of second level variables that, depending on context, have been shown to in uence the likelihood that local actors will engage in collective resource management. 13,20,23 Grant et al, 13 argued that Ostrom's SES framework might be applicable to freshwater salinization, drawing out three second level variables (collective-choice rules, system predictability, and understanding the SES) as potential barriers to the collective management of sodium build-up in the Occoquan Reservoir, a critical water supply in Northern Virginia.…”

“…8,10,[12][13][14][15][16] In many countries, including the United States, existing water quality regulations are not well suited to manage the FSS, in part because of the ion-speci c, site-speci c and ecosystem-speci c nature of the problem. 6,13,17 In this paper, we focus on locally tailored bottom-up (i.e., stakeholder-driven) solutions to the FSS that serve as a complement to regulatory approaches. Speci cally, we argue that the salt assimilative capacity of inland freshwaters can be understood as a common pool resource problem for the following reasons.…”

“…(1) Critical services are impacted after the salt assimilative capacity of a freshwater is exceeded (i.e., the resource is subtractable); and (2) preventing users in the watershed from consuming salt assimilative capacity (e.g., by applying deicers to their driveways, or using salt rich cleaning products in their homes) would be di cult or unsafe (i.e., the resource is non-excludable). 13,18 Elinor Ostrom proposed a social-ecological-systems (SES) framework for evaluating common pool resource problems that classi es system components into four rst-level variables. [19][20][21][22] Under each rstlevel variable is a set of second level variables that, depending on context, have been shown to in uence the likelihood that local actors will engage in collective resource management.…”