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National Streamflow Information Program (NSIP)
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National Streamflow Information Program (NSIP) |
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The following pie chart shows the funding sources for the USGS streamgaging network in Fiscal Year 2007. The relative proportion of funding from the different sources has remained fairly consistent over many years. The total funding for the USGS streamgaging network in 2007 was $134.9M. Through the USGS Cooperative Water Program, over 800 state and local agencies contributed about $66M, or about 49 percent of the total funding. Other Federal Agencies (OFAs) contributed the second largest amount at about $28M (about 21 percent), with the bulk of these funds from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The USGS Cooperative Water Program (CWP) contributed about $24M (about 18 percent) of the funding in 2007 and the USGS NSIP program was able to provide about $17M, or about 13 percent. It should be noted that the CWP funds are allowed to be matched up to a one to one basis with state and local agencies (the CWP can not match other Federal agency funds) - in 2007 the state and local agencies were required to provide over $2.70 for every $1 from the CWP because of more demand than Federal funds were available to match. The following section provides a discussion of how a fully funded NSIP could alleviate this problem.
As discussed in the above section on the USGS streamgaging network funding, the USGS Cooperative Water Program funds can be used to match funds from state and local agencies up to a one for one match. Unfortunately, currently the state and local agencies are contributing about $2.70 for each $1.00 from the CWP because there are inadequate CWP funds. However, if the NSIP were fully funded, there would be adequate funds for a 1 to 1 match and to also support a substantial number of additional streamgages nationally than are currently operating, while still maintaining all of the currently active streamgages. Comparing the following pie chart to the one above shows how the funding burden for the streamgaging network could be substantially altered if NSIP were fully funded. To better understand this, the assumptions that were part of this analysis need to be understood:
The results show that the streamgage network would increase from about 7,500 streamgages currently to about 10,000 streamgages because many additional streamgages would need to be added for NSIP to meet all five federal needs for streamflow information. Additional effects of full NSIP funding would be that NSIP would cover about 55 percent of the costs of operating the network (NSIP currently covers about 11 percent of these costs). The funding contributions from the state and local agencies could decrease from $62M (49 percent) to $24M (16 percent). This total decrease in funding would probably not happen because there are currently unmet streamflow information needs in many locations that could be funded with no additional funds than are now being invested. The final additional benefit under this scenario is that the other federal agencies that partner in the USGS streamgaging program could have a savings from $27M (22 percent) to $16M (11 percent).
For additional information on the benefits on a national and state by state basis, click on your state of interest.
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| U.S. Department of the Interior | U.S. Geological Survey URL: http://water.usgs.gov/nsip/funding.html Page Contact Information: GS-W_NSIP_Webmaster@usgs.gov |
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