The findings of the Guam Legislature are that:(a) Guam has two (2) major seasons: wet and dry; and two (2) secondary seasons, referred to as transitional seasons, that can be either rainy or dry. Some years bring torrential typhoon storms while others bring droughts, thus causing a wide variation in annual rainfall figures. The extent of Guam’s weather changes is greatly affected by climatic changes that occur in the vast Pacific Ocean, most notably by a weather condition known as ‘El Nino,’ characterized by a rise in ocean water temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean.

(b) Worldwide climatologists have recently begun to understand the widespread effects that an El Nino event has on global weather patterns. Occurring every three (3) to seven (7) years, El Nino begins with an eastward shift of warm Pacific Ocean waters, which disrupts normal atmosphere wind patterns and thus upsets normal patterns of wet and dry weather. Some areas that do not usually get rain are hit hard, while many normally wet areas dry up. The Western Pacific is especially susceptible to these dry periods.

(c) The effects of El Nino on Guam’s wet and dry seasons have been significant. The 1982-1983 event, which cost global damage estimated at Thirteen Billion Dollars ($13,000,000,000) and claimed nearly two thousand (2,000) lives, was one (1) of Guam’s most severe dry period. During this period, the Island’s municipal water system was unable to adequately meet Island-wide water demands, particularly for fire fighting. Severe water shortages and outages were experienced in the villages of Merizo and Umatac as springs and surface water sources dried up. While a less severe El Nino drought followed in 1986, which lasted through 1987, the Guam Waterworks Authority (‘GWA’) fell short of meeting normal daily water demands. A prolonged El Nino event from 1991 to 1995 again resulted in the Island’s water system’s inability to meet demands during abnormally dry spells. The Island’s current water system is not able to meet current peak demands and will have a difficult time meeting future non-peak demands without development of additional water source alternatives.

(d) Because previous El Nino events have been met with short-term crisis, intervention measures, such as water rationing and scheduled water outages, it is recognized that a long-term water resource management plan is non-existent. The lack of such a plan increases the Island’s vulnerability to drought or water shortages due to extremely dry conditions. Since the scientific community has now come to understand that El Ninos are cyclical in nature and that certain weather changes are predictable, a plan is imperative so that management and allocation of our finite water resources be balanced among the populace whenever disruptions in weather conditions and normal rainfall patterns threaten the availability of our water supply.

(e) While the Guam Emergency Plan maintained and administered by the Guam Civil Defense includes ‘drought’ or ‘water shortages’ in its definition, the scope of the plan in this regard does not define, in specific terms and standard terminology, factors that trigger a drought condition, the severity of the conditions, and actions or measures to employ for each phase of severity.

(f) Because of the physical size and remoteness of Guam, it is imperative that the utilization of water resources among the military and civilian sectors be fair and equitable, and that measures employed to mitigate the effects of water shortages due to drought must be done so uniformly among the various sections of our Island community. No such plan exists to ensure uniformity and equity in the administration of water crisis mitigation measures.

SOURCE: Added by P.L. 24-151:1 (Apr. 9, 1998).

2022 NOTE: Reference to “”Territory”” replaced with “”Guam”” pursuant to
1 Guam Code Ann. § 420.