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Worksheet Grade 10 Social Studies & Civics

Who Decides Along the Tanner River? A Watershed Governance Map

A grade 10 worksheet using a written map of a fictional river to trace how state borders and jurisdiction decide who governs each choice in a shared watershed.

Objectives

  1. Students will identify which level of government holds authority over each decision in a shared watershed.
  2. Students will explain how upstream actions in one state affect downstream users in another.
  3. Students will propose a governance tool that could help two states manage a shared river.

Vocabulary

Watershed
A watershed is all the land where rain that falls will drain to the same stream, river, or lake. Everyone lives in a watershed, no matter how far from the water they live.

Also: jurisdiction, discharge permit, upstream, interstate

Teacher overview

A river crosses city and state lines, while the authority of each government along it ends at its own border. This worksheet gives students a written map description of a fictional river so they can trace who has the authority to make each decision in a shared watershed. Students match choices to the right level of government, then reason about how upstream actions reach downstream neighbors.

Who Decides Along the Tanner River? A Watershed Governance Map — Grade 10 Social Studies & Civics
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Worksheet

Read this map description and use it for every item.

The Tanner River begins in the hills above the town of Kestrel, flows through farmland in the middle of its watershed, and reaches the city of Larkspur near its mouth. Partway down, the river crosses the border between two fictional states: Marne, which is upstream, and Bexley, which is downstream. Kestrel and its farms sit in Marne. Larkspur sits in Bexley and draws its drinking water from the river. A federal agency sets national limits on the pollution that may be discharged into the river. Within those limits, each state issues its own discharge permits to the factories and farms inside its borders. Kestrel runs its own local stormwater system.

  1. Name the upstream town and the downstream city on the Tanner River.
  2. Which of the two states is upstream, and which is downstream?
  3. A factory in Kestrel wants to discharge treated waste into the river. Which state government issues its permit?
  4. Kestrel's farms and the city of Larkspur are in the same watershed. Explain what that means using the map.
  5. Suppose extra fertilizer runs off the Marne farms into the river. Who feels the effect most, and why?
  6. Larkspur wants stricter limits on the upstream discharges, but those sources are in Marne. Explain why Larkspur cannot simply pass its own law to control them.
  7. Which level of government is best placed to set one rule that applies to both Marne and Bexley?
  8. Give one decision Kestrel can make entirely on its own, and one decision that requires cooperation with Bexley.
  9. Explain one way the river's physical flow shapes the political relationship between Marne and Bexley.
  10. Propose one governance tool, such as a shared commission, a federal standard, or an interstate agreement, that could help the two states manage the Tanner River together, and give a reason it would help.

From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.

Answer Key
  1. Answer: The upstream town is Kestrel and the downstream city is Larkspur, as stated in the map description.
  2. Answer: Marne is upstream and Bexley is downstream, since the river crosses from Marne into Bexley on its way to Larkspur.
  3. Answer: Marne. The factory is in Kestrel, which sits in Marne, and each state issues discharge permits within its own borders.
  4. Answer: It means rain and runoff from the Kestrel farms drain into the same river system that flows down to Larkspur, so they share one connected drainage area.
  5. Answer: Larkspur feels it most. It is downstream and draws its drinking water from the river, so upstream fertilizer travels down to its intake.
  6. Answer: Larkspur's authority ends at its own and Bexley's borders. The upstream sources lie in Marne, a separate state, so a Larkspur law cannot reach them.
  7. Answer: The federal level. A national standard can apply to sources in both Marne and Bexley, which neither state can impose on the other.
  8. Answer: Kestrel can decide its own local stormwater system on its own; a rule limiting pollution that reaches Larkspur's drinking water requires cooperation with Bexley or a shared standard.
  9. Answer: Because water flows only downstream, Marne's choices affect Bexley but not the reverse, which gives Bexley a reason to seek agreements or federal rules to influence what Marne allows.
  10. Answer: Answers will vary. A strong answer names one tool, such as an interstate compact or a federal standard, and explains that it binds both states to shared limits neither could enforce alone.

Differentiation

Support

Provide a simple sketch of the river with Kestrel, the farms, the state line, and Larkspur already labeled, so students read the map from a picture rather than only from text. Give a word bank of the five vocabulary terms.

Extension

Ask students to add a second downstream state to the map and explain how adding a third jurisdiction makes a shared agreement harder to reach, naming one new point of possible disagreement.

ELL supports

Pre-teach "watershed," "jurisdiction," "discharge permit," "upstream," and "interstate" with arrows on the river sketch showing the direction of flow. Allow short-phrase answers and provide the frame "Larkspur cannot control Marne's farms because ___."