Managing One Water
Managing One Water
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................. 1 Foreword .............................................................................................................................. 2 Introduction.......................................................................................................................... 3 Todays Water Management ............................................................................................... 4 Tomorrows One Water ....................................................................................................... 7 Achieving One Water .......................................................................................................... 9 Next Steps ............................................................................................................................ 12 National Dialogue Participants........................................................................................... 13 Board of Directors ............................................................................................................... 15 Founders ..............................................................................................................................16
Acknowledgements
The Clean Water America Alliance believes that we, as a nation, cannot move toward national water sustainability until water is viewed and managed holistically and through an integrated mindset focused on the future. That idea was the genesis of our third national dialogue aptly titled Managing One Water. This third and nal dialogue continued where Marchs Whats Water Worth? event left off. This report summarizes our ndings. Taking place in Los Angeles on September 28 & 29, discussions focused on breaking down the silos within the clean water community to better integrate drinking water, wastewater, groundwater, reused water, and stormwater; improving stakeholder relations; and advancing regional water sustainability. It brought together the nations leading water policy experts and innovators to integrate water management at the local and regional level. The national dialogue series brought the best and brightest together from around the country to determine the practical steps needed to ensure clean and safe water for future generations. The Alliance continues to address the major issues of a changing water landscape. The non-prot educational organization was formed to change the water paradigm to one in which water is viewed, managed and valued as one resource with a focus on sustainability and green cities. The success of this event is the result of the hard work of many individuals too many to list individually. We would like to thank the panelists, participants, and observers that joined us for the dialogue and ensured its success as well as our Board Members and Founding Members. Special thanks are also due our guest Jim Thebault and host Adel Hagekhalil. I would especially like to thank the Chair, Ben Grumbles; Facilitator, LaJuana Wilcher; Tom Sliter for his contributions; and the staff of the Alliance for their assistance in organizing this highly successful dialogue and preparing this report. Thank you for all your hard work. Finally, the national dialogue would not have been possible without the vision and leadership of our dedicated and committed sponsors: MWH Americas, AECOM, Siemens, Black & Veatch, CDM, Veolia Water, GE Power & Water, HDR, Malcolm Pirnie, United Water, City of Los Angeles Sanitation Department of Public Works, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, and Tetra Tech. I hope you view this report with an eye toward a sustainable future one in which water is managed as one.
November, 2010
Foreword
Benjamin Grumbles, National Dialogue Chair Director Arizona Department of Environmental Quality LaJuana Wilcher, National Dialogue Facilitator Partner English, Lucas, Priest, & Owsley, LLP
Water is a valuable and renewable, but xed resource that has no substitute. It plays a unique role in our lives. It serves to sustain our environment, our economy, and life as we know it. But our world is changing and our system of managing water, while adequate for the past, must change with it to ensure that we can continue to provide for this most basic of human needs well into the future. Our colleagues in the water community have done a worthy job of managing this resource. Surface water quality is dramatically better today than it was 30 years ago. Drinking water is much safer, too. We have a new appreciation for the critical benets provided by the environment to our systems and vice versa. Water conservation, recycling, and reuse programs are being implemented in more and more communities. And both green infrastructure and low impact development are important and growing facets of our profession. Yet too often we operate as if water is dened by our labels stormwater, drinking water, wastewater, and so on. In fact, the more we learn about water and its interdependencies with our life and our economy, the more we appreciate that it is, in fact, One Water, which must be appropriately valued and holistically managed for the many purposes it serves. That is the mission of the Clean Water America Alliance and it is the primary inspiration for the series of national dialogues that the Alliance has sponsored over the past year. By bringing together more than 100 experts and leaders from the water community and beyond, in three national dialogues, the Alliance has sought to expand the discussion about the future course of our nations water policy and to help chart a new path forward. Just as war is too important to be left to the generals, so too is water policy too important to be left only to water professionals and practitioners. The broader the dialogue, the better the resulting policy will be and the more sustainable it will be. This fact is critically important at a time of constrained budgets, political divisions, economic challenges, and risk-averse leaders. The Alliance is proposing a new way of thinking, a new way of interacting, and a new way of achieving our shared goals. Water policy in this country is at a crossroad. Without decisive, timely action, we will fail the American people and our nation will be ill-prepared for the water challenges which lie ahead. In good conscious we cannot let that happen. This dialogue, like the two before it, did not strive for consensus. Even so, there was much common ground uncovered, positions that will form the basis of the Alliances National Water Policy Framework and will result in a sustainable water policy worthy of our nation, its people, and its future.
Page 2
Introduction
The Clean Water America Alliance recently convened Managing One Water, the third in a series of national dialogues focusing on one of the most urgent and serious challenges we face how to secure our water future so that economic prosperity and environmental vitality can continue to benet us and future generations. Managing One Water brought together over 40 of the best thinkers and doers in the water community in Los Angeles in September 2010 to continue the Alliances exploration of how to achieve a more comprehensive, integrated approach to managing our water resources. As in previous dialogues, the goal of Managing One Water was to involve the broad water stakeholder community in identifying the areas of greatest concern and specify the concrete actions that can be taken to achieve meaningful collaboration among often disparate water disciplines. By bringing together the experts and leaders in the drinking water, wastewater, stormwater, water reuse, and water management elds with their counterparts in the agricultural, industrial, environmental, nance and planning areas, the dialogue tapped the expertise and experience of a broad range of knowledgeable individuals all of whom are joined in the pursuit of common ground and practical solutions. The rst national dialogue The Need for an Integrated National Water Policy resulted in a call for a national water policy based on sustainability and looked into the details of how such a policy would address such pressing issues as the energy/water nexus, water quality and water quantity, green infrastructure, and watersheds. The second dialogue Whats Water Worth? examined the economic, environmental and social consequences of continuing to signicantly undervalue this precious asset. The reports summarizing both dialogues are available at www.cleanwateramericaalliance.org. The wisdom and insights gained through these three national dialogues have laid a strong foundation for the Alliances efforts. And while each dialogue had a unique focus, the ensuing discussions revealed many elements common to all three. Among these were the urgency of the problem, the need to shift the water paradigm from a culture of conict to one of collaboration, and the importance of bringing more voices and viewpoints into the discussion. The following pages will elaborate on some of these common issues and the more specic discussion related to Managing One Water.
Page 3
and a visible demonstration that water is valuable. The increasing use of asset management and other nancial management tools to optimize system operation are positive signs that need to be encouraged. Finally, there was the belief that the public recognizes the importance of water quality, as judged by its appearance at or near the top of many polls on the environment. But, at the same time, the public seems to have not yet embraced the practical steps needed to achieve that goal, perhaps because those steps are unclear, sometimes conicting or expensive, and often not presented in a clear, understandable manner. Whats Not Working Most participants felt that a major cause of the growing dysfunction in water policy was the result of dealing with individual water problems one at a time, separate from other issues. Much of this is exemplied by the relatively narrow focus of Federal and State laws, by congressional and legislative committees with disparate jurisdictions, by agencies with a single purpose or mandate, and by funding that is limited to narrow categories of eligibilities. Some of this problem also has arisen through the actions of individual States and courts, such as varying State water laws, which complicates integration of a national policy. A piecemeal approach to water management may have seemed logical at a time when the we are beginning to problems appeared unrelated. However, with understand that not only are the benet of better science, we are beginning to many water problems understand that not only are many water problems inter-connected, but they are also connected to inter-connected, but they are critical issues beyond water such as species and also connected to critical issues habitat conservation, energy supply, air pollution beyond water deposition, urban development, transportation, housing, and the list goes on. Furthermore, while a one-size-ts-all system may have seemed appropriate when problems were viewed through a national lens, it seems counterproductive now given the reality of many often signicantly different regional and local problems. To continue making progress, we will have to stretch our thinking and look at things in a new way. Yet even as science is documenting these inter-connections, we lack even the most basic nationwide institutional and regulatory frameworks to integrate the needed policies. For example, watersheds may be scientically valid, and even preferable boundaries for water management, but they remain a questionable basis for a legal and regulatory structure. We are left to rely on informal networks and accumulations of localized approaches in attempting to fashion a more comprehensive approach. Furthermore, States continue to actively guard their jurisdictions over waters within their boundaries. Another contributor to the dysfunction is inconsistent funding. Many of the plans and facilities necessary to implement an integrated water plan require years to fulll. Yet the vagaries of Federal funding and its impacts on States and communities often frustrate these projects and greatly
Page 5
complicate their management. These complications and dysfunction also detract from a clear, consistent message to the public, rate payers and taxpayers about the necessity for, and benets of, specic water plans or projects. Often, too little public participation is sought on major water issues. No wonder then that public comprehension of the need for better coordination of water and related plans is inconsistent, at best. Some local efforts to increase public participation and public understanding of specic projects such as Los Angeless recent Proposition O bond issue and Seattles experience with rate changes have succeeded. However, with few exceptions (such as Californias recent comprehensive water reform legislation), there is almost no broader public discussion, let alone comprehension, of the more holistic water issues, such as the critical role water plays in job creation, economic growth, and national security. Efforts to enhance public discussion of water issues are often impeded by the lack of a common metric for measuring water usage. In addition, there is often an absence of even the most basic information about the nature of water sources in a watershed. There was optimism, however, that the recently enacted Secure Water Act will provide the stimulus and money to Federal, State and local agencies to begin compiling this critical information. Participants also discussed the current regulatory reliance on prescriptive rules at the expense of performance measures. Since the advancement of scientic information seems to be outpacing regulatory developments, many felt the current system was behind the power curve and that without a major shift in focus, even the application of more resources would result in lower performance. Finally, there was the worry that even if the perfect integrated water policy were to appear tomorrow, the capacity of existing institutions to manage the transition to and implementation of that policy would be wanting. Many governmental, utility, and other organizations, especially those operating with constrained budgets and stafng, would be hard pressed to manage a paradigm shift of such magnitude. That is all the more reason to make transitional considerations a key element of any new water policy and possibly to look to other organizations experience in how to manage such largescale transitions.
Page 6
by targeting water policies that are sustainable over the long term, we can also encompass activities in related elds . . . which have a direct effect on water resources
Participants in the dialogue had many views of what One Water meant to them. But several common themes emerged from the discussions. One such theme was the use of sustainability that is, utilizing resources today without compromising the ability of future generations to use the same resource as a guiding principle. As mentioned in earlier dialogues, sustainability is becoming the organizing principle of the future in many areas. By targeting water policies that are sustainable over the long term, we can also encompass activities in related elds, such as housing, transportation, energy and agriculture which have a direct effect on water resources, and vice versa. If sustainability becomes the organizing theory, then stewardship and collaboration are the operating principles. According to many participants, stewardship and collaboration are key organizational and interpersonal lessons from the past. The complexity of problems and the diversity of solutions for tomorrows water issues will demand a more open approach, with a broader range of skills and talents brought to bear. Bringing more stakeholders into the discussion is also recognition that solutions to local problems must involve the local community. Such an approach also is likely to meet with broader acceptance by the public and water professionals than one based on command-and-control or one-size-ts-all. One Water is neither a bottom-up nor a top-down model. It must combine the best of national (though not necessarily federal) policy, guidance and funding with local/regional implementation and cost sharing, such as through a multi-stakeholder watershed policy approach. Similar comments were prominent in earlier
Page 7
dialogues, as well. Nearly all of the participants believed that reforming our current water policy was an urgent task yet few believed that policy makers or the general public currently share that belief. Some of this disconnect was ascribed to the lack of information and public understanding, some to the enormity of the task, and maybe a little to self-interest in the status quo on the part of some stakeholders. Furthermore, as might be expected, those in arid areas were thought to have a greater sense of urgency than those in water-rich areas. But with changing patterns in long-term climate, todays water-rich area may soon become tomorrows arid location. Finally, many participants felt that the vocabulary of water policy needs to be reworked to make it more relevant to the public and more understandable to the non-water professionals who will be involved in its development. They also believed that emphasizing more positive terms such as security instead of scarcity and making explicit the links between water and everyday activities, such as energy, food and jobs would foster greater appreciation for waters ubiquitous role in our lives and well being and for the actions needed to sustain it.
Page 8
Page 9
Building the Case In todays world, leadership and innovation increasingly come from the rank and le. Whether it is business, entertainment, the arts or government, new ideas, new approaches, and new developments frequently originate with those closest to the problem. Thus, any shift to a One Water policy must involve those on the ground people with actual knowledge of both the problems and the range of possible solutions. This is a major shift from the way todays policy is developed. And while it may be difcult at rst to manage such a broadened network of players, the result will be both better, more practical ideas, and perhaps just as important, greater buy-in by those actually implementing the new policy. The other essential prerequisite for successful policy change in an era of risk-averse leadership is the development of overwhelming public support for change. One participant expressed the sentiment by saying, If you get sufcient public support, the government will follow. Elected ofcials are unlikely to make bold moves and long term investments without public support. Building support requires public information and outreach to a variety of stakeholders, with a concentrated effort to educated the media. Messaging must be succinct and compelling.
some type of equivalent First, the message. According to some polls, the public is receptive to the message about clean water. It is often tool (LEED) for effective high on their list of environmental concerns. But that water management might priority can be overshadowed by broader issues such as the economy and education or by narrower, more parochial allow individuals and water issues. Participants believed that it was essential to organizations to make craft a simple message, one that is clear enough to convey similar decisions and the point, strong enough to withstand distractions, and broad enough to have staying power. Such a message, advances however, must go beyond slogans, such as Do One Thing or Water is Life, though they are important. It must speak in a language relevant to peoples daily existence since it will have to compete with other priorities in peoples lives. And it must bear up under repetition, as repetition is the agent of successful messaging.
Participants also said that it would help if there were simple metrics to help convey the message. The Green Building Council has the LEED (Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design) certicate (available at one of three levels) to help simplify the message about how green a building is. It also acts as an incentive for more environmental and energy friendly design. Some type of equivalent tool for effective water management might allow individuals and organizations to make similar decisions and advances in terms of water issues. The information/entertainment media, both traditional and new, are how most Americans get their news and form opinions on issues. Thus, it is a prime ally in building public support for a One Water policy. Media coverage of issues is driven by crises and water has certainly had its share of those. But the message that people receive from crisis reporting can be confusing. Second, the media. A sustained effort to help the media understand the nature of the water policy
Page 10
crisis and the steps needed to address it is both badly needed and required. But it cannot be merely lectures to reporters and press releases about abstract policy. There must be concrete examples (preferably bright, shining examples in the words of one participant) that make the policy issues real for the medias readers, listeners, and viewers. An ancillary benet from a media understanding campaign is that since political attention follows media attention, any message reaching its intended audience (the reader) also reaches policy-makers (the elected ofcials). To maximize the clarity and the importance of the One Water message, it must be spoken with one voice. Many participants believed that the water community must come together to nd common ground in a single, simple message. Otherwise, disparate voices risk further confusing a perplexed public and diminishing the impact of the message. This could include broader efforts to coordinate outreach, information and education activities among all water organizations. Finally, todays society places a premium on celebrities. Companies and causes vie to attract a recognizable star able to connect their issue to their target audience. Having a charismatic champion for the water cause, backed up by a broader leadership cadre of less famous but knowledgeable individuals, can greatly help break through the cacophony of other messages in the media and bring home the One Water word to the average American. The spokesperson need not be a Hollywood celebrity. Leaders with the right qualities from business and other sectors can also function effectively in this role. Who Is Involved? Previous dialogues have examined the organizations and disciplines that should be represented to build a constituency for One Water. This dialogue afrmed many of the earlier suggestions, such as the importance of including the agriculture and energy sectors. But it also added some new perspectives on why two other elds in particular should be included. The private sector, for example, has many experiences that can be usefully brought to bear in addressing a major change in water policy. Many companies are intimately familiar with transitioning to newer, more inclusive management models. Such experience can be valuable in understanding potential pitfalls. Many of these companies are also leaders in the techniques of collaboration and bring with them knowledge of how organizations and cultures adapt to and manage change. Often, they are agents of change themselves in their industry or have dealt with others as those agents. And many have extensive experience with public relations efforts. Another eld frequently underrepresented in water policy discussions is banking and nance. With budgets at all levels under serious pressure and demands increasing for major investments in infrastructure whether green, gray or One Water the use of newer nancing mechanisms must be expanded. Otherwise, good intentions will certainly meet an early demise.
Page 11
Next Steps
Through its national dialogues, the Alliance has sought to inspire visionary thinking that can inuence policy and advance sustainable water quality. Each discussion has identied actions to advance water policy. All have embraced the need for an integrated national water policy. The challenge is immense; uniting a wide range of agencies that have long been constrained by their individual silos will not be easy. The resources are slim given the currently tough economic times and the publics poor understanding of the true cost and value of water. But there is an urgent need, one that becomes more pressing each day with climate change, growing populations, deteriorating ecosystems, aging infrastructure, and regulatory pressures. Building on these dialogues, the Alliances next step is preparation of a blueprint, in essence the framework for what the new policy should be and the actions needed to achieve it. First and foremost, a national water policy framework must be inclusive, welcoming all stakeholders who seek a sustainable water future. It must balance the tension between suggestions for bold action and for actions tempered by reality and experience. In addition to the policy parameters, this blueprint needs to include strategies for building public support, gaining media attention and understanding, and gathering a record of successes small at rst and growing over time. Success builds credibility and the blueprint should have accomplishments to point to as it proceeds forward. Funding for the projects necessary to implement a new One Water policy will be essential. Daunting as it may be, the task is too important for the risk of failure to deter action. The Alliance welcomes your active participation as we lay the groundwork and chart the course for a sustainable One Water national policy.
Page 12
FACILITATOR
LaJuana Wilcher Partner English, Lucas, Priest, & Owsley, LLP
KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Bill Bertera Executive Director Water Environment Federation
LUNCH SPEAKER
Paul Reiter Executive Director International Water Association
PANELISTS
Jon Freedman Global Leader, Government Relations GE Power and Water Jonathan Kaledin Global Water Stewardship Program Director The Nature Conservancy Danny Merkley Director, Water Resources California Farm Bureau Federation
PARTICIPANTS
Dean Amhaus Executive Director Milwaukee Water Council Bob Asheld Vice President Corporate Development United Water Richard Atwater Immediate Past President WateReuse Association Laurent Auguste President & CEO Veolia Water Americas Katherine Baer Sr. Director, Clean Water American Rivers Art Baggett Board Member California State Water Resources Control Board John Batten Vice President Malcolm Pirnie, Inc. Jack Baylis US Group Executive, Strategic Development AECOM David Beckman Director, Water Program Natural Resources Defense Council Bill Bertera Executive Director Water Environment Federation Lindsey Brown Advisor to Commissioner Bohn California Public Utilities Commission Paul Brown Executive Vice President CDM Michael Carlin Deputy General Manager San Francisco Public Utilities Commission Debra Coy Principal Svanda & Coy Consulting Roger Dower President Johnson Foundation Mark Gold President Heal the Bay John Hanula Vice President CH2M Hill Juli Beth Hinds Sr. Planner Tetra Tech
Page 13
Page 14
Board of Directors
Dick Champion, Chair Director Independence Water Pollution Control Department, MO Laurent Auguste President and CEO Veolia Water Americas, IL Katherine Baer Senior Director, Clean Water American Rivers, DC Jack Baylis U.S. Group Executive Strategic Development AECOM, CA D. Randall Benn Partner Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP, DC Julius Ciaccia Executive Director Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, OH James H. Clark Vice President Black & Veatch Corporation, CA Carol Collier Executive Director Delaware River Basin Commission, NJ Michael B. Cook U.S. EPA (Retired), VA Mohamed Dahab Professor & Chair Department of Civil Engineering University of Nebraska Lincoln, NE Alexandra Dapolito Dunn Executive Director & General Counsel Association of State & Interstate Water Pollution Control Administrators, DC Brent Fewell Vice President, Environmental Compliance United Water, MD Richard C. Fox Chairman & Chief Executive Ofcer Camp Dresser & McKee, Inc., MA Cathy Gerali District Manager Metro Wastewater Reclamation District, CO Benjamin H. Grumbles Director Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, AZ James Hall Vice President, Strategic Development Global Sales Siemens Water Technologies Corporation, PA John Hattle Director Sperry Management, IL Jonathan Kaledin Global Water Stewardship Program Director The Nature Conservancy, NY Patrick T. Karney Global Director, Wastewater Vice President, Water Business Group CH2M HILL, FL Dick Lanyon Executive Director Metropolitan Water Reclamation District Greater Chicago, IL Charles Logue Director Technical Services ReWa (Renewable Water Resources), SC G. Tracy Mehan, III Principal Cadmus Group, VA Erik J. Meyers Vice President for Sustainable Programs The Conservation Fund, VA Pat Mulroy General Manager Southern Nevada Water Authority, NV Howard M. Neukrug Director, Ofce of Watersheds City of Philadelphia Water, PA Cornelius P. OLeary Adjunct Professor of Law University of Connecticut School of Law, CT Michele Pla Principal MPLA - Cleanwater Consulting, CA Andrew W. Richardson Chief Executive Ofcer Greeley and Hansen LLC, IL Amy Shanker Black & Veatch Corporation (Retired), KS James F. Stahl Vice President MWH Americas, Inc., CA Rich Sustich Industrial and Governmental Development Manager University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign, IL Chuck Voltz Vice President of North American Rehabilitation (NAR) Insituform, MO Neil Weinstein Director Low Impact Development Center, Inc., MD
Page 15
Founders
The Clean Water America Alliance (Alliance) is dedicated to working with individuals, organizations and entities throughout the country both public and private to forge a new vision for a sustainable water future. The following organizations have elected to support the Alliances efforts to achieve an integrated, holistic water policy that will sustain generations of Americans to come.
Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, IL Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District, WI National Association of Clean Water Agencies, DC National Association of Water Companies, DC National Rural Water Association, OK Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, OH Philadelphia Water Department, PA Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans, LA Upper Trinity Water District, TX Water & Wastewater Equipment Manufacturers Association, DC
Page 16
Shaping water policy for a sustainable future. 1816 Jefferson Place, NW Washington, DC 20036 202.223.2299 www.CleanWaterAmericaAlliance.org