Aspen Institute dialogue identifies a sustainable path toward improving nation’s water infrastructure

From the Aspen Institute, this press release:

A milestone report published by the Aspen Institute’s Energy and Environment Program outlines how this country’s aging and ailing water infrastructure can be restored and managed in a way that is economically sustainable, that protects the nation’s natural watershed, and that will meet the challenges associated with climate change, such as droughts, heavy storms, and flooding events.

The report, Sustainable Water Systems: Step One – Redefining the Nation’s Infrastructure Challenge, published in early July 2009, is a result of the year-long Aspen Institute Dialogue on Sustainable Water Infrastructure in the United States, which examined the challenges that America’s drinking water and wastewater systems are now facing in maintaining and replacing their pipes, treatment plants, and other critical infrastructure in the context of a changing climate. By offering ten policy recommendations, three key principles of sustainable water infrastructure, and 20 guiding elements of water management, the report creates a sustainable path forward for the nation in delivering clean and safe drinking water for American communities while protecting the environment and the nation’s natural watershed.

The report was the subject of a roundtable discussion on Wednesday, July 29, 2009, at the Institute’s headquarters in Washington, DC. At the event, several of the Dialogue’s participants detailed key components of the report’s recommendations, pointed to a variety of practical solutions in water infrastructure, and fielded questions. Watch the video highlights. “We believe that the outcomes of this Dialogue are really valuable for providing the bigger vision of where we need to go in terms of sustainable infrastructure,” said Dialogue participant Katherine Baer, senior director of American Rivers’ Clean Water Program. “There is a broad understanding in the energy sector that we need to transform our energy use to more renewable, efficient technologies, [but] we haven’t had that similar transformative model in water infrastructure – this Dialogue helped put some of that together,” said Baer.

Added Wally Bishop, general manager of the Contra Costa Water District: “Across the table, and particularly in the small communities, there is a real need to build capacity. The report’s 20 elements can be used as a template or benchmark for governing boards, utility managers, customers, and stakeholders to see how water infrastructure is being run in their area.”

Baer and Bishop were among 27 national leaders representing public and private water utilities, government water-quality and water-resource bodies, corporations, water advocacy groups, and national NGOs who collectively identified a path forward to meet those challenges in the Aspen Institute Dialogue and Sustainable Water Systems report.

The Dialogue and the report set a strong precedent for the rest of the nation by emphasizing the importance of managing water infrastructure from a holistic, integrated approach that goes beyond just the pipes and treatments plants by taking into account the entire water cycle, from the natural watershed to the customers’ faucets. “We have to work to protect the water systems – protecting source-water watersheds and [incorporating] low-impact development techniques in a more integrated fashion than we have in the past,” said Baer. “All of us here may work with or know some great examples [of this] around the country, but to make these the norm instead of the exception, our group had to redefine infrastructure so everyone would consider it in that way.”

“The idea of water infrastructure including natural systems, ecosystems, and the watershed – the ‘natural infrastructure’ – implies that we’re not trying to protect just landscapes or drainages or basins,” said G. Tracy Mehan III, principle of the Cadmus Group and former EPA assistant administrator for water. “It’s more than just the natural landscape; it’s also trying to imitate it in the urban context. At the end of the day, greening up that urban landscape, trying to increase permeability through green roofs, rain gardens, increasing your forest canopy and tree cover in an urban area – these may not get us away completely from gray infrastructure, and maybe they shouldn’t, but they can certainly reduce our reliance, increase our resilience, and reduce our costs, and generate multiple benefits that are pleasing to the local community and rate payers.”

The report calls on the many stakeholders in water infrastructure to share responsibility for this goal. “Elected boards, city councils, mayors, regional authorities need to educate themselves that in some cases, giving themselves a gold star because their rates are low and they have been for ten years when in fact the infrastructure is crumbling and they’re not making investments in the right things, is not the gold star that their customers want. Sustainability, reliability, and good-quality water is what the customers want,” said Bishop. “Sustainability means you take the longer view.”

Other recurring themes in the roundtable conversation were the need for transparent management of water utilities, full-cost pricing of water, and coordination between stakeholders. “Water is a scarce and precious resource,” said Michael Deane, executive director of the National Association of Water Companies. “And customers need transparent and efficient price signals in order to make wise decisions about how much water they use, how much water they save, and what level of service they demand as customers. In order to provide these transparent, accurate, and efficient price signals, utilities need to undertake each of the elements of the sustainable path in the report.”

Additionally, stakeholders, water managers, and the public need to understand the energy footprint of water consumption. “Paying attention to the tradeoffs in the water-energy area is going to be key,” said Mehan. “We’ve got to start worrying about the water footprint of energy and the energy footprint of water, and the carbon footprint of both. We can’t continue this stovepiped approach of treating water and energy separately. And I think that’s basically where all these recommendations and the spirit of the whole Aspen Dialogue are taking us – to a more integrated approach to water resource management.”

The Aspen Institute Dialogue on Sustainable Water Infrastructure in the United States was supported by the Water Environment Federation, the National Association of Water Companies, and CH2M HILL.
Download the full report: Sustainable Water Systems: Step One – Redefining the Nation’s Infrastructure Challenge.

The Aspen Institute Energy and Environment Program provides nonpartisan leadership and a neutral forum for improving energy and environmental policy making through intentional, values-based dialogue. Through its policy work, public programs such as the Aspen Environment Forum, and the Catto Fellowship, an environmental leadership initiative, the Energy and Environment Program creates impartial venues for global leaders to engage in informed discussion around some of the most important and complex issues of our time. For more information on the Aspen Institute Energy and Environment Program visit www.aspeninstitute.org/ee.

The Aspen Institute: The Aspen Institute mission is twofold: to foster values-based leadership, encouraging individuals to reflect on the ideals and ideas that define a good society, and to provide a neutral and balanced venue for discussing and acting on critical issues. The Aspen Institute does this primarily in four ways: seminars, young-leader fellowships around the globe, policy programs, and public conferences and events. The Institute is based in Washington, DC, Aspen, CO, and on the Wye River on Maryland’s Eastern Shore and has an international network of partners. For more information, visit www.aspeninstitute.org

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