Share the Joy of Access to Water

By Rebecca West
President of the Water Environment Federation

Hello WEF members and other waterbloggers! I just got back from a trip to Kenya (traveling for personal business, not as a WEF representative), where every day was a reminder that although access to water is an absolute necessity, it’s not a given in many places. For example, due to the lack of or intermittent rainfall, many people and communities had to locate the closest available water and go get it for daily living. In fact, this picture
shows villagers pulling water from a neighboring rainwater collection tank to provide access to water in their area.

I’d go even further and say access to water is a right to which every person on this planet is entitled. And we as water quality professionals understand the challenges to providing clean water worldwide complicated by factors like population growth and climate change. At the Water Environment Federation, we embrace a technical commitment to clean water, and it can be put to good use through special partnerships that offer WEF members opportunities to apply their expertise in ways that make a difference. Engineers Without Borders and Water for People, a WEF charity of choice, are just two organizations of many that would put your own time or financial contributions to further ensure people across our blue planet can gain access to water and sanitation.

So this holiday season, I ask you to support an organization that works to provide global access to water and sanitation and share the joy of access to water and protection of their health through access to sanitation with those less fortunate. It’s a wonderful way to celebrate the abundance we have and underscore the importance of extending this very basic right to those less fortunate. Meanwhile, thanks for all you do to protect public health and the environment every day and very best wishes for peace and happiness in the coming year.

Protecting Our Purple Pipes

By Don Vandertulip, PE
Chair, WEF Water Reuse Committee

I’ll start at the beginning of this important issue, which is ultimately about organizations working together to protect public health and sustainable water supplies. Purple is the standard color for pipe adopted by the international utility industry to distribute municipally treated reclaimed water. In late June 2008, a question was raised alerting water reuse professionals to a proposed plumbing code that would require use of purple pipe for all graywater systems. The proposal was embedded in updates to the 2009 Uniform Plumbing Code under final development by the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO) and the indication was all reuse organizations had approved it. IAPMO used the Canadian CSA B128 Design and Installation of NonPotable Systems as a guide to coordinate with international standards.

Utility members and reuse professionals at the Water Environment Association (WEF), the American Water Works Association (AWWA) and the WateReuse Association (WRA) were not aware of this proposed change, and they responded—along with several state health departments—based on a three-decade history of distributing high-quality reclaimed water through purple pipe and gaining public support for highly treated reclaimed water. Their concerns included:

• Potential cross connections between two purple pipe systems with significantly different quality;


• The public could be exposed to inadequately treated water in a municipal purple pipe system contaminated by an on-site cross connection; and,


• Public exposure and cross connections would negatively impact public confidence in the municipal reclaimed water system.

Based on this feedback, a joint letter signed by Executive Directors of WEF, AWWA, and WRA was submitted to IAPMO on September 24, 2008. I believe this letter represents the first letter endorsed by the three organizations in a common effort to eliminate a public health threat. In a separate action, Florida Department of Health (FDEP) sent a letter protesting the proposed Code.

Discussions at WEFTEC.08 among representatives of IAPMO and all three water groups regarding Code revision revealed that the issue included not only on-site graywater systems but also other sources of alternate water to include rainwater harvested water, stormwater, and air conditioning condensate and showed that other entities unfamiliar with reclaimed water production might influence its use, distribution, and quality.

Based on all of the input they received, IAPMO formed a Task Group to review the proposed code requirements and to develop alternative code requirements acceptable to plumbing code inspectors and municipal utility providers. I was appointed to this committee to represent WEF and WRA, while Alan Rimer, Chair of the AWWA Water Reuse Committee will represent AWWA.

The bottom line is that technical solutions will be developed for consideration by both reclaimed water utility interests and plumbing code enforcement officials. Water utilities and professionals have done a good job of “branding” purple pipe and educating constituents within the immediate service area about the value of reclaimed water use to the community. It is now apparent that water professionals, utilities, and state health departments must become more involved with local, state and national building code development to ensure that highly treated reclaimed water protects public health and guards against public exposure to inadequately treated alternate waters originating from on-site treatment units. I believe this increased involvement should include:

• Improved communications between IAPMO and professionals from the water field by providing technical presentations to educate each other about their respective approaches to public health;


• Improved education within our own house-including utility, health and environmental department professionals so we can recognize well-intended efforts by others that may impact the value of our purple pipe liquid assets;


• Evaluation, by utilities, of state and local regulations that may be in conflict with the Plumbing Codes adopted by the local communities and direct communication with the state entities to provide clear regulations protective of public health without causing regulatory conflict; and,


• Identification of additional common code/public health concerns related to use of non-potable water on property also served with potable water that should be mutually addressed.

The IAPMO Task Group and greater utility awareness are good starts. It is incumbent on all water utility professionals to work toward improved recognition of design controls and regulations that are supportive of public health and sustainable water supply solutions. Meanwhile, I’d invite you to visit www.iapmo.org to learn more about this important code development organization and watch for further developments as we all work together for a cleaner environment.

Liquid Assets: It’s Time to Review the Nation’s Portfolio

By Rebecca West
President of the Water Environment Federation

You’ve probably heard it said that when the market’s down, it’s time to invest. Although I can’t speak to personal financial decisions (that’s someone else’s blog), public investment in the nation’s aging infrastructure--especially our drinking water and wastewater systems--makes a lot of sense and seems to be gaining some traction as one way to address our current economic woes through job creation and so forth. But beyond infrastructure funding as an economic stimulus, it’s simply past time for communities across the country to review their water infrastructure investments. And in light of declining revenues and the challenges of financing future debt, communities everywhere will want to make sure they can continue to provide water and sewer services that protect public health and maintain quality of life. All of this is pushing the community dialogue about where to get the best value for infrastructure investments, and that’s a very good thing.

I just got back from a great North Carolina Water Environment Association meeting, where of course the growing national focus on infrastructure (and the potential for increased funding) was a hot topic, and I heard some pretty interesting ideas. One was that economic considerations plus infrastructure demands could result in scenarios where communities combine their resources to address infrastructure issues. Evidently that’s already happening in some areas, and we are likely to see more in the future, especially as we get even more broadly into management from a watershed perspective and as communities explore the most cost-effective ways to provide essential water and sewer services to their customers.

The other thought that really surprised me during dinner conversations was whether or not water utilities should be lumped in with failing corporations in terms of government assistance. Yes we all recognize that our water infrastructure badly needs a cash infusion, but do we want that as part of an economic bailout by government? After all, infrastructure problems have resulted from a failure to invest and will this fact lead the public to believe that our water infrastructure problems are a result of poor management or a lack of leadership? I wanted to share these thoughts with you because they speak to the ongoing philosophical discussion of whether investments into water infrastructure should be made by the national government or made and defined at the local level?

One way or another, it looks like public infrastructure awareness is going up, and in our case must be raised to a level where citizens understand their health and quality of life depend on water infrastructure investment and are willing to support it. This is our BIG opportunity as water quality professionals to work to build public understanding of water’s value, its connection to public health, and the vital need for resources to support smart, sustainable management of the water environment.

“Water Is Life, and Infrastructure Makes It Happens™” can help us strike while the proverbial iron is hot. Initiated by WEF with support from the National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA), Water Is Life at www.WaterIsLife.net is a program designed to mobilize grass roots support by providing utilities with professional outreach tools including brochures and bill stuffers, ads and public service announcements, webcasts, and much, much more. For example, in Spartanburg, infrastructure education, including Water Is Life materials, have helped us engage in ongoing community discussions and attract media attention to our water infrastructure issues.

The centerpiece of Water Is Life’s 2008-09 program is “Liquid Assets: The Story of Water Infrastructure,” a $1 million documentary project produced by Penn State Public Broadcasting that examines the critical role water infrastructure plays in protecting public health and promoting economic livability. You might be interested to know that WEF provided financial support to this important project and is working with NACWA, the American Society of Civil Engineers, and others to increase viewership of the program and build local coalitions to create one voice for water infrastructure.

The program is airing around the country (check the latest schedule), and I’d encourage all of you waterbloggers to contact your local PBS station, request airings in your communities, and do everything you can to spread the word. I’d also appreciate any comments or additional thoughts about today’s column, so feel free to blog away!

Take A Walk on the Wet Side: Do You Know Your Water Footprint?

By Rebecca West
President of the Water Environment Federation

I'm honored to post the very first blog for the Water Environment Federation, and we hope it’s the beginning of many conversations that will get folks thinking and talking about water. Water was definitely all the buzz last week at WEFTEC.08™ in Chicago, where 2008 Stockholm Water Prize Laureate Professor John Anthony Allan, of King’s College London, was the keynote speaker who inspired so many with his comments on virtual water, including yours truly.

The idea of virtual water--basically how much water is needed to produce the food, clothes, and other goods and services we use every day—is a whole new way of looking at water conservation and sustainability. Much as ‘carbon footprints’ define amounts of energy consumption that can be reduced to improve the environment, virtual water helps define our individual water consumption in terms of water footprints. It’s not at all like the ways we are used to thinking and talking about water.

Like many of us in this business, I’ve spent much of my professional life talking about water conservation in terms of taking shorter showers, turning off water when you brush your teeth, minimizing outdoor water use and not using your toilet as a trashcan. These ideas are readily shared when we talk about water conservation, but despite our constant education and outreach, I’m not sure people are really thinking about all the water they use, much less changing their behavior. But here is an idea - what if water quality experts start talking about smaller water footprints instead of shorter showers? I wonder what impact we may have in affecting people’s “water behavior” if we started doing this?

I encourage you to visit http://www.waterfootprint.org to find out that water footprint size varies depending on many things including lifestyle, product choices, even nationality. According to the Water Footprint Network, in China the annual water footprint is 700 cubic meters per person versus 2500 cubic meters per person in the United States. Some of that difference relates to products created with domestic water resources versus products created using water from outside the country. There are other considerations such as diet, and we like our hamburgers!

It takes 16,000 liters of water to produce just 1 kilogram of beef. So if you have a salad for lunch instead of a hamburger, you can reduce your water footprint (and save a few calories in the process!) It’s all about understanding how the choices you make impact the water we have, and it’s time to get the conversational ball rolling down the road to a greener, more sustainable future!

Meanwhile I invite you to visit http://www.waterfootprint.org and find out more about what it takes to reduce your own water footprint. And I ask you to share your comments and ideas for reducing personal water footprints here on the WEF WaterBlog.