Time to Reinvent the Clean Water Act?

By Paul Freedman, 2009-2010 President of WEF

Almost 4 decades ago I decided to become a water quality professional, inspired by my personal experiences growing up in Cleveland. There the Cuyahoga River often caught fire and Lake Erie was truly eerie, not blue as you would expect of a Great Lake but rather turbid brown, with green swirls and dead floating fish. In 1972 the Clean Water Act was passed to address the main cause--pollution from poorly treated wastewater. Since then we as a profession have worked hard to successfully eliminate this pollution and improve national water quality. In 2009, however, the problems are much different.

Today’s dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico, Chesapeake Bay, and even Lake Erie are not due to poorly treated wastewater, but rather to failed agricultural practices. In fact, over 90% of our impaired waters are caused in whole or in part due to nonpoint sources, yet we do not have regulatory programs that adequately address these problems. We have aging infrastructure that needs repair and replacement and major issues with wet weather, nutrients and sediments, even flow alterations, but we do not have suitable funding or legislation that reflect the realities of today’s watersheds. There are many innovative new ideas for green approaches to water quality improvement, but no means to consider these in current regulatory structure. Basically today we have a regulatory tool kit that is designed to address problems that no longer exist and doesn’t give us the tools to address our new problems and potential solutions. And we don’t have integrated water programs that allow us to focus on high-priority needs and practical effective solutions. These problems will become even more challenging with population growth and climate change.

The Federation recognizes this dilemma and began efforts to evaluate the CWA around its 35th anniversary in 2007, when we hosted a series of conversations including a briefing on Capitol Hill, and sessions at WEFTEC and MA meetings. This fall we continue in these efforts and will be conducting a workshop (in cooperation with the Nicholas Institute of Duke University and the Johnson Foundation) to examine the problems in achieving our national goals of swimmable and fishable waters. A diverse group of experts will share their perspectives on CWA implementation and consider how its regulatory and enforcement history either facilitates or thwarts specific and emerging water quality challenges. We will also frame issues ripe for consideration during CWA reauthorization and define the best approach for moving ahead. Our hope is that the outcome will be a road map for a new path for helping the US achieve our national goals for water quality.

What are your views on this? Is the CWA broken? Can we meet our nationals goals on our current path? What do you see as the biggest problems and what solutions do you recommend? Please let us know - reply to this blog.

WEFTEC.09: Can’t Hide the Excitement!

By Paul Bowen, Ph.D.

As I conclude my last year as chair of the WEFTEC Program Committee, I am—-as always—-truly excited by the meeting’s technical program. Here at WEFTEC.09, our comprehensive program highlights new and innovative research as well as featuring fresh approaches to proven programs and operations. And this year’s high-quality workshops are in a class by themselves--it’s really exciting to see how everything has come together!

WEFTEC is where you can meet and learn from some of the best and brightest minds in our field. They attend WEFTEC by the thousands and include my colleagues on the hard working and extraordinary Program Committee. We’ve stayed on top of trends and current events to offer exciting, up-to-date new sessions and workshops like the one on carbon footprinting. It is so stimulating and energizing to see state-of-the-art information come through in the program. If you can’t be in Orlando, you can visit the WEF website to see the WEFTEC Daily, posted today through Wednesday, to get a sense of the excitement here.

One technical session I’m extremely excited about is Water Footprinting, Stewardship, and Advocacy, exploring the roles of the public and private sector in water sustainability. This topic truly is cutting-edge and on the forefront of the water sector. The panel assembled for this session has industry leaders in developing this topic, and I know their presentations will generate excitement and interest.

As an old timer on this Committee (been on it for 26 years) I find every year is a fresh experience, and the personal and professional rewards keep coming. And I see that I’ve used some form of "excite" six times in this blog. That sort of repetition is a big nonstarter from a writer’s point of view. But from my own POV, I just still get excited about WEFTEC—-and it’s off to the Opening General Session!