Value for Members Remains Top WEF Priority

By Bill Bertera, WEF Executive Director

WEF is in the best financial shape of its long history...still, we expect our operations--and our members--to be significantly affected by the recession. Like utilities and companies across the country, and indeed, around the world, we will be doing business differently to meet tough economic challenges. For the record, one thing won’t change, and that’s our focus on delivering top quality training and education for water quality professionals.

WEF will continue to provide the best possible value for stretched member dollars even as we adjust current spending. It’s the Federation’s job to help you protect public health and the environment, and we are adapting our programs to meet your needs and resources.

We understand that travel is more difficult for many of our members, so we are putting new emphasis on distance learning technologies like free webcasts. Budgets for education and training are strained...we are adding more free content to our websites in response. Resources for innovation are strapped...we are emphasizing cutting-edge material and technologies in our educational offerings, including WEFTEC, our specialty conferences and our seminars. And of course, we continue to focus on providing our members with the latest information on new funding for wastewater projects, a big topic at next week’s 2009 National Clean Water Policy Forum sponsored by WEF and NACWA.

This is a hard time for both the public and private sector, and WEF is here to make it a little less so. Already there are signs that the recession may be softening, but we have a long way to go yet. Together we will get there.

Please take a moment to let us know what you think and what else WEF could do to be of more help still.

Show Me the Green Infrastructure

By Paul Freedman, 2008-2009 President-Elect of WEF

The other day I was having a discussion about the current stimulus bill and potential set asides for green practices, when a thought hit me: are we as a profession and as individuals really walking the talk, or merely looking for handouts? Put another way, have we fully embraced a new mentality about adopting green practices or are we just being politically correct to win federal money?

I am happy to say, that WEF as an organization and as a professional association talks the talk, and walks the walk. WEF has a Community of Practice on Sustainability with more than 100 members and has provided professionals with hundreds of presentations, papers, and articles on related topics including a specialty conference on sustainability in 2008 and another planned for 2010; we’ve also been quite active in legislative and regulatory affairs advocating for green practices. Beyond all this, WEF is demonstrating our commitment through implementation of our WEFeco program which is aimed at reducing the organization’s carbon footprint through individual and organizational actions, and will ultimately help other organizations go green with similar efforts. This has included everything from reducing our energy usage and paper usage to recycling and even installing a green roof and terrace(come by and admire it or read about it in the April issue of Highlights.

So especially in light of upcoming Earth Day celebrations, I am proud to be part of an organization that is advocating and embracing green practices. As experts and stewards of the water environment, we do have an obligation to lead, by voice and by example. And who is more qualified to lead efforts to redesign water and land-use infrastructure for communities that are greener, better for the environment and more livable and sustainable? What are you doing, both as a part of your organization and as an individual? I challenge you to take a moment and share an example of what you or your company or organization is doing in the way of green practices or more specifically, infrastructure. Thanks in advance for your post and your commitment to a cleaner, greener environment.

Thoughts from the World Water Forum

By Rebecca West, WEF President

During the World Water Forum V, held in Istanbul, Turkey, March 16-22, 2009, I was one of more than 25,000 participants who discussed themes including the following:

• Global Change and Risk Management;
• Advancing the Human Development and the Millennium Development Goals (MDG);
• Managing and Protecting Water Resources;
• Governance and Management;
• Finance;
• Education, Knowledge and Capacity Development.

The theme that struck me as most important was Advancing Human Development, which prompted discussions on the need to provide access to sanitation and clean drinking water in developing areas with growing populations and the resulting water scarcity and degraded water quality. It seems to me that once access to sanitation and clean drinking water is available--whether in developing or industrialized areas of the world--that communities and their residents can develop; then the other five forum water themes could be addressed.

For communities across this planet to survive and then thrive, access to basic sanitation and clean water is the first and most essential requirement. I’ve had opportunities to witness this first hand, most recently during a personal trip to Kidete, Tanzania. A small village of around 700 people, Kidete is located on the outskirts of Iringa, Tanzania (population around 180,000 people). It’s an area blessed with frequent rainfall, but access to water is a challenge due to changing weather patterns and an expanding population requiring water for living and for growing food.

As seen in this photo, Kidete residents must seek available water sources each day for their daily drinking, cooking, bathing, washing and crop growth. A consistent and ample water supply would begin to completely change this village: children could attend school, women could better attend to the daily chores of growing and gathering food for their families (or perhaps even begin a small business or go back to school), babies would be born with better birth weights and a greater chance of living beyond their toddler years. Once this happens, Kidete and villages like it could develop a better standard of living and focus on protecting their water supply because they understand the value of water and what it means for each day of their lives. Then water issues related to governance, management, finance, education, and capacity development will take shape and more complex water issues related to global change and risk management could be considered.

Basic access to sanitation and clean drinking water is a right of all people, and I offer these thoughts to show that human development really does depend on that right. So do global water solutions.

Sound Science: Water Quality Monitoring

Carl Myers, Assistant Director, WEF Government Affairs

Recently joining the WEF staff a few years removed from my former EPA life, I was cheered by the new Administration’s focus on sound science, clearly stated by EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson:

“Science must be the backbone for EPA programs. The public health and environmental laws that Congress has enacted depend on rigorous adherence to the best available science.”

A critical component of applying sound science, the need to collect, analyze and wisely use good water data, including the robust ambient and related water quality monitoring efforts necessary to provide good data, cannot be overlooked. In these tough economic times, we must appreciate the array of monitoring efforts now underway at Federal, State and local levels and do whatever we can as water professionals to cooperatively support and improve all our monitoring efforts.

WEF has long supported the National Water Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Program administered by USGS in cooperation with many others. NAWQA is a well-designed and implemented water quality monitoring program producing both national and State/local data and results helpful to informing water management decisions. WEF, in cooperation with USGS, has sponsored a continuing series of congressional briefings to make sure NAWQA findings are understood and discussed by national leaders. The next congressional briefing, which as always is open free to the public, will discuss new findings about the quality of our nation’s private drinking water wells. “The Quality of Our Nation’s Private Drinking Water Wells: Are Current Contaminant Levels Above Public Health Benchmarks?” is scheduled for Friday, March 27 from 9:30-11:30 a.m. in the Cannon Caucus Room of the Cannon House Office Building in Washington, DC. No RSVP is required for attendance. For more information, contact Donna Myers (dnmyers@usgs.gov, 703-648-5012) at USGS or Nick Bardis (nbardis@wef.org, 703-684-2400 x7731) at WEF.

Supporting water quality monitoring should include encouraging everyone, not just water professionals, to both understand and participate in water monitoring. WEF and the International Water Association in partnership with a wide range of sponsors have been helping local participants observe World Water Monitoring Day™ (WWMD). In 2008, more than 73,000 people worldwide visited their local streams, rivers, lakes, and other waterbodies to take basic water quality measurements in celebration of World Water Monitoring Day, marking a 60% increase in participation from 2007. WWMD is officially observed each year on Sept. 18. Beginning in 2009, participants will be able to monitor and report data to the WWMD database from March 22 (World Water Day) until Dec. 31. The goal is to engage 1 million people in monitoring their local waterways by 2012. For more information, see the World Water Monitoring Day 2008 Year in Review, available at www.WorldWaterMonitoringDay.org or by request at wwmd@wef.org.

NAWQA and WWMD are just two examples of how WEF is supporting and advancing water quality monitoring. It’s important that all water professionals work together to help develop the best possible monitoring data to support sound science even as we go full-speed-ahead on watershed management actions.

Global Water Stewardship and WEF

By Paul Freedman, 2008-2009 President-Elect of WEF

During this very recent bitter cold spell my water pipes froze, and I was without water. Albeit a short time, still this helped me really appreciate the importance of having adequate, clean and safe water. Yet, we know that here in the US, and globally, the sustainability of our water supplies is continually threatened by pollution, excessive demands, and now climate change. So, as an organization of water professionals, we at WEF asked, “what can we do to help mitigate these threats?” At our last meeting, the WEF Board of Trustees passed a resolution to partner with the Alliance for Water Stewardship to promote and recognize good practices among large water users and providers.

As water quality professionals know, water scarcity is a human health and economic threat. In 2003, the US and the GAO predicted that 46 states will experience water shortages within 10 years, and we have already seen dangerous levels of drought across the continental map. Areas of historically stable supplies like the southeast came dangerously close to depleting their available supplies just two years ago, while sunbelt areas in the south and Southwest are perennially short. Globally, insufficient and unsafe water supplies are problems for over a billion people, causing an estimated 1.6 million deaths every year. Industries and even whole economies of countries are often threatened by water shortages. So when it comes to water, smart conservation, effective allocation, and wise use are essential to public health, economics, and the environment worldwide. (See WEF's resources on water reuse.) Governments and users share responsibility for the solutions.

Per the Board resolution I mentioned earlier, WEF is now helping launch the Alliance for Water Stewardship. The Alliance is an international partnership of like-minded organizations with the objective to develop a set of principles and good practices for large water users and providers, including industry and all types of water utilities. We have a 3-year goal to develop a global certification program with a vision to recognize water users and managers who are responsible water stewards, protecting and enhancing freshwater resources for people and nature. The program builds on global scientific and policy research on “water footprints” and the desire to not only minimize wasteful water uses but also undertake practices that can protect and replenish the availability of safe clean water in individually stressed watersheds and groundwater aquifers.

There are numerous international efforts to define sustainable practices, and in many cases we certify those good steward practitioners in everything from forestry to commercial fisheries. However, sustainable water is a foundation for all of those industries. Water is not only essential to life, it’s a foundation for our food supply, our economy, and our global ecology. So WEF members, as the professional “stewards” of the water environment, we have a responsibility to lead and establish practices that will insure a sustainable future for clean, safe water. That’s why we are supporting the Alliance for Water Stewardship.

What do you think? Add a blog reply. If you want more information please contact me or Matt Ries at the Water Environment Federation.

SYPC Brings Community Service to WEFTEC®

By Haley Falconer, WEF Students and Young Professionals Committee (SYPC) member

I am very excited to have the opportunity to blog about the success that the Students and Young Professionals Committee (SYPC) has had regarding our first service project as well as plans for WEFTEC.09. It was at WEFTEC.07 in San Diego when the SYPC first discussed participating in a service project, and at the time, the group wanted something that would engage the young (and seasoned) WEF SYPC members as well as give our group something we could put our name on and be proud of. The initial goal was to complete a couple of small projects in Chicago and Orlando with an ultimate objective of finishing a large project for the five-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans (WEFTEC.10).

The project we selected in Orlando, Fla. for WEFTEC.09 is a wetland replanting as a part of the Orange County Utilities Northwest Water Reclamation Facility (NWRF). NWRF is an advanced secondary treatment system with a permitted treatment capacity of 7.5 MGD that is located in the northwest part of the County, about 30 miles from the WEFTEC.09 conference location.

This project includes harvesting plants from established parts of the wetlands and replanting them in other areas that currently have a limited amount of plants. The wetlands system consists of six cells planted with native plants and includes approximately 75 acres of land; this project, however, will focus on one wetland cell. Volunteers will have the opportunity to learn about a wetland treatment system and how wetlands are used to further remove nutrients from secondary effluent.

The work will be completed on the Saturday of WEFTEC, and each volunteer will hopefully plant around 20 plants. We estimate that about 100 students and young professional volunteers will gain hands-on experience with reclaimed water and learn how reclaimed water is integrated with water supply sources by supplementing wetlands treatment with advanced secondary wastewater treatment process and lake augmentation. There is also potential for a community education part of this project that will be further developed in the future.

The success of the first SYPC service project in Chicago added energy and enthusiasm to the Orlando project. Around 60 volunteers at a neighborhood park (Pulaski Park) helped with that project, titled "Gettin’ Out of the Gutter," which focused on building and planting a rain garden. WEF SYPC collaborated with the Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT, Chicago); the Chicago Park District; the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago; and the Illinois Water Environment Association to plan and coordinate the project, recruit volunteers and sponsors, and provide construction labor. The Illinois WEA will also maintain the rain garden. We look forward to this sort of corroboration in Orlando! For more information contact me at haleyfalconer@gmail.com or Rebecca McLarty at McLartyRG@cdm.com.

P.S. Due to the success of the SYPC’s first service project and the momentum and anticipation of the next project, our group would like to challenge each WEF Member Association to participate in a service project of their own. This is an opportunity for each MA to get out and make a difference in our own communities. Many small projects can have a huge impact, and I hope that this is a continuation of a tradition of service through WEF!

On Turning Waste into Watts…

By Jeanette Brown, Vice President of WEF

As WEF vice president, I testified before the House Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee this morning about protecting water quality and public health more economically and efficiently. It was extremely rewarding and an experience I will certainly never forget.

It was really inspiring to be able to place our shared goal for sustainable water infrastructure squarely on the new administration’s radar screen. (Read full testimony.) As water quality professionals, we know that the proper treatment of our water makes significant demand for energy, the cost of which cannot be overlooked or underestimated. Energy efficiency and energy independence are essential to sustainable wastewater treatment. We are concerned about the high use and cost of energy (over 30% of a utility’s operating budget!) as well as the age of water infrastructure. As members of the Water Environment Federation, we have continually taken a proactive approach to address conservation and renewable energy using technology and innovation. WEF has documented this commitment to the environment and our water through conferences, papers, forums, and publications. (See WEF's Sustainability & Energy Knowledge Center.) I’m optimistic that key legislators understand this now, too.

But perhaps as important as all of that is a major evolution in thinking where wastewater utilities are beginning to be viewed as big players in conserving or even supplying energy, rather than energy consumers or waste generators. It’s a paradigm shift advanced by cost, climate change, and sustainability considerations. In fact, we initiated a pilot study and scaled research program for the conversion of wastewater biosolids to synthetic gas (www.stamfordbiogas.com) at my own utility with the support of the Federal Department of Energy. As discussed this morning, other new approaches that can turn waste to energy, generate electricity and income, or use energy efficiently are taking place across the country and around the world.

We like to say that the success of our sustainable future will be “CTI”; Conservation, Technology, and Innovation. We are the people who can turn waste into watts! I was grateful for today’s opportunity to shed some light on this topic and feel truly honored to be part of this wonderful community of environmental stewards and professional practitioners who dedicate their lives to the preservation of our most valued resource, our water.