About Us
Imagine a world where water is viewed, managed and valued as one resource. A world where the silo thinking that has kept clean water, drinking water, stormwater and water reuse interests segregated erodes away – and a movement toward meeting future challenges on a watershed basis, with a focus on sustainability and green cities emerges [...]
Become a Member
Your membership supports the Clean Water America Alliance’s work in exploring the complex issue of water sustainability. Recurring gifts – monthly, quarterly, or biannually – allow the Clean Water America Alliance to plan for future developments by improving public awareness that advances holistic, watershed-based approaches to water quality and quantity challenges. Membership Benefits Membership [...]
U.S. Water Prize
The United States Water Prize honors individuals, institutions, and organizations that have made an outstanding achievement in the advancement of sustainable solutions to our nation’s water challenges. Created, sponsored and administered by the Clean Water America Alliance, the United States Water Prize is the first of its kind to recognize successful efforts in protecting and [...]
Blog: Ben Grumbles' Pipeline
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Crooks and Nannies
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Forests & Faucets, Wetlands & Waterworks
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March Madness and the Sweet Six
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Yuck Not
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Full Faith & Public Credit
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The Public Rust Doctrine
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A Call to Farms
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Soft and Salty
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Gargoyles and Gorillas
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Blue Waves of Cooperation
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Crooks and Nannies
Environmental enforcement policies can have hard and soft edges, twists and turns, not unlike an english muffin or stale political rhetoric. With all the recent “news” about rogue regulators and heavy-handed enforcement, though, it’s a good time to review some basic principles and emerging opportunities to make environmental progress, while minimizing politicized extremes. For starters: [...]
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Forests & Faucets, Wetlands & Waterworks
Earth Day and U.S. Water Prize celebrations remind me that some of the most important things we can do for water are above the intake and beyond the outfall–sometimes many miles above and beyond the man-made infrastructure systems. U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recognizes this and its “Forests to Faucets” project, is doing something about [...]
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March Madness and the Sweet Six
This busy time of year means more than just the beginning of Spring and the madness of NCAA basketball: It’s a time to commemorate water and its champions locally and globally, including our very own six winners of the U.S. Water Prize. The Clean Water America Alliance (Alliance) created and launched the U.S. Water Prize [...]
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Yuck Not
All of us in the “Water Community” hold these truths to be self-evident: 1) reclaiming and reusing wastewater makes environmental and economic sense when done safely, 2) such resource recovery efforts fall flat without sufficient public support,and 3) the “yuck factor” has to be tackled with good science, strategy, and patience. An important new study [...]
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Full Faith & Public Credit
With all the debate over money, profit, and the future, here’s a reminder not to lose sight of today’s public servants behind the scenes and bar screens at our nation’s water and wastewater systems: support them and their missions, locally and nationally, but don’t stop seeking new efficiencies and public-private partnerships that fit local needs [...]
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The Public Rust Doctrine
In celebration of a new year, here’s a new phrase for a long-standing (and I hope eventually crumbling) water policy syndrome: “the Public Rust Doctrine”. What It Is and Isn’t I define the PRD as “principles and teachings that water and wastewater infrastructure systems should only be owned, operated and maintained by public entities supplied [...]
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A Call to Farms
As we celebrate the bounty of the season, pitchforks and storm clouds are gathering throughout the country and the nation’s capital over agriculture and water policy and the potential collisions between the two. On the water quantity side, some of the fresh wrangling is over subsidies that distort the real cost of water, ground water [...]
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Soft and Salty
The topic is water softeners, not baked pretzels, although both share some similarities. Hard water isn’t a new challenge. It’s as old as dirt and rocks. Some areas of the country, particularly the arid Southwest, have been confronting the problem for many years given the realities of the land and climate. Hard water, loaded with [...]
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Gargoyles and Gorillas
Not to mix religion and politics, but the fantastic fixtures on cathedrals and other buildings are speaking a lot to me these days (so far only figuratively), as green infrastructure cheerleaders and EPA critics gear up for a politically-bruising battle over stormwater regulations. We should all look up from time to time in our search for progress and common ground–from the curb and the fence line to the gutters and rooftops, to the forest canopies and landscapes beyond the big box.
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Blue Waves of Cooperation
What’s the proper balance of power between federal and state water agencies? It seems to ebb and flow over time. The Clean Water America Alliance hasn’t taken a position on recent House-passed legislation amending the federal Clean Water Act (CWA), but here’s my personal take on the controversy, as well as suggestions for meaningful progress [...]
