Education & Outreach

As our cities, factories and farms become increasingly sophisticated, larger and interconnected, and as their impact on watersheds and climate grows more complex, the need for an integrated, holistic national water policy has never been more urgent.

The Clean Water America Alliance’s efforts in education focus on informing citizens and policy-makers by providing training, workshops and seminars, creating publications, initiating demonstration projects, convening policy briefings and developing educational materials.
 

Plans Moving Forward Toward Development of Clean Water Institute

Following the approval of a Memorandum of Agreement between the CWAA and The Conservation Fund at the Alliance’s April 20, 2009 Board Meeting, the two organizations have begun the process of making the envisioned American Clean Water Institute (ACWI) a reality. Staff from the CWAA and the Conservation Fund will meet this fall in a half or full-day session to begin shaping the ACWI. This meeting will focus on identifying target audiences, which could potentially include policy makers/public officials, implementers/managers, and advisors/lawyers for the specialized educational offerings provided by the envisioned Institute. In addition, the planning session will look at topics to be covered with a possible focus on issue areas where there are gaps and training needs.

Green Infrastructure is the Focus of Task Force

The Alliance’s Green Infrastructure Task Force, led by Howard Neukrug, the director of watersheds for the Philadelphia Water Department, has begun to take shape. Neukrug, who recently spoke about green infrastructure at the Stockholm Water conference, said a goal and a challenge for the task force is to establish a mechanism for utility experts, from different geographical regions who experience vastly different water quality and water supply challenges, to communicate their ideas with one another and provide a means for utilities to adapt ideas from other regions to their own situations.